"Possibly. It could be Mideastern, Joanna, you know, Turkish, something like that, possibly the Balkansa" Havergill stopped. "Oh, I see what you mean. No, I don't think so. She certainly doesn't look Jewish."

"One really can't tell these days, can one? She might have had her nose fixed they do marvelous things these days, don't they?"

"Never occurred to me to look. Hum! Do you think so?"

Richard Kwang passed Casey's card over to his wife who read it instantly and got the same message instantly. "Paul, her card says treasurer and executive VP of the holding companya that's quite impressive, isn't it? Par-Con's a big company."

"Oh my dear fellow, but they're American. They do extraordinary things in America. Surely it's just a title that's all."

"Giving his mistress face?" Joanna asked.

12 - 9:00 P.M.:.

The billiard cue struck the white ball and it shot across the green table and slashed the red into a far pocket and stopped perfectly behind another red.

Adryon clapped gleefully. "Oh Linc, that was super! I was sure you were just boasting. Oh do it again!"

Linc Bartlett grinned. "For one dollar that red around the table and into that pocket and the white here." He marked the spot with a flick of chalk.

"Donel"

He leaned over the table and sighted and the white stopped within a millimeter of his mark, the red sunk with marvelous inevitability.

"Ayeeyahl I haven't got a dollar with me. Damn! Can I owe it to you?"

"A lady however beautiful has to pay her gambling debts at once."

"I know. Pather says the same. Can I pay you tomorrow?"

He watched her, enjoying her, pleased that his skill pleased her. She was wearing a knee-length black skirt and the lovely silk blouse. Her legs were long, very long, and perfect. "Nope!" He pretended ill humor and then they laughed together in the huge room, the vast lights low over the full-size billiard table, the rest of the room dark and intimate but for the shaft of light from the open door.

"You play incredibly well," she said.

"Don't tell anyone but I made my living in the Army playing pool."

"In Europe?"

"No. Pacific."

"My father was a fighter pilot. He got six planes before he was shot down and grounded."

"I guess that made him an ace, didn't it?"

"Were you part of those awful landings against the Japs?"

"No. I was in construction. We came in when everything was secured."

"Oh."

"We built bases, airfields in Guadalcanal, and islands all over the Pacific. My war was easy nothing like your dad's." As he went over to the cue rack, he was sorry for the first time that he had not been in the Marines. Her expression when he had said construction made him feel unmanned. "We should go look for your boyfriend. Maybe he's here by now."

"Oh he's not important! He's not a real boyfriend, I just met him a week or so ago at a friend's party. Martin's a journalist on the China Guardian. He's not a lover."

"Are all young English ladies so open about their lovers?"

"It's the pill. It's released us from masculine servitude forever. Now we're equal."

"Are you?"

"I am."

"Then you're lucky."

"Yes I know I'm very lucky." She watched him. "How old are you, Linc?"

"Old." He snapped the cue into its rack. It was the first time in his life that he had not wanted to tell his age. Goddamn, he thought, curiously unsettled. What's your problem?

None. There's no problem. Is there?

"I'm nineteen," she was saying.

"When's your birthday?"

"October 27 I'm a Scorpio. When's yours?"

"October 1."

"Oh it's not! Tell me honestly!"

"Cross my heart and hope to die."

She clapped her hands with delight. "Oh that's marvelous! Father's the tenth. That's marvelous a good omen."

"Why?"

"You'll see." Happily she opened her handbag and found a crumpled cigarette package and a battered gold lighter. He took the lighter and flicked it for her but it did not light. A second and a third time but nothing.

"Bloody thing," she said. "Bloody thing's never worked properly but Father gave it to me. I love it. Of course I dropped it a couple of times."

He peered at it, blew the wick and fiddled a moment. "You shouldn't smoke anyway."

"That's what Father always says."

"He's right."

"Yes. But I like smoking for the time being. How old are you, "Forty."

"Oh!" He saw the surprise. "Then you're the same age as Father! Well, almost. He's farty-one."

"Both were great years," Line said dryly, and he thought, Whichever way you figure it, Adryon, I really am old enough to be your father.

Another frown creased her brow. "It's funny, you don't seem the same age at all." Then she added in a rush, "In two years I'll be twenty-one and that's practically over the hill, I just can't imagine being twenty-five let alone thirty and as to fortya God, I think I'd rather be pushing up daisies."

"Twenty-one's old yes ma'am, mighty old," he said. And he thought, It's a long time since you spent time with such a young one. Watch yourself. This one's dynamite. He flicked the lighter and it lit. "What d'you know!"

"Thanks," she said and puffed her cigarette alight. "You don't smoke?" she asked.

"No, not now. Used to but Casey sent me illustrated pamphlets on cancer and smoking every hour on the hour until I got the message. Didn't faze me a bit to stop once I'd decided. It sure as hell improved my golf and tennis anda" he smiled. "And all forms of sports."

"Casey is gorgeous. Is she really your executive vice-president?"

"Yes."

"She's going toa it'll be very difficult for her here. The men won't like dealing with her at all."

"Same in the States. But they're getting used to it. We built Par-Con in six years. Casey can work with the best of them. She's a winner."

"Is she your mistress?"

He sipped his beer. "Are all young English ladies so blunt?"

"No." She laughed. "I was just curious. Everyone saysa everyone presumes she is."

"That a fact?"

"Yes. You're the talk of Hong Kong society, and tonight will cap everything. You both made rather a grand entrance, what with your private jet, the smuggled guns and Casey being the last European to see John Chen, so the papers said. I liked your interview."

"Eh, those teas those press guys were waiting on the doorstep this afternoon. I tried to keep it short and sharp."

"Par-Con's really worth half a billion dollars?"

"No. About 300 million but it'll be a billion-dollar company soon. Yes, it'll be soon now."

He saw her looking at him with those frank, gray-green eyes of hers, so adult yet so young. "You're a very interesting man, Mr. Linc Bartlett. I like talking to you. I like you too. Didn't at first. I screamed bloody murder when Father told me I had to chaperone you, introduce you around for a while. I haven't done a very good job, have I?"

"It's been super."

"Oh come on." She grinned too. "I've totally monopolized you."

"Not true. I met Christian Toxe the editor, Richard Kwang and those two Americans from the consulate. Lannan wasn't it?"

"Langan, Edward Langan. He's nice. I didn't catch the other one's name I don't know them really, they've just been racing with us. Christian's nice and his wife's super. She's Chinese so she's not here tonight."

Bartlett frowned. "Because she's Chinese?"

"Oh, she was invited but she wouldn't come. It's face. To save her husband's face. The notes don't approve of mixed marriages."

"Marrying the natives?"

"Something like that." She shrugged. "You'll see. I'd better introduce you to some more guests or I'll get hell!"

"How about to Havergill the banker? What about him?"

"Father thinks Havergill's a berk."

"Then by God he's a twenty-two-carat berk from here on inl"

"Good," she said and they laughed together.

"Linc?"

They looked around at the two figures silhouetted in the shaft of light from the doorway. He recognized Casey's voice and shape at once but not the man. It was not possible from where they were to see against the light.

"Hi, Casey! How's it going?"

He took Adryon's arm casually and propelled her toward the silhouette. "I've been teaching Adryon the finer points of pool."

Adryon laughed. "That's the understatement of the year, Casey. He's super at it, isn't he?"

"Yes. Oh Line, Quillan Gornt wanted to say hi before he left."

Abruptly Adryon jerked to a stop and the color left her face. Linc stopped, startled. "What's wrong?" he asked her.

"Evening, Mr. Bartlett," Gornt said, moving toward them into the light. "Hello, Adryon."

"Whattre you doing here?" she said in a tiny voice.

"I just came for a few minutes," Gornt said.

"Have you seen Father?"

"Yes."

"Then get out. Get out and leave this house alone." Adryon said it in the same small voice.

Bartlett stared at her. "What the hell's up?"

Gornt said calmly, "It's a long story. It can wait until tomorrow or next week. I just wanted to confirm our dinner on Tuesday and if you're free over the weekend, perhaps you two would like to come out on my boat for the day. Sunday if the weather's good."

"Thanks, I think so, but may we confirm tomorrow?" Bartlett asked, still nonplussed by Adryon.

"Adryon," Gornt said gently, "Annagrey's leaving next week, she asked me to ask you to give her a call." Adryon did not answer, just stared at him, and Gornt added to the other two, "Annagrey's my daughter. They're good friends they've both gone to the same schools most of their lives. She's off to university in California."

"Oh then if there's anything we could do for hera" Casey said.