The Code War (28 page)

The
spearsman jerked his arm and the sharp point of the
fishing-spear that had been at Lafi's back now appeared in front of
his chest. A drop of blood wobbled at the end of its hanging barb.
Lafi sank to his knees. The mob closed in around him kicking and
tearing.

Exhausted, Nancy sank back and fell to
the ground. She sobbed again and kept sobbing as Doreen came over
and put her arm around her.

'You poor dear, you poor dear,' Doreen
repeated. 'You need to get some rest and tell me all about it.'

That, Nancy thought, is the last
thing I want to do. As Doreen led her away she turned and looked
back. Lafi's body lay broken and torn on the beach, almost in
pieces.

'You underestimated me, Lafi,' she
whispered to his departing soul. 'You weren't the first and you
won't be the last.'

Heaven's
Shore

'Luke, I think the other side have
made a slip-up and given something away. This could be our
breakthrough.' Jabez was on a one to one globe call with the
Stetsoned black angel.

'Go on.'

Jabez recounted his discovery of the
'disappearing tattoo.'

'That breaks all the legal
understandings,' said Luke in shock. 'I'd say it was a sin but
that's understating it. This needs to get to the top straightaway,
to the kind of senior angels that Ruth hobnobs with. This is
serious.'

'No, we mustn't do that,' replied
Jabez quickly. 'If we take this through proper channels and it gets
to St Michael there'll be all hell to pay in Inferno, he'll make
sure of that. But all of that diplomacy will take too long. It
won't help us if their leadership gets thumped by ours. The demon
team we're battling will know instantly that we're onto them and
they'll take counter-measures. We'll lose our advantage. I say we
use this discovery and act on it.'

'What do you have in mind?'

'We need the girls in on this too. But
it's confirming our suspicions that the Chinese connection is
highly significant. Not just that, the triad involvement also.
That's why they've tried to hide it.'

'And you've seen the latest from
Nancy?'

'Yes, she's an amazingly resourceful
young woman. She risked being shot and being drowned and survived
them both. The tragedy is that the other side are in charge of her
development. All her survival instincts and natural brilliance are
coming awake. They can do an awful lot of damage with her, not to
mention capture her soul. Luke, we need to get ahead of the game
and this error of theirs gives us the pointer we've been looking
for.'

'I know what you're going to say. If we
put together the Chinese connection, the triads and what we know
about Brother, there is only one place that we need to look
next.'

'Exactly,' agreed Jabez. 'Who have we
got in Hong Kong?'

Shanghai Mansions,
Yaumati District, Kowloon, Hong Kong

'Business is good, Monkey. The new
heroin batch is selling like moon cakes at New Year and the girls
are working hard. In fact they're working so hard they never get
off their backs.' Fei Jai Lo, Fatty Lo to his friends, laughed
heartily at his own joke while turning up the volume on his
state-of-the-art push button phone.

Fatty Lo was head of the Hing Dai, or
Brother, triad society. He had joined twenty years before as a
'49', a warrior, and literally fought his way up the ranks. Now in
his late 30s he had more money than he'd ever thought possible and
surrounded himself with all the flashy accoutrements that a
criminal grandee needed to show off his wealth. Fatty's name
testified to his love of food and his habit of eating five times a
day 'to keep my luck healthy'.

'Prostitution is where the fucking money
is,' laughed Monkey crudely in his office above a girlie bar in San
Po Kong, several miles away. Monkey was the nickname of Fu Yip who
was head of the rival Gam Ma, or Golden Horse triad society. Golden
Horse was currently in a territory treaty with Brother which meant
that turf wars between the two were suspended for the time being.
'Making plastic toys is for fools,' he added.

'We should get together soon for dim
sum,' Fatty continued. 'You bring two girls and I'll bring two and
we'll have double happiness while we eat.'

'You have the best ideas, Fatty, always
thinking ahead.'

The Golden Horse society was a lot
smaller than Brother so Monkey was careful to ply his partner with
compliments. It was all part of giving 'face' to your seniors and
betters. In an honour society such as a criminal triad
organisation, giving 'face' was showing respect. Fatty Lo liked
respect. A lot of it.

'Talking of good ideas,' continued
Fatty, 'when we meet and eat I want to discuss the eventual merging
of Golden Horse into Brother. I like your operation or I wouldn't
bother to ask you. You've built a profitable business and earned
respect on the streets. But there's no room any more for small
societies, they're just too…local. We have to think big.'

Monkey closed his eyes. It was the
moment he
had been dreading. He'd built
up Golden Horse in a relatively quiet area of Kowloon, far away
from the tourist traps and the easy dollars. Almost all of his
business came from local Chinese factory workers who wanted good
value for money, whether they were spending it on drink, drugs,
gambling or women. But the truth was, he loved running Golden
Horse. It wasn't about making money or having lots of pretty girls
to pick from any more, it was about having hands-on control. If he
merged with Brother he would have money and girls aplenty. But he
would never again be able to make a decision without having to ask
someone else.

'I know, Fatty, I know,' he replied,
thinking fast. 'I'm not putting it off. I just want to negotiate
good terms.'

'That's fine. We'll find you a
good position in Brother, don't worry,' reassured Fatty. 'I don't
want to squash you, Monkey, you know? That was the old way of doing
things. Caused a lot of trouble. When business people like you and
me used to fall out there was lots of death-by-ten-thousand-cuts in
the streets. Very bloody indeed and it brought the law along. It
used to be that Hong Kong's finest were the best police force money
could buy. We could pay them to look the other way. But things have
changed. They're not as corrupt as they used to be. They're
frightened of going on the take in case this new anti-corruption
force from England collars them. So I don't use violence any more
unless it's absolutely necessary, understand? Everything by
negotiation. Unless negotiation doesn't work. Get me?'

The threat was very clear.

'Sure, Fatty. Listen, I'm going
into hospital next month for surgery. Small operation to straighten
my toe. I can't concentrate on this merger before then. Can we talk
when I come out? I'll have a clearer head. Can it wait till then
Fatty, huh?' Monkey had found a delaying tactic.

'OK,' Fatty Lo sighed. 'It can
wait till you come out. We'll have dim sum then and talk. But no
later, OK? I'm a patient man, everyone says that. But even I have
my limits.'

'You're the big fella Fatty.
Y
ou're the boss of bosses. I'm looking
forward to it already. I'll bring Ah Mui and Sai Chen, they're my
two prettiest. You'll like them. They'll make you
happy.'

'You know what will make me happy,
Monkey. Don't let me down'.

'I won't, Fatty. See you in a few
weeks.'

Monkey's Office, San
Po Kong

But as Monkey replaced the
receiver in its cradle he picked up the golden paperweight that lay
on top of a pile of $100HK notes on his desk and flung it at his
electric fan. He scored a direct hit and the fan toppled over, its
protective spokes crushed in on the fan blad
es which ceased their whirring.

His male secretary Chu rushed in. 'What
happened boss?'

'Fatty Lo wants to take over
Golden Horse,' declared Monkey miserably. 'Big Brother wants to be
even bigger Brother. I won't sell out to him. He's not getting
Golden Horse without a fight.' Monkey stared at the broken fan on
the floor.

'We can't fight Brother, boss. There are
twenty of them for every one of us.'

'It's about honour, Chu,' declared
Monkey sternly. 'Have you learnt nothing from me in all these
years? Some things are more important than money. More important
than life itself.'

Chu regarded his master calmly but with
a strong sense of foreboding. He was completely loyal to his boss
and would lay down his life for him if necessary, as he had pledged
to do when taking his bonds of oath. But taking on the might of
Brother was a move that could have only one possible outcome. There
could be trouble ahead, he thought. There could be a whole dragon's
breath of trouble ahead.

Banjul Airport,
Gambia

It was midnight as the outer right
wing engine of the C-130 Hercules kicked into life sending a cloud
of smoke into the empty scrubland behind it. The 'Flying Hippo' as
one of her former pilots had named her, had logged over 40,000
flying hours since she was built in 1960 meaning that she had been
in the air for a quarter of her life. But her current masters, a
group of ex-Israeli servicemen turned privateers, were determined
that she should continue with her aerial travails for a lot longer
yet. Israel had many secret friends around the world that needed
her cast-off weaponry and these ex-servicemen were happy to carry
out the role of distributing her out of date hardware to wherever
it was most wanted.

The
inner right now fired throatily followed closely by both of
those on the left side.

Banjul airport was almost completely
dark, only a few lights in the control tower showed that the
airport was still working. At this hour there would be few
suspicious eyes about and that was the way that both the Gambian
government and the Flying Hippo's owners wanted it.

Co-pilot Jimoh Bah decided to have
a last smoke before
prisoning himself
once more in the cramped cell of the cockpit for the night. 'I'm
going outside, Adima,' he said to the pilot. 'For a last puff. Want
to join me?'

'No thanks,' replied pilot Adima Ceesay.
'I'll finish the pre-flight checks. But don't be long. We'll be
leaving in a few minutes.'

As Jimoh stepped into the plane's hold,
Adima called over his shoulder. 'Looks like the little white girl
didn't make it.'

'No,' replied Jimoh. 'And even if
she did manage to do whatever Lafi wanted from her, he wouldn't
bother to bring her back here. He'd leave her to walk. And there
are plenty of other bad guys who'd make short work of a foreign
girl walking the roads by herself.'

'Well, nothing we can do about it,'
agreed Adima. 'It's not our business. We'll just have to tell Ilan
that Habib has lost another one.'

'It's a big shame,' called Jimoh.
'She was such a nice little girl. Polite too.'

The
ramp
was still lowered so Jimoh strode down it and wandered onto the
tarmac. The engines were at idle and Jimoh loved to hear their
rumbling growl, a mere whisper compared to the roar they would give
out in just a few minutes time when the plane was straining against
the brakes at the beginning of the runway and the throttles were
opened.

Truth was, h
e was more than a tad disappointed that the little white
girl hadn't showed up. He had seen she was afraid even though she'd
covered it up with a lot of bravado.

Jimoh slowly turned 360 degrees,
scanning the perimeter for any sign of movement. A couple of large
stag beetles flew close. He blew a cloud of smoke at them and they
turned and lumbered off, like insect versions of his own
fat-bellied plane. He flicked his cigarette away. Then he walked
back up the ramp, located the prominent 'Close' button in the side
of the fuselage and pressed it. As the motor grinded and the ramp
began to lift he flicked on his torch to light his way back through
the hold, looking behind him as he went. The cavernous interior was
entirely empty. Even a beetle couldn't hide in here. Not a
profitable trip for the Flying Hippo's owners.

In the cabin
Adima turned his head back and called out to him. 'We're
clear for take-off, Jimoh. Let's be on our way so these control
tower lightweights can get to their beds.' But as Jimoh entered the
cabin he cried out like he'd seen his grandmother's ghost. Little
white girl was sitting in his seat. Not only that, she was holding
his coffee flask in one hand and drinking from his cup in the
other.

She held it out to him.
'Would you like a sip?' she asked
sweetly.

Nancy had slept soundly for nearly
eight hours at Doreen's compound just a hundred yards from the
centre of the village. When she woke, Doreen gave her some fish
stew and rice with some fresh coconut water to wash it
down.

'Thank you,' said Nancy 'I don't know
the last time I ate. I'm so hungry and I feel like a washed-up rag
doll. What do I look like?'

'Well I don't know how you
normally look, Nancy,' smiled Doreen. 'But I'm guessing you
proba'ly scrub up a lot better than you look right now.'

Doreen tenderly handed her a
mirror and Nancy was shocked to see the wild hair, cracked lips and
parched skin staring back at her. Her clothes had dried but they
were straight off a scarecrow and wouldn't have made it to the
shelves of a charity shop. She put on her feet some plastic sandals
that Doreen gave her as a present.