Lam had been unconscious and barely breathing when they found her. No one could believe that she had survived. The bullet had entered her lower back and lodged itself into her spine. She needed 12 hours of surgery to remove it, and only weeks later would the Doctors know if she would make a full recovery. She remained unconscious for almost three weeks, missing the funerals of the two Narcotics Officers and her partner of eight years, Ko. Slowly her broken nose and broken wrist mended, and her dentist fixed her missing tooth.
It took Lam six months of rehabilitation before she could go back to work. By then it was like being the new girl all over again. The staff treated her differently, with kid gloves and she hated it. The Chief was the only one who knew how to behave around her, he acted as though nothing had happened and she silently thanked him for it. As far as she was concerned it was business as usual, except this time, she was working solo. Every few months the Chief would try and give her a new partner, and every time Lam would refuse, until eventually, two years later and without consent, he had given her Chow.
Lam could feel her headache lift, and she removed the towel and the ice from her face.
She grabbed her file and headed towards the interview room. It was time to find out what Harper knew before anyone else was killed.
Chapter 33
Lily felt numb as she entered the Chinese restaurant. She sensed that her meeting with the eight Masters could easily go either way. If they believed Ghost Face, then it was likely that her sentence would be severe. If they listened to her, then she would have the chance to prove herself and to express her fears and concerns about his actions.
Lily hovered outside the familiar door and could hear the voices debating inside. She took a deep breath and rapped loudly.
Silence was immediate, followed by a voice that boomed through the walls, ‘Enter’.
Lily stepped into the room and surveyed it quickly. They were all there, all eight Masters, including her Grandmother, and the Master of Ceremonies; her Uncle. They were all seated around a large round table. Up until the moment that Lily entered the room, they had been debating relentlessly. Now there was absolute silence, just eyes that followed her movements. Her Uncle was the first to stand and move toward her, but he wouldn’t look at her face. Instead he ushered Lily silently to the only empty seat among them, and then sat himself beside her. Lily looked across the table and what she saw shocked her. Her Grandmother’s right arm was bandaged from the hand up to the elbow and was resting on the table in front of her. Her face was bruised, also on the right side making her face look distorted. It was clearly swollen. Her Grandmother registered Lily’s concern and she shook her head slightly, the shake of the head telling Lily that now was not the time to discuss the reason behind her injuries. She sat as tall and as proud as her weak body allowed, her eyes still on her Granddaughter. But for the first time ever, as Lily looked at her, she couldn’t determine which emotions were running behind them.
Lily sat still, momentarily closing her eyes, taking in a deep breath to prepare herself for the worst. A few moments later, her eyes suddenly flicked open as she faced her silent audience, now ready to accept whatever the Masters had to say.
Her Grandmother began the proceedings and spoke only to Lily.
“You have been brought here today in front of the Society Masters to review the allegations against you and to decide upon your fate. Do you understand that the decision made here today is final and cannot be challenged or revoked?”
Her Grandmother locked eyes with Lily to ensure that she fully understood what she was being told.
Lily gave a simple nod, and straightened her back as she replied. “Yes, I understand.”
Facing the Members and with a somber tone, Lily’s Grandmother addressed them all.
“For some time now, we have had reason to believe that there is a traitor among the Society Members. It’s not uncommon for members to switch between societies, especially between the lower and younger classes, some of you yourselves, many years ago, joined us from other societies, however it is highly unusual for a senior respected ranked member of our society to switch sides and one that we have considered unwaveringly loyal from the very beginning. We have never had a case such as this.
Our doubts increased just a few months ago, when we had heard, through a trustworthy source, that one of our members intended to move from us to the Society of the Golden Eye. We all know this group well and they have been our long-standing adversaries over these last few difficult years. Up until the deaths of my late husband, beloved daughter and son-in-law, they had remained at arms length, our fights never that serious. Since then they have made their intentions very clear to us, and now they are a direct threat. They want our Society, our members, our land, our money and our submission. They have increased their aggression toward us and are threatening the very values of our Society.”
Turning again to Lily, she continued.
‘Lillian, after the death of your parents, we debated long and hard as to whether you should be brought into the Society. Your Mother and Father were against it, and yet it was their whole life and ultimately the reason for their death. Upon my death, your Father had already been selected by the very Masters that you see before you in this room, to be the one to take over.”
Lily was pleased that she was sitting down. She hadn’t expected this at all, and now all she could do was stare in disbelief at what she was hearing.
“You had showed us early on that you were capable of handling yourself, that you understood the importance of our beliefs and that you would be a loyal and trusted member. I had planned to train you myself; to arm and prepare you with everything that you could possibly need, so that when the time came, you would be ready, like your father, to take the lead. To bring young blood to the table and to ensure the safety and longevity of our Society.
We control a myriad of businesses here in Hong Kong, throughout mother China and across the globe. Some of our ventures are legitimate. Some are not accepted within the realm of the law and even we do have limits to how far we will stretch for monetary gain.
We do sell sex and we do it well, we have brothels all over Hong Kong and the mainland, yet we only use local girls in each region, and we don’t deal in any way or form in human trafficking. We offer security in every possible guise. To Hotels and restaurants, brothel owners, clubs and drinking establishments, we protect these people from people like the Society of the Golden Eye, and they pay us well for it. We offer protection to Government officials, travelling dignitaries and celebrities. We are the ones that people come to when their child is kidnapped or when their lives are in danger, and we deal with it all, discreetly and professionally. We have maintained a respect within our industry by abiding by the Society rules and by our Oaths.
We are becoming more sophisticated in our means for attaining funds. We have an elaborate and untraceable method for money laundering, managed by a team of specialists employed by the Society. Through them, and with their guidance we legitimately purchase property and land and have built an impressive and highly performing stock portfolio. We have another team that works solely on credit card fraud on a global scale, buffered by worldwide insurance companies and banks, and now we have another new route, one that enables us to enter a major Bank and walk out with millions of Hong Kong dollars in under eight minutes.
We have the knowledge and the expertise to do all of these things, and to do them well.
We will not deal or distribute drugs, we will not deal with human trafficking, or prostitution against will and we will not deal in the theft of religious or historical relics from the mainland. Those things we will leave to the Society of the Golden Eye, where they are willing to compromise their rules and what the oaths stand for, to use old fashioned and barbaric ways to get what and who they want.
If they manage to gain power over our society and yolk all of this knowledge, then our Society is finished and everything that we value and have worked for would hav
e been in vain. We cannot allow this to happen.
We have waited long enough, and now we must strike fast at those who challenge us.”
She sat back heavily in her seat, exhausted by her monologue and drained by the darkness of the subject matter.
The room was silent. Not a single member had interrupted her speech, no whisper or word uttered quietly under breaths. However, throughout the quiet room there was a tangible affirmation that swept across the Masters as they all nodded and agreed in unison.
Continuing from her seat, Lily’s Grandmother looked again at Lily. Her voice calm and her demeanor now softened and relaxed.
“So now I will explain to you. Your challenge was a hard one. We pushed your skills to see whether you could be an asset to us, and whether, under pressure you could perform. Not only were you able to bring your plan to fruition, a feat that I must admit I had my doubts. But you managed it successfully, the collateral damage, under the circumstances, will later be considered minor.
You are still under suspicion by the police, but the authorities do not know your true identity and after a time we think that you will be able to continue your work for us here. Until then, we feel that to be safe, that you should return to the United States until such time that we deem it appropriate for you to return. Your new passport and documents will be ready within the next few days.”
Lily didn’t know what to think. She didn’t like the idea of being sent away. She felt that she had only just come home. But she knew better than to argue. In some ways she knew that the decision was the right one, but she also knew that her future lay in Hong Kong and with her Grandmother.
“Before you go, there is one final job for you.” Her Grandmother said. The statement made Lily sit up and take note. Curious as to what the Society would have her do now before she left, she listened intently.
“You know well who I have been referring to within our ranks. Ghost Face cannot be trusted. He is a dangerous man, a traitor to us and able to murder in cold blood, and will stop at nothing to get what he wants. For sure, having him killed by one of our own will spark another triad war within the City, which we want to avoid at all costs. However, through Ryan Harper, we think that you can lure him in. We can arrange for the police to arrest him. He will never be charged for triad related crimes, he is too clever for that, but he can be charged for the serial murder of prostitutes, and for that, he will never again be a free man.”
Lily was shocked by the revelations. She was trying to process all of the information that her Grandmother was now revealing.
“But how do you know that he has carried out these crimes, it could have been any man?” Lily asked simply.
“For a long time now I have had my concerns, which I have buried deep. When we brought you in, his distaste for you was made clear and my worries were brought rapidly to the surface. I arranged for him to be discreetly followed. Sadly, after three such occasions, the day after a young woman, a prostitute, was found dead. There can only be one explanation. His affinity for young woman has been one that we have been forced to live with, but no longer. He is not a man to be trusted, and we will no longer harbour him.”
Lily nodded in silence, once to her Grandmother, and turning slowly, once more to the other Masters. All eyes were on her, and she suddenly felt a huge responsibility weighing down on her, more so than she had ever felt before. She knew that Ghost Face was the poison that had to be removed and she was the one to do it. Asking to be excused, Lily stood up from her seat and hurried from the room. Her mind already spinning out of control, she was suddenly very aware that her window of opportunity was narrow and if she played this wrong, her life would be very much at risk.
Chapter 34
Lam looked through the window separating the interview room and one of the main offices. This room had no secret two-way mirror or glass and it even boasted a small window that let in just a small shaft of natural light into the room. This is where they placed low-risk people that were not likely to escape or cause harm. Lam felt that Ryan had earned his place here.
She tapped on grey metal door out of courtesy, which made Ryan jump a little. He must be so tired. She knew his world had been turned upside down in the space of a few weeks. His colleague and friend murdered in front of him forcing him on the run. He had done well to keep things together as well as he had, she thought. She looked at his clothes. His attire hadn’t much improved since she had seen him last. He wore the same outfit that she had given him and it now looked almost as dirty as the first set of clothes that she had found him in. He’d even managed to get some of Jimmy’s blood onto his shirt, which had dried now to a reddish brown. She entered the room silently and gave Ryan a wide smile. It was good news for him. Based on what Ryan had told her in her apartment, the police had managed to confirm his story of how the bank robbery took place and how he was blackmailed. They verified the kidnapping of Robert Black and Ryan’s innocent involvement with a female triad member, Lily. Which of course was not her real name. The pieces missing were surrounding Ghost Face. He was a threat to the police, the triads and Ryan and seemed to be the missing piece to the puzzle. Jimmy Luk would be the one to shed more light on this character. From Ryan, all that Lam wanted was loose ends tied up.
Lam pulled out a chair and sat down facing Ryan.
“I didn’t think I’d be so happy to be sitting in an interview chair again,” he said with a crooked half smile. He was too exhausted to offer anything else.
“Well, you get a window this time, so things are looking up”, Lam replied.
“Thanks for earlier” he said earnestly. “I was starting to lose the will to live there.”
“How’s your cheek?” he said motioning to her face. With the ice bag now gone, the swelling had reduced leaving a bright red scratch, but the skin was not broken.
“I’m lucky”, Sarah replied. “Had he been a good shot, it would have been a different Detective sitting here right now,” she said, touching her cheek.
“We’ve followed up on everything that you told me previously. The way in which you described the bank robbery, this was validated by our team as well as John McIntyre from the bank. The money has not yet been recovered. As for Robert Black, unfortunately we have not been able to find his body yet. By the time our team arrived at the warehouse, someone had sent in a cleaner. There was nothing there, no prints, debris or sign that someone had been killed. Our teams are still investigating the surrounding area”. Lam continued.
“There are two people that we still need to find. One is Lily. She has managed to disappear into thin air. As far as our records show, she doesn’t actually exist in this Country. We followed up on the company that she owns and it never existed, she did a good job of covering her tracks. We have no way of tracing her or her movements. When you told us that she met Black whilst in the states and that she attended M.I.T, we contacted the authorities there, and we’ve been unable to trace her, she definitely would have been under another name. Lily is clearly a very intelligent woman, who has managed to not only pull off a sophisticated bank robbery, but also engineer a state of the art security system enabling her and her team to enter and rob a major bank undetected. Then, just when things were going well for her, you decided to wake up and run.” Lam paused and looked at Ryan for a moment to make sure that he was taking everything that she said in.
“Do you need a coffee or something, or am I good to continue?”
“No, keep going, the coffee can wait.” Ryan said, suddenly far more awake than he had felt for hours.
“I am guessing that Lily engineered this crime, so long as it didn’t involve any unnecessary deaths along the way, which is why she probably negotiated that you were knocked out and left in your apartment for the police to find, rather than killed after the robbery was finished. It was a risky move on her part. She knew that you would be able to identify her if caught, and would also be able to tell the police how the robbery took place. So she couldn’t have been too concerned a
bout that. What did concern her was the use of her good friend Robert Black, who she believed would be released as soon as the robbery was executed successfully. I truly believe that she would never have negotiated her friends’ life over this otherwise. I think that this is where her plans began to change significantly, as well as her relationship with Ghost Face.”
Ryan nodded for Lam to continue.
“What we have on Ghost face is very limited. Thanks to our friend Detective Jimmy Luk, Ghost Face has successfully been under the radar for what we now assume is years of criminal activity. Until we have Luk in a condition where he can be interviewed we only have what you can tell us.” Lam said as she leaned back in her chair and crossed her arms. Indicating that it was now Ryan’s turn to add some meat to the bones of Ghost Face.
“OK, well I only spoke to him just a couple of times before the robbery, and then for the first time face to face at the Café, when he showed me the picture of Rob tied up. I got the impression that Lily was not very happy about Rob, but by now she was in far too deep to alter the course of events. Ghost Face was definitely the muscle and the driving force behind the robbery; Lily was the tech in this case.
The next time I saw him was when I tried to get Rob out. This time things had clearly gone sour between him and Lily. Had we stayed there, for sure all three of us would have ended up dead. He wanted no loose ends, and that also included her. He was angry and violent. We only had minutes with Rob before he died. He said that he was sure that the police were involved, that he’d heard conversations through the door. That’s all I know. I’ve had no contact with Lily since then. I don’t know where she went. I don’t know where Ghost Face is. But for sure he knew I was coming in to see you. Jimmy would have handed me over, and I would have been killed, I feel sure about that.” Ryan said flatly.
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