One way
or another

>> Kahala

One way or another, Fon Du figured, he was going away for a long time. If the FBI didn't get him, if these two Te-Wu agents sent as reinforcements by Beijing did not turn their deadly skills on him, he'd take the out, and assume the false identity, he'd always left himself.

One way or another, he would at least have the satisfaction of exacting his revenge on Bodhicita Guzman. She would die a death not as long as he would have preferred, but it would be terrible and painful. And it would give him something to smile about, one way or another.

"I'll take it from here," Fon Du said to the new agent known as Devil Snake, now dressed as a Muslim imam, as he roughly dragged Bodhicita into the spacious living area that opened onto a beachfront lanai. She was crying uncontrollably. "And take off those filthy robes."

The robes Bodhicita had vomited on moments earlier in the van.

Devil Snake responded with the Mandarin equivalent of "F--- off."

Fon Du knew the Snake was a dangerous one, but he was still the head of Te-Wu's Honolulu office. "You forget that I am in charge here," he said. "Your orders say you report to me."

Devil Snake responded with the Mandarin equivalent of "Papers schmapers."

He reached into his robes, withdrew a black plastic knife with a 4-inch blade, put it to Bodhicita's throat, with the other hand twisted her right arm behind her back. "You will have your opportunity to do whatever you wish, Fon Du. But first she deals with me."

Releasing her arm, he unzipped the back of her gray Sister Mary Miraculoso habit, yanked it away, leaving her shivering and sobbing in just a gray sports bra and matching thong panty, and sensible gray shoes.

The Snake was one of those sociopaths who so often over the centuries found employment with totalitarian states. Leaders of those regimes depended largely on the twistedness of men such as the Snake. He had recently come back from Dharamsala, India, home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan government in exile, and a growing tourist destination. When he suggested to his Te-Wu superiors that tales of tourists being raped in Dharamsala would keep tourists away and prevent them from taking the Dalai Lama's message home to America, Europe, Australia, they gave him the green light. He turned out to be very good, the local Indian constabulary calling the ensuing violence a "rape wave."

Bodhicita would be next.

With the knife, the Snake cut the back of her sports bra. She was not a prude, didn't mind flashing a little cleavage when she went out, but now she clutched the fabric and modestly crossed her arms over her chest.

That's when a fluorescent green Frisbee clattered onto the lanai.