9 Dragons

that on the fourteenth day of the seventh lunar month the gates of hell open and all the evil ghosts stalk the world. Believers burn offerings to appease their ancestors and ward off the evil spirits.”
    “What kind of offerings?”
    “Mostly paper money and papier-mâché facsimiles of things like plasma screens and houses and cars. Things the spirits supposedly need on the other side. Sometimes people burn the real things, too.”
    She laughed and then continued.
    “I once saw somebody burning an air conditioner. Sending an air conditioner to an ancestor in hell, I guess.”
    Bosch remembered his daughter talking about this once. She said she had seen someone burning an entire car.
    Bosch gazed down on the city and realized what he had taken as morning mist was actually smoke from the fires, hanging in the air like the ghosts themselves.
    “Looks like there’s a lot of believers out there.”
    “Yes, there are.”
    Bosch raised his gaze to Kowloon and brought up the binoculars. Sunlight was finally hitting the buildings along the harborside. He panned back and forth, always keeping the goalposts on top of the Bank of China in his field of vision. Finally, he found the Canon sign Eleanor had mentioned. It sat atop a glass-and-aluminum-skinned building that was throwing sharp reflections of light in all directions.
    “I see the sign,” he said, without looking away.
    He estimated the building that the sign was on at twelve floors. The sign sat atop an iron framework that added at least another floor to its height. He moved the binoculars back and forth, hoping to see something else. But nothing grabbed at him.
    “Let me see again,” Eleanor said.
    Bosch handed over the binoculars and she quickly zeroed in on the Canon sign.
    “Got it,” she said. “And I can see that the Peninsula Hotel is across the street and within two blocks of it. It’s one of the helicopter-pad locations.”
    Bosch followed her line of sight across the harbor. It took him a moment to find the sign. It was now catching the sun full-on. He was beginning to feel the sluggishness of the long flight breaking off. Adrenaline was kicking in.
    He saw a wide road cutting north into Kowloon next to the building with the sign on top.
    “What road is that?” he asked.
    Eleanor kept her eyes at the binoculars.
    “It’s got to be Nathan Road,” she said. “It’s a major north-south channel. Goes from the harbor up into the New Territories.”
    “The triads are there?”
    “Absolutely.”
    Bosch turned back to look out toward Nathan Road and Kowloon.
    “Nine Dragons,” he whispered to himself.
    “What?” Eleanor asked.
    “I said, that’s where she is.”

25
    B osch and his daughter usually took the funicular tram up and back down from the Peak. It reminded Bosch of a sleek and greatly extended version of Angels Flight back in L.A., and at the bottom his daughter liked to visit a small park near the courthouse where she could hang a Tibetan prayer flag. Often the small, colorful flags were strung like laundry on clotheslines across the park. She had told Bosch that hanging a flag was better than lighting a candle in a church because the flag was outside and its good intentions would be carried far on the wind.
    There was no time to hang flags now. They got back into Sun’s Mercedes and headed down the mountain toward Wan Chai. Along the way, Bosch realized that one route down would take them directly by the apartment building where Eleanor and his daughter lived.
    Bosch leaned forward from the backseat.
    “Eleanor, let’s go by your place first.”
    “Why?”
    “Something I forgot to tell you to bring. Madeline’s passport. Yours, too.”
    “Why?”
    “Because this won’t be over when we get her back. I want both of you away from here until it is.”
    “And how long is that?”
    She had turned to look back at him from the front seat. He could see the accusation in her eyes. He wanted to try to avoid all of that so that the rescue of his daughter was the complete focus.
    “I don’t know how long. Let’s just get the passports. Just in case there is no time later.”
    Eleanor turned to Sun and spoke sharply in Chinese. He immediately pulled to the side of the road and stopped. There was no traffic coming down the mountain behind them. It was too early for that. She turned fully around in her seat to face Bosch.
    “We’ll stop for the passports,” she said evenly. “But if we need to disappear, don’t think for a