The Code War (54 page)

Luke looked up with a long-suffering
sigh.

She tapped him on the chest. 'Hey,
don't stop now dude, tell me another one. Make up a horror story
for me about a girl who fell off the edge of Heaven and landed on
Earth in a barn full of check-shirted cowboys all keen to practice
their chat-up lines on her and smiling with those corn-fed white
teeth they have. That'd be a real scary story.'

The joyful escort gradually peeled off
and departed with many waves, kisses and hurrahs.

Luke flew Ruth back to her home where he
found that Agatha had already arrived and was preparing dinner for
them.

'Welcome home, oh wandering one,' she
said to Ruth. 'My, my, what lengths some girls will go to just to
get carried home in a man's arms.'

'Shucks, it's an old trick of
mine. Never fails. But you know, I think next time I'll try sump'n
different. I'm just a home town girl after all, not one for
adventurin'.'

'I think you're incredibly brave
and resourceful,' said Luke. 'And you sure fooled me with that
image of a sensible, pragmatic strategist who rarely gets away from
Paradise's corridors of power.'

'Thank you, Luke, and I wouldn't be here
right now if you hadn't noticed my less than fulsome agreement to
the new regs on armed escorts and decided to follow me. So thank
you. And I promise you I feel suitably chastised and I won't be
doin' anything' like that again any time soon.'

Agatha broke in. 'I hate to dispel the
cuddly atmosphere guys and dolls, but once you two have finished
making up there's some breaking news I have to update you on and
it's not all good.' Agatha stirred the mushroom and iron risotto
and added some more shamrock basil.

'The good news is that Augustine
has agreed a deal with the other side that will definitely result
in us getting Jabez back. But the bad news is it will mean the
biggest humiliation in history for Heaven in general and the Lamb
in particular. It's going to be a catastrophe. Even if we manage to
pull off something extraordinary with Nancy - and right now the
odds are still against it - we may not be in time.'

She pulled her clenched fist to
her chest and stifled a sniffle as a tear outed her emotion. The
saucepan voiced its sympathy with her misery, sucking at the rice
like a child clinging to its mother, puffing its simmering
impotence. Luke's long outbreath whispered his gloom. Only Ruth
could still surface some hope. 'Don't be upset y'all. If Jabez was
here he'd say carry on and work the problem. And that's what we
gotta do. This here is Heaven and we Heaven-folk don't know how to
do despair, we just don't do it. It's not in our kit-bag. So let's
sit down and eat Agatha's wonderful supper together and then carry
on working. Agreed?'

The aroma of the basil wound
around the kitchen and
temporarily worked
its magic on the angels' senses. But once they had finished eating,
the bare facts of Nancy's predicament reasserted themselves and
despondency set in. Hope was spread thinly about. Outside Ruth's
apartment darkness descended. Jabez's angels went to sleep that
night wondering if they dared face what the new day would
bring.

Nathan Road,
Kowloon

Holzman fell back to Earth and
lurched his way to Nathan Road. He was too injured to continue his
surveillance and instead made a call to Kodrob asking for a relief.
Demons did not possess the sophisticated technology available to
their feathered rivals. But they could send a small number of basic
thought impulses
across the airs to their
mates. Holzman's plea for help was a primal cry wracked with anger
and bitterness.

While he waited
, he walked down towards the Golden Luck. He was just in
time to see Nancy in the distance as she arrived back and turned
off the street to enter the building. She was carrying some
shopping bags and wearing some new jewellery. But he was too
self-absorbed with his wounds to look any closer.

His relief was a long time coming. It
was Kodrob himself.

'Where are the others?' enquired
Holzman.

'Lafarge was husked by angels, as
you know. And Zhivkin's busy. Anyway, I wanted to get a grip on
things myself. You look a total mess. Get back to Hades and get
yourself fit. The mission's coming to its endpoint soon and you may
be needed.'

As Holzman departed, Kodrob
reflected he didn't have much time left in his current existence.
When they eventually found Zhivkin's husk where he had hidden it
and hunted him down, it would all get ugly.

He surveilled the
traf
fic, the people and the lights. He
listened to a myriad urban sounds and sniffed the scents of a
thousand woks. And as he watched the sauntering lovers, the dour
roadsweepers and the sleepless night shift taxi drivers he
wondered, which of you is destined to join me in Hell?

Furama Hotel, Hong
Kong Island

The
Datsun taxi's headlights chased the shadows of the
ornamental palms and cacti at the entrance to one of Hong Kong's
most prestigious hotels.

The working vehicle's scratched
and battered bodywork, scars of honour resulting from thousands of
tactile lane-changes on one of the world's busie
st road networks, made a striking contrast with the marble,
glass and chrome structure to which it had brought its latest
passenger.

The red high-heeled
shoes which emerged from the rear door of the
vehicle were also in sympathy with the surroundings. They tallied
perfectly with the elegance and grandeur of the polished forecourt
and the hourly swept steps. So too the slender legs in their sheer
black tights that poured out in pursuit and then the svelte female
form wrapped in a simple but perfectly fitting knee length red
dress that followed.

Nancy's long brown hair framed her
ivory
face neatly. The light green hue of
the jade six-pointed star laying on top of her dress was a perfect
match for her only other adornment, a pair of elegant jade
earrings.

The footman allowed himself a
covetous glance at the ghost female's nimble form before springing
to the door to open it and remove one more barrier between her and
her destiny.

Nancy tip-tapped up the
steps
and was greeted by the tailored
concierge.

'I am meeting Mr Lo.'

'This way, madam.'

Nancy followed the concierge up
two flights of stairs, her stillettoes clacking crisply on the
mezzanine floor as she passed a swanky restaurant, a cocktail bar
and a bistro to a set of double doors. He bowed slightly as he
opened the door and Nancy walked in.

In front of her was Fatty Lo with
a glass in his hand. It was a banqueting hall and he was smiling
slightly and standing at the end of the room behind a long table.
But he wasn't alone. Eleven other senior Brother officers stood
beside him, Frenchy included. Nancy was relieved to see Chopper
Kwok was absent.

All were wearing traditional Chinese
silk jackets and baggy silk trousers. Two large red candles burned
at either end of the table and a row of traditional burial urns
were laid out in a line between them. The door closed behind her
and Nancy stood still.

'Welcome Nancy,' said Fatty, looking
appreciatively at his protégé and sweeping his eyes around the
other officers, nodding his approval to them. 'This is a very
important night for you.'

Fatty spoke slowly and allowed pauses
between his sentences to increase their import. 'You are not having
dinner with me alone. I have brought you to a secret meeting of our
brotherhood for a very important event. Tonight we welcome you to
the heart of Brother. In a little while you will no longer be our
little sister. Tonight we initiate you fully in our order and we
invest you with your proper rank and title. Tonight you will become
a very important sister. Nancy, please step forward and approach
the table.'

Inferno, Human
Ancestor Research and Manipulation HQ

'Why is she wearing that..that thing
around her neck?' Hideki shouted at Bezejel. 'How did that
happen?'

Bezejel's red face dropped a few shades
of colour. 'I don't know, it's the first I've seen of it.'

She looked away from the neon
cloud displaying Nancy's straight-backed frame with its proud
six-pointed star and turned to Magog. 'Get Holzman in here, fast.'
The satyr took off at a sprint.

'Hideki, can that religious icon stop
the vanity transplant taking place?'

Hideki's eyebrows almost came
together. 'I do not know. I have never uploaded a human vanity
store in these conditions. It is impossible to be sure.'

'Damnation, we are so close, so close.'
Bezejel thrust her face at Hideki's. 'Maybe it's just an emotional
throwback to her childhood. But if it has a deeper significance it
could mean trouble. Hideki are you ready to make the
transplant?'

The Japanese returned to
pontificating form. 'The transplant is set up and will happen
automatically when Nancy's soul is opened up by the ceremony at the
Furama. At the moment when they announce the presence of the ashes
and proclaim Nancy as Red Sister, the ambition of her ancestor will
tumble through the centuries and flood into the empty spaces in her
spirit. Then the vanity transplant will be complete and Nancy will
hunger to take over Brother and steer it to be the world's first
truly successful criminal society.' Hideki looked down imperiously
at Bezejel, persuading her with the force of his
conviction.

'How can you be sure?' Bezejel was
bordering on panic.

'Nancy has al
ready sunk deep into the world of organised crime,' he
continued, his eyes sparkling with zeal. 'She could hardly be
prised away from Brother. She has a passion for her work there,
it's given her a reason for her existence.'

Bezejel regarded him doubtfully.

Holzman stomped in, his arm in a
sling. Bezejel surveyed his broken nose and neck. 'The squawhouses
will charge you double now, Holzman. So you'd better start working
on your charm. Now, look down at Nancy and tell me everything about
your last watch on Nathan Road. I need to know how Nancy ended up
buying that religious necklace.'

Holzman stood to attention. 'As I told
Captain Kodrob in my report, I missed some of what she did because
I was chasing that tramped-up angel. I saw she'd bought some
clothes and jewellery. I thought that was normal.'

Hideki backed him up. 'Many people
wear a six-star but not really believe. It is often just a
statement of identity. Even if she become a bit sentimental about
her origins, it will be overwhelmed by the rush of the transplant.
She can be head of Brother and take some weak tribal feeling with
her. This very common among humans. If it make her feel good it not
matter.'

Bezejel looked at Holzman again
and then back at the gas cloud. 'It's out of our hands now. If we
fail, the Leader will have no mercy upon us. Let's just follow what
happens and get ready to take whatever next steps are
required.'

She looked at Gog and Magog. 'If it goes
well tonight, you two are gonna find me a six pack of satyrs to
take home with me.' She looked down at Nancy's star and back at
them again. 'And if it doesn't, you're gonna find me two six
packs.'

Furama
Hotel

Nancy approached the table. Fatty Lo and
Frenchy stood at the centre on the other side. The other ten
officers arranged themselves five on each flank.

'Nancy would you like to sit?' Fatty
took out a page of speech notes.

Nancy nodded and a chair was
brought up and placed behind her. She sat and crossed her legs,
folding her hands on her lap and looked along the line of short,
tall, balding, hirsute, fat and thin men, smiling and nodding at
the faces she knew, which by now was almost all of them.

She was at ease as the only woman in the
room, the centre of attention for the dozen pairs of eyes which
picked over every curve of her shape, every blink of her eyes,
every hair that cascaded over her fine-boned shoulders.

A thoughtful officer brought her a glass
of wine. She took it with a smile.

Then Fatty related the story of Tsuen
Liu, Hong Li-Zhang, Mya Ling and first Mountain Dragon Li, a story
that clearly evoked pride in the men ranged in front of her.

Their brotherhood was born in a time of
trial for China, the story told them, a time of war when there was
little trust in government by the governed. Yet ordinary people
stood up against the tyranny and cruelty of the age and placed
their hope in each other with unbreakable bonds of comradeship.

For a few hours the Brother hoodlums
could forget their prostituting, heroin trafficking and
casino-running day jobs and soak in a collective spirit of
fraternity, unity and loyalty. Never mind that there was little
real honour in their chosen outlaw careers. The ancient roots of
their business were respectable and that was enough.

Nancy hadn't heard the name
Mya Ling before. But when she looked at the
miniature red urn in the centre of the table she knew with a
certain intuition whose ashes were inside. What did the pretty,
quiet, fiercely ambitious woman look like? Fatty mentioned a
marriage to a Russian naval officer. A business based on Chinese
manufacturing. A gradual dominance of the Hong Kong export trade to
the west through Moscow and St Petersburg. The eventual return of a
wealthy Mya Ling to Hong Kong in 1902, when her children had grown
up and left home.