The Code War (46 page)

'What I don't understand,' Kodrob was
speaking softly so that Jabez wouldn't hear, 'is that Bezejel
seemed shocked when you captured him. So I thought she wanted him
gone, sent back to Paradise as quickly as possible. But now it
seems she and the Leader have decided to keep him prisoner. What's
going on?'

Kodrob was Zhivkin's boss and normally
he would be the first to know his bosses' plans. But it was an
indication of the esteem that Zhivkin was now held in that he knew
more than Kodrob. The balance of power in the team had shifted
perceptibly and Kodrob knew he had to watch his step. If Zhivkin
was really 'in' with Bezejel, he'd better not get him on the wrong
side. Boss or no boss, it was influence that mattered, especially
when someone as mercurial as Bezejel was above both of you.

'I think it's all to do with
Nancy, chief,' replied the cruel Russian. 'She's too important to
the future of the war on Earth. The war against the Lamb's forces.
The Leader wants to hold onto anyone who has or had any influence
over Nancy. If nothing else it makes the other side nervous. It's
become a high stakes game. The Leader is using Jabez as a
bargaining chip. He doesn't want to hold onto him for ever, Bezejel
told me. He's after something bigger.'

'Something bigger?'

'OK, someone bigger. A lot bigger.
A big fish.' Zhivkin pushed his face close to Kodrob's, emphasising
his point.

'Who?'

'Who do you think?'

'I don't know,' replied Kodrob.
'There's a lot of big fish in Paradise.'

'Put it like this,' Zhivkin was
whispering directly into Kodrob's ear. 'Apart from the Creator
himself, there is no one bigger.'

'Him?'

'Yeah, H
im.'

'How does the Leader plan to do that?
asked Kodrob.

'Do you think they'd tell me?'

'I don't buy it.'

'Don't buy what. That they want to get
the Lamb?' Zhivkin was starting to sneer again.

'No. I know they want to get him. I just
don't see how they will,' replied Kodrob.

'Well. You'd better keep your traitorous
thoughts to yourself, Captain,' spat Zhivkin. 'It would be such a
shame if Bezejel found out you don't have confidence in our
Leader.'

He threw a dart which hit the troll in
the arm and stuck there. The fat creature squealed and stood still,
holding its hands in front of its face.

'He thinks we can't see him,' sneered
Zhivkin.

'If the Leader doesn't get a move
on soon, Jabez will perish. Look at him.' Kodrob waved vaguely at
the angel who was looking down at the ground, eyes unfocused. 'Then
Heaven will get really angry.' His dart pierced the wall above the
troll's shoulder.

'Nah, angels are tougher than
that. He's just malingering,' replied Zhivkin. 'I'm going to get
stuck into him soon and have some fun with him. I've never heard an
angel scream but I think the time for that is approaching. Got some
old techniques I want to try out again. Matter of fact, think I'll
have a little play now.' Zhivkin stood up and took a small set of
pliers and a file from his pocket.

'I'm going to break his perfect
front teeth and scrape the nerves inside. Let's see how loud he
hollers.'

'No,' shouted Kodrob, a bit too
urgently.

'What do you mean,
no?
' Zhivkin glared at Kodrob. 'Have you
gone soft
Captain
Kodrob? Your star has been falling for a while,
you know?. Bezejel is not your biggest fan any more, savvy? If you
get in my way, I may have to ask Bezejel for a promotion. Right now
I think I'd get it. Then you know what would happen to you, don't
you?'

Kodrob saw the troll hiding behind
its fingers. He knew exactly what would happen to him.

'I just mean,' he stammered, 'if Bezejel
and the Leader are using him for a negotiation, they may not want
him seriously damaged.'

'Oh I'm not going to damage him
seriously, Captain, not yet anyway. But who's to say his teeth
didn't get hurt when I kicked him out of his machine. I don't
remember anyone making a list of his injuries when he got here.
Anyway, I captured him so I've got rights over him, that's always
been Hell's law. If you nick it, you own it. Now stand out of the
way, Captain.'

'I know you've got rights Zhiv, but it
would be a pity to torture him without an audience. Why not get a
group of demons in here and have a party? Or get him to a public
place, like the Banshee lake and make him holler and cry there? It
would be good for morale. You could sell tickets to watch it and
make a whole stash of diesel.'

Zhivkin stroked his chin. He looked at
Kodrob closely, searching his face for any sign of a trick.

'Hmm. Maybe,' he said. 'But we'll have
to do it quick, before he gets repatriated back to his home.'

He thought for a minute.

'All right,' he said. 'It's a
deal. Let's spread the word. Tell everyone you know and we'll get a
crowd there, tomorrow. I'll organise a cross so we can stick him up
on it. That always gets a laugh. I'll bring my other toys too, a
lorry battery and some wire. And some pliers to pluck him with.
Nice one, Kodrob, good thought.'

Then before Kodrob could stop him,
Zhivkin swung around towards Jabez and aimed a kick at his good
wing. 'I hate you arrogant filth,' he snarled. 'I'll pull out all
your fancy feathers and burn them. Tomorrow.'

Jabez groaned with the sudden pain
and his body arched. Zhivkin spat on the prostrate angel who was
now breathing in clear discomfort.

Kodrob took Zhivkin by the arm and
hurried him to the door. 'I'll meet you in the morning to finalise
plans,' he said in a whisper. 'Don't tell Bezejel till it's all
organised or she might try and stop it.'

Zhivkin smiled and punched Kodrob in the
arm, 'Till then' he agreed. 'I'm off to the squawhouse, see you
later.'

Yaumati Police
Station, Kowloon

Dan Kelly was at the end of a busy
overnight shift. Any crimes reported to the station during the
previous 24 hours were the responsibility of his team to
investigate, categorise, distribute and follow-up.

Distributing or 'batting' as it
was known was a favourite game of detective inspectors. If you
could show that a crime had occurred in another station's district
you could 'bat it' in their direction and so relieve yourself of a
lot of work.

Some DIs had won a reputation for their
laziness and willingness to bat cases to other stations, no matter
what the distress caused to the public who often had to spend hours
waiting to give a statement only to be told they had to go to
another district of Kowloon and repeat the process.

Dan, however, had rarely batted a case
in his entire 5 year career in the RHKP, much to the disappointment
of his overworked team who rarely got off shift on time.

Now Dan had gone a stage further and
taken an active interest in all things Brother.

On top of the regular caseload of
bag snatchings, heroin dealing, street robberies, factory thefts
and gangland violence he was building up a file on Brother's
operations throughout Kowloon. Dan was now copied on any and all
reported crimes where Brother involvement was suspected. His
dossier was filling up fast.

Dan finished typing up his reports
into all the day's cases and handed them to Liu Jai for copying. He
barely had time to pick up his cold coffee cup and drink from
it.

Detective Sergeant
Tung walked purposefully through from the CID
reception room into Dan's office.

'Sir, CID Kwun Tong are trying to send
us a case of kidnapping and extortion. They say it's a Brother case
and they think we've agreed to take anything related to Brother.
We're getting snowed under with new cases and the team is getting
fed up. You must resolve this or we'll lose the team. There are
plenty of under-staffed CID squads who'd happily take our guys.
Sir, do you understand?'

'I know, Ah Tung. I have not
agreed to take all Brother cases, so you can politely tell DI Chan
Man-wai in Kwun Tong to put his cricket bat away and stop bowling
us googlies, if you follow my meaning. But what I have done is
arranged to meet my old teacher Pete Richards in Kowloon HQ in
about an hour. I'm going to ask him if he can lend us some
resources. 'Bout time we passed some work to them instead of the
other way round, don't you think?'

'Sir,' replied Ah Tung, unconvinced.

An hour later Dan gratefully picked up
the burning hot cup of decaf coffee that Detective Superintendent
Pete Richards had placed on the table in front of him. After a
sleepless 24 hour duty he was looking forward to a date with his
duvet. A decaffeinated drink would help make that meeting
worthwhile.

'Dan, great to see you,' Pete offered
him a cigarette. 'How are the bright lights of Yaumati keeping
you?'

Dan declined the cigarette. 'Yaumati
must be the busiest place on the planet. I just love it, there's
always so much going on,' he enthused.

'And you've come to thank me for my
brilliant teaching at training school and the perfect preparation I
and the other staff gave you for your role, that right?'

'Astonishing, how did you know I
travelled right across Kowloon and gave up my morning to come and
tell you that?' replied Dan, smiling.

'Aw, I get used to old students praising
me up,' said Pete. 'What's great is they never want me to do
anything for them. They never come all the way to Kowloon HQ and
try to put a monkey on my back or ask me for favours. OK, well I
have to get off to another meeting. Thanks for dropping by.' He
pretended to stand up.

'Well, actually,' said Dan
hesitantly.

'What? You don't mean to tell me you're
going to break the trend and ask me to do some work for you, do
you?'

'Ask you to do some work? Oh, Heaven
forbid, I know work isn't your thing.' Dan held up his hands.

'Sarcasm will get you nowhere,
young Inspector.'

'No, seriously,' replied Dan, realising
his joke might backfire. 'It's not so much about work, it's just an
enquiry really.'

'Shoot.'
Pete sat down again.

'Well, it's just that one of the triad
societies in our neighbourhood, Brother to be precise, appears to
be getting its head and shoulders well in front of all the others.
I just wondered if anyone was monitoring the situation from a
headquarters point of view, you know, with a colony-wide strategic
approach. Or even if any of your partners like FBI or Interpol had
ever mentioned them. We're getting reports that an English woman
has joined them and I was wondering if there was any signal that
they're going international.'

Pete Richards sat back in his chair,
suddenly intent.

'Well, that is interesting,' he said
slowly.

'It is?'

'Yeah, I'll say.' He looked up,
concentrating. 'Thing is,' he continued, 'I don't know how much I
can tell you.'

'Oh,' replied Dan, hoping for more.

'Yeah, look, let's put it like this,'
said Pete, choosing his words carefully. 'There is a headquarters
unit that's aware of Brother's meteoric rise. It's gathering
information behind the scenes that will be used to put Brother
leaders away for a long time.'

'Gosh,' said Dan, genuinely shocked.

'Yeah, but they're not ready to strike
yet. In fact, given the evidence requirements of the Supreme Court
and the need to build an absolutely watertight case against them,
it's still going to be quite some time till they're ready.'

'Who is
they
exactly?' asked
Dan.

'Good question.' Pete acknowledged with
a raise of his eyebrows that Dan was being persistent. 'They is me
and my team.'

'You?'

'Mm hmm.'

'So you must be very interested in all
the duty reports I write about Brother,' asked Dan.

'Got them all here, every one,' Pete
indicated a cabinet loaded with large files.

'Oh, good.' There was a pause. 'So what
do you want me to do? I mean, shouldn't we be working closely
together?'

'We are working closely together. And
I'm very glad that you took the time out to come and ask me. But I
need you to just keep sending through all that you see about
Brother in your reports. There are spies here, even in Kowloon
Headquarters who would tip off Brother that we're onto them if we
start doing anything unusual. And remember, I'm gathering
information from all over, including DIs on Hong Kong Island, in
the New Territories and from sources in other agencies
internationally.'

'You mean, the FBI?'

'Among others,' replied Pete
tersely.

'So…'

'So thanks for coming, Dan. You need to
know that we're on top of Brother and taking strategic action and
you must continue to send us everything you get. It's really
important that you do.'

'Ok then, well, that's great.'

'Have a great day, you just come off
shift?'

'Yes, just a couple of hours ago.'

'Great,' smiled Pete. 'Fight the good
fight. We'll nail Fatty Lo and all his crew as soon as we can.
We're compiling evidence of conspiracy to defraud involving massive
amounts of money. Smaller charges of racketeering won't stop him
for a moment. He'll just sacrifice some junior gang leader to take
the rap. This needs a major initiative and it's happening. I need
you and the dozens of other DIs in the Colony to just keep doing
your jobs. Ming baak?' Pete finished with a commonly understood
Chinese phrase meaning 'understand?'.

'Ming baak. OK thanks Pete, I'll be off
then. I'll keep sending the reports.'