Forged in Honor (1995) (23 page)

Colonel Po kept his stoic business expression. "We expect the first shipment in two days. I have the address of the-"

Ke's eyes sparkled. "We know the address of your processing plant, my friend. As we know where you are staying."

Again Po's face paled. "I took every precaution. How could you-"

"Elementary, my friend. You rented the building from one of our subsidiaries. You couldn't have known, so don't look so distraught. We are businessmen, not American gangsters who would rob our friends. There is enough profit for us all.

Right, now I believe this meeting is over." Ke looked toward the other end of the table. "It's Stephen, right?"

"Yes, U Ke, Stephen Kang."

"Right, well, Stephen, would you care to join me for a dash to my residence? I would like to introduce you to my wife and prove to the good lady I really did attend an institution of higher learning. We can rummage through the old times and all that."

Stephen bowed his head. "It would be an honor, U Ke."

Ke stood and shook Po's hand vigorously. "Always invigorating, don't you think, making money? Sony about borrowing your assistant, but it's seldom one sees a fellow Hong Kong University graduate here, you understand. Colonel, others will attend to the handoff, so this is our last meeting. It has been exciting."

Po held on to Ke's hand. "U Ke, please, Stephen requires security and-"

Ke rolled his eyes. "Of course, my people will deliver him back to the door of your hotel. Does that satisfy you?"

Po nodded quickly, afraid to offend him. "Yes, thank you."

Quan Jie lowered his head after the two men left the cubicle and were safely out of earshot. "I'm very sorry, Colonel Po. I apologize for Ke's behavior-he is very abrupt."

Po waved off the apology. Impolite or not, that whirlwind of a man had made his country almost a million dollars richer by giving him the top price.

Stephen waited until they were in the shiny, tight-fitting Corvette before exclaiming, " `Ke'? Did you change your name, Chen, the same time you got some brains?"

The driver burst into laughter and peeled away from the curb. He wasn't able to speak until he was in third gear, and even then he was still cackling. "Ah, Stephen, what times we had, eh? Women, horse races, and now and then even school.

What happened to those good days?"

Stephen smiled and ran his hand over the car's leather upholstery. "It appears you haven't changed a bit, except for the `Ke Ping' and the exaggerated British accent. You sounded like old Professor Waldrop Arragno-Thorton, who taught us the classics."

"Ah, still my conscience, are you? You haven't changed a bit either, Stephen. I was overly theatrical perhaps, but believe me when I tell you, I saved your life. I am one of them now, my friend. I know I swore I wouldn't, but here I am, in deep enough I can't get out. My father saw to it."

Chen suddenly swerved into the right lane and turned into a paved lot beside a park. He turned off the ignition and said, "Let's take a walk." He got out before Stephen could respond.

Stephen joined him on the sidewalk. "What did you mean, you saved my life? Were you serious?"

Chen smiled as he began walking alongside his old friend.

"I am now Ke Ping. If you knew this `Sheng Chen' fellow and were very close to him, then you would obviously know his father, and that would be a very bad security problem.

You see, no one in the Circle uses his real family name when conducting business. I am now in business, thus `Ke Ping.'

But I am just a colonel in the Circle. My father is another matter, and he would be the reason you would have to die if you knew me well."

"You are serious," Stephen said incredulously.

"Ah, Stephen, you are still the naive Sao of the mountains.

Secrecy is everything to the syndicates. Failure and ruin are accepted in business, for they can be explained as bad joss . . . but a violation of secrecy? No, it's the ultimate sin and totally unacceptable. Secrecy is the essence of the syndicates' being. If my assistants back in the restaurant thought for a moment you knew who my father was, let alone had met him, you would have to be eliminated. But it would be a quick death. Friends and all that."

Stephen swallowed hard. "But I knew your father in Hong Kong. Why wasn't I-"

"A different time, Stephen. You were a harmless young man with no connections to anyone, and you were my friend.

My father was running a legitimate export business for the Circle. Just one of many of its enterprises. Things are now different." Chen looked at Stephen with a searching, almost sad stare. "Why are you here, Stephen? You are involved in something you shouldn't be. You were the smart one and got me through my studies. You were going to change the world, and now you are working with the Circle. Why?"

Stephen took Chen's arm and led him to a park bench.

They sat in front of a small lake ringed by pines. Stephen looked up at the blue sky, then said, "I was a fool and believed them. I thought I was going to help my people and our country. Now I know the truth, but they hold my family hostage."

Chen nodded slowly and leaned back. "Do not be ashamed, Stephen-they are smart, exceptionally so. They have impressed the Triad with this plan of theirs. At least they will save your country, so take heart in that." He lowered his head. "I too am being used. How were we to know things would turn out this way? Perhaps it would have been better to have refused to go to school and been cast out of my father's house."

"No, my friend, then we would not have known each other," Stephen replied, patting Chen's shoulder to console him.

Chen slowly smiled and his eyes began twinkling again.

"Yes, and there wouldn't have been those educated women who loved my simple mind. Ah, Stephen, the times we had!

It is our joss to be sitting here. We are both in it up to our fool necks. So be it, then! We have this day to remember the old times. I have to leave tomorrow to attend a meeting and visit my esteemed father in Washington, D. C., so let's enjoy our time together."

Stephen couldn't suppress a reflective smile. "How is your father? The last time I saw him he was so angry with you, remember? You were in his bed with those two premed students."

Chen laughed and shook his head. "Ah, our graduation party. Yes, I can still remember the little one with magic fingers. She smelled of ginger and tasted of honey. She loved me for my pectoral something muscles, she told me. My father, now that subject is truly dangerous. But what is dangerous to us who knew glorious passion with women in his bed?

He is now the San Chu, the lord of the mountain, in charge of the Circle's interests on the East Coast. A true legend in the making. He too has a new name. Dorba. Just a single name, easier to remember-and fear. I have been assigned here to the West Coast as a liaison between my father and the West Coast San Chu. I am to ensure that my father's interests are kept in mind and that he receives his share of your white powder. The Circle has been waiting patiently and is ready to expand its market."

Stephen remembered a gentle man who loved and raised koi fish for his garden pond. The elder Chen had always had a kind word for him for helping his son in school. Stephen lowered his head. "Are you and your father here in the U. S. because of our arrangement? Are we responsible for the Circle coming here?"

Chen smiled patiently. "No, my friend, the Triad is having to look beyond Hong Kong. When the Chinese take over in '97, we know they will make changes that will impede business, despite what they promise. There are many business opportunities here. In fact, we have established many legitimate businesses that are quite profitable. The white powder you bring us is important only because it gives my father much respect. His is the largest syndicate and therefore receives a larger portion of the powder. The quick and very high return on investment will ensure a seat for him on the council of elders. He moved from Hong Kong to Washington, D. C., only five months ago. He said, where better a San Chu than in this country's seat of power. He told me a few weeks ago that his cook even found fresh turtles for his favorite soup. He is very happy, and profits from your white powder will give him more of what he wants-power. To be a member of the council of elders is to be remembered for generations."

Chen dug in his pocket, took out a penny, and tossed it into the lake. "The Americans say it is for good joss. I will need it. Next year when I have amassed enough wealth to keep me in sweet-smelling women, I'm telling him I want out. I don't like the business, Stephen. I never did." He turned toward his friend and said softly, "You always hated your father for sending you away. I hate mine for forcing me to stay. For a time, at least, you were your own man. Now I fear your country owns your soul."

Stephen lowered his head and patted Chen's leg. "I hope the coin brings you good joss, my friend."

Chen stood and took Stephen's arm, pulling him to his feet. "Enough deep thoughts. It is time for you to meet my wife. Don't make a face when you see her plumpness. It was an arranged marriage; everyone is happy. Her father's family and ancestors are proud and my father assured himself of the East Coast position. My fat wife is happy because she can shop at the finest stores, and I am happy because she has given me two wonderful children that I adore. And she is a wonderful cook and asks no questions of my evening activities. I have more women here than is possible for a man to please. These American women love my British accent-they say it is cute. You must try one, Stephen. These women are not the submissive night hens we knew in Hong Kong. They are so aggressive you wonder who carries the seed."

"I already have more than I can handle," Stephen said with a reflective smile. "I married a beautiful Shan girl who is modern and does not believe in the Shan custom of the husband having three wives."

"A modern woman! Stephen, did I not teach you anything in the four years we roomed together? Modern women are to make love to but not to marry! What about the American brother you spoke of all the time?"

"Joshua?"

"Yes. That name, how could I forget it? You talked of no one else, him and that damnable Shan teacher of yours. I would go to bed nights and dream of opening your head and plucking those two out. They put a curse on you for the first year. No women, no wine, no ponies. It took time and all my devilish tricks to convert you."

Stephen smiled. "And you still owe me for when you lost on the ponies that last time."

"What happened to him, this Joshua?" Chen asked as they approached the car.

Stephen kept his smile. "He was still his own man when I saw him years ago. Unlike you and I, he had no father, and his stepfather had died."

"Then I envy this Joshua. Come, we must be going. You drive; I want you to know true decadence. This red machine is like American women: It is very fast and gives untold pleasure." Chen tossed Stephen the car keys and got in.

Stephen climbed behind the wheel and started the engine.

"By the gods, this is a powerful beast," he exclaimed after depressing the accelerator just a fraction.

"And she is a willing beast," Chen chortled. He waited until Stephen was back on the road before dissolving his smile.

He stared straight ahead and spoke as if in a deep tunnel.

"Stephen, when we arrive at the house I become Ke Ping again, and you will be a polite but boring guest. I will drink too much and go to bed drunk, and you will ask my wife to have my security men take you back to the hotel. Make advances-she will like that, for a true friend would not do so. She may even respond and pleasure you, but whatever you do, speak nothing of me. You do not remember me, but since we attended the same school you felt obliged to come.

The servants will report everything to my father's people.

Remember-I carry the memory of those good days with me always. You helped me far more than in my studies."

Chen's face slowly brightened and he managed to grin again. "Seduce this red demon and let her show you her wonders!"

Washington, D. C.

Josh, Crow, and Grant got out of the military sedan in front of the Channel Inn. Grant faced the two men as soon as Crow's suitcase was unloaded. "I know you don't like having me around, but it's the way it has to be so there is no question of compromise. I'm here to help with the cover stories and assist you in clearing up any matters you have to take care of before you leave for Camp Pickett. I suggest we all have dinner in an hour and talk over how I can help."

Josh lifted Crow's suitcase and spoke coldly. "Just pick us up tomorrow. We don't need your 'help.' "

Grant met his glare. "Look, Colonel, I've got a job to do.

You know as well as I do I'm supposed to play nursemaid and watch you two until you get to the training camp. Give me a break and cooperate. I won't be in the way, and I won't even speak if you don't want me to."

Crow nudged Josh with his elbow. "Knock it off, Hawk, she's right. We know they gonna have us covered tonight anyway. Let her do her job. Shiiit, they coulda assigned us an ugly infantry major."

Josh kept his hard stare on the woman. "Okay. We're going to the boat to drink a few beers, change, and get Hondo settled in. Any security problems with that?"

Grant ignored the last question. "That's fine. I'm going to my apartment and change clothes. I'll come back and meet you at the boat. There's a team inside the lobby watching you right now. When we link up I'll have them back off. And please don't make any phone calls. I'll see you in an hour."