Part 61 (2/2)
”It is we who are finished,” Sawyer said in a lament.
”On the contrary,” Jake said, wiping his eyes. He could scarcely believe it. The strategy had worked. His father had said, Yes, my son, gamble everything. But, Father, if I lose There is no point, Zilin had said, in gambling pennies. ”Bluestone and his combine have paid almost a billion dollars for a company useless for their purposes.”
Sawyer was white-faced. ”Have you lost your mind, Zhuan? The entire fortune of the yuhn-hyun is tied up in InterAsia.”
”Is it?” Jake said. ”This afternoon I want you to go to our lawyer's. Tell him that you require the Redstone file.” Jake was studying the other's astounded face. It was running the gamut of emotions. ”In it you will find all the applicable papers. You remember the meeting when my father insisted that all the yuhn-hyun a.s.sets be signed over to me?”
Sawyer nodded. ”No one was very happy about that, even your uncle.”
”I know,” Jake said. ”But now you see why it had to be done. Our a.s.sets are no longer in InterAsia. Over a period of months after the public offering, they were moved from their various holding companies. Even the Kam Sang holdings are no longer within Pak Han Min. In fact, InterAsia Trading is nothing but a sh.e.l.l. The yuhn-hyun's profits flow through it but it owns nothing outright. I hope you don't mind Bluestone taking a one percent cut. That's a h.e.l.luva good dividend but I think it's a small price to pay for the collapse of Five Star Pacific.”
”And Pacific Overland Trading as well,” Sawyer cried. ”Sir Byron Nolin-Kelly has been a thorn in my side for years. Now we have them all! Zhuan, you are a genius!”
You are a genius. Those words echoed in Jake's mind now as he laced his fingers with Lan's. They had a mocking ring to them. A genius. He was nothing of the kind. He was no more than a zombie now. His daughter had returned to him but Bliss was gone.
He clutched the urn tighter to him. It was decorated with calligraphy in blue: ”If the seasons did not change/The world would cease to breathe/The universe would give out/And the Buddha would close his eyes.”
In the urn were Bliss's ashes. Bliss, who had died in order that his daughter might live. He was grateful for her selflessness but, oh, he missed her with a sharpness that was almost unbearable.
They came to the spot where he and Three Oaths and T. Y. Chung threw out the remains of Zilin upon the water. Three Oaths and his family were already there. Prayers had been spoken into the wind.
The sea breeze rustled Lan's hair. During the time she had been here, she had allowed it to lengthen. It shone like black gold, drifting off her face in ethereal wisps.
There was no laughter when Jake had confronted Three Oaths. There was little to say. Jake had no explanation for what had happened. He no more knew why Lan had tried to kill him than he did how Bliss had been shot. He had not found the pistol in Lan's hand and no one else had been around to pull the trigger. A gun does not go off by itself.
None of this, of course, allayed his uncle's grief. But in this, at least, they were united.
”She wanted to go,” Three Oaths had said. ”She wanted only to be with you. I could not forbid her to go.” He shrugged. ”She did as she wished. As she always has done. It was her way.” He turned away, wiping the tears from his cheeks. ”I know that you blame yourself, Younger Nephew. In this you are wholly Western. It was her joss. I a.s.sign no blame. I am proud of what she did.”
”Father,” Lan said now, ”it is time.”
Jake nodded. He held the urn in front of him. A solid breeze was at their backs. An orange-sailed junk was leaning into the wind, heading for the typhoon shelter. Further out, tankers were steaming toward j.a.pan. On the beach, children played, building castles out of sand and dreams. With an inward sigh, he inverted the urn, scattering the ashes over the bosom of the ocean.
Reaching out, Lan touched the s.h.i.+ning side of the urn. In her mind was a buzzing, a pleasant cacophony that reached down to the soles of her feet. She was warmed by it, calmed. It was almost as if the voice of Buddha spoke directly to her. She heard the calling of the world around her.
She opened her eyes. ”Father,” she said, ”s.h.i.+ Zilin, Bliss. I feel them. They're all around us.”
Jake put his arm across her shoulders. ”I know they are, Lan.”
But perhaps he would never know what it was she truly meant.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR.
Eric Van l.u.s.tbader, author of the bestselling novels The Ninja and ]ian, was born and raised in Greenwich Village. After graduating from Columbia University with a B.A. in Sociology, he pursued a highly successful fifteen-year career in the entertainment industry. Since 1979, Mr. l.u.s.tbader has devoted himself full-time to writing. He divides his time between New York City and Southampton, New York, with his wife, free-lance editor Victoria Schochet l.u.s.tbader.
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