“You’re the biggest liar west of Little Rock.”
“Everybody has a price.”
“What’s yours?”
“Fifty million American dollars.”
“I think you’re trying to hijack the revolution.”
“Hijack it? I’m trying desperately to profit from it.”
“Without Wu, there won’t be a revolution.”
“Crap,” shot back Sonny Wong. “No one can stop it now. You’ll lead it yourself. Or I will.”
“I’d be a fool to pay.”
“You’d be a fool not to. Your choice.”
“Fifty million?”
“Yep. Transferred by you into a Swiss bank account. You have three days to make the transfer or I make a delivery to the People’s Liberation Army.”
Cole took a deep breath. “What account?”
“One of my colleagues will call you with the information, a Mr. Daniel. Should you decide to redeem one person and not the other, discuss that with Mr. Daniel.”
“I’ll want to talk with both parties right now to make sure they are alive and well cared for.”
“Discuss the details with Mr. Daniel.”
“If anything happens to them I—” Cole began but he was talking to a dead telephone.
He pushed the button to cut the connection.
They all sat staring at the telephone.
After a moment, Grafton said, “Callie said the tape is inconclusive. She said anyone listening to it couldn’t determine who fired the shot that killed Chan.” He picked up the tape from the desk, fingered the reels, then laid it down again.
“It’s money Wong’s after,” Cole muttered. “If he doesn’t get money, he’ll probably “kill her.”
“But he wants the tape,” Jake objected. “Wants to know what’s on it.”
“Yeah. He and China Bob did a lot of business together. God only knows what the two of them talked about. He wants the tape, too.”
“Wu Tai Kwong?”
“The political criminal.”
“Why would you care about him?” Tommy Carmellini asked.
“Who do you think is leading the revolution?”
“I guess I hadn’t put two and two together.”
“Wu isn’t his real name. As fate would have it, he’s Rip Buckingham’s brother-in-law. If we can overthrow the Communists and Wu lives long enough, he’s going to be the first elected president of the new Republic of China.”
“And Wong wants you to pay a ransom for him?”
“If I don’t pay for Wu, Sonny Wong will indeed turn Wu over to the People’s Liberation Army, which will pay Sonny the posted reward and execute Wu.”
“Fifty million dollars is a lot of kale,” Tommy Carmellini remarked, rubbing his chin.
“Callie and I have been pretty diligent savers and investors,” Jake said, “and we have about one-fifth of one percent of that amount.”
Cole waved a hand dismissively. “I’ll pay it,” he said.
“They may kill them anyway.”
“We’ll set up a trade. They produce Wu and Callie, I make the call authorizing a wire transfer of the money. When the money is in his bank, we leave.”
Jake Grafton shook his head slowly. “He’ll have to kill you and Wu after you make the call. Wong can’t afford to let Wu live to send an army to hunt him down. Hell, he’ll have to kill us all so nothing leaks out.”
Cole’s face wore a blank expression. His mind was obviously going at a mile a minute.
“How come this Wong knows so much about the revolution?”
“He’s involved, obviously.”
“Obviously. How is he involved? What’s his role in all this?”
“Not now,” Tiger Cole said, frowning. “I can’t tell you now.”
“Goddamn you!” Jake Grafton roared. “That asshole kidnapped my wife!”
“I’m sorry, Jake,” Tiger Cole said.
The admiral struggled to get himself under control. He played with the pistol, checked it, then pulled up his trouser leg. When he spoke again it was in a normal tone. “If you had nothing to do with Callie’s kidnapping, you have nothing to apologize for,” he said as he strapped the ankle holster to his right leg. “If you did, I’ll kill you, Cole. It’s that goddamn simple.”
“How did Sonny Wong capture Wu Tai Kwong?” Carmellini asked.
“Everyone in Hong Kong knows Wu is somewhere in the city,” the consul general replied. “The revolutionary movement has more leaks than the Titanic”
“So why hasn’t Wu been arrested before?”
“Because we’ve paid off the police.” Cole shrugged. “Everyone in the Chinese government is corrupt, all of them. This is the third world!”
“Can we get help from the police to get Callie back? Wu?”
“Beijing has posted a huge reward for Wu. The cops are corrupt, but you are fooling yourself if you think no one will call the PLA to turn him in. They will!”
“Okay,” said Jake Grafton. “Let’s talk about Callie. Only a few people knew she was going to listen to that tape. Carmellini, you’re one of them. Who’d you tell?”
“No one, Admiral.”
“Somebody figured it out.”
“Kerry Kent,” Tommy said bitterly.
“You ass,” she hissed and went for him with her fingernails.
Carmellini grabbed her wrists. He was far too strong for her. “Don’t play the injured lover with me,” he sneered with all the contempt of a man who had never been in love. “I’ve heard that song before. You’re the number-one suspect on my list.”
“I trust her,” Cole said, in a tone that ended the argument.
Carmellini pushed Kent away. If looks could kill, he would have received a fatal wound just then.
“The postmortem can wait,” Jake Grafton said. “We’ve got other fish to fry.” He picked up the tape from Cole’s desk and put it in his pocket.
The maid brought Rip the cell phone. He was sitting on his roof under a dripping umbrella. The air was now a fine sea mist; occasionally a whisper of breeze tossed a handful of droplets on his face, almost like a kiss.
The maid didn’t look at him, merely handed him the phone and left.
Rip pushed the button and answered.
“Rip, this is Sonny Wong.”
“Hey, Sonny.”
“Got some bad news for you, Rip. Hate having to deliver it like this, but the world is pressing in, if you know what I mean.”
“Like what?”
“Like I have your brother-in-law as an unwilling guest.”
“My brother-in-law?”
“Yeah. Wu. Remember him? Drives for the Double Happy Fortune Cookie Company? Is wanted by the government for political crimes? The million Hong Kong dollars reward? That brother-in-law.”
“Jesus, Sonny, I thought we were friends.”
“We are, Rip, but this is business. Hong Kong is about to blow up in our faces, no thanks to your brother-in-law, who has done everything within his power to light the fuse. It’s been a grand party, but it’s over. A guy has to look out for number one. You and I are not friends ten million American dollars’ worth. That’s what it will cost you to see Wu in one piece again.”
“I don’t have that kind of money, Sonny. You know that.”
“Ah, but your father does. Call him! Tell Richard Buckingham that if I don’t get the money, your brother-in-law Wu Tai Kwong will be turned over to General Tang Tso of the PLA, who will probably shoot him before he writes the reward check. Or strangle him. For some reason, those guys still like to strangle people. So old-fashioned and messy. Uncivilized too, but probably very satisfying on some level. Almost orgasmic.”
“You’re a perfect bastard, Sonny.”
“Not quite perfect but I’m working on it. If I were Richard Buckingham’s heir, like a certain person I know, I wouldn’t have to be. You know what I’m saying? It’s an accident of birth, really, that I was born in a sewer, poor as a flea on a starving rat, and I’ve been digging and scratching every minute since then to get out of it.”