Gonzalez had been dozing. When he woke, at my rapping on the window, to find a naked Nick Carter standing hand-in-hand with a beautiful and extremely naked Chinese girl, his jaw dropped to his shoes. For a moment he did nothing but stare. And not at me. I couldn't really blame him. Li Chin was small, almost tiny, but every inch of her body was in perfect proportion. Jet black hair fell down to her small, firm breasts, with the large aureole and erect nipples. Her thighs and legs were sleek, the belly lean and curving. Her face was punctuated by a perfect little doll's nose, and when she drew aside finely defined lips, her teeth dazzled. It was hard to believe this girl was a Kung Fu master — or should I say mistress — who could take on any number of men in unarmed combat. Not that I had any intention of forgetting it.
I rapped on the window again, startling Gonzalez out of his trancelike stare.
"Gonzalez," I said, "if you don't mind interrupting your study of physical culture, I'd appreciate your unlocking the door. And I think the lady would appreciate your jacket."
Gonzalez scrambled for the door handle.
"Door," he said. "Yes. Of course. Door. Jacket. Of course. I'd be most happy to give the lady my door. I mean my jacket."
It took a few seconds of confusion, but finally the door did get opened, and Li Chin was covered from shoulders to knees by Gonzalez' jacket. I got a raincoat which, Gonzalez not being particularly tall, put up a courageous struggle to reach my thighs.
"All right," I said, settling into the back seat with Li Chin, settling Wilhelmina and Hugo temporarily into the pockets of Gonzalez' raincoat and ignoring his unspoken but obviously desperate desire to find out what had happened. "Let's get the hell out of here. But not back to the hotel yet. Just drive around for awhile. This little lady has a few things to tell me."
"Sure," said Li Chin, calmly. She rummaged in Gonzalez' jacket pockets until she found a pack of cigarettes, offered one to me, and when I declined lit one for herself and took a deep drag. "Where should I begin?"
"At the beginning. With basics. Such as, exactly what are you trying to do and why?"
"Okay. But don't you think the man who's driving should look in front of him more often than he looks in the rearview mirror?"
"Gonzalez," I said warningly.
Gonzalez glanced guiltily back at the road, and continued to drive at a speed of about twenty miles an hour.
"Do you know anything about Chinatown?" asked Li Chin.
"Does anybody know anything about Chinatown if they're not ethnic Chinese?"
"A good point," smiled Li Chin. "Anyway, I'm the daughter of Lung Chin. I'm also his only child. Lung Chin is head of the Chin family, or the Chin clan, if you like. It's a big clan, and I don't mind telling you that it's a very wealthy one. With a lot of different business interests, not only in New York's Chinatown, Hong Kong, and Singapore, but scattered all around the world. Since my father didn't have any other children, specifically, any sons, I was raised and educated to look out for the interests of the Chin clan, wherever they might be and whatever they might be. In any way I might have to."
"Including a judicious use of the mastery of the martial arts?"
"Yes," Li Chin nodded. "And a study of the humanities at Vassar. And a study of technology in general at M.I.T."
"A widely educated young lady," I remarked.
"I have to be. My job at this point is, well, you might call it a troubleshooter for the clan. When something's not running smoothly, or there's a threat against the clan's interests, wherever and whatever, my job is to jump in and straighten things out."
"And what isn't running smoothly, or is threatened, at this point?" I asked, already sure of the answer.
"Oh come on, Carter," she said. "You must have guessed that by now. The clan has heavy interests in Venezuelan oil. And oil in a few other spots off South America, too. And the OAS is threatening to destroy off-shore oil rigs and oil refineries all up and down the coast. Right?"
"Very good," I said grimly. "Very well informed. I don't suppose you'd like to tell me how you're so well informed?"
"Of course not," she said cheerfully. "Any more than I can tell you how I learned you'd met up with Michelle Duroche in Tangier, and learned it in time to tail you from there. Let's just say the Chin clan is a big one, and it has a lot of ears in a lot of places."
"Including electronic ears inserted into cigarettes," I reminded her.
"Yes," she said matter-of-factly. "You were my only clue to the whereabouts of Duroche. I couldn't risk losing you. And we both know damned well that Fernand Duroche is the key to the whole OAS threat. Anyway, now that we both know where our dear Dr. Death was taken after he'd been hidden in the leprosarium…"
"Hold it," I broke in sharply. "Exactly where do you think he was taken?"
"Oh come on, Carter. You're playing games with me again," she said impatiently. "I heard what Jorge said as well as you did. Why do you think I flew down here and volunteered as a nurse as soon as my bug picked up your conversation with Duroche's daughter — just before you smoked it out of commission. By the way, how did it taste?"
"Foul," I said. "But you haven't answered my question."
"Jorge said 'Martinique. Your friend Akhmed's last word was Volcano. Shall I recite the guidebook to you? 'The French Caribbean island of Martinique is the home of the dormant, probably extinct, volcano, Mont Pelee. Conclusion: Duroche, and the OAS, are now headquartered in or near the crater of Mont Pelee, in Martinique."
I cursed silently. This girl was good.
"All right," I said. "Your detective work is thorough. And you don't do too badly in the rough-and-tumble department. But now, little grasshopper, the time has come for you to bow out of the picture. You may represent the interests of the Chin clan, but I represent the interests of the United States, to say nothing of every other oil producing country in this hemisphere. It's a question of priorities. Get the picture?"
"But that's just it," Li Chin said, tossing her cigarette butt out the window. "The interests I serve and the interests you serve aren't in conflict. We both want the same thing — to put the OAS scheme out of commission. And we both know we have to go about it in the same way, by getting hold of Duroche. Conclusion: the time has come for us to team up."
"Forget it," I said. "You'd just complicate things."
"Like I did back at the leprosarium?" Li Chin asked, looking at me archly. "Listen, Carter, I can be a help on this thing and you know it. There's no way you can keep me out of it anyway. I'm more than a match for anyone you could get to try to keep me prisoner, and if you had me arrested it would just implicate you."
I stared out the window for a minute, thinking. What she said was true. There probably wasn't any way I could keep her out of it. She was probably sitting there right now devising some obscure way to bug my toenails, should I decide to try. Then again, it was possible she was working for the opposition, in spite of her fairly plausible story, and had come to my aid at the leprosarium just to get in my good graces. But even so, it might be better to have her where I could keep an eye on her, rather than slithering around somewhere out of sight.
"Come on. Carter," she said. "Stop sitting there trying to look inscrutable. Is it a deal?"
"All right," I said. "Consider yourself temporarily recruited by AXE. But only as long as you pull your own weight."
Li Chin batted her eyelashes and looked at me sideways.
"Consider the old Chinese proverb," she said, in the hokiest accent I'd heard since Charlie Chan.
"What's that?" I said, playing straight man.
"You can't keep a good man down, because when the going gets tough, the tough get going, and I have just begun to fight."
"Hmmm," I said. "Confucius?"
"No. Chinatown High, class of 67."
I nodded approvingly.
"Very profound, in any case. But now that we've had our culture for the day, I'd like to discuss how we're going to travel to Martinique."
Her whole expression changed. She was all business.
"If you read your guidebook well," I told her, "you know that Martinique is an overseas departmente of France, like Hawaii is a state in the United States. Which means that the law and administration are French…"
"Which means," Li Chin finished for me, "that they may be infiltrated by OAS members."
I nodded.
"Which means that we have to enter Martinique without their knowing we've arrived. Which brings up the problem of transportation. Michelle and I are traveling under cover identities, but we can't take the risk that they've been blown, especially after that incident at the leprosarium."
Li Chin stroked one side of her face thoughtfully.
"Not by air, then," she said.
"No," I agreed. "It's a mountainous island. The only place to land is the airport, and we'd have to go through Customs and Immigration. On the other hand, while there's only one place to land a plane, there are hundreds of places a relatively small boat could anchor and remain unobserved for a few days."
"Except that chartering a boat would be a good way to let an awful lot of people on this island know we were planning a trip," said Li Chin absently, lighting up another one of Gonzalez' cigarettes.
"Agreed," I said. "So we think in terms of borrowing a boat, rather than chartering one."
"Without the owner's knowledge, of course."
"Not until we've returned it, with a fee for its use."
Li Chin flipped cigarette ash out the window and looked businesslike.
"We'll have to discuss that fee thing, Carter," she said. "I've been going a little overboard on my expense account lately."
"I'll take it up with my accountant," I promised her. "Meanwhile, we both need some sleep. Tonight. Do you know where the yacht basin is?"
She nodded.
"At the eastern tip, there's a cafe called the Puerto Real. I'll meet you there tomorrow at midnight. Do you have a place to stay until then?"
"Of course," she said. "The Chin clan…"
"I know, I know. The Chin clan is a very big clan. All right, Gonzalez can drop me near my hotel, then buy you some clothes, and drive you to where you want to go."
"Okay," she said, flipping the cigarette butt out the window. "But. Carter, about those clothes…"
"They'll go on my expense account," I assured her.
She smiled.
Well, what the hell. It was worth buying some clothes, to have seen her take the others off.
It was daybreak by the time I let myself into the San Geronimo suite again, and Michelle was still soundly asleep. She wasn't exactly overdressed, either, even for sleeping. All she was wearing, in fact, was the corner of the sheet, which modestly covered about four inches of her thigh. I showered quietly, but thoroughly, using some carbolic soap I'd brought along for just that purpose, and slid into bed beside her. I was tired. I was sleepy. All I wanted was to close my eyes and snore heartily. At least, that's what I thought until Michelle stirred, opened one eye, saw me, and immediately rolled over to press her lush breasts — so different from Li Chin's small, firm, up-tilting ones — against my bare chest.
"How did it go?" she murmured, one hand beginning to stroke my back, up toward the base of my neck.
"Aside from battling a regiment of contagious lepers, armed with knives and clubs, there was nothing to it," I responded, my own hands beginning an exploration of some interesting terrain.
"You must tell me about it," Michelle said huskily, her entire body now pressing to mine, molding itself against me.
"I will," I said. And then didn't say anything more for a while, my lips being occupied in a different fashion.
"When will you tell me?" Michelle murmured, in a minute.
"Later," I said. "Much later."
And it was much later. That afternoon, in fact, as we once again lay on the white sand beach, soaking up some more of the hot Caribbean sun.
"But do you really trust this Chinese girl?" Michelle asked, spreading warm suntan oil over my back, kneading the muscles of my shoulders.
"Of course not," T said. "Which is one of the reasons I'd rather have her where I can keep an eye on her."
"I don't like it," Michelle said. "She sounds dangerous."
"She is," I said.
Michelle was silent for a moment.
"And you say she stripped naked in front of you?" she demanded suddenly.
"Strictly in the line of duty," I reassured her.
"Hunh!" she snorted. "It sounds to me like she's an expert in a few things besides Kung Fu."
I grinned. "It might be interesting to find out."
"Not while I'm around you won't!" Michelle snapped. "I don't like the idea of having her with us."
"You've already told me that," I said.
"Well, I'm telling you again," she responded sulkily.
And she did tell me again. While we were having more of those damned Piña Coladas before dinner. And while we were pretending to be lions during dinner. And while we were in the cab after dinner, driving to the casino.
"Look," I said finally. "She's coming with us and that's that. I don't want to hear about it again."
Michelle subsided into a sulky silence, which grew even sulkier as we left the casino and got into the rented car I'd had delivered. I ignored her, concentrating all my facilities on driving in, through, and around San Juan, until I was sure I had lost anyone who might be tailing us. It was almost midnight by the time I parked the car several blocks from the yacht basin, and we changed into the dungarees and sweaters Td brought along in a briefcase.
"Where do we meet this Kung Fu champion of yours?" Michelle asked, as I took her arm and propelled her through darkened, silent streets toward the yacht basin.
"In a dirty, dark, thoroughly disreputable dive," I told her cheerfully. "You'll love it."
The Puerto Real was a dive. And it was dirty, dark, and thoroughly disreputable. It was also a place where people minded their own business, and made very certain not to look too closely at strangers. In other words, it was the best meeting place I could think of. I brushed aside the bead curtains which hung over the entry and stared into the dingy, smoky interior. A long bar made of cracked tile ran the length of the room, and half a dozen seedy looking characters were drinking at it, some playing dominoes with the bartender, some just staring into space. Across from the bar, set against the crumbling stucco wall, some rickety tables hosted a noisy dice game, a few solitary drinkers, and one drunk who was literally crying in his beer. The whole place smelled of stale beer, stale cigarette smoke, and rum-laden breaths. Michelle grimaced with disgust as I led her to a table.
"This is worse than Tangier," she muttered to me. "How long do we have to wait for that girl?"
"Until she shows up," I said. I was just about to go to the bar for drinks when one of the solitary drinkers got up from a table at the other end of the room and half staggered toward us, carrying a bottle and some glasses. A drunk, obviously, and down on his luck, from the incredibly dirty, paint-stained dungarees, the ripped wool sweater, and the wool cap which half hid the face.
"Hey, amigos," the drunk said, leaning over our table, "lesh have a drink together. Hate to drink alone."
"Beat it, buddy. We…"
I stopped in mid-sentence. Under the cap, one familiar Oriental eye was winking at me. I pulled out a chair.
"Li Chin," I said, "meet Michelle Duroche."
"Hi," said Li Chin, grinning, as she slid into the chair.
"Good evening," said Michelle. And then, in a voice dripping with sweetness, "What a lovely outfit you have."
"I'm glad you like it," Li Chin replied. "But you should have seen the one I had last night. Carter can tell you."
Michelle's eyes flashed dangerously. "I'm surprised he even noticed," she lashed out.
Li Chin just smiled.
"Confucius say," she said, putting on the hokey accent again, "good things come in small packages."
"All right, ladies," I cut in. "Save the friendly conversation for some other time. We have work to do, and we have to do it together."
Li Chin immediately nodded. Michelle suppressed her glare. I took the bottle Li Chin had brought, and poured drinks all around. Li Chin drank hers in one easy swallow, then sat looking at me, waiting. I took a sip of mine and almost exploded.
"Good God!" I gasped. "What is this stuff?"
"New rum," said Li Chin casually. "Kind of raw, isn't it?"
"Raw!" I said. "It's… all right, look. Down to work. What we need is a boat big enough for the four of us, with enough power to get us to Martinique fast, but not big enough to attract a lot of attention and require a deep-water harbor."
"The Lady Day," said Li Chin.
I looked at her questioningly.
"It's anchored about a quarter mile out in the harbor," she said. "Owned by an American millionaire name of Hunter. He hasn't been near it in about three months. Just one man aboard, to take care of it, and he's in town getting drunk."
"You've kept busy," I said approvingly.
"Sitting around bores me," said Li Chin. "Anyway, I only sleep four hours a night, so I had to have something to do, and I happen to like boats anyway. This one is a beauty, Carter, especially for what we have in mind. It's an eighty-foot brigantine with reinforced hull and rigging, three masts, built low for strength on open water and in high winds. Looks like it sleeps at least four, maybe more. And the harbor master here says it packs a twelve hundred-horsepower engine, not just for getting in and out of harbor, but for speed on the open water, even under sail. It's a beauty, a real dream."
I nodded.
"It sounds good."
"There's only one problem," added Li Chin. "The caretaker. When he comes back, and finds the boat gone, he's bound to go for the police."
"He won't find the boat gone," I said. "We'll have the courtesy to wait for him. When he arrives, we'll treat him to a little trip. Locked in a cabin, of course."
"Adding another person we can't trust," Michelle said, annoyed. Her eyes swept over Li Chin.
"It can't be helped," I said. "And we're wasting time sitting here. Let's take a look at the Lady Day."
I stood up. Michelle pushed back her chair, stood, and stalked out of the bar without looking at Li Chin. We followed. After the foul atmosphere of the bar, the warm Caribbean night air smelled extraordinarily good. Across the yacht basin, boats rode in the gentle waves, their lights blinking. It was a peaceful, pleasant scene. I hoped it would remain like that while we «borrowed» the Lady Day.
"Look," said Li Chin, pulling small binoculars out from under her sweater. "There."
I took the binoculars and pointed them in the direction she was indicating. After a moment of blurryness and some adjusting, the Lady Day jumped into view. I whistled softly in admiration. It was just as much of a beauty as Li Chin had said. Its long, sleek lines were unmistakably those of an ocean-going boat, and the tall mast midships meant plenty of power under sail. From the way it rode I could tell it could easily take a shallow anchorage. I studied it a moment more, than took the binoculars from my eyes.
"There's only one thing I don't like about it," I said.
"What's that?" asked Li Chin, looking puzzled. I could tell she'd fallen in love with the boat on first sight. "It's got a dinghy roped to it's stern," I said.
"What?" said Li Chin, and grabbed the binoculars. She knew very well what I was getting at: If the dinghy was at the boat, the watchman must have already returned. Li Chin studied the Lady Day for a moment, then lowered the binoculars, shaking her head.
"My cousin Hong Fat is going to lose a couple of chopsticks over this," she said. "He was supposed to keep an eye on that watchman and tell me when he returned. He's never failed me before."
"It might not be the watchman," I reminded her. "It might be another member of the crew, come to ready her for a voyage. Or even somebody with a little larceny in mind. Someone who's studied the habits of the watchman just as you have. In any case, the Lady Day is too good for our purposes to give up. We'll just have to be prepared for another guest on the trip."
Li Chin nodded in agreement. Our eyes met. We must have both been thinking the same thing — if there was someone on the Lady Day we couldn't afford to let him see us approaching in a dinghy — because the next thing she said was simply:
"Scuba gear?"
"Right," I said, then turned to Michelle. "Have you ever done any scuba diving?"
Michelle glanced at Li Chin.
"What about you?" she said.
"I'm okay," Li Chin answered.
"Well, I'm not too bad myself," said Michelle.
I was dubious. If Li Chin had said she was an expert mountain climber, I suspect Michelle would have claimed to have conquered Mount Everest. But I went along with it.
"All right," I told Li Chin. "Scuba gear for three. And a watertight bag for weapons."
"Of course," she said. "Twenty minutes."
And she was gone, fading into the darkness like a moving shadow.
"She has a cousin who can watch the watchman. She can get scuba gear on demand," Michelle said irritably. "Where does she find all these things?"
"The Chin clan," I said, straight-faced, "is a very big clan."
And our particular branch of the Chin clan was back in less than twenty minutes. She was accompanied by a rather stout Chinese boy of about nineteen, who puffed with effort as he set down the gear.
"The tanks are full," said Li Chin. "I could only get one depth gauge, but we can all follow the one who's wearing it. This is my cousin, Hong Fat."
"Call me Jim," said Hong Fat. "Listen, I never left that watchman's side. I'm half clobbered myself, just from smelling his breath from ten feet away. And he's conked out with his head on a table sleeping like a drunken baby right this minute."
"We'll just have to take our chances on whoever's on the Lady Day," I said. "Come on. We'll suit up down there on the quay, behind that pile of cinderblocks."
We lugged the gear down onto the quay, stripped, and started struggling into wet-suits. They were new, and smelled of rubber. I put on my fins, then tested my mask and oxygen as the others did the same. Hugo and Wilhelmina went into the watertight bag, along with a deadly-looking little derringer which Li Chin produced. Pierre continued to nestle comfortably along my inner thigh, under the wet suit.
"Wow," said Hong Fat. "The creatures from the black lagoon strike again."
"Listen, cousin," said Li Chin, "you get back to that bar and keep eyeballing that watchman, or I'll take away your Honda. If he starts to head back to the Lady Day, give me a buzz."
Hong Fat nodded respectfully, and trundled off into the darkness.
"A buzz?" I said.
"My earring," Li Chin said tersely. "Electronic receiver. Handy, sometimes."
"No doubt," I said drily. T checked to see that all three of us were ready, then motioned Li Chin and Michelle forward to the edge of the quay. It was a night of bright moonlight, but I could see no one watching us.
"Follow behind me," I said. "V formation. Stay at my depth."
They both nodded. I slipped the mask over my face, turned on the oxygen, and lowered myself into the water. A moment later the three of us were gliding smoothly, fin-propelled, through the greenish-black depths of the harbor, toward the Lady Day.