The Code War

by Ciaran Nagle

  'What?' shouted all three at once.

  'Do you know what his expected movements are?' asked Jo, the worry in her voice evident. 'We can't raise him, his globe is not responding.'

  'I should be able to find the location of his globe,' said Luke. 'He and I exchanged find-me codes weeks ago. I can locate his globe even when it's off or he's not wearing it. I'll try it now.'

  The others watched while Luke brought up Jabez's face. The globe picked up Luke's nod at his friend's image and a moment later gave him the answer. Luke sighed. 'It's showing Hong Kong which should be a good thing. But he's not with it which is a bad thing. Apart from Jabez's safety there's a serious risk the globe could fall into enemy hands. Or be found by humans. That would be a disaster. We need to retrieve it.'

  'OK, here's what we're going to do,' cut in Ruth suddenly. There was a note of authority in her voice that had lain hidden before. They all remembered that Ruth had walked the corridors of power and was held in high esteem there.

  'Firstly, I'm going to raise an alert that will get cut straight through to Gabriel. Yes, that Gabriel. The archangel. We have the possibility of an angel abduction by the enemy, coupled with the potential loss of an advanced lightship with the added complication of a misplaced globe. By any standards that's serious. Secondly, Luke, I'm going to order a detachment of angelic cavalry armed with ice lances to escort you to Hong Kong and search for the missing globe. You'll depart momentarily. Hold one.'

  The four angels waited while Ruth's thoughts and hands flickered over her globe.

  'Done,' she said. 'A troop is on its way and will meet you over Kowloon. Ice lances are made of water, obviously. Water is an important part of life and demons hate it. If an ice lance is used in the heat of battle and touches a demon's skin, some of it melts and burns them so bad they husk instantly.'

  'Husk?' asked Agatha. All the angels were dazzled by Ruth's sudden decisiveness and the authority she commanded.

  'No time to explain now. Take my word for it. If there are demons lying in ambush for Luke they'll think twice when they see a dozen of our cavalrymen in full spiritual armour. Especially when those horsemen know an angel may have been captured. Luke, I bless you in the name of the Most High. Now go.'

  Luke's image disappeared from the others' globes. He was on his way.

  'Jo and Chan, I've had an answer back from Gabriel.'

  Jo and Chan looked at each other. Gabriel? The Gabriel. Gabriel the archangel? Ruth had communicated with him and he had answered her that quickly?

  'Get the lightcraft back right now,' Ruth continued. The Fundial didn't seem so much fun any more. 'I know you can control it from where you are. There's a chance Jabez may be still in it. But Gabriel thinks it's a real abduction. This one's gone stratospheric already. The Lamb is involved too.'

  'Him,' said Agatha.

  'Yes, him.' replied Ruth. 'We're now on a war footing with Inferno, as if we weren't already. You will go nowhere outside of Paradise without armed escorts. It seems little old Nancy is so important to them that they're risking all-out conflagration.'

  She paused.

  'Anyway, let's hope I'm wrong and Jabez comes back safely in the lightcraft.'

  'We've summoned the lightcraft,' said Chan. 'It's on its way, be here soon. But we're pretty sure Jabez isn't in it. Oh, I wish we hadn't lent it to him. It seemed such a good idea at the time.'

  'Don’t be sorry,' said Ruth in a suddenly gentle voice. 'You acted out of love and consideration. No-one will blame you for that, least of all me. Now, let's work the problem. The enemy would love us to play the blame game, that's where they've scored lots of victories in the past. But it's not going to happen on my watch. You're all in Heaven because you were chosen to be here. It's where you belong. Now let's all use our talents to the utmost and get Jabez back.'

  Pearl River Dancing Parlour, San Po Kong, Kowloon

  'Sir, the preparations are nearly complete for the party,' said Chu to his boss. 'All of your men will have a memorable time tonight. But I beg you to reconsider. Please don’t go. We need you to lead us when Brother takes over.'

  'My dear Chu,' said Monkey to his subordinate. 'Golden Horse is my creation. All of the working girls, dealers and den managers who work for me are like my own children. I have built a great business, a traditional business, outside of the laws of these ghostly foreigners. And now Fatty five lunches Lo sends one of these same round-eyes to me and tells me she is there to watch me hand over my business to him? Without a fight? Where is the honour in that? I lose face in that. Fatty four chopsticks Lo, a man who is so greedy he eats with both hands at once can take my business. But he will not take me. I will retain my honour. I will not be here when he takes over. For the sake of my beloved staff, I will let them keep their jobs. I will not dismantle the organisation. But I will be gone. I aim to depart this very night.'

  'Then, sir, as you are the only father I have ever known, I am going to come with you. We shall depart together.'

  'I understand, Chu. If I had had a son, I wish he were like you. We will go together if that is your wish.'

  For a moment Monkey rested his hand on Chu's shoulder and looked at him with something approaching tenderness. Then his stern face reasserted itself.

  'Come,' he said. 'Let us go down and greet our guests. We must smile and be good hosts so that they can have fun. Much fun. Tomorrow they will be alone.'

  Nathan Road, Yaumati, Kowloon

  Lafarge tore his eyes away from the ambulance and looked back down the road. He had heard the unearthly crash as Zhivkin hit the lightship after his long fall. He was just in time to see his fellow demon force his way inside the craft.

  As he ran across the road he saw Jabez appear momentarily on the pavement, kicking and thrashing while his broken wing lay flopped beside him. Then Jabez seemed to hook his foot around something and all disappeared.

  Lafarge reached the spot and looked around. There was no sign anyone, human or otherwise, had been here. Wait. Lafarge spotted an unusual small round object lying on the ground between two metal bins. Something about it didn't look earthly. He was scared to touch it. It might be something heavenly and poisonous.

  He had to report back.

  Kodrob's Squadroom, Inferno.

  Jabez lay crumpled in the corner of Kodrob's squad room breathing heavily. The temperature in Inferno was considerably hotter than in Heaven and his lungs were struggling with the searing air.

  He looked up at the ruddy faces leering down at him. They seemed just as astonished to see him as he was to be here.

  'The blessings and peace of Heaven on all of you,' he wheezed.

  A boot landed in his side. 'Enough of that you ugly pig,' Holzman snarled. 'You're our prisoner. You're a jail bird with a broken wing. You're in Lucifer's kingdom now and you don't leave till he says so.'

  Kodrob pulled Holzman aside.

  'Get him a drink' he said to Pu Gash. To Jabez, 'What do you want?'

  'Water.'

  'We don't do that here. What else?'

  Pu Gash offered Jabez a beaker of unleaded.

  Jabez sniffed the concoction and choked sending the beaker's contents flying across the room.

  'Hey, that's good stuff. That's a top tub,' shouted Holzman.

  Bezejel was watching from the back of the room.

  'Kodrob, he's in your charge,' she said curtly. 'I'm going to meet with the Leader and find out what he wants to do.'

  As she was about to sweep out of the room Zhivkin burst in.

  'The machine,' he shouted miserably. 'The machine I stole. The craft. It's gone. Somehow they've taken it back.' He went up to Jabez and aimed a savage blow at his head before being pulled off by Kodrob just in time.

  'I stole an invisible lightcraft and got rid of the angel,' he shouted at the room in general. 'It was a perfect ambush. Now we've got the bloody useless angel and lost the craft. You scumball. It's all your fault.' He wrested himself from Kodrob and again aimed a kick at Jabez, this time catch
ing him behind the ear and cutting his scalp.

  'Relax Zhivkin,' advised Bezejel as Kodrob for the third time stepped in to protect the angel. 'There'll be time for games later. Maybe we'll wrap him in seaweed and play rollerball with him like we did with the banshees. We'll see how well he flies then.' She looked around the room before letting her eyes fall wrathfully on Jabez. 'I'll be back later,' she threatened. 'Don't look forward to my return.'

  Yaumati Police Station

  Dan Kelly replaced the receiver in its cradle and looked at the flip chart by the side of his desk. Beside it, on the wall was a map of Kowloon with a number of brightly coloured pins sticking in it.

  He turned to Liu Jai and Hui Fen.

  'The blue pins represent Brother establishments,' he declared. 'All the other DIs I've spoken to are reporting take-overs in their area by Brother. Plus openings of brand new dancing parlours, sleazy cinemas and recruitment of heroin dealers. What's interesting is that all of them thought the growth of Brother was localised in their territory, just part of the give and take pattern of triad change. But the thing is, there's no mutuality about any of it. It's all one-directional. Brother is swallowing everything and giving nothing back. Brother is becoming a total monster.'

  Dan went to the flip chart and picked up a marker pen. He added the name of a housing block in Sham Shui Po whose heroin dealers had reportedly transferred their allegiance to Brother. 'That's a new win for Brother just today,' he told them.

  'It's slick,' added Hui Fen. 'Everything I've learnt says that Brother are consolidating by persuasion and gentle pressure, not by force like in the old days. But I've learnt something else.'

  'Go on,' said Dan.

  'All is not well inside the organisation. From the outside it seems that Fatty Lo is in complete control. But I've heard that there are some voices, mainly centred around one of his lieutenants called Chopper Kwok, who think he's going too slowly. Kwok is suspected of involvement in the savage attack on two police sergeants some time ago. He's brutal and impatient. There could even be a battle for power, a take-over at the top.'

  'There's more,' said Liu Jai. 'In the last few weeks a mysterious western woman has been seen in Fatty's company. We don't know her name. She has come from nowhere but is already seen as quite influential. That has ruffled a lot of feathers, especially in an organisation like Brother where seniority traditionally goes with time. The longer you work in a triad the more you are trusted. I agree with Hui Fen that there is resistance to Fatty in some places. That will be increased if he tries to bring in someone new and give them high rank, especially, and I hope you don't mind me saying it, a foreigner.'

  'Yes,' agreed Dan, 'and a woman foreigner at that. I'm sure all the macho gangsters in Brother are well unchuffed with that.'

  Hui Fen looked at her watch.

  'It's 10 pm,' she said. 'I know you like to change your woman every week Daai Lo,' she looked sideways at Dan, 'but I have a family who need me.'

  'You mean when they need someone to change the TV channel for them,' laughed Liu Jai.

  Hui Fen cuffed him playfully. 'Isn't it time you put your pyjamas on and sat on your potty, young man?'

  'It sure is,' said Liu Jai. 'Let's face it, I won't be paid overtime for being here.'

  'No, neither will I,' agreed Dan with a philosophical grin. 'Listen,' he said,

  'I'm going to have a word with a CID superintendent I know at Kowloon Police HQ. I trust this guy, he was my teacher at police training school. He's the RHKP's liaison with the FBI and Interpol and so on. I'm going to ask him if he's heard of any concerns from outside Hong Kong about Brother. It will be good to learn just how far their tentacles have gone.'

  'Be careful,' warned Hui Fen. 'Brother go back a long way with a lot of people in the police.'

  'I know,' said Dan. But there are plenty of honest guys left in the force too.

  On his way home that night Dan drove to the Walled City of Kowloon, a curious enclave that by a quirk of history still came under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China.

  Uniformed Hong Kong policemen were forbidden to patrol its narrow lanes lest their presence in 'China's territory' be used as a pretext for an invasion of the colony by the People's Army.

  The exterior of the Walled City wasn't actually a wall but an almost unbroken circular terrace of unlicensed doctors and dentists, apothecaries, fung shui advisers, herbalists, bonesetters, acupuncturists and rather nice tea shops.

  Dan parked his car in nearby Wang Tau Hom Estate, walked across the perimeter road and dove into one of the narrow alleyways that labyrinthed its way to the centre of the enclave.

  The Mad Woman was still up and expecting him. Jacintha was a missionary from Glasgow who had made her home and operating base in this part of Hong Kong because 'it's off limits to all the other pastors, angel which is great because I canna stand competition.' Initially hated and threatened by the local gangsters Jacintha had earned her place in the Walled City and had made many a heroin dealer give up his trafficking and turn to the Lord. The population accepted her and often went to her with their problems. But they still thought she was mad.

  'I'm taking on a really heavyweight gangster,' said Dan to the Mad Woman over a cup of jasmine tea. 'I don't go to church very often but somehow I feel the need for some spiritual support. Will you pray for me?'

  They stayed up long into the night and read the book of Mark together. Afterwards Mad Jacintha anointed Dan with oil and called on the Lord of Hosts to send his angels to protect him. Dan drove home through the traffic-free streets and for the first time in an age he didn't go straight to the fridge and reach for a cold can of San Miguel beer. Instead he undressed, collapsed on his bed and slept like a cherub.

  Ho Tin Girl Friend Bar and Film Club, Yaumati, Kowloon

  The two junior accountants picked their way down the narrow street beside the sixteen-storey building. In this part of Yaumati a tower block could contain hair parlours, restaurants, shops and businesses as well as apartments. Every building was a self-contained village. The air space above the street was criss-crossed with dozens of electricity cables and telephone lines, many of them illegal. In the doorway a young man in a battered leather jacket drew on a cigarette and fiddled with the stash of heroin packets in his pocket. His eyes roamed in every direction checking for police, rivals and customers. The accountants stepped past him and walked under the arch with the garish neon sign and followed the narrow stair to the fourth floor.

  Entering a room with hanging pictures of Cary Grant and Marilyn Monroe, they were greeted by a large man behind a small counter. His stubbled face, string vest and tattooed fingers were meant to give one message: don't make trouble.

  'Film only? Or film and company?' he asked in a gravelly voice, looking from one to the other and trying to work out if they were undercover cops.

  'How much is film only?' asked one of the white-shirted pair chirpily.

  'Nine dollars. Film and company, thirty dollars.'

  'What's the film tonight?' asked the other.

  'Deep Throat,' came the almost incomprehensible growl.

  'Say again?'

  String Vest made no response but looked coldly at the speaker. That's the kind of trouble I was talking about.

  'OK, never mind. Two for the film. No company.' Chirpy accountant handed over two $HK10 notes while his shadow remained slightly behind him, taking cover.

  String Vest took the money and gave them a sour look for change. The film club only made money if customers paid for female 'company' while they watched the blue movies. What did they think this was, a regular cinema? He indicated a curtain partition and the two office workers stepped through it to find their seats and catch up on finest American culture.

  An underfed hostess in a tartan skirt and a cheap blouse with faded dragons on its sleeves followed them. 'You like some company? Touch your trouser while you watch film?' Her voice carried all the friendliness of a female boar. The accountants declined.


  In a luxury apartment beside the tiny cinema, replete with state of the art sound system, Italian tile flooring and furniture from Hong Kong's finest shops and at just the moment when Nancy was being handcuffed to the iron flue in San Po Kong, Chopper Kwok was swirling a Hennessy XO Cognac around a balloon brandy glass.

  Chopper earned his sobriquet after ambushing two uniformed police sergeants one night while they were on patrol in Tsim Sha Tsui. Wearing a scarf around his face, he forced them to their knees before slashing them with a heavy kitchen knife and making off with both their revolvers.

  He had never been charged with this crime, not because the police didn't suspect him, but because the revolvers had never been found and there was no other evidence against him. Chopper had made his way into Brother soon after and the organisation had done its best to mould him into a mature criminal while persuading him to leave out the violence. But Chopper's old instincts were not persuadable. He continued to use brutality to achieve his ambitions, not only with rival gangs and police but even with his own team.

  The Ho Tin Girl Friend Bar and Film Club was one of eight establishments owned by Brother but run by Chopper. He had a big appetite for food, (though not as big as Fatty Lo) but an even bigger appetite for women.

  More than these however, he had an appetite for power.

  Chopper Kwok had given the speech at the cock-fight evening in which he had criticised those who wanted Brother to ramp up its criminal operations more aggressively. In reality Chopper was at the forefront of those who were ready to use more violence to achieve faster growth. He was covering up his own tracks by pointing the finger of blame elsewhere. But violence was in his make-up. Chopper was the accepted No.2 in Brother and impatient to accede to the top table in the fraternity and become Big Brother himself. But he knew it didn't do to be too open about your intentions. Far better to shout 'the enemy is over there' and in the meantime position yourself closer to the king so as to ensure your knife strike in his back didn't miss.