Part 4 (1/2)

'Of course; I would not be here otherwise. Do you have the price that was asked?'

'Naturally.' Was he trying to impugn HsienKo's honour?, Probably not; these westerners just didn't understand respect or face. 'She recommends a direct exchange; your wares for ours.'

'The exchange will be made at Gongpinglu Wharf as we suggested?'

Kwok's leathery face split into a professional smile. 'It was an excellent choice. We approve. We will bring our payment to the wharf at midnight. I suggest you and your people be ready.'

'We will be.' Vogler drained his gla.s.s, and rose. 'Until midnight, Herr Kwok.'

Kwok nodded, and Vogler left as the waiter returned with Kwok's sparkling beer. 'Bring a telephone.' The waiter hurried off again, and Kwok relaxed slightly. He was reminded of his first meeting with HsienKo. That had been in a club not unlike this one, albeit smaller and less cla.s.sy. He had been a bouncer then and she had been making such deals with the likes of Vogler. Things had been simpler then, but no less satisfying.

He sipped his beer as the singer began a new song. The confirmation of the deal would please HsienKo, and that was what mattered.

Four.

couple of grubbily dressed stevedores were sitting Aaround a brazier with a coffee pot when Li arrived on the wharf. He had come dressed in similarly disreputable clothes so as not to arouse suspicion, and knew that the other officers who were already at the wharf and in hiding had also come in disguise.

It had taken him some time to decide what to wear; the very idea of clothing himself in anything that was not properly washed and pressed smacked of laziness. At first he had tried to a.s.semble a suitably grimy set of rags, but it was obvious even to him that the mixture was too methodical, and so clearly false. That meant that there was a danger that others could spot it as false, too.

In the end, he had confiscated the clothes of a genuine dock worker roughly his size, who had been arrested earlier for drunkenness. You couldn't get more authentic than the real thing. He only hoped the British had enough sense to keep the Sikhs in hiding in their truck as he had instructed: one flash of a uniform, and the suspects would never arrive.

He had brought a simple canvas sack with him, just as the other workers would have for their snacks. Li's, however, contained a torch, a camera for photographing any evidence that might need to be verified as untampered with later, and a Very pistol with which to signal his men to move in. He hoped it wouldn't be a long wait: the sooner he got rid of these filthy rags and into something more respectable, the better.

The British Public Gardens were on the northern sh.o.r.e of the Huangpu just along from where the TARDIS had landed. A Sikh guard had been standing in a sentry box by the gate, opposite a sign which read 'No dogs or Chinamen'. The Doctor and Romana, not being Chinese, had had no difficulty in making their way through. Once through the peaceful park, they had continued onwards, following the eastward curve of the Huangpu along towards the easternmost docks which were halfway between the city and the sea.

Cars and small vans pa.s.sed occasionally as the docks were constantly in use, even at night. A few workers gave them odd looks as they pa.s.sed through the main gate, but they went unchallenged. The necks of steel cranes poked above the long roofs of various warehouses and workshops. 'It's a large place,' Romana said quietly.

's.h.i.+ps from all over the planet come here. If someone is messing around with the fourth segment, though, they'll want to do it somewhere that isn't too busy.' He looked around.

'Try the tracer now.'

Romana activated the device, which ticked softly when pointed east. 'The far end of the docks.'

'Probably a smaller dock; one that isn't important enough to use this late at night.' He started off along some rails set into the cobbles, whistling the theme to Popeye Popeye. As they moved, they saw fewer workers, and the shadows around the decreasing number of illuminated buildings grew deeper and darker. The Doctor stopped whistling. 'Stay on your guard.

This isn't a very friendly area.'

'I had gathered that.'

They moved on towards a large building whose windows were mostly broken. A sharp hiss ahead made the pair stop in their tracks as a match flickered into brief life. The Doctor and Romana pressed themselves against the dark side of the building as a man slouched round the corner. In the light from the match with which he was lighting a cigarette, they could see the glint of a Thompson submachine gun that was held in the crook of his arm.

The man paused to look around, then turned and wandered back beyond the corner. The Doctor and Romana let out sighs of relief. 'I see what you mean,' Romana whispered. 'He didn't look very friendly. He was obviously a guard of some kind, but what was he guarding?'

'Something on the other side of this building, obviously.'

The Doctor sidled a few feet along the wall, then stopped with a m.u.f.fled groan. 'Maybe he was guarding the lights that should be illuminating this fire-escape! Come on.' He scrambled up the iron staircase in a matter of moments. While Romana followed, he bent to listen at the door at the top.

'What's inside?'

The Doctor shook his head. 'I can't hear a thing. Probably a mimes' convention.' He made a few adjustments to his sonic screwdriver and opened the door. The s.p.a.ce inside was pitch-black, though a few patches of moonlight formed grey windows on the floor below. The door itself seemed to have opened onto a wide upper catwalk. More dim greyness formed squares on the far wall, as the moonlight shone into a windowed upper office.

Treading carefully, the Doctor and Romana made their way round to the office. It was a small wood-walled cubbyhole with interior windows overlooking the floor below and exterior ones overlooking the wharf outside the building. 'This must have been some kind of customs office,' the Doctor said, 'but it looks as if it's the maid's year off.'

'Dust is the least of our concerns; there are men with guns out there, remember?'

'Exactly; and now we have a grandstand view of what they're up to.'

Li ducked back into the shadows under a crane as a trio of Opel Maultier trucks rumbled slowly around the corner of the warehouse. The trucks ground to a halt at the foot of one of the saurian cranes that reached out across the waterfront. Men jumped down from the backs of the vehicles and pulled their tarpaulin covers aside.

Two men who were waiting amidst a junction of rails a short distance away began to approach. The cab doors opened, and a trio of Europeans emerged to meet the others halfway.

Fortunately the night was quiet and Li could just about make out their footsteps, which meant he would possibly hear their speech as well.

'I see you're very punctual,' the leader of the waiting men said smoothly. He was lean with a pockmarked face and s.h.a.ggy hair.

The European in the pale suit nodded. 'Naturally, Herr Kwok. I'm told we value efficiency more than anything.

Where is she?'

'On her way. In our business, it pays to be careful.'

Yan Cheh listened with interest. He had recognized Kwok at once as the driver who had been waiting with the Studebaker for that oddly familiar woman in Bubbling Well Road. He wondered if she would turn up tonight as well.

He was perched on a warehouse roof directly above the leading truck and so had an excellent view of the proceedings.

His sources had informed him of an unusual meeting to take place with a man called Vogler and some other Europeans, but he had scarcely dared imagine that the mysterious pair from last night would be the other party involved.

Whatever was going on, they certainly weren't common thieves, so perhaps they weren't his problem anyway. He had to be sure, however. His ruminations were interrupted by the sound of a powerful engine erupting into life in the middle of the harbour. Looking across, he could make out the lights of a boat surging across the water towards the wharf. It was odd that he hadn't noticed its presence there already, but he had had other things on his mind.

The engine sound faded away as a motor launch of highly polished wood coasted in towards a jetty at the foot of the quayside steps. Several figures in the tiny shelter deck behind the wheelhouse were already bracing themselves for the imminent halt. One was unmistakably the same white-coated girl he had followed from Bubbling Well Road to Nang Tao; very slight, but carrying herself with remarkable confidence and purpose.

With her were a couple of coolies and a pa.s.senger so unexpected that Yan Cheh wondered if he were hallucinating an older woman in a nursemaid's blue uniform, with a pram.

The coolies secured the launch, while Kwok lowered a set of steps to the boat. The younger woman paused to speak inaudibly to the nursemaid and check the pram, then ascended to the dockside. Kwok led her over towards the trucks where the Europeans were waiting.

The tracer's crackles were already fading by the time Romana had fixed the direction it was indicating. It had returned to that steady ticking in a matter of moments. 'It's reading due south.'

The Doctor peered out of the dusty customs office window.

'Just the direction that boat came from.'

'Could the fourth segment be on board?'