Read Online Westlake, Donald E - Novel 51 by Humans (v1.1) - Free Book Online Page B

pool.
                Looking to his right, Kwan saw
through the windows three chunky men in pale gray tight suits and dark neckties
standing indecisively at his former table. One of them looked up and saw Kwan,
and pointed, becoming excited. Kwan turned his eyes front, watching the broad
pale blue back of the tall westerner in front of him. Who was he? The accent
had seemed not quite American, but not at all British, nor Australian.
Canadian? Was English his second language? How had he known about Mortimer, and
about Li Kwan? Where were they going?
                Around the pool, past the sunbathers
and a slighdy rancid smell of coconut oil. Then, beyond the attendant’s cabana,
full of towels, they came to a pale green wooden fence, eight feet high,
containing an unmarked and scarcely noticeable door. The stranger opened this,
and they both stepped through to an alleyway. Garbage cans were stacked below a
loading dock to the right. The street was to the left. As he closed the door,
Kwan looked back and saw the three policemen running this way, around the pool.
‘They’re chasing us,” he said.
                “That door’s locked.”
                It is? Kwan looked at the door, but
had no time to think any more about it, because the stranger was moving quickly
now toward the street; not quite running, but striding with very long legs.
Kwan had to trot to keep up with him, like a child.
                Illegally parked at the curb just to
the right of the alley was a white Toyota ; like a million others in Hong Kong . The stranger pointed to the passenger
door: “Get in .”
                The door was unlocked. Kwan got in,
and the interior was stiflingly hot. He rolled down his window as the stranger
got behind the wheel. The key was already in the ignition. The stranger started
the motor and pulled away into traffic, and then at last Kwan could say, “How
did you know?”
                The stranger smiled. He drove
patiently but professionally through the jammed streets. “You are not part of a
conspiracy,” he said. “Your government says you are, but you are not.”
                “Of course Tm not.”
                “Neither am I,” the stranger said.
“But if I tell you who I am, and how I found out what was going to happen to
you, and why I decided to help if I could, then we would both be parts of a
plan. And that’s a conspiracy.”
                “That’s specious. What con—?”
                The stranger laughed. “Of course
it’s specious,” he said. “But you wanted an answer, so that’s the answer I gave
you.”
                “The only answer I’m going to get,
you mean.”
                “Well, here’s another one, then,”
the stranger said. “Next time, you might not be so lucky. You might get caught.
And if you get caught, they’ll be sure to say, c Who helped you
escape last time?’ It would be better for me if you didn’t have an answer.”
                “Well, all right,” Kwan said. “That isn’t specious. It’s merely convenient.”
                Again the stranger laughed. “What
gratitude!”
                Kwan felt himself blush. “I beg your
pardon! I was so confused, it was so fast— Of course I’m grateful! You saved my life!”
                “Use it well,” the stranger said.
     
                They took the ferry over to the island of Lamma , its small houses gleaming in the sun.
Along the way, they got out of the Toyota to stand at the rail and breathe the cool
sea air and look at the world sparkling all around them.
                “You’ll have to leave Hong Kong ,” the stranger said. “Your reasons for
staying here are no good any more.”
                “I don’t know where to go,” Kwan
said. He seemed to have given over all control, all capacity