Tolonen strode into the dressing room, then stopped, looking about him. Fest, Ebert, and Haavikko had come sharply to attention. They stood there, heads bowed, awaiting orders, but the General ignored them a moment. He walked up to Karr and looked him up and down before turning his back on him.
"I'm sorry to have to break things up, but we've heard from our Triad contacts. I'd have notified you before, but the matter's no longer urgent."
"Sir?" Fest straightened up, his face expressing his confusion. He had been told this was a matter of the utmost urgency and that he would be notified at once.
Tolonen turned his head and looked at Fest. "I'm sorry, Lieutenant, I should explain. They're dead. Someone got to them before us. The Kuei Chuan Triad are sending a man to take us to the place. IVe arranged to meet them here in an hour."
"Is it far?" Fest asked.
"I'm not sure. They don't use grid references down here. But it's a place called Ammersee."
Behind him Karr laughed. "I know it well. It's quite a warren. You'll need a guide."
Tolonen turned and looked at the fighter again. He was a big man himself, but Karr was head and shoulders taller than him. "Who's this?" he asked Fest.
"His name is Karr, sir. He was the winner of the combat."
Tolonen stared at Karr, then nodded. "Yes. He doesn't look like a loser." Then he addressed the big man directly. "How far is this place?"
"Ten, maybe twelve H."
"And how long would it take us to get there?"
Karr shrugged. "By foot forty minutes. By rickshaw fifteen, maybe twenty."
"And you'll take us?"
Karr looked at Ebert. "I'm not sure I'd be welcome."
Tolonen looked from Karr to Ebert. "Oh, And why's that, Hans?"
Ebert lowered his head, not looking at Karr. "Just a small disagreement, sir. Nothing serious."
"Good," said the General. "That's settled, then. The sooner we get there the better. I want to sort this out." He turned back to Karr. "I'm indebted, Shih Karr. I'll make sure you're well paid for your help."
Karr bowed, then turned to get his cloak.
D E V O R E met them in the corridor outside Kao Jyan's apartment. "I came as soon as I heard, sir."
"Well, Howard?" said Tolonen. "What have we got?" "Three men, sir. Low-level criminals. I've checked with our contacts. They weren't members of any of the local Triads. Two of them were kwai. Hired knives. The other—Kao Jyan, who owned the apartment—was a small-time racketeer. Drugs, stolen goods, nothing big."
Iblonen nodded. "Nothing to connect them with anyone higher up?"
DeVore shook his head. "Not yet, sir. But we're still investigating. Kao Jyan was known to frequent a place known as Big White's. He'd do some of his business there, it seems. But the place was gutted yesterday. Victim of one of the local gang wars. Big White himself is dead, so that avenue's closed to us too."
"It all seems too convenient. Too systematic."
DeVore gave a brief nod. "As if someone's tidying up after them."
"Yes," said Tolonen, touching his shoulder. "That's my thought exactly."
"In this case, sir, it seems genuine enough. Big White was playing off one Triad against another. It looks like he was a victim of his own greed."
"Hmm." Tolonen still seemed unhappy with the coincidence. "Dig deeper, eh, Howard? It might be genuine, but then it might not. Someone high's behind all of this. Someone high enough to pay off Triads as a matter of course."
DeVore bowed, obedient, then turned toward the guarded doorway. "Shall we go in, sir?"
Axel, watching from the doorway, saw the General move about the room; saw how he looked at everything, trying to fit it all into place. In the rickshaw coming over, Tolonen had turned to him, explaining.
"Sometimes, Axel, you need to see things for yourself. Sniff them out first hand. Sometimes it's the only way. You see things that another might have missed. Understand things. Bring things to light that would otherwise have remained hidden."
He saw now how the General went about that. How he looked from one thing to the next; his eyes sharp, alert for the hidden connections.
"This is odd, Howard. Very odd."
Tolonen was leaning over the corpse that lay facedown on the bed, holding the surgeon's tag between his fingers. DeVore went over to him.
"Sir?"
"Look at this. The time of death. Two hours before the other two. Why's that, d'you think?"
"I'd guess they were waiting for them in the room. That they picked them off as they came in."
Tolonen looked up at him grimly. "Maybe. But that would take some nerve. To sit with a man you'd murdered for two hours."
DeVore said nothing.
"Which one was this?"
"We don't have a surname, sir, but he was known as Chen."
Tolonen nodded, then carefully moved the bloodied head. It lay there, its shattered left profile upward on the sheets. For a while the General stared at it, as if trying to remember something. He touched the smooth skin beneath the ear and frowned, then shrugged and got up.
"This one." He pointed down at the corpse of Kao Jyan. "I recognize him from the tape."
"The tape?" DeVore looked up sharply.
"Oh, I'm sorry, Howard. I should have said. We had a tape of the two men. A copy from the CompCam files."
"Ah, yes," DeVore said hurriedly. "Of course."
Tolonen had moved on. He stood over the third of the bodies, one hand stroking his smooth-shaven chin. "So who was this, then? And how did he fit in?" He looked up and across at DeVore. "Whose side was he on, I wonder? Was he with these two, or did he come to kill them?"
DeVore met his gaze steadily. "His name was Chu Heng, sir. A local thug. It seems—"
Karr, in the doorway, interrupted him. "Excuse me, but he was quite well known in these parts, General. A handy man with a blade. Too handy. It's good to see him dead."
DeVore looked at the big man curiously, then turned to the General. "Who's this, sir?"
Tolonen indicated that Karr should come in. "This is Shih Karr, Howard. He's a fighter—what they call a 'blood.' He's champion, it seems. For the time being."
DeVore gave the slightest bow, acknowledging the giant. "You know these parts, then?"
Karr was kneeling over the corpse, looking at the wounds to Chu Heng's neck and chest with a professional interest. After a moment he looked up at DeVore. "I was born in Ammersee.
Until four years ago I lived here. I know its people and its business."
"So you knew these men?"
"Kao Jyan? Well, I knew of him. Chen I didn't know. He must have taken up with Ka&Jyan quite recently. But he was a good man. He had honor."
"A good man, eh? You can say that, not knowing him?" DeVore laughed, his eyes weighing up the big man. "But he was kwai, a killer. Do killers have honor?"
Karr met his eyes firmly. "Some do. You, for instance. Haven't you had to kill in your line of work?"
DeVore smiled. "Ah, but that's different."
"Is it?" Karr straightened up, moving to the second of the bodies, giving it the same scrupulous examination as the first. "Are people so very different below the Net?" He glanced up at DeVore, then back at the body. "Do you know what kwai is, Major?"
"They kill for profit. What more do I need to know?"
Karr laughed but did not look up. "I thought you'd be curious, if only professionally. You see, Chu Heng was kwai, too, but he wasn't typical. He was what they call a 'twisted blade.' Most kwai would have spat on Chu Heng."
"A knife's a knife."
Karr shook his head. "Not so. Some weapons are better made than others. And some are made by masters. So with a good kwai. You see, to become kwai one must study long and hard. It is a discipline. A way of life."
"Down here? The only way of life IVe seen down here is grab what you can and kill to keep it,"