Dangerous Journey (21 page)

He was with some other men, none of whom she recognized. And there was Jimmy, off in a corner, nonchalantly reading
The Wall Street Journal
. How like him!

She turned back to Yeng’s men. Why were they here? How could they have known Darius was coming? Unless. . . no, he wouldn’t have told them. Jimmy wouldn’t have. Darius had joked about selling the jade to them, but he wouldn’t really do that. He wasn’t that way. Alan, her own brother, was. . . but not Darius.

The plane’s arrival was announced. She saw it roll toward the gate. Soon Darius would come through the jetway, and be greeted by customs officials. He would give them the White Dragon and then all this would be over. She knew it. She absolutely knew it.

The first passengers started to pass through the customs check, then more of them. Yeng’s men moved toward the gate. C.J. saw Robert Davis in the far corner of the waiting area. She knew his men couldn’t be far away.

Most of the passengers had gone through customs and were already heading out of the airport. Where was Darius? What was wrong?

Then she saw him. He was calmly walking off the plane with his usual lithe grace, carrying a small satchel. He was dressed as casually as ever in white slacks, a powder-blue T-shirt, a loose-fitting khaki jacket and aviator-style sun glasses. She couldn’t stop herself from smiling, or stop the sudden wetness of her eyes.

He raised his head, as if taking in the whole room from behind his dark glasses.

She stepped a little closer, watching him intently as he neared the customs inspector. It was time for him to turn over the White Dragon.

He shook his head in response to a couple of questions.

Darius, tell him about the jade. Now. It’s time. Please, Darius, tell him.
She watched expectantly. Her hands curled into fists as she watched his every movement. Her whole body throbbed.
Tell him, Darius, please tell him! You can’t come through customs with stolen goods. You have to tell them about the Dragon!
She wanted to run to him, to take the Dragon away from him and turn it over, to get it out of their lives.

God, please! Don’t let him smuggle it into Hong Kong.

But Darius wouldn’t do that, she decided. He couldn’t. He must have a plan. Darius always had plans.

The customs inspector waved him through. Darius picked up his bag and smiled as he stepped into the waiting area of the airport. Still smiling, he walked toward Yeng’s men, and then nodded.

Chapter 19

The world began to spin. Black and purple spots flashed before her eyes, making it seem she was looking at Darius through a blinking strobe light. She took off the sun glasses, and they slid from her hand onto the ground.

Robert Davis and the British police moved toward the small group. They were going to be arrested, Darius and Yeng’s men, in connection with the White Dragon theft. Jimmy Lee saw what was happening and backed away, fading into a group of travelers.

How had she been so wrong about Darius? Once she had believed in her brother, but he deceived her. Then she had wanted to believe in Darius, and now this….

She was stupid! A stupid, gullible fool!

She couldn’t stay and watch him get arrested. She found herself moving, stumbling backward, then running, needing to get away.

Her eyes were blinded by harsh, burning tears as she ran to the exit, then out onto the parking lot. She bumped into people. Her hat fell off; she picked it up and continued running. The shopping bag with her old clothes was knocked from her hand by the crowd, then kicked aside, out of reach.

She didn’t care; she simply hurried on, needing to get away, far, far away. Away from her thoughts, from her disappointment, from her own heart.

“Hey there!” a familiar voice called out. She looked in the direction it had come from. It was Captain Burnham from Luchow, heading toward her. “Do you need a ride?”

She ran to him—anything to get away from this place.

“I say, are you all right?” he asked as she got into the car.

“Yes. I will be.”

“Fine.” He turned flipped on the police siren and, magically, the other cars moved out of his way.

She became calmer. He handed her his large handkerchief, and she dried her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispered.

“It’s nothing.” He switched off the siren now that they were clear of the traffic jam around the airport.

“I guess you’re heading back to Luchow,” she said. “You can drop me off anywhere you want. I’ll get a taxi.”

“No problem. Where are you going?” He gave her a quizzical glance as he steered through the traffic.

“I’m... I was staying with a friend at the Peak. I’m going to go back there, pack, and head for home. Back to Los Angeles”

“Very wise decision. I was going that way myself. To Hong Kong Island, I mean. I can drive you.”

“You were going to Hong Kong Island?”

“Yes. To Repulse Bay. I have a boat there. It’s a lovely spot, quiet—very British, in fact. You wouldn’t even know you were in Hong Kong.”

He entered heavy traffic as he made his way through the heart of Kowloon. A flip of the switch started his siren again, and like the waves parting for Moses, the cars pulled aside to let him through.

“That’s a nice gadget,” she said. “I’ll have to get one for the L.A. freeways.”

He laughed.

“A boat,” she murmured, doing all she could to concentrate on anything but Darius and what was happening to him. “I’ve often wondered what it’s like to live on a boat. When things get rough, to just pull up anchor and drift away…” Her eyes inexplicably filled with tears again.

They reached the Cross Harbour Tunnel. The entrance, dipping under the water, looked like a great, gaping mouth.

The water of the harbor above it was like a wide, blue mustache, and the Peak formed a giant nose. She always felt uneasy in the Tunnel, knowing there were millions of tons of water above her.

“You’ll come with me,” he said.

“Come with you? To Repulse Bay? I’m afraid I don’t have time today. You can let me out anywhere here,” she said as they reached the Wanchai area of Hong Kong Island.

“You don’t understand, Miss Perkins. I’m not asking you to join me, I’m telling you.”

“What?” She looked at him as if he were joking.

“This is not a game. I need you as insurance.” He kept his eyes on the traffic while speaking to her completely calmly.

“Insurance? For what?” The man irritated her; he was always acting so pompous. Whatever was he talking about now?

“To get away, of course. I need to go to Macao, where I’ll be safe. With my gun aimed at you, I won’t be stopped—unless the police here don’t care if a young American woman is killed. Luckily for you, they do care.”

She looked at him as if he were crazy. He was a British border official; what kind of gibberish was he speaking?

Nothing made sense to her anymore. “I don’t understand—”

“I’m talking about jade, Miss Perkins! The White Dragon, to be precise. And Mr. Yeng—my boss.”

She gasped sharply and turned to him, a shocked look on her face.

“Yes.” He smiled. “Now it begins to make sense, doesn’t it? Mr. Yeng wants the Dragon. He wants it very badly, so badly he even had me kill Chan Li to get it. Now do you understand?”

“You?” She was shocked.

“Of course. Who else could have gotten through Chan Li’s bodyguards? They all trusted me. Chan Li and I worked together on a number of deals over the years. Luchow was a convenient place for that. Poor man, he trusted me.”

None of this made sense. “You killed Chan Li? Why didn’t you take the Dragon?”

Burnham’s face darkened.

She snickered. “Don’t tell me you couldn’t find it!”

“I searched everywhere! It wasn’t until you showed up that I had any clue as to what might have happened to it.”

She looked at him with horror. “My brother…”

Burnham pounded the steering wheel with each word. “I don’t understand how he found it when I couldn’t. We searched for him, then when you showed up, we wasted time searching your things, both in Hong Kong and then in Los Angeles. But then Alan Perkins found his way to San Francisco and the big man himself.” He chuckled. “I used my position to have him detained, but once Yeng captured you, we assumed Perkins would go straight to him to free you. I telephoned San Francisco, told them Perkins was innocent. What I don’t understand, is why your brother didn’t go straight to Yeng at that point.”

She laughed, a high hysterical laugh. “And if he had?”

“That’s simple. We’d have the Dragon, and you’d have a corpse.”

“God! You’re despicable.”

“Actually, I’m a rather nice fellow. But anyway, when we heard you and Kane were in Sarawak, we knew you had to be looking for the jade.”

“You heard? How could you have heard that?”

“Why, from our co-worker, of course. John Carter. Surely you remember him? Nice chap, isn’t he?”

Carter. So that explained his behavior, his strange questions.

“Carter was convinced you didn’t have the Dragon. Believe me, if you’d had it, he would have known. He thought you really believed Kane was dead. No one could be that good an actress, he told us. I guess you did believe it. Kane really used you, didn’t he?”

She set her jaw and glared at him. The man was horrid, absolutely hateful. Then he laughed. He threw back his head and laughed at her. She reached for the door handle to open it, to get out of the car. She didn’t care how fast they were going, she didn’t care what happened to her, all she wanted was to get out of the car, away from this horrible man and his lies.

With one hand he grabbed her hair and jerked her toward him. She flailed at him, and he shoved her against the passenger door as easily as if she were a child. After her shoulder and head hit, she didn’t move for a moment, stunned at how strong the man was. For the first time she began to feel really afraid of him.

Burnham pulled out his gun and held it in front of her face. She sat up and remained still beside him. Her heart raced.

“That’s better. Now, don’t move while I drive. We’re almost there.”

“Why are you running now?” she asked. “Why aren’t you with your friends, meeting Darius and getting the White Dragon?”

“With British agents crawling out of the woodwork? Do you think I don’t know Robert Davis? Of course I do. I’m leaving the colony because I can’t trust those San Francisco friends of Yeng to keep quiet about me! The Dragon is lost to us; I can see that. But Yeng has lots of friends in Macao. So I’m going there, and now, with you as insurance, I’ll arrive safely.”

He pulled off the highway onto a private dirt road. The road wasn’t very long; and the area seemed quite deserted.

There were a few trees, lots of bushes and a small house. A short distance from the house was a dock, with what looked like a two-man fishing boat beside it. Burnham drove up to the dock and stopped the car. Despite her fear, her thoughts raced.

She had to get away. Once the madman was safely on his boat, he might realize he didn’t need his “insurance” any longer.

He opened his door and stepped out of the car, then turned back and grabbed her arm. She stiffened, clutching her hat to her breast, willing herself to be strong. He pulled, dragging her across the car seat and against the steering wheel until she fell out of the car onto the gravel.

She landed in a heap and remained there, willing to do anything to stall him, to buy time to formulate a plan, to pray for a miracle. In the past she would have counted on Darius. Now, she knew that was impossible. She clung tenaciously to the ground.

“Get up!” He nudged her with the toe of his shoe.

She didn’t move.

She heard a click and raised her head. The gun was aimed right at her.

“I said, get up,” he repeated.

Slowly, she rose. She picked up her hat, but looked all over the ground.

“Now what?” Burnham demanded.

“My purse. I must have left it in the car.” She started back.

Burnham grabbed her arm and spun her around toward the boat. “Move!” he yelled. “You won’t need any damned handbag where you’re going!”

“But I—”

He jabbed the gun into her back. Slowly, she started to walk. He grabbed her left arm from behind, holding her in front of him. With the gun in his right hand, he prodded her to an ever faster pace. They were almost at the wooden dock. The distance to the boat looked far too short for comfort.

Her feet dragged as she wracked her brain for some way to save herself. The cold metal of the gun was like dry ice against her back. One foot stepped onto the dock.

“Drop, C.J.!” It was Darius! For a split second she froze, then threw herself toward the ground—too late.

Burnham’s grip tightened on her arm, and he spun her around in front of him. He held her between himself and Darius, using her to protect him from the .357 Magnum that was aimed at his chest. She twisted this way and that, and as she did, she pulled out her hatpin, holding it tightly in her right hand. It was the only “weapon” she possessed. She stopped struggling as she felt Burnham’s gun against her temple. His arm wrapped around her like a python, crushing her ribs, pinning her arms to her sides, making it almost impossible for her to breathe. She was held against his left side, and his right hand was holding the gun.

She saw Darius facing them in a half crouch, his gun still aimed at Burnham. She hadn’t seen or heard Jimmy Lee and prayed he was somewhere nearby.

“Not clever enough, Kane,” Burnham shouted. “Not fast enough, either. Throw down your gun.”

Darius looked at C.J. With Burnham’s gun so close to her, she knew there was nothing Darius could do. “Why?” Darius shouted. “So you can shoot me? There’s no benefit to me in that, Burnham. Let her go. Then get on your boat and leave.”

“As you said, ‘no benefit to me in that,’” Burnham shouted.

Burnham began to walk backward up the gangplank, holding C.J. so tight she could scarcely breathe, half dragging her with him towards the boat. Darius watched, his frustration thick in the air.

 There was only one hope. She maneuvered the hatpin so that the round, plastic head was by her thumb, the shaft against her palm. About two inches protruded past her little finger to the sharp point.