Mann exited at the harbour and joined a thousand others standing around watching the light display. Every evening at eight o’clock the biggest laser show in the world kicked off. It involved forty-four buildings, cost forty-four million Hong Kong dollars to create and lasted fourteen minutes at a time. Especially composed symphonic music exploded in time to pyrotechnics and laser beams from the rooftops of buildings around the harbour.

As Mann rounded the corner the breeze felt cool, it dried the sweat on his brow, the shirt on his back. He needed that sea air. He needed to clear his tired head. Now the swirling light beams were dancing across the harbour to the clashing of cymbals. He took a right past the statue of Bruce Lee and saw Tammy sitting on a bench, away from the crowd. People were standing nearby, having their photo taken with Bruce Lee. Colour and light exploded into the stormy evening sky.

‘Is everything all right, Tammy?’ Mann sat next to her.

‘Yes thanks, Boss. Good talk yesterday.’

‘Yeah, right,’ Mann sighed, looking away as he spoke. ‘That Lilly is a real troublemaker.’

‘I am getting very close to fixing up a date for my initiation, Boss.’

Mann rested his elbows on his knees as he listened; he stared at the ground and waited. Tammy was hesitating.

‘You all right about that, Tammy?’

‘But, Boss, there’s something else.’ Tammy hesitated. ‘Lilly says it’s common knowledge you’re on the take.’

Mann went silent. Colours shot up the side of buildings, searchlights filled the night sky. ‘Okay. I’ll deal with it.’

‘I asked if she’d seen the Indian girl die. She said she didn’t actually see it, that she was outside when it happened. She said they were told that they were all guilty of it. That if one was to be named they would all be named.’

‘It was all about binding them together then. The girl died to unite the others. It had to be graphic to convince the kids. Just saying it wasn’t enough.

‘You better try and stall the initiation, Tammy. We need to do more ground work. I’ve met Victoria Chan. She’s got a lot at stake. She’s going to be looking out for an informer. We need to make doubly sure before we go in. If I am being set up then we need to be one step ahead. Nothing is worth your life. These people won’t hesitate to take it. We’ll get the headmaster to say you’re ill. We’ll call it off temporarily until we are sure that you’re safe.’

‘All right, Boss.’

Mann watched her walk away, her head bowed, her skinny legs shuffling along in her sparkly cheap jeans and her new trainers. She was disappointed, he knew. To have put in so much work and come out with nothing.

He walked to the railings and gripped them as he stared out at the water. He thought about what Tammy had said. If the rumours were running rife about him being on the take it wasn’t going to help to be seen in company with CK or his daughter. He was leaving himself exposed. There was only his word that his intentions were good. His word didn’t seem to be counting for much at the moment. But it was too late to go back. He had been pushed across that line now and he had to use it or lose it. For a while he had to exist on the dark side.

Ahead of him was a party boat, bedecked with a string of coloured lights. The avenue of stars was still buzzing. The kids had been put to bed now, the couples were out. They perched on the railings like lines of seagulls in a seaside town. The girls sat on the top, the boys took their photos. They look so young, thought Mann. He didn’t think he was ever that young. He knew you had to be young to really fall in love, unconditionally. You had to be full of compromise, still finding who you are, still trying to change into someone better. If Mann could turn back the clock he would have chosen a different route for Helen but not for himself. He couldn’t give Helen what she wanted no matter how much she loved him. He had scar tissue over his heart that never healed; he wished that she’d never fallen in love with him. But the one thing he had promised himself was that he would keep hunting down the men who had met her along the road to death. He would never stop pursuing them. Mann had killed the one who finished her life but he had yet to find the others who tortured her, who did nothing to help her.

Now something nagged at him day and night. The memory of Helen had come back screaming at him. It wouldn’t give him peace.

Mann headed away from the river and called Mia en route.

‘Where is Tammy now?’ Mia sounded tense.

‘I have just told her to stall things, sit tight. I’m suspending Operation Schoolyard. She’s at risk.’

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. He knew what Mia would be doing. He could hear her sigh. She would have closed her eyes. She would have frowned. She would be disappointed but she would respect his judgement.

‘If you think so, Mann, then okay. But it means starting all over again, it took us so long to find Tammy and get her into the school.’

‘I know. But this is uncharted territory. We’ve never put a female officer in this kind of risk before. I’d rather back out now. She’s disappointed too.’

‘Of course, she will be: big risks, big rewards. Talking of big rewards, on your way back come via the car park and look in your space. Your new car got delivered.’

‘What new car?’

‘Well, judging by the keys I have in my hand I would say it’s a brand new Maserati in your space in the car park. Someone’s given you an expensive present.’

Mann turned the corner to see the woman with the blond hair walking quickly away.

Chapter 26

Ruby left Mann at the Bruce Lee statue and texted as fast as she walked. She had done what she was asked to do. Her work was finished for the evening. She walked via the subway, through to Nathan Road and then back up the steps to the Mansions. The Africans were sat on the steps, watching. Ruby kept her head down as she passed them. She was sick of the way they sat around on the steps, talking, laughing. She was sick of the way their eyes followed her. They would regret it. They had had their day. The Outcasts would see to that. One by one they would be chased out of the Mansions or they would be picked off and slaughtered.

She passed Hafiz at the entrance to the Mansions. She hardly noticed him step in behind her but she knew he would be there. The Africans were watching him nervously too. Ruby felt Hafiz’s hand brush her arm. She turned and looked at him and smiled. He stared hard at her and then grinned. She nodded. He pulled a whistle from his pocket and let out three small beeps and one long blast and repeated it three times. Ruby walked quickly away from him. She took the stairs up to her floor. She cocked her head, pausing to listen at each landing. She heard the whistles being answered. The Mansions were coming alive with the sound of running feet.

‘He’s on the next landing,’ Hafiz shouted. This was Block C, floor twelve. Doors banged shut as the familiar whistles went up and down the landing. It was replica bag land, knock-off watches and fake designer goods, full of small factories, guesthouses, apartments.

‘Corner him,’ came a reply.

They chased their victim down the corridor. Their voices bounced off the concrete walls, their feet thundered and echoed up the piss-ridden stairwell and down the dark landings. The sickly hue of strip lighting threw their shadows up the graffiti on the walls.

‘Don’t let him get away,’ a girl shouted back.

The African ran till his heart was bursting. He ran blindly, not able to stop and listen; he heard the cries from every direction. He knew they were coming for him. Their feet thundered, their voices ripped the walls apart. He saw them at the other side of the stairwell door. He had nowhere left to run. Beside him was the shaft that dropped all the way to the bottom of the Mansions. He went to climb in, it was dark, filthy. Cables and sewage pipes clung to its walls but there was nothing for him to hang on to. He turned to face them. They were kids, wild eyed, panting from their chase. They held knives in their hands. He held his hands up for peace, surrender, compassion. One of them lunged forward and cut his forearm down to the bone. He cried out in pain as he withdrew his arm, cradled it, looked frantically around for an escape route. They closed in a circle around him. They were behind him now, all around.