Carl Hiaasen - A Death in China

"Tony, who is this guy?" Flanagan whined. "What's going on?"

"Anything else?" Stratton asked.

Medici mumbled. Stratton barely caught the words.

"They said to say please."

Flanagan coughed.

Stratton said, "Tell them I agree."

He handed the agents two sheets of paper. The name of Sgt. Gil Beckley was written on the first.

"Who's this?" Flanagan said, frowning.

"A cop in West Virginia. Be nice to him. A piece of your merchandise is locked up in his property room. He's also got a list that you'll find very interesting."

Broom's roster of stolen warriors and their buyers. It had been found in the trunk of the car with the last Chinese soldier, exactly as Wang Bin had planned.

Stratton had phoned Gil Beckley to make sure; the next day, Stratton had written his letter to Washington.

"What kind of list?" Flanagan demanded.

"The best kind. Short and simple. It'll help you find what you're looking for."

Not just the imperial artifacts, Stratton thought, but Linda Greer, too. She deserved much more than a pauper's grave.

The second paper Stratton handed to the agents was as good as a map. Medici studied it briefly.

"Okay, brother, you got it. We'll be in touch."

Stratton walked them to the door. Flanagan left, shaking his head. Medici paused.

"I was in Nam," he said. "Fourth Division Lurps. We heard stories… well, I'm proud to know you."

Stratton said good-bye. He walked back to his desk and opened the middle drawer.

The envelope was stained, dogeared. It carried a Hong Kong stamp.

He did not open it. He did not need to. He knew what was inside. Six words that spelled two lifetimes.

"Thom-as, I cannot live without you."

About the Authors One of the first group of American reporters to be based in China since World War II, William D. Montalbano served as Peking bureau chief of the Knight-Ridder Newspaper chain from 1979 to 1981. Montalbano, forty-three, has reported from more than fifty countries on five continents and is regarded as one of the foremost authorities on Latin America in the United States press. He is now El Salvador Bureau Chief for the Los Angeles Times. His major awards include the Ernie Pyle, Tom Wallace, and Overseas Press Club Awards, and the Maria Moors Cabot Prize.

Carl Hiaasen, thirty-one, is an investigative reporter for the Miami Herald. In 1981, he was part of a Herald reporting team that won two national journalism awards for a series of articles about smuggling and corruption in Key West. His reporting honors also include the Heywood Broun and National Headliner's Awards.

Montalbano and Hiaasen are also coauthors of the novels, Powder Burn and Trap Line.