Part 32 (2/2)
His nervous gaze swung like a pendulum from the numbers on the high board to the hive of activity surrounding Peabody, Smithers and Tung Ping An, two of the largest investment brokerage firms. The signs were unmistakable from both quarters.
At last the burring stopped and Sawyer gasped in a breath.
”Weyyyy.”
”It's begun,” he said. ”The worst is happening.”
”Where are you?”
”The Hang Seng.” The Hong Kong stock exchange.
”It's bad?”
”Worse than bad. Today I'd gladly take bad home to bed with me.”
”I'll be right over,” Three Oaths said.
”Dear G.o.d,” Sawyer said into the already dead line. He replaced the receiver with a hand already numbed by shock and fear.
Next to him, his a.s.sistant was continually pa.s.sing slips of paper over to him with fifteen-minute updates on stock transfers and movements.
They all pointed to the same thing and had done so since the opening of the trading day: blocks of ten thousand shares of InterAsia stock were being bought up at sporadic intervals by the two brokerage firms, Peabody, Smithers and Tung Ping An. What was odd about that was that the blocks were not being disbursed.
Because InterAsia was a relatively new issue and because of the volatility of the Hang Seng, great fluctuations in price and selling and buying patterns were not uncommon during the course of the day's trading. It was also usual for Sawyer, who was nominal market caretaker for InterAsia, to monitor all purchases of blocks of over one thousand shares. His network ran checks of who the trading firms were buying for, even if that often led back to nothing more than dummy corporations.
Disburs.e.m.e.nts as much as buy and sell orders gave Sawyer and the other senior members of the yuhn-hyun the pulse of the market, kept the multiarmed corporation running smoothly.
Today, though, between them the two brokerage firms had bought up close to seventy-five thousand shares of InterAsia stock, yet there was no record of any disburs.e.m.e.nt whatsoever. This fact, more than any other, had set Sawyer's nerves to tw.a.n.ging uncomfortably. InterAsia was under corporate attack.
But by whom?
He heard a disturbance behind him loud enough to bring him out of his nervous musing. He turned around and his jaws clicked shut with a painful resound. Three Oaths was hurrying up. The elderly Chinese was pasty-faced. Beads of sweat stood out along his wide forehead.
”Bad news,” he said, gasping as he entered the cubicle. Sawyer's a.s.sistant had to give way in order to make room for him in the tiny s.p.a.ce.
”More than this?” Sawyer's hand spread out to take in the crowded floor below. ”I don't think you grasp the gravity of”
”Southasia,” Three Oaths interrupted. ”The news of the scandal is all over the Colony.”
”Oh, mother.” Sawyer collapsed back into his chair. In a moment he had begun to shake. ”The bank?”
”The run is on,” Three Oaths said. ”And unless it can be stemmed right away we're not going to have sufficient funds to cover it.”
”G.o.d-bleeding-d.a.m.n it!” Sawyer had visions of his entire life going to waste, all the work, sweat and dedication to building Sawyer & Sons into one of the preeminent trading houses in the Far East. And what for? he asked himself. To have it all end in disaster? Christ, no! His blazing eyes locked with the other man's. ”We just may lose Southasia and InterAsia in the same week.”
”Fornicate unnaturally all our enemies!” Three Oaths rumbled. ”That means we'll lose control of Pak Han Min and Kam Sang. Just what my Elder Brother warned we could not allow.”
”Kam Sang?” Sawyer cried. ”Who in the name of the Holy Trinity cares a pox-ridden dog about a project six hundred miles away that we know nothing about anyway? It's our own trading firms that're on the block now. If InterAsia is successfully raided we'll have worked all our lives for nothing. Do you understand, Honorable Tsun? Nothing at all!”
”You gave us quite a start, yumi-tori.”
The holder of the bow. It was an honored t.i.tle given to a warrior of rank, a master archer. Who was calling him yumi-tori? ”Mikio-san?” Who would know that he was a kyujutsu sensei other than a ”Is it really you?” He started upward in order to see the face more clearly in the room's filtered light and a shaft of pain seared through him.
”Easy, Jake-san.” Mikio's soothing voice. ”Yes, it is I. But, please, you must take it easy. You've had a bad time of it.”
”But how?” He felt a pressure on his shoulders, holding him down and, turning his head, saw a young woman in a persimmon-colored kimono. Beneath, she showed just a line of underkimono the color of flame.
He turned his attention back to Mikio. His head was reeling. ”How?” he whispered. ”I saw you die in your study. I was there when your enemies fired the Bison. I felt the explosion tear your body apart.”
”That body is what saved your life.” Mikio Komoto smiled down at Jake, but behind it there was a great deal of strain. ”I tried to warn you, Jake-san. I tried to keep you away. It had to be done in an oblique way since I suspected that all my communications were being monitored by my enemies.
”I deliberately did not answer your calls. I thought perhaps you'd understand and accept the difficult circ.u.mstances. I bade Kachikachisend you back to Hong Kong when I received news of your arrival here. Hong Kong is where you belong, neh? Not here in the midst of my war.
”But it was my error, my friend. I forgot just how persistent you can be. I am eternally grateful to the Amida that you were not seriously injured.”
”Tell me,” Jake said, ”what happened?”
”It was a ruse,” Mikio said. He wiped the flat of his hand through the short bristles of his salt-and-pepper hair. ”It fooled you; well, then, it fooled my enemies as well. As you may have already surmised, that was not me who you tracked from Jisaku back to my house.”
”Kachikachi!” Jake suddenly remembered the diminutive Yakuza's treachery.
”All part of the ruse, Jake-san. Do not fear. My Kachikachi is still loyal to me. Still and always, my friend. But his role-playing seduced the Kisan clan into believing they could make one preemptive strike against me and end this b.l.o.o.d.y battle once and for all. Without an oyabun who will command the respect and allegiance of all the clan a war cannot be carried out.”
”Then who died in your study?”
”A brave man,” Mikio said. ”A hero of the clan. He volunteered. It was a samurai's death and while I mourn his pa.s.sing, I rejoice in his good fortune. His kami will be exalted a and now I have my edge over Kisan. In their eyes, I am dead, the position of my clan is untenable. It is the end for us, they believe.”
”I almost screwed the whole b.l.o.o.d.y brilliant scheme up,” Jake said.
”I should have understood your desires more completely. I should have antic.i.p.ated this.”
”You could not have antic.i.p.ated my father's murder.”
”s.h.i.+ Zilin dead? Amida! But do you know who?”
”Yes,” Jake said and Mikio noticed that his voice turned bitter. ”A dantai a.s.sa.s.sinated him, Mikio-san. A Yakuza dantai.”
”But that is absurd,” Mikio said quickly. His utter dismay was evident on his face.
”I fought them,” Jake said. ”They killed my father and seriously injured Bliss, who's in hospital now. There can be no mistake. I saw their tattoos myself, Irezumi.”
”Irezumi,” Mikio breathed. He sat back on his haunches. ”But who would send Yakuza to Hong Kong? No oyabun I know of would dare risk so open a strike on foreign territory.”
”Yet Yakuza only take their orders from oyabun,” Jake said. ”Thatis one reason I had to come here, Mikio-san, one reason why I did not use the ticket Kachikachi gave me. It is imperative that I find out who is behind my father's murder. His entire ring is under attack and there is no defense I can take without first knowing who my enemies are.”
Mikio nodded. ”I see. You did the wise thing, Jake-san. The only thing possible.” His eyes were far away, filled with thought. ”But the Amida watches over us. He has protected you and for that we should all be grateful. Now”
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