“Which is?”
“Legalized gambling in all of the five complexes, rivaling the Tiger Palace. The best of Europe, America, Russia, Africa and China will be authentically and vibrantly represented. We will make Las Vegas look like a sleepy little hamlet. Every Chinese will want to visit here or own property here. They will have all the benefits of travel without ever having to leave our enclave.”
Noah took a deep breath. What Garret was saying was not only visionary and awe-inspiring, but the chances of success seemed like one hundred percent—if he could finance it for the proper term.
“What’s this going to cost?” he asked.
“Seventeen billion dollars by the time we are finished.”
Noah’s jaw dropped. “You’d have to be one of the richest hundred people in the world to afford that, and that’s assuming you put every nickel you had into the investment. No one’s going to put that much dough into a single investment. You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Mr. Reid, I never joke, but perhaps you are now realizing why I need total commitment from everyone I work with. This is one of the largest non-governmental projects ever undertaken.”
“But seventeen billion?”
Garret nodded. “And climbing. We have the best minds and the best materials in the world working on this. Land, construction, approvals, not to mention kickbacks, bribery and ladies for the bureaucrats are just the tip of the tip of the iceberg.”
Garret waved over the vast project. “Our architects were the lead architects at the last world’s fair. Our engineering firm is building the new state capital for Thailand and is responsible for the Vancouver-to-Vancouver Island Causeway. We own our own mine in Italy from where we quarry and stockpile marble. To ensure that we have an adequate supply of teak for building our furniture, we have purchased a forest industry company in Myanmar. And our entertainment advisers have been recruited from Cirque du Soleil and Lucasfilm, the creators of the Star Wars movie franchise.”
Garret turned to face Noah. “Yes, it is an enormous amount of money but, when you study the talent we have assembled and are assembling, it will pay itself back many times over. My job for more than twenty years has been to guide the corporate and financial structure of Golden Asia, making sure that nothing, but nothing, goes off track.”
Noah inspected the superstructure, letting what Garret said sink in. He began to see connections and how the various players fit in. Noah gave Garret a knowing look and spoke in a soft tone. “Your real job is to make Golden Asia legit.”
“Very astute, Noah.” Garret nodded. “Yes, but we’re on hold now. Take a closer look at the construction. Flecks of dust on the girders, supplies are short, the equipment has not been turned on in several weeks, the labor unions are about to blacklist us. The project has run out of cash.”
“How can that be if you were keeping as close an eye as you said you were?”
“Well phrased again. Golden Asia should not have any problems at all. But it does, and there is only one reason I’m alive right now. Tommy was Chin Chee Fok’s choice. Years ago, I advised against it, but Chin insisted.”
“Who exactly is Chin?” Noah asked. “He seems to be everywhere, but I can’t find any connection between him and anything. Definitely not a seventeen-billion-dollar project.”
“And no one will ever find that out. I’m damned good at my job, Noah. That’s why, try as he might, Chin doesn’t own me. He needs me because only I know where every cent is. The only funds I don’t control are those that are not given to me. If Tommy didn’t give me something, I can’t be held responsible for it.”
Noah’s eyes widened with astonishment and fear. His new boss was not the “biggest stuffed shirt in a company of stuffed shirts.” Not only was he a Shaolin Hung Gar master on par with Master Wu, perhaps the greatest living Hung Gar grandmaster, but he was the brains behind legitimizing a criminal operation with assets in excess of many small countries.
“But why do you need me to kill him?
Before Garret could answer, he noticed a slight movement in the wind and instinctively pushed Noah aside. An arrow whizzed by Noah’s ear and twisted into a pole behind him.
“Follow me, Noah,” shouted Garret.
Garret led Noah on the run of his life. Slogging through the muck and mud, Garret and Noah leapt onto the top of an iron beam on the first-floor frame of one of the buildings.
Dancing along the girder, they zigged, zagged and hid behind a concrete pillar as an armada of arrows streamed by.
“We’ll never make it!” screamed Noah.
“Then stay here and die,” called Garret as he leapt to the ground and charged away.
“Oh, shit.” Noah reluctantly ran after Garret. The sharp, pointed missiles continued their barrage. To avoid them, Garret changed direction every two steps. “Do the opposite of what I do,” he yelled. When Garret took one step right, Noah stepped left. When Garret made two steps left, Noah made one to the right, keeping the pattern inconsistent.
With arms raised straight up, senior and junior lawyer rushed toward a pile of lumber. They took a short hop and lunged to the top, hands first, kicking their feet upward, then pushed off the top of the lumber with their arms, executing handsprings to the roof of a storage shed. Without breaking step, they raced fifty feet, then performed handsprings into a double somersault before landing on the ground. Garret took cover behind a concrete pillar while Noah ducked behind the huge wheels of the adjacent building crane.
“What now?” panted Noah.
“Keep following me,” replied Garret.
“That hasn’t been very good advice so far,” shouted Noah, his breath coming in irregular gasps.
“You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
Their attackers came into view. Six elite, very fit killers, primed and ready for a direct attack. Walking directly toward the pillar and crane, they threw their repeating crossbows aside. They’d run out of arrows, but that was no big deal. A construction site is a Fort Knox of potential weaponry.
“Go!” Garret and Noah blitzed from their hiding places.
Four gangsters grabbed anything in sight—lumber planks, hammers, rivets— and hurled them at Garret and Noah. The other two found a stash of nails that they launched, handful after handful, of the sharp rods. The lawyers jumped and dodged behind a barricade of concrete slabs, just in time to avoid being skewered.
Garret saw a huge excavation, deep enough for ten stories of partially built underground parking. Leaping into the air, Garret executed a twisting and twirling aerial, allowing him to evade the deadly, hurled objects as he landed just inside the crater.
Noah combined somersaults and handsprings to get out of danger’s way, and he vaulted into the hole next to Garret. They tumbled down the embankment, veering from side to side to evade the battery of construction materials hurtling toward them—plastic tubes, concrete slabs, steel clamps, brackets and joint pins thrown with the arm strength of Major League baseball pitchers.
Their assailants started a giant bulldozer and jumped aboard. It crawled methodically down the side of the excavation, lights pinpointing the rolling, slipping lawyers.
Arriving at the base of the parking understructure, Noah hid behind a concrete wall. Constantly on the go for the last ten minutes, the two lawyers had been as nimble and agile as the acrobat performers at the Tiger Palace, defying death with their phenomenal flashy maneuvers from weapons and assailants, and they were far from done. They sucked in air like thirsty dogs lapping water, trying to catch their breath. They had maybe thirty seconds before the bulldozer caught up to them.
Chapter 34
Inside the mansion on Victoria’s Peak, Olivia and Abby sat on the living room couch, listening intently to yesterday’s recording of their performance on Abby’s iPad.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying.
’Tis you, ’tis y
ou must go, and I must bide.
During the recording, a cell phone rang, and they heard Tommy’s hushed voice in his part of a conversation. “No, I haven’t heard from Chin yet, but it’s only a matter of time... Really, there’s nothing else to do... Abby is in less danger if I’m not around. Chin never makes useless kills... I know... Yes, that’s Abby singing. Voice of an angel, isn’t it? It’ll be the last time... Chin will never find the money, and neither will you. I guarantee that... I will hold you to that promise and chase you from Hell to Heaven if you do not keep it... Goodbye, my friend...”
It was eerie listening to a conversation that predicted and foreshadowed a person’s death. It was even worse when that person was your father.
“Now do you believe me, Olivia?”
“I never doubted you. I just didn’t realize the extent.”
“Our fathers are tied to the hip, even more than we thought,” Abby said quietly.
“Which means, Abby, so are we, even more so than I thought.”
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me.
And then my grave will warm and sweeter be.
And then you’ll kneel and whisper that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
From the sofa, Abby and Olivia heard the doorbell ring.
“You expecting anybody, Abby?”
“Nobody even knows I’m back in town yet,” Abby said.
“Then don’t answer it, Abby.”
“I am so not planning to.”
Whoever was at the door started pounding.
“Follow me,” whispered Abby.
Olivia nodded as Abby led her quickly into the dining room. Abby pressed a hidden button by the china cabinet. The cabinet slid open, revealing a hiding space. Abby and Olivia entered, and Abby pressed another button to close the cabinet.
The sound of jackhammer blows continued. Suddenly, there was the sound of the door crashing down.
Olivia covered Abby’s mouth, stifling a gasp. Whoever was at the door had just broken down a custom-made five-hundred-pound door with his bare fists.
For ten minutes, the girls heard someone upturning furniture and banging on walls. It was all they could do to stay still and silent.
Then the sound stopped. Olivia watched her cell phone and waited until five minutes passed. She nodded to Abby. Abby pressed a button, opening the door. They were freaked to see a huge man with a crowbar coming after them.
“Your dad has stolen my boss’s money. A lot of it. Chin wants it back. Do it and you’ll live.”
Olivia followed Abby as she bolted up the stairs. The hulk began an unhurried walk behind them. They entered Tommy’s bedroom and locked the door.
Olivia made a call. “Daddy, we need help. There’s a giant threatening to kill us. He says Abby has his boss’s money.”
Garret’s calm voice sounded, “Don’t worry. I’ll deal with it. Where are you, Olivia?”
“At Abby’s house.”
“Stay put. I’ll send Noah to get you.”
Noah? Abby ran to her father’s dresser and pulled out a gun. Shaking, she aimed at the bedroom door. She saw their hunter’s arm punching through. Abby took aim and fired several rounds.
The girls heard a thud. Abby tiptoed to the hole in the door to see their assailant bleeding. He tried to stand up but the blood loss was too great. He collapsed, dead.
As the girls tiptoed around the body, Olivia praised, “Nice shot, Abby. I didn’t know you spent so much time at the range.”
“I don’t. Never even fired a peashooter.”
At the top of the staircase, they peered down to the foyer and shrieked—there were two tiger paws, a tiger’s liver and a tiger’s heart lying on the marble floor.
Garret knew he couldn’t let his churning emotions show. It required every bit of self-control to keep his cool when he spoke to Olivia. He couldn’t let Noah see concern either. “Go to Olivia. She’s at Abby’s house. The address is...”
“I know where it is. I’ve been studying that damned Golden Asia file.”
Noah was about to take off but Garret called, “Wait!”
Noah stopped and turned. “Yes?”
Garret’s voice was strong and full of emotion. “If I don’t make it, tell Olivia she was right to hate me. Now go!”
“Will do.” Noah had no idea what Garret was talking about but there was no time to ask questions. He took off and heard the rattling, beeping sound of the bulldozer. His hunters jumped off and began a fresh barrage of artillery. Noah surged off in a dead run to the other end of the uncompleted parking structure. As his aggressors approached, Noah leapt into the darkness.
Garret jumped onto the vacated bulldozer and pushed it full throttle. Noah’s attackers turned to him but, before they could catch up, Garret reversed the vehicle, jumped off and climbed up the embankment, leaving the bulldozer to charge ahead at the attackers.
Arriving at ground level, Garret threw trashcans, a small cement mixer and cylinder blocks at the ascending goons.
With light-speed footsteps, Garret raced to the entrance of the complex, jumped into the Bentley and took off. He had made several mods to his car that allowed it to accelerate to one hundred thirty miles per hour in nothing flat. He needed every bit of it as he raced through the series of bridges and tunnels that connected Hong Kong and Macau.
Garret’s pursuers matched him in speed with their own turbo-charged Mercedes. The driver accelerated into Garret’s car, and Garret gripped the wheel tightly to keep the Bentley from spinning out of control.
The Mercedes punched the rear again, knocking the Bentley off to the side ever so slightly. It was enough for the Mercedes to inflict a hit on the driver’s side of the car.
Garret slammed on the brakes. To stabilize the car, he jerked the steering wheel as hard and fast as he could. Tires screeching, the Bentley spun around and collided into the oncoming Mercedes.
The unanticipated collision caught the Mercedes driver off guard. He steered hard left to avoid the protective concrete wall. Momentum carried the car for another two hundred yards before the driver was able to bring it under control and to a stop. The Mercedes turned, and the driver revved the engine.
“Bring it on,” said Garret as he revved his own engine. Flooring it, Garret pushed the car faster than it had ever been driven.
More than half a million dollars in two cars were racing at a hundred-plus miles an hour right at each other. Neither driver was willing to give an inch.
A fraction of a second before impact, one of the passengers in the Mercedes yelled, “Stop!” But it was too late. However, just at the point of impact, the roof of the Bentley opened, and Garret was ejected thirty feet into the air. Flailing his arms, he grabbed onto the bridge’s suspension cables.
The two vehicles collided. There was an ear-deafening explosion, and the passengers in the black Mercedes were incinerated instantly. A tattered Garret watched the fireball flare up, then he climbed down the bridge’s tower onto the main deck. He hobbled away, slowly but alive.
But not all the henchmen were in the ball of flame. A second Mercedes rolled up and four lethal foes stepped out and strode toward the lawyer.
There was no point in trying to fight. Garret was exhausted and outnumbered. Better to try to save some energy for later than die a fool’s death now.
The biggest man bashed Garret in the stomach, causing him to keel over. A tremendous uppercut followed, and Garret lapsed into unconsciousness. Not the rest he needed or was hoping for.
Chapter 35
It was a slow night at the coffee shop and Chad was getting ready to shut down when he got a call from Noah. “Hey, man, you want to go shoot some hoops?”
“Not now, Chad. I need help. Get outside. Ten minutes!”
“What’s the rush?”
“We’re going to war and I need soldiers. We’re going to pick up Master Wu, too. He’s not answering.”
Now that’s an army. A new lawyer. An
old martial artist. A barista. “Will do.”
Chad closed shop in record time. He had just closed the cash when he heard a honking outside. He ran out to see Noah in a beater of a Toyota.
“Nice ride,” grinned Chad as he hopped in. “Where’d you pick up this sardine can?”
Noah snorted as he stepped on the gas. “Thank God for the MG. Teaches you how to hotwire a car. This was the only thing around.”
Chad shook his head in pity. “You are working for one big-ass boring-as-shit company, Noah. I explored the Pittman Saunders website and it is so clean, it squeaks. And it’s biggest client, Golden Asia, is just as bad. I don’t think you’ll last there five years.”
“Ya think? I might not last until tomorrow. The real stuff is off book. Golden Asia is the front for the organization of a brutal Shaolin Triad leader—Chin Chee Fok.”
“Never heard of him.”
“Exactly. Garret’s job is to make sure nobody knows too much about him or his holdings. There are holding companies of holding companies. Garret has sanitized the whole operation, which is what you found.”
“So what’s the plan?” Chad asked.
A fitful Noah shivered, silently brooding. This was not at all what he expected when he entered law school three years ago. “I’d like to quit but I can’t. I’d like to go back to LA, join some buddies in their new intellectual property law firm. Or another one can get me into the mailroom of a big Hollywood talent agency... but I can’t.”
“Wow, Olivia’s done that to you in one day.”
Noah glanced to his best friend, his partner in arms in almost everything that was important to him in life. “No, dummy. It’s because of you. You had to become a do-gooder and now I’m hooked on the kids, too. No way I can abandon them.”
“Don’t you watch TV? The only way you leave organizations like that is when they carry you out in a body bag.” Chad crossed his arms across his chest, grinning at Noah. “If there’s a hell below, we all gotta go.”
“Yeah, be careful of what you wish for. Garret wants me to kill Chin.”
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series: Books 1-3 (plus special bonuses) Page 18