Part 6 (2/2)

Daniella turned away from him and vomited. Maluta made no move but played the flashlight beam over the rippling surface of her sable coat. The exquisite fur shone like platinum. For a time he hummed tunelessly to himself.

”You need me for what?” There was a bitter taste in her mouth that she was certain even mouthwash would not be able to take away.

”Why, to get into s.h.i.+ Zilin's mind, of course. You see, when I do my research I am quite thorough. I know that the secret to Kam Sang resides in that old man's head. You're going to extract it for me.

Daniella felt as if she had suddenly been struck a blow from a hammer. ”That is impossible,” she managed to stammer.

Maluta's heavy eyebrows lifted. ”So? In that case, Comrade General, you are ordered to terminate s.h.i.+ Zilin.”

Mouth dry, Daniella said, ”s.h.i.+ Zilin and Jake Maroc are inextricably linked.”

”All right,” Maluta said, ”I am a reasonable man.” The dry rustle of the snow, like a living thing, moving. ”Kill them both.”

Daniella felt an icy ball of fear turn her insides to water. ”I don't think you understand what you are asking.”

His teeth came together with a clack. ”Kam Sang, s.h.i.+ Zilin, Jake Maroc. One, two, three. What could be simpler?”

Daniella said nothing. She could hear the rus.h.i.+ng of her blood in her inner ears as if it were part of a spring thaw. She knew now what he was up to, knew that she could not have been subjected to a more thorough investigation had she been within the dank caverns of the Lubyanka.

”I run the China section,” she said. ”There are long-range operations in progress. You can't ask me to just”

”Oh, but I can, Comrade General.” Maluta took a long drag on his cigarette. He was very sure of himself. ”The problem is that when one has free reign over such a powerful lever one's mind turns to thoughts of personal use.” He leaned toward her, hissing smoke into her face. ”Personal ends, Comrade General, as opposed to those that will best serve the State.”

That awful clacking of teeth again. ”Chimera is your power, Comrade General,” Maluta said, ”but I know that China is your overriding obsession. I am not asking so much, am I?” His voice had turned syrupy. ”After all, I could demand you reveal to me Chimera's ident.i.ty. I could even take this a.s.set away from you.” He grinned. ”Then where would you be? You see? Seen in this light, it is not so much what I ask of you. To find out about Kam Sang. And to get rid of s.h.i.+ Zilin and Jake Maroc.”

Daniella was trembling. For years her complete control of Chimera had been the key to her rapid advancement. Without the fantastic flood of cla.s.sified information Chimera provided for her, she would never have climbed so far, so fast, in what was, quite literally, a man's world.

In that, Maluta had been right on target. Chimera sat at the very center of the Quarry. Though Jake Maroc believed that he had killed Chimera during a confrontation at Greystoke nine months before, in fact the mole was not Henry Wunderman, Maroc's long-time mentor. Daniella's maneuvering had camouflaged Chimera perfectly, and had fooled everyone, even s.h.i.+ Zilin.

Now her situation was desperate. She was not fooled by Maluta's words. Unless she could find some way to deflect or forestall him, Maluta would take full control of her China operations. This is what his orders were leading to. With s.h.i.+ Zilin and Jake Maroc out of the way, and with the secrets of Kam Sang in his hip pocket, Maluta would be invincible. Even Carelin's and Reztsov's aid would not stop him from bringing Genachev down. Russia run by this madman was unthinkable. Maluta already had so much power that if he was able to use Kam Sang to add to it, he would be able to persuade the other members of the Politburo that what he had donedestroy Genachev was in fact in the Soviet Union's best interests. And where will that leave me? Daniella thought. Permanently under his thumb. Because once Maluta believes that he no longer can control me, he will destroy me as well.

By ”the State,” Daniella knew Maluta meant himself, ”Are you saying that I am not fit to run the China operations?”

”Possibly.” Maluta nodded, threw the glowing b.u.t.t of the cigarette far out into the night.

The rage building in her sought an outlet; she was mad with it, and so she spoke without thinking. ”You talk of the State. But there is nothing of the State in you, Comrade. This is personal, pure and simple. You are generating a power play and I'm to run interference for you.” She felt tears burning behind her eyelids and closed them tightly so that he wouldn't see them. She began to pray for strength. ”I'm to provide you with your silver bullet to lay Genachev low. And if, for some reason, security is breached, I will be the one they put to the stake.”

”Ah, Comrade General.” Maluta smiled down on her benignly. ”You have pleased me in so many ways tonight. Yes, you're quite right in your a.s.sessment.” He shrugged. ”But you will do as I ask, just the same, won't you?”

Daniella nodded numbly. What choice did she have? At least he would no longer spy on her.

Companionably, he took her arm as they went back to the Chaika. ”Besides,” he said, more easily now, ”getting rid of the s.h.i.+s will be best in the long run. I do not care for the power base they are forming in Hong Kong.” It had begun to snow. Together they maneuvered Alexei's corpse into the trunk.

He handed her a chamois cloth, took one himself, and together they wiped away what little blood had seeped onto the front seat. They threw the b.l.o.o.d.y rags back into the trunk.

Maluta, looking down at the white frozen face, said, ”He looks so surprised.” He slammed down the trunk. ”Well, I'm not surprised, really. He was quite loyal to you, Comrade General.”

Daniella felt the ground give way beneath her. She made a grab for the fender of the Chaika, missed and went to her knees.

Maluta made no move to a.s.sist her. He stood over her, watching her behavior with the kind of total curiosity a scientist exhibits toward a laboratory specimen.

”Do you really think that I would be foolish enough to allow you to kill my surveillance of you? Had Alexei actually been doing what I told you he was, he'd have been far too valuable for me to waste this way.

”No, my dear Daniella. I lied to you about Alexei. In that regard he was as pure as the driven snow. You see now how it feels to be lied to.” He watched with a kind of trembling intensity the tears dropping from Daniella's eyes. They made dark indentations where they hit the snow.

”Soon,” he said thickly, ”I will have photos of you weeping. My surveillance of you will see to that.” With his breath clouding in the cold night, he seemed to be panting.

”The day after tomorrow is your birthday,” Three Oaths Tsun said. ”Where would you like to go for dinner?”

”To Gaddi's at the Peninsula,” Neon Chow said immediately.

Three Oaths Tsun, standing on the just-washed deck of his junk lying to at the floating Hakka city in Aberdeen Harbor, eyed his mistress. Oh no, he thought, of course Gaddi's. For her twenty-fourth birthday why shouldn't she be taken to Hong Kong's finest and most expensive restaurant.

”Gaddi's!” he exploded. ”By the Celestial Blue Dragon, if I know you at all, you'll try to bankrupt me there!” That was not to say that one should not show reluctance, Three Oaths Tsun thought. In his seventy-one years he had learned all the tricksor so he believed of the female mind.

”I'll do nothing of the kind,” Neon Chow said, pouting deliciously. She came across the deck to him. ”I'll only be twenty-four once. Should I not be happy?” She fondled the emerald necklace he had recently given her. ”Aren't I worth Gaddi's?” Her pout deepened. ”I know, you think I'll embarra.s.s you in such a fine place.”

In fact, Three Oaths thought, nothing could be further from the truth. Whenever he took this exquisite woman out, all heads turned in their directionfemale as well as male. Neon Chow, who worked part time for the governor, could easily have been a recording or film star. The only thing that would have stopped her, he supposed, was that she was essentially a lazy creature. Neon Chow had never done an hour of hard work in her life and that was, he was quite certain, just how she liked it.

”It's true, a tai pan of your stature cannot afford to be publicly embarra.s.sed,” she went on sulkily, ”so I shall rescind my request. Take me to that dirty old fishmonger's you like so much in Causeway Bay. I suppose I deserve nothing more anyway.”

Three Oaths tried not to smile. In reality, she could ask anything of him and he would gladly grant it if it was within his power. But it would do neither of them any good for him to make that manifest to her. Her powerful effect on him was similarly best kept to himself, he believed. No woman he had ever knownand in his lifetime he had known manycould move him as Neon Chow did. And when they made love he was thirty years old again, the clouds and the rain more dizzying even than when he had been in his rampant youth. Just watching her sent tremors of arousal through his sacred member.

”As it happens you are in luck,” he said now. His voice betrayed none of the emotion he felt energizing him. ”I phoned the place in Causeway Bay but it's not available because of a private party.” That was a blatant lie; he'd had no intention of taking her anywhere but the restaurant of her choice. ”So I suppose Gaddi's it must be after all.”

”Eeeee!” Neon Chow screamed, throwing her arms around him. She ground her liquid hips against his loins, crushed her b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest. ”How wonderful!”

Yes, Three Oaths thought, it certainly is.

”Honorable father, they are here!”

Three Oaths turned from her embrace to acknowledge his number one son's voice. He went, limping, across the deck as Jake and Bliss came aboard. My daughter looks more beautiful now, Three Oaths thought, than she ever has. Bliss's skin is as translucent and glowing as alabaster. It is as if she has waited all her life for Jake Maroc s.h.i.+ to return to herto return to her love.

”Greetings, Zhuan,” he said and, turning to Bliss, ”Daughter.” His face was serene; none of his inner emotion showed.

”May Bliss go below?” Jake asked. ”My father has asked for the services of her healing hands.”

”Certainly,” Three Oaths said, leading the way. Ever since he had made the journey from Beijing to be reunited with his family, s.h.i.+ Zilin had chosen to live on his brother's junk, because, he said, ”It reminds me of the old days when we ran the tears of the poppy for the foreign devil tat pan in Shanghai.”

Jake and Three Oaths watched Bliss descend the companionway. Jake was aware of Neon Chow staring at him. He did not look at her or acknowledge her presence. He preferred to treat her as an object, much like the bales and crates littering the freshly swabbed deck.

He did not think about Neon Chow. In his mind she was his uncle's responsibility. Certainly he did not consider her family. He suspected privately that she was more interested in Three Oaths's money than she was in him. He had come across many beauties like her who had nothing more to barter with in life than their bodies. A part of life in Asia. Joss.

Below, Bliss smiled into s.h.i.+ Zilin's face and picked up his hand. She squeezed it, stroking its back with loving affection in her eyes. She kissed both his cheeks.

”Where is your pain the worst today, a-yeh?” she asked softly, and when Zilin told her, she nodded. ”We'll begin then with the Liver Meridian.” She moved down, took off his shoes. ”The sedating point is here”picking up one bare foot”on the sole just below the base of the middle toe. Now as I press here, imagine the energy flow moving from the opposite end of the meridian, the inner end of the collarbone, down through the ribs into the pubic region, down the inside of the leg to the knee, then down farther along the inside of the ankle bone, circling there until it reaches the point where I am pressing. Close your eyes now, a-yeh.”

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