full of sugar,” Twitch said. “Eight million American dollars worth.”
This raised the eyebrows of both men.
“Quite a gift for such a young boy,” one said.
Twitch laughed. “He can have the whole damn ship,” he said. “It’s just come into our possession temporarily. And we don’t need it anymore.”
The twins smiled.
“A ship, and a valuable cargo?” the other asked. “Naturally you want something in return.”
Twitch nodded. “We want into the Ba Xi,” he said.
The twins glanced at each other.
“Are you sure?” one asked. “Or is that the vodka talking?”
“I’m very sure,” Twitch told them. “We can’t wait to play.”
The twins did a simultaneous shrug. Then one said: “Just for the record, exactly who do you think our boss is?”
Twitch winked. “I know enough about him not to speak his name.”
The men considered this, then said: “Wait here.”
They picked up their weapons and left Nolan and Twitch alone in the booth. Nolan was painfully aware they were both woefully exposed to a bullet to the skull, or maybe a meat cleaver to the back. Yet he also knew they could not show the slightest fear or the jig would be up. So, Nolan did his best to stay frozen in place.
Twitch, on the other hand, downed two more shots of the powerful baijiu.
* * *
THE TWINS FINALLY returned to the booth.
“We checked it out,” one said. “Your ship is called the Ocean Song, correct?”
Twitch nodded.
“And it’s down on the docks in the Old Harbor?”
Twitch nodded again.
“Then your offer of a gift is appreciated,” one gunman said. “Our boss is very impressed.”
“So we get into the Ba Xi?” Twitch asked.
“That’s a good possibility,” the man replied.
Nolan showed no emotion, but he knew this was a big step in reaching their goal.
“However,” the other gunman added. “There will be a fee of sorts.”
Twitch was unfazed. “Name it,” he said, fingering the wad of cash in his pocket.
“Your watch,” the twin said.
Nolan and Twitch froze. The watch contained their hidden transponder, the only way those back on the ship could keep track of them, especially now that the radio was gone. The watch was intentionally designed to appear cheap and crummy-looking. Why would the twin want it?
“I’ve had this watch for years,” Twitch told him calmly. “And it’s not very impressive.”
“But it’s just my style,” the man insisted.
Twitch was smart enough not to put up a fight. He took off the transponder and simply passed it to the man.
The gunman put it on and studied how it looked on his wrist.
“And another thing,” he said. “The cargo of sugar and the ship it is on. It will have to be moved to another location. But no worries. One of our crews will take it over in a couple hours.”
Nolan felt sudden fear—there was no way they could have anticipated this wrinkle. But Twitch stayed in character.
“Not a problem,” he said nonchalantly. “It’s all yours.”
One twin wrote down an address on a table napkin.
“Go here,” he said, passing the napkin to Twitch. “Tell them you talked to us.”
Then, the twin gunmen looked at them as if to say, That’s it.
Nolan and Twitch got the hint. Twitch downed one more drink, and they stood up and walked out of the Red Lantern without saying another word.
Once they were out in the alley, though, Nolan’s anxiety level went up a notch. Improvising was one thing, but their problems seemed to be mounting up with every new move. They’d just lost their transponder—and maybe a whole lot of precious time as well if the twins made good on moving the Ocean Song before midnight. And because his tooth radio was also gone, there was no way to tell those back on the ship what happened.
So, should they abort the mission and get back to the Ocean Song? Or carry on and hope the rest of Whiskey could handle an unannounced visit from the twins’ pirate crew?
Nolan’s gut told him this: Because they were already inside Sunny Hi’s underground network, if they disappeared now, it might raise all kinds of suspicions, which could be disastrous—especially for those back on the boat. And even if they returned to the Ocean Song, they probably couldn’t get out of the harbor safely before the Shanghai mob knew something was amiss.
Adding these things together, he knew they had to keep going. But they had to do it double time.
* * *
GUIDED AGAIN BY their shirtsleeve maps, they fought their way through the crowds, pushing people over when they had to. Still, it took thirty