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Kowloon - May 1949

"It e that?"

It was an insult He could feel the anger rising in him That was a question you asked some amateur you picked up from the streets He was tee that Would you prefer an accident indoors? I can arrange for her to break her neck falling down a flight of stairs The dancer in Marseilles Or she could get drunk and drown in her bath The heiress in Gstaad She could take an overdose of heroin He had disposed of three that way Or, she could fall asleep in bed with a lighted cigarette The Swedish detective at L'Hôtel on the Left Bank in Paris Or perhaps you would prefer soe a traffic accident, a plane crash, or a disappearance at sea

But he said none of those things, for in truth he was afraid of thestories about him, and he had reason to believe them

So all he said was, "Yes, sir, I can arrange an accident No one will ever know" Even as he said the words, the thought struck him: He knows that I'll know He waited

They were on the second floor of a building in the walled city of Kowloon that had been built in 1840 by a group of Chinese to protect themselves from the British barbarians The walls had been torn down in the Second World War, but there were other walls that kept outsiders away: Gangs of cutthroats and drug addicts and rapists roah the rabbit warren of crooked, narrow streets and dark stairways leading into gloom Tourists arned to stay away, and not even the police would venture inside past Tung Tau Tsuen Street, on the outskirts He could hear the street noises outside the , and the shrill and raucous polyglot of languages that belonged to the residents of the walled city

Thehim with cold, obsidian eyes Finally, he spoke "Very well I will leave the method to you"

"Yes, sir Is the target here in Kowloon?"

"London Her name is Catherine Catherine Alexander"

A liuards, drove the man to the Blue House on Lascar Row, in the Tsim Sha Tsui area The Blue House was open to special patrons only Heads of state visited there, and ement prided itself on discretion Half a dozen years earlier, one of the young girls orked there had discussed her custo in Aberdeen Harbor with her tongue cut out Everything was for sale in the Blue House: virgins, boys, lesbians who satisfied themselves without the "jade stalks" of men, and animals It was the only place he knehere the tenth-century art of Ishinpo was still practiced The Blue House was a cornucopia of forbidden pleasures

The man had ordered the twins this time They were an exquisitely matched pair with beautiful features, incredible bodies, and no inhibitions He remembered the last time he had been therethe ues and fingers, and the tub filled with fragrant ater that overflowed onto the tiled floor and their hotof an erection

"We're here, sir"

Three hours later, when he had finished with them, sated and content, the man ordered the limousine to head for Mody Road He looked out theof the lihts of the city that never slept The Chinese had na in the mountains above the city, ready to come down and destroy the weak and the unwary He was neither