Chapter 14

"They weren't arrested, they were in protective custody," Lucy said. She had watched a security film of the entire thing and it was true that they had been caught in the middle of two opposing gangs. Odds were good that the fight between the two gangs would have amounted to little more than some pushing and shoving. Ling and Betsy had not shown the kind of restraint that the gang members would have brought to the confrontation. They had responded with the full intent of causing serious bodily injury.

"Why were they placed in protective custody?" William asked wishing that he could see her face.

"How can I put this? They were rather exuberant in their response to being in the middle of a fight. The police are concerned that the gangs will want revenge," Lucy answered.

"How exuberant?" William asked thinking that Lucy was acting too much like Betsy.

"Let's just say none of the gang members have left the hospital yet," Lucy answered trying to avoid giving too many details.

William rolled his eyes as he interpreted the answer. Betsy and Ling had destroyed the gang members without killing any of them. Odds were good that a few would never be able to walk again. He sighed and said, "Well, I've asked Claire to go there and bring all of you back here."

Ling and Betsy walked into the restaurant like queens. It was an ugly little place with old tables that rocked when things were put on one side or the other. The linoleum was worn and faded. The décor was cheap and tacky. The walls needed painting. Not a single word in English was visible in the entire place. It did not look like a place of business that would continue to be open for much longer, but it had a dedicated clientel.

The two women were not intimidated by the number of men sitting around reading newspapers, playing cards, and eating. The fact that all activity came to a stop and everyone stared at them had no effect on them either. They treated it as if it was their due. Ling walked all of the way to the back of the room and stepped behind a small wall that kept the occupants from being visible from the door. She stopped in front of a man known as Papa Chung. The man looked at her with a cold hard expression that had brought nightmares to many others.

Ling was not intimidated. Looking at the man with a smile that lowered the temperature of the room by ten degrees, she said, "Don't bother trying to get even with me. Just treat this as a lesson learned and go on with your business."

"You've made a major mistake," Papa Chung replied leaning back to signal his men. He couldn't believe the nerve of the woman walking into his place like that.

Ling reached down and picked up a tea pot from the table. Holding it up and out to her side, she said, "Kill the teapot."

Upon saying the words, three things happened nearly simultaneously. The first was the creation of large hole in the wall behind Ling. The second was the explosion of the teapot into a hundred pieces. The third was the appearance of a hole in the wall behind Chung and about three inches from his head. Ling was impressed that Chung's reaction was little more than a narrowing of his eyes.

Chung was impressed by the demonstration. Reaching down to pick up his tea cup and take a sip of his tea, he considered it with the cold calculating logic that had allowed him to gain his position as leader of the gang. Enough of the woman's body was visible to the street for someone to know where she was. She was holding out three fingers of the hand that were visible to an observer on the street. He added up all of the clues. Ling had communicated to the shooter where the teapot was held. The shooter had taken the shot blind based only on that slight amount of communication. Setting down his teacup, he said, "Impressive, but you cheated. You have a very good shooter who was able to read your body position that well. You must trust him a lot to risk injury like that."

Ling raised an eyebrow and smiled at the man. There was something rather terrifying about the smile that she gave him. She answered, "I didn't cheat. I was making a point. All it takes is one man talking to you and we'll read his body position to know where you are."

Chung paled. He hadn't thought it all of the way through like that. There were dangerous people who were merely dangerous and people who were deadly dangerous. You could emerge victorious fighting against people in the first category. When fighting people in the second category, you would have to be satisfied with mere survival. This woman had just proved that she in the second category. Considering what she had done to his men in the restaurant earlier, surrounding himself with people wouldn't help much if he were to escalate this to the next level. Even if he won, he would lose. Nodding his head, he said, "I will treat this and the other matter as lessons learned."

"It is nice doing business with smart men," Ling said. She turned and walked to where Betsy was waiting impatiently for her. Betsy was eating an egg roll that she had lifted from one of the men's plates. Together the two women walked out of the restaurant.

The women walked down the street and got into a van. A few minutes later, Claire got into the van and said, "We can go now."

"I'm glad you decided to use the fifty caliber rifle. There was a metal plate in the wall. Anything smaller and I doubt it would have made it through to hit the teapot," Ling said while the driver pulled away from the curb.

"I thought there would be," Claire answered with a grin, pleased to know that she had hit the target. That had been a once in a lifetime shot that would have made William Tell proud. She had made two of them that day.

Bouncing in her seat, Betsy said, "That was fun. Can we do that again some time?"

"No," Ling said shaking her head. She was so tense that she thought that she would break if she had to move too quickly. Two such visits in one day were too much. Looking at Betsy, she said, "Remember. Don't say a word about this to Lucy or her bodyguards."

Betsy pulled out a pistol and an ammo clip from her purse. Holding them up, she asked, "What do you want me to do with this?"

"Where did you get that?" Ling asked looking at the little nine millimeter pistol that was favored by so many street gangs.

"One of the men pulled it out right after Claire shot the teapot. I took it away from him," Betsy answered while brushing a hand through her hair.

"Give it to me. I'll get rid of it," Claire said holding out a hand for the gun. She had been so focused on Ling that she hadn't seen Betsy take the gun. She didn't like working without a spotter.

"Do you want to go shopping?" Betsy asked after handing over the gun.

Claire checked the gun to make sure that it was unloaded. She looked at the pistol for a second and then disassembled it with quick deft movements. Looking up at Betsy, she answered, "No."

"No. I'm going back to the hotel and soak in the hot tub," Ling answered amazed that Betsy wanted to go shopping. This whole thing had started when they decided to take a quick break from shopping to have a little lunch. She sighed and said, "I'm getting too old for this."

William and Barbara were in Barbara's office waiting for Vera to arrive. William was dreading this meeting and hoped that all went as planned. He kept fidgeting and wished the woman would arrive. He had spent a lot of time trying to arrange a proper situation in which to place Vera.

Watching William fidget, Barbara felt bad about the entire situation. This was the second failed attempt to get a research assistant for William. She had called her mother and found out a few details about Vera's background. In hindsight, she should have researched Vera's background a lot more, but even that wouldn't have identified the problem.

In order to fill in the silence, Barbara said, "Sandra and Juanita seem to be very happy."

"I'm glad," William said. He had enjoyed his nights with the two women. While Sandra had started the evening tense and unsure, Juanita had acted like such a visit was a normal everyday activity.

"When is it my turn?" Barbara asked. There was a trace of nervousness in her voice when she spoke. Sandra and Juanita had both told her that she had to be exceptionally explicit in telling William what she wanted.

"You don't have to do it if you don't want to," William said believing that she was only doing it to fit in with the rest of the women.

"I want it. I want it so bad that I can't sleep at night," Barbara said. She had talked for a long time with Sandra. Much to her horror, she discovered that William really didn't believe that they wanted to sleep with him. It boggled her mind. Every other man she had ever known had wanted her regardless of her desires in the matter. It was strange to be on the opposite side of the fence for a change.

"I'll arrange for a nice dinner tonight in my quarters and we can talk about it then," William said wishing that Lucy was at home. Unfortunately, Lucy wouldn't be returning until the next afternoon.

Before Barbara had a chance to respond, there was a knock on the door. She called out, "Come in."

Vera entered the room and looked at William with obvious distrust. She moved the other chair in the room so that she was seated as far from him as possible. Looking over at Barbara, she said, "You requested that I come here."

Clearing his throat, William said, "I was talking to the president of the Organization of Women Engineers last night. She said that they were having a problem trying to get young women interested in engineering as a profession. After a bit of discussion, she wanted to know if I could help her with the problem."

"What has that got to do with me?" Vera asked.

"I suggested that she get a top-notch research assistant to collect all of the sociological reasons that prevent women in this country from pursuing engineering careers. I said that she needed to investigate what is different in countries where there are large numbers of female engineers. She agreed that it was a good suggestion, but that there was one major problem. Since it is a non- profit organization, they don't have the money to pay someone," William said. It had been a lot of hard work maneuvering her into that conversation.

Irritated at the fact that he hadn't answered her question, Vera repeated it, "What has that got to do with me?"

"I have agreed to provide a research assistant to the organization. Are you interested in the position?" William asked.