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The same knowledge showed on Paul's face. One corner of his mouth twisted up
in what wasn't quite a smile. "Beggars can't be choosers, and I'm a beggar
right now," he said. "Let's go."
"Are you sure?" Lucy asked. He nodded again. She liked the way he made up his
mind without a lot of fuss. He didn't like what he was about to do, but he
aimed to go ahead and do it.
He grunted when she opened the door to Stanley Hsu's shop. It didn't look like
much on the outside. He grunted again, on a different note, when he saw the
kinds of things the jeweler had on his shelves. That's more like it, he might
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have said without words.
Stanley Hsu was standing behind the counter writing something when Lucy and
Paul came in. "Hello, Miss
Woo," he said, polite as always. "Who is your .. . friend?" He too spoke
without words, asking, Who is this stranger you've brought here?
"I'm Paul Gomes." Paul spoke for himself. He waited to see if his name meant
anything to the jeweler.
For a moment, it didn't. Then Stanley Hsu's dark, clever eyes narrowed. "Are
you?" he murmured. "How interesting. I am very pleased to meet you, sir."
"I'm not nearly sure I'm pleased to meet you," Paul said. "I suppose you know
why I'm here."
Lucy shot him a warning glance. You had to be watch what you said if you
wanted something from the
Triads. But Stanley Hsu didn't seem offended. Maybe he made allowances because
Paul wasn't Chinese.
"I think I may," he answered, his voice smooth as silk. "I suppose you know
everything has its price."
"Oh, yes," Paul said. "Well, my price is getting Dad out of the Germans' jail.
Do that, and we may have some more things to talk about."
Stanley Hsu's nostrils flared. He'd been about to set the Triads' price for
helping Paul. Plainly, he didn't like getting beaten to the punch. "You are
not without gall, are you?" he said in a low voice.
Shrugging, Paul answered, "I'm doing what I have to do. If you want to talk
with me later, you'll play along."
"I have other choices, you know," the jeweler remarked. "The easiest would be
to let the Feldgendarmerie have you along with your father."
"No!" Lucy said, though she'd thought of that, too.
Paul amazed her by tipping her a wink. "Go ahead," he told Stanley Hsu. "Yeah,
go right ahead. Then when the Germans pump both of us, they'll get whatever we
know, and you'll be sitting out in the cold. Enjoy it."
Just for a moment, the jeweler looked as if he'd bitten down hard on a lemon.
Then all expression vanished from his face. "You do have gall," he murmured.
"We could also squeeze you ourselves, you know."
Lucy started to say No! again. Before the word could come out, Paul held up a
hand to stop her. He smiled at Stanley Hsu. "Yes, you could," he agreed. He
sounded .. . friendly. Lucy couldn't imagine how he made himself sound that
way, but he did. Smiling still, he went on, "You can squeeze as hard as you
want, Mr.
Hsu. Squeeze hard enough, and I'll tell you all sorts of things. I'm sure of
it. But how will you know which ones to believe? Simple you won't."
"I should not care to meet you when you are as old as I am now," Stanley Hsu
said after half a minute's silence. "You would be very difficult."
Proudly, Lucy said, "He's already very difficult, and you know it."
That made the jeweler laugh out loud. "Well, what if he is? You don't want me
to give him a swelled head by admitting it, do you?" He nodded to Paul with
what looked like real admiration. "You certainly have an interesting way to
bargain. I can think of one thing that might bring you into line."
"Oh?" Paul said. "What's that?"
"I might squeeze Miss Woo. I think you would give true answers to make sure I
didn't." Stanley Hsu played the game for its own sake. Anyone who got in his
way was just an obstacle. He would go on through no matter what.
He horrified Lucy. If he horrified Paul, the young man from Curious Notions
didn't show it. "Come on, Lucy," he said. "This wasn't a good idea. But that's
okay." He patted a pocket. "I've got a recording of Mr.
Hsu saying that. Playing it in the right places ought to do us some good."
"Wait!" Stanley Hsu said. A pistol appeared in his hand as if by magic. "When
I say wait, I mean it."
"No, you don't," Paul said. "Think it through. If you shoot me, you don't get
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any of the answers you want. If you shoot Lucy, you kill the only chance
you've got of making me want to play along with you."
"You trust logic too far," Stanley Hsu said. Even so, the pistol disappeared
as fast as it had appeared. The jeweler added, "You tempt me to shoot you for
no better reason than to show you that you don't know it all."
"If I knew it all, I wouldn't be in this mess, and neither would my father,"
Paul said. "But I know enough to be worth something to you, and you can do
some things I can't. If you spring Dad, we can talk. If you don't.
. . well, I can talk to the Germans if I have to. I don't want to, but that's
not what this is about."
Stanley Hsu gave Lucy a little bow. "You were right, Miss Woo. He is already
very difficult."
"I told you so," she said. Yes, she was proud of her strange friend from and
maybe not from Thirty-third
Avenue.
The jeweler gave Paul Gomes a bow just like the one he'd sent Lucy's way. "I
believe we have a bargain.
My. .. friends will do what they can for your father. If and when they get him
away from the
Feldgendarmerie, you will speak freely about some things that interest us."
"Yes. I agree." Paul didn't look happy about the deal. What did he know that
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