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David slammed down the phone. Without explanation he began issuing orders: “Everybody up! Let’s get out of here. We’re going to the American embassy!” When Hulan and Miss Quo didn’t move, he barked, “Now!”
Miss Quo jumped up. Hulan slowly drew herself to her feet as David threw a couple of things in his briefcase and Miss Quo scurried about looking for her purse and…What was she jabbering on about? Her umbrella? Then someone pounded on the door, and the others froze in place. Hulan thought it was one of the funnier things she’d ever seen, but the look of horror on Miss Quo’s face trapped the laughter in her throat.
“Why didn’t you tell me about Sun and the bribery?” Henry Knight demanded, as he finally burst through the door. “Did you know all along this was brewing? Did you know he was going to be arrested?”
David, briefcase in hand and ready to flee, asked, “Has he already been arrested?”
“Now, how in God’s name am I supposed to know?” Henry queried, dramatically throwing himself into a chair.
David just looked at the man.
Henry began to take in the scene: Miss Quo in her pink Chanel suit, eyes swollen and red, her bag over her shoulder and an umbrella in her hand; David looking rumpled, harried, with his briefcase in one hand and his laptop in the other; and Hulan swaying there as if she were ready to keel over for an afternoon siesta except it was only 10:30 in the morning.
“What’s going on here?” Henry asked.
“In case you don’t know it, Sun isn’t the only one who’s in trouble,” David answered. “I’ve been named, as have Miss Quo and Miss Liu.”
“Well, I know that! But you aren’t going to turn tail and run away like scared dogs, are you?”
“That’s precisely what we’re going to do.”
“But you have a duty to your client.”
David didn’t have time to talk with Henry about this. He looked at the two women. “Come on, let’s go.”
They made for the door, but Henry jumped up and blocked them. “If Sun’s arrested,” Henry said, “he’ll be executed. His death will be on your head.”
“If he’s arrested and I go down to the jail to help him, I’ll probably be arrested too. If I’m lucky, I’ll simply be expelled from the country. If not—”
Henry grabbed David’s shirt. He was a small man but wiry and tough. “You’ve got a duty, boy. The man’s innocent.”
“Like you’re innocent of illegal practices in your factory? Like you’re innocent of paying off Sun?”
Henry shoved David away. “Do you realize that at this very minute my son is selling my company out from under me? That vulture Randall Craig and your partner Miles Stout are trying to rip my life away from me, but I’m not going to let them. I’ll use every penny I’ve got to keep them from getting Knight. What’s happened there, if it’s to be believed, is terrible. But I’ve got money too, and I’ve got people in New York poised to buy the stock. If Tartan wants war, I’ll give it to them. Because I’m telling you right now, whatever happened in that factory before is ending. The past record won’t matter anymore—”
“Of course it will, Henry. It’s the key to everything. Tartan wants your company for the very abuses you insisted you didn’t have. And your pal Sun has moved the whole thing along. Now,” he added forcefully, “we’re leaving.”
“What if I told you I knew where Sun was?”
David motioned at the walls around him. “I’d say you’d better be careful where you say that. I don’t think the Chinese will take kindly to your hiding a criminal.”
“I’m not hiding him, but I know where he is, and…” He once again grabbed David’s shirt, pulled him very close, and whispered, “I’ve got a plane.”
The phone rang. Miss Quo stared at it. When it rang a third time, she picked it up. “Phillips, MacKenzie & Stout,” she said, taking a stab at a cheerfulness she didn’t feel. The voice on the other end spoke for several seconds with Miss Quo nodding. “Please hold,” she said at last, “I will see if he’s in.” She held the receiver out to David. “It’s for you.”
“I don’t have to take it. I no longer work for the firm.”
“She’s calling from America.”
“Oh, Jesus,” David said, “Jenner must have sent her story out on the wire. We’re probably all over the papers in the States too. Just say no comment.”
Miss Quo shook her head. “No, it’s a woman from Kansas. She says she’s been trying to reach you for a long time.”
21
DAVID MOVED SWIFTLY TO THE PHONE. “ANNE?”
After a long-distance delay, Anne’s voice came floating over the line. “Is this David Stark?”
