A neon nightscape of dancing lights and towering LED screens, the Shanghai skyline glittered in all its glory. From nearly five hundred metres above the ground, the hexagonal-shaped Sky Walk on the hundredth floor of the Shanghai World Financial Center afforded the most breathtaking views over the endless starlit city. To Connor, the skyscrapers of Pudong – that had looked like steel giants from the river level of the Bund – now appeared like a flashing forest of toy Christmas trees.

He stood close beside Charley upon the vertigo-inducing glass floor of the Sky Walk, only a few inches of glazing separating them from the abyss beneath their feet. Charley had recovered from her torture, but was still somewhat subdued, the invasive control over her body having unsettled her to the core. Connor held her hand, but there was no strength to her grip.

The Director and Mr Grey waited with them, flanked on either side by a requisite pair of guards, guns concealed and blank innocuous expressions on their faces so as not to draw any undue attention. Whatever strings had been pulled and pockets lined, Connor and Charley were no longer in police custody. They were the property of Equilibrium.

In his phone call Amir had demanded an exchange. The flash drive for Connor and Charley – eight o’clock sharp at the top of the Shanghai World Financial Center. Connor could now see why his friend had chosen that specific location. The Sky Walk was busy with tourists gazing at the views and taking photos of themselves, revelling in the optical illusion that they were floating in mid-air above the gleaming city. It was a very public place with obvious CCTV cameras and conspicuous security guards. If the Director tried anything here, she risked exposing herself and Equilibrium.

‘Your friend best not be playing any games with us,’ snapped the Director, glancing impatiently at her watch. ‘Otherwise you two will be taking the express elevator down.’

Connor guessed that she didn’t mean the lift behind them. Three floors beneath their feet was the lower observation level of the building’s world-famous trapezoid structure, the reason the skyscraper was called the ‘bottle opener’ of Shanghai. Then beyond that was a vertiginous drop to the street, precisely four hundred and seventy-four metres below. It would be a swift and permanent exit.

Yet Connor hoped that Amir wouldn’t turn up. That he wouldn’t attempt something so foolish as to trade their lives for the flash drive. The Director was not a person to be trusted or bargained with. He understood why his friend was trying to save them, but the contents of the drive were too important to be given away in a hostage exchange – an exchange that risked Amir being captured too.

But dead on eight o’clock Amir appeared at the other end of the Sky Walk. Separated by over fifty metres of glass walkway and a throng of tourists, their eyes briefly met, a look of apprehension shared between them before Amir smiled in an effort at reassurance. His friend was alone and apparently unarmed. He put a phone to his ear, and a moment later Mr Grey’s mobile rang. The assassin answered, switching it to speakerphone.

‘Send Connor and Charley to me,’ demanded Amir, sounding impressively in command.

The Director cupped a hand to her ear. ‘Sorry, didn’t quite catch that. It’s too noisy in here. Let me sort that out.’

She clapped her hands twice, sharp and loud, cutting through the noise and chatter. The tourists all stopped what they were doing. Then in a disturbingly quiet and orderly fashion they filed out of the exit doors at each end and down the stairs. In a matter of seconds the Sky Walk had cleared of people.

As if he was dropping in an elevator, Connor felt a plummeting sensation in the pit of his stomach. Just as he’d feared, Amir had played straight into the Director’s hands. The Director laughed at the shocked look on Amir’s face, her laughter echoing off the glass walls of the transparent and now-empty Sky Walk.

‘I bet you thought this was a secure place to make your exchange,’ said the Director. ‘But Equilibrium owns this building.’

Lowering his phone, Amir replied, ‘It changes nothing. Release Connor and Charley, guarantee our safe passage out of the country, then I’ll hand over the flash drive.’

With her hands planted on her hips, the Director glared scornfully down the walkway at Amir. ‘You’re in no position to make such demands.’

Amir stood his ground. ‘If you don’t, I’ll release the files online.’

Connor was proud of his friend. He could tell Amir was nervous but he hadn’t allowed his nerves to enter his voice.

‘Go ahead then,’ said the Director with an indifferent shrug. ‘Release the files. Equilibrium controls the Chinese internet. Any mention of Equilibrium will be automatically blocked and deleted. Nothing will get past the government’s Great Firewall.’

‘That may be true,’ replied Amir. ‘But I’ve created a program to dump the files en masse via ghost servers and phantom VPN tunnels. All Equilibrium’s nasty secrets will be leaked on to the web. At the same time a multiple denial-of-service attack will overload the firewall’s defences. Something sensitive is bound to get out. It always does.’ He held up his smartphone, his thumb hovering over the screen. ‘All I need to do is give my associate the command.’

The Director let out a derisive snort. ‘You’d first have to break the mutating encryption key and there’s no way a little runt like y–’

‘I already have,’ Amir replied.

The Director stiffened. ‘Prove it,’ she spat.

‘OK,’ said Amir blithely. ‘Liu Yan, Chairman of the Politburo Standing Committee, is one of Equilibrium’s agents. So too is Zong Li, the vice-president of the Xinhua News Agency; Chen Feng, the CEO of China Investment Corporation; and even the Minister of National Defence, Ren–’

With each name mentioned, the Director’s temper grew until she stamped her foot furiously on the glass floor. ‘Enough!’ she shrieked. ‘I’ll kill every last one of my IT security team! They told me the encryption was unbreakable! I’ll have every bone in their puny little bodies broken for this –’

‘Before you do that,’ interrupted Amir, holding his phone threateningly in the air, ‘let Connor and Charley go.’

The Director clenched her fists and glowered at Amir. ‘Here, have your precious friends!’ She shoved Connor in the back.

Connor exchanged a doubtful look with Charley. Had Amir really outsmarted the head of Equilibrium?

‘You heard the Director,’ said Mr Grey, kicking off the brake on Charley’s chair. ‘You’re free to go.’

Slowly Connor made his way down the Sky Walk, Charley at his side, her wheels squeaking over the polished glass floor. The financial district of Pudong twinkled far below them, the rear lights of taxis flowing like blood cells along the veins of the city. At any moment Connor expected a bullet in his back, the Director merely toying with Amir, distracting him with their release so that one of the guards could shoot him before he initiated the command to release the files.

Charley wheeled her chair along, her jaw set and her eyes fixed on Amir. Their friend gave them both a nervous smile as they drew ever nearer. Connor wanted to run, but didn’t dare give the guards cause to open fire or the Director the satisfaction that he was panicking. Surely she wasn’t simply letting them go free. But, with every step further along the Sky Walk, Connor’s expectation and hopes grew.

They were over the halfway mark when the Director called out, ‘That’s far enough.’ But Connor and Charley kept going, too eager to escape. ‘I said, that’s far enough!’

This time Charley was forced to an abrupt halt, her arms locking out against her will. Connor stopped too, glancing back to see the Director with the neuro-controller in her grasp. A flicker of fear passed across Charley’s face at being hijacked once again.

The Director, having made her point that she was still ultimately in control, released Charley, then demanded, ‘Now the drive.’