CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

 

 

"I guess this is what they call a stake out. You done many of these?"

Dan looked across the car they had rented towards Heather, who shot him a withering glare.

When he found her in the airport, she had been in an awful state. Traumatised by her attempted abduction at the rough hands of the triads, she was tearful and hyperventilating. It had taken some serious talking to calm her down and gently coax her to where they were now. He had a feeling she was regretting that decision.

"Look, if you really want to stop these guys then you have to think outside of the box. All we know is that Aiguo Chang worked here at the Hangzhou Wildlife Sanctuary and that he found a microchip belonging to a tiger that should have been in India. Right?"

"Right! But we've been over this, Dan. I was only supposed meet Chang and find out as much as I could, not start an international incident on the doorstep of Beijing Airport with bloody gangsters! And against the express permission of my boss, I'm with a man wanted in Belfast for murder and now wanted in China for involvement in a gunfight!"

"That's harsh. Anyway, this wasn't my fault or yours. The triads must have found Chang out and taken his place in order to question you about what you know. They would have killed you, Heather."

"But I should have stopped it there! I should have found the police and stayed at the airport. Not let you talk me into some wild goose chase across half of China. I'll lose my job over this, that's for sure."

"You've done nothing wrong. You escaped because a stranger stepped in to help you at the airport and you came to Hangzhou for a look because it's the only lead you have to find Chang. As far as anyone is concerned, I'm not with you."

"Yeah, it just so happens that a crazy one eyed Irishman was in China at the same time as me and helped out. What a coincidence, huh?"

Her comments cut Dan, just as surely if she'd used a knife. Is that what she thought of him? He needed air.

"I'll take a walk around the perimeter."

Dan stepped out of the car into the dark, quiet street.

They had found the sanctuary at the edge of Hangzhou city. Close enough to tempt the wealthy city slickers inside its walls, but far enough into the countryside so that the calls of the animals, that he now heard piercing the night-time quiet, wouldn't annoy too many local residents. He walked, assessing what lay behind the high walls and tall fences of the park as he went, and wondering had he gone too far. Had he dragged poor Heather into his own dangerous and very personal vendetta? Was he using her as a means to an end? He didn't think so. If Dan had not been at the airport to help her, Heather would have been abducted by Dragon Tattoo, and God knows what he would have done to her.

It seemed to Dan that his own goals and those of Heather were intertwined, whether she liked it or not. And everything he had told her was true. She couldn't have stopped him buying a seat next to her on the plane, just the same way as she couldn't stop him confronting the triads at the airport. Those were his actions, not hers. The fact that he had then convinced her to buy him a ticket on the next plane to Hangzhou from Beijing and avoid reporting their violent encounter to the local police at the time, may have muddied the waters a little, but she was a big girl and he knew that deep down she knew that she needed him, just like he needed her.

During the flight to Hangzhou, Heather had however, reported back to her boss in London. Dan could tell from the one-sided conversation that he wasn't best pleased with what had happened, but at the same time these people, these Wildlife Investigation Agency people, had the scent of blood in their nostrils. They were closer now to whatever it was they wanted, to not demand she return with her tail between her legs. Their quarry, Dan's quarry, was on the run. The hunt was on.

Heather had explained their new arrangement to Dan in no uncertain terms.

"The WIA is not the police or a government department. We are funded by charity and everyone who works there is passionate about what they do. We don't break the law, Dan, and we can't associate ourselves with those that do. That being said, I can't stop you. If the WIA are asked about your involvement with them relating to any of this, we will strenuously deny it."

"So, I can come along for the ride and do your dirty work, but if I'm caught I'm on my own?"

"Pretty much. They won't even refund me the cost of your flight from Beijing, but I guess I owe you that for saving me. Bottom line is - there is to be no connection and no trail that leads from you to the Wildlife Investigation Agency."

Dan couldn't say he liked the arrangement that much, but for now it served his purpose well. He didn't care about trails of evidence and where they lead. All he was interested in had stood face to face with him at the airport, and got away. He still had unfinished business with Dragon Tattoo. If Hangzhou Wildlife Sanctuary was the only link in China that they had to him, then that was where Dan needed to be. If the WIA needed to find their star witness, Mr Aiguo Chang, and Hangzhou Wildlife Sanctuary was where he found the microchip in the first place, then that is also where Heather needed to be.

He walked a bit further, searching for an easy crossing point in the perimeter walls to climb over and take a closer look at the buildings within, when he heard a commotion. The sound of raised voices cut through the quiet night, coming from the direction of the entrance to the sanctuary just ahead and around the corner out of sight. A deep booming bass rumbled across the open street and a high pitched Chinese chatter replied.

Before he could turn or slip into the shadows, a huge figure rounded the bend and crossed the street in front of him. It was a man of immense size, with jet black skin, a shiny bald head and a long grey forked beard. As the two drew closer, Dan dipped his head, unable to avoid him, but they passed in silence; the huge man still grumbling to himself at whatever argument he had been engaged in.

For a second, he looked at Dan. Probably as much wondering at the strangeness of seeing a one-eyed Irishman on the streets of a Chinese city as Dan was at seeing him.

Dan turned left into a side street, not wanting to expose himself to whoever traded insults with the mystery giant at the gates of the sanctuary. He waited for a minute, then turned and walked back the way he came, giving some thought to assessing the perimeter for an easier crossing point on the far side of where their car was parked.

The rumbling of a diesel engine sounded from the street in front of him and a beat up old truck emerged, pulling out of the junction and forcing Dan to a stop. The drivers face was just visible through the grimy, dust laden windows. A round, black face sporting a grey forked beard.

The vehicle joined the road running along the perimeter of the sanctuary, on which Dan had been walking, and disappeared into the night. He could still hear the high pitched revving engine as he climbed back into the car beside Heather.

She had a smile on her face now and seemed much more content than when he left her.

"Any developments?"

"Yes. London called. They've been in contact with the Beijing and Hangzhou Police Forces and explained what's happening. I'm to wait here until they arrive. They're going to conduct a search of the sanctuary, looking for Chang, triads, tigers, everything. What about you, see anything interesting?"

"Nothing unusual by today's standards. Just a huge, black man with a forked beard coming out of the sanctuary."

"Are you joking?"

"No. He drove that way in a beat up old truck."

Dan pointed over his shoulder in the direction the truck had taken and watched Heathers confident smile disappear from her face, to be replaced with what resided there before – shock and indecision.

"Did I not tell you about Selassie on the flight to Beijing?"

Dan thought back to their journey from London, recalling only her warm smiles and an information overload about international wildlife investigation.

"I remember you saying you were chasing a man called Selassie in India, yes, but you never gave a physical description. Was that him?"

"Yes! I can't let Selassie get away again. God knows what's in that truck or where he's going to. The police will be here soon. They know what to do and they have a description of Dragon Tattoo."

Heather started up the car, gunned the engine and spun it around in the road. She stopped on the far side of the street and looked over at Dan.

"Are you with me, or would you rather wait here for the police?"

"Let's go."

Heather hit the accelerator and drove as fast as she dared after the truck.