752. Chapter 752

After Hong Kong Hustle

Episode 7.17

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Much like Inspector Zhanga, I do not own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

This is a sequel to chapters 623, 632 and 702.

Archeologist Doctor Katherine "Idaho" Castle sat with her husband as The Crown Colony of Hong Kong appeared under the wing of their CNAC Ford trimotor. "It's beautiful. Look at how blue the waters in the harbor are."

"And this is just the first stop on our honeymoon. From here we go to Manila, and then on to Singapore. What do you want to see the most?"

Kate giggled and whispered in his ear. "Lots and lots of ceilings."

Her husband laughed and kissed her. "That can be arranged."

After going through customs and getting their luggage, they were met by a chauffeured Rolls-Royce painted in the distinctive Peninsula Green livery of the Peninsula hotel, said by all to be the finest hotel east of Suez.

As they were checking in, the desk clerk handed Rick a note.

"What's that?" Kate asked.

"I have no idea." Rick began to open the note, but Kate grabbed the note and read it.

"Rick, meet me in the hotel bar as soon as you arrive. Don't tell Kate and please be a good fellow and pay my bar bill. Royce."

Kate crumpled the note up and threw it away. Professor Michael Royce had been her advisor and mentor as an archeologist, until his love for liquor had gotten the best of him and he'd betrayed Kate and Rick. "We are not going to see that man. I'd see him over the sights of my Colt, but I hear the British have laws against discharging firearms into a public menace." She started to walk to the lift.

"Kate, honey. Maybe we should go see the man. He was very sorry about what he did to us."

"Of course he's sorry. He betrayed me, us, and he got nothing out of it. He just wants you to pay his damned bar bill."

"I'm sure that's not it." Rick said confidently.

Unfortunately, the first thing that Royce said when they sat down with him was, "Could you please pay my bar bill? They won't serve me until I do."

Kate started to stand to walk away, but Rick put a hand on her arm. "Let's hear what he has to say, okay?"

A waiter appeared at the table. "Do the two of you wish to order?" He asked, ignoring Royce.

Rick sighed. "How much is Royce's bar tab?"

"One hundred and sixteen pounds and tuppence." Was the quick reply.

Rick hauled out his wallet and paid the bill, adding a generous tip for the waiter. "My wife and I will have some house red wine and my friend will have…"

"Scotch." Royce quickly said. "Laphroaig. Bring the bottle."

Kate just glared at him and then at her husband. "Now that we've done what you wanted us for, I suppose we should leave."

"Actually, I have some information for you. You know that Hong Kong, China itself, is full of White Russians. The White Russians are…."

"The Russians who lost to the Bolsheviks after the Czar was overthrown in 1917. They fled Russia end ended up all over the word. Those who were in western Russia mostly went to Europe, those in Siberia headed for China to escape the Reds. So?" Kate glared at her former mentor.

"When the nobles fled Russia, many of them turned what money they had into jewels. Much easier to hide a diamond than say, a stack of hundred pound notes. Have you heard of the Black Orlov diamond?"

Kate laughed. "You aren't going to try to sell us the Back Orlov are you? Half of the con men in the world are selling the famous Black Orlov. The rest are selling the Koh-i-Noor diamond. And they're all fakes. I'm ashamed of you, Royce."

"I'm not selling it. There is an impoverished Russian noblewoman, Countess Alexandra Oblonsky, who has recently arrived in Hong Kong. She knows no one in the Russian community here and is afraid she'll be taken advantage of. She wants someone to take her to a reputable gem merchant and make sure she isn't robbed."

"And she asked you to help?" Kate said, not bothering to hide her disbelief.

"I am an old friend of the family, but I thought I might need help. Then I saw in the paper that the honeymooning Castles were about to arrive in Hong Kong. It seemed like fate."

"Or just our plain bad luck." Kate grumped.

After retrieving their pistols from their room, Rick, Kate and Royce took a taxi to a shabby hotel in Kowloon frequented by poor White Russians. Rick, being an author as well as an amateur archeologist had created a picture in his mind of the Russian noblewoman. No doubt she had been a great beauty once, but the last decade or so had been hard on her. But she still had the imperious manner of one born to the aristocracy. Her clothing, while once fashionable and expensive, now hung loose on her body and just barely visible were the repairs made by an equally aged maid who was utterly devoted to her mistress.

As soon as the door Rick realized how wrong he had been. "Are these people to be trusted?" She demanded. Countess Oblonsky was a young girl, perhaps in her mid teens, slender and redheaded. But she had spirit, all right. In her hand was a Luger pistol and she looked like she knew how to handle it.

"With our lives, Countess." Royce replied, bowing as he spoke.

The Countess nodded, then turned around and dug something from under her mattress. She tossed the fabled diamond to Kate. "You keep the diamond. I'll keep the Luger." She walked out of the room and was suddenly propelled back in, minus her pistol. In the doorway stood someone familiar.

"You were my waiter!" Royce cried out.

The man nodded. "I work for the Chinese Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang. China needs everything it can get to become strong and free. Now hand over the diamond." But the waiter suddenly slumped to the floor, a knife in his back, and was replaced by another Chinese man. He was holding the Countess's Luger.

"Hand it over to me. The Chinese Communist Party must lead the masses away from their feudal past and their capitalist present and…" A gunshot to the back of his head dropped him.

"The Communist Party must have the diamond, but as the diamond was stolen using the wealth stolen from the workers and peasants of Russia, it now must be returned…." He was then dropped by a shot to the head.

"It must be given to me." Said a familiar voice.

Rick shook his head. "Ritter von Davidson. I thought you'd been chased out of Asia."

"I was, but now I'm back. With the money I can get for this, I can raise a new army and become a power in Asia. And I can make Asia a power in the world." He turned slightly, never taking his eyes off the four. "Oh, de Ming, can you come here and take the diamond from your old friend, Kate?"

De Ming, once an employee of Kate's shambled into the room, smelling of cheap gin and urine. He walked towards Kate and took the necklace, but was unable to resist the temptation of copping a feel. Enraged, Kate kicked him in a place she knew would hurt. And it did.

As de Ming bent over in agony and von Davidson was distracted, Rick drew his pistol and took a shot at von Davidson, hitting him in the arm. He ran down the stairs and by the time Rick got to the doorway, von Davidson was out of the hotel and had blended into the streets of Hong Kong.

"Is everyone all right?" He asked, coming back into the room.

"Where's the diamond?" Cried the Countess. "It's gone."

"So is Royce." Kate said. "He must have grabbed to diamond and taken off down the fire escape. I can't see him."

"De Ming escaped as well." Rick noted.

The Countess broke down and cried. "I have nothing. I'll starve, or worse."

Rick and Kate exchanged glances. Kate put her arm around the girl's shoulder. "You can come with us until we figure something out. We're rich."

The girl looked at them suspiciously. "You will?"

"Sure. Come on Pumpkin, let's go." Rick said.

"Pumpkin?" The girl asked. "What is a pumpkin?"

"It's a fruit, or is it a vegetable? Anyway, you have this really orangey red hair and pumpkins are orange….And it's just a nickname."

"Pumpkin." The Countess said as she followed her new friends out of the hotel and into a new life.