Hong Kong by Stephen Coonts Page A

permanent men, George Wang and Carson Eisenberg. All three were Chinese-Americans; Lee and Wang had two Chinese parents, Eisenberg had a Chinese mother. All could speak perfect Cantonese and pass for natives, which they often did. This morning they wanted to shoot the breeze about Harold Barnes, who had been in Hong Kong for only a couple of months before he was killed.
    "I went to the police department this morning," Eisenberg told Tommy, "to see if they have developed any leads on Barnes. They were all atwitter over China Bob's murder last night. You and Kerry got out of there just in time. They kept everyone else until dawn, including Mr. Cole."
    'Did they ever find the murder weapon?"
    "Little automatic, nickel-plated?"
    "Could have been."
    "Found it in the secretary's office just outside the library, in the trash can.
    "That makes sense," Kerry Kent said. "If I had just shot someone, I would want to get rid of the weapon as soon as possible."
    Tommy Carmellini stared at her in amazement. She was either ditsy or had more brass than any broad he had ever run across.
    Lee and the others spent a very pleasant half hour going over the Chan layout with Tommy, speculating about motives, generally rehashing everything, and reaching no conclusions.
    Then, finally, the men returned to their offices, closed their doors, unlocked their private safes, and got on with the business of covert and overt espionage, leaving Carmellini to the gentle company of the British transplant, Kerry Kent.
    "I wonder who has the tape," she said. "Barnes was always such a careful workman. One must assume the device worked and someone swiped the tape."
    Carmellini shrugged.
    "One has to assume," she continued, "that the tape is the key to the mystery."
    "If you think I have it, you're barking at the wrong dog," he said.
    She came over to the desk where he was sitting, squatted so her face was level with his. No more than twelve inches separated them. "You can trust me, you know."
    "So you think I have it."
    "I don't think you trust me."
    "Whatever would give you that impression? I've known you three whole days ... no, four now. Four delightful days of humdrum work and one evening of romance lite. You kissed me what? Twice? I trust you as much as you trust me."
    "I never mix business and pleasure."
    "So there's no hope for us? Wait until my mother hears the news; she had such high hopes. Now get up off the floor and go sit in a chair. A woman kneeling before me will give people the wrong impression and create a tragic precedent."
    Kerry did as he asked.
    "What I'd like to know," he said, "is how many people paraded
    through that library before and after me, looked over China Bob's corpse, then went back to the party and didn't say a word to anyone."
    "This morning a request came in from the chairman of the congressional committee," she informed him. "Congress invited China Bob to Washington to testify."
    "All expenses paid, no doubt."
    "The poor man is probably better off dead," Kerry said firmly. "His position between the Chinese and the Americans was going to get scorching hot."
    "Whoever shot him did him a real favor," Carmellini agreed. He picked up his attache case and walked out of the office.
    "I had just graduated from college when I first came to Hong Kong," Callie Grafton told her husband as they walked the streets of Kowloon, taking in the sights, sounds, and smells. "I felt like I had finally come to the center of the earth's civilization, the place where all the currents and tides came together.
    "I remember my first ride on the Star Ferry as if it were yesterday. The white-and-green boat was Morning Star, very propitious, you must agree, for a girl making her way in the world for the very first time. All of the thirty-nine-ton double-ended diesel boats are named for stars, and between them made four hundred and twenty crossings a day between Kowloon and Central. Each crossing took about ten minutes, regardless of the weather or sea