Kiss & Die - Lee Weeks [39]
Mann exited at the harbour and joined a thousand others standing around watching the light display. Every evening at eight o’clock the biggest laser show in the world kicked off. It involved forty-four buildings, cost forty-four million Hong Kong dollars to create and lasted fourteen minutes at a time. Especially composed symphonic music exploded in time to pyrotechnics and laser beams from the rooftops of buildings around the harbour.
As Mann rounded the corner the breeze felt cool, it dried the sweat on his brow, the shirt on his back. He needed that sea air. He needed to clear his tired head. Now the swirling light beams were dancing across the harbour to the clashing of cymbals. He took a right past the statue of Bruce Lee and saw Tammy sitting on a bench, away from the crowd. People were standing nearby, having their photo taken with Bruce Lee. Colour and light exploded into the stormy evening sky.
‘Is everything all right, Tammy?’ Mann sat next to her.
‘Yes thanks, Boss. Good talk yesterday.’
‘Yeah, right,’ Mann sighed, looking away as he spoke. ‘That Lilly is a real troublemaker.’
‘I am getting very close to fixing up a date for my initiation, Boss.’
Mann rested his elbows on his knees as he listened; he stared at the ground and waited. Tammy was hesitating.
‘You all right about that, Tammy?’
‘But, Boss, there’s something else.’ Tammy hesitated. ‘Lilly says it’s common knowledge you’re on the take.’
Mann went silent. Colours shot up the side of buildings, searchlights filled the night sky. ‘Okay. I’ll deal with it.’
‘I asked if she’d seen the Indian girl die. She said she didn’t actually see it, that she was outside when it happened. She said they were told that they were all guilty of it. That if one was to be named they would all be named.’
‘It was all about binding them together then. The girl died to unite the others. It had to be graphic to convince the kids. Just saying it wasn’t enough.
‘You better try and stall the initiation, Tammy. We need to do more ground work. I’ve met Victoria Chan. She’s got a lot at stake. She’s going to be looking out for an informer. We need to make doubly sure before we go in. If I am being set up then we need to be one step ahead. Nothing is worth your life. These people won’t hesitate to take it. We’ll get the headmaster to say you’re ill. We’ll call it off temporarily until we are sure that you’re safe.’
‘All right, Boss.’
Mann watched her walk away, her head bowed, her skinny legs shuffling along in her sparkly cheap jeans and her new trainers. She was disappointed, he knew. To have put in so much work and come out with nothing.
He walked to the railings and gripped them as he stared out at the water. He thought about what Tammy had said. If the rumours were running rife about him being on the take it wasn’t going to help to be seen in company with CK or his daughter. He was leaving himself exposed. There was only his word that his intentions were good. His word didn’t seem to be counting for much at the moment. But it was too late to go back. He had been pushed across that line now and he had to use it or lose it. For a while he had to exist on the dark side.
Ahead of him was a party boat, bedecked with a string of coloured lights. The avenue of stars was still buzzing. The kids had been put to