The Code War (39 page)

A second speaker with the
comical-sounding name of Chopper Kwok, who Nancy had seen before in
Fatty Lo's company now took the floor. Chopper looked anything but
a comedian. His hard eyes looked around him at his brothers and
sisters in crime and gave off not a hint of kindness. The respect
shown him by those gathered near was the respect of fear, not the
respect of admiration. But Chopper was one of the most senior
officers in Brother so it was appropriate for him to speak at this
important gathering.

'Today we work and tomorrow we
work.
But tonight we drink and gamble.'
While he spoke, Chopper's eyes ranged around as though looking for
targets for his venom. 'Here are some reasons why we celebrate. We
are no longer dependent on police informers. No need to pay off
those uniformed parasites.' He looked down and nodded meaningfully
at one or two of the men watching. 'In the last year, two more
regional triads join Brother. In total ten casinos are in operation
throughout the colony and nearly a thousand healthy women are on
the payroll.' This brought a mild cheer and some clinking of
glasses. 'The partnership with the Colombians is paying off and we
now have our own factories in Thailand.' Everyone understood that
the 'factories' were for heroin production.

'But now I want to address those of you
who are impatient for us to grow faster. To make more money
quicker.'

Nancy could just about follow the speech
but now she paid close attention. Chopper appeared to be addressing
an ongoing internal wrangle.

'Brother is growing 10% every
year
,' he continued. 'There is no need
for faster growth. Let those who think otherwise keep their mouths
shut.'

Nancy looked at Fatty but he showed no
emotion.

Beside Chopper was his dog Wolf
Smoke, a German shepherd. Wolf Smoke, whose comic book name was
testament to Chopper's immaturity, was a model for those who
believed dogs took after their owners. Wolf Smoke lunged at
everyone who came close to his master and made as if he would rip
their hearts out if just given the command. Men put their hands in
their pockets near Wolf Smoke
to protect
themselves. They surreptitiously tried to move the fabric of their
trousers around their waist so that a hand covered their groin.
Wolf Smoke was Chopper's aggressive persona on four
legs.

He finished with a final toast for the
Brother of Brothers and then handed back to Frenchy, the evening's
fightmaster.

Fatty Lo turned to Nancy. 'The first
fight is always between the current champion cock and a challenger.
The challenger get thrown into the pit. The champion come from
above, like Heaven,' he laughed.

Frenchy shouted, 'The first challenger,
Snake Biter' and waved his arm with a flourish. An Armani-suited
young man stepped forward holding a wide-eyed bird and threw it
fluttering into the pit. Snake Biter landed and peered around him,
startled, head on one side. He looked most unworthy of his
name.

Then Frenchy looked up and with great
aplomb announced the name of the champion, Black Wing. There was a
roar of applause. Stewards now came around with notebooks taking
money from the excited audience and marking the bets. Junior
brothers handed out more beer and XO. Fatty Lo smiled graciously
above the fray and shouted his own bet to a steward.

A steel gate crashed shut, there was a
clank and then a hum as the hoist and pallet began its journey
across the gantry. A metal cover with large air holes had been
placed over Black Wing on the pallet. Once over the pit, the pallet
descended.

Anticipation was now at fever pitch. The
theatre of Black Wing's clanking journey to his next gladiatorial
contest had captured the attention of old and young brothers alike.
Necks craned, eyes stared, voices stilled. For the first time,
no-one was looking at Nancy.

Fatty Lo's hand was now resting on
Nancy's leg and his thumb indelicately stroked her
thigh.

'Daai Lo,' - Big Brother - she
said, 'drink with me.' She turned her whole body to face him. Fatty
snapped his fingers at a nearby junior brother and shouted
'Brandy.'

'Scotch for me,' ordered Nancy. Two
glasses appeared and two bottles. A small slug was poured in each.
Nancy's was Johnnie Walker Black Label. The real deal, not tea.

'More,' she called. She tilted the
bottle to give herself half a glass and did the same with Fatty's
brandy.

'Down in one,' she said, looking him
directly in the eye. Fatty was delighted.

'Wait, a picture.' She turned and put
down her glass and rooted in her handbag for a minute, finally
producing a small Land camera. She gave this to the brother and
turned back to Fatty, glass in hand. As they downed their drinks
the camera flashed and a moment later a photo rolled out of the
machine. Nancy coughed and put her hand to her chest. Fatty's eyes
shone.

The pallet hit the floor and the cover
was raised. Black Wing looked up shyly at the two score of leery
faces peering down at him. His moment's distraction cost him the
first blow as Snake Biter descended on him with a screech and a
rasping claw. The fight was on.

Two hours and eight cockfights later a
limousine pulled up outside the Blue Diamond Warehouse &
Godown. A swarm of brothers wreathed in cigarette smoke and with
watery eyes emerged with Fatty Lo into the night, shaking him by
the hand and guiding him to the car.

He just made it without stumbling and
poured himself into the back seat. A brother held the door open for
Nancy who stepped in after him. The car moved off with Fatty
slumped against the far door, his cheeks unusually red.

Nancy lifted her handbag onto her
knee. It sloshed a little despite the bundle of toilet paper she
had thrown in earlier. It also smelt like a distillery. She hoped
no-one had noticed.

'Where to, Miss?' asked the
chauffeur.

'Drop me off at Golden Luck and then
take Mr Lo to his apartment and see him safely indoors,' she
replied.

Beside her, Fatty
groan
ed.

She pulled out the small soy milk
bottle with the flip top. There was still a little tea left inside.
She drank it and replaced the top. Then she threw it quickly back
inside her bag and zipped it up tight to stop the whisky vapours
escaping. Thanks for the warning, Jenny, she thought.

Looking ahead as the chauffeur
pulled away, Nancy saw a red candle about a metre in front of the
windscreen that stayed in place even as they turned out of the
parking spot and accelerated. She couldn't see its wick but its
bright red flame was just hovering there, mysterious and beautiful.
She was drawn to its enigmatic energy, almost wanting to reach
forward through the glass and touch it.

She consciously resisted its
attraction.
I'm not a moth. I'm not a
creature of the night. You shan't have me yet.

The candle became a lower case
letter i, stark in outline, still as death, staunch as certainty.
You're coming, Nancy. You'll soon be mine. Nothing you can
do.

No need to ask the driver if he saw it,
Nancy thought. She knew he couldn't have, he'd have crashed by
now.

Red Si

The limo cornered, the i faded, Nancy
placed her bag on the floor and folded her hands in her lap.

Tai O Factory
Building, Yaumati, Kowloon

Out on Nathan Road the hawkers were
dishing out salt fish and rice in little snack packets; hot woks
were frying pork with prawns, pork with chestnuts, pork with
cabbage and pork with chicken; currency exchangers with exquisite
charm, rapier wit and murderous no commission exchange rates were
robbing the tourists like oriental Dick Turpins; jewellers were
dusting their trays of Rolex, Girard Perregaux and Cartiers while
restaurant windows displayed goldened ducks and honeyed char siu
pork that drew eyes and flies in equal numbers.

Lafarge patrolled the highway with
his eyes peeled for heavenly angels. He had strict instructions
from Bezejel to unpeel his eyes from the many delightful local
angels that filled the streets. These bubbly brown-eyed beauties
poured out from offices and factories in the warm October noontime
and teased him insane with their pretty faces, narrow waists and
slender hips. What he wouldn't give to bring half a dozen of these
girls back to his old chateau for a night or two. But he knew
Bezejel would skewer, spit and slow-roast him like a Cul Noir pig
at Chinese New Year if he missed so much as a real angel's
sigh.

One floor above him and unknown to him,
Zhivkin was into his third day of watch behind a dirty pane of
glass in an unused storeroom of the Tai O Garments Factory. Zhivkin
was aiming for glory among thieves and he had the patience and the
watchfulness to achieve it.

A car skidded and a horn blared as
someone stepped back suddenly from the road below. Near miss.

There. Zhivkin saw Jabez appear
outside a jewellery shop. One moment that part of the street was
empty and then suddenly Jabez was there. I couldn't do that, he
thought, how can he do that? It was so quick. Lafarge was still
lazily watching the almost-accident. Concentration of a five year
old. Jabez walked slowly, almost insolently in Zhivkin's view, on
the opposite side of the road, letting himself be seen by Lafarge.
I'm not up to anything, he seemed to be saying, just taking the
airs and showing you Inferno doesn't own this patch.

Cats do that. Jabez was parading
like a cat. Amateur.

Zhivkin knew his opportunity had
arrived. This was what he had waited three days for. It might not
come again. He left the window at a fast trot and made for the
stairs. He ran up the six flights of steps as fast as he could,
kicking open the fire door at the top and bursting onto the roof.
Running to the roof-edge he dropped low and took out his
lightly-dusted periscope, using it to peer over the drop. The dust
on the lens would reduce his spectre making it hard for Jabez to
see him, even if the angel looked upwards directly into the optics.
He just had to keep from being seen until Jabez returned to his
craft. Then he would have just seconds to act.

For two hours Jabez walked around the
area, occasionally disappearing down side streets or into
buildings. Both demons knew he was planting his ludicrous code.
They knew he could not know their own plan to capture Nancy's mind
and turn her into one of the most powerful corruptors of men the
world had ever seen. Why, even they didn't know the full details of
Hideki's plan.

Zhivkin watched closely the area in
which he had first seen Jabez. It was there somewhere, the ship,
and he was going to hijack it. He had brought down an aircraft
before with his quick thinking. Now he was going to steal a
heavenly astracraft.

Jabez reappeared, nonchalantly
strolling back towards Nathan Road from a side street. Lafarge
hadn't clocked him. No surprise there. Beyond Lafarge, further
north, the sound of an ambulance. It skidded to a halt outside a
department store and two medics disgorged in a hurry. Up and down
the street heads turned and rubbernecked, eager to see someone on a
stretcher, ready to tell the story later to eager friends. Lafarge
flashed his eyes up and down the street and then followed the
medics' progress, sure he had missed nothing. Zhivkin kept his eyes
on Jabez.

Sure enough, Jabez stopped just
near where he had appeared earlier and looked up, as if calling
with his mind. Then he stepped forward and disappeared.

Zhivkin grasped the edge of the parapet,
raised himself up and threw himself off the building. He sailed
through the air in a perfect arc drawing his knees up to his chest
to make himself smaller. He crashed heavily six feet above the
pavement.

Boot and Shoe
Archipelago, Azurine Sea, Paradise

'There,' said Agatha, 'on the edge of
that island. There's a town that's built out into the sea and right
in the centre there's a cute-looking piazza. Let's stop there.'

'The map says the island is called
Scarpa Trovata,' said Jabez reading from the Fundial's display
pictograms. 'Says here it was settled by Venetians after the Great
Plague hit Italy in 1630. After they passed, they brought all their
artisan skills to Heaven and carried on where they left
off.'

'Scarpa Trovata. Sure sounds a lot
better than its translation, Shoe Found,' laughed Agatha. 'But the
setting is absolutely stunning. Who wouldn't want to live and work
here for ever, even if it's just making footwear.'

'Wait till you see what they make and
how much fun they have making it. You may not want to leave.'

Jabez made sure the light hider was
switched to 'off' and gradually circled the lightcraft over the
all-shades-of-green island keeping in view the sunlit sea that
surrounded it and a chain of other islands that stretched out
towards the horizon in this industrial region of heaven.

The archipelago and its seas were a
continent two hundred thousand miles below Paradise's surface and
ninety thousand miles from its core. It was a land that enjoyed
bright mornings, hot afternoons and warm evenings most days with
just enough rain, mostly at night, to water its many fields.

Way above its skies were the
jurassic jungles of Montefalco where dinosaur raptors fought with
tooth and claw and angel-sized butterflies preyed on mouse-sized
cats. And far below the Azurine's deepest trench were the Cascades
of Arancazan, beloved of angels who liked to canoe to a waterfall's
edge and then leap into space at the beginning of the drop, only
opening wings near the end of the long fall.