by Jake Logan
“You, On Leong,” she called. “I want to speak with your leader. It is of utmost importance.” Lai Choi San worried that the man would recoil at the idea of a woman issuing such orders. To her surprise, he bowed slightly and pointed to a darkened doorway.
“What’s down there?”
“The On Leong leader,” he said simply.
Lai Choi San cautiously went to the doorway and saw that it led to stairs going downward into the ground. She inhaled deeply and knew this was no trick. The fragrance of incense mingled with fine tea and even a hint of opium. These were all things she expected, and they refreshed rather than tired her like the overall scent of San Francisco.
She started down the steps, only to hesitate and look back. Both of her guards had knives at their throats.
“They do not go with you,” said the On Leong she had spoken to.
Lai Choi San never looked behind her again as she plunged into the dark winding corridors under the Chinatown streets. She had a good sense of direction. At sea none was a better navigator, whether by dead reckoning or by the stars, but she quickly lost all sense of direction. All she knew was that the corridor stretched in front of her. At the occasional junction, a silent hatchet man pointed in the proper direction. The deeper into the labyrinth she went, the more she realized she could never fight her way out. Not only were those men guarding such an escape, she had to figure out what corridors in the maze to take.
Lai Choi San abandoned all hope of leaving alive without the help of the On Leong leader.
She suddenly found herself in a dimly lit room. Compared to the murk of the corridor, she felt as if a spotlight shone on her. A woman dressed in an emerald green silk dress knelt on a cushion. At hand were delicately painted porcelain teacups and a steaming pot of tea.
Bowing, she entered.
“I seek the esteemed leader of the On Leong.”
“I am Ah Ming,” the woman said.
“You lead the tong?” Lai Choi San tried not to sound surprised.
“You captain a pirate ship?”
“You are well informed,” Lai Choi San said. She knelt when Ah Ming gestured for her to do so. She took the tea and sipped. It was good tea. Indian.
“I am the leader of the tong because my father has been killed by the Sum Yop. They hold his body. I want it back. My efforts have proven futile so far. Whatever you desire, I will grant you if you can get my father’s bones back for transport to China.”
Lai Choi San did not want to be direct and let this woman know what she really sought, but time was crushing her. She knew Little Pete went to get the jade crown. If the other tong leader held it, he would never relinquish it.
Lai Choi San told her story simply, finishing, “I must have the crown for ransom.”
“I have no desire to possess the crown,” Ah Ming said. “We find ourselves on the same road but with different destinations. My father’s body is all I desire returned.”
“And all I desire is the jade crown of the emperor.”
“You are sure Little Pete is out of his headquarters?”
“He and two dozen men left with the Occidental.”
“Describe him!”
Lai Choi San’s eyes narrowed suspiciously at this. The identity of the Occidental mattered greatly to Ah Ming. She described the shabby man the best she could from her brief glimpse of him. Ah Ming relaxed visibly.
“I would fight Little Pete and the Sum Yop as they fetch the crown, but my men will instead attack their headquarters. This might be my best opportunity to recover my father’s body.”
“I understand,” Lai Choi San said. She had not anticipated this. “Please guide me to the street so I might try to get the crown for our emperor.”
“Three of you against ten times that number?” Ah Ming sounded surprised and a little amused.
“I will do what I must. As you know, I am a pirate. My trade might prove useful after Little Pete has the crown.”
“So it might,” Ah Ming said. She clapped her hands and gave instructions to a burly hatchet man. Lai Choi San rose and bowed.
“My thanks,” she said.
“Thank you for this information. May you recover what you desire most,” said Ah Ming.
Lai Choi San left the room and was startled to see that stairs upward only a few yards away brought her back to where her two men sat and talked amiably with the On Leong hatchet men.
“Hurry, hurry, we must not lose them.”
“The boo how doy say Little Pete and his men are going to the docks.”
Lai Choi San looked at the On Leong, bowed slightly in their direction, then got her bodyguards on their feet and running to keep up with her. She had no idea how she would accomplish the theft, but it had to be done quickly before Little Pete returned to his headquarters. If Ah Ming attacked to recover her father’s body, the tumult would be too great to endure.
Out of breath, they reached the Embarcadero. It took only a few minutes to eavesdrop on workers along the way to know that Little Pete and his men had passed by recently. The passage of so many Sum Yops stirred fear to boiling. Lai Choi San followed the route, only to hear gunfire.
At first there were only a few shots, then there came a fusillade that sent echoes rolling along the Embarcadero. She had heard less noise during a pitched sea battle with all ships firing cannon.
Coming to a halt, she saw a skirmish line of marines advancing, rifles lowered.
“Stay back,” called an officer. “There’s a right good battle going on.”
“Who?” The question slipped from her lips before she could restrain herself. She knew who the marines fought. She needed to know about Little Pete and his Occidental prisoner who might know where the jade crown was.
“Some of them tong bastards got into a dustup. Captain Johnson called out the marines to take care of the situation. Nothing to worry over, if you stay away.”
The sound of gunfire increased. White clouds of gun smoke drifted in her direction. Her nostrils flared at the familiar odor. She had been born to battle, and she was being kept from this one. Lai Choi San gestured to her two guards. They advanced, only to be forcibly turned back by marines with bayonets fixed.
Lai Choi San saw how the soldiers reacted and used this against them to slip around the end of their line. They dealt with her men. She hurried past into the choking white clouds still billowing from the fight. Volley after volley was fired, to be met with ragged return fire. She guessed that the tong killers were running out of ammunition. Facing so many well-armed marines in direct battle was not the way any tong fought. Theirs was the sudden death, the hidden killer, not direct confrontation.
Her heart almost stopped when she saw Little Pete and the Occidental pressed back against a warehouse wall. Little Pete’s hatchet men fought in front of him, but one by one they were being cut down by the persistent marksmanship of the marines.
“That’s the spirit, boys,” came a loud call. “Give them what for!”
Lai Choi San stood on tiptoe to see who cheered on the soldiers. Her eyes narrowed when she saw Sir William. The British explorer stood near a naval officer, who glared at the man. How he had come to be with the marines was something she wondered at but knew it meant nothing in the long run. She concentrated on Little Pete and his prisoner. They were most likely to know where the jade crown was hidden. Since they had come to the docks, it must be hidden nearby, unless the Occidental lied.
While this buoyed her spirits, it did nothing to actually regain the crown for her emperor. The docks were wide open and something as small as the crown could be hidden anywhere, in a crate, buried in the dirt, even concealed with nothing more than a rag thrown over it.
The gunfire became sporadic and the naval officer with Sir William shouted, “Surrender and we’ll let you live. Continue to fight and die!”
Little Pete shouted in Chinese. Lai Choi San understood and pressed back. He had ordered his men into full attack. Drawing their hatchets, the Sum Yop boo how doy wa
ved them high above their heads and launched a full-scale frontal assault. There could be no doubt as to the result.
By twos and threes, the hatchet men died.
Lai Choi San turned from the slaughter and watched Little Pete. The Sum Yop leader thrust a gun into the side of the Occidental and moved him along the warehouse wall until they reached the corner of the building. There Little Pete shoved the man around and they fled. While his own men were being massacred, Little Pete was getting away.
Lai Choi San pursued, drawing her own gun. Then she remembered it was empty and once more hid it among the folds of her clothing. A gleaming knife came into her hand. To dispatch Little Pete and get the information she needed from his prisoner, this was preferable.
Little Pete looked back and saw her running after him. He fired twice over his shoulder, then stubbed his foot and fell heavily. Lai Choi San vaulted over him and kept running. He shouted insults at her and struggled to stand, only to lose his footing again.
Then she was around another corner and running hard to catch Jason Stark. The man saw his pursuer and put his head down, sprinting to get away.
Lai Choi San knew she could overtake him—until he cut to the right. She saw that he veered to avoid a squad of marines marching along. The pirate found herself facing the lowered rifles of the marines.
She backed away, lowering the knife and holding it behind her out of their sight.
“Halt!” The sergeant in charge of the squad advanced. “No one’s allowed this way.”
“That man,” she said, pointing. The sergeant never turned his head even when Lai Choi San began waving her arm about wildly. “What of him?”
“Get back or I’ll have my men remove you. This whole area’s under martial law.”
She knew better than to argue. Every second counted in finding the running man. She retreated, found a side street and raced to circle the soldiers. By the time she got behind their position, she saw no trace of Stark. Lai Choi San cursed in four languages as she searched. No one had noticed a single man running amid the confusion caused by the marines and tong fighting.
She went to the end of a dock, looked out to where her junk was anchored, then slowly turned and hunted for any trace of the man who knew where the jade crown was hidden.
Nowhere. She saw him nowhere.
22
“No, this isn’t right. I can’t do it.” Tess Lawrence pulled away from Slocum and started for the door of the curator’s office. He stayed where he was, seated on the edge of the desk.
“You have to,” Slocum said. “There’s no other way.”
“I can just…run away.” Tess was close to tears.
The hike across town had been harrowing. Slocum had not realized there were so many policemen in the world, much less in San Francisco. Every mother’s son of them had been on patrol, carrying shotguns and rifles and looking as if they were ready for a war. Slocum had heard gunfire near the docks but had discounted it. With all the police patrolling every street he could see, there were not enough of them to be involved. Whatever had riled them up, they intended to keep bottled up at dockside.
“Sure, you can run like a coward. You stole Sir William’s exhibits. All the jade he risked his life to bring back. You can run off and let him think that not only the jade but you are lost.”
“That’s for the best.” She sniffled now and wiped at her nose with the blanket she had around her. Tess still wore Slocum’s shirt, but he had fetched his other one from his gear. “If he thinks I’m dead, how can he blame me?”
“Make it right,” Slocum insisted. “Do it for your own reasons. You’ll be miserable the rest of your life, knowing you double-crossed the man who trusted you.” Slocum saw that was the right argument. Tess wilted before his eyes and finally broke down crying. She came to him and threw her arms around him. He felt her hot tears against his shoulder as he tried to ease her quaking.
He felt like a real bastard for pushing her like this. He cared less what she thought about stealing Sir William’s jade than he did about getting the jade crown for his own purposes—for Ah Ming’s. Slocum needed to use her and Sir William if he wanted to locate the crown to ransom the bones, and the best lever he had to move the man was Tess.
“I say, what’s going on here? Tess!” Sir William rushed into the room and swung her around. He stared at her tearstained face. “What have you done to her, Slocum?”
“No, no, Sir William, it’s nothing like that,” she sobbed out. “John saved me. I would have been flayed alive by pirates if he hadn’t rescued me.”
“Pirates? Lai Choi San?”
Slocum nodded.
“So she was responsible for stealing the jade. I knew it! The perfidious woman ought to be hanged from her own yardarm!”
“It’s more complicated than that,” Slocum said. “The jade was put on a cargo ship heading around the Cape. Someone named Jason Stark has the crown, though.”
“The jade from the exhibit,” Sir William said softly. “The pirate has it?”
“I’m afraid so, Sir William. I…we tried to keep her from taking it, but she just took it.” Tess broke down crying again. This time Sir William awkwardly comforted her. Slocum saw that more explanation was not going to be necessary.
“We can track Stark and—” Slocum stopped when he saw Sir William look at him sharply.
“I know about Stark,” Sir William said. “You think I have done nothing while you were away? I called out the marines!”
“The gunfire down by the docks,” Slocum said. “The marines caught him?”
“Blast it, no! He escaped. He had thrown in with a gang of Chinese—the Sum Yop tong.”
“Did they get the crown?” Slocum saw everything falling apart around him. If Little Pete had gotten possession of the crown, any hope of ransoming Ah Ming’s father was at an end.
“The tong men? No, I don’t think so. Stark escaped. He still has it, I suppose,” Sir William said, holding Tess a little closer to soothe her. She was only sniffling now but did not move from the circle of the man’s arms. The longer she stayed, the more Sir William liked it.
“I’ll get to tracking him down. A man like that can’t hide in too many places.” Slocum knew that Stark had cut himself off from most of the Chinese community by throwing in with the Sum Yop. Ah Ming might even know of the man’s whereabouts through her far-flung web of spies and informants. If she didn’t, Slocum knew he could ask some of the marines. Sergeant Lamont had been a forthcoming fellow. Any scuttlebutt passed among the marines would end up being whispered in his ear.
“No need, old chap,” Sir William said. “I know where he got off to.”
Tess pushed away and stared up at him.
“Where?” she asked before Slocum could.
Slocum saw what Sir William did not. The utter hatred burning in Tess’s eyes told the story. She was a woman scorned and wanted revenge.
“No need to trouble yourself, my dear,” he said patronizingly. “I am quite capable of handling this. You need to rest. Your ordeal has been unprecedented.”
“She can stay here,” Slocum said. Tess shot him a look he could not decipher. He was not sure if she was thankful or wanted him to plead her case to go along. What he could not dispute was her utter hatred of Jason Stark for betraying her feelings. He had used her, and she would not forget that.
“Jolly good,” Sir William said. “Let me get more ammunition for my pistol, then we shall be off.”
“Just tell me what you’ve learned, and I can find him.” Slocum wanted to keep Sir William away from the crown to increase his own chances of recovering it. How he would turn it over to Ah Ming with Sir William nosing about was a problem he did not want to solve.
“This is good sport, old chap. We’re in this together. Off to the hounds and all that.” Sir William stuffed a box of ammunition into his coat pocket after reloading his pistol. He presented himself to Slocum. “Come along, now, Mr. Slocum. Time’s a’ wasting.”
Sloc
um felt Tess’s hot eyes on them as they left the museum. He chanced a quick look back to be certain she was not following them. As far as he could tell, she remained behind where it was safe.
Safe for him to steal the crown.
“Tell me what happened,” Sir William said seriously. “Between you and Miss Lawrence while she was missing.”
“It’s exactly as we told you. Lai Choi San captured us separately. The pirate captain wanted the crown and tortured Tess. During a storm I freed her, we swam ashore and came straight back to San Francisco.”
“So you missed the fight between the Chinese and the marines?”
“All of it,” Slocum said. “I heard gunfire but thought nothing of it.” He saw that the police still patrolled in squads of five or more. That told him the city was still uneasy over the tong war brewing. They cared less that the Chinese were killing one another than they did for it spilling over to threaten shipping or the upstanding citizens in other parts of the city.
“He’s like a rat, you know.”
“What? Stark?” Slocum jolted out of the reverie.
“Who else? He is not a smart man at all. It took me only a few minutes to find someone to, I think you Yanks call it, ‘squeal.’”
Slocum doubted anyone Sir William bribed had told him the truth, but they were going to the docks. From all he had pieced together from Tess’s story, Stark was a wharf rat and would not stray far from familiar territory. They walked along the Embarcadero, Sir William alert for details.
“There. I think that is the spot. The saloon with the curious feature of a trapdoor opening from its main room.”
“Shanghaiers use it,” Slocum said. “They drug their victims, then drop them through the trapdoor to a waiting dinghy. From there, the victim is rowed out to a ship and sold. By the time he comes to, he’s out at sea.”
“I know about all that, dear chap,” Sir William said. “I pointed it out only because Stark comes and goes through that very same trapdoor. That means his lair is somewhere below the pier.”
