He dropped the installation piece so that its bent front end hung over the edge of the broken window, then held out his hand to her. “Have I ever let you die before?”

“No, but-”

“I’m not going to start now.” He offered his hand again, more forcefully. “Trust me.” Sophia hesitated, then took it.

Chase pulled her to him. “Okay, just hold on to me, and whatever happens, don’t let go.” He kicked the metal piece farther over the edge, its underside crunching on the broken glass.

Behind them, the doors to the lobby flew open. More guards.

Chase stepped onto the metal sheet and knelt down. Reluctantly, Sophia did the same, clinging to him. He grabbed the artwork’s bent corners and jerked forward, inching it over the edge, then turned his head to Sophia. Their cheeks touched. “Ready for a magic carpet ride?”

The guards burst into the room. “Don’t move!” someone shouted.

One last shove-

They tipped over the edge of the building and plunged downwards.

Sophia’s scream was lost in the wind as they shot down the glass wall, the installation piece a makeshift sled shrilling and rippling beneath them.

Chase held on to the raised metal corners with all his strength, feeling the edges cutting into his palms. He endured the pain-he had no choice, because if he let go then even the minuscule amount of control he had over the course of their descent would be lost.

Floors flashed past. Windows cracked and shattered in their wake as they skidded over them, a line of destruction gouged out of the face of the building. The wind blasted at Chase’s face. He had no idea how fast they were traveling, only that it was too fast and his escape plan was looking like a very bad mistake-

The curve of the wall shallowed, forty-five degrees, less, as they hurtled past the halfway point.

But they weren’t slowing.

The artificial lake at the bottom of the wall grew rapidly, a glowing swath of surreal colors. Getting closer, closer…

They shot off the end of the last floor and hit the water, still moving fast. The window imploded behind them. A huge plume of spray burst from the front of the sled as they aquaplaned across the surface.

Slowing rapidly, but the lakeshore was still rushing at them-

“Jump!” Chase roared, leaping off with Sophia still clinging to him. They landed on soft grass, rolling clear of their ride as one corner bit deeply into the turf and flipped the whole thing end over end in an eruption of soil.

“Bloody hell!” said Chase as he sat up, bruised but unbroken. “That was better than Disneyland!” He saw Sophia nearby and quickly went to her. “You okay?”

“I’ve been better,” she said groggily. Chase lifted her to her feet. She grunted in discomfort but didn’t cry out, which he took as a good sign.

He looked back at the Ycom building. The path they’d taken down the building was clearly visible, people gawping out through the broken glass on several floors. “We’ve got to get back to Mei’s taxi. Where’s the nearest entrance to the parking lot?”

Sophia raised a shaking hand. “That side-”

As if on cue, several men ran around the side of the building where she was pointing.

“Hellfire!” Chase grabbed her hand. “Okay, plan B.”

They hurried across an ornamental lawn. Busy roads ran along two of its edges. Chase made for the nearer one, looking first for unoccupied taxis and then, more pragmatically, for any vehicle they could commandeer.

The traffic was too dense, too slow moving. They wouldn’t be able to make much headway in a car. What he needed was a motorbike…

He saw one, parked at the side of the road as its owner talked on a mobile phone. It wasn’t what he would have picked in an ideal world, but he didn’t have enough options to be choosy…

“You must be joking!” Sophia said, looking aghast at the little red delivery moped. A large wooden box with a crude painting of a tiger on the side overhung the back wheel by almost two feet, the whole thing looking ridiculously unbalanced.

“It’s all there is!” Chase ran past the rider, who stared in surprise for a moment before realizing that he was being carjacked and shouting angrily. Chase briefly considered drawing the gun to enforce the issue, but instead reached into a pocket, drew out a wad of banknotes, and tossed them to him. “I need to borrow your bike!”

The man caught the money, regarded it in bewilderment for a moment, then smiled ecstatically and gave Chase a thumbs-up. Chase mounted the bike and started the engine, Sophia climbing on behind him. He was about to set off when something occurred to him, and he took another roll of banknotes from his pocket. “Shit!”

“What?” asked Sophia.

Chase looked around for the delivery boy, but he was already racing down the street as fast as his legs would take him. “I meant to give him Chinese money!”

“What did you give him?”

“Five thousand dollars! It was emergency cash-that’s going to be fun to account for on my expenses!”

Sophia almost laughed, but then saw the guards still running after them. “It still is an emergency, Eddie!”

“Let’s hope this thing’s worth five grand, then!”

He revved the engine, which responded with an ear-splitting whine and a cloud of blue smoke from the exhaust, and released the brake. The rear wheel squealed against the pavement, then the moped shot off down the street.

Chase tried to get his bearings. They needed to head southeast… “Hang on!” he shouted as he swerved the moped off the pavement and into traffic. Horns blasted as he swept past the slow-moving cars, the box on the back of the bike almost scraping against them.

“Where are we going?” Sophia demanded.

“The maglev station! It’s the fastest way to get to the airport!”

A car ahead was up on the curb, blocking their path. Chase made a frantic turn, cutting in front of another car and moving farther out into the road. They were now surrounded by traffic on both sides, and Shanghai lane discipline was far more ragged and disorderly than in England or America.

A car tried to force its way into the inside lane. “Knees in!” was all Chase had time to yell as they shot past, his elbow missing the car’s side mirror by a fraction of an inch-only for the wooden box to shear it cleanly off the side of the vehicle.

“That’s what happens when you don’t signal!” Chase yelled. The traffic ahead had stopped at lights. He needed to turn at the junction-

A cacophony of horns behind caught his attention. “What was that?”

Sophia looked around. “I think we have company!”

Chase risked a look back. A car-no, two cars had driven up onto the pavement and were racing past the stationary traffic, pedestrians leaping aside. Yuen’s security forces had done some carjacking of their own.

“Well, that’s bloody marvelous!” They reached the junction, Chase putting out one leg to support the little bike as he leaned over and swept it into the turn.

Cars were coming the other way through the intersection, headlights blazing-

Chase turned harder, his heel scraping along the ground. The moped wobbled, threatening to flip over, before he regained control just in time to dart in front of a car. Its front mirror clipped a corner of the wooden box, spraying splinters everywhere.

“Jesus!” Sophia gasped. Chase fought to keep the moped upright as he guided it between two more lanes of vehicles. He heard tires screech behind, and more angry bleats of horns. A brief glance in the moped’s round mirror told him that the two cars were still pursuing them, driving against the oncoming traffic.

And there was another white light among all the flaring red, the single headlight of a motorbike joining the pursuit. A real bike, not the crappy little 50cc toy he’d been stuck with.