Ng shook his head.

‘I’ll give you a clue. How many burns on Gosia’s chest?’

‘Sixty-eight.’

‘Yep – the two luckiest numbers in Hong Kong. Club Sixty-Eight.’

He arrived in David White’s office. As soon as the Superintendent put the phone down Mann asked: ‘Have we got the permission we need to cross over into the mainland?’

White looked up.

‘You’re not going to like what I have to say, Mann.’

‘Then don’t say it.’

‘We’ve been denied permission. Until the proper paperwork is completed – permits granted.’

‘Until they have time to hide all the evidence, you mean?’

‘I tried, Mann. They want it to be investigated by the local police over the border in Hicksville. We have already received orders to stay out.’

‘Well, they can want all they like. I’m not staying out.’

‘I know better than to waste my breath. I’ll help as far as I can. Who are you going to take?’

‘I’ll take Ng and Li and five men from the Police Tactical Units. See if we can find a sniper as well.’

‘Is that going to be enough?’

‘It will have to be – I don’t want to involve anyone else. Shrimp will brief the PTUs. While he’s doing that I need to find out all I can about this place before we get there. Can you get me a helicopter?’

‘Yes. But for Christ’s sake don’t prang it. I’ll be in enough trouble when they find out I authorised this.’

Mann got up to leave.

‘And Mann … For Christ’s sake, come back alive.’

94

Georgina lay on her bunk. Her eyes were gill-like slits. Her face was the colour of cheap jade. Her body barely registered breath.

‘Amber, I got good news.’ Kim sat down beside her. She used the name the club had given Georgina, in case they were overheard.

‘You got a client – we need to get you ready.’

There was not a flicker from Georgina. Her eyes did not change track.

‘Come on, Amber!’

Finally, Georgina stirred. ‘Now?’ She winced as she spoke; her cracked lips were Sahara-dry. She hadn’t worked since the night she’d had to be resuscitated and her heroin doses had been upped to keep her sedated.

‘Yeah, you have to get up right now. I’ll help you, but you have to hurry.’

Georgina raised herself up super-slowly from the bunk and swung her legs off the side, one at a time. She struggled to sit upright and then, that achieved, sat swaying unsteadily.

‘Come on, you can do it.’ Kim leaned in and whispered in Georgina’s ear: ‘Be brave, be strong – you are going home – but for fuck’s sake hurry up!’ Kim tried getting her to her feet.

‘Come on now, Amber, I will help you get into your costume. Tonight you are a Geisha.’

Georgina groaned and slumped back down onto the bed.

‘No, it’s all right, Amber, don’t worry, it’s not like last time.’ Kim leaned closer again while pretending to brush Georgina’s hair from the side of her face, and whispered: ‘Georgina, listen to me! I am trying to get you out of here. Someone is coming to help us – we must get ready.’

‘Leave me alone – please. Leave me alone.’

The words cracked in Georgina’s throat. Kim stroked Georgina’s back, speaking in hushed tones.

‘Don’t give in to people like Lucy and Chan: they are just fuckin’ leeches – low-lifes. Don’t let the bastards do it to you, Georgina. Fight it! Find the strength inside to live, not for anyone else, but for yourself. But right now we have to get out of here. I need you to be ready.’

‘Please leave me. I don’t want to go anywhere.’

‘Stand up! Don’t be a victim, Georgina. Don’t let anyone use you as a fuckin’ punch-bag. Stand up! Get the gloves on and start fightin’ back! Believe me, your life is not over yet …’

Kim stopped abruptly. Chan was standing behind her.

‘But yours is, Kim. Punch-bag – dartboard … Good idea; my men need a bit of knife-throwing practice …’

95

Mann checked his watch. It was one a.m. The five PTUs were led by their commander, Ting – a senior police officer with many years’ service. They had picked up weapons and flak jackets from the armoury and driven to Central police station where there was a helicopter waiting on the roof. Mann knew the pilot, Peter Wong. They had been on many a dawn raid together at the OCTB. Mann was glad to see him. Not only was Wong the best pilot in the force, he was also a firearms expert and an expert sniper. Mann needed all the help he could get. Plus, he had Mann’s brand of bravery – business as usual – job done. When David White had asked Wong if he’d be willing to fly on this mission, he hadn’t hesitated.

Mann sat next to Wong to help navigate. He gave him the co-ordinates and spread the map out on his lap. They had an approximate idea where it was, but they could not be sure. They were relying on a visual when they got that far. The helicopter rose, hovered, picked up more height, turned, and flew north.

The bright lights and blazing neon soon petered out to sporadic clusters of brilliance as they flew over Kowloon and the small fishing villages of the New Territories. Soon there was only dense, dark woodland below and visibilty was down to nil. Skirting Shenzhen, they flew over the reservoir and the country parks. They had been flying for thirty-five minutes when the terrain below transformed from green lush countryside into wasteland. They were flying over a redundant, ransacked former Industrial Economic Zone. Old quarries, plundered and now deserted, pockmarked the darkness below in ugly black holes.

Mann knew that they were looking for a large complex somewhere in the vicinity. He consulted his map and signalled to the pilot to head north-west. A few minutes later he saw it – half a mile ahead – a glow coming from the ground, as if from a buried town.

There was an air of reverence in the helicopter as each man watched the halo of light grow on the horizon.

Li broke it. ‘Awesome! What is it? It’s like a volcano.’

‘Be alert. We could be expected,’ Mann shouted back from the cockpit. Perimeter lights appeared below.

Li’s face was glued to the window. ‘It looks like a golf course.’

‘It is,’ said Ng. ‘I had time to find out a bit about it before we left. The whole thing is about four square kilometres.’

‘He must have had a heck of a job building this,’ Mann said, looking down at the neat lawns, dotted lakes and illuminated bunkers.

‘The grass, the trees – it’s all imported,’ said Ng.

Li leaned across Ng to get a better view. ‘Look at that – in the next quarry … it’s like a giant birthday cake!’ he screeched.

Ahead of them, as one quarry led into the other, a building stood four storeys high, coming halfway up the quarry-side. It was made primarily of glass. As they neared, they could see that it wasn’t one building, it was two – connected in the middle and forming the numbers Sixty-Eight. They flew towards it.

‘Smoke! I smell smoke. Anyone else?’ said Mann.

‘Yes. I can see it,’ replied Ng. ‘It’s in the air below us …but I can’t see any fire.’

They hovered directly over the Eight building, blasting the rooftop palms and rippling the surface of the swimming pools.

‘Awesome!’ Li grinned. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it.’

‘Let’s hope you never will again,’ said Mann grimly.

96

‘They know we’re coming, otherwise they would have come out by now. They must have been tipped off somehow.’ Mann felt that knot in his stomach, the one that told him he’d missed something important and it was too late to alter it now. ‘Okay, let’s set her down.’

They readied themselves, and checked their guns. The PTUs attended to their own preparations with precise calm. They all carried police-issue Glock 9mm handguns and standard police-issue HK MP5 sub-machine guns. Ng carried just a handgun. He was a good shot, he’d had plenty of practice over the years. Mann carried both a handgun and a sub-machine gun. Shrimp carried a surprise.