The Gaze of Caprice (The Caprice Trilogy Book 1) (39 page)

“
We thought the killer might be internal
,” said Deni, “
If we’re at war, which we are, then I need to know if I can trust the people around me.  There’s one person who had a suspicious result on the polygraph test
.”

              “
Who
?” asked Xiaoyu.

              “
You
,” said Deni.

              “
Why
?” asked Mr. Cheung.

              “
We should ask Gui
,” said Deni.

              “
Let me finish what I’ve started
,” said Xiaoyu, “
If I’m still alive I will take another polygraph.  Trust doesn’t matter now, we’re all in the same boat.  We’ve got targets on our back.  If I’m a liar, the other Triads might do your work for you.  If I survive I’ll tell all the truth I remember
.”

              “
Could it have been the coma
?” asked Mr. Cheung, “
Maybe his brain function wasn’t normal
.”

              “
The time for questions is not now
,” said Xiaoyu, “
Take me back to the others so I can continue.  We shouldn’t be meeting this many all at one time anymore
.”  The others agreed.

• • •

Deni Tam told Liu Ping and the Sheltered Ones to stay in the garage.  Xiaoyu had given them different orders.  PE4 explosive had been the most difficult thing for Liu Ping to find and purchase with the money from the stolen cocaine.  But it wasn’t the only thing.  Xiaoyu also instructed Liu Ping to buy six cameras.  The PE4 was for the Earth Dragons.  The cameras were for the other Triads.  Liu Ping organized the Sheltered Ones in Xiaoyu’s absence.  Wang Xi, Lin Jun and Yue Tian joined Liu Ping in the
Astra
.  Li Tao, Yu Hong, Huang Sitian and Yi Le filed into the
GT
.  Xu Dong, Bai Feihong, Liu Jingyu and Xiu Ying took the White
Lancer
, a car that hadn’t been used and couldn’t be recognized.  The Lancer headed east through Earth Dragon’s territory.  The Earth Dragons, the Dirty Ones, were the wildest of Triads and the first Xiaoyu wanted for elimination.  The
Lancer
drove peaceably along Gloucester Road through the emptied Earth Dragon Territory.   With the loss of their leadership, the few remaining Earth Dragons were scuttled.  Their territory was all but open.  Through Earth Dragon Territory was into Fire Dragon Territory.  Xu Dong had been involved in Xiaoyu’s attack on the kiosk drop point.  Returning to Fire Dragon territory made him nervous even though the
Lancer
was new to the territory.  Only Xu Dong knew enough about the Fire Dragon’s distribution system to lead them to the drop points
.  A storm drain with an installed shelf near a bus stop on Yiu Hing Rd
. 
A meeting spot beneath the Island Eastern Corridor and a greenery section in Chai Wan Park near the Yee Shun Street Entrance
.  Xiaoyu had thought ahead. 

Compromising the kiosk drop on King’s Road was huge.  It was the most efficient drop point for the Fire Dragons since the decline of the
Moon Luck Hotel
and it had taken them years to develop.  They had to purchase the kiosk through a shell business with thoroughly disguised funds.  Loss of the kiosk meant loss of elegance.  The Fire Dragons resorted to more rudimentary methods.  Liu Jingyu was dropped off a half mile away from the storm drain.  He positioned himself on the opposite side of the street and found a hiding spot in the shadow of the building opposite.  Xiu Ying found a place under the Island Eastern Corridor in a shaded spot near the ramp to a foot-bridge crossing over the IEC.  It gave him a view of the drop spot.  Bai Feihong played his part as a tourist in Chai Wan Park.  All three had cameras and instructions.  They had to wait.  When the drop came they had to photograph it.  The photographs would also have to wait until they could be handed over to the Hong Kong Police Force.  Xiaoyu had been schooled on the playgrounds of Kuandian.  Turning his enemies against themselves, almost always created a smooth surface on which to skate.  Xiaoyu wanted to turned the Fire Dragons in to the police by supplying enough information to make arrests.  The police could seize the loads and the photographs would tie the Fire Dragons to the loads.  Xiaoyu wanted photos of everything. 
The people, the cars and their license plates
.  The cars would be impounded, the plates would be traced and more arrests would be made.  It would work like a slingshot, a pullback followed by a let go.  Xiu Ying’s objective came quickly.  A car parked momentarily under the IEC, giving Xiu Ying a good view.  The driver stayed put while the passenger dropped two packs wrapped in newspaper in a discreet location next to a short support column for the IEC.  A twenty something man came along within five minutes knowing the exact spot where the two packages had been deposited.  He grabbed the two packages and put them into a messenger bag he was carrying before trailing off in a different direction. Five minutes after the man disappeared, a bicycle came along the same path with a suspiciously similar messenger bag attached to the rider.  The bike rider went up the ramp over the bridge to the other side of the IEC.  Xiu Ying got what he needed:  the car; its plate number and the people familiar with the drop point.  There were enough heads for the police hammer to come down on.

              Liu Jingyu had to wait until dusk before he saw action.  Bai Feihong was in Chai Wan Park all day and saw no action at all.  At 11:00pm all three, were responsible for meeting Xu Dong in a parking garage on Lee Chung Street before heading back to their own territory.  Bai Feihong was first to arrive, frustrated and empty-handed.  Liu Jingyu was next to arrive.  Xiu Ying was last.  Xu Dong turned the
Lancer
’s engine on along with his suspicion.  He wouldn’t turn it off until they were back in Moon Dragon territory.  The lack of a drop in Chai Wan Park bothered him.  Before Xiaoyu came to Hong Kong, the Moons had been priming him for leadership of the Sheltered Ones.  After Xiaoyu arrived and sent him to the hospital, he realized the king of the hill had a hill to tumble down.  He felt wiser when not on top.  He was wiser than the group.  None of them knew what it was like to be leader but him, even Xiaoyu didn’t fully understand.  Xiaoyu had never gone up and down the hill; he had only gone up. 

              Xu Dong still had his instinct from when he thought he would be in charge of the group.  And his instinct worried him.  He had a feeling that turned into a rhythm, sounding in his heartbeat.  He went down Lee Chung Street and made a left on Hong Man.  He was forced to stop for a pedestrian at the crosswalk on the corner.  Cheung Lee Street was a smaller side street on the corner at the crosswalk.  A black
Infiniti I30
stopped on Cheung Lee Street at the intersection with Hong Man.  A man in a black ski masked jumped out of the car on the corner in Xu Dong’s blind spot.  The
Infiniti
rushed behind the
Lancer
ramming the backend of the car forcing the
Lancer
’s manual transmission to stall.  It was a fender-bender.  It wasn’t that serious.  The
Lancer
would start but not with Xu Dong at the wheel.  The masked man on the corner matched the wheels of the
Infiniti
to his own steps.  When the
Infiniti
rammed the
Lancer
it made a combined sound.  The crash was hard and let out a yelp which was joined by the sound of the engine choking as it stalled.  But there was another sound more worrisome than the other two.  At the same time as the
Infiniti
impacted the
Lancer
, the masked man held a protruding shotgun, muzzle missing.  The short weapon discharged into the driver’s side window at the same time as the crash.  The discharge from the shotgun and the glass it broke caused a crescendo seen from the back seat.  The glass and buckshot formed an instant splash as Xu Dong’s head was partially separated from its base.  Bits of buckshot also hit Bai Feihong in the arm and glass ricocheted to hit him in the face.  The bits that buried themselves in his right eye caused the most trouble.  He could see but couldn’t blink without pain or damage.  He grabbed the rest of Xu Dong’s body before a second blast.  The second blast didn’t come to the front seat.  Escaping on the passenger side, Bai Feihong ducked below the car and tried to move around the car toward the masked man.  The second shot from the gun gave the back window a high-five but didn’t stop there.  It peeled the back of Liu Jingyu’s head as he ducked down. 

For the time being, Liu Jingyu wasn’t critical but the black
Infiniti
didn’t stay put after the fender bender.  The driver backed up and pulled around in the opposite lane to the right of the
Lancer
.  The back left door of the
Infiniti
opened and the loud noise of a flickering light bulb reverberated in the
Lancer
.  The light bulb was an
MP5
machine pistol and the flickering sound was its automatic attitude.  The gun had a suppressor on the muzzle but it didn’t suppress anything for Liu Jingyu.  The bullets penetrated the side door and him.  The glass window popped along with his jaw.  His ears rang.  His nose clogged and he felt dizzy before it ended.  Bai Feihong caught the masked man as he reloaded and tackled him to the ground.  His eyes shuttered as he fell on top of the masked man headbutting him.  The headbutt did as much damage to him as it did the masked man, stirring the glass pieces in Bai Feihong’s right eye.  Bai Feihong grabbed the shotgun with his weaker left hand but couldn’t maintain his grip as the masked man raised his left hand to Bai Feihong’s neck.  The masked man tried to choke him but one hand wasn’t good enough.  Bai Feihong was able to break free of the masked man’s grip and grab the shotgun with his right hand.  An ice sickle suddenly impaled him.  It pierced through his liver causing him to fall sideways.  As he fell, his shoulder hit the concrete and he grabbed the wound on his stomach but found no ice sickle.  Knowing he had been shot from behind he decided against turning around he lied on the concrete and waited for the kill shot.  It came.  The man standing over Bai Feihong’s body extended his hand to help the masked man to his feet.

Xiu Ying was in the
Lancer
, still alive but playing dead.  He had been riddled with stray bullets and didn’t know what to do.  He poked Liu Jingyu in the thigh. He poked again.  Liu Jingyu didn’t move.  Xiu Ying went back to his dead man mime and told himself he would escape the car when the gunmen were gone.  His plan was altered by one final shotgun blast.  With the window already broken, the masked man didn’t have to aim.  He was close enough.  The blast rang out like a fallen book in a quiet library, the kind of sound that seemingly lasts forever.  For Xiu Ying, it lasted a lifetime. 

• • •

              The lack of information was as upsetting as the loss of four of their own.  Mr. Cheung took Xiaoyu back to the garage before the news was known.  Liu Ping and the seven remaining Sheltered Ones told Xiaoyu they hadn’t heard from Xu Dong or the ones with him.  Their phones went unanswered.  Being members of Hong Kong’s black society permitted them to do many things the average Hong Konger couldn’t.  But the average Hong Konger could hold out hope for missing family members.  A Triad didn’t have that luxury, unless a fool.  There weren’t many Triad fools.  Foolish Triads didn’t last so long.  But Triad society had a different kind of luxury or lack there of.  They lacked legal recourse.  Allowing them to fill the gap.  Xiaoyu had been filling gaps since he was a child.  He gave himself the task of wiping the Fire Dragons off Hong Kong’s map, along with the other Triads—child’s play.  Xiaoyu wanted to go after the Fire Dragons first to show the wrath of his hammer was swift.  Liu Ping suggested the Fire Dragons would be expecting the swing.  They wouldn’t act like nails, staying in place waiting to get hit.  Liu Ping didn’t know where the Fire Dragons would hide their leadership.  He told Xiaoyu he could find out but he would need the rest of the money from the cocaine sale.  Then he would need to make a phone call. 

              The Fire Dragons and Sons of the Sun had always considered themselves cousins.  In fact, two dragons representing both branches were tattooed on Xiaoyu’s back.  They were right next to each other.  The Dragon Head of the Sons was superstitious.  Like Mr. Cheung he was a traditionalist.  His house was loaded with tradition and superstition.  A
feng shui
architect had done his interior design.  No doors were too close together to avoid clutter.  The house was designed to balance itself.  In the living room, were pieces representing each animal in the Chinese Zodiac. 
Twelve fine pieces
.  A lot of money spent—well spent.  He was thin and frail-looking.  He was the longest serving Dragon Head.  His time as the head of the Sons was taxing, Xu Dong could have related.  He stayed busy because he lacked Uncle Woo’s natural understanding and sense of organization.  He favored organization over clutter, but he didn’t know how to achieve it wide-scale.  Like his house, he had to hire help to achieve a better design.  His constant reliance on non-Triad advisors cost him as did his superstition.  His name was Henry Yung.  When he inherited the leadership of the Sons, he inherited the leader’s nickname, Sonny.  Sonny was the wrong person to lead the Sons; everyone knew it.  But he wasn’t the worst person, which kept him in place.  Plus, he kept the money flowing to the right people.  His superstition lead him to a valuable conclusion:  Many people had to be vested in his survival.  He stayed in place because others wanted to.  One of the people vested in his survival was sitting right next to him—Emmanuel Ao—Head of the Fire Dragons.  Sonny and Emmanuel sat on the long sofa in Sonny’s living room nursing their respective egos with rice wine.  The same rice wine that was poured out at Deni Tam’s induction ceremony.  It was expensive and customary when Dragon Heads got together.  The house was crowded.  There were thirty-seven people inside and a baker’s dozen outside sitting in cars.  Those inside felt safe.  Those outside felt tough.  They could feel the strength in their numbers.  Their confidence turned on them.  It made them worth less but not worthless.  A black
Audi A4
was parked parallel on the street in front of Sonny’s house.  The car had four occupants, two Fire Dragons and two submachine guns.  Parked at the end of the street in a cul-de-sac was another black
Audi A4
with two more armed Fire Dragons.  A black
Mercedes
was parked in the garage.  The car was empty but there were three Sons in the garage and three machine pistols to match.  A navy
BMW
was docked on the adjacent street with three more Fire Dragons.  The
BMW
had been positioned to out flank an attacker.  But they had anticipated an attack on the house not on the car itself.