Consequences Unforeseen

Hong Kong June 15th 1991 10am. - Beakfast with Brookhall

Hong Kong June 15th 1991 10am. – Breakfast with Brookhall

Brookhall glanced up as the waiter scurried back to the table for at least the 10th time. On this occurrence the news was what Brookhall was waiting for - Mr. Douglas was at the front desk and would be with him momentarily.

He nodded his response to the man and slipped him $10. “Another $10 in it for you if you can go out there and personally shepherd him in here within the next 5 minutes.”

He had been waiting here since the appointed time of 9am. Out of old fashioned politeness he had declined breakfast several times now, but he had long since become impatient with his supposed breakfast companion. “If he’s been fucking that Robin girl, I will personally cut his dick off,” ran through his head. “It’d be just like the Scottish prick,” He continued inwardly. “Bad enough he’s brought his new girlfriend over to Tokyo.”

He liked Kris well enough on the few occasions they’d met at some after work drinking session or ubiquitous dinner event. She was bright and a good conversationalist and was, he had to admit to himself, real good to look at. What irked him about her though was that she was so damned noticeable and had become quite a ‘gaijin’ celebrity since arriving in Tokyo.

She’d been relatively unperturbed by the recent flurry of aggressive and seemingly random attacks on Bill Douglas and had kept a low profile since the last episode in Yoyogi Uehara. That said he’d thought it prudent to pull in some female companions for her over the next few weeks. Females who could protect her just as well as any of their male counterparts. He knew that Douglas would not accept guys being in close proximity to his “new love”

Douglas, he also knew, simply could not tolerate the male U.S. agents and what he called their ‘lack of street ability.’ This irritated Brookhall beyond belief – but he bristled inside and never broached the subject.

All this thinking calmed him down a bit and passed the minutes until he saw Douglas moving through the room towards him, saying good morning and smiling at several diners along his way. Brookhall waved in a friendly enough way but was thinking, “Shit, he does look like he’s been fucking his brains out all night.” Dark circles under his eyes and hair still wet from the shower.

Douglas was blind to the look he was getting and strolled over nonchalantly, smiled and said, “Good morning, Sir. A huge apology for keeping you waiting, but I had some trouble with ghosts last night. That and taking care of Robin’s face this morning made my lateness a certainty.”

He shook Brookhall’s proffered hand and sat, continuing, “She pulled a fucking gun on me yesterday y’know.”

Brookhall laughed with better humor than he felt. It was hard to remain angry with this bastard. Lies seemed to just flow off his tongue like they were the God’s own truth. “Pulled a gun on you. Right, that’s for sure,” was what he thought, but he said instead. “Welcome Bill, I’m glad you could make it and I want to keep this as short as possible.

He raised a hand to the waiter, ordered them coffee and declined breakfast once more but this time for the two of them. For some reason this gave him some mild satisfaction, because he was sure after a night of debauchery Douglas must have been starving.