Noble House

His ears heard the bedroom door swing open again and Ah Tat padded back across the room to stand at the bathroom door. "Ah, my son, I forgot to tell you, there's a barbarian waiting for you downstairs."
"Oh? Who?"
She shrugged. "A barbarian. Not as tall as you. He has a strange name, and he's more ugly than usual with hair of straw!" She searched in her pocket and found the card. "Here."
The card read, Dave Murtagh III, Royal Belgium and Far East Bank. Dunross's stomach twisted. "How long's he been waiting?"
"An hour, perhaps more."
"What? Fornicate all gods. Why didn't you wake me?"
"Eh? Why didn't I wake you?" she asked caustically. "Why? Why do you think? Am I a fool? A foreign devil? Ayeeyah, what is more important, him waiting or your rest? Ayeeyah!" she added disdainfully and stalked off, grumbling, "As if I didn't know what was best for you."
Dunross dressed hurriedly and rushed downstairs. Murtagh was sprawled out in an easy chair. He awoke with a start as the door opened. "Oh, hi!"
"I'm terribly sorry, I was having a kip and didn't know you were here."
"That's all right, tai-pan." Dave Murtagh was haggard. "The old biddy threatened the hell out of me if I so much as murmured but it didn't matter, I dropped off." He stretched wearily, stifling a yawn and shook his head to try to clear it. "Jesus, sorry to come uninvited but it's better than on the phone."
Dunross held his aching disappointment off his face. It must be a turndown, he thought. "Whiskey?"
"Sure, with soda. Thanks. Jesus I'm tired."
Dunross went to the decanter and poured, and a brandy and soda for himself. "Health," he said, resisting the urge to ask.
They touched glasses.
"Health. And you got your deal!" The young man's face cracked into an enormous grin. "We did it!" he almost shouted. "They screamed and they hollered but an hour ago they agreed. We got everything! 120 percent of the ships and a $50 million U.S. revolving fund, cash's up Wednesday, but you can commit Monday at 10:00 AM., the offer of the tanker deals was the clincher. Jesus, we did it for chrissake!"
It took all of Dunross's training to hold in his bellow of triumph and keep the joy off his face and say calmly, "Oh, jolly good," and take another sip of his brandy. "What's the matter?" he asked, seeing the shock on the younger man's face.
Murtagh shook his head and slumped down exhaustedly. "You limeys're something else! I'll never understand you. I give you a hundred percent parole with the sweetest deal God ever gave man and all you say is 'Oh jolly good.' "
Dunross laughed. It was a great bellow of laughter and all his happiness spilled out. He pummeled Murtagh's hand and thanked him. "How's that?" he asked, beaming.
"That's better!" He grabbed his briefcase and opened it and pulled out a sheaf of contracts and papers. "These're just as we agreed. I was up all night drafting them. Here's the main loan agreement, this's your personal guarantee, these're for the corporate seal, ten copies of everything."
"I'll initial one set now which you keep, you initial one which I'll keep and then we'll sign formally tomorrow morning. Can you meet me in my office tomorrow morning, say at 7:30? We'll chop all the documents an—"
The young man let out an involuntary moan. "How 'bout 8:00, tai-pan, or 8:30? I just gotta catch up on some sleep."
"7:30. You can sleep all day." Dunross added at a sudden thought, "Tomorrow night your evening's reserved."
"It is?"
"Yes. You best get all the rest you can, your evening will be busy."
"Doing what?"
"You're not married, you're not attached, so an entertaining evening wouldn't be bad. Eh?"
"Gee." Murtagh brightened perceptibly. "It'd be terrific."
"Good. I'll send you to a friend of mine at Aberdeen. Goldtooth Wu."
"Who?"
"An old friend of the family. Perfectly safe. While I think of it, lunch at the races next week?"
"Oh Jesus, thanks. Yesterday Casey gave me a hot tip and I won a bundle. The rumor is you're going to ride Noble Star Saturday. Are you?"
"Perhaps." Dunross kept his eyes on him. "The deal's really through? No chance of a foul-up?"
"Cross my heart and hope to die! Oh here I forgot." He handed him the confirming telex. "It's as we agreed." Murtagh glanced at his watch. "It's 6:00 A.M. New York time now but you're to call S. J. Beverly, our chairman of the board, in an hour—he's expecting your call. Here's his number." The young man beamed. "They made me VP in charge of all Asia."
"Congratulations."
Dunross saw the time. He would have to leave soon or he would be late and he did not want to keep Riko waiting. His heart picked up a beat. "Let's initial now, shall we?"
Murtagh was already sorting the papers. "Just one thing, tai-pan, S.J. said we got to keep this secret."
"That's going to be difficult. Who typed these?"
"My secretary—but she's American, she's as tight as a clam."
Dunross nodded but inside he was unconvinced. The telex operator—didn't Phillip Chen say he had already had copies of some of the telexes?—or cleaners, or phone operators, it would be impossible to gauge who but the news would be common knowledge soon, whatever he or Murtagh did. Now, how to use everything to the best advantage while it's still secret? he was asking himself, hard put not to dance with joy, the fact of the deal unprecedented and almost impossible to believe. He began to initial his set of papers, Murtagh another. He stopped as he heard the front door open and slam. Adryon shrieked, "Ah Tat!" and followed up with a flood of amah Cantonese ending, ". . . and did you iron my new blouse by all the gods?"
"Blouse? What blouse, Young Miss with the piercing voice and no patience? The red one? The red one belonging to Chief Wife who told y—"
"Oh, it's mine now, Ah Tat! I told you very seriously to iron it."
Murtagh had stopped too, listening to the stream of screeching Cantonese from both of them. "Jesus," he said tiredly. "I'll never get used to the way the servants go on, no matter what you tell 'em!"
Dunross laughed and beckoned him, opening the door softly. Murtagh gasped. Adryon had her hands on her hips and she was going at Ah Tat who gave it back to her, both of them raucous, both talking over the other and neither listening.
"Quiet!" Dunross said. Both stopped. "Thank you. You really do go on a bit, Adryon!" he said mildly.
•She beamed. "Oh hello, Father. Do you th—" She stopped, seeing Murtagh. Dunross noticed the instant change. A warning shaft soared through him.
"Oh, Adryon, may I introduce Dave Murtagh, Vice-President for Asia of the Royal Belgium and Far East Bank?" He looked at Murtagh and saw the stunned expression on his face. "This is my daughter, Adryon."
"You, er, speak Chinese, Miss, er, Dunross?"
"Oh yes, yes of course, Cantonese. Of course. You're new in Hong Kong?"
"Oh no, ma'am, no, I've, er, I've been here half a year or more."
Dunross was watching both of them with growing amusement, knowing that for the moment he was totally forgotten. Ah, boy meets girl, girl meets boy and maybe this one'd be the perfect foil to throw into Haply's works. "Would you like to join us for a drink, Adryon?" he asked casually, the moment their conversation lapsed and she prepared to leave.
"Oh. Oh thank you, Father, but I don't want to disturb you."
"We're just finishing. Come along. How're things?"
"Oh fine, fine." Adryon turned back to Ah Tat who still stood there solidly—she too had noticed the instant mutual attraction. "You'll iron my blouse! Please," she said imperiously in Cantonese. "I have to leave in fifteen minutes."