‘Get outa here. Tell that gook to get lost or —‘
DeLaroza held a hand towards Burns and turned quickly to Chiang. ‘Jaaw hoy Jaaw hoy,’ he said quickly and the Chinese disappeared. He turned to Burns. ‘Easy.’
‘Don’t tell me easy,’ Burns roared. His face flushed, his eyes danced from corner to corner, back to DeLaroza, over to the hatch door. ‘They’re pushin’ me around the bend, them gook monkeys of yours.’
‘When they move like that, what you call slow motion, they are practising Tai Chi, the Way of the Peaceful Warrior it is called.’
Burns wiggled the gun under his nose. ‘They come around me, fuck with me, I’ll make peaceful warriors outa them.’
‘To attack them is like attacking water. When you strike them, it is like striking air. They cannot be hurt and they cannot be stopped when they are committed. They can kill with one finger. And they have been ordered to protect you at all costs.’
‘I protect myself. Me and Betsy here is all the protection I need. The bullets are soaked in garlic, know what that means? It’s poison inside you. You die screaming for your mother.’
A shiver rippled through DeLaroza,
‘Please. Everything is good. Believe me, I’ve been very busy, very busy. I do not want to use the mobile radio; it could be dangerous. From now on I’ll come every other day...’
‘From now on! How the hell long?. . .‘ Burns’s shoulders slumped. He dropped the gun with a clatter on a polished rosewood chest and rubbed the knuckles of one hand furiously into the top of his close-cropped hair. ‘It was only gonna be a month, gettin’ this show on the road. Christ, I been here what, eight weeks? Nine? Don’t fuck me over, you got it? Don’t fuck me over.’
‘Nobody is fucking you over, Howard. It takes time to get passports, visas, make the proper arrangements. Your wife is safe, we moved her to Canada, then across to the coast, and then on over to Yokohama. Nobody knows. Even the FBI lost her. It was done perfectly, as promised.’
‘Yeah, well, it ain’t perfect with me. Twice you ask me to do a job for you, twice in what? — the thirty years I’ve known you? Both times I come through.’ He snapped his fingers. ‘Just like that. Quick, right? Clean, right? Everything down to a tee. Now you got this thing to do for me, it’s a month of Sundays already.’
He paced the room on the balls of his feet, tense and alert, like a prize-fighter stalking his opponent. His nerves were stretched out like violin strings. DeLaroza could almost hear them keening.
‘This ain’t my turf, okay. I don’t even know where the hell I am, out here, some fuckin’ lake, eighty miles from nowhere. Nothin’ to do all day but listen to those fuckin’ monkeys doin’ that slow-motion shit. It’s a.. . I’ll tell you what, it’s a goddamn bad dream come true is what it is. Get me outa here. Get me outa here, Victor.’
Madness burned in Burns’s eyes. There was bate there, and fear. DeLaroza could see it. He was a different man from the cool killer in Hong Kong.
‘You and this nut idea, wantin’ to put your fuckin’ mug in every paper in the world. Lemme tell ya, pal, I didn’t mind doin’ that job for you in Hong Kong, [could unnerstan’, see, bow you could go a little off the wall when you seen that Colonel from Italy. But suckin’ Corrigon in, plantin’ that seed in his brain, and bringin’ him down here, right in your own fuckin’ backyard, that was crazy. Suppose he told somebody else, hunh? Suppose be wrote it down somewheres to cover himself? You ever think of that?’
‘There was no reason for him to do that. You think he knew we were setting him up?’ DeLaroza said.
‘After thirty years, a guy gets prison wise, learns a lot. I’m just sayin’ we coulda left it alone. We didn’t have to wiggle the finger, get him down here and kayo him just so’s you could come outa the closet after all these years. Shit, you got the fuckin’ tenderloin, you gotta have it all?’
‘You do not understand what it was like, all those years, all I have done, and no recognition for any of it.’
‘1 unnerstan’ this, pal, all that what you done you’re so proud of? It started with the rip-off. I don’t care if you made fty billion, see, you couldna done it without the four mu we took off Uncle Sam. Any way you slice it, you and me we’re both thieves. And a gonif’s a gonif. A genius gonif, maybe, but a gonif all the same. You aia’t changin’ that by puttin’ your fuckin’ picture in the papers.’
‘There is no way for you to comprehend what it has been like for me. All these years, hiding my face, letting others take the credit, give the interviews . .
‘Hey, I been in a closet myself there, seven years now. Don’t tell me what it’s like, livin’ with your face to the wall. All I’m sayin’ is that pushin’ over Corrigon, that wasn’t necessary. I done it, okay? but that wasn’t part of our deal, see, that was a personal gift, me to you, got that?’
‘Howard, for thirty years I have lived in fear of the day Corrigon got out of prison. Wondering whether I might turn around in an airport one day and find myself face to face with him.’
‘He wouldna recognized ya, not after all that time.’
‘I never would have been sure. And if he had recognized me, you would have suffered too.’
‘Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, ya made the point. Okay. Look, whaddya want from me, anyways? Ya think it was easy, phonyin’ up my own death a second time? My old lady still ain’t made sense outa the whole thing. Point is, it’s done, okay? Corrigon is kaput. Now I want outa here!’
‘Very soon, now, I promise you.’
A thin line of sweat formed at the edge of Burns’s brow. It began to inch down his forehead. He wiped it with the back of his hand.
DeLaroza walked cautiously to the chest and picked up the gun by the barrel. Burns turned as fast as a hummingbird, took two steps, reached out, and grabbed the pistol, twisting it sharply in towards DeLaroza’s body and snapping it out of his hand.
‘Don’t touch my piece. You got that? That clear? Nobody touches my piece.’
‘Of course, of course.’
Burns slid the gun back under his arm.
‘I was just, uh, you see this chest is six hundred years old —,
Burns cut him off. ‘Fuck the chest. I don’t give a .shit, Moses stored the tablets in it. When am I movin’, gettin’ outa this fuckin’ scow? Away from them Chinks?’
‘A few more days.’
‘Shit!’
‘Just a few more days, Howard.’
‘Too long!’
‘It’s the passport, Howard. It’s going to be clean, no strings. You will never again have problems. This is all being done right for you.’
Burns leaned against the wall and breathed hard through his nose. He wiped his mouth with his hand, pinched his nose several times.
‘Too old for this kinda shit, anyhow,’ he said.
‘I know, I know.’
Burns looked up at him and said quickly. ‘It don’t mean I lost my touch. I mean, don’t go blowin’ smoke rings up your ass, you think I ain’t what I used to be.’
‘I didn’t say anything about that, Howard.’
‘I like things to happen quick. No bullshit, see? I’m on the run. You don’t get that, do you there, Victor?’
‘Of course.’
No, he didn’t understand. Victor had it made, all the aces. But him, be had spent years developing one cover, losing it, and now he was starting again dodging from rock to rock like a fox with the hounds snapping at his heels. DeLaroza had offered a chance, a chance to get out for good. But the closer it got, the more terrified he became. His insides were burning, his guts grinding with turmoil.
Burns sighed and leaned against the bulkhead, breathing deeply through his mouth. Tears gathered in the corners of his eyes.
‘Easy, my friend. I promise you, you’re almost out.’
‘Yeah, yeah, I hope so. Hope so.’
‘Have you, uh. . . you aren’t taking. . . pills?’
Burn’s eyes jumped back and glared at DeLaroza.