Black Horn (32 page)

Across the harbour, Inspector Lau had also jotted down the conversation, even though
it was being automatically recorded. He looked up at the constable and said,
"That was the voice of a lawyer. He's Chinese, but educated in England...
the accent is obvious. I'll track that bastard down, even though he never made
an open threat in the conversation."

"But it was obvious," the constable said. "Either five million dollars by
tomorrow and the mercenaries sent away, or Lucy Kwok Ling Fong loses her head."

The Inspector lifted a hand for silence. Voices were coming through one of the
other speakers. It was Jens Jensen, speaking to Creasy and relaying the
conversation. Then Creasy was talking to Gloria and telling her that in four
hours' time, she must agree to their demands and ask for details of how the
money was to be delivered. By noon that day, it would be over, one way or
another. She should demand proof that Lucy was alive unharmed. Without that
proof, she would not pay the money.

"Should I have the money transferred?" she asked.

"Can you do it in such a short time?"

"Yes, I can."

"Then do it," Creasy said. "Just in case. But I think in the next five
hours Lucy will either be rescued or dead."

There was a silence from the speaker and then Gloria's voice came again:
"Creasy. Maybe I should go along with them. Pay the money and call this
whole thing off... The only thing that matters now is to save Lucy's life."

Craesy's voice came out of the speaker in a flat monotone: "Mrs Manners. They'll
kill her anyway. It's out of your hands now. Just follow my instructions. Now
pass me to Rene."

Another pause, and then Creasy was giving Rene instructions. Until further notice, he
was not to open the door of the suite to anybody. Rene and Jens were to cover
the door, with submachine-guns from different defended positions.

Rene's voice said: "Don't worry on this end, Creasy. Good luck to you and the
guys." Then the connection was broken.

The constable turned from his computer screen to Inspector Lau and said, "It's
going to be an interesting morning."

It was
just after three o'clock in the morning when the door opened to Inspector Lau's
office. It was the Commissioner of Police.

Inspector
Lau immediately stood up to attention and so did the constable. The Hong Kong
Police is a very disciplined force. The Commissioner was dressed in very casual
clothes: a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, and a denim jacket. He glanced around
the room and his eyes alighted on the three loudspeakers on the wall. He was
about to ask a question, when voices came out of one of the loudspeakers.

It was
Guido, talking to Tony Cope: "Rendezvous. Three-thirty hours at B/14.
Confirmed."

"I
copy."

The
Commissioner looked at Inspector Lau, who decided to go on to the attack.

"What
are you doing here, Sir? At this time of the night?"

The
Commissioner glanced at the constable and then back at the Inspector. He said,
"That's a brilliant question. You ring me up in the middle of the night to
arrange a phone-tap on the Peninsula Hotel, and tell me in your usual succinct
way to have a good night's sleep... How the hell can I sleep? I came to see
what's happening. Not to be a boss... and not to interfere. But my guts tell me
that something is happening tonight and I want to witness it." He gestured
at the row of loudspeakers. "And, I guess, to listen. Who set that
up?"

Inspector
Lau was still standing. He gestured at the constable and said, "Constable
Wang Mung Ho. He's been a computer buff from the moment he left his mother's
womb." He pointed at the right-hand speaker. "We are patched into
Creasy's mercenary team on their mobile phones on that speaker." He
pointed at the middle loudspeaker. That carries our own police
telecommunications." He pointed at the left-hand speaker. "That
carries any phone-call made to or from the Presidential Suite of the Peninsula
Hotel." He pointed at the computer screen in front of the Constable and
said, "Constable Wang has, over the last two days, been able to set up
graphs on his computer to identify voices and also to identify the origins of
transmissions."

The
Commissioner walked up behind the constable and looked at his screen. As he
stood there, a voice came through the right-hand speaker.

It was
the voice of Damon Broad saying: "Rendezvous on the beach in three
minutes. Flash your torch twice after two minutes."

Another
voice said: "I copy."

A third
voice came through the speaker, saying: "We are lying one nautical mile
off the Ninepins. I have the Black Swan on radar. We are on silent mode."

The
Commissioner looked down at the constable and said, "What was that?"

The
constable turned his head and explained. "That was Damon Broad,
communicating with Guido Arrellio. In three minutes, he'll pick Guido up from
the beach in a silenced dinghy and take him out to the MY Tempest. The other
voice was Tony Cope, who's commanding the Tempest. Guido and Tony Cope will
attack the Black Swan just before dawn."

The
Commissioner drew a breath to say something, but was interrupted by the sound
of another dialogue from the speaker.

It was
Jens Jensen, talking to Creasy: "Dawn is at six hundred zero seven hours
and the garbage truck moves out of Sai Kung village, at six forty-five. Its
speed is reduced to less than ten miles an hour at map reference E/12."

"I'll
be there," the voice came back.

The speaker went silent and the constable looked up at his Commissioner and
explained, "That was Creasy talking to the Dane, Jens Jensen. The Dane is
at the Peninsula, coordinating communications between the team. The Dane is
also a computer expert." The constable glanced at his watch. "In half
an hour, the team will move towards Sai Kung and infiltrate close to the
villa."

From behind him, the Commissioner heard Inspector Lau say, "The 14K have demanded
five million US dollars from the American woman Gloria Manners by noon today, against the
release of Lucy Kwok. They will call her again at six a.m. She will play for time."

The Commissioner stood there with his hands folded, looking at the computer screen.
Then he looked at the three loudspeakers on the wall. Then he looked back at
the constable and said, "You've done a very good job, constable."

The constable twisted in his chair, and looked up at his Commissioner.

"Thank you, Sir."

The right-hand loudspeaker came to life. It was Creasy talking to Eric: "Are
you back in position?"

"Affirmative."

"Any movement?"

"Negative."

"I wake the team up in twenty minutes. We'll be in position in one hour."

"Info on the woman?"

"Guido's on his way."

The Commissioner settled himself into a chair while Inspector Lau switched on the
coffee percolator. Constable Ho was tapping the keys of his computer. He turned
and said to the Commissioner, "Guido will board the MY Tempest, in about
forty-five minutes. From past transcripts, we know that Creasy and Do Huang
will hijack the garbage truck as it leaves Sai Kung villa, at about six
forty-five a.m."

The Commissioner glanced at his watch. He looked up at the row of loudspeakers and
said, "Inspector Lau. Are we sure that Tommy Mo and his chief henchmen are
in that villa?"

"We are sure, Sir."

Guido
had left his car a kilometre from the shore and scrambled down the low
coastline to the beach, holding an illuminated compass in his left hand. He
held a black canvas bag containing clothes and his weapons, and weapons for
Tony Cope. He waited on the rocky foreshore, listening for the sound of an
outboard engine. He waited for two minutes and heard nothing. He pulled a torch
from his canvas bag, and flicked it on twice. From the sea came an answering
flash. It was remarkably close.

Two
minutes later, the black shape of the dinghy slid on to the beach. Guido
dropped the bag over the prow and saw the dim outline of Damon Broad at the
helm. As the dinghy reversed off the beach, Guido said, "I heard
nothing."

"That's
the idea," Damon said. "We extended the exhaust below the water-line
and encased the motors on all the dinghies."

As they
sped across the silent unruffled water towards the Ninepins, Guido said,
"Give me a sitrep."

Damon
Broad said, "The Black Swan is anchored in among the Ninepins. Tony did a
recce about an hour ago. You thoughtfully provided us with night-glasses. There
were two look-outs on deck, but they're amateurs. They sat on the wheelhouse
roof, which meant they could see far out to sea, but could not observe the
waters immediately below them. Since there's only a new moon covered by cloud,
they could see nothing far out to sea. Tony's worked out the assault."

"Anything
else?"

There
was a long pause and then Damon said, "Tony approached to within three hundred
metres of that junk and drifted at the same distance past it, for about an
hour. For the first half of that hour, he heard intermittent screams... Then
they stopped."

They
continued the forty-minute passage in silence, until Damon Broad said quietly,
"I wish I could assault that junk with you."

Guido's
voice was quiet and almost caressing. "Don't worry, Damon... When I get on
to that junk, I'll do what you want to do."

The
Commissioner sat and drank coffee and, for the next hour, watched the row of
loudspeakers. Not a sound came from them. By nature, he was an efficient, but
impatient man. Finally, his impatience broke through. He said to the constable,
"Has your communication set-up gone down?"

Wang
shook his head. "No, Sir. Any minute now, things will start to
happen."

Another
five minutes passed and then voices began to come through the speakers, and the
constable started interpreting who the voices belonged to and where they were
coming from. First, it was Guido talking to Creasy; telling him that he was
aboard the Tempest and about to move on the Black Swan. Creasy adviced back
that the team were preparing to move out of the safehouse and head to Sai Kung.
Every transmission was cryptic in the extreme, and without Constable Ho's
explanation, the Commissioner would have been confused.

Then,
at 6 a.m., another loudspeaker carried the transcript between Gloria Manners
and the smooth talking go-between. She told him that she agreed to the terms of
the investment and that the money was being transferred to Hong Kong and would
be available before noon. He informed her that payment must be made in gold
sovereigns and that she could exchange her dollars for sovereigns at the Hang
Seng Bank, which always kept a large stock. He would call back in two hours, to
give her the details of the exchange of the sovereigns and her Chinese friend.

Ten minutes later, Creasy was talking to Guido, reporting that he and Do Huang were
in position outside Sai Kung village, waiting to hijack the garbage truck. Ten
seconds later, Jens Jensen was reminding the team that first light was in twenty-three minutes.

The Commissioner tore his gaze from the row of loudspeakers, looked at Inspector
Lau and said, "Your friends are well-organised, but my money is still on Tommy Mo."

"How much, Sir?"

"Inspector, you know that gambling for money is illegal in Hong Kong... dinner at the Sung
Wah restaurant."

"You're on, Sir."

Guido and Tony Cope went through the 'buddy' routine. They stood facing each other,
dressed in black and fully-armed. Their faces were blackened, and they wore
black knitted skullcaps. They checked each others submachine-guns, ensuring
first that they were on safety, and then that the magazines and spare magazines
were primed. They then went through the same procedure with the pistols that
they carried in holsters on their right sides, and the grenades attached to the
webbing on their chests. Damon Broad looked on. He had never seen the procedure
before, but the logic of it was obvious.

Earlier, Tony Cope had explained the method of boarding the Black Swan. It was a method
that the Special Boat Service had adopted from the centuries-old pirates who,
up until the present day, were the scourge of the straits of Malacca. Those
pirates would come up at night behind a vessel in fast boats. They would have
long bamboo poles with cloth-covered hooks on the end, and latch on to the
stern rail, and then storm up those poles.

Tony Cope had explained that, although they did not have bamboo poles, they had two
very long boat-hooks which he had adapted. They would approach to within two
hundred metres of the Black Swan with silenced engine and then row in under the
stern. If the look-outs were still sitting on the Black Swan's wheelhouse, they
would see nothing.

There was a very slight northerly breeze. As they attacked the Black Swan, Damon
Broad would bring in the Tempest towards the north, switch off the engine and
drift down towards them. At the first sound of gunfire, he would man the heavy
machine-gun on the stern and cover the decks of the Black Swan, by which time,
the look-outs would be dead and Guido and Tony would be below-deck, cleaning
up. The plan had the perfection of simplicity and Guido offered no argument.
They completed their checks and climbed down into the dinghy.

It took fifteen minutes to approach the Black Swan. Tony Cope steered with a luminous
compass in his left hand. Guido sat in the prow and watched the little
stalagmite islands loom into shape. Then, in their midst, he saw the dark
ominous shape of the Black Swan. Tony cut the engine and they both crouched
down. It was not even necessary to use the oars. Over the next ten minutes, a
gentle breeze carried them under the stern of the junk.

Tony rose with one of the long padded boat-hooks in his hands, reached up and gently
hooked it over the stern-rail. Guido went first, pulling himself up hand over
hand until he gripped the rail, he lifted his head and heard the two look-outs
talking on top of the wheelhouse. They were just shadows, about eight metres
away. Quietly, he pulled himself aboard. He felt, rather than saw, Tony beside
him. He touched Tony on the shoulder and pointed to the two shadows and then
touched his chest and pointed at the open door of the wheelhouse, moved forward
on his rubber-soled boots and ducked through the entrance.