THEY RAN down Cage Street with no view of the office from that direction. What they saw as they got closer was Mr. Yang, Mrs. Yang and the three junior Yangs standing out on the street looking back at the building.
As they stopped beside them Sholto said, “Mr. Yang, what’s driven you out of your bed?”
“We got a call, one of the Data people. There’s someone in there, breaking in. I don’t want my girls in there with someone breaking in, they could be dangerous.”
His son Michael, the eldest child and probably big enough to look after himself at that point anyway, gave his father a sulky look but said nothing. Mrs. Yang looked much more annoyed than frightened, a woman usually full of fire and mischief that their two daughters had inherited.
Darian said, “Has anyone called the police?”
Mr. Yang said, “Of course we did, someone is breaking into the building where we live. The man called and said you were coming but we called the police, too, as many as possible.”
Sholto said, “Any sign of them?”
“The police? The Challaid Police? Even if the man had thrown me out of the window and my blood ran down to the corner they wouldn’t be here until three weeks next Tuesday. I would be better calling my school friend who’s a policeman in China. He would be here faster.”
His wife whispered something in Chinese and Mr. Yang grabbed her hand, holding it firmly. Darian and Sholto, on this occasion, considered the reliably lackadaisical police response to be no bad thing. They wanted to know who was breaking into their office before the cops turned up and spoiled the surprise.
They looked at each other and nodded, Darian assuming his boss was thinking the same as him. So he was, but with a lot less enthusiasm. They knew they were going to have to go in and at least try to identify the intruder and their intentions, because waiting out on Cage Street with the Yang family was only offering the person an easy escape. Sholto grimaced, sighed once, then a second time and nodded again at Darian.
Darian said to Mr. Yang, “We’re going in. Get yourselves off the street and away from the doors in case he comes out this way. He might be armed.”
Mr. Yang said, “I’ll wait, and if he comes out this way I’ll tackle him.”
“No, seriously, he could be very dangerous; we don’t know what we’re dealing with here.”
“I’ll get one of my cleavers, one that can stop any animal smaller than a cow and slower than a rabbit.”
Sholto said, “No, Mr. Yang, really, that lad in there could be any sort of dangerous if he’s daft enough to spend this long robbing the place. Never hit a crazy person with anything smaller than a bus, not even a cleaver. You get the family somewhere safe. I couldn’t stand the thought of you getting hurt and me not getting fed because of it.”
The nod Mr. Yang gave was stiff enough to pass for a short head-butt but it was agreement and that was enough for now. They had wasted too much time getting to Cage Street and speaking out on the street in hissed urgency. Whatever the intruder was looking for he was bound to have found it in the one-room office by now. Unless, Darian realized, he wasn’t very good at this. That shifted suspicion away from a well-prepared Raven employee and onto someone else. Darian just didn’t know who that someone else would be.
They went in through the side door, the one they always took. It gave them access to the stairs that would take them straight up to the office. Even opening the side door was a risk; if the intruder had an unseen accomplice that’s where they were likely to be. If there was a backup then he wasn’t lurking in the stairwell, which was empty when they went in. They closed the door behind them, Sholto holding the handle and pushing it softly to avoid any noise.
This was all about stealth now, not a strong suit of either man. They walked up the wooden stairs, looking up into the darkness as they went and neither spotting danger. They could have been walking into a trap, bubbling with treacherous danger, and they wouldn’t have had a clue. It only occurred to them later how this break-in had exposed their inability to properly handle this kind of threat. Two men walking into an unknown but probably dangerous situation by going up two flights of stairs in the dark toward a threat that may have been waiting for them, watching their every movement. Not for the first time, Darian would later wonder how he ever managed to make it from one end of the day to the other unscathed.
On the first floor they could see the closed doors of the Yangs’ flat and the Highland Stars Entertainment Agency. There was no sign of disturbance. They turned the corner and sneaked slowly up to the second floor. Two steps from the top and leading the way Darian stopped. He could see their office door ajar, and he waited for Sholto to get alongside and see for himself. Through the slit they could see feeble light moving, someone with a dim torch. Before Sholto could think of a convincing way to articulate retreat Darian moved forward.
They stood on either side of the door and gave each other the sort of look that vaguely competent gunslingers in movies give each other because they didn’t know what else was expected of them in the circumstances. They were working this out on the hoof.
Darian pushed the door open and called out, “Okay, you’re blocked, so stay right there.”
He ducked his head round the door to look inside and saw the mess, paper from Sholto’s desk all over the floor, and a single person by the filing cabinet at the back of the room. He was trying to force the locked drawer and struggling pathetically because he hadn’t brought the right equipment. With the torch in his hand he spun round to face the door and Darian recognized Will Dent.
“Come on, Will, what the hell are you doing?”
The Sutherland driver stared at the doorway and made a calculation. He could only see Darian and Sholto which meant it was two against one and he wasn’t scared of either of them. Suddenly he made a sprint for the door, head down and shoulder-charging into both men. All three fell out into the corridor, Will crashing into the banister. Sholto rolled over and swore vividly while Darian tried to grab Will by the ankle and got a kick in the neck instead. Will was the first to his feet and bolted down the stairs.