“You know what it is,” I said, pulling my attention back to the tat.
“I know some things about it.” He put it on the desk and looked up, and he had his poker face on. “But I need a guarantee first.”
“We’re on the same senate—” I began hotly.
“Yes, and I just finished explaining why that doesn’t help either of us if we don’t align. Look, I get it; you two don’t speak for the old man, wherever the old man is. But you do speak for you, and you have influence with him. I want a guarantee of an alliance between us, and an assurance that you’ll work on Mircea to get him to at least consider my proposal.”
“Which is what?” Louis-Cesare asked warily.
Zheng shrugged. “What I said. The consul isn’t fond of us—any of us, and from what I hear, that includes him. The day may come when we’ll all need friends. I can be a good friend, to those who’re good to me.”
“That’s damned vague,” I pointed out.
The big, handsome face was sober. “When you’re talking about this kind of stuff, it’s best to be vague. I’ll be more direct with your father, if he wants it.”
Louis-Cesare frowned. “You ask for a great deal. How do we know that your information is worth it?”
Zheng lit up a cigarette and sat back in his chair, allowing the smoke to wreath his head. “I’m not offering merely information. I can help you. But it’s dangerous, and I want to know that it’s worthwhile.”
“It’s worthwhile if we get Dorina back,” Louis-Cesare said, “not otherwise.”
“Hey—” I began.
“And if she’s already dead?” Zheng demanded. “You’re still going to want a pound of somebody’s flesh—”
“If she’s dead, we’ll be taking a great deal more than that,” Louis-Cesare said grimly.
“Exactly. And you’ll need help—”
“We won’t need help with vengeance, I can assure you.”
“And I can assure you that you will. You don’t know Hong Kong, especially now—”
“Then let us say that any agreement would be contingent upon us finding Dorina—in whatever condition she may be—and upon your information and aid being material to her retrieval. If it doesn’t help us, you get nothing—”
“Hey!” I said, a little more forcefully.
“—and, of course, there will be further conditions—”
“Aren’t there always?” Zheng asked sardonically.
“—which will have to be negotiated, although that can wait until—”
“Hey!” I slapped the desk, hard enough to rattle the few items on it.
Both men stopped to look at me.
I frowned at Louis-Cesare. “We need to talk.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now.”
“I’ll step outside,” Zheng offered.
“We will,” Louis-Cesare said, which made Zheng raise a big, black eyebrow. As if offended that we might think his office was bugged. But he didn’t object, probably because the whole damned place was.
We stepped out. And immediately wished we hadn’t, or at least I did. Because the hallway was already full.
“No, she better!” Lily was saying, as I started digging through my purse.
“What are you—” Louis-Cesare began, watching me.
“Just wait a minute.” The bag was larger than the one I’d lost, an experimental type that I’d left on the plane when we went to Hassani’s, because I was still getting used to the idea. It had come courtesy of the same guy who’d designed the graffiti gun, the father of a war mage friend who loved to tinker with strange magic.
And this was about as strange as it got.
Not that it looked like it. It was almost a clone of my other purse, both big, black leather numbers, although this one had an extra wide opening. It also had an added feature, if I could remember how to turn it on . . .
“That’s absurd,” Rashid was saying, with a sneer. “These . . . things . . . of yours are not superior to real women.”
“Oh, no?” Lily pulled a petite brunette, who had just left a room with a client, into the argument. “You like big bust? Big bust!” she said.
Louis-Cesare made a sound and I looked up. I don’t know what Lily had done; I hadn’t seen her do anything. But the girl’s former A cup was suddenly full and running over, to the point that she popped a couple of buttons on her shirt. One of them hit Bahram, who was eating again, but he didn’t seem to mind.
Unlike his friend.
“That!” Rashid said pointing, and appearing outraged. “That is absurd!”
Lily made a disgusted sound. “You not know what you talking about! You like the booty? There you go, big, big booty!”