“My God!”
I said patiently: “An English, American, French, German woman—doesn’t matter a damn as long as she’s not an Oriental. Preferably about thirty years old, preferably skinny and blonde, and preferably intelligent. Essentially, she must he prepared to risk her life in return for a handsome payment, and she must know which side is up. An off-duty policewoman would be ideal. She’ll be in great danger for a few days, and then she can go home and spend her tax-free money.”
Harry said: “The policewomen here are all Orientals, or I’d have just the gal for you. What sort of danger? That’s the first question, isn’t it?”
“Mortal.”
“Oh.”
“I’ll be sticking close to her myself, and she’ll have an unobtrusive bodyguard as well, but—well, the danger’s acute. It needs a woman who has learned the hard way how to take care of herself, who won’t panic, and who’s been trained at least in some of the arts of survival. Is that too difficult?”
He grumbled: “Bloody impossible.”
He stretched out his long legs, and sunk his boyish chin onto his chest, and frowned darkly for a while, and then said: “A Eurasian, would she do?”
“No, she’s got to look like an American, even if only superficially.”
“There’s a tough bitch of a woman who runs a sleazy bar down the road. I’d trust her with my life, but she’s fifty years old and looks ninety.”
“Won’t do, Barry. Thirty, thirty-five. Preferably attractive, preferably sophisticated, and essentially...very tough.”
“Does she have to, well, look like anyone in particular? I mean, she’s obviously supposed to take someone’s place, isn’t she? And doesn’t that mean she’s got to look like a specific person?”
“Don’t guess too hard, Harry. As long as she looks as if she might be an American, might possibly be thirty-five or 50, might perhaps be this other person—but I want it found out pretty damn quickly that she’s not, if you get what I mean.”
“Before she gets killed off?”
“Something like that.”
“Sounds a little unappetizing, old boy. For her, I mean.”
“That’s why toughness is the prime quality I need.”
“Y-e-e-s...” He thought for a while and said at last, perhaps more to break the silence than anything else: “And the fee would be fairly generous, you suggest?”
“She can name her own. There’s a hell of a lot of money behind this operation.”
“That’s going to make it a bit easier, of course. Suppose you tell me what she’d have to do, or is that too indiscreet?”
Harry was never quite sure what I was up to, ever. He had a vague idea that I was in some sort of obscure government service, and my denials didn’t help a bit.
I said: “First she’ll have to be given a passport in the name of Sally Hyde. You can take care of that, can’t you? Yes, of course. Then, she’d have to take the ferry over to Macao, register in a hotel, take in a few nightspots, be seen around, ask a few dangerous questions, and then...Then she has to wait for someone to kidnap her. And that’s the someone I’m interested in.”
He pulled out a long, curved pipe, a Charatan straight-grain, and began thumbing tobacco into it. He said: “A woman who gets kidnapped always seems to get either raped or shot. Or both.”
“Yes, there’s always that danger. Probably, the shooting is more likely; sex is cheap enough in these parts. But the likelihood—and likelihoods are the things I deal in—is that this someone will want to find out what the hell she’s up to. And, while he’s finding that out, I’m finding him. Simple.”
“Simple, and dicey as all get-out.” I waited for him to translate, but he didn’t. He sighed. “I’m going to have to ask it, Cain, Who’s the someone?”
I said: “Alexander Ming.”
He sat up straight and stared at me and said at last: “Good Lord!” I told him that wasn’t a very apt comment, and he said: “Yes, but...Good God, that means the drug business. Or one of his other rackets?”
“Just Ming, personally.”
“Good God. I hope you know what you’re doing.”
“Yes, I do. Two things. First of all, with a phony Sally Hyde wandering around, the real one, who’s in hiding somewhere is going to surface.”
He said quickly: “You can’t be sure of that.”
“It’s a likelihood. And secondly, Ming is going to try and find out what she’s up to too. That much is certain. And that means in the last analysis, that he’s got to show at least a part of his organization. That’s all I want, a lead that’s concerned with this particular part of his operations.” He was a very worried man, Harry, and I leaned into him and said: “Alexander Ming and Sally Hyde are on a head-on course towards a bloody battle, and I’ve got to stop it before it starts, for obvious reasons. The real Sally Hyde has gone to ground, and if I dangle another one under Ming’s nose, he’s going to show his hand even if she doesn’t. And, with any luck, they both will; and then I can step in between them. It’s all very simple.”
“My God.”
There was a long silence. He said then, moodily: “Your generous fee has just shot up by about five hundred percent. That is, if she has to know the score.”
“She has to know it. It’s not only necessary; it’s also only fair that she should.”
“And how soon do you want her?”
“The sooner the better. If she could get to Macao in a day or two...”
“The passport will take a few hours. Does it have to stand inspection?”
“Superficial.”
“We have a department for that sort of thing. They’re very good.” He said suspiciously: “And we’d need it back when you’ve finished with her.”
