Somewhere in Taiwan
CRAMPED, PAINFULLY UNCOMFORTABLE and most of all angry, Luke tried to shift his position as he felt himself jolted around in the dark with each movement of the vehicle. His hands tied, a gag around his mouth, he had been squashed into the boot of a car. He hoped Jenny was OK. And what had happened to Leach’s back-up plan? He suspected he knew the answer. However good Leach thought his team were, these guys were one step ahead. They must have guessed there would be a tail and aimed off accordingly. Hence the swift vehicle change in the underground car park. In those brief but vital few seconds, while Win was getting out and hauling open the side door of the minibus, Luke had at least managed to activate the emergency Tracker27 button on his mobile and sound the alarm. To hell with the political consequences if some Foreign Office suit had to make a grovelling apology to the Taiwan authorities in the days ahead: his life and Jenny’s were worth more than that. But that had been when they were already underground, at least two floors down, and he couldn’t be sure that the signal had got through.
The vehicle wasn’t the only thing that had been changed. The meat-cleaver trio were taking no chances. They had made him and Jenny take off everything, dump their clothes in the cardboard box and put on what looked like prison-issue grey tracksuits. Jenny, at least, had been allowed to change behind the van before he saw her bundled into a separate vehicle. There had been a moment when Luke had thought seriously about taking them on. But the odds were terrible: four of them, plus that wicked meat cleaver. Not good. They did not look like the kind of people who would have any qualms about using it. Perhaps if it had been just him, he might have had a go, but the thought of what they might do to Jenny restrained him. Both of them were now minus their phones with the precious GPS trackers. No surprises there. Their captors would have ditched those immediately. At this very moment, he thought, Leach is probably sending his driver off to look for them in some municipal rubbish dump on the edge of Taipei.
Eyes shut, hands cramped, Luke listened for tell-tale changes in the sound of the engine. When they stopped, he assumed at traffic lights, it told him they must still be in an urban area. Then later he could hear the call of birds, meaning they were now in the countryside. And then an audible shift in the pitch of the engine. They were climbing a gradient, making their way up a twisting vertiginous road. Again, his thoughts turned to Jenny. How was she coping with this? Jenny was tough but there would still be the inevitable gnawing fear of what lay in store for them at journey’s end. And where was that? Taiwan was a mountainous island and it offered their abductors any number of possible hideouts.
A sudden lurch and the car stopped. Low voices and the crunch of feet on stony ground. A metallic rasp and someone was unlocking the boot. Luke braced himself. The first thing he took in, apart from the welcome rush of fresh air, was that it was twilight, which meant they must have been travelling for at least four hours. That, and the temperature. It was significantly cooler here than down in the city. So they must be somewhere in the Central Mountain Range. Muscular arms reached in and he was pulled out of the boot. Even in the half-light he recognized the three men in bomber jackets from the underground car park. Behind them, smiling, was Win, ‘the Jogger’. They hauled Luke to his feet and roughly untied the gag but his wrists remained bound behind his back. He spat on the ground, trying to rid himself of the bitter, metallic taste of motor oil and dust. He looked around. There was no sign of Jenny. He turned to Win, didn’t raise his voice, didn’t shout – no point up here in these mountains. He just needed to know straight away. ‘Where is she, Win? What have you done with her?’
‘Your partner? She is here. She is with us. She will join you presently.’ And with that he flung his arms wide. ‘Welcome to the mountains!’
Welcome to the mountains? Luke snorted in disbelief. Like this was some sort of organized package tour? ‘What the fuck, Win?’ he demanded, clenching and unclenching his hands behind him in an attempt to get the blood flowing. ‘Was all this necessary?’ He tipped his head towards the vehicle they had just brought him in.
Win spread his hands again in a gesture of apology. ‘You must forgive us, but, yes, these were very necessary precautions,’ he replied. ‘The man you are both going to meet, he really doesn’t like uninvited guests.’
‘OK, I get that, but do you really need to keep my hands tied like this? I mean, come on, what am I going to do with them up here in these mountains?’
Win appeared to think about this for a few seconds and then spoke to the men in bomber jackets. Without a word, one stepped behind Luke and untied his wrists. As he rubbed them, he heard another vehicle approaching. It was an ordinary saloon, and as it pulled up next to them Luke once more made a mental note of the number plate, just one of the many details, however trivial, he was storing up in his memory banks.
The driver got out, walked round to the boot and unlocked it. The bomber-jacket crew went over and lifted out a bound and gagged figure. It was Jenny Li. This time Luke ignored the presence of the meat cleaver and went straight over, shoving them gently but firmly aside to reach her. He heard Win mutter something in Mandarin and the gang backed off.
‘Jen!’ He held her upright – she was swaying slightly. Even in the fading light he could see she was pale and probably in shock. ‘Are you all right?’ She nodded, as Luke fumbled with her gag.
‘Please …’ Win said, when he had finished. He indicated a path that led up a slope above the clearing where they were parked. ‘This way.’
In silence they trudged uphill in single file, Win in front, then Luke and Jenny, the bomber-jacket crew behind. Luke’s eyes had already adjusted to the near darkness but Jenny was having difficulties, walking unsteadily and stumbling. Her hands now free, she twice grabbed his arm to stop herself falling. As he walked, Luke scanned the vegetation beside the path, hunting for possible exit routes and hiding places they might come to need. But he had no illusions. If they had to make a break for it, the odds would be against them. Given the obsessive precautions these people had taken to get them there, he suspected there would be no one else around for miles and this gang would know the terrain by heart. And where would that leave Hannah Slade, the person they’d come all this way to try to find?
Through the gloom a small log cabin appeared, pine trees whispering and sighing in the chill evening breeze. ‘This,’ explained Win, like some hotel concierge, ‘will be your accommodation during your stay with us.’ He pushed open the door and stepped aside for Luke and Jenny to enter. A single room, with two single beds and a basic bathroom. A tin of biscuits, a few packets of crisps and canned soft drinks on a table to one side, spare blankets piled in the corner. On the windows: bars.
‘When they are ready,’ Win announced, ‘they will call for you and I will escort you there myself.’ Luke found his courtesy confusing. They had been abducted. Kidnapped. Held against their will by cleaver-wielding thugs. And yet this man was addressing them as if they were honoured guests.
‘“There”? Where’s “there”?’ Jenny said, her voice little more than a whisper. Win ignored the question. Instead, he fished out an old-fashioned key and held it up with a smile.
‘You must excuse me,’ he said, with exaggerated politeness, ‘but I have strict instructions. I hope you understand.’ And with that he turned and walked out of the cabin, closing the door behind him. There was a loud click, and Luke knew they had just been locked in for the night.