The swordsman led them to a few yards from the atrium door. “Remain standing.”
The woman—and it was plain from her petite bare feet and the curve of her hip that this was a woman—remained bowed before the lantern, hands now folded around the burning incense taper.
For a full two minutes, no one spoke. Kowalski fidgeted, but he had the good sense for once to keep his mouth shut.
Finally the woman gave a deeper bow toward the pond, straightened, and turned. Her robe was hooded against the drizzle, its edges long, folding around her face as she stood. She crossed to the atrium door and slowly slid it open.
With great grace, she stepped into the penthouse.
“Guan-yin,” the swordsman intoned, bowing his head.
“M`h’ goi, Zhuang.” A pale hand slipped from a sleeve and touched the swordsman’s forearm, an oddly intimate gesture.
The dragonhead of the Duàn zhi turned next to Gray.
“You speak of Mai Phuong Ly,” she said, her voice low and calm but laced with the steel edge of a threat. “You come speaking of someone long dead.”
“Not in the memories of her daughter.”
The woman showed no reaction, a demonstration of her degree of control. After a long pause, her voice came back quieter.
“Again you speak of the dead.”
“She was not hours ago when she came to Macau looking for her mother.”
The only reaction was the slight lowering of her chin, perhaps realizing how close she had come to killing her own daughter. Now she was likely wondering if he spoke the truth.
“It was you at the Casino Lisboa.”
Gray motioned to Kowalski. “The three of us. Dr. Hwan Pak recognized your dragon pendant, said he knew you. So we came to Macau to discover the truth.”
A small sniff of derision. “But what is the truth?” she asked.
Doubt and disbelief rang in her voice.
“If I may . . .” Gray pointed to the pocket of his jacket, where they’d left his phone after the Triad members below had frisked him.
“With care,” Zhuang warned.
Gray removed his phone and pulled up the photo log. He scrolled until he reached a folder labeled SEICHAN. He flipped through photos until he came to one that showed a clear picture of her face. Seeing her now, an ache of fear for her safety struck him deeply, but he kept his arm steady as he held out the phone as proof.
Guan-yin leaned forward, her features still shadowed, making it impossible to read her expression. But in the stumble of her step as she moved closer, Gray read the recognition, the barely restrained hope. Even after twenty years, a mother would know her daughter.
Gray motioned for her to take the phone. “There are other pictures. You can swipe to view them.”
Guan-yin reached out, but her fingers hesitated as if a part of her feared the truth. If her daughter was still alive, what did that say about a mother who failed her?
Finally, fingers slipped the phone from his hand. She turned her back to Gray as she searched the folder. A long stretch of silence—then the woman trembled and slipped to her knees on the bamboo floor.
Zhuang moved so swiftly Gray hardly noted it. One moment the swordsman was at his side . . . the next, he was on one knee beside his mistress, with his Dao saber pointed back at them, cautioning them to remain where they were.
“It is her,” Guan-yin whispered. “How could this be?”
Gray could not imagine the emotions that must be warring inside her: guilt, shame, hope, joy, fear, anger.
The last two won out as the woman quickly composed herself, standing and turning to them. Zhuang joined her, protective—but from the depth of concern in his eyes, it was clear his need to shield her went beyond professional duty.
Guan-yin shook back her hood, revealing a long cascade of black hair with a single streak of gray along one edge of her face, the same edge that bore the curve of a deep purplish scar. It curled from her cheek to across her left brow, sparing her eye. It was too purposefully twisted to be a wound received in a knife fight. Someone had intently and painfully carved into her face, a memento of old torture. But as if to turn such a scar into a badge of honor—to perhaps wrest control from that old pain—she had her face tattooed, incorporating the scar, transforming it into the tail of the dragon now inked across cheek and brow.
It was an uncanny match to the silver serpent at her throat.
“Where is she now?” Guan-yin asked, her voice rising in volume, showing again that steel. “Where is my daughter?”
Gray swallowed back the awe at the sight of her face and quickly explained about the attack, its aftermath, and the abduction on the street.
“Tell me about the man you saw standing beside the car,” Guan-yin demanded.
Gray described the tall powerful-looking man with the trimmed beard. “He looked Portuguese, with maybe some Chinese blood.”
She nodded. “I know him well. Ju-long Delgado, the boss of all Macau.”
A shadow of concern swept her features.
If this hard woman was worried, that was a bad sign.
9:18 A.M.
With a complaint of brakes, the vehicle came to a stop.
Seichan heard the stranger speak in low tones to the driver in Portuguese, but she didn’t understand the language. Doors opened and slammed.
A hand reached to her face. She thrashed back, but fingers merely removed her blindfold. She blinked against the sudden glare.
“Calm yourself,” her captor said. “We still have a long way to go.”
The man was dressed meticulously in a finely tailored silk suit and jacket. His dark brown eyes matched his shaggy hair and manicured beard, the latter shorn tight to his cheeks and square chin. His eyes, pinched slightly at the corners, revealed his mixed-blood heritage.
A glance around revealed she was on the floor of a panel van.
The rear door popped open, stabbing her eyes again with brighter light. Another man stood outside: he was younger, a smooth-faced brute with cropped black hair and massive shoulders that strained his suit jacket. He had striking ice-blue eyes.
“Tomaz,” her captor said. “Are we ready for the flight?”
A nod. “Sim, Senhor Delgado. The plane is ready.”
The man called Delgado turned to her. “I’ll be accompanying you on this flight,” he said. “To ensure I receive full compensation, but also I believe it would be a good time for me not to be in Macau. Not after what is about to transpire in Hong Kong. The aftermath will be bloody for some time.”
“Where are you taking me?”
Ignoring her, he scrambled out of the van and stretched his back. “It looks to be a beautiful day.”