They slowed as they threw him out of the car, but not by much.
Yan was his first thought as he staggered to his feet.
The memory of the girl’s agonized face, her black hair twisting and turning in the water as the monster came for her. His own face pressed against the glass. Helpless. Watching a young woman die when her only crime was to fall in love. Was Chin always going to kill her so horribly? Or had North made things worse for her with his reckless arrival?
Chin believed he was untouchable as an agent of the Chinese security services. But Octavius Chin was in North’s black book. And North was drawing a line through that name just as soon as he’d found Syd – he could do that much for Yan. As for Chin’s threats to Fang, he was going to make the guy eat every word – see if that killed his appetite.
He reached for his gun. Remembered it was gone. Reached for his phone, but it was gone too. Chin was doubtless gutting it for intel but good luck with that, because it had none. His head pulsed. His left hand pressing into a wall for support, he gripped his nose between the fingers and thumb of his right hand, seeing stars, doing his best to straighten it without passing out. It was good enough, he decided, rolling his arms backwards and then forwards in their sockets, hearing the grinding of bones, before curving his spine to stretch out the stiffened muscles along his back. He swore once and, grimacing, he lifted his T-shirt to reveal red and purple bruising across his abdominal wall. Chin’s men had given him a gentle working-over as a going-away gift.
They’d dropped him by the Royal Courts of Justice. He started moving, a jog at first, building to a run, running through the pain in his face, in his body. Shutting it off. His phone was gone, but he drew to a halt at a public phone outside a mock Tudor pub hung about with baskets full of winter pansies.
Plug picked up on the first ring. He spoke before Plug could ask how it went, which by any definition was badly.
‘Meet me at the main entrance of St Bride’s, and we need to make it look official.’ He hung up.
It was too late for Tobias. And too late for Yan.
North had no idea what Hawke had hidden at St Bride’s. He had no idea if indeed Chin was telling the truth when he’d said it was something ‘very terrible’. But he was willing to bet if there was something there, then it was nothing good.