Lights Out (23 page)

He slid into the back of the car and gave his instructions to the
driver. The sun was starting to set and he looked out the window and watched
the lights of Hong Kong flicker and turn on.
Now there will be a war
, he mused and allowed a thin smile to
spread across his pale lips.

Ryan leaned against the pier railing for a moment, watching Victoria
Harbour
stretch out in front of him. There was a gentle breeze
against his cheek and it ruffled his hair making the humidity seem less intense,
but it was still hot. The sky was clear today and the sun had started its
descent as the long afternoon began to turn into evening. He watched all of the
water traffic squeeze and jostle for position down the narrow thoroughfare that
separated Hong Kong Island and Kowloon. Giant 3000-ton container ships, slowly
glided by, silently flanked by old wooden junks, catamarans and ferries all in
its wake. Occasionally there would be a Cruise ship or military war ship docked
somewhere along the
harbour
side, but not today.
There was nothing stationary on this busy route.

Ryan was planning to take the Star Ferry across to the Island and to
his meeting point with Lam. It was cheaper and arguably quicker than a taxi at
this time of the late afternoon. Already much of
Tsim
Sha
Tsui
looked gridlocked
in the direction of the cross
harbour
tunnel, plus
Ryan’s finances were starting to grow thin, so he thought that a dollar fare of
$5.30 was much more achievable than a taxi fare of $100.

Ryan looked at his watch. It was 4.30pm. During his brief
conversation with Sarah Lam and after some convincing he had eventually agreed
to meet her on the Hong Kong side of Star Ferry terminal. He still had thirty
minutes to spare.

Despite Ryan’s current mindset, he always loved the Star Ferry
journey and never tired of it. Once on board it gave him ten minutes of silence
away from the hustle and bustle of the City where, under normal circumstances,
he would read a newspaper or just enjoy the view.

Ryan watched one of the Ferries, the
Celestial Star
slowly make its way across the
harbour
.
Bobbing gently on the dark jade green water and swaying side to side when other
high-speed vessels rushed past, it expertly worked its way between the traffic,
like an old workhorse
ploughing
a field.

The ferries had not changed in over 100 years. They still had the
classic wooden hulled construction. The only difference being the addition
upper deck that had been added eighty years ago to allow more passengers on
board and the modern update from a steam engine to a more efficient
diesel-electric engine.

The lower deck was painted in the traditional dark green and the
upper decks were always painted bright white surrounded with a necklace of
white life buoys with the
Star Ferry
logo stenciled in black on each one.

Ryan looked at the spectacular backdrop across the
harbour
, making the ferry look somewhat small and misplaced
against the giant glass and metal high rises, however it had more right to be
there than anything else surrounding it. The Star Ferries had earned their
right of passage and their place in Hong Kong history.

As the
Celestial Star
drew
closer to the pier, Ryan decided to take the same ferry back on its return
journey. He estimated that he still had around six or seven minutes to pay and
board before it would depart again. Plenty of time, he thought. He walked past
a newspaper stand and came upon a legless beggar in the
centre
of the path, head bowed down, with his arms outstretched, tapping an old red
plastic cup on the dirty floor. The man was topless, with just rags wrapped
around his waist. His legs finished in stumps where his thighs should be. His
hair was jet black and matted and his skin dark and golden brown. His upper
body and back showed sinewy muscles developed over years of pulling himself
around. He had no wheelchair close by, and Ryan wondered what happened to him
at the end of each day. For that moment it made Ryan’s situation seem less
serious. He dug in his pocket and found a $10 coin. As he walked past the
beggar he dropped the coin into the plastic cup and walked on, hearing the
muffled and hoarse
m’goi
sai
behind
him.

Ryan came to the entrance of the ferry terminal, and the old
fashioned turnstiles where he dropped in enough coins until he had paid the
full $5.30 amount. The metal turnstile clicked as the last coin went in, and he
pushed his way through.

The ferries were double decked. As a passenger you could choose to
travel on the upper deck, or the lower deck, which for years had been
considered less appealing and normally reserved for the common workforce or the
poor. The lower deck was more closed in and less comfortable. The seats were
crammed in to allow more space for passengers and it was also situated closer
to the engine room, which made the journey across a noisy one. Ryan had opted
for the upper deck, which gave him open sided views across the
harbour
, and a more comfortable and peaceful journey.

Having travelled on the ferries many times, Ryan was always amazed
that they still kept going. Constructed to last, these old wooden vessels had
survived typhoons, when even the piers had collapsed and the Japanese
occupation with only one ferry casualty, which had been bombed and sunk in the
harbour
by the American forces. Now there were twelve left
in the World and they managed to cross the
harbour
without incident over 120 times a day, seven days a week.

Ryan found a good seat next to the side railings on the left hand
side. He sat on one of the old wooden benches with a back support and white
painted seat, with a star punched out of the wood.

Ryan watched as the mooring ropes were loosened and released and the
gangplank was hoisted up and locked into positioned. He looked around. He noticed
that the ferry was full of a mixture of commuters and tourists. The difference
between them was obvious. Local commuters were either reading a newspaper or
texting, and the tourists were all armed with cameras. As soon as the ferry
began its journey, the tourists were up on their feet, leaning over the side
barriers to get clear shots of the
harbour
. One lady
leaned across Ryan completely to get the shot that she wanted, only
apologising
when the ferry swayed and she landed awkwardly
in Ryan’s lap. He helped her to steady herself and offered to switch places so
that she could photograph the view in relative comfort.

Across the
harbour
, hidden by a staircase
and the shadows stood Jimmy
Luk
. He had the meeting
point in full view and was carefully scanning the crowds, watching every single
person as they exited the Star Ferry terminal. He had been standing here for
the last ten minutes. His eyes, every few moments, darting up to the main clock
tower and monitoring his own wrist watch as the minutes ticked by. Jimmy had
covered all eventualities. In case Harper had decided on taking a taxi, Jimmy
also had a clear view of the drop off taxi rank, and of course if he came by
foot, he had a clear view of the adjoining paths leading up to the tower.
Checking his watch again, Jimmy knew that he only had a slim window of time
before Lam would show. He needed just a few seconds to get to Harper before Lam
arrived and this would all be over quickly. If Lam was early, or if Harper
didn’t show, then he would have to make alternative plans for Harper, but
getting him before he entered the safety of the Police Station was the
priority. At this point he felt confident that Lam didn’t know of his
involvement, however, he still wanted to get this over with and get Harper out
of the picture and Ghost Face off his back.

Jimmy smiled to himself. If he did manage to pull this off, he could
even continue to work with Lam and she would never even suspect him. He was
pleased about that. Killing Harper was one thing; he didn’t really want to kill
Lam, unless he had absolutely no alternative.

As Jimmy’s thoughts drifted to his future as Lam’s new partner,
something caught his eye. Suddenly he was alert and scanned the crowd once
more. His heart sank as he glimpsed Lam. She was pacing. She walked over toward
the pier and lent on the railing looking across the
harbour
,
confirming to him that Harper was indeed coming across the old fashioned way.

Jimmy started to think, he somehow had to intervene before Harper
exited the ferry terminal and made it to the meeting point. He’d have to go
into the terminal without Lam spotting him and be ready for Ryan the moment he
stepped off the ferry.

Ryan sat on the seat, next to the female tourist totally unaware of
what lay ahead of him.

He was grateful to be sitting in the open air for a change, and took
advantage of it by closing his eyes and taking in deep breaths, but his mind
kept pulling him back to slow motion replays of Rob’s head exploding in front
of him. He knew then that this was something that he would never be able to
block out entirely, but hoped that with time it would be pushed back to the far
recesses of his memory. For now, it was at the forefront, and every time Ryan
closed his eyes the images danced and flashed making it hard for Ryan to escape
them.

He opened his eyes and saw that the ferry was close to the pier. He
looked at his watch. It was now 4.55pm. Five more minutes and he would be
meeting with Lam, and this nightmare that he had endured would soon be over.

Lam looked across the railing towards the incoming ferry and hoped
that Ryan was onboard. The ferry was full with tourists pouring over the sides
snapping away at the skyline behind her obscuring her view of the other
passengers.

She looked at her watch and then looked up at the clock tower.

Five more minutes.
Lam exhaled, as she realized that she had been
holding her breath.

She scanned the crowd around her again for signs of Jimmy sure that
he would be here somewhere. She
knew. The moment that Jimmy revealed to her that he had knowledge of how Robert
Black had died. Only someone who had a contact within the society could have
known that it was a bullet in the face that has killed him. She had never
disclosed that information. His body had not yet been recovered so there was no
other way that Jimmy could have known.

Her gut instinct was telling her that she was right. It was all
starting to make sense. He was the Triad Guru after all. He knew everything,
but it wasn’t through years of study and experience. It was all inside
information. He may have started out as a good cop, but somewhere along the way
he had been bribed or pressured and had buckled. He was theirs. She knew that now
and if Harper was someone that they needed to silence, they would use all of
their tools and assets, including Jimmy to ensure that he couldn’t speak.

Ryan stood in anticipation of the ferry docking against the pier. He
didn’t feel like being jostled and shoved, so if he could step off first, then
he should be able to avoid some of the commuters that had a lack of awareness,
like the lady he had spent the journey sitting next to.

He stood in front of the red gangplank next to the deck hand. The
ferry heaved and rolled as the driver attempted to slow down all 164 tons.
Slowly positioning the ferry next to the dock, the mooring ropes were thrown
over the side and the ferry was pulled to a final halt with just a gentle
rocking against it’s own wake as the gangplank was released. Ryan strode ahead
onto the concrete slope that led up to the turnstile exit. Around him bustled
300 other passengers all with their own destinations in mind. But Ryan was only
looking for one person, Sarah Lam, so when a tall Chinese man stood in front of
him blocking his exit it took Ryan a moment to register that he was being
blocked on purpose.

Lam stretched her neck to get a glimpse of the people exiting the
ferry, but pillars, staircases and now floods of people hampered her view. She
decided to head back towards the clock tower to avoid missing Ryan. It
frustrated her that he wasn’t answering his phone. She would just have to be
patient. She paced for a few moments, pausing to re-adjust her shirt and tuck
it back into her pants and subconsciously brushing her holster to remind
herself that her gun was there. As the last trickle of people came through the
turnstile, Sarah started to feel uneasy. In the distance she could see another
ferry on it’s way, but the time had now ticked past 5pm, and for some reason
she didn’t think that Ryan would be late unless something at happened. Lam’s
mind was now in turmoil. She had no way of contacting Ryan and had to make a
decision how long she should wait. Suddenly the decision was made for her. Out
of the corner of her eye she saw a blond haired man walk back onto the ferry on
the lower deck. Sarah ran toward the railing and squinted at the gangplank to
get a better look. All of the passengers had now boarded the ferry and the deck
hands were starting to reel in the ropes. Sarah started to walk the length of
the pier towards the terminal and turnstile, picking up her pace as she did so,
all the time scanning the ferry. She squatted down to look through the railing
to the lower deck. Most people were standing, making it hard for her to see
through the crowd. Then two people moved, and she saw him. Ryan had his back to
Lam facing away from the pier. Then to his left was the unmistakable silhouette
of her colleague, Jimmy
Luk
. He was standing so close
to Ryan that Lam guessed that he must
be
holding a gun
at his side. She stood up and was suddenly in motion. She sprinted down the
remaining length of the pier towards the turnstile. Already with her hand at
her waist belt she ripped off her detective badge and waved it at the surprised
turnstile attendant as she bolted over the top of it. By the time she reached
the gate the entrance was closed. She stood up on tiptoe to see the ferry head
back towards Kowloon side.