In Denial (45 page)

‘
No, Elizabeth, and I’m sorry you’re discovering things that perhaps I should have told you about.’ She looked at Elizabeth and then at Eric. ‘As I said, I’m sorry.’ They both nodded. ‘I think we must take our leave of Mr Yong shortly but there are a few other things I need to say before we do.’

Patrick Yong allowed a patronising smirk to cross his face. He was thinking that this female gweilo must be very careful how she speaks to him. He was not used to being attracted by European women but there was something about her that he found rather beguiling. She was young and pretty, had a good body and a very attractive if not naïve nature about her. He was willing to listen only because of what her looks were doing to him.

‘
I met your brother only a few weeks ago and the circumstances under which we met are irrelevant, but I consider myself to be a good judge of character and all I will say is that he worshipped the ground his wife and children walked on. He was devastated by their deaths. If you are trying to imply that he was in any way responsible for their deaths then I must suggest you are deeply, very deeply mistaken.’ Gabrielle stared at Patrick Yong hoping her words were having some effect. ‘And if you really think you know anything different then I suggest you make yourself acquainted with what is really going on rather than making wild accusations.’

Patrick Yong did not flinch. ‘Miss Brooks, I’m not aware I made any accusations. I merely referred to the murders of my sister and her children. However, what you’ve just said has meant very little to me because you’re quite right. I do not know the circumstances under which you met Adam Harrison, but although I haven’t spoken to him for so long that doesn’t mean I don’t know what’s been going on. I suggest you stop this quest to find him now. You’ve come a long way on what you Europeans call a wild goose chase, and I will tell you, if Adam Harrison is indeed in Hong Kong then I’ll be the first to find him and advise him to return to England, before any harm should befall him.’

Gabrielle did not let her eyes waiver from Patrick Yong’s, but at the edge of her vision she could see Elizabeth cover her mouth with her hand in shock and heard a gasp from Eric.

‘
Mr Yong,’ Gabrielle said, ‘your threats are misguided. I don’t know of any reason why Adam should feel in danger. As far as I know he has come to Hong Kong to grieve the loss of his wife and children, and maybe put their ghosts to rest. He needs to move on, Mr Yong, and if coming to Hong Kong helps then I would like to be by his side. It is now time we left.’

Gabrielle stood up.

Her words were spoken with the utmost sincerity but unbeknown to her, her bravery and tenacity were going to bring her and others who had been so kind to her more pain than she would ever have imagined possible.

As he watched the Elliotts and Gabrielle Brooks leave the apartment building and cross the road so that they could wave down a patrolling taxi, Patrick Yong smiled to himself. He smiled because he believed he had everything under control and he also smiled because he could not believe how naïve some people could be. All right, their visit was unexpected, but it alerted him to a possible complication once Number Thirty-Nine carried out her orders.

Patrick Yong reached for his mobile phone.

‘
Mt me at loc 23 at 1915,’ he tapped into the phone and sent the text to Number Thirty-Nine.

‘
Mt me at loc 21 at 1900,’ he then tapped in, and sent it to Number Seventy-Five.’

*  *  *

‘
I have two targets for you and they will be easy,’ Patrick Yong told Number Seventy-Five, a young Chinese man in his early thirties.

The two men were walking slowly through the still crowded Harbour shopping area. ‘Your targets are an old gweilo couple called Eric and Elizabeth Elliott. They live in Plantation Court, a block of flats to the east of The Repulse Bay Hotel. They are to die within the next twenty-four hours. There is another gweilo with them. Her name is Gabrielle Brooks - in her late twenties I would say, slim and blonde - and she is not to be harmed under any circumstances. Any questions?’

Number Seventy-Five knew better than to ask questions.

*  *  *

‘
Do you feel better for that?’ Leila asked as Adam walked in through the door.

He smiled at her. ‘The air was sweet and cool, just as I remember it after a storm.’

He had used the need for some fresh air as an excuse to test Leila. He wanted to give her the opportunity to get away from him. He appreciated his reasoning was not watertight because what she’d told him might have been part of a plan to carry out her orders to kill him. He was pleased she had not left, but he remained wary.

Leila crossed the room and put her arms round Adam’s neck. After kissing him she said: ‘I had a text message while you were out.’ She was relieved to have been on her own when she received the text message from Number Sixty-six. She had checked her phone often because she knew Number Sixty-six would be impatient. The typhoon had introduced an unexpected delay.

‘
Who from?’ Adam asked.

‘
My controller,’ she told him. ‘I must go and meet him at seven fifteen.’

‘
And if you don’t go?’

‘
He will suspect.’

‘
I’ll come with you as far as it’s safe to do so.’

‘
No. We must not take any more risks than is necessary. You wait here. I’ll only be half an hour or so.’

‘
You’re so sure?’

‘
He won’t detect anything. I’ll tell him what we, I mean I have planned.’

‘
He’ll go along with it?’

‘
You ought to have been an assassin.’

‘
It was my death I was planning.’

*  *  *

The intercontinental Hotel towered behind them.

The harbour lights danced in front of them, but she did not see them.

The Star ferries were once again plying their way across what was now a calm harbour. The junks and Walla Walla boats were going about their business. People were promenading along the waterfront. Everything in Kowloon was returning to normal.

His arm was round her shoulders as they strolled like two lovers enjoying the calm after the storm. Leila could feel his fingers digging into her skin below her shoulder. The pain was excruciating. She wanted to retaliate but knew that would be futile.

‘
Why isn’t he dead?’ Number Sixty-six asked in a quiet, controlled voice.

‘
The ... the opportunity has not yet arisen,’ Leila replied, screwing up her eyes.

‘
You’ve had nearly four days.’

‘
The ... the typhoon -’

‘
Irrelevant.’

‘
He … well, he -’

‘
Are you still fucking him?’

There were a few seconds of silence.

‘
You know that … that’s the way I … Why are you hurting me?’

‘
I don’t like being disobeyed, Number Thirty-Nine.’

‘
I haven’t disobeyed you. I told you the opportunity hasn’t been there yet.’

Moving his hand so that his fingers encircled the back of her neck, he squeezed again. He enjoyed the power he had over her especially knowing that she could be so deadly. He’d been willing to wait but now that the unexpected had happened, waiting was a luxury he could no longer afford. He still had no idea why the man he should have regarded as his brother was in Hong Kong and now he would never find out: there were people looking for him, strangers wanting to find him.

Adam Harrison must die and he must die soon.

And so must the strangers.

‘
You have until midnight tomorrow night and if he isn’t dead by then I will personally enjoy what you have given to so many others. I will then break your beautiful slim neck before cutting you up and feeding you piece by piece to the fish. Do I make myself perfectly clear?’

He increased the grip on her neck.

Leila nodded.

‘
Do you have a plan?’ he asked.

‘
Yes ... yes, I do.’

‘
And what is it?’

‘
Now the storm is over he wants to go to Stonecutters Island.’

‘
Stonecutters? Why?’

‘
He went there as a boy and he wants to revisit.’ He lessened the pressure on her neck.

‘
But there’s little more than a sewage treatment works there now. Why would he want to see that?’

‘
When he was in school here he played hockey to a good standard, and a couple of the Indian Sikhs employed by the British to guard their ammunition depot on the island were international players. They used to go to his school to train the boys’ team.’

‘
You are losing me, Number Thirty-Nine.’ He increased the grip on her neck.

‘
He ... he visited the Sikhs on the island and he wants to go back to see what’s left. He said he always had a tremendous admiration for them but one of them died suddenly, he thinks from a snake bite, and he knows where his ashes were scattered. He wants to pay his respects.’

‘
And?’

‘
There are still many poisonous snakes on the island and at the sewage works. He will disappear forever.’

Patrick Yong thought for a moment. ‘That’s your plan? A lethal snake bite and disposal in the sewage works? How bizarre! It sounds rather contrived to me.’

‘
I ... I have my contacts and they can be trusted. They have not let me down yet.’

He lessened the pressure on her neck again. ‘And you haven’t let me down. If it works the Master will be pleased. If you fail you know the penalty.’

‘
Yes, I do.’

‘
Then meet me at location twenty-three at eight pm in three days time and tell me it is done.’

‘
I’ll be there.’

‘
You’d better be.’

*  *  *

‘
What a horrid, horrid man,’ Elizabeth muttered as they walked back into their flat. ‘He was so nice to begin with but then he became really beastly.’

Gabrielle had to agree but her mind was concentrating on what they had not been told rather than what they had. She had seen real hate in Patrick Yong’s eyes and it had scared her. How naive she had been. She had travelled so far and yet the very first opportunity of getting some idea of where Adam might be left her more confused than ever. What she’d been told about Patrick Yong was going round and round in her mind but she didn’t know what to make of it, other than the fact that she had gone beyond being out of her depth.

Patrick Yong was horrid; Elizabeth was right, but horrid was an everyday word.

Patrick Yong was evil.

‘
I think we all need a stiff drink,’ Eric said.

*  *  *

‘
You look as though the meeting didn’t go too well,’ Adam said as he poured Leila a vodka and tonic from the mini-bar. She had hardly uttered a word since she’d returned although he had caught her looking nervously at him, watching him move about the room.

‘
He’s a very nasty man and I wish ... but no, he accepted the plan we came up with. He thought it was rather contrived when compared with the usual methods.’ Leila lowered her eyes. ‘I have until Tuesday evening. That’s when we next meet.’

‘
Probably not,’ Adam said. ‘I think we may have a lot longer than either of us realised.’

Lifting her head, Leila looked confused. ‘What do you mean?’

‘
Leila, I think you’ve been tricked. I don’t think your master or the 7th Dragon Triad have anything to do with your controller ordering my death.’

Adam had followed Leila.

He had seen his brother.

Recognition was not immediate as he was a good fifty yards away mingling with a crowd of tourists who were enjoying the tranquillity that always followed a typhoon. No, recognition did not happen straight away but when Patrick turned so that his face was in profile he could not have been anybody else. He saw Patrick’s arm round Leila’s shoulders and his hand on her neck. He was not able to see Leila’s face so he couldn’t determine how she was reacting.

Adam’s mind flashed back twenty years to the last time he saw Patrick and suddenly one of his questions was answered. The hatred, the loathing he’d seen in his brother’s eyes then must have festered for all those years. It was revenge; his brother wanted retribution after letting the hate accumulate. Adam now realised the threat to his life was very personal. It was nothing to do with any Triad. Leila was being used and deceived into believing she was obeying the Master’s orders, but she wasn’t.