9 Dragons

any of the three restaurants doing exactly what Bosch and Sun were doing-looking to surreptitiously identify the other contact.
    Bosch had no choice but to continue with the plan. He held up one finger to the hostess and was led to a bad table in a corner that had a view of all three restaurants but no glimpse of the sea. It was a bad table they passed off on singles and that was just what he had hoped for.
    He checked his watch again and then spread the map out on the table. He weighted it with the camera and took his hat off. It had been cheaply made and was ill fitting, anyway. He was glad to take it off.
    He made one more survey of the restaurants before five o’clock but did not see any likely candidates for the contact. No one like him, sitting by himself or with other mysterious men, wearing sunglasses or any other sort of disguise. He began to think the deke hadn’t worked. That the contact had gotten wise to their charade and had deked them instead.
    He checked his watch just as the second hand swept toward the twelve and it would be five o’clock. The first text from Sun would go out exactly at five.
    Bosch looked out across the restaurants, hoping to see a quick movement, somebody glancing at a text on their phone. But there were too many people and he saw nothing as the seconds ticked by.
    “Hello, sir. Just one?”
    A waitress had come up to the side of his table. Bosch ignored her, his eyes moving from person to person at the tables in Geo.
    “Sir?”
    Bosch answered without looking at her.
    “Can you bring me a cup of coffee for now? Black.”
    “Okay, sir.”
    He could feel her presence move away. Bosch spent another minute with his eyes on the crowd. He expanded the search to include Yellow Flower and Big Sur. He saw a woman talking on a cell phone but nobody else using a phone.
    Bosch’s own phone buzzed in his pocket. He pulled it out and answered, knowing it would be Sun.
    “He answered the first text. He said, ‘I am waiting.’ That’s all.”
    The plan had been for Sun to send a text at exactly five o’clock that said he was caught in traffic and would be late. He had done that and the message was received and responded to.
    “I didn’t see anyone,” Bosch said. “This place is too big. He picked the right place.”
    “Yes.”
    “Where are you?”
    “At the bar at the back of Big Sur. I didn’t see anyone.”
    “Okay, ready for the next one?”
    “Ready.”
    “We’ll try again.”
    Bosch closed the phone as a waitress brought his coffee.
    “Ready to order?”
    “No, not yet. I have to look at the menu.”
    She went away. Bosch took a quick sip of the hot coffee and then opened the menu. He studied the listings while keeping his right hand on the table so he could see his watch. At 5:05 Sun would send the next text.
    The waitress came back and once more asked Bosch to order. The hint was clear. Order or move on. They needed to turn the table.
    “Do you have
gway lang go?
”
    “That is turtle-shell gelatin.”
    She said it in a tone suggesting he had made a mistake.
    “I know. The cure for whatever ails you. Do you have it?”
    “Not on menu.”
    “Okay, then just bring me some noodles.”
    “Which noodle?”
    She pointed to the menu. There were no pictures on the menu so Bosch was lost.
    “Never mind. Bring me fried rice with shrimp in it.”
    “That all?”
    “That’s all.”
    He handed her the menu so she would go away.
    The waitress left him and he checked the time again before resuming his watch on the restaurants. The next text was going out. He scanned from table to table quickly. Again he picked up nothing that fit. The woman he had noticed before took another call and spoke briefly to someone. She was sitting at a table with a little boy who looked bored and uncomfortable in his Sunday clothes.
    Bosch’s phone vibrated on the table.
    “Got another response,” Sun said. “‘If you’re not there in five minutes, the meeting is off?.’”
    “And you didn’t see anybody?”
    “Nothing.”
    “Did you send the next one?”
    “I will at five-ten.”
    “Okay.”
    Bosch closed the phone and put it down on the table. They had designed the third text as the one that would finally draw the contact out. The message would say that Sun was canceling the meeting because he had spotted a tail and believed it was the police. He would urge the unknown contact to leave Geo immediately.
    The waitress came and put down a bowl of rice. The shrimp on top were