In The Shadow of The Cypress

by Thomas Steinbeck

  After all the material arrangements had been made, Luke and Robert retired to shower and get dressed for lunch. Robert expected his father to be diligently punctual. It was one of the things he demanded of himself, and of others.

  Robert and Luke, warned by the gate buzzer, were waiting outside when Mr. Wu senior arrived at the door in a chauffeured town car. The driver was a large, muscular Chinese gentleman. Luke could only assume he also served as Mr. Wu’s bodyguard.

  Robert introduced his father as Lawrence H. Wu, and Luke was surprised to find such a close physical resemblance between father and son. Mr. Wu senior was a tall, dapper gentleman of erect posture, patrician bearing, and indeterminate age. His hair was jet black and impeccably trimmed, and his features were handsome and open, though one side of his mouth hinted at a face that preferred smiling. He was handsomely dressed in an expensively tailored but understated black silk suit.

  During lunch the elder Wu politely queried Luke on his background and education, and seemed moderately impressed with what he heard. Everyone meticulously avoided any mention of business while eating. Robert had warned Luke that his father never discussed matters of importance when at the table. He thought it uncouth, and believed that meals were to be enjoyed without mundane references tainting the experience.

  After lunch they retired to the south wing, and Robert began the presentation. Then Luke took over as planned. However, Robert was quite unprepared for the response his father exhibited. Routinely polite but unresponsive to most things, his father surprisingly became quite animated by what he was hearing and seeing. It appeared that the subject of Zhou Man’s discovery of California had touched a nerve that, for the moment, completely engrossed all of Mr. Wu’s attention and enthusiasm.

  Robert was so amazed that when Luke looked at his partner for an insight, all Robert could do was raise his eyebrows and shrug his shoulders in confusion. He’d never seen his father so engrossed in anything before. And then, quite unexpectedly, Wu senior politely requested that Mr. Lucas stay while he read Dr. Gilbert’s journal, just in the event that he had any questions about the professor’s entries. Again, Robert could do nothing but shake his head and shrug as he left the room to arrange for tea to be served.

  When Robert’s father left the house, promptly at 3:30 p.m., Robert and Luke were standing in the driveway to see him off. Under his breath, Robert told Luke to bow, but only slightly, as his father’s car drove off. “It’s more respectful than waving,” he whispered.

  When Robert knew they could no longer be seen from the car, he abruptly turned to Luke and, with the expression of a wife who has just been embarrassed by her drunken husband, said, “Just what the hell did you say to my old man while I was out of the room! I’ve never seen my father like that in my whole life.”

  Luke shrugged innocently. “I don’t know. I just did what you told me to do, and worded everything as speculative supposition. You told me he loved history, so I played to that. But I also hinted that whoever claimed patronage for the discovery of Zhou Man’s stone marker on this continent would obviously garner international prestige and respect, especially in China.”

  Robert quoted an old saying in Spanish: “For honor will bloom like the jacaranda, and where the petals fall, influence will increase.”

  “Yeah! Something along those lines, I suppose, but not quite so bucolic. Anyway, listen, I’ve got to get home before seven. I’ve got a fair bit of work to do before class on Monday. Thanks for the loan of the Armani.”

  “It wasn’t a loan. You can keep it. Hopefully you’ll have a chance to wear it again soon.”

  “Well, I do have a date tomorrow. Thanks.”

  THE FOLLOWING SATURDAY FOUND LUKE anxious to be off for a day of surfing down the coast. In the last week he’d spent a good amount of his not-so-spare time doing his own research. With the help of two old “freaks” from the Stanford computer lab, Luke began his own line of inquiries into Mr. Lawrence H. Wu. However, that particular morning he’d received a green “surf alert” on his e-mail. Seven-to-nine-foot swells were generating some interesting sets offshore on the north-facing points and beaches. The accompanying map attachment picked out some favorable spots just south of Point Sur.

  Luke had been anxious to try out his new surfboard. It was actually an old board that he had modified with a little help from a friend at the surf shop. Luke had been influenced by filmed experiments of scuba divers rigged fore and aft with a couple of battery powered discs that emitted just enough of a charge to create an electric field around the swimmer. Even with the diver suspended in the midst of a darting frenzy of feeding tiger sharks, not one shark could tolerate the electric field for more than a half second. They all immediately closed their second eyelids in distress and rolled away like wounded aircraft. Thinking of the kid who had been killed by a great white off Lover’s Point, Luke wondered if he couldn’t rig out a surfboard the same way.

  To that end Luke had made all the necessary wiring modifications, including cutting out a small, watertight compartment into the center of the board that held two small rechargeable twelve-volt batteries. Luke’s tank tests in seawater showed a dependable battery life was somewhere around eight hours. More than enough electrical discharge to discourage shark attacks for a six-hour day in the surf, if in fact one were all that enthusiastic or crazy.

  Luke had just finished loading up his Jeep with his wet suit, beach gear, and cooler. He was strapping his board to the padded roll cage when his BlackBerry began to chirp at him like an enraged sparrow. He swore and reached into his backpack, withdrew the source of unwanted distraction, and checked to see who was calling. It was Robert Wu, and Luke, suspecting the worst, thought of ignoring the call, but he answered it anyway.

  “Hello, Robert, what can I do for you? And I hope to God you say ‘nothing.’ ”

  “I need you to grab your best togs and meet me at Monterey Airport at three o’clock this afternoon. Your suit is cleaned and pressed, I hope.”

  Luke tried to sound disgruntled, but his curiosity was piqued. “Yeah, it’s cleaned and pressed and still in the bag, but you’re going to have to explain this airport business. I’m just on my way down the coast to do some important research off Point Sur. Can’t you take a cab to town? I’ll meet you when I get back later this afternoon.”

  Robert chuckled. “You don’t understand, Luke. I’m not coming in to stay, you’re going out at three fifteen, but I’ll be there to escort you.”

  “Would you mind explaining to me just why I should drop everything I’d planned for today?”

  “It has nothing to do with me, it’s my father. He earnestly desires that we join him for dinner at seven o’clock this evening. Knowing him as I do, I have ample reason to expect something unusual. He’s as keen as a diamond, mind you, but he isn’t normally this animated. He’s more the contemplative tortoise type.”

  “I’m sure that’s nice for you, but I said I was doing research!”

  “Yeah, yeah, whatever you say . . . Well, are you coming or not? I really believe this is important for both of us.”

  Luke sighed like one belabored by the world’s cares, but only to mask the fact that he was secretly intrigued by the receipt of such a brisk response to their presentation. “I’ll be there on time, Dr. Wu.” Luke ended the call with a push of a button and began to unload the Jeep, beginning with his experimental surfboard.

  Luke changed clothes, packed quickly, and called for a cab to the airport without knowing quite what to expect, but ripe with expectation all the same. He stood in the airport lobby looking around hopefully for almost five minutes. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder and looked around to find Robert smiling at him. Robert looked pretty much the same except that he now wore his long hair slicked back and joined in a braided queue at the back. He motioned to Luke. “We’ve got to step on it, the pilots don’t want the engines to cool down. You’ll enjoy this.”

  The twin-engine Learjet was a plush affair in soft black leather, set
off with bird’s-eye maple veneer everywhere, including the head. No sooner had Luke buckled himself into his leather recliner than the Lear began to quickly roll out toward its takeoff position.

  Robert looked over at Luke with a serious glint in his eye. “Tell me again, Luke, how difficult would it be for you to retrieve Dr. Gilbert’s original documents?”

  “Not too difficult. They’re relatively close by. Why do you ask?”

  “Well, if my father wanted to see the originals tonight, could that be arranged? I know it’s really short notice, but I was told to ask. Of course, no one will press the point if the inconvenience makes it impossible.”

  Luke nodded toward the flight deck. “If you can get your boys to set this flying limo down at the Watsonville Municipal Airport, and stake me forty bucks, I could have the papers back at the airport in thirty minutes or less, but I’d have to make a call first to announce my coming.” Luke smiled to himself. “The documents are being held under very tight security, you understand. Even I have to make an appointment to pass security.”

  Robert picked up the pilot’s intercom, spoke to the pilot, and nodded at Luke. “Please make the call, I really think this is important. I will personally see that my father guarantees the safety of the goods. I’ll call him after takeoff.”

  Before Robert could finish the sentence, the Lear throttled up its engines and began racing down the runway at remarkable speed. A moment later they were ascending altitude in a steep climb. Both Luke and Robert were pinned to their overstuffed recliners.

  Robert looked over at Luke with a big grin on his face. Over the roar of the engines, he shouted, “I just love this kind of stuff. They pop this takeoff just for me. Wait till they bank out of the pattern. That’s a real toe-kisser.”

  In Watsonville, Luke took forty bucks off Robert and sped away from the airport in a cab. He told Robert that twenty was for the cab, and twenty was to grease security into speeding up the withdrawal process. Which secretly meant flowers for his grandmother.

  Thirty minutes later Luke returned to the airport with the paper-wrapped portfolio, which he kept tightly clutched under his arm. Robert was waiting on the tarmac and looked noticeably relieved when Luke returned. Eight minutes later they were in the air again.

  A TALL, BLACK-HAIRED, WELL-DRESSED GENTLEMAN with Indian features met their Learjet with a limo in San Francisco. Luke’s unspoken question was almost instantly answered when Robert introduced his father’s personal secretary, Mr. Shu-RI Ram Sing. This gentleman smiled with humility and invited Luke to call him Mr. RI. With a self-deprecating grin, he said it was far easier to remember.

  Mr. RI escorted his charges to a small but very elegant hotel between the Embarcadero and Chinatown. It was so understated that the management didn’t display a name of any kind, and the lobby looked like a fashionably appointed Victorian living room. The new guests were invited to make themselves comfortable on a plush red leather sofa in front of the marble fireplace, while a pleasant young man brought snifters of whatever was requested. They then filled out their check-in cards, and by the time they were shown to their suites, the bags had preceded them. Nonetheless, despite all courtesies offered, Luke never let the folio out of his sight.

  Luke’s suite was opulent in the extreme, and he was quite pleased with himself and the arrangements. He had just hung up his clothes when a knock came at the door, and a very polite Chinese gentleman in a white coat said he had come to pick up a suit and shirt to be pressed, and a pair of shoes to be shined. He promised to have everything back in twenty-five minutes or less. Luke shrugged, but he happily complied and handed the little man his whole hanging bag to save time. Then he went off to check out the six-headed shower installation.

  Luke had almost made it to the bathroom when another knock sounded at the door. This time it was a house waiter pushing a folding table piled high with fruits, cheeses, breads, pitchers of exotic juices, bottled waters, and God knows what else. Robert followed the waiter into the room. He appeared rather pleased with himself as well.

  “This is all pretty slick, don’t you think? If it was just me, my old man would be happy putting me up at a motel, but you pop along and suddenly we’re camped out at the most exclusive members-only hotel on the West Coast. And if that weren’t enough, Mr. RI tells me we’re to have dinner at the Great Kahn. Mind you, my father is a generous fellow when it comes to my education, and my room and board, but he believes the rest is up to me.”

  Luke looked up from the mountain of food on the table. On top of this abundance rested a card that indicated that everything came with the warm compliments of the house. Luke shook his head. “Why go out? There’s enough fruit here to loosen the bowels of an elephant, and enough bread and cheese to stop him up again . . . So what’s so great about this Great Kahn place?”

  Robert looked somewhat deflated. “Well, to tell you the truth, I’ve never been invited there before. The Great Kahn is the most exclusive and prestigious eating emporium in the western United States. In fact, it’s not a public restaurant at all. It’s more like a millionaire’s private food club. They only allow a membership of one hundred and six. Don’t ask me why, this is all hearsay, but I’ve heard it costs one hundred and fifty grand to be admitted, and a yearly fee of twenty thousand, and you still haven’t paid for the food.”

  Luke was suddenly curious. “How do you go about getting to be a member?”

  Robert shook his head as he picked at the cheese. “That’s the dark part. Someone has to die and leave it to the prospective member in his or her public will. Of course, some places come up because the expense proves too great, or the member no longer cares to participate, but that’s rare, and those seats change hands for serious money.”

  A perplexed expression shadowed Luke’s features. He was slightly anxious about all the secrecy and blatant exclusivity. “So why are we to be so honored just now? What’s your father’s real interest in all this? He doesn’t strike me as the hard-boiled academic type, despite his background.”

  Robert smiled and shrugged. “Beats me. Your guess is as good as mine at this point. I swear, Luke, he hasn’t told me a thing, but then he never really does. My father infers, he doesn’t tell. Come to think of it, I’ve never even heard him give an order. Things he wants done just get done.”

  Mr. RI picked up his charges in a chauffeured town car promptly at seven that evening. Luke carried the sealed folio under his arm. The car drove down the Embarcadero toward the Bay Bridge in the last orange-purple rays of twilight. Near the bridge, the car pulled up to the garage ramp of a nondescript three-story commercial building. The only front entrance appeared to be a green metal door with a camera dome mounted above. After a moment, the large metal garage door began to roll up, and Luke noticed a camera dome above it as well.

  Once inside, the car coasted down a steep ramp and then leveled out in front of a pair of red elevator doors. The overhead lights came on just as the car doors opened. When he got out, Luke noticed that the car wasn’t in a garage. Some basic instinct, probably inspired by watching too many spy movies, forced him to clutch the folio more tightly under his arm. The ramp continued up on the other side to meet another garage door leading out to another street. There was room for only two vehicles in front of the elevators at one time.

  Robert exited the car looking just as confused as Luke. For a moment they stood blinking at each other like toads, then Mr. RI motioned them toward the elevator. There were no buttons, simply a key plate. Mr. RI withdrew a key from his vest pocket, inserted it with a quick twist, and the large elevator doors opened to reveal a plush Victorian, leather-paneled room, with generous green leather benches on both sides and cut-glass lighting sconces on the walls. Luke surmised that the space had once been a large freight elevator. This was confirmed when they arrived at the second floor and the opposite wall slid back to reveal a Moorish-looking foyer with a pair of ornately carved wooden doors on the far side.

  Luke looked at Robert and shook his he
ad, and again he tightened his grip on the folio. Mr. RI politely motioned them to approach the doors, but remained behind himself. Slowly the doors opened inward to display a scene that Luke could only later describe as a cross between a tented Mongol palace and a film set from The Last Emperor. A tall, dapper blond gentleman dressed in a white silk suit, tie, and gloves was waiting to greet them.

  Luke judged the room to be about eighty feet square, but he couldn’t really be sure with all the fabric hangings. They had entered on the balcony floor that ran around three sides of the room. Below lay a single large space broken only by the placement of elaborately carved screens. To Luke’s surprise, there was only one table visible in the whole space, and it was set alone in a rounded V pattern at the center of the floor and illuminated with three Tiffany table lamps. The rest of the room was kept in relative darkness. Two of the high-backed chairs were set on either side of the V, and the third was set imperiously at the head—the result being that no one person faced another directly, and one had to turn slightly to address the other guests.

  Robert’s father was not present when they entered, but the gentleman in the white silk suit and gloves escorted the young men to their seats, whereupon two similarly clad waiters appeared out of nowhere to stand behind their chairs. Luke carefully placed the folio next to his leg where he could feel it.

  They hadn’t been seated fifteen seconds when Mr. Wu senior also appeared as if out of the dark void. Both Robert and Luke stood up for their host. Robert greeted his father in Chinese and bowed slightly from the waist. His father caught sight of the queue, smiled, and mistimed his response, which seemed to amuse Robert. He winked at Luke.