Code Name Komiko
Page 22
Torch: The change has been kind of a hassle to do, though. You ladies might not believe this, but Hong Kong bureaucracy can be somewhat difficult to work with!
Crowbar: Say it aint so!
Lian loved knowing who was on the other side of those code names now, imagining the smiles on Matt’s and Eva’s faces as they typed their little jokes and repartee. 06/04 had claimed strength in anonymity, but she felt that all of them were stronger for having revealed their true selves.
Komiko: Maybe the best news in all of this is that Kong Nuying’s parents finally have an answer for what happened to their daughter.
Komiko: That in and of itself is some closure. The answers that will be pried out of Harrison eventually can only help ease their pain.
Her bedroom door suddenly opened a crack. Lian quickly switched to the Desktop view.
“Oh, sorry,” said her mother, closing the door again. She gave a sharp rap on the other side. “It’s your mother,” she added unnecessarily through the door. “May I come in?”
“Just a second, Mama,” Lian called.
Komiko: Guys, I need to go now. I’ll be back online in time for the big shutdown this afternoon. 4:06 p.m. See you then.
11:47 AM HKT — Komiko has logged off
She closed the laptop and ran to answer her door. Her mother was there, waiting patiently but with a concerned look on her face.
“Could I have a word with you, Lian?”
“Of course,” Lian said, holding open the door. She had been dreading this conversation for days. She’d left Wednesday’s press conference too wired to sleep, and had spent the afternoon switching channels on the television and updating the news Web sites, looking for any morsel of information. After dinner she’d crashed hard and was surprised to wake near noon the next day, her mother having already called the school to say that Lian was ill and might not return until after the weekend.
To her surprise, it had been left to her father alone to nudge her for the truth about her involvement with Harrison. Her mother instead had worn a continuously worried expression, but had shown her concern through frequent spontaneous hugs and just as frequent offers of food. Her father had done his best to remain stoic, but he’d wanted to know how it was she came to be at the press conference, and what exactly her links were with the recording that sealed Harrison’s fate. She had pleaded ignorance, no connection outside of an economics class with the man’s son, and her father had accepted the explanation—just. As he too hugged her tight, he’d said in her ear, “You’re not telling me everything, little panda, I know that. However, I am going to trust you.”
But her mother’s curiosity had obviously reached its limits.
“Lian,” she said haltingly, “our maid found something in your laundry that needs an explanation immediately.”
Lian cocked her head. This certainly wasn’t how she’d expected the conversation to go.
“Tell me the truth, please,” her mother said. “Have you started smoking?”
Lian broke into a smile. “What?”
Her mother held up a matchbook, its cover open and a single match torn out. Lian recognized it after a second of confusion: Yeung had slipped it into her pocket as a farewell gift. Just good business. She started laughing and tried to stifle it, her hands over her mouth.
“This isn’t funny, Lian!” her mother said sharply. “I asked you a question. I need an answer.”
Lian took a deep breath and forced herself to put on a straight face. She reached for the smallest and most believable fib she could find.
“Those are from Mingmei’s house, Mama. She asked me to light a scented candle, last time we were studying. I must have just hung onto them by mistake.”
The relief that washed over her mother’s features was beautiful. “Oh, thank goodness,” she said. “For a moment . . . it seems silly now, but for just a moment I thought you might have done something you shouldn’t have.”
“No,” Lian said, throwing her arms around her mother. “I would never, ever do that. I’m still your good girl.”
“Still my little panda,” her mother agreed, hugging her back and kissing her on the forehead.
She closed the door behind her, and Lian lay back on the bed. It was such a little wisp of a lie, comforting to hear yet completely insubstantial.
But it was what her mother had wanted to hear. Scented candles were at the lower end—while still making an appearance—on a list of risks that Lian might take. Cigarettes were, she supposed, the upper limit of what her mother could imagine in this case.
So it wouldn’t have done any good to bring up the activist group that had staged the midnight office break-in that had led to her escape from a ninth-story window. Or to mention the hostage situation that had turned into a blazing inferno and ended with a well-placed bullet.
Scented candles were just fine.
Lian was about to open her laptop back up when her eyes fell on the matchbook, still open and resting on her comforter. Its cover was emblazed with words she knew all too well.
THE FAMILY HAND CAFÉ. The simple characters for mahjong. The dirty little dive where she’d first followed Harrison and Yeung.
Except that these matches had come from Zan. At some point, he’d been there, too.
Which meant that, at some point, he might go back. Especially if he had nowhere else to run.
Lian pocketed the matchbook and went to put on a jacket. She would text Matt and Eva on the way there. Before she left her room, she practiced the café’s code on her wall: three fast knocks, a pause, then two more.
Just a tiny courtesy before she kicked down their door.
Note To Our Readers
About This Electronic Book:
This electronic book was simultaneously published along with the printed book. We have made many changes in the formatting of this electronic edition, but in certain instances, we have left references from the printed book so that this version is more helpful to you.
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No part of this book may be reproduced by any means without the written permission of the publisher.
LCCN: 2013934268
Paul, Naomi.
Code Name Komiko / Naomi Paul.
Summary: In Hong Kong, high school senior Lian, code name Komiko, begins to investigate the Harrison Corporation, a clothing business using an illegal workforce, after a dead body washes up in Big Wave Bay. With the help of her cyber-investigating group 06/04, Komiko plunges into a world of corruption and danger to uncover Harrison Corps’ crimes.
ISBN 978-1-62324-023-3
Future Editions:
Paperback ISBN: 978-1-62324-024-0
EPUB ISBN: 978-1-62324-025-7
Single-User PDF ISBN: 978-1-62324-026-4
Multi-User PDF ISBN: 978-1-62324-027-1
This is the EPUB version 1.0.
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Cover Illustration: Photos.com/© Thinkstock.com (woman) and Shutterstock.com (Hong Kong skyline)
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Table of Contents
About this Book
About the Author
Title Page
Contents
Dedication
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Note to Our Readers
Copyright
More Books from Scarlet Voyage