wasn't.
Ernie grew bored at her long-winded explanation, and his liver was crying out for poison. Before I could ask all the questions that were tumbling through my mind, he waved down a waiter and ordered another round.
After that, Ernie and Fifi pretty much stayed on the dance floor. Unless Ernie could talk her into returning to the table so he could quaff down about half a liter of suds. I'd never seen him dance so much for any woman. But apparently, Fifi, with her knockout looks and her sinister, almost evil way of looking at a man, had clamped a firm hold on Ernie's gonads. She seemed to be sizing him up as if she were preparing to eat him.
Lady Ahn and I danced only once. A slow dance. My hand felt so good on the back of her waist, and her body fit so perfectly against mine, that I became feverish with desire. What with the lack of sleep and the booze, I barely managed to stay on my feet.
Almost a month ago, when Lady Ahn had first approached Herman the German in Seoul, her plan had been to set up an escape route for the jade skull. Once she possessed it, she could slip the skull past Korean customs without being noticed. She never intended to cause Herman so much grief. She never intended for Mi-ja to be kidnapped.
Who were these men who had kidnapped Mi-ja?
Her unblemished face crinkled. She wasn't sure, but she thought that these men were her fault, too. When she had started making inquiries about the best way to smuggle an antique out of Korea, people were naturally not willing to open up to a stranger. So she'd explained about the value of the jade skull, keeping her stories as vague as she could. Apparently, they weren't vague enough.
Over the centuries, fabulous legends concerning the Tomb of Genghis Khan had circulated through the antique markets of the Far East. Once Lady Ahn's story hit, the word spread swiftly. To Hong Kong. To Singapore. To who-knows-where.
Apparently, Ragyapa and his Mongolians had taken the rumors seriously. When they located Herman, they believed he possessed the jade skull. Or if he didn't, he would know where to get it. In some sense they were right. Herman did know how to get in touch with Lady Ahn. Ernie and I were living proof of that.
Where was the skull now? I asked Lady Ahn.
Still on the island of Bian-do.
How was she going to get it? Lady Ahn hadn't decided yet. She had still been formulating a plan when all this happened.
When Fifi's high heels finally started to dig into her foot bones, she came back to our table, sat down, and allowed Ernie to rest for a while.
I gave him a rundown of all I had learned from Lady Ahn. He sipped on his beer and watched her.
'If we help you latch onto this skull thing,' he said, 'will you turn it over to these guys in exchange for the kid?'
Lady Ahn lowered her eyes. 'I will have to think about that,' she answered.
'After we free Mi-ja,' I said, 'we'll go after these kidnappers with the entire U.S. and Korean police forces backing us up. They'll never be able to slip out of the country. We'll trade the jade skull for Mi-ja and then we'll retrieve it. We'll return it to you.'
'No one will allow you to return it to me,' she said evenly.
She was right about that. Once officialdom sniffed that much wealth, there was no way they'd return it to a private citizen.
I looked at Ernie, asking silently for a decision. He thought for a moment, then nodded. I turned back to Lady Ahn.
'They won't have to know,' I said. 'We'll keep the cops out of it. Once we free Mi-ja, Ernie and I will catch these Mongols and retrieve the jade skull for you.'
Lady Ahn gazed deeply into my eyes, measuring my willingness to go through with such a risky plan.
'I will consider your offer,' she told me.
When we returned to Fifi's Hooch, I felt awkward because sleeping arrangements hadn't been settled. Ernie didn't hesitate. He scooped up Fifi, carried her into the bedroom, and slammed shut the paper-paneled door.
Lady Ahn and I looked at one another. I took a step forward. She held up her hand.
'You sleep here.' She pointed to the stuffed cotton mat in the center of the sarang-bang, the main room of the hooch. 'I will sleep in the kitchen.'
And she did. Unrolling a straw mat on the cement floor and covering herself with a comforter.
When she turned off the lights, I lay down. But I didn't sleep very well.
Ernie's and Fifi's giggling didn't bother me much. But later, when the Widow Kang started moaning-and then screaming-it became a little difficult to drift off into dreamland.
I listened intently but Lady Ahn didn't seem to move.
I couldn't even hear her breathe.
In the morning, Fifi Kang boiled a big brass pot of water and we took turns in the outside byonso using the toilet and washing up.
Ernie was the last to rise and emerged from the bedroom unshaven and red-eyed, buckling up his pants. Something fell out of his back pocket. The felt coin purse, the one the little nun had given him.
'You're pretty careless with that thing,' I said.
'What thing?' Ernie asked.
'That felt purse on the floor.'
He looked down. 'Oh, that thing.'
'We forgot to return it to the little nun.'
'I guess we did,' Ernie said wearily.
The contents had tumbled out and Ernie knelt and picked up the coins. He counted them out and smoothed the wrinkled bills.
'Buddha's money,' he said. 'All three thousand five hundred and eighty won of it.'
Not even seven dollars U.S.
Something else was poking out of the felt purse. Ernie pried it loose from the felt and held it up to the light. The jade amulet.
Lady Ahn walked into the room at that moment and her mouth fell open. She was staring at the amulet. I snatched it from Ernie's hand and handed it to her.
She studied the smooth-bodied Maitreya Buddha, a deity as much revered here in Korea as any Catholic saint. The little figure was still perched on his lotus blossom and his face was still serene, but one foot stomped down on the supine figure of a snarling, long-fanged demon with six arms.
Lady Ahn snapped at Ernie.
'Where did you get this?'
Ernie scratched his tousled hair, his eyes still bleary, and looked at me.
'Where the hell did I get it, pal?'
'From the Buddhist nun. The one who was attacked in Itaewon.'
'A nun was attacked?' Lady Ahn asked. Apparently, she hadn't been reading the newspapers much. It was the first time I'd seen her lose her composure.
'Yeah,' Ernie said. 'And a good thing we saved her, too, or that GI might've done a real number on her.'
Fifi Kang, eyes wide, stepped forward and hugged Lady Ahn. She, too, stared at the amulet as if it were a scorpion about to snap.
Lady Ahn handed the amulet back to Ernie, an expression of defeat on her face. 'Tes,' she murmured. 'I understand now.'
'What do you mean?' I asked.
'The Korean Buddhists, the followers of Maitreya, are searching for the jade skull. That's why that nun was in Itaewon. And she carried this amulet to protect her from the followers of Mahakala, the demon who is the lord of the Mongolian Buddhists.' She shook her head. 'The Mongolian Buddhists must be the ones who kidnapped Mi-ja. And the man who attacked your Buddhist nun must've been one of them.'
