Yuen-Mong's Revenge (53 page)

 
     
"It’s John. I’m a friend of Jack. He told me to call tonight to arrange
something."

 
     
"John who?"

 
     
"We work together. You wouldn’t know me."

 
     
"Jack’s not in."

 
     
"When will he be in?"

 
     
"Don’t know."

 
     
"Too bad. I had this case of bootleg for him. I can only keep it for a
day or two and then I must get rid of it."

 
     
"Oh, he’d want you to keep it for him. He said he’d be back in ten
days."

 
     
"Difficult. I’ll do my best." He disconnected. "Looks like a dead end."

 
     
"What was that bootleg thing all about?"

 
     
"A stab in the dark to try to deceive her. Many of these guys drink
quite a bit and their access to booze is limited. So they buy illegal stuff."

 
     
"Bootleg is illegal booze? Is it any good?"

 
     
"Terrible usually."

 
     
"Can we find out who programmed the shuttle?"

 
     
"I can try, although I have my doubts that this would be recorded." He
again went back to the shuttle log. "There’s nothing recorded here, but
maybe we can find out who brought it to the roof platform." He looked
up on the duty roster who was in charge of the shuttle service that
evening. It was the same person who had started work at 13:00. He
highlighted the contact number and was just about to activate it, when
she said: "No, let’s go there in person. Then I know if he’s telling the
truth."

 
     
Twenty minutes later they were at the shuttle garage dispatch office,
talking to the man. He confirmed that he had taken the shuttle to the roof
platform himself.

     
"Who programmed it?" asked Atun.

     
"It had already been programmed before I started work. Normally, I’d
have done it. It’s a simple operation that takes a few minutes."

 
     
"The unit was serviced the night before by Jack Hart. Is he reliable?"

 
     
"Jack Hart? Yea, he’s OK. I can check what he did, if you want me
to."

 
     
"Yes, please, do that."

 
     
He looked up the service record and then shook his head.

     
"Anything wrong?"

 
     
"It says here that it was a regular weekly service, although the last one
had just been done three days earlier, and he took less than half an hour,
see?" He pointed at the start and end times. "A full check takes one hour
or more."

 
     
"Who schedules these checks?"

 
     
"The manager of the garage, unless the last user reports some malfunction."

 
     
"Would that be recorded?"

 
     
"It should, but I can’t see anything. Mr. Deng junior used it last."

 
     
"Thank you," said Yuen-mong. "We appreciate your help."

 
     
On the way back to the office, they talked about it.

     
"The guy could just have programmed the shuttle and done nothing
else, only marking down half an hour’s work," remarked Atun. "If that’s
the case, then Pat is suspect number one and we know his motives. Cor
Deng is a possible second. He lost about 450 million credits on selling
his shares and then we booted him out of the board. Both good enough
reasons for wanting us dead."

 
     
"There’s a third … Syd." She told him about his call that afternoon.
"He also must have talked with Pat yesterday or today, since he told me
that Pat was moving out next week. So the two could have plotted
together."

 
     
"I thought you liked Syd. You suspect him?"

 
     
"I won’t let liking come in the way. I more than like my grandfather,
but he remains on my list and not at the bottom either, and so does Syd.
In fact, he has gone up a few notches today. Having done it once, it may
come that much more easily to do it again. He was rather cagey when I
asked him who had told him of the crash… Atun, can you check whether
Pat called him this afternoon before we started the demonstration?"

 
     
Atun entered the comunit traffic records for outgoing calls. "Here it
is. Pat called him at 14:32; the crash occurred at 14:21 and he would have
known shortly after that. I guess we can check that with the Soro port
controllers —"

 
     
"— so he called him before he came to me. I recall it was 14:40. Let’s
see who else he called."

 
     
"Only a call to the Foundation offices at 15:03."

 
     
"My grandfather told me that he was called out of a meeting by Pat’s
call. Check if his secretary made any calls around that time."

 
     
"Yes, there are three calls, one to Pat’s villa, one to the Lake Terrace
Bar, and the third to T. Rinchin —"

 
     
"— that’s her name. She called her home… So he didn’t call all
outside directors as Syd claimed. Syd got special treatment. I would like
to know why."

 
     
"Maybe he called him about moving out of the villa."

 
     
"Shortly after receiving the news that the shuttle crashed?"

 
     
"No, that doesn’t sound likely, does it?"

 
     
"Atun, from now on I don’t want that you ever to leave your office
without either me or Anouk with you and I want you armed. Use one of
those small pistols from Old Earth. They are easy to hide. I don’t want to
lose you." She leaned over his shoulder and kissed his cheek. "Promise?"

 
     
"Yes, love."

 
     
She kissed him again. "Let’s now go home too. I want to be back
tomorrow and search through 21-year-old UniCom files."

* * *

On their way to UniCom Saturday morning — they walked for the exercise — they passed a little office that had a sign ‘Private Investigations’
on its window. Through the partially open blinds she could see a guy
sitting behind a desk.

     
"Atun, you still have the address of Jack Hart?" she said, stopping.

     
Atun searched the pockets of his jacket and pulled out a slip of paper.
"Yea. Shall we go in?"

 
     
"No, you go alone. He might recognize me and that might only make
things more complicated. Pay him half the fee right away. He looks like
he needs it."

 
     
She waited a few steps farther down the street for Atun.

     
"He’ll try to find out where the guy went," Atun reported. "I offered
him a bonus of five hundred credits if he gets us an answer before
Monday morning."

 
     
She smiled. "Good. I must say life is easy if you don’t have to count
your credits."

 
     
"You said it."

 
     
Their search through old records did not reveal anything new, filling
in a few holes of who was in charge of what at that time. Kao Deng was
vice-president of finance. Of his two sons, Xi already headed research,
while Kim was in charge of HST, the largest division of UniCom, and Ko
Young supervised all other operating divisions. The only new item was
that her mother’s oldest brother, Kwong Fook, was the company
secretary at that time. Checking on his background, they discovered that
he had trained as a lawyer, graduating from the famous Galactic Law
Academy in 2402. Yuen-mong vaguely recalled that Syd’s framed
diploma in his office also showed the logo of that institution and the
same year of graduation. So the two must have been fellow students.
Why Syd had not made a reference to that, in fact, behaved as if he did
not know Kwong Fook?

     
It was a frustrating Saturday. Rather than getting any firm leads, they
seemed to uncover more loose ends. She decided that over the next few
weeks, she had to create opportunities to get to know Kim and Xi Deng
and find where Kwong Fook was being kept in hiding.

* * *

Sunday they attended the Young dinner. She spent a few minutes alone
with her grandfather.

     
"I had a short talk with Pat. He did not want to listen. He stormed out
before I could put your case. He insists that you apologize to him
publicly."

 
     
"Not today," she replied, a faint smile on her face.

     
"What do you plan to do? This cannot continue like this."

 
     
"Monday will show."

 
     
"You mean to say that something will happen on Monday? Tell me."

 
     
"Today is Sunday. I came here to be with you. Not to talk business."

 
     
He searched her eyes for a while.

     
"Has Aros made such a hard woman of you?"

 
     
"No, grandfather. I can be warm and cuddly. Tell me, when will I
meet Kwong Fook? My mother was very fond of him."

 
     
His face turned into a benign smile that she sensed was trying to hide
something. "Kwong Fook is very ill. He cannot receive any visits."

 
     
"But I have been told that you visit him."

 
     
"Yes, I go and see my son from time to time for a few hours. But even
that the doctors find is undesirable because it upsets him."

 
     
"Are you willing to tell me what he’s suffering from?"

 
     
"No, Yuen-mong, it pains me much to talk of him."

 
     
"I’m sorry, grandfather." However, the emotions she sensed were not
completely congruent.

     
The meal passed rather quietly. Yuen-mong felt that a wall had risen
even between her and Mai. Talk remained on neutral ground. After the
meal, Ming came to her, wanting to be held. She stood with her at the
window and they watched the birds on the window sill. Within a minute,
she felt Bee behind her.

     
"Come, Ming. You must not be a burden to Yuen-mong." She held
out her hands to take the girl, but Ming turned away and again hid her
face on Yuen-mong’s shoulder.

     
"Bee, I sense that you are angry with me," murmured Yuen-mong.
"And I guess why."

 
     
"What you did cost me much of my fortune and Dan’s security is suddenly at risk. Why did you do this? We have done nothing to deserve it."
As she spoke, her face turned fierce, and Yuen-mong liked that expression of conviction and her openness.

     
"Bee, no, you have done nothing to deserve that loss, and I cannot tell
you yet why I had to do what I did. There will be changes in UniCom, but
those with ability who use it for the best of the company will be rewarded
and from what I have seen of Dan, I’m confident that he will be one of
them."

 
     
"I was not trying to beg for him —"

 
     
"I didn’t see it that way. Bee, I would like to have you as a friend.
Please, let me hold your darling daughter a while longer."

 
     
"If she wishes it."

 
     
"Do you, Ming, Ming, Ming?" she intonated the familiar chord.

     
"Yes, Yuen-mong-mong," the girl sang back.