"I'm not sure but follow me, please."There was no mistake. It was Four Finger Wu. He was dead, seemingly unharmed. On his face was a wonderful calmness and a strange, seraphic smile.Tears spilled down Paul Choy's cheeks. He squatted beside the stretcher, his grief possessing him. Compassionately Dr. Tooley left him and hurried over to the other stretchers, someone screaming now, another distraught mother clutching the broken body of a child in her arms.Paul Choy stared at the face, a good face in death, hardly seeing it.Now what? he asked himself, wiping away his tears, not really feeling he had lost a father but rather the head of the family, which in Chinese families is worse than losing your own father. Jesus, now what? I'm not the eldest son so I don't have to make the arrangements. But even so, what do I do now?Sobbing distracted him. It was an old man sobbing over an old woman, lying on a nearby stretcher. So much death here, too much, Paul Choy thought. Yes. But the dead must bury the dead, the living must go on. I'm no longer bound to him. And I'm American.He lifted the blanket as though to cover Four Finger Wu's face and deftly slipped off the thong necklace with its half-coin and pocketed it. Again making sure no one was watching, he went through the pockets. Money in a billfold, a bunch of keys, the personal pocket chop. And the diamond ring in its little box.He got up and went to Dr. Tooley. "Excuse me, Doc. Would you, would you please leave the old man there? I'll be back with a car. The family, we'd … Is that okay?""Of course. Inform the police before you take him away, their Missing Persons is set up at the roadblock. I'll sign the death certificate tomorrow. Sorry there's no ti—" Again the kind man was distracted and he went over to Dr. Meng. "Here, let me help. It's like Korea, eh?"Paul Choy walked down the hill, careless of the drizzle, his heart light, stomach settled, future settled. The coin's mine now, he told himself, certain that Four Fingers would have told no one else, keeping to his usual pattern of secrecy, only trusting those he had to.Now that I've possession of his personal chop I can chop whatever I like, do whatever I like, but I'm not going to do that. That's cheating. Why should I cheat when I'm ahead? I'm smarter than any of his other sons. They know it, I know it and that's not being crazy. I am better. It's only fair I keep the coin and all the profits on the 2 mill. I'll set the family up, modernize everything, equip the ships, anything they want. But with my profit I'm going to start my own empire. Sure. But first I'm going to Hawaii. . . .At the head of the line of cars near the first slip Dunross stopped beside his car and opened the door to the backseat. Casey jerked out of a reverie and the color drained out of her face. "Line?""No, nothing yet. Quillan's fairly sure he's pinpointed the area. Gurkhas are combing that part right now. I'm going back to relieve him." Dunross tried to sound confident. "The experts say there's a very good chance he'll be okay. Not to worry. You all right?""Yes. Yes thanks."When he had returned from their first search, he had sent Lim for coffee, sandwiches and a bottle of brandy, knowing the night would be very long. He had wanted Casey to leave with Riko but she had refused. So Riko had gone back to her hotel in the other car with Lim."You want a brandy, Ian?" Casey said."Thanks." He watched her pour for him, noticing her fingers were steady. The brandy tasted good. "I'll take Quillan a sandwich. Why not put a good slug of brandy into the coffee, eh? I'll take that.""Sure," she said, glad for something to do. "Have any others been rescued?""Donald McBride—he's all right, just shaken. Both he and his wife.""Oh good. Any, any bodies?""None that I know of," he said, deciding not to tell her about Plumm or his old friend Southerby, chairman of Blacs. At that moment Adryon and Martin Haply hurtled up and Adryon threw her arms around him, sobbing with relief. "Oh, Father we just heard, oh, Father, I was petrified.""There, there," he said, gentling her. "I'm fine. Good God, Adryon, no bloody landslip will ever touch the tai-pan of the Noble Ho—""Oh don't say that," she begged him with a shiver of superstitious dread. "Don't ever say that! This's China, gods listen, don't say that!""All right, my love!" Dunross hugged her and smiled at Martin Haply who was also wet with relief. "Everything all right?""Oh yes sir, we were over in Kowloon, I was covering the other slide when we heard the news." The youth was so relieved. "Goddamn I'm pleased to see you, tai-pan. We … afraid we bashed up the car a little getting up here.""Never mind." Dunross held Adryon away from him. "All right, pet?"Again she hugged him. "Oh yes." Then she saw Casey. "Oh. Oh hello, Casey I was, er, so—""Oh don't be silly. Come on out of the rain. Both of you."Adryon obeyed. Martin Haply hesitated then said to Dunross, "If you don't mind, sir, I'll just look around.""Christian got out," Dunross said quickly. "He ph—""Yes sir. I called the office. Thanks. Won't be long, honey," he said to Adryon and went off toward the barrier. Dunross watched him go, young, tough and very assured, then caught sight of Gornt hurrying down the hill. Gornt stopped, well away from the car and beckoned him anxiously.Dunross glanced at Casey, his heart thumping uneasily. From where she was she could not see Gornt. "I'll be back soon as I can.""Take care!"Dunross came up to Gornt. The older man was filthy, clothes torn, beard matted and his face set."We've pegged him," Gornt said. "Bartlett.""He's dead?""No. We've found him but we can't get at him." Gornt motioned at the thermos. "Is that tea?""Coffee with brandy."Gornt took it, drank gratefully. "Casey's still in the car?""Yes. How deep is he?""We don't know. Deep. Perhaps it's best not to say anything about him to her, not yet."Dunross hesitated."Better to leave it," the other man said again. "It looks dicey.""All right." Dunross was weary of all the death and suffering. "All right."Rain made the night more filthy and the morass even more dangerous. Ahead, past the slide area, Kotewall Road ran almost straight for seventy yards, climbing steeply, then curled up and away around the mountainside. Already tenants were streaming out of buildings, evacuating."There's no mistake about Tiptop and the money?" Gornt said, picking his way carefully with the flashlight."None. The bank runs're over.""Good. What did you have to barter?"Dunross did not answer him, just shrugged. "We'll open at 30.""That remains to be seen." Gornt added sardonically, "Even at 30 I'm safe.""Oh?""I'll be about $2 million U.S. down. That's what Bartlett advanced."Dunross felt a glow. That'll teach Bartlett to try a heist on me, he thought. "I knew about that. It was a good idea—but at 30 you'll be down about $4 million, Quillan, his 2 and 2 of yours. But I'll settle for All Asia Air.""Never." Gornt stopped and faced him. "Never. My airline's still not for sale.""Please yourself. The deal's on offer until the market opens.""The pox on your deals."They plodded onward on the top of the slope, now nearing the foyer area. They passed a stretcher returning. The injured woman was no one either of them knew. If Dunross were on one of those, Gornt thought grimly, it'd solve all my problems neatly . . .871:20 A.M. :The Gurkha sergeant had his flashlight directed downward. Around him were other soldiers, the young lieutenant, firemen hurrying up with one of the fire chiefs.