backward.
Bai bounded to her feet with a dancer’s grace, uncoiling from the floor, right hand slipping inside her jacket and withdrawing the CZ75 from the holster in the same smooth motion. She leveled it at Zhou Zhi’s shock-slackened face, then adjusted her aim a trifle and squeezed off a single round.
The sound of the shot was lackluster, like a distant handclap. She doubted the report penetrated out into the foyer where the bodyguards waited. There was nothing lackluster about Zhou Zhi’s reaction when the bullet trimmed off the top of his big toe, taking the horny nail with it in a spray of blood.
Squalling in fear and agony Zhi toppled over sideways, plucking at his foot. Bai Suzhen whirled back toward Jimmy Cao, who dislodged the cigarette from his nostril and groped beneath his suit jacket. She jammed the barrel of the CZ75 hard against the side of his neck.
“You’d better be grabbing for something to blow your nose with,” she said flatly. “Babe.”
Cao raised his hands and she reached in under his coat, found the butt of a Glock 9mm and pulled it out the holster. She tossed it across the room, into the shrubbery.
“You have a buyer?” she demanded, digging the bore of her pistol against the underside of his jaw.
Swallowing hard, Cao said hoarsely, “An Englishman.”
“His name?”
Cao’s lips peeled back over his teeth. “I don’t remember. Something French.”
Bai Suzhen pressed harder with the automatic. “You said he was British.”
“He lives in London, but he has a French name.”
“Send him to me and I’ll deal with him on my own terms. If you and Zhi want your cut, you’ll stay out of my way.”
Bending close, she switched to English and whispered into his ear, “Or I’ll have your balls cut off, pickled and sent to me in a Ming vase. Do we understand each other, you little Taiwanese piece of shit?”
Jimmy Cao couldn’t nod because of the painful position of the gun barrel, but he said hoarsely, “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes—Madame White Snake.”
Bai Suzhen whipped the gun away from Cao’s neck and he sagged over the table, gagging and coughing. Returning her pistol to the shoulder holster, she glanced contemptuously at the whimpering Zhou Zhi, still vainly groping for his bleeding foot.
Turning toward Lady Hu, she inclined her head and upper body in a deferential bow. “I regret you had to see this, grandmother.”
The old woman’s lips twitched. “Do not. I found the display very entertaining. I wondered when you would lose your tempers with these two pigs.”
Bai Suzhen smiled fleetingly and asked, “Do you know the name of the buyer?”
“Aubrey Belleau,” Lady Hu answered. “I shall report to him that our business meeting concluded satisfactorily and he may contact you on Little Tamtung. You are truly the white serpent of good fortune. May you prosper and enjoy a safe passage, granddaughter.”
CHAPTER FOUR
May 9, Chubut Province, Patagonia
Honoré Roxton pushed up the brim of her dusty white Stetson and returned the hollow-eyed stare of the Troodon skull, half buried in the loose dust and dirt. She said, “This is just one of an amazing treasure trove of fossils that have been unearthed in Patagonia, giving paleontologists our first view of the whole range of life in the mysterious middle Jurassic period.”
She spoke with the crisp and ear-pleasing enunciation of a well-educated Britisher. “The Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits here have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. This, together with the discovery of the perfect cranium of a chelonian of the genus Myolania, which may be said to be almost identical with Myolania oweni of the Pleistocene age in Queensland.
“The Patagonian Myolania belongs to the Upper Chalk, having been found associated with remains of Dinosauria, like this sample of the Troodon. Aaron, what can you tell us about this species?”
Aaron Edwards carefully brushed dust away from the
Bai bounded to her feet with a dancer’s grace, uncoiling from the floor, right hand slipping inside her jacket and withdrawing the CZ75 from the holster in the same smooth motion. She leveled it at Zhou Zhi’s shock-slackened face, then adjusted her aim a trifle and squeezed off a single round.
The sound of the shot was lackluster, like a distant handclap. She doubted the report penetrated out into the foyer where the bodyguards waited. There was nothing lackluster about Zhou Zhi’s reaction when the bullet trimmed off the top of his big toe, taking the horny nail with it in a spray of blood.
Squalling in fear and agony Zhi toppled over sideways, plucking at his foot. Bai Suzhen whirled back toward Jimmy Cao, who dislodged the cigarette from his nostril and groped beneath his suit jacket. She jammed the barrel of the CZ75 hard against the side of his neck.
“You’d better be grabbing for something to blow your nose with,” she said flatly. “Babe.”
Cao raised his hands and she reached in under his coat, found the butt of a Glock 9mm and pulled it out the holster. She tossed it across the room, into the shrubbery.
“You have a buyer?” she demanded, digging the bore of her pistol against the underside of his jaw.
Swallowing hard, Cao said hoarsely, “An Englishman.”
“His name?”
Cao’s lips peeled back over his teeth. “I don’t remember. Something French.”
Bai Suzhen pressed harder with the automatic. “You said he was British.”
“He lives in London, but he has a French name.”
“Send him to me and I’ll deal with him on my own terms. If you and Zhi want your cut, you’ll stay out of my way.”
Bending close, she switched to English and whispered into his ear, “Or I’ll have your balls cut off, pickled and sent to me in a Ming vase. Do we understand each other, you little Taiwanese piece of shit?”
Jimmy Cao couldn’t nod because of the painful position of the gun barrel, but he said hoarsely, “Yes.”
“Yes, what?”
“Yes—Madame White Snake.”
Bai Suzhen whipped the gun away from Cao’s neck and he sagged over the table, gagging and coughing. Returning her pistol to the shoulder holster, she glanced contemptuously at the whimpering Zhou Zhi, still vainly groping for his bleeding foot.
Turning toward Lady Hu, she inclined her head and upper body in a deferential bow. “I regret you had to see this, grandmother.”
The old woman’s lips twitched. “Do not. I found the display very entertaining. I wondered when you would lose your tempers with these two pigs.”
Bai Suzhen smiled fleetingly and asked, “Do you know the name of the buyer?”
“Aubrey Belleau,” Lady Hu answered. “I shall report to him that our business meeting concluded satisfactorily and he may contact you on Little Tamtung. You are truly the white serpent of good fortune. May you prosper and enjoy a safe passage, granddaughter.”
CHAPTER FOUR
May 9, Chubut Province, Patagonia
Honoré Roxton pushed up the brim of her dusty white Stetson and returned the hollow-eyed stare of the Troodon skull, half buried in the loose dust and dirt. She said, “This is just one of an amazing treasure trove of fossils that have been unearthed in Patagonia, giving paleontologists our first view of the whole range of life in the mysterious middle Jurassic period.”
She spoke with the crisp and ear-pleasing enunciation of a well-educated Britisher. “The Upper Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits here have revealed a most interesting vertebrate fauna. This, together with the discovery of the perfect cranium of a chelonian of the genus Myolania, which may be said to be almost identical with Myolania oweni of the Pleistocene age in Queensland.
“The Patagonian Myolania belongs to the Upper Chalk, having been found associated with remains of Dinosauria, like this sample of the Troodon. Aaron, what can you tell us about this species?”
Aaron Edwards carefully brushed dust away from the
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