Truth or ploy?

» Kahala

While Fon Du and the Snake argued over who would do what first to the girl who had betrayed them, the cool-headed Te-Wu agent known as Le Nip found a bathroom and quickly changed into the uniform of a cleaning man -- crisp white and navy-trimmed shirt and trousers, matching Ben Hogan-style cap. The name stitched on his shirt was the same as on the fake ID and Taiwan passport he'd instructed Fon Du to provide him, Wing Ding Yee.

"Stop!" he heard Fon Du bark beyond his door. "Who are you?!"

Trouble had arrived early.

Le Nip grabbed the first prop he saw -- a toilet plunger -- opened the door and stepped out into the spacious, elegantly appointed living room, and into the middle of a stand-off.

To his right, the agent known as Devil Snake, still dressed in the robes of a Muslim imam, holding a black 4-inch knife blade to the throat of the nearly nude girl who had betrayed them. To his left, standing at the open screen door and backlit by the afternoon sun so Le Nip could not make out any facial features, a tall, muscular Asian, very fit, dressed all in black.

"Wha-wha-whatchou doeeng?" he said in purposely broken English to no one in particular.

The disguise might have worked, except Kamasami Khan had seen him earlier at he East-West Center.

"So what, rabbi, moonlighting?" Khan said.

"Rabbi? No rabbi. Wing Ding Yee," he said, squinting into the light, pointing to his name tag. "Numbah one creaning man."

"Whatever."

Khan stepped into the room. Ê

"Stop there!" the imam barked. The rape king of Dharamsala was getting agitated. He wanted to have the girl, kill her and get away. "One more step and I kill her."

She sobbed, gulped for air.

"Hang on, Bodhicita," Khan said, ignoring the imam and scanning the room for other members of the Chinese secret police. "Help's on the way."

"Help?" she yelped.

"Yeah, HPD. Our friend Officer Ah Sun and his friends on solo bike."

"It's a ploy!" the imam hissed.

"You say so," Khan said, glancing at his watch. "Shouldn't be more then three or four minutes. I got nothing else to do, so let's just wait. Should be hearing the sirens any time now. If it was me, though, I'd leave the girl and run as fast as I could. You still have a chance."

"He's lying!" the imam said, pulling Bodhicita toward one of the bedrooms.

"I think he's right," Le Nip said. "You can stay. I'm out of here."

"No," Khan replied, "I think you should go together."