Abby was genuinely puzzled. “Dad went to the bank all the time. He was a regular there. Not only that, fooling around with bank accounts was about the only thing he knew how to do on a computer.”
“And I recognized the names of those companies and accounts because that’s what my father had me studying from the moment I got here. He billed a fortune to Golden Asia to make sure no one could ever figure out the chain of title, that no one knew who owned whom or what,” added Olivia.
“That means both your fathers had banking privileges on the same secret accounts but never used them?” asked Noah.
Abby wondered out loud. “Things just aren’t adding up. Why would your dad freeze accounts that had no money in them? Why did my father get your father to set them up in the first place?”
“Here’s another thing. They knew what they were doing,” said Chad. “Although a lot of the transactions were done at the bank, records show there was never a teller involved.”
“That can mean only one thing,” surmised Noah.
“What?” asked the other three in unison.
“Camouflage. Garret wanted to throw the scent off the real hiding place of the funds. So the question is, Olivia, who would your father have trusted with the info or the money?”
“He’s a lawyer. Trust is not in his vocabulary.”
They arrived at the Range Rover. Olivia opened the driver’s side door, and she and Abby started shrieking. Noah ran to the open door and saw the cause of their consternation. Sitting on the seat were the severed heads of three red-crowned cranes cut from the base of their necks. These rare birds, symbols of luck and prosperity, were magnificent even in death, with their long, sharp bills and brilliant bare red skin on the top of their heads.
“Hello? Hello? What’s happening?” asked Chad over the phone.
“We’ll tell you when we get back,” Noah told him.
Noah went to the passenger side and got in. He put the birds’ heads on his lap and wiped the blood off the driver’s seat with his shirt. He looked at Olivia. “Do you want to drive, or do you want to hold our friends’ heads?”
“I’ll drive.”
***
A lesser man would have been dead long ago. Both of Garret’s eyes were beaten black, his ribs were cracked and his mouth was bleeding. He was a defenseless human punching bag for Terry, a new recruit eager to prove his worth.
“Mr. Southam, Mr. Chin said not to kill you until you tell us where the rest of the money is. I know you got to be hurting, so why don’t you just be a good boy and tell me who’s got the dough and where it is?” Terry pleaded.
Garret whispered, “Listen, Terry, you don’t really want to die, do you?”
The young tough plowed a right into Garret’s stomach. “No, sir. That’s why I’ve got to keep you alive until you talk.”
Terry pummeled Garret again. And again. And again. Each blow was harder than the previous one. The force from a final blow toppled the chair, and Garret’s head knocked against the floor. The lawyer was unconscious and worse, maybe dead.
Terry eyes started blinking uncontrollably. This lifelong involuntary habit gave away his fear—not at the thought that he’d killed a man but at what Chin would do to him if Garret didn’t recover.
“Damn you, Garret. Wake up,” said the worried young man as he poured a cup of water over Garret’s face. There was no response. “Oh, shit. No, no.” The thug leaned over to check for a pulse with a second and third finger when suddenly Garret propelled himself up and bit off Terry’s ear.
As Terry reeled back, screaming in pain, Garret turned and head butted him; Garret’s forehead broke Terry’s nose. With the area where his ear used to be and his nose both bleeding, Terry tried to attack Garret. However, the thug was seriously weakened, and the feeble blows had no impact on the wounded but built-to-the-hilt lawyer.
With his legs having the strength of a railway car, Garret, still tied to the chair, pushed off and launched himself into an aerial somersault.
Suspended for a moment, with deadly aim, the chair came down hard. Two legs landed on Terry, penetrating his body, piercing his heart and lungs—instant death. Garret looked around for any kind of sharp object, as freeing himself from the tightly bound ropes was another matter. There was nothing in sight.
Garret pulled himself and the chair off Terry’s body. Even though mobility was difficult, Garret used his right hand to reach into one of the holes created by the chair, right into the corpse. Forcing his way through the gangster’s flesh, he grabbed a couple of ribs, snapped them and pulled them out. Using their sharp broken edges, he cut through the cords binding him and freed his hands, body and legs. He looked like hell, but he survived.
Grinning, Garret took Terry’s cell phone out of his pocket and coolly strolled away.
***
Dead end after dead end. Whenever it seemed progress was made, it turned out to be another smokescreen. Think outside the box, Chad. You’ve been searching all the normal places, done all the normal things, so maybe that means the key is in an abnormal spot. Okay, Chad. What is the most unlikely spot on a computer to find banking information?
Chad’s eyes opened—maybe it was hidden in plain sight with something so disconnected no one would ever suspect it. Like the iTunes Media folder.
Chad opened it and saw all the normal songs, books and podcasts. Also, a curious file had a game-like name called King of Kentucky. it was the only file on the computer Chad couldn’t crack. The King of Kentucky was an encrypted file with contents yet to be determined. He picked up the phone and called Noah.
The young lawyer picked up. “Got anything new?”
“Yeah, but I have no idea if it means anything or not. I found this last hidden file but, for the life of me, I can’t get the sucker to open, no matter what I try.”
“What’s it called?” Noah asked.
“King of Kentucky.”
“No way. When I was a kid, I asked Master Wu what he wanted to be if he wasn’t a sifu. He said, ‘King of Kentucky.’ Open it. It’s got to mean something.”
“That’s the problem, Noah. You didn’t hear me. It won’t let me and keeps on asking for a password. I have no idea what the hell it is, but the password question is, ‘What is the tie that binds?’”
“‘Blessed be the tie that binds’ is the name of a hymn,” said the missionary’s kid. “Try Jesus or God. That’s the tie that binds Christians together.”
“Duh, been there, done that. I lived with you and your parents for years. I’ve tried everything: Jesus, God, Son, Holy Spirit, Jehovah, Trinity and then all kinds of combinations.”
Noah groaned. “Check on who the composer is and try that.”
“Okay, the guy is John Fawcett. Nope. John. No. Fawcett. No.”
“How about trying something connected to Fawcett’s life? That might be something that binds.”
Chad’s face contorted as he tries, then rejects, new possibilities. “Chapel? No. Wainsgate? No. Carter’s Lane? No.”
***
Inside the Range Rover, Noah sings thoughtfully.
“Blest be the tie that binds
Our hearts in Christian love;
The fellowship of kindred minds
Is like to that above.”
“Nothing connects. Who is doing the tying, and who is doing the binding? Anything out of the ordinary?” asked Chad.
Olivia offered. “What if there’s a different kind of connection other than the Christian one?”
“My father was mainly Taoist,” said Abby. “He would never even dream of using a Christian reference.”
“Chin, Tommy, my father. What do they all have in common?” asked Olivia thoughtfully. Then she shouted in delight. “I got it. It’s Master Wu. Try Master Wu, Chad.
Moments later, Chad replied. “Sorry. I tried every possible combination. What was his real name or full name?”
Noah sighed. “As long as I knew him, he was always Master Wu or Sifu. Even when he got older and b
ecame a grandmaster, hardly anyone called him that.”
Over the phone, they could hear Chad’s fingers clicking away. Then suddenly the sound stopped.
Noah looked down to his lap as the Range Rover pulled into Tommy’s driveway. The heads of the dead cranes had dripped blood onto his pants.
A light went on in Noah’s head. “The tie that binds is not a people; it’s a system, it’s the philosophy, it’s the school. What binds Garret, Tommy, Chin and Master Wu is the Tiger and Crane. Try Hung Gar.”
***
Chad typed in Hung Gar. The password worked! He shouted, “Bingo!” but there was no opportunity to celebrate.
Duke, who was patiently hiding in the adjacent room. For a big man, he could be surprisingly quiet. Chad was totally unaware that Duke slipped into the house a couple of hours earlier.
Before Chad could utter a word, Duke grabbed him. He covered his mouth with his giant pudgy hand, muffling all sounds that Chad tried to make. “God, it took you long enough to figure that out.” He entered a number into his cell. “The code is Hung Gar.”
***
In Chin’s theater room, Marco typed Hung Gar into the computer. “It worked!”
Chin smiled. “Of course. See what’s in the file.”
“That’s where we need some time.” Marco shook his head. “I got in, but it’s going to take a while to figure out what the hell is in here. There are over five thousand files with very little description.”
Stella sidled up to Chin and purred. “Since we have some time, why don’t I make it pass away a little more pleasantly?”
Chin emotionlessly lifted her up by the throat with one hand.
“You found nothing.”
“Because there was nothing to be found,” gurgled Stella as she floundered in the air.
“You wasted my time. If you had been monitoring my accounts properly from the very beginning, you would have known that. That would have been valuable information, too.”
“I just assumed...”
“You assumed wrong. You also assumed that because you threw yourself at me like a nymphomaniac cat in heat that I would be swayed by something I can get from anyone, anywhere, male, female or animal.”
“No, no. You are the best. You are the best sex I’ve ever had.”
“Unfortunately, I cannot say the same about you. But even if you were, I have no room for incompetent amateurs.”
Chin began squeezing. Stella battled for her life, kicking and clawing, but her efforts were futile as he applied additional force, strangling her. He tossed her still body aside.
He punched in Terry’s cell number and barked, “Bring me Garret!”
“Sorry, Chin, Terry ain’t available,” said Garret on the other end of the line. In his best Arnold Schwarzenegger voice, Garret continued, “Hasta la vista, cowboy.”
The phone went to a dial tone, and Chin screamed, “Bring me Olivia!”
***
In the space of two seconds, a thug wearing a balaclava opened the door to the Range Rover. He yanked the combative Olivia out, then banged the door shut. Another felon quickly drove a screwdriver into the door lock, making it impossible to open.
Noah opened his door, but was greeted by arrows from crossbows shot by three other hooded henchmen. He slammed the door shut. The hoods drove screwdrivers into the remaining door locks, disabling them all. Noah and Abby watched helplessly as the four men carried a kicking, screaming Olivia into a black Mercedes.
Noah started pounding on the window when he saw Duke coming out the front door, carrying Chad by the throat. Duke’s grip on the coffee geek was tight. He cocked his other arm and, with one super punch from the mass of two hundred and fifty pounds, he completely mashed Chad’s face, breaking through his skull. Reaching in through the bloody skull, he grabbed the cerebral arteries and yanked them out.
“Chad! Chad!” screamed Noah.
Duke tossed Chad’s bleeding corpse onto the front windshield of the Range Rover. Then two gangsters calmly poured gasoline over the expensive car. One of them lit a match and threw it onto the car. The car ignited as the gangsters walk away.
“What are we going to do, Noah? It’s bulletproof glass. We can’t get out,” whimpered Abby.
“We have five seconds to find out if my theory is right.” Noah turned on the car and aimed it directly at the stone wall surrounding the property. He put the pedal to the metal, and the flaming vehicle crashed hard into the wall.
Noah’s idea worked, though. The impact of the crash scrunched the car, and the doors sprung open. “Run!” yelled Noah.
He and Abby raced toward the house. BOOM! The car exploded, and the force threw the two to the ground. They turned around and saw the car’s and Chad’s remains.
Noah knelt down over his dead friend. “No, Chad. You can’t leave. It’s not right.”
Abby gently tapped his shoulder. “We’ve got to go, Noah.”
“I just need a minute, Abby”
“We don’t have the time, Noah.”
“But even if we leave now,” Noah said, “I have no idea where to go. Olivia could be anywhere.”
“I think I can help with that answer,” called a familiar voice.
Noah and Abby looked up to see a disheveled, beaten, and bleeding Garret collapsing beside them.
“Get me some water!” yelled Noah as he rushed to Garret.
He slapped Garret on the face, but there was no response. He quickly felt the bones in Garret’s body—miraculously, there was nothing broken, although there was a lot of bleeding from lacerations.
Abby ran up with a pitcher of water. She washed his face, but Garret remained unconscious. “What are we going to do?”
“We need to keep him prone for a bit, and I also need some acupuncture needles.”
“What makes you think we have any around here?” Abby asked.
“Your dad didn’t trust Western doctors and was China crazy. Just look, and you’ll find some,” Noah said confidently.
Chapter 40
Duke and his thugs led Olivia with her hands tied behind her back into Chin’s headquarters. They tied her to the chair that just a little while before held her father.
Chin walked up to her. “The bold are free from fear. Are you afraid, Miss Southam?”
“No.” But Olivia cringed.
“Then you are a fool.” Chin grabbed Olivia’s hair and forced her to look at the corner of the room where Stella’s body laid. “You recognize Miss Wei, do you not? She was... momentarily useful, but then she disappointed me.”
Hiding her fear, Olivia spoke softly and slowly. “I don’t know anything. I just got back from New York. I have no idea what is going on with you, my father or Golden Asia.”
“You are the best friend of the daughter of the man who betrayed me. You are the daughter of the lawyer who betrayed me. You are a lawyer on my corporate account. Do you really think I believe you have no idea what is going on?”
“Are you going to kill me, too?” whimpered Olivia.
“Why are you so obsessed with death? Wouldn’t you rather be fifteen minutes of my amusement? I can accomplish a lot in a short period of time.” Chin gazed at Stella’s body. “Death and life have their determined appointment. Those of us that cooperate get to choose the times.”
Olivia pulled back as Chin changed his hold on her hair from grip to caress. He twirled a lock of it around his finger and then yanked it back. Reaching into his pocket, he pulled out a throwing star and used its razor edge to cut the lock off.
Noting that Olivia’s body was trembling, Chin took the star and slid it in front of her throat. “If I were you, I would stop moving. This star is right next to your jugular, and we certainly wouldn’t want any unnecessary movement to change your present situation, would we?”
An evil smile crossed Chin’s face as he took the glinting metal and pressed it against Olivia’s flesh. Although there was no blood, there was now a thin line marking her skin.
“Actually, yo
u have no reason to fear death from me. I did want to scare you, though, which I think we accomplished at the restaurant last night.”
“Killing my father would have accomplished nothing.”
“You’re right. Garret was not the target. You were. Not to kill you but to blind you in one eye. For a moment, it would have been painful beyond comprehension as the arrow pierced your eyeball and embedded itself close to your cranium. But you would have lived. Unfortunately for me, it was handled by an incompetent.” Chin stooped to face Olivia. “But there is no incompetence now.”
Although her fear welled to a rapid boil, Olivia instinctively knew that control of her emotions was mandatory if she wanted to stay alive.
“The firm, the enduring, the simple and the modest are close to virtue. These sayings were drummed into me and your father as we were growing up.”
Olivia couldn’t help herself as she spat out, “Too bad they didn’t stick.”
She shot out a kick with her leg, which affected Chin not a whit. He stood and unfolded his hands. “I like that in a woman,” he said. “Most try to grovel, hoping that by pleasing me I will give them some tidbit, some reprieve. They don’t know I enjoy a challenge.”
“Having me tied up like this is hardly a challenge. But you’ll get one when my father shows up.”
There was melancholy in Chin’s eyes. “I wish it were so. Your father has not been a challenge to me for many years. Not since fifteen years ago, when I arranged for a... a certain plane accident, which I believe you also witnessed.”
The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset Page 21