“And your continuing to stir up these waters?” Dr. Yang said scornfully. “You can see a way that that will help?”
“If you stir the water vigorously enough,” I said with care, “you can drag mud up from the bottom. In all that swirling, muddy water, a lot of things might be able to escape.”
I didn’t dare look at Jack or Bill, though I could hear Bill softly stifling a snort, and from the corner of my eye I saw Jack’s eyebrows shoot up. So what? The look Dr. Yang was giving me had gone from angry disdain to guarded interest. The interest was tinged with desperation, true, but then, his position was desperate. I pressed on before he had a chance to regroup. “When we came in here, we had a plan,” I said. “Now we have new information, so we need to amend it. But I think we can still make it work.”
“You think? ‘Make it work’? No. That’s unacceptable.”
“Sir,” said Jack, cutting me and my frustration off, “Doug Haig gave you until tomorrow morning to answer him. He’s expecting you to stew, look at your options, realize you don’t have any, and agree. All we’re asking you to do is not answer him until then. For our part, once we have things worked out, we won’t make a move until we run the whole plan by you. If you’re afraid it’ll make things worse or you just plain think it won’t work, we’ll drop it and you can handle things however you want.” Jack gazed evenly at Dr. Yang across the desk. “Fair enough?”
After a very, very long silence, Dr. Yang spoke. “Will my daughter be in danger at any time?”
“Danger? You mean, physical danger?”
“There are gangsters and guns involved. From what you say.”
The “from what you say” wasn’t lost on Jack, but he didn’t rise to it. “I don’t think they have any interest in Anna. The biggest danger she’s in is to her career, and it’s from Haig.”
“And Xi Xao?”
“We understand.” Jack leaned forward again. “Please, Dr. Yang. Give us a few hours. That’s all we need.”
Another long silence. Then, almost imperceptibly, Dr. Yang nodded.
* * *
Back outside, us Three Musketeers stood near the fountain, where a trio of jugglers tossed bowling pins and baseball bats back and forth. “So, what do you think, guys?” I said. “Can we run this scam and not jeopardize Xi? I didn’t like his threats and bribes and all, but if his life’s at stake I guess I can cut him some slack.”
Jack said, “I think we can, just the way we set it up. Whatever excitement it creates about the old days, it’ll die down when we’re through and everyone will look silly. That’s the whole point, isn’t it?”
He and I looked at each other, and then both of us turned to Bill. “What do you think?”
“I’m with Jack. If this works no one will be looking past it.”
“If?” said Jack. “Hold it, I didn’t sign on for ‘if.’ We’re not doing ‘if.’”
“Fine. When this works. How’s that?”
“Much better. Because after all, isn’t this a plan of Lydia’s? So the chances of it working, aren’t they like one hundred percent?”
* * *
So we split up. Each of us had work to do. And I had to change.
“Hi, Ma,” I said, leaving my shoes by the door and entering the living room in my slippers.
“Oh, have you come home in the middle of the day? Why, are you ill?” She must not have been too terribly worried because after a glance she went back to ironing in front of the TV, watching two handsome Chinese actors in Tang Dynasty outfits having a low-voiced discussion. The camera lingered on them so portentously that it could only mean a conspiracy was in the making and an emperor was going to fall. Or else these two guys would end up with their heads chopped off.
“I’m fine, Ma. I just need some things.”
She didn’t say a word, so why did I hear disapproval?
In my room I put the phone on speaker, turned the computer on, and called Linus.
“Cuz!” he greeted me. “Just about done. You want to see it?”
“I sure do.”
“’K, here comes the link.”
I opened my e-mail, found the Web site URL he’d sent, and clicked on it. “Wow, Linus, I’m impressed. You did all this in two hours?”
“Hey, it’s what we do here. I used a template I had from some other site I made for a guy. This one wasn’t a big deal, ’cause it doesn’t really say anything.”
“I can see that.” I was scanning the Chinese text.
“You sure that’s okay? I mean, I just stole chunks from Chinese Web sites, I don’t even know about what.”
“Positive, it’s fine.”
“But in case your guys want to check a little deeper I put in a couple of links, like to the University, and to some artists. Even if they don’t read Chinese they can tell they’re links, so they can click. I also put in a bunch that don’t work, they give you an error message. So it looks like they’re supposed to be live but it’s a crappy Web site.”
“Excellent.”
“And I paid a few bucks to a couple of search engine companies, so this site’ll come up first if you Google him. The real guy, he doesn’t have a site, so you lucked out there. He does have a Wikipedia page, so I put a link on it.” Linus burst into song: “If you liked it then you shoulda put a link on it!”
“Okay, thanks, Linus.”
“Sorry. Anyway, the University, I couldn’t hack their site to put a link back to here.”
“I thought you could do anything. No, I’m just kidding, we don’t need that.”
“My Chinese isn’t good enough, is all,” he said defensively. “I could totally hack it if it was English. But I know some guys. Do you—”
“No, really, the people this is for, their Chinese is way worse than yours. I don’t see them bothering with the University site, and if they do they won’t be able to navigate it so they won’t know what they’re not finding. Listen, really, Linus, thanks. The whole thing looks great. Especially the picture.”
“Just a little Photoshop,” he said modestly. “So, Cuz, who is that guy? Is he really another Chinese PI?”
“I’ll tell you all about it. Later.”
“That’s what Trella said you’d say. Does Bill know about him?”
“Know what about him?”
“That’s what Trella said you’d say! Dudess!” I heard him call across the room. “I owe you five bucks! So, Cuz, you need me anymore?”
“I don’t think so, but I don’t know,” I answered truthfully.
“If you do, you know where to find me. I’m going back to bed.”
I changed my clothes, called Jack, got his voice mail, and left him a message to check the new Web site. There was no point in telling Bill that, but I called him anyway, just to say it was done and that I was heading out.
“You okay?” he wanted to know.
“Raging adrenaline. And my feet hurt in these heels.”
“I’ll be right over.”
“To carry me?”
“No, to watch you walk.”
I hung up and headed uptown, passing through the living room where my mother did a double take based on my outfit. “Why do you look so nice?” she asked suspiciously.
“I need a reason?”
“Many daughters would not. Do you have a date with the white baboon?”
“Have you ever known me to dress up for him?”
If she’d been anyone else I’d have had her. That I didn’t put on heels and a skirt for Bill should have signaled a lack of interest in what he thought of me, and should also have reassured her because he wasn’t getting any free peeks at my legs.
But this was my mother. “Pah. When you see him you look like a gang boy but he doesn’t stop calling you. He is a hyena with no understanding of beauty.”