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His feet carried him back into the suite. Moving robotically, he picked
up the two small suitcases that held John and Jy-ying s money and
documents and flung them onto the sheet still on the bed. He added a
suitcase containing two strange tubes, John s pocket .40 caliber S&W,
and Joy s laptop computer. He flung Jy-ying s holster purse over his
shoulder along with John s empty shoulder holster, gathered the cor-
ners of the sheet, and lumbered with the bundle down the hallway and
into his room, where he shoved it all into his closet and jammed the
sliding door closed.
Panting, sweating profusely, he rushed back into the hallway just as
another man was lifting the sheet to look at Jy-ying. Hands charged
over and ripped the sheet out of the man s hand with a strangled,  No!
Hands fell to his knees between John and Jy-ying, gently took their
cooling hands in his, and finally unlocked his pain and grief. He sobbed
for the death of his dear friends, for his mission leaders, for those who
had wanted to save humanity from itself.
More people gathered, horrified. Hotel security folk, police, and
Scotland Yard came and began their investigation. With understanding
and sympathy, they tried to question him, but at first he could only re-
peat that he loved them like the sister and brother he d never had. Later,
when he was halfway sentient, he tried to answer their questions with-
out lying more than necessary to protect John and Jy-ying s real
identity and their mission. Knowing their bodies would be part of an
official inquest, he said that they d wanted to be cremated, and asked
for the ashes to take back to San Francisco with him.
He had one special request. He asked that he be given the little
white body of Prince Wei for his cremation, as well.
Late in the day, released by Scotland Yard with the admonition to
return to his hotel but not leave London, Hands rose briefly above his
anguish to send off two telegrams. One was to his fiancée in Germany:
128
R. J. Rummel
Jy-ying and John were killed. Join me permanently. I need you. The
mission needs you. He knew she would read between the lines.
At first his hand shook so badly, he could not fill in the form for the
second telegram, but finally, almost blinded by tears, he wrote to Dol-
phy, Mariko, and Sal:
Our heroic friends and leaders, John and Jy-ying, were at-
tacked and murdered. It s all now up to us. You know what to do.
Forgive me. I can t write more now. Tomorrow.
Chapter 30
September 5, 1912
San Francisco
Hands
hey emerged from the platform gate for Track 4 with the their
baggage handlers and their carts behind them. He dreaded this
T moment when he would return to the others, look into their
grieving eyes, and have to explain face to face what happened to them.
Them, their, and they would forever refer to Jy-ying, John, and
Prince Wei, as permanently as though the words were carved into the
base of their granite statue. Only in the last few days could he say the
pronouns without his lower lip quivering.
Kate, his former fiancée, walked beside him, gripping his hand
supportively. She had helped him through the emotional devastation
of their deaths and made many of the necessary arrangements on his
behalf, communicating with their company s London office and can-
celing John s many appointments in Germany, handling the death
certificates, the police clearance, the cremations, the joint urn, and
especially the arrangements, the so very important arrangements, with
Geoffrey Robinson.
Now the worst of it: telling the others the details he could never
bring himself to telegram.
Kate was as tall as Hands and, unusual for women in this age, she
wore no hat. Also unusual, if not considered rebellious, she let her un-
bound blonde hair curl over her forehead and down to her shoulders.
She wore a tight beige blouse, buttoned at the neck, that well displayed
her endowments, and a dark brown woolen skirt that, heaven forbid,
revealed her lower legs. With her large, sparkling blue eyes, full lips,
and unblemished complexion, she needed little makeup and knew it. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]