Noble House

"That's not fair."
"Life's not fair. Death's not fair. War's not fair. Big business is war. I'm playing it like it was war and that's why I'm going to win."
"Win what?"
"I want Par-Con Industries bigger than General Motors and Exxon combined."
"Why?"
"For my goddamn pleasure."
"Now tell me the real reason."
"Ah, Casey, that's why I love you. You listen and you know."
"Ah, Raider, I love you too."
Then they had both laughed together for they knew they did not love the other, not in the ordinary sense of that word. They had agreed, way back in the beginning, to put aside the ordinary for the extraordinary. For seven years.
Casey looked out of the window at the harbor and the ships in the harbor.
Crush, destroy and win. Big Business, the most exciting Monopoly game in the world. And my leader's Raider Bartlett, Master-craftsman. But time's running out on us, Line. This year, the seventh year, the last year ends on my birthday, November 25, my twenty-seventh birthday. . . .
Her ears heard the half knock and the passkey in the lock and she turned to say come in but the starched houseboy was already in.
"Morning Missee I'm Number One Houseboy Daytime Chang." Chang was gray haired and solicitous. He beamed. "Tidy room plees?"
"Don't any of you ever wait for someone to say come in?" she asked sharply.
Chang stared at her blankly. "Missee?"
"Oh never mind," she said wearily.
"Pretty day, heya? Which first, Master's room or Missee's?"
"Mine. Mr. Bartlett hasn't used his yet."
Chang grinned toothily. Ayeeyah, did you and Master tumble, together in yours, Missee, before he went out? But there were only fourteen minutes between Master's arrival and leaving and certainly he did not look flushed when he went away.
Ayeeyah, first it's supposed to be two men foreign devils sharing my suite and then one's a she—confirmed by Nighttime Ng, who of course went through her luggage and found serious proof that she was a true she—proof reconfirmed this morning with great gusto by Third Toiletmaid Fung.
Golden pubics! How vile!
And Golden Pubics is not only not the Master's chief wife—she is not even a second wife, and oh ko, worst of all she did not have the good manners to pretend she was so the hotel rules could be honored and everyone save face.
Chang chortled, for this hotel had always had astounding rules about ladies in men's rooms—oh gods what else is a bed for?—and now a female was living openly in barbarian sin! Oh how tempers had soared last night. Barbarians! Dew neh loh moh on all barbarians! But this one is surely a dragon because she stared down the
Eurasian assistant manager, and the Eurasian night manager, and even old mealy-mouth, Chief Manager Big Wind himself.
"No no no," he had wailed, so Chang had been told.
"Yes yes yes," she had replied, insisting that she have the adjoining half of the Fragrant Spring suite.
It was then that Honorable Mong, chief porter and chief triad and therefore leader of the hotel, solved the unsolvable. "The Fragrant Spring suite has three doors, heya?" he had said. "One for each bedroom, one for the main room. Let her be shown into Fragrant Spring B which is the inferior room anyway, through its own door. But the inner door to the main sitting room and thence to the Master's quarters shall be tight locked. But let a key be left nearby. If the mealy-mouthed whore unlocks the door herself. . . what can one do? And then, if there happens to be a mix-up in bookings tomorrow or the next day and our honorable chief manager has to ask the billionaire and his strumpet from the Land of the Golden Mountain to leave, well so sorry never mind, we have bookings enough and to spare and our face to protect."
And so it was done.
The outer door to B was unlocked and Golden Pubics invited in. That she took up the key and at once unlocked the inner door—who is to say? That the door is open now, well, certainly I would never tell any outsider, my lips are sealed. As always.
Ayeeyah, but though outer doors may be locked and be prudish, the inner ones may be flung wide and be luscious. Like her Jade Gate, he thought pensively. Dew neh loh moh I wonder what it would be like to storm a Jade Gate the size of hers? "Make bed, Missee?" he asked sweetly in English.
"Go right ahead."
Oh how truly awful the sound of their barbarian tongue is. Ugh!
Daytime Chang would have hawked and cleared the spit god from his mouth, but that was against hotel rules.
"Heya, Daytime Chang," Third Toiletmaid Fung said brightly as she came into the bedroom after knocking half-heartedly on the suite door long after she had opened it. "Yes, Missee, so sorry, Missee," in English, then again to Chang in Cantonese, "Haven't you finished yet? Is her dung so sweet you want to dawdle in her drawers?"
"Dew neh loh moh in yours, Sister. Watch your tongue or your old father may give you a good drubbing."
"The only drubbing your old mother wants, you can't help me with! Come on, let me help you make her bed quickly. There's a mah-jong game beginning in half an hour. Honorable Mong sent me for you."
"Oh, thank you, Sister. Heya, did you really see her pubics?"
"Haven't I told you already? Am I a liar? They're pure golden, lighter than her head hair. She was in the bath and I was as close as we are now. And, oh yes, her nipples're pinkish, not brown."
"Eeee! Imagine!"
"Just like a sow's."
"How awful!"
"Yes. Did you read today's Commercial Daily?"
"No, Sister, not yet. Why?"
"Well their astrologer says this is a very good week for me and today the financial editor says it looks as though there's a new boom beginning."
"Dew neh loh moh you don't say!"
"So I told my broker this morning to buy a thousand more Noble House, the same Golden Ferry, 40 of Second Great House and 50 Good Luck Properties. My bankers are generous but now I haven't a single brass cash left in Hong Kong I can beg or borrow!"
"Eeeee, you're plunging, Sister. I'm stretched out myself. Last week I borrowed from the bank on my shares and bought another 600 Noble House. That was Tuesday. I bought in at 25.23!"
"Ayeeyah, Honorable Chang, they were 29.14 at close last night." Third Toiletmaid Fung made an automatic calculation. "You're already 2,348 Hong Kong ahead! And they say Noble House's going to bid for Good Luck Properties. If they try, it will send their enemies' rage to boiling point. Ha! The tai-pan of Second Great House will fart dust!"
"Oh oh oh but meanwhile the shares will skyrocket! Of all three companies! Ha! Dew neh loh moh, where can I get more cash?"
"The races, Daytime Chang! Borrow 500 against your present winnings and put it on the daily double on Saturday or the double quinella. 4 and 5 are my lucky numbers. …"
They both looked up as Casey came into the bedroom. Chang switched to English. "Yes Missee?"
"There's some laundry in the bathroom. Can you have it picked up, please?"
"Oh yes I fix. Today six o'clock come by okay never mind." These foreign devils are so stupid, Chang thought contemptuously. What am I, an empty-headed dung heap? Of course I'll take care of the laundry if there's laundry.
"Thank you."
They both watched fascinated as she checked her makeup in the bedroom mirror, preparing to leave.
"Her tits don't droop at all, do they, Sister?" Chang said. "Pink nipples heya? Extraordinary!"
"Just like a sow's, I told you. Are your ears merely pots to piss in?"
"In your ear, Third Toiletmaid Fung."
"Has she tipped you yet?"
"No. The Master gave too much and she nothing. Disgusting heya?"
"Yes. What can you do? People from the Golden Mountain are really very uncivilized, aren't they, Daytime Chang?"