Bonelli closed the door and stood leaning against it; adjusting the immaculate set of his tie. He said: “If you would perhaps be kind enough to present me...” His voice was cold with anger; and I supposed that it wasn’t often that frail little things like Mai burst into his office and almost put a half-nelson on him. And there was also the destruction of a cherished image; he’d told me that his office was safe, well protected, and who should burst into it, throwing the guards about, disarming them, and putting an arm-lock on the boss himself? None but a frail and pretty little thing he must have thought he could have blown over with a good puff. Soothing his ruffled feathers, he opened the door again and said savagely to the men outside: “All right, get back to your work.” One of them started, ashamed, to explain, but Bonelli slammed the door in his face and turned and said viciously: “A virago!”
“Yes, I suppose you could call her that. But a nice one. Senhor Carlo Bonelli. Miss Mai Cho-sing.” Bonelli recovered his composure, but not enough to do more than bow imperceptibly. I said: “Sit down, Mai, I know why you are here.”
Recovering some more, Bonelli made a slight gesture towards a blue and green silk-covered ebony chair, and Mai hesitated, then sat there almost sulkily. She glared at me for a moment with more venom in her lovely face than I’d ever expect to see on one so young-seeming; and then she said, puzzled:
“You were expecting me?”
I said: “Sooner or later. Didn’t they contact you?”
Melindo was hovering there in the background, not quite knowing what to do. I gave him a thousand dollars and said: “I may need you again, Melindo. And thanks.” He stuffed the money into his shirt, down by the waist, and pulled his belt over it; he bowed politely and left, and I said to Mai: “All right, they called you? Sent a messenger?”
She took a deep breath, looked at Bonelli, and half-smiled. She said: “I’m sorry. I was very rude, was I not? But I was worried. I do hope I didn’t hurt you.” Smiling at him, she said, as though to justify his helplessness against her: “I am trained in these things. It’s not always easy to accept, I know.”
Now, he bowed more graciously. The aplomb was all back in its proper place again. He said: “I’m sure you will forgive me if I pour myself a large glass of cognac? May I offer you one, Mai Cho-sing?”
She shook her head and looked at me. She said slowly: “Yes, a phone call, how did you know?”
I said: “A link to me, and thank God for it. That’s why they didn’t take you too. I was worrying about it. They wanted a sure way of getting a message to me. And proof positive that Bettina didn’t just get up and go.”
She was busy trying to fix her torn dress, and Bonelli, a gentleman again, clapped his hands for one of his girls. She came in and made a polite little bow, looked at the high collar of Mai’s dress and wondered about it; then Bonelli said shortly: “Needle and thread.” The girl went out and Mai said: “Fifteen minutes ago, I was sleeping. They drugged my drink, did you know that?”
I nodded. “Chloral hydrate. It was I who put you to bed and wrapped you up.”
“Oh. Well, a man who spoke Mandarin called. He said Bettina is with them, a hostage, and that they will exchange her for information they want from you.”
“Did they say what information? Not that it really matters very much.”
“No, they did not. They said you should come to the Tang-si tonight at ten o’clock. That’s one of the junks in the harbor.”
“Sailing for China tomorrow,” Bonelli said promptly.
I asked her: “And that’s where Bettina is now?”
“Yes. She’s on board the junk.”
“Then we know what we have to do, don’t we?”
Mai looked at me uncertainly. “It must almost certainly not be true. They would not tell you where she is.”
“Uh-huh. How do you feel?”
Surprised, she said: “Fine, why?”
I said: “I’m wondering whether to let you sit here and sweat it out...or to take you along with me tonight.”
“To the junk? But surely you don’t believe...”
“She’s in a storehouse on Rua Querenta, and tonight I’m going to get her out.”
Mai got to her feet and said sharply: “Then let us go there now.”
Bonelli was looking at her suddenly with a great deal of admiration. He said: “There are three men guarding her.”
Mai said: “Then we will need guns, perhaps.”
“And geese.”
“Oh.” She looked at me, and I said: “No problem with the geese. And no guns, we can’t litter the colony with corpses. It wouldn’t be proper. Do you know anything about the Wuh-keis?”
She frowned. “Y-e-s...an ancient sect of fighting men.” She said sharply: “The guards? Wuh-keis?”
“Probably.”
There was a long silence. At last, she said: “I believe Bettina told you that I am expert in many of the...the arts of self-defense. For karate, for judo, for all the others...for me, these things are very easy. But it is not possible to fight against a Wuh-kei. You should know that. We must have a gun, and even then...”
Bonelli said: “She’s right, Cain. You’re a big man, a strong man, but don’t imagine that you can do anything, anything at all, with your bare hands.” He said smoothly: “But I believe you have already learned that, no?”
I felt the bump at the top of my head. “I’ve learned it.”
He went to the door and opened it, and turned and said: “I’ll be back in a moment.”
And then, the two of us were alone. There was a little silence, and Mai sat down again and waited, her eyes cast down, as though the intimacy of just the two of us meant something and that she had to be demure. The savage little wildcat who had burst into the room was gone, and in its place there was just a lovely young girl looking shy and alone and half frightened. The sudden change was quite charming.
She said at last: “Will they have hurt Bettina?”
“Yes, they hurt her.”
There were almost tears there. “And you too? The Wuh-keis?”
