Black Horn (31 page)

The constable reached for the thermos flask of black coffee, but his ears were
locked on to the loudspeaker.

Creasy's voice: "Move to one nautical mile from the Hebe Haven Bay to the North,
and if any vessel comes out, track it on your radar. Have your Oppo ready with
a dinghy to pick me up at map reference B/14."

The
crisp English voice snapped back: "Understood."

Jens
Jensen's voice echoed around Inspector Lau's office. He was obviously reading
from his computer screen. "The converted junk, Black Swan, is twenty
metres overall and twelve metres on the beam. She only draws two metres... the
significant thing is that her poop deck is three and a half metres above
water-level. She has twin G. M. one hundred and fifty HP diesels, which give a
maximum speed of twelve knots. Her normal crew is four."

The
curt, English voice came straight back: "I copy."

Next,
Creasy's voice came through the speaker: "Listen, SBS. I need a way to get
on to that junk."

Inspector
Lau and his constable were looking at the speaker, mesmerised. They heard the
English voice say with lighthearted enthusiasm: "I worked that out five
minutes ago."

Then there was another voice on the speaker. It was Eric Laparte talking to Creasy:
"I was too late. A black junk is just moving off its moorings. It's heading
for the entrance of the bay."

Creasy's voice came, asking: "Are we copied at sea?"

The crisp, English voice came through the speaker: "You're copied at sea. We
are two nautical miles from the entrance to Hebe Haven. We'll pick up that junk
the moment it leaves the shore, and track it from a distance of one nautical mile."

Creasy's voice: "Are you showing navigational lights?"

The English voice sounded pained: "Are you joking?"

Lucy Kwok lay on the vast bed in the state room and listened to the throbbing of the engines.

She had literally been kicked into the cabin. Both her wrists and her ankles were
manacled with very modern handcuffs, and her lips were bleeding from a back-handed smack
in the mouth from one of the 14K fighters. She felt no pain, only humiliation and guilt. She
lay on the bare mattress of the bed and thought of the risks that were being taken by the
people trying to help her. Guilt built up like a guillotine above her head. She felt the
movement of the boat as it passed out into the open sea. She brought her fear and that guilt
under control and made a resolve that, no matter what, she would not give way to any threats, or
any abuse, or any pain.

Inspector Lau looked at the two silent loudspeakers. He glanced at his constable and then
at his watch. The hour hand was approaching midnight.

"What do you think?" he asked the constable.

The constable leaned back in his chair, away from the computer screen. He liked
Inspector Lau. The man always involved him and always asked his opinion. The
constable felt as though he was part of a team and not just a subordinate. He
said, "The 14K know what's coming. They know that Mrs Manners in the
Peninsula Hotel is the paymaster. It's logical that they'll negotiate with her.
They look on the mercenaries she has employed in the same way as they regard
their own fighters. They will not believe that those mercenaries have a mind of
their own." He tapped the screen of his computer. "But we know differently.
Mrs Manners has fired a bullet at them and they cannot realise that it will
never be stopped." He pointed up at one of the loudspeakers. "I
listened to the conversation between Creasy and his team. I heard their voices.
They are all bullets. They have all been fired."

Inspector Lau said, "I think that sometime soon you'll become a sergeant, and
shortly after a Master Sergeant... your work during these past two days has
been exceptional. What do you think will happen next?"

The constable reflected for a moment and then said, "You already know."

"Tell me."

The constable said, "Tommy Mo sits in his villa in Sai Kung, knowing that he
holds an ace in his sleeve. Within the hour, one of his people will contact Mrs
Manners and tell her that, unless she pulls off her mercenaries, he will
deliver the head of Lucy Kwok Ling Fong on a silver platter to her suite in the
Peninsula Hotel."

"And if she agrees?"

"If
she agrees, Tommy Mo, being the man he is, will scent an advantage and, being a
Triad... and Chinese, he will press for a bonus."

Inspector
Lau nodded in satisfaction.

"How
much?"

"Some
millions ... in US dollars."

"So
what do I do?"

"You
need to listen to those negotiations."

"How?"

"You
have to tap in to the switchboard of the Peninsula Hotel."

"How
do I do that?"

The constable said, "Inspector, you know exactly how you do that. You have to
get a court order, authorising the Hong Kong telephone company to tap in to the
switchboard of the Peninsula Hotel."

Inspector Lau glanced at his watch. It was 12.30 a.m.

"You realise what I have to do to get that court order?"

Yet again, the constable smiled.

"You have to get our beloved Commissioner out of bed and, in turn, he has to get the
Government Prosecutor out of bed... who in turn has to get the on-duty judge
out of bed, who, we know, has a phone and fax at his home. And then, under the
new regulations, he must fax the senior duty-policeman, who at this time is
Chief Superintendent George Ellis, authorising him to allow a phone-tap on the
required lines."

Inspector Lau sighed. "Thank you for reminding me." He looked at the phone on
his desk. "The Commissioner will not be pleased."

The constable stood up, stretched and said, "Inspector, you make your phone-call
and I'll set up the technology and a third speaker."

Inspector Lau studied the phone in front of him. As he tried to make a decision, he heard
the crisp English voice coming from the loudspeaker: "I have a radar
reading and the profile fits the vessel under surveillance. It's heading for
the Ninepins."

With another sigh, Inspector Lau reached for the phone.

"It's because you're in love with her," Guido said.

"That has nothing to do with it," Creasy answered angrily.

It was a very rare occasion; the two close friends were arguing. They were in the
darkened garden of the safehouse, redistributing their team in the light of
events. Creasy said that he would go alone to meet up with Tony Cope and Damon
Broad on the MY Tempest and then, together with Tony Cope, would make an
assault on the Black Swan.

Guido was arguing that either himself or another member of the team should accompany
Creasy. It had been decided that the attempt to rescue Lucy Kwok would take
place just before dawn and, if successful, the attack on the 14K villa in Sai
Kung would follow almost immediately.

Creasy had decided that he would go alone to the launch, and that Guido and Do Huang
would hijack the rubbish truck, and the other two teams would remain unchanged.
But Guido knew Creasy's mind as well as his own. He knew, and all the others
knew, that Lucy was in love with Creasy and that maybe her love was
reciprocated. Consequently, Creasy did not want anyone to think that he was favouring her.

Guido's voice hardened. "Creasy, you have to lead the team on the villa assault.
It's your team, not mine. Lucy has to be a secondary consideration. I'll do
everything I can to get her out. But it has to be me. I know how you feel --
but it has to be me."

In the dim light, Creasy looked into his friend's eyes, and knew that he was right.

"All right," he said. "But don't forget that Tony Cope's an ex Special
Boat Serviceman. He's more of an expert at this sort of thing than any of us."

They turned back into the house. The others were all asleep upstairs, or pretending
to be. He had only woken Guido when the news had come through about Lucy's
abduction. There was no point in disturbing the others until nearer the time.
He glanced at his watch and wondered if, and when, Tommy Mo would be in touch
with Gloria. If she had heard nothing by 2 a.m., then Guido would move off and
meet Damon Broad and be ferried out to the Tempest. Creasy would then assemble
the rest of the team at 4 a.m., and head out to Sai Kung.

Guido went into the kitchen and returned with a pot of coffee and two cups. Then he
produced a packet of cards, and the two old friends did what they had done so
often before. They played gin-rummy and drank coffee while they waited.

The Black Swan belied its name. With its wide beam and huge stern, it looked
nothing except cumbersome. It was anchored in among the small group of Ninepin
Islands, about two miles from the South-East tip of the New Territories.

Two men in black clothing patrolled the decks, submachine-guns slung over their
shoulders. Below, in the saloon, five other men were drinking whisky. The
eighth man was in the back cabin, abusing Lucy Kwok Ling Fong.

As soon as they had left Hebe Haven, the men had stripped her and tied her wrists and
ankles to the large four-poster. The others had left, leaving just the leader,
who Lucy had guessed to be a Chui Chau from the way he spoke Cantonese and from
the dark complexion of his skin. She also guessed that he would be in his
mid-fifties and a senior fighter for the 14K.

He looked down at her naked body and said, "This can take as long as you
wish. You will tell me everything about the American woman and the people she
has hired. How many they are, their names, what weapons they have and what they
plan to do."

She had looked up into his small cruel eyes and realised he could well be the leader of
the fighters who had killed her family. Her terror turned to rage and the words
hissed out of her, in the most traditional and deepest insult a Chinese woman
can hurl at a Chinese man.

"I wouldn't give you the steam off my piss!"

As she spoke, her head craned up, and she spat in his face.

He
jumped backwards. She could not see his eyes, because he was wiping her spit from
his face with the back of his hand, but when he had lowered his hand, she had
seen the venom flowing out of them. He had stood very still for almost a
minute, just looking at her. Then he went to a cupboard and returned with a
short length of rubber hosepipe.

"My
orders," he had said, "are to get information from you, but without
leaving a mark on your body. I don't know why my boss is being so soft-hearted,
but I promise you, I can give you a mountain of pain, without leaving a
mark."

It had
continued for an hour. He knew exactly how to use the rubber hose. One by one,
her nerve endings screamed out with pain but within half an hour, she had
stopped screaming and resolved not to make a single sound, no matter what.

After
the hour, he had stood back and smiled at her ravaged face.

"You're
brave, Kwok Ling Fong. You can accept much pain." He looked at his watch
and she guessed that he had a time-scale. He had a sneering smile on his face.

"You
are brave in your body, but we'll now find out how brave you are in your mind
and your dignity. If you don't give me the information I want, now, I'll call
one of my men in and he'll rape you. He will not be gentle. If, after that, you
refuse to talk, I'll call the next man in, and he'll do the same, and it will
continue until you talk. We are eight men on this boat... when the last one
finishes, the first one will be ready to begin again. None of us will be
gentle... you will be raped in every orifice of your body."

She
tried to spit at him again, but her mouth was dry. He laughed and went to the
cabin door, opened it and called a name. A man came in and stood at the foot of
the bed, looking down at her naked body. She listened as the leader gave his
instructions and saw the lust creep into the man's eyes as he reached to
unbuckle his belt.

The phone-call came at 2.45 a.m. and, apart from reaching Gloria at the Peninsula
Hotel, it also came through the newly-installed third loudspeaker in Inspector
Lau's office. The voice was surprisingly educated; the English, perfect. The
constable and Inspector Lau looked at each other in surprise. The message also
contained no obvious threat.

The conversation opened: "Mrs Manners, I'm very sorry to disturb you at such
an hour, but it happens that I very recently met a young Chinese lady of your acquaintance."

"Who are you?"

"My name is not important. It's just that I felt that you may wish to help her."

"Of course, you're talking about Lucy Kwok. Where is she?"

"Well, I didn't really catch her name but she did tell me that you were investing
rather a lot of money in Hong Kong with some of your associates. It would
definitely help her if you stopped investing that money with those associates
and sent them packing."

"Where is she?"

"I don't know. I'm acting on behalf of some business associates. They feel that if
you immediately drop your present project and invest five million US dollars
with them... then the young lady I mentioned will be much happier than she is now."

"This is obviously a ransom demand."

"Certainly not, Mrs Manners. It is simply a suggestion to make a rather urgent alternative
investment, which will be reflected in the condition that your young friend
finds herself in at the moment. I'm afraid the time-frame is very small. We
need your answer within four hours, and the investment will have to be made by
noon today."

"You expect me to find five million bucks within eight hours?"

"We have every confidence in your ability to do so. You'll be contacted this morning.
Please give this proposal your very careful consideration." The line went dead.

In the hotel suite, Gloria had been writing down the conversation. She had followed
Creasy's instructions exactly. She handed the notepad to Jens, who was standing
beside her with Rene. The Dane picked up his mobile phone, dialled Creasy's
number and read him the transcript.