note 8 and his jugular's an asian girl. Perhaps Orlanda, perhaps not, but certainly a youth-filled Golden Skin. Quillan was clever to bait the trap with her. Yes. Orlanda's a perfect bait, he thought, then put his mind back to Lando Mata and his millions. To get those millions I'd have to break my Holy Oath and that I will not do.
"What calls do I have, Claudia?" he asked, a sudden ice shaft in his stomach. Mata and Tightfist had been his ace, the only one left.She hesitated, glanced at the list. "Hiro Toda called from Tokyo, person to person. Please return the call when you've a moment. Alastair Struan the same from Edinburgh. . . . David MacStruan from Toronto… your father from Ayr… old Sir Ross Struan from Nice . . .""Uncle Trussler from London," he said, interrupting her, "Uncle Kelly from Dublin . . . Cousin Cooper from Atlanta, cous—""From New York," Claudia said."From New York. Bad news travels fast," he told her calmly."Yes. Then there was . . ." Her eyes filled with tears. "What're we going to do?""Absolutely not cry," he said, knowing that a large proportion of her savings was in Struan stock."Yes! Oh yes." She sniffed and used a handkerchief, sad for him but thanking the gods she had had the foresight to sell at the top of the market and not buy when the Head of the House of Chen had whispered for all the clan to buy heavily. "Ayeeyah, tai-pan, sorry, so sorry, please excuse me … yes. But it's very bad, isn't it?""Och aye, lassie," he said, aping a broad Scots accent, "but only when you're deaded. Isn't that what the old tai-pan used to say?" The old tai-pan was Sir Ross Struan, Alastair's father, the first tai-pan he could remember. "Go on with the calls.""Cousin Kern from Houston and Cousin Decks from Sydney. That's the last of the family.""That's all of them." Dunross exhaled. Control of the Noble House rested with those families. Each had blocks of shares that had been handed down to them, though by House law he alone voted all the stock—while he was tai-pan. The family holdings of the Dunrosses, descended from Dirk Struan's daughter Winifred, were 10 percent; the Struans from Robb Struan, Dirk's half-brother, 5 percent; the Trusslers and Kellys from Culum and Hag Struan's youngest daughter, each 5 percent; the Coopers, Kerns and Derbys, descended from the American trader, Jeff Cooper of Cooper-Till-man, Dirk's lifetime friend who had married Hag Struan's eldest daughter, each 5 percent; the MacStruans, believed illegitimate from Dirk, 2l/2. percent; and the Chens 1V2 percent. The bulk of the stock, 50 percent, the personal property and legacy of Hag Struan, was left in a perpetual trust, to be voted by the tai-pan "whoever he or she may be, and the profit therefrom shall be divided yearly, 50 percent to the tai-pan, the remainder in proportion to family holdings—but only if the tai-pan so decides," she had written in her firm, bold hand. "If he decides to withhold profit from my shares from the family for any reason he may, then that increment shall go into the tai-pan's private fund for whatever use he deems fit. But let all following tai-pans beware: the Noble House shall pass from safe Hand to safe Hand and the clans from safe Harbor to safe Harbor as the tai-pan himself decreed or I shall add my curse, before God, to his, on him or her who fails us. . . ."Dunross felt a chill go through him as he remembered the first time he had read her will—as dominating as the legacy of Dirk Struan. Why are we so possessed by these two? he asked himself again. Why can't we be done with the past, why should we be at the beck and call of ghosts, not very good ghosts at that?I'm not, he told himself firmly. I'm only trying to measure up to their standards.He looked back at Claudia, matronly, tough and very together but now scared, scared for the first time. He had known her all his life and she had served old Sir Ross, then his father, then Alastair, and now himself with a fanatical loyalty, as had Phillip Chen.Ah Phillip, poor Phillip."Did Phillip call?" he asked."Yes, tai-pan. And Dianne. She called four times."