Yusuf dug into a bag and handed out ski masks.
The Ghost considered how best to attack the family. Sam Chang had a wife and an elderly father or mother with him, he'd been told. The main risk, though, would be any older children, like teenage boys. Life was for them just a video game and when the Ghost and the others broke in, a teenager might charge them with a knife.
"Kill any sons first," he instructed them. "Then their father and the old people." Then he had a thought. "Don't kill the wife yet. Bring her with us."
The Turks apparently understood the reason for this and nodded.
The Ghost surveyed the quiet street, across which were two long warehouses. Halfway along the block was an alley between the buildings. According to the map, the Changs' address was just on the other side of the warehouses. It was possible that Chang and his sons or father would be watching the front of the house so the Ghost would speed do
wn the alley to the rear and they would rush in through the back door, while one of the Turks ran to the front door in case the family tried to escape that way.
He said in English, "Wear the masks on top of your heads like hats until we're at the house."
They nodded and did so. With their dark complexions and the stocking caps they looked like black gangstas in a bizarre rap video.
The Ghost donned his own mask.
He felt a moment's fear, as he often did at times like this, just before going into battle. There was always a chance that Chang had a gun or that the police had found the family first, had taken them to detention and were themselves waiting for the Ghost at the apartment.
But he reminded himself that fear was part of humility and it was the humble who succeeded in this world. He thought of one of his favorite passages from the Tao.
Yield and you need not break.
Bent, you can straighten.
Emptied, you can hold.
Torn, you can mend.
The Ghost now added his own line: Afraid, you can be brave.
He glanced at Yusuf, sitting next to him in the passenger seat. The Uighur nodded firmly in reply. And with the skill of seasoned craftsmen they began checking their weapons.
Chapter Twenty-two
Sonny Li had found some very good cigarettes indeed.
Camels, without filters on the end, which tasted pretty close to the brand he regularly bought in China. He inhaled deeply and said, "Bet five." Li pushed the chips forward and watched the other poker players consider how to respond as the bet went around the cheap fiberboard table, stained from years of sweaty hands and spilled liquor.
The gambling parlor was on Mott Street, in the heart of Chinatown, the neighborhood to which he'd come to buy his cigarettes. Such a long trip probably wasn't what Loaban had in mind when he gave Li permission to buy some smokes. But no matter. He'd return soon enough. There was no hurry.
The parlor was a large one, populated mostly with Fujianese (he wanted to avoid running into the Cantonese guard he'd mugged that morning), and featured a full bar and three cigarette machines. The room was dark, except for dim lights over the tables, but with his sharp security bureau officer's eye he had spotted five armed guards.
This was not a problem, though. No stealing guns now or beating up pretty boys. He was here only to gamble, drink and chat.
He won the hand and laughed then poured mao-tai into the glasses of everyone at the table, except the dealer, who was not allowed to drink. The men lifted the glasses and quickly tossed back the clear, potent liquor. Mao-tai was China's version of moonshine and you didn't sip it; you poured it into your gullet as fast as you could.
Li struck up conversations with the men hunched over the table around him. A bottle of liquor and a dozen Camels later Sonny Li estimated his net loss to be merely seven dollars.
He decided against another glass and rose to go.
Several of the men asked him to stay. They were enjoying his company.
But Li told them that his mistress awaited and the men nodded enthusiastically.
"She fuck you every way," an old, drunk man said. It wasn't clear to Li if this was a question or a statement.
Sonny Li walked to the door, giving them a smile that confirmed the high quality of his love life. The truth, however, was that this particular gambling parlor had turned out to have little for him and he wanted to try another.