Chapter 2

Roger was pushed into a large room that was filled with antique Chinese furniture. Roger didn't know antiques very well but it was obvious that everything in this room was the best. The man that held his arm watched him intently in case Roger tried to get away.

Roger could hear a loud voice coming from another room speaking in Chinese. Finally the voice quieted and the phone was hung up and then the phone could be heard hitting against the wall. Several voices began shouting in Chinese for a few minutes.

Finally a man came into the room. It was the man that had been the assassination target. The man looked at Roger for a long time. He said something to the man that was holding Roger in Chinese and the man let go of his arm.

"Who are you?" the man asked.

It was a second before Roger could answer, "My name is Roger Boring. I..."

The man held up his hand, "Empty your pockets and put everything on the table in front of you; do it very slowly."

As Roger emptied his pockets the man asked, "What connection do you have to the man that tried to shoot me?"

"I don't know the man. I wasn't thinking. I saw the gun and just hit him."

The man took Roger's wallet and went in the other room. Roger could hear the man talking to someone in Chinese again. The only words that Roger understood were when the man said his name to the person on the phone.

After about ten minutes the man came into the room and started to say something to Roger but was interrupted when the entry door opened. Three Chinese men walked in the room and walked over to the man that had taken Roger's wallet. From the way they were dressed, the way they walked and the respect they were shown, Roger knew that they were important. The Chinese man led the three men into a room at the back of the houseboat. Roger could hear them talking and occasionally one of the men could be heard talking loudly. Several times Roger heard a phone ring.

It was almost three hours before the men came back into the front room. The three men passed Roger without looking at him and walked out of the houseboat; leaving the man that had almost been assassinated standing and looking at Roger. Roger had been allowed to sit when the men were in the back room and he rose when the man walked toward him. The man motioned for Roger to remain seated and the man sat down on the sofa next to him. Before he could speak a man came from the back room and walked to the sofa and whispered something in Chinese in the man's ear. The man stepped back and stood as if waiting for instructions on what to do next.

"Mr. Boring, I'm sorry for the way that we treated you right after the incident at the bakery. We had no idea what was going on and we did not know if you had any part in it. I know now that you are who you said and that you saved my life. I am very grateful and I will never forget it. Do you know who I am?"

Roger nodded, "Yes I do, Mr. Chu. I've seen you on the news a couple of times."

"Ah, the TV," Mr. Chu sighed, "They seem to try to make all Chinese into members of the Tong. If I did everything that they said that I did I would have to be a thousand years old."

Mr. Chu got up, "Come with me out on the patio. We'll have some lunch and talk."

Roger stood up," Mr. Chu I think..."

"Please call me Ben. That is my name, Ben Chu. Ben is the short version of my Chinese name. We must talk and try to forget the unpleasantness of this morning."

Roger followed the man through the houseboat and tried to remember everything he could about Ben Chu. He knew the Chu was supposed to be a member of the Boohowdoy (hatchetboy) crime family and that there had been a big turf battle in the nineties and Ben Chu had become one of the top dogs when all of the smoke cleared. The Dai Mo gang was driven out of San Francisco. Ben Chu was rumored to be in gambling, prostitution, loan sharking and drugs. Ben Chu was reputed to be the Dai Dai Lo (big big brother) of the Boohowdoy gang. No one knew the real identity of the Ah Kung (grandfather) or top dog of the triad.

The street level actions are carried out by the ma jais (little horses). The ma jais are instructed to never ask questions about the gang infrastructure. Members of a gang rarely know leaders above their immediate leader. Asking too many questions could get you killed.