Deceived Read Free Page B

When they were gone, Pu-Yi lifted the receiver. "Hello,"
he said.
    The gruff and
familiar voice on the other line was all business; Pu-Yi expected nothing more.
"Be in front of my hotel. Two hours."
    "Yes,
sir."
    "We leave
again. A two a.m. flight. Out of Hong Kong."
    Pu-Yi looked
after the departed girl, disappointed. "Tonight?" he confirmed.
    "There
have been certain developments — unfortunate developments — in
Washington concerning the Yünnan dams. My presence is required."
    "Yes,
sir," Pu-Yi said again. He did not ask for a fuller explanation — in
John Li's eyes he was a soldier, a trained weapon, nothing more, certainly not
one with whom to discuss developments or strategy, and frankly Pu-Yi preferred
it that way.
    "Call Chen
Tao-tzi," Li ordered. "Have him place another call to Ford. Immediately."
    "The
amount?" Pu-Yi asked.
    "Eighty
thousand. Tell him the money will be wired to his account within the
hour."
    The line went
dead, their discussion terminated with no exchange of pleasantries.
    Pu-Yi looked
from the bowl in front of him to his watch. Two hours. It would take him close
to an hour to collect his things and drive to John Li's hotel, another quarter
hour to contact Chen Tao-tzi. That left only forty-five minutes, little time
for the diversions he had so eagerly anticipated.
    The girl did
not know how lucky she was. Tonight Pu-Yi would satisfy himself, nothing more. Sometime
in the future, however, when he had the luxury of time, he would return and ask
for the girl. On that day her luck would run out.
    Pu-Yi called
impatiently for the girl, then raised the bowl to his lips.

3
    "Nick?"
    Though the
voice registered dimly in Nick Ford's consciousness, he had no visible reaction — he
kept his back to the door, eyes fixed on the papers splayed over his office's
work table.
    Judy, his
secretary, tried again, a little louder this time. "Nick?"
    Scott, standing
to Nick's side, nudged him in the ribs. "Earth to chief. Earth to
chief."
    Nick raised an
index finger, then shut his eyes, a column of figures running in his head. Point
seven six-two, point seven five-four, point seven six, point seven four-eight,
point seven five-eight, on and on — all well within the range of
historical variance. The standard deviation would be harder to check. He
reached for a manila folder. Over a hundred pages of computer printout
inside--his calculator wasn't going to cut it on this one. He'd have to assign
someone to run a regression analysis. Input all the numbers, or at least a
sampling sufficiently large to reduce the probability of error to plus or minus —
    Judy
interrupted his thoughts. "Nick," she said impatiently, "Meg
Taylor's here."
    Nick turned,
then jogged his head as if to clear it. "Sorry, Judy, what was that?"
    "I said
the fire alarm went off, we have to evacuate the building."
    He lifted his
head, suddenly alert. "I don't hear anything."
    She rocked her
head slowly and smiled. "I was kidding, Nick. Meg Taylor's here to see
you."
    Nick nodded,
finally understanding — the new auditor .
    "And a few
messages." Judy laid three yellow memos on Nick's desk. "One from
overseas … a Chen Tao-tzi?"
    Nick shook his
head, the name failing to register.
    "Hong
Kong," Judy added.
    Nick nodded
this time. "Right." He remembered now and picked up Chen Tao-tzi's
message. The man had first called a month or so back, claiming firsthand
knowledge of billing fraud in the Yünnan Project. In two subsequent calls he
had reasserted his claims but had yet to share any specifics, and Nick's
patience was beginning to wear thin. Still, Nick would return the call, at
least one more time..
    Nick dropped
the message on his desk — he would deal with it later. He faced Scott and
pointed at the door. "Out," he whispered. "I want to talk to her
alone."
    Scott shook his
head slowly and deliberately, then flopped into a side chair next to Nick's
desk, kicking one of his legs over the chair's arm.
    Nick rolled his
eyes, then circled his desk