“Actually a STAT bath would be more like it,” she laughed, self-consciously brushing away a stray wisp from her brow. “I must look awful.”
“You look wonderful.” He started to guide her toward the elevator.
“Where are we going?”
“I thought you wanted a bath. My room’s on the third floor.”
She hesitated.
“Lili, I heard the concierge say the hotel was filled. I’ve got a suite.”
She raised her eyebrows.
“It was all they had. Bedroom and living room. So I can stay on the couch. Of course, if you’re still not comfortable, I’ll find a room somewhere else, and you can stay here.”
She shook her head. “I wouldn’t hear of it. Forgive me, it’s just that so much has happened —”
“I understand.”
She looked up at him, perplexed. “How did you know —?” Her call from Macao to Los Angeles had only reached Dylan’s answer machine. Even if he’d gotten her message, there wasn’t time to hop a plane for Hong Kong.
As if reading her mind. “How did I know you needed me?”
She nodded.
A shrug. “Call it lucky intuition.” No mention of the fax he’d received. “It was luck, wasn’t it?”
His wonderful smile made it easy to shrug off uneasiness. She pressed her forehead against his chest and closed her eyes, clarity of thought eroded by emotional exhaustion. “Yes, it was,” she sighed. He was here now. That’s all that counted.
Dressed in his dark double-breasted suit and conservative navy tie, Foreign Minister Lin affected the air of a successful Hong Kong businessmen taking morning coffee in the Peninsula’s lobby. He had no doubt that with a closer look, Lili would recognize him. That was why he turned away until she and Dylan passed his table and entered the empty elevator. Once the doors closed, he paid his check and sauntered over to the hotel manager’s desk.
“May I help you, sir?” The assistant manager’s studied, modish look and accented English suggested a young man not long from Shanghai.
“I just wondered where to get a People’s Daily?” Lin said, then added in Mandarin: “So many years gone. It is a way to keep up with the news from home.”
“Shir,” the young man agreed. “Our gift shop carries all the out-of-town papers.”
“Thank you.” He smiled at the assistant manager. “You also have family in China?” An innocent question.
“Yes, my parents and younger brother.”
“And they are well?”
A shrug. “They live a quiet life.”
Lin clamped a hand over his. “Would you like them to stay that way?”
A look of alarm replaced the young man’s cordial smile. “I beg your pardon?”
Lin showed him his official ID. “I am the foreign minister. I want information.”
“What kind of information?” The assistant manager had no doubt that if the credentials were genuine, Lin was in a position to change his parents’ life any way he wished. Fear kept many PRC immigrants from involvement in antigovernment politics abroad.
“I want to know what room Dr. Lili Quan is in, and who she’s with.”
“I cannot tell! The Peninsula has a policy to protect guests’ privacy.” Although he spoke Mandarin, privacy was in English since no such word exists in Chinese.
Lin leveled a pointed look. “You can make an exception this time.”
The manager walked by and the young man resumed English, trying to control the trembling in his voice. “Have a seat, sir, and I’ll see what I can do.”
Fifteen minutes later, Lili emerged from the bathroom wrapped in a Peninsula terry cloth robe, a towel around her just-washed hair. “Exactly what the doctor ordered,” she declared, sitting on the bed.
“Take your medicine.” Dylan handed her a steaming mug. “Hot brandy, water, sugar, and spices. Better than any of your prescriptions. Guaranteed to calm the nerves.”
Lili sipped the hot toddy. “Thanks.”
Dylan sat down beside her. “Think you’re up to telling me what happened?”
“It’s a long story.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
Lili gazed into his deep blue eyes. Whether the bantering was motivated by friendship or something more, she didn’t care. The brandy was already producing a comforting warmth. She was glad Dylan was here; glad she had someone she could finally trust. “I never expected any of what I found in China,” she said and began to recount the events of the last few weeks.
“Jesus,” he exclaimed when she finished. “What a story! And you’re certain your grandfather has really found the secret of longevity?”
“I saw the results with my own eyes. Thirty subjects all living well into their twelfth decade. If he hadn’t stopped the experiment, I’m not sure how much longer they might have lived.”
“Unbelievable. The greatest discovery of all time.” Dylan was clearly caught up in the excitement. “Amazing how your grandfather managed to keep it a secret all these years.”
“Even more amazing how I spirited it out of China.”
“You’ve got it with you?”
“Not exactly.” She picked up the bedside phone and dialed the desk manager.
“What are you doing?”
“I almost forgot.” She put her fingers to her lips to indicate that the call had been picked up. “My name is Dr. Lili Quan. I’m staying in room number three twenty-two. Could you refer any messages for me to this number.”
“What was that about?” Dylan asked, as she hung up.
“Just before I got on the train in Beijing, I slipped my grandfather’s research notes to a tourist I’d met on the plane over.”
“Was that wise?”
“As it turned out, if I hadn’t, I would have been killed the moment Lin and his cronies found it. This way I bought time and managed to escape.” She yawned, the hot toddy’s effect.
“Where’s this tourist now?”
Eyes half-closing. “On her way to Hong Kong. The tour gets in this afternoon. She’s to call me as soon as she arrives.”
It was only eleven.
Dylan gently pushed her down on the bed.
“Taking advantage of a lady’s vulnerability?” Lili slurred.
“I wouldn’t think of it.” He lay a blanket over her. “I like my women wide awake and excuse-free.”
“How about a rain check?” she mumbled.
Dylan placed a platonic kiss on her forehead. “You got it.”
Exhausted, Lili sank into a dreamless sleep.
Downstairs, in the hotel lobby, the assistant manager tapped Lin on the shoulder. “I have that information for you.”
Hong Kong assaulted Chi-Wen. Its sights, its smells, its sounds were at once chaotic and exciting.
Even in Guangchou he had not seen so many cars or heard so much noise or smelled so many intermingling odors. Most people he passed on the streets were Chinese, yet something in their self-confident gait and open stares was in sharp contrast to the Mainlanders. He stopped to scan the horizon. Just north, across the harbor, the dark hills of China almost drifted in the murky, humid air. So close, yet worlds away. There people walked with closed faces and little bounce, aware every move was observed, afraid to draw attention to themselves.
Both places were chaotic, but China’s chaos was government created, while Hong Kong’s was of the peoples’ making. Knowing that didn’t alter the fact that he felt different here.
Different. Another reminder of Lili.
He asked a passerby the time, and learned it was close to five. Rush hour traffic was just beginning to fill the narrow streets. “How far is the Peninsula Hotel?”
“Two blocks. Salisbury Road. You can’t miss it, sir.” Evidently the clean, tailored suit provided a facade of confidence Chi-Wen lacked.
“Thank you,” he replied and hurried up the street. Only a matter of minutes until he finally saw Lili again.
Two rings before the telephone woke her.
<
br /> “Lili, is that you?”
“Dottie?” Lili checked the bedside clock: five after five. She’d slept all afternoon. “Where are you?”
“You’ll never guess,” the ex-geography teacher gushed, oblivious to Lili’s urgency. “After almost a month in China, I finally ran into the man of my dreams!”
“That’s wonderful, Dottie.” Lili sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes.
“A widower from London. I met him on the Li River cruise. Although I wouldn’t actually call it a cruise.” That Dr. Ruth giggle. “Just a floating barge, but the view of the Guilin hills is magnificent —”
Interrupting, Lili was fully awake now: “Dottie, you still have what I gave you?”
“Your grandfather’s private letters?”
That was the cover story Lili had used. “Yes.”
“Sure.” Another giggle. “I feel like a regular Mata Hari. It’ll make a good chapter for my book.”
“Did anyone try to stop you?”
“No one. The advantage of a tour, I guess.”
Lili’s racing heart slowed. “Where are you now?” she repeated.
“I dropped my group. It’s the last day and Fred promised to show me the same sights. He travels regularly to the Far East. We’re heading for the Tiger Balm Garden now. I thought you could meet us there. At quarter to six.”
“I’m on my way.”
“I’ll be the one with the Hakka hat and the handsome guy in tow,” Dottie laughed and hung up.
Lili pulled her robe around her and ran into the living room.
Dylan stood near the phone. “I’m sorry the call woke you.”
“It was my friend. She’s brought grandfather’s papers. I’m meeting her at the Tiger Balm Garden.”
“I’m coming with you.”
Lili smiled at Dylan. “A bodyguard would be nice.” She started back into the bedroom. “Give me a minute to get dressed.”
“A woman just called.”
“And?”
Beads of sweat appeared on the young man’s brow. He wiped them away with a silk handkerchief. “And Dr. Quan asked if she had her grandfather’s private letters.”
“And?” Lin had no patience for this gutless idiot.
“The woman said yes.”
So Seng had been right. All these years Dr. Cheng had hidden his research notes at the Institute. Dying, he gave them to his granddaughter and she’d managed to pass them along before being caught in Beijing. Clever girl.
“Dr. Quan plans to meet her at the Tiger Balm Garden at quarter to six.”
Lin nodded. “You’ve done well, my friend. Good fortune will shine upon your family.”
It was the absence of bad luck most Chinese hoped for.
“Please call me a cab.”
“Tiger Balm Garden.” Dylan hung up as Lili entered the suite’s living room.
“Who were you talking to?”
“I asked the concierge to reserve a cab. I didn’t want you to be late for your meeting.”
“Did I tell you how glad I am you’re here?” Lili moved close to him.
“You did, and I’m a glutton for compliments.” Dylan put an arm around her. “If we don’t get out of here in a hurry, I’m going to expect that rain check right now.”
Chi-Wen arrived at the Peninsula just as Lili and Dylan stepped into a taxi.
Lili. The memory of the feel of her body and the sound of her voice awakened pent-up emotions. Though he longed to touch her, to hear her speak again, he refrained from calling out to her. Instead, he observed the way she was smiling up at the handsome young man, how the two held their faces close together. He experienced a terrible ache in his chest.
Be glad she’s fine, he told himself. After all, he was one who’d contacted Dylan by fax. Still, the twinge of jealousy was beyond his control.
“Tiger Balm Garden.”
He watched as the taxi pulled away from the curb, wondering what to do. Perhaps he should leave. No sense interfering. He’d promised Dr. Cheng to make sure Lili arrived safely in Hong Kong. He’d fulfilled that obligation.
His musing was interrupted when someone jumped into the next cab in the queue.
“Follow them!” a man in a dark suit ordered.
Chi-Wen did a double take. He glimpsed the man in profile and was certain it was Lin! What was the foreign minister doing in Hong Kong? How had he found Lili? Chi-Wen hailed his own taxi.
“Where to, sir?”
“Tiger Balm Garden,” he told the driver.
Chi-Wen had no choice. Lili was in trouble.
The cab headed toward the Cross Harbor Tunnel that led from Kowloon to Hong Kong Island.
“And hurry.”
Dusk.
In the shadowy blue light, the plaster figures surrounding the Haw Par Mansion appeared particularly grotesque. Dylan and Lili began climbing the steep hillside looking for Dottie. Apt, Lili thought, that the sixteen million Hong Kong dollars it took to build this eight acre monstrosity had come from Tiger Balm patent medicine. Indeed, if David Kim or Ng or Halliday had been able to exploit grandfather’s secret, they could have easily bested old man Aw Boon Haw’s fortune by billions.
“You’re sure she’ll show?” Dylan checked his watch. “It’s quarter to six.”
“You’re more impatient than I am,” Lili replied. “She’ll get here. Let’s check out these horrible statues.”
“The figures depict Chinese folktales or Buddhist stories,” a tour guide sing-songed to her group.
“What’s this one?” someone asked, pointing to a particularly lurid set of figures.
“It represents the Ten Courts of Hell.”
“Not a pretty sight,” Dylan observed.
“Lili! Over here!” Dottie called from just below them near the Tiger Pagoda. Dressed in her Hakka hat, her arm possessively hugged a thin, bald-headed man at least six inches shorter than she.
“Sorry we’re late,” Dottie apologized when they’d reached her. “Fred wanted to show me the Aw family’s jade collection. It’s in the mansion. If you have time, you must see it.” She squeezed the little bald man’s arm. “This is my new friend, Fred Delbert.”
“Pleased to meet you.” Fred had a decided British accent.
“And this is my old friend, Dylan O’Hara.”
“Ah.” Dottie winked. “The fellow you were meeting in Beijing.”
“Well, actually —”
But Dottie expected no reply. “Fred was just in China on business,” she reported.
“Oh?” Lili felt obligated to make polite conversation.
“I’m trying to sell the Chinese on nappies,” Fred explained. “You know those split pants all the babies wear. If even half the population switches over, my company stands to make a bundle.”
Dottie beamed at him, clearly smitten. “Isn’t he something?”
“The Gardens close in ten minutes,” a uniformed guard announced.
Most of the crowd had dispersed.
“We’d better get going, love,” Fred told Dottie. “We don’t want to miss our dinner reservation.”
“Fred’s taking me to Lung Wah’s. He says the steamed pigeon and snake soup are superb.” Dottie opened her purse and handed Lili an envelope. “Your grandfather’s letters are inside.”
“Thank you. I really appreciate your help.”
“Nonsense, my dear. I’m only sorry it was so easy. I’ll have to embellish the story if I ever write that book.”
Lili smiled. “Well, be sure to send me a copy when it’s finished.”
“Actually, I’m giving up the idea of writing for the moment. Fred has talked me into returning to London with him.” Dottie gave her a hug. “Wish me luck,” she whispered.
“Have fun,” Lili whispered back.
As soon as Fred and Dottie disappeared down the hillside path, Dylan took the envelope from Lili. “Imagine the single greatest discovery mankind will ever know.”
Even in the dim light, Lili recognized the same fire i
n his eyes she’d first seen the night he’d described his own work on longevity. For a moment she studied him, wondering if the chill she was feeling came from the breeze over Causeway Bay or something else.
Lin’s cab stopped a block from the Tiger Balm Garden.
Chi-Wen waited until the foreign minister had paid his fare, then followed him up the steep hillside. Afraid to call attention to himself, Chi-Wen kept his pace steady, though considerably slower; his tennis shoes muffling urgent steps. At the garden’s entrance he lost sight of Lin when several tour groups burst en masse through the gates toward their buses.
Straining in the fading daylight, Chi-Wen studied the maze of paths and levels beyond the mansion, reminded of a great labyrinth. Bizarre multicolored plaster statues, effigies from Chinese mythology, life-size plastic figures of Chinese emperors, and huge extravagant animal sculptures were scattered amid stairs, grottoes, and small, but meticulously tended, terraces. It was a perfect blend of artifice and chaos.
Murky shadows made his search difficult, though few people remained on the eight acres so near to closing time. Finally, he saw the dark-suited figure — Lin hurrying several levels above where Chi-Wen stood. He followed, reaching the top breathless, heart pounding just as the foreign minister ducked inside the white pagoda, a sacred multistory temple and symbol of the Tiger Balm Garden.
From the opposite side, Chi-Wen tiptoed into the open building, deserted now except for Lin and himself. Footsteps echoed off tiled stairs. Chi-Wen silently made his way up to the third level where he slipped behind a pillar, giving him a shadowed view of Lin.
Five minutes passed. Chi-Wen knew that the garden would close in less than ten minutes. Something had to happen soon. Hiding among the shadows, he edged closer until he was near enough to follow Lin’s unwavering gaze to the grounds below. In the semidarkness, he recognized Lili and Dylan talking with a bald-headed man and a woman in a Hakka hat. He was too far away to hear their conversation.
What’s the foreign minister up to?
Chi-Wen’s mouth went dry with apprehension. He’s stalking her! Waiting for an opportunity to kidnap her again!
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