Taken off guard by this unexpected offer, Tristan hesitated Without conferring with Marissa, he said to Bentley, “Tell him that I will only pay three thousand dollars Hong Kong, and that’s final.”
While Bentley translated for Zur, Marissa stood up and went over to Tristan.
“I hope we know what we’re doing,” she said.
She was miffed he hadn’t consulted her and fearful about the venture
It hardly sounded safe.
“Are you sure we should go through with this?”
“It could be our best bet,” said Tristan.
“If we can talk to a pair of these mainlanders before they get to Australia, we would most likely get to the bottom of this whole affair.”
“Possibly, but we’re talking about smuggling,” Marissa said.
“We’ll be in Communist Chinese waters. And what if it involves drugs? Smuggling drugs is a capital crime in most of Asia.”
“You’re right,” Tristan said reluctantly.
“But we can find out if it’s drugs.”
Tristan went over and interrupted Bentley and Zur.
“Ask him if picking up these men involves drugs in any way,” Tristan said.
Bentley did as he was told. Zur listened, then shook his head.
After a short conversation, Bentley turned back to Tristan.
“No drugs,” he said.
“Zur has on occasion been involved with drugs, but not lately. He says that drug running has become too dangerous.
“What about his price?” Tristan asked.
“Three thousand five hundred,” Bentley said.
“I can’t get him down any lower.”
“Fine!” Tristan said.
“Tell him we’ll be back at six.”
“Tristan,” Marissa said.
“I don’t know..
“How do we get off this junk?” Tristan asked, interrupting Marissa. He motioned for her to be quiet.
“We are not going on that piece of ‘junk,” Marissa said the moment they climbed into the armored Mercedes. She was irritated with Tristan for committing them without her approval.
“Even if Zur is not involved with the drug trade, he goes into Communist China waters. If we get picked up, we could be in prison for God knows how long. We can’t take that kind of risk.”
“Seems to me we’ve been taking more risk just being here in Hong Kong,” Tristan said.
“The more I think about it, the more convinced I am that going with Captain Fa-Huang will be the only way to solve this affair: trace it back to its origins. That had been my original idea.”
“Where to?” Bentley said from the front seat.
Tristan motioned for Bentley to wait.
“People go to the PRC all the time,” he said.
“I happen to know that we can get visas in a matter of hours. It just means paying a little extra. If there is any trouble, then we can just say that we’d hired the captain to take us to the PRC, which is true. We’ll say we were supposed to go to Guangzhou, but that the captain cheated us.”
Turning, to Bentley, Tristan asked: “Aren’t there a lot of people going back and forth between Hong Kong and the PRCT’ “More and more each day,” Bentley answered.
“The PRC encourages people from Hong Kong to come to spend their dollars. I have a permanent visa and go frequently to Shenzhen.”
“Good,” Tristan said.
“Because I was hoping you’d come with
US.”
“It’s possible,” Bentley said slowly.
“But we’ll have to renegotiate my hourly wage.”
“I expected as much,” Tristan said.
“I’m finally beginning to understand how Hong Kong works.” Then, turning to Marissa, he said: “Will that make you feel a little better?”
Marissa nodded, but she still had an uneasy feeling about the proposed venture. Tristan could tell she still wasn’t convinced.
“Well,” he said.
“If you really don’t want to do this, just say the word. We can still catch a plane out of here this afternoon.
I personally think it’s less risky than what we’ve been doing here in Hong Kong. Zur’s apparently been doing it for years.”
Marissa wasn’t sure what she wanted to do. She was anxious about the proposed trip, but she hated the thought of giving up.
Finally she said, “Why don’t we go ahead and get the visas. Then later we’ll talk about it again.”
In a private suite in the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation building, Ned Kelly waited patiently to see Harold Pang, one of the Taipans of the city. As the chairman of the board of several corporations, he was one of the most powerful men in the colony. Befitting his station, his was one of the most sumptuous homes on Victoria Peak. Yet in addition to his far flung legitimate business connections, he was also the Dragon Head of the Wing Sin. It was largely due to this illicit position that he’d been able to achieve so much legitimately.