San Francisco, present day
Xan hated being lost, especially in a city as small as San Francisco.
Chinatown had sold its soul, lifting its skirt for anyone with a dollar in his pocket. Plastic dragons, pagoda keychains,
mild
Szechuan cooking. What started as an ethnic neighborhood had become a cesspool of tourism.
But he was making progress, and there were some who still remembered where they came from. Some believed his story—a worried uncle looking for his niece—others saw him more clearly. They might not know Xan, but they had known men like him.
Fear was an excellent motivator.
Cape realized he was grinning like an idiot.
Staring at Sally, he said, “You’re not dead,” realizing how stupid that sounded. Then he said it again.
Sally smiled. “You said that already.”
“Just wanted to make sure.”
The two friends looked at each other, neither one moving. In all the years they’d known each other, they had never embraced, but their bond was palpable in the confines of the small chamber. Cape knew he wouldn’t be standing there if not for Sally, who had saved his life more than once, often putting her own at risk. When Sally looked at Cape, she saw the second man she had completely trusted, the first a half-remembered father from a childhood stolen long ago.
“What’s so funny?” asked Cape, seeing her expression.
“You remind me of my father.”
“I must have aged while you were gone.”
“Maybe that’s it,” replied Sally, adding, “thanks for coming.”
One-eyed Dong interrupted. “I already told him he was late.”
Cape shrugged. “I’ve been busy.”
“I know,” said Sally in a conspiratorial whisper, sitting on the edge of the desk.
Cape looked from Sally to Dong and back again.
He asked, “Someone mind telling me what’s going on?”
Dong turned to Sally and said something under his breath. Sally shook her head and responded with a torrent of Cantonese, gesturing toward Cape as she talked. He always marveled at how seamlessly she moved from one language to another. Unlike Dong, Sally spoke American-English with no discernible accent, able to curse like a sailor or play Scrabble with the best of them. Cape suspected the same was true for her other languages.
Sally gave Dong one more dose of Cantonese before turning back to Cape. “Where do you want to start?”
Cape caught himself before a hundred questions jumped out at once. He’d been so focused on finding Sally and making something—
anything
—happen, he hadn’t stopped to think.
“Might be easier if you asked questions,” suggested Sally. “I don’t know what you already know.”
Cape nodded, trying to organize his thoughts.
Might as well start at the beginning
.
“Were you onboard that ship?”
“No.”
Cape let out a breath he didn’t know he was holding.
“But someone…” He tried to find the right words. “Someone
like
you was there.”
“Her name is Lin,” said Sally, sounding very tired. “She went to the same school, was trained the same way. Her older sister was my—” Sally’s eyes clouded over for an instant. “She was…my roommate.”
Cape wanted to ask something else but left it alone. “She was injured, wasn’t she?” He described the blood outside Sally’s place.
“Badly.” Sally’s expression was grave.
“You brought her here?”
Sally nodded. “Dong sent word to me—a card with a red triangle. He somehow knew Lin was coming.”
“I may be exiled,” said Dong, “but I still have friends.”
“My place wasn’t safe,” added Sally. “I patched Lin up, then she passed out. She’s been unconscious until last night.”
“
Why
is she here?”
“She stole something,” replied Sally, “and smuggled it out of Hong Kong.”
“What?”
Sally turned to Dong, who was stirring sugar into his tea. With a theatrical sigh, he shook his head and ducked under the desk, only to reappear a moment later. He held something roughly the size of an orange wrapped in burlap, which he placed on the desk with a resounding
thunk
.
He unwrapped it slowly, revealing the blood-red stone, the finely carved scales, the curves that made it look, at first, like a human heart. Cape addressed his next question to Dong:
“What is it?”
Dong smiled, arching the eyebrow over his good eye. “Isn’t that obvious?” he asked playfully. “It’s the stuff dreams are made of.”
Cape studied the stone heart that looked like a dragon when the light caught it in a certain way.
The stuff that dreams are made of
. He looked at One-eyed Dong. “Is that your best Humphrey Bogart impersonation?”
“I was doing Shakespeare,” said Dong defensively. “
The Tempest.
”
Sally interrupted by lifting the dragon off the table and handing it to Cape. He hefted it in his right hand, surprised at its weight. It felt warm, and as he turned it in the light, the dragon’s eyes seemed to glow.
“So what is it?” he repeated, looking at Sally.
“It’s a talisman,” she said. “A charm.”
Dong cut in. “If it’s in your possession, your victory is assured.”
Sally lowered her voice. “
He who holds the heart holds the future
.”
Cape frowned. “You sound like a fortune cookie.”
Sally shrugged. “I’m not saying I believe it, either.” She glanced at Dong. “I’m just telling you why it’s important.”
“To whom?”
“The Triads,” answered Sally before Dong could say anything. “When you think
Triad
, you probably think organized crime, and you’re right. But these societies, or clans, or whatever they call themselves—they go back hundreds of years.”
Dong added, “The original secret societies in China were established to overthrow an unjust emperor. They were patriotic, highly disciplined—”
Sally cut him off. “And very superstitious.”
Dong made a pouty face and poured more tea.
Sally continued. “Rituals, ceremonies, names.”
“Names.” Cape looked at Dong. “Like Incense Master?”
“Exactly.” Sally nodded. “These things have real power in the world of the Triads. And since the Triads have power in the real world…”
Cape finished the thought. “The power behind these things is real, whether you believe in them or not.”
“Yes.”
“So it’s valuable,” said Cape.
“That’s not why she stole it,” said Sally.
Dong said, “She was supposed to deliver it to someone.”
“Who?” asked Cape. “You?”
“Heavens, no,” said Dong. “Someone you know, here in San Francisco.”
Cape knew the answer before Dong said the name.
“Harold Yan.”
Xan looked at the man’s eyes and saw nothing but terror.
Truth always came from fear. He followed the line of the man’s arm as he pointed through the shop window, toward the alley across the street.
Xan released the man and nodded.
He was getting close.
“Harold Yan,” said Cape.
Sally and One-eyed Dong nodded in unison.
“The mayoral candidate.”
“The same.”
“And Lin—the girl on the ship—she said Yan told her to steal this dragon’s heart?”
“No.” Sally frowned. “She just said she had to find him. Remember, she was delirious—she was bleeding and had a fever. She didn’t even tell me she had the stone—I found it on her when I dressed her wounds.”
Cape frowned. “If she was looking for Yan, why come to you?”
Sally shrugged. “She knew I was in San Francisco, and she was hurt. She couldn’t risk passing out while talking to Yan’s receptionist or falling down in the street. Someone could find the dragon’s heart and steal it.”
“But why does Harold Yan want the heart? It doesn’t make sense.”
“Of course it does,” said Dong.
Cape looked at him. “Why?”
“Isn’t that obvious?” asked Dong. “He’s about to enter a contest—an election. The heart would assure his victory.”
Cape looked at the elaborately carved piece of jade sitting on the desk in front of him.
“But you just told me the dragon’s heart was part of Triad history.”
“Right,” said Sally.
“Which means Yan is part of a Triad.”
“Or under their influence,” said Dong.
“C’mon.”
“My dear boy,” said Dong, his tone just this side of condescending. “You’d be surprised how many politicians are criminals.”
“I’ve been saying that for years,” said Cape. “Every time I pay my taxes. But a Triad?”
Dong huffed. “Do you have any doubt the Mafia has infiltrated American politics over the years?”
Cape chewed on that for a minute. Last year a local Congressman got caught taking bribes in exchange for his vote on funding for the new Bay Bridge project. The investigation found the construction company paying him off had mob connections.
“OK,” he said to Dong. “Say Yan has connections to a Triad, or, as you said, the Triad has some leverage over Yan.”
“If Yan gets elected, it gives the Triad a foothold in San Francisco.”
“And?”
“That would be very, very bad.”
“Very,
very
bad?”
Dong leaned forward. “There are tongs, street gangs, and a handful of criminals in this city that already have loose connections to the Triads.”
“Like Freddie Wang,” said Cape.
Dong frowned. “An unsavory example, but a good one.”
Dong loved being the center of attention, but Cape wanted to cut the lesson short. “You’re saying there’s no central organization here, no power base like Hong Kong.”
“Or Shanghai,” said Dong. “Or even New York.”
“So?”
Sally cut in. “Remember those people on the ship?’
Cape thought of the faces he’d seen on Treasure Island, the brutal stories Mitch had told him. “Yeah?”
“Multiply that times a thousand.”
“She’s right,” said Dong. “Right now smuggling people is a side venture for the Triads—they make more from heroin and guns, with less risk. But occasionally they’ll exploit a situation, pull together a temporary organization to turn a profit.”
“Hire a snakehead,” said Cape, remembering the lesson from Mitch.
Dong raised his eyebrows. “Precisely.”
“But if they had a permanent base here in San Francisco…” began Cape.
Sally finished his thought. “Things could get a lot worse.”
“It’s a disgusting business,” muttered Dong.
Cape looked at him again, wondering when the English sophisticate became the Incense Master. Maybe Dong preferred the heroin trade, considered it more gentlemanly. The man was charming on the surface, but Cape had no doubt Dong could molt like a snake at a moment’s notice. He turned his attention back to the ship and something that had been bothering him since the beginning.
“Why did Lin kill the crew?”
“They deserved to die,” replied Sally without hesitation. She breathed through her nose, then in a calmer voice said, “Lin was trained to shadow and kill men. Men who are killers—not women and children. Even in death, there is a code.”
Cape studied his friend, wondering where you drew the line after you’d crossed it so many times.
“The crew were
sze kau
,” said Sally. “Triad thugs. At school, we called them 49s.”
Cape remembered Beau’s description of the ship, the number drawn in blood.
“Everyone in a Triad has a name and a number,” explained Dong. “Based on tradition. The Dragon Head is 489, or sometimes 21, which is 4+8+9. Mine was 438. The foot soldiers are 49s.”
“Numerology is a big deal in China,” added Sally, shrugging. “It gets complicated.”
Cape looked at Sally, thinking
complicated
didn’t even begin to describe her upbringing. He rubbed his temples and tried to concentrate.
“But why would Yan take the risk now?” he asked.
“The heart,” replied Dong. “The election.”
“I don’t know,” said Sally, forever the skeptic.
“Why don’t we ask Lin?” suggested Cape.
Sally and Dong exchanged a look.
“What?”
“We’ve got a little problem,” said Sally. “Lin has disappeared.”
Xan taught his students the value of patience, though he had none himself.
It had been a long day, and the night was turning cold. But as he looked across the street toward the alley, Xan smiled for the first time in days.
Patience had its rewards, after all.