The Interior - Страница 61

"You bastards," Henry said between gritted teeth.

"Henry, don't take it so personally," Randall said gently, playing the good cop to Miles's bad. "It's only business."

"Knight International has been my life. It's been my family's life."

Randall shrugged. "Then you should have thought of that before. Our offer is still on the table. We're ready to buy. But if you won't sell, then we have to go another way. It's your choice."

Silence fell over the room, with all attention focused on Henry. Then he said, "I have some thinking to do. Give me till the market opens."

"Agreed," Randall said. "I'm off to Singapore tomorrow. Miles and Doug will go back to the factory and wait for your decision there, but don't misunderstand me. I don't need your agreement on this. We'll go ahead with or without your approval. You can call it a merger, you can call it a sale, you can call it a hostile takeover, but in forty-eight hours Tartan will own Knight."

Henry nodded again, then stood. He looked at the faces in the room as if measuring them for the first time. Then his eyes settled on his son. "Doug, let's go." When his son didn't move, Henry's face and body sagged in further disappointment. Then he turned and walked toward the door.

"Any way you slice it, Henry," Randall called out after him, "you're out."

The words stopped Henry in his tracks. Then his back straightened, and without another word he left the room. Once he was gone, Miles said, "I think that went well. I bet he comes around by tomorrow."

Randall added, "Doug, I think you should go after him. Work on him. Make him understand. Whatever's happened in the factory is no concern of ours. We're happy to rectify his problems. You accomplish that, Doug, and I promise, I'll never forget it."

Doug didn't say a word. He simply stood and left the room to follow his orders.

"That Doug's a good soldier," Randall observed. "He's just stupid enough to obey without question." He looked around. "Let's get out of here. I'm bushed."

Making a point to ignore David, Randall, Miles, and the Tartan entourage left together.

David stayed in his chair, deep in thought. Miles Stout and Randall Craig had prepared for this evening in exactly the way it played out. They'd been at least one step ahead of David all along. More important, this only confirmed that they didn't care about the factory's problems. They'd been aware of them-as Randall had said-and were going ahead full bore. For David, the question was, what happened next? In one sense the hostile takeover solved some problems, because David wouldn't have to worry about illegally filed SEC or Foreign Corrupt Practices papers. As for what had happened in the factory, Henry Knight would be off the hook and David could get clear of this mess with a clean, if slightly tarnished, conscience. This still left the bribery and the deaths of Miaoshan, Keith Baxter and Xiao Yang. But it wasn't David's job to prove Sun's guilt, and there wasn't a scrap of proof of murder, only theory. If in fact those had been murders, whoever had committed them could walk away and there was nothing that David could do about it.

He went downstairs and found Hulan leaning against a pillar, staring into the bar. When she saw him, she took his hand and pulled him behind her. "Look," she whispered and gestured with a slight tip of her head into the bar's darkness.

Whatever relief he'd felt moments before evaporated when he saw sitting at a back table against the wall Pearl Jenner and Guy Lin, who looked as miserable as ever in a loose suit that hung baggily on his thin shoulders. They were talking to another man.

Hulan said, "While I was waiting, I took a walk. I thought I'd take a peek at the weddings. Just curious, you know. But, David…"

"They followed us to Beijing," David said, stating the obvious.

"It's much worse than that," Hulan said. "They're talking to a reporter from the People's Daily."

"How do you know?"

"Bi Peng has written the worst articles about me and my family. Whatever he writes, the others follow."

David groaned, then asked, "Do you know what they're talking about?"

"I didn't go in there, if that's what you mean."

"Have they seen you?"

Hulan gave him a look which conveyed something along the lines of: Have you forgotten what my job is, you idiot?

Inside the bar the three rose. Bi Peng threw some money on the table. When he turned, David and Hulan could see his big smiling teeth. The trio came forward; David and Hulan edged around the pillar, staying out of sight. As Pearl passed, she said, "We're staying at the Holiday Inn on Beilishi Lu. If you need more information, just call. I'll be happy to answer any other questions."

David and Hulan spoke little on the way back to the hutong. Hulan was pale with fatigue, and David felt wrung out, exhausted from travel, mind-numbing puzzles, and the stress of not knowing what would happen to his life. Once they reached Hulan's home, they stopped for a moment to look at the three-by-five cards that she'd written earlier today. There was nothing to add or change. They went to the bedroom, peeled off their clothes, and slipped under the sheet.

Hulan curled into David's shoulder as he filled in what had happened after she and the others left the room. He understood that parts of this story, because of the way she'd exposed her father's criminal actions, would be especially painful to Hulan, but there was no point in trying to protect her. She was in this with him, and maybe her own experience would provide insight into what had happened. When he came to the part about Doug selling his father down the proverbial river, David felt Hulan press herself even closer into his chest. He tightened his arms around her in response.

"What would make Doug do that?" she asked. "What does he get out of it?"

"Money, I suppose."

"But to do that to your own father? It's too cruel. There must be more about them that we don't know, something in their past that would make Doug want to disgrace his father."

"I don't think so. They're just Americans from New Jersey. There's nothing life-threatening in that, and I don't take Henry for one of those secretly abusive fathers."

"What do you think he'll do?"

"About the sale?"

"That, and about his son. If his son wants the sale that much, will Henry let it go through?"

"I don't know."

"You're going to be a father," she said. He could feel her body tense against his. "What would you do if our child tried to ruin you?"

"That won't happen," he said, trying reassurance.

"But if it did," Hulan insisted, "what would you do?"

He nudged her away so he could look at her face. Even in the darkness of the bedroom, he could see it was taut and anxious. He put his hands on her cheeks and kissed her. "Our child will never do anything to harm us. I'm not saying he won't torture us with worry or drive us crazy when he's a teenager. But he'll have two parents who'll love him, and nothing will ever change that."

"What if it's in the blood-"

"And even if for some strange reason," David spoke right over her, "he grows up to be some mad rapist hatchet murderer, I will always love him and his mother no matter what."

Hulan buried her head back into his chest.

After a moment she said, her voice brave, "Who says it's a boy anyway?"

They were awakened several hours later by the front gate buzzer. Hulan got up and put on her robe. David pulled on jeans and tennis shoes. Together they made their way through the various courtyards, lit only by the beam of Hulan's flashlight. She pulled back the bolt to the front gate, opened the door a crack, and found Governor Sun Can standing on the step. Hulan opened the door just enough to put her head out into the alley. She looked both ways. The alley was deserted, but in another hour her neighbors would begin to rise with the pre-dawn light. She held the door open and said, "Come in."

Sun stepped over the old imperial threshold, saw David bare-chested in his jeans, extended his hand, and said smoothly, "I'm sorry to call so late. I hope you will forgive me."

David shook the governor's hand, and together they followed Hulan back through the courtyards to the main living quarters. Hulan motioned for Sun to sit, then put water on for tea. Sun watched Hulan, then leaned forward and whispered to David, "I think we should speak alone. I'm not here as a guest but as your client."

Hulan nodded, and David and the governor ducked outside to sit on two porcelain stools close enough to the house so that they might have light from the window.

"Have you had a chance to look at what I sent you?" Sun asked.

"Yes," David said cautiously, ready for the confession he didn't want to hear.

"They show deposits in the bank.accounts of several businesses."

"I know."

"Those papers were sent to my office here in Beijing along with a note suggesting I check my personal accounts. The accounts on those papers are the same as my personal accounts. I think someone is trying to make it look like I've accepted payments from Knight."

"And you're saying you haven't?"

Sun let his breath out heavily. "Those are not my accounts. They aren't my papers. And that certainly isn't my money."

"It's a little late for an outright denial-"

"You have to believe me!"

David regarded Sun. Any pretext at his being a polished politician was completely gone now, but it could have been an incredible act.