Part 13 (1/2)

Kwok shoved the Doctor and Li into the back seat of the car, and slapped the roof as a signal to the driver. The car moved off. When it was out of sight, another car drew up before the steps to the house. Kwok knew this was not what HsienKo had intended, but he wanted to ensure her wellbeing as best he could; he did love her, after all. He hoped she would understand. 'Follow them,' he told the guards. He handed the driver a geomantic compa.s.s. 'When the Doctor and Li have been stranded in Orkney, kill them.'

Li and the Doctor sat in the back seat of the sedan which carried them into the fading evening light. Li was concerned, since he knew that he was expected at the station and always did what was expected of him. Also, the encounter at the house had not gone as he had expected. They should either have surrendered or fought; this course of action was unexpected.

The unexpected was Li's greatest enemy, as it made him unsure of his place in events. The sooner neatness and order could be extended to everyone, the more comfortable he would feel. The unexpected was dangerous, as one couldn't prepare a response to it. Whether it was a misplaced file or a Tong strategy, the unusual was a definite threat to the pursuit of his job.

How someone as disordered as the Doctor could perform any task was quite beyond him. Not that the Doctor seemed very active right now. He was just staring out of the window.

'Don't we get a commentary?' the Doctor asked suddenly. '

”On the left you can see the village where Lao Tze once spent a night”; that sort of thing?'

'No,' the driver said shortly.

Li leaned in close to the Doctor. 'We can escape now.'

'Not yet. If my guess about what happened to our cars earlier is right, they'll have to find a particular place to move from, and I want to examine some things about it.'

'Why?' Getting out and closing down the Tong was more important, surely.

'Because then we might be able to work out the sort of places they can go.'

'I meant why do you think there must be particular places?'

'The a.s.sa.s.sins who attacked us at the police station all had individual compa.s.ses, so presumably individual people can go anywhere. Something as large as a car is another matter. The truck I was following could have jumped between interstices at any time, so why didn't it? The only logical a.s.sumption is that the driver needed some special conditions. Also, those geomantic compa.s.ses they carry bear details on landscape features. I think that's some sort of aide-memoire aide-memoire for where they can go.' for where they can go.'

The car turned and the grey rock of a quarry stretched out below them. The Doctor perked up. 'A quarry! How very interesting!' He paused. 'It looks a lot like Skaro, actually. Or the land outside the Capitol...'

'That must be where we're going; there are trucks down there.'

'Well spotted, inspector.' The Doctor reached forward with his right hand and tapped the driver on the shoulder. 'Excuse me, but I was just ' Li saw his chance, since his left hand had been dragged forward by the cuff anyway, and swung his hand over the Doctor's. The handcuff chain caught under the driver's chin, jerking his head back.

The guard in the pa.s.senger seat tugged out a gun, but the car was too cramped for him to aim properly. Li forced the gun away with his free hand and headb.u.t.ted the guard. He then punched the driver a couple of times behind the ear, knocking him unconscious. The car started drifting off the road, but the Doctor thrust out a leg through the gap between the two front seats, catching the steering wheel with the heel of his boot. It looked more like the wheel was moving his foot, but somehow he managed to keep the car on the road.

While the Doctor was propped through the gap between the front seats with his foot on the wheel and one hand on the back of the driver's seat, Li untangled the handcuff chain from around the driver's neck. Squeezing his hand between the driver's seat and the side of the car, he reached the door handle with his fingers and opened it. The driver obediently fell out onto the dusty road, rolling into the darkness behind them.

The Doctor s.h.i.+fted sideways, still propped face-down over the driver's seat, and stretched his other leg down through the gap between the seats towards the pedals. He stabbed at one, and the car juddered to a halt. He knelt on the seat, then turned to sit in it and closed the door.

Li clambered through to the pa.s.senger's seat, shoving the guard out of the pa.s.senger door. He hadn't thought the Doctor had it in him. Perhaps he was innocent after all; he would still have to go to trial, though. These things had to be done properly, and if he was innocent it would have to be shown in court so that there was no stain on his character. 'Very effective. What now?'

'Now I want to look at that quarry.'

Li glanced up at the rear-view mirror. Two pinpoints of light were moving towards them. 'That might have to wait.'

The Tong had lied about sparing them, he decided. Oddly enough, it was rea.s.suring in a way, in so far as it proved that the proper scheme of things still operated.

The Doctor looked up too. 'Why does n.o.body ever leave me alone for five minutes, eh?'

Kwok had finally got round to having some dinner, when he saw the uniformed schoolboy crossing the hallway outside. He never had any doubts that he would return, but where was HsienKo? Leaving the rest of his dinner untouched, Kwok jogged upstairs to their quarters. The room was empty, but the discarded j.a.panese garb lying on the floor of their quarters told Kwok as much about HsienKo's whereabouts as a note would have.

He fished his locket out from inside his s.h.i.+rt and held it thoughtfully. 'Perhaps she had the right idea.'

A rus.h.i.+ng twenty-foot waterfall poured into the largest of a series of linked pools of crystal-clear water. Trees with huge waxen leaves bordered the secluded lagoon, which was watched over by ancient statues left by some long-forgotten civilization.

Letting the waterfall bombard her was refres.h.i.+ng, but not something that could be endured for too long. Relaxing in the pools warmed by the tropical sun, though, that was another matter. She lay back and drifted, feeling the tension leach out of her and into the water. Next time she wouldn't take such a risk, she decided. It didn't do to tempt fate like that.

'I thought I'd find you here.'

She opened her eyes to see Kwok sitting on a flat rock. She was glad to see him; it was just like old times, and she could almost imagine that Shanghai was as far behind them in terms of obligation as geography. 'I needed this.'

'Did it work?'

'We won't have to worry about j.a.panese counterintelligence tracking us here; not with their local head cremated along with all his files. Nor can they trace me, now that my tragic geisha has been publicly blown to pieces by a bomb in her car.'

'Then all that remains is to go to the Jade Emperor.'

'Yes.' Suddenly she felt more melancholy than relaxed.

'Once the way is open, our work will be finished. Tomorrow we'll leave Shanghai after I've arranged for cover on duty. We can't have anyone noticing that so many of us have gone.'

Although her profession was somewhat unstable, it was part of what defined her, and the end of any part of her lifestyle was a loss of sorts. She stood, the fine silt seeping around her toes most agreeably, and caught the towel which Kwok threw. 'I suppose that having something isn't always as nice as wanting.' She didn't always feel as certain as she appeared, and this was one of those times.

'When that something is Weng-Chiang, you'd be right.'

'I know, but the bonus is worth having. Travel broadens the mind.'

'And which is more important to you?'

She shook her head. He already knew the answer to that.

'Let's go home.'

Li reached for his gun as the other car approached, but his fingers closed on empty air before he recalled that the guards had confiscated it. He and the Doctor had abandoned the car, and watched from behind a rock as the guards who had followed them examined it.

They seemed to be having some sort of argument with the driver and guard from their car, both of whom had returned to undoubtedly painful consciousness. Such were the wages of sin, Li thought dismissively. The guards split up, combing the scrubby land around.

The Doctor held up his dog whistle and blew on it. 'Those look like the trucks that left the house,' he muttered, 'so K9 should still be around.' Sure enough, an electrical whirring heralded the arrival of the Doctor's mechanical pet.

Unfortunately, it also attracted the attention of the guards.

'Stun them, K9!'

The metallic animal whirled to face the startled guards, and Li blinked as flares of red light sparked between them. The guards fell in rapid succession. Li was astounded. Such a machine would be invaluable to any group in these times.

Perhaps he could sequester it as evidence before the Doctor's trial...