Black Horn (30 page)

He
looked up at Tom Sawyer across the table and said, "You got it exactly
right, Tom. The way in for Guido and myself is in the back of the rubbish
truck." He turned to Do Huang. "We'll hijack it shortly after it
leaves the town, and Do will drive it. The routine is that they open the gates
to let it in and then close the gates as soon as it's inside the compound. It
drives down the side-road past the villa to the service building behind. Guido
and I come out there. Guido will cover me with an SMG and grenades while I head
straight for the villa, and then he'll follow me to the villa." He turned
to Eric. "You're the mortar-man. From your position, you'll not be able to
see over the wall, but Tom will have a view from higher up the hill. The moment
we cross the gap between the service building and the villa, you open up with
your mortar and range in between the two buildings and try to keep the fighters
from getting to us, while we deal with Tommy Mo and his people in the
villa." He glanced at Maxie. "Meanwhile, Maxie and Frank will move in
with the RPG7s and breach the wall on each side. The moment that happens, the
mortar fire has to end. Both teams enter the compound through the
breaches." He stood up and walked around the table to the map and pointed.
"The beach is here, about eight hundred metres away. There will be two
large Avon dinghies waiting, one for each section. The motor launch will be a
hundred metres off-shore, covering our embarkation with two heavy machine-guns.
We head straight for the Philippines."

Guido was studying the map. He asked, "Substitution?"

Creasy nodded and glanced around the table.

"If I get hit, Guido takes command. If Guido gets hit, Maxie takes command. If
Maxie gets hit, Frank takes over." He pointed at the tiny mobile phone on
the table, with its earplug attachment. "We've tested those things and
they work damn well. We'll have a conference patch and be able to talk to each
other and listen to each other -- but let's keep the talking to a minimum, especially
when the action starts."

Creasy moved back around the table and sat down. He glanced at Eric Laparte and said,
"The mortar barrage is vital. You have to be dropping those bombs between
those two buildings within seconds of Guido and me exiting that rubbish truck."

For the next hour, they discussed the strategy and their movements until Creasy and
Guido were satisfied.

They
had finished dinner and were watching television when Rene's mobile phone rang.
He picked it up, moved across the suite to the windows and spoke into it
quietly.

Lucy
called out "Is that Creasy?" When Rene nodded, she said, "When
you've finished, can I speak to him?"

Rene
had been speaking in French. He continued speaking into the phone and then said
to her, "Yes, but he needs to talk to Jens first."

Jens
pushed himself up and walked over. The phone conversation turned to English.
Above the noise of the television, Lucy could hear one part of the
conversation. It was obvious that Creasy was briefing Jens on their final
dispositions for the attack on the villa the next morning. After five minutes,
the Dane beckoned to her. She walked across and took the phone, moved further
away and spoke quietly into it.

"How
are you?"

"I'm
fine. How are you coping?"

"Well,
we're just sitting and waiting ... I don't think I'll sleep tonight."

"You
must try."

"I
will, but I think it's hopeless... I'm frightened."

The
tiny receiver next to her ear still managed to carry the deep resonance of his
voice.

"Lucy,
you have nothing to be frightened about. Rene has got that place buttoned
up."

"I'm
not frightened for myself, Creasy. I'm frightened for you... the twilight
man."

His
laugh was soft. "Don't worry. This twilight man always sees the sun in the
morning."

"But
I still worry... Are you going to bed now?"

"No.
I have to make a couple of calls at midnight to tie up the last details."

There
was a sudden urgency in her voice. "It's only ten o'clock now. Can I see
you?"

There was a pause, then he said, "Lucy, I can't come to you and you can't come here."

"What about the place we met last time... Do you still have the room?"

"Yes, but I would need to have some cover on you when you move from one hotel to the other."

"Can't you arrange cover?"

He signed and said, "Lucy, I know what's going through your mind. It happens
all the time with women who are involved with men about to go into battle. You
think you have a premonition that we might never see each other again. But
Lucy, there are no such things as premonitions. It's just a matter of apprehension."

"Creasy, I'm Chinese. We have premonitions but no apprehensions ... I would just like to
spend an hour with you, and if you have cover for me, then surely there's no
danger. This is the busiest place in Hong Kong."

There was another silence, then he said, "There's always danger."

She almost whispered into the phone. "Please... just this time... Do it for me."

Again, he hesitated. Then she heard him talking to somebody in the room. His voice
came back. "OK. Maxie and Frank have agreed to give you cover... But be
careful, Lucy. I'll see you in half an hour. Put Rene back on the phone."

She called to Rene and handed him the phone. He listened and then said, "OK.
Will do. I'll arrange things at this end."

He went to the hotel phone and called the security manager and informed him that Miss
Lucy Kwok would be leaving the hotel in half an hour and returning
approximately one hour later.

She passed the time by making sure that Gloria was comfortable in bed and about to
fall asleep. Rene opened the door for her, checked the corridor and, as she
passed through the door, said, "Be careful. If anyone approaches you, just run."

She gave him a smile and said, "Don't worry, Rene. I can run very fast."

It went very smoothly. She dodged the traffic across Nathan Road, knowing that Maxie
and Frank were close to her. But she never set eyes on them. A few minutes
later, she was knocking on the door of Room 54. And a few minutes after that,
the phone was ringing in the villa in Sai King.

An hour later she gave Creasy a last kiss and ran her hand down his naked chest. From
the moment she had entered the room they had hardly spoken a word, simply held
each other and made soft slow love.

She dressed quickly as Creasy picked up his mobile phone and started slotting the
last pieces of the puzzle into place.

He cupped the phone and said to her, "Maxie will be waiting in the lobby.
I'll see you in a few days."

She went to the door, turned and gave him a last look. Then she moved out into the
corridor and towards the lifts. It was a long corridor and she was close to the
lifts when two doors on each side of her opened. It was over in seconds. A hand
around her mouth and another around her waist. She could make no sound. She
realised that there were four or five of them. She tried to bite the hand
across her mouth and was stunned by a blow to her head.

Inspector Lau was the first to receive the information. He set up a mini-operations
centre in his own office, together with a young constable who was a protege as
well as an electronics wizard. The constable had arranged a loudspeaker link to
the banks of mobile phones, and every conversation between the mobile phones of
Creasy's team were channeled through that loudspeaker. Another loudspeaker
relayed the special police network set-up between the police surveillance teams
and headquarters. It was ten minutes past eleven when the first message came
through the police loudspeaker. It came from the police car which had been
keeping a watch on the Nathan Road entrance of the Peninsula Hotel.

A woman had been seen coming out of the entrance at eight minutes past eleven. She
resembled Lucy Kwok Ling Fong. They had observed her crossing Nathan Road and
entering the Sheraton Hotel. In the meantime, Inspector Lau had listened to the
conversation between Creasy and Lucy Kwok and Rene Callard, and knew that
Creasy and Lucy were having an assignation somewhere nearby.

There had been no other communication for an hour, and then one of the speakers came
to life. It was Creasy calling Callard, telling him that Lucy was on the way
back and should be with him in five minutes and asking Maxie and Frank to copy,
which they did. Three minutes later Maxie's voice was coming through the loud
speaker. He was telling Creasy that Lucy had not come out of the lift.

Seven minutes passed, and then Creasy was issuing instructions, and from those
instructions Inspector Lau realised that Lucy Kwok had been snatched by the 14K between
Creasy's room and the lift. Definitely snatched by the 14K.

The constable turned on his swivel chair to look at his Inspector.

Inspector
Lau shrugged and said, "We don't interfere."

The
constable thought for a moment and then remarked, "If the 14K have her,
they will almost certainly take her to the Black Swan at Hebe Haven. They've
done that kind of thing before."

Creasy's
voice came through the loudspeaker: "If they've got her, they are probably
taking her to the Sai Kung villa."

A
series of clicks came through the loudspeaker in Inspector Lau's office. A
voice said: "I've been listening in. I'm a hundred metres overlooking the
road to the 14K villa. No vehicle has passed in the last twenty minutes."

The
constable was looking at his computer screen. He turned and said, "Voice
recognition... that's the Frenchman, Eric Laparte."

Inspector
Lau was looking at the loudspeaker as though it was the holy grail. He turned
to his constable and said, "This is better than any game invented by
Nintendo... And definitely more exciting."

Creasy's
voice came over the loudspeaker: "Eric, move down to the road. Try to get
to a bend, where a car would have to slow down. If a large black car probably a
Mercedes comes by, use your SMG and blast its tyres. What's Tom's location?

"Two hundred metres further down the road."

"Link up. Put Tom on the other side of the road."

"Will do."

In Inspector Lau's office, the constable said, "It's almost certainly the
Black Swan."

Inspector Lau leaned forward, cupped his hands to his face and thought with great speed,
imagining the scenario in the suite at the Peninsula Hotel. He could almost see
the Dane, Jens Jensen, crouched over his laptop computer, punching in the files
that showed the known and suspected safehouses of the 14K. There were half a
dozen scattered around the Colony. One of them was a luxuriously converted
twenty-metre fishing junk, which the 14K used in their legitimate business to
entertain visiting customers. It was spacious and contained a fully-stocked
bar, two huge cabins with four-poster beds, and a saloon and a galley which
could cater for up to ten customers. It had a permanent crew of four, all
members of the 14K. It was berthed at the marina at the Hebe Haven
Bay. Its location and description were contained on the disk that he had given
Jens Jensen. Inspector Lau's mind was moving into high gear. His fingers itched
to reach for the phone and call his counterpart in the Marine Police, but he
resisted the temptation.

He began to struggle with his conscience. The Commissioner would definitely not
approve, but he could not help himself. He decided that the odds were still
enormously in Tommy Mo's favour. He put down the microphone and picked up
another phone on his desk and punched in a number. Seconds later, he heard the
Dane's voice answering.

Inspector Law said, "You will recognise the voice of the man who gave you the disk."

"I do."

"Right now, you're looking at your computer screen and you've just put up the file.
'14K... Safehouses'."

There
was a pause and the Dane's voice said, "You're right...How do you know
this number?"

"It
doesn't matter. Just be confident that your network has not been compromised by
anybody else but me and my personal assistant. We have surveillance on the car
containing Lucy Kwok. It is heading for the Black Swan. There will be no police
action."

He hung
up before the Dane could answer, and then sat back again and looked at the
loudspeaker which would relay, in detail, the coming events. The call came
three minutes later. It was from the Dane to Creasy, at the safehouse.
Inspector Lau marvelled at the brevity of their conversation, and would
continue to marvel throughout the night.

The
Dane said: "We have location of our woman."

"Where
and how?"

"Heading
towards a converted luxury fishing junk in the marina at Hebe Haven.
Information from the man who gave me the disk."

There
came a thirty second pause and Inspector Lau could imagine Creasy in the
safehouse at Braga Circuit, studying the map.

Then
Eric Laparte's voice came over the airwaves: "We're eight kilometres from
Hebe Haven marina. We can get there in about twelve to fourteen minutes."

Another
thirty seconds silence and then Creasy's voice: "You go, but leave Tom on
the road, just in case it's a diversion."

The
constable turned from the screens and looked at his boss. He said, "At
last, Lau Sinsan. At last...after all these years ... at last."

The
Inspector held up his hand again, as another voice came through the speaker.

"I've
been copying... I can be off Hebe Haven in twenty minutes."

The
constable's head jerked back to his screen. He studied it for a few seconds and
then said, "It came from the sea. It must be Tony Cope from the MY
Tempest."

The
Inspector was nodding in satisfaction.

"Yes. Ex-Royal Navy, ex-Special Boat Service. They're waiting to take Creasy's team
off to the Philippines after the assault on the villa."