Part 2 (1/2)

Li turned the body over onto its back. He evidently had not been dead for long, as his skin still held a reasonably lifelike colour, and was only slightly cool to the touch. The limbs still flexed as Li moved him, though with the sluggishness and resistance of encroaching rigor. The front of his s.h.i.+rt and trousers were sticky with drying blood, though there was only a small patch on the floor. A few small footprints were to one side, and Li shuddered at the thought of what this woman might be teaching her offspring.

The sergeant poked at the torn s.h.i.+rt with a pen, exposing thin, wavery wounds. 'Stabbed, by the look of him.' Li didn't need to be told that; he'd seen such wounds every other day for most of his adult life. 'Stomach and maybe up under the ribs.'

'Any sign of a weapon?'

'Lots of weapons. Whether any of them was the one that did this...' The sergeant looked round at the obsidian dragon, which leered as if drinking the taste of blood in the air. 'Could this be some sort of sacrifice?' The sergeant at least had the good sense to sound sheepish as he spoke.

'No. We don't do that sort of thing.' He didn't think so, anyway, though there were so many G.o.ds that he supposed some demanded sacrifices. He had never come across such a case, however. 'Besides, look at the wounds, and the small amount of blood here. He must have been killed somewhere else, and then brought in here.'

'There were no blood trails outside this room.'

'Perhaps they carried him in a sack.' Couldn't the sergeant see that poking holes in his theories wasn't going to let him concentrate? 'He must have been attacked quite near here; the body's very fresh. The street outside, perhaps.'

The sergeant gave him a disdainful look, then shrugged.

'I'll have the area searched, but we won't find anything.'

Li knew the sergeant was right, of course; the Tongs were very adept at concealing their activities whenever they felt it was worth their while to bother. That knowledge didn't free the police from their obligations, though. 'All right. I'll go and have words with the prisoners. Let me know what you find.'

He looked around the grimy little room, and noticed that some blood was seeping around his shoe. He shook it off with a grimace. 'This is going to be one of those nights.'

From the gap between two rain-barrels, Yan Cheh watched with fascinated interest as a beautiful young woman hurried over to a waiting Studebaker. The driver held open the door so that the woman could put down the child she was carrying and a.s.sist him inside. The driver was a tall and muscular man with an angular, pockmarked face and s.h.a.ggy hair. He took a last lock around before getting in the car, which set off along Bubbling Well Road.

Yan Cheh stepped around the barrels, and looked back towards the bar on the corner. A couple of Sikhs were looking either way along the street. Yan Cheh was not surprised they hadn't spotted their quarry: she'd made the journey from the bar to her rendezvous with remarkable speed. Still, at least he still had them in sight.

He wheeled out the Zundapp motorcycle which had been hidden behind a fruit stall, and swung himself onto it. Ignoring the Sikhs down the road, he set off after the Studebaker.

HsienKo allowed her eyelids to droop over her jade eyes; it had been a long and tiring day, and the motion of the car was surprisingly relaxing, despite the occasional b.u.mp. 'What happened, Ah-Kwok?'

'Just bad luck, as far as we can tell. A random spot-check.

Did it go well?'

'As well as can be expected. Have you arranged transportation to the Jade Emperor?'

'There's a wide path to the Daizong Archway. It's large enough to accommodate the trucks, though we ourselves can go much higher up the mountain.'

HsienKo nodded. 'Laying the cables should prove an interesting experience but I'm sure it'll do.'

'I hoped you'd approve.' Kwok couldn't keep the smile from his face.

She matched his expression. 'Miss me?'

'Always.'

'Naturally. Take me home now, but dispose of this car first; it may have been seen.'

'Of course, beloved.'

It had been a long night, and even though the air was now clearer, Inspector Li felt as if his head was stuffed with cotton wool. He had supervised the removal of the body from the small shrine and now prowled around the cleared opium den.

He knew he should be working out the details of the case, but couldn't help thinking about getting back home for a long rest.

The main part of the den was just a squalid empty room, and he had soon turned his attention back to the shrine. The obsidian dragon unnerved him, as its jewelled eyes seemed to glow from within. He turned it round to face the wall, hoping that he would no longer be able to feel the malice it exuded. It was a strange idol; not one of the G.o.ds or dragons that he recognized. A regional patron deity, perhaps. He made a mental note to enquire about that; it might help track down the owner if he knew where the person was from.

There were still marks of dried blood on the floor, and he followed them back from where the body had lain against the wall. That was odd; it was just a plain old brick wall, yet the trail led from it as if it were a door. As far as Li could work out there was only empty air and a twenty-foot drop on the other side, but he tapped at it anyway.

There was no hollow sound to indicate any hidden pa.s.sages. Shaking his head, Li turned to go, then paused as something caught his eye. A corner of paper or card was poking out from under the shrine's low altar.

He retrieved it quickly. The name on it was that of one of the men they had arrested, but more interesting was its nature.

It was a dock worker's pa.s.s to Gongpinglu Wharf. That was a dockyard on the northern bank of the Huangpu just after it turned east, not far from the foreign emba.s.sies.

The various western governments were forever conspiring against each other, Li knew, so perhaps one of them was also involved. At any rate, this was the only clue he had as to where the escaped suspects might have either come from or gone to. He slipped the card into his pocket before leaving the opium den.

Nang Tao airfield was enclosed by a vast wire fence some nine feet high. A Tarmac runway was clearly visible against the surrounding gra.s.s, while mown strips of the field provided an informal landing area for smaller and st.u.r.dier aircraft. Off to one side, lights gleamed in the square and ugly concrete terminal with its wide barred windows. Hangars with colourful airline logos and slogans were arrayed beyond that, while a large arch stretched over the entrance for paying customers.

The Doctor crouched by the fence, Romana and K9 beside him. 'You are sure it reads as being here?' the Doctor asked.

Romana held up the tracer, which ticked softly. 'So it would appear.'

'All right. It'll be quicker to cut our way through than go all the way round to the main gate...' K9 powered up the blaster set into his snout. It would take only two seconds to burn through a wide enough range of wires with momentary sparks to allow them to pa.s.s through. The Doctor clapped a hand over the metal snout. 'The light might be seen.' He patted his pockets, then produced a small pair of wire-cutters from somewhere. 'Stealth and subtlety, eh?' He set to work, clipping rapidly at the links in the fence.

After a couple of minutes, he was able to pull away a roughly circular section of the fence and crawl through. He turned. 'Come on, K9, don't dawdle.'

K9 slid through smoothly, then paused, scanning the area just in case. 'Metallic ma.s.s detected, master. Halfway along the runway.'

'Later, K9. You next, Romana.' Nothing happened, so the Doctor stuck his head back through the fence. 'Romana?

Romana? Why is it that the simplest thing ' A discreet cough attracted his attention, and he looked up to see Romana standing beside him.

'If you weren't so lazy, we could have been at the source by now. It's not as if it's a very high fence.'

The Doctor rocked back on his heels. 'You climbed the fence?'

'Of course.'

'Ah.' The Doctor nodded to himself. 'You know I hate to sound negative, but what if it had been electrified, eh?'

'Then you would have been electrocuted when you cut the first wire, and I'd have got K9 to cut a way through.'

'That's very thoughtful of you.'