Page 53 - Brokenclaw - John Gardner

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knew why. That had not taken much intelligence work. Tony Man Song Hing

had that worst Chinese trait. He was a gambler and, judging by the way he had
behaved in recent months, he was not on a roll.
‘I have to see you,’ he repeated, and Wanda became vaguely alarmed. There
was a wilderness of desperation in hi
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‘Where are you?’
‘Over at the store.’ He meant his small jewellery store off Market Street,
where he sold, not precious gems, but imitation stones in cheap settings and
simulated pearls made, in his own small workshop, by coating glass or plastic

beads with a liquid called pearl essence extracted from herring scales.
‘Give me half-an-hour, Dad. Come over here, but give me a little time,
okay?’
‘Thirty minutes.’ He hung up abruptly, and Wanda’s stomach turned over.
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The last thing she needed was trouble with him. The work on Trojan Horse
was stressful enough, and she had been through endless problems with her
father.
As she showered and dressed she thought about the mess he had made of his

life. When her mother died, the little store had sold thousands of dollars worth
of real gemstones, silver and gold settings and beautiful jade work. As a child
she remembered that the stock alone had been valued at five million dollars.
One of the reasons for her own success in life had been the necessity to get

away from her father lest she simply became his housekeeper.
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Tony Man Song Hing was starting to run to fat, his stomach straining over the
belt holding up his grey slacks, while his skin had taken on that pewter colour
of a man who did not exercise or look after his diet and was hemmed in by

worries.
When Wanda opened the door to him she was shocked that he had gone so
much to seed since she had last seen him a month or so before. As she
embraced him, she noticed that he also had aged as though some terrible curse

had fallen on him. His eyes appeared to be never still and, even as they greeted
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each other, he seemed to be looking around the main room of her apartment as
though afraid someone else might be with her waiting to do him harm.
She gave him coffee and his hand trembled badly as he picked up the cup,

spilling some of the liquid.
‘What is it, Father?’ She used her no-nonsense voice which was very
effective on lower ranks in the Navy.

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