Dasyueshan Mountain Forest, Taiwan
HANNAH SLADE … Bo’s stating her name came like a thunderclap. She is ‘much in demand’, he just said. So there it was, their suspicions confirmed: Bo was holding the collector. But where? And why?
Luke lurched forward in his chair but Jenny got there first.
‘Where is she?’ she demanded. ‘Are you holding her?’
Bo’s eyes narrowed, and Luke saw the pit viper sizing up its prey. The triad leader wagged an admonishing finger at Jenny. He had remained seated while Luke and Jenny were half out of their chairs. He calmly exuded an air of suppressed malice and power.
‘Not so fast, young lady,’ came the reply. ‘We will come to Miss Slade in a minute. Unless, of course, you have somewhere you need to be right now?’ He cackled with laughter at his own joke, nodding and winking at the bodyguard who remained standing silently in the corner. Once he’d composed himself, he called out in Chinese. A hidden door behind Bo’s desk that Luke hadn’t seen until now opened, and a couple of local men came shuffling into the room, carrying two boxes.
‘We thought,’ Bo turned back to Luke and Jenny, ‘you might like to have your own clothes back. They are in the first of these two boxes. We’ve brought them all the way here from Taipei for you. See, we are not the barbarians you might think we are!’ Again, that strange, demonic cackle. ‘But this is not the only gift we have brought you from the city …’
The man’s smile remained, but Luke could see the hardness in his eyes.
‘Do you not remember what my man Win told you about the importance of coming alone?’ Bo said. ‘No? Strange, as I believe he made our instructions very clear to you.’
Luke did remember. It was ‘Don’t bring anyone else’ but Leach, the station chief in Taipei, had organized the discreet tail that was supposed to keep them safe. And now Luke had a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach. Everything about this gangster caused alarm bells to go off in his head.
‘That wasn’t very smart of your people,’ Bo continued, as if reading Luke’s mind. ‘Taipei is our city. We spotted them straight away. Of course we did. They are not – were not – very good at their job. My son could have done better. Still, I am pleased to say they are still here with us.’
Luke and Jenny exchanged glances. Bo waved, and the two men scuttled over and placed the second box in front of them. It looked like the sort of thing motorcycle couriers used to transport urgent blood supplies.
‘Please,’ Bo gestured with his hand, ‘open it.’
‘We’re not playing your games,’ Luke said, folding his arms. ‘If you’re holding Hannah Slade, we’d like to negotiate her release and be on our way.’
Bo didn’t reply. Instead he made a scolding sound, looked up at Kreutzer, who was standing behind them, and nodded. Luke felt the cold metal of the MP7’s muzzle digging into the back of his neck. He shivered in spite of himself.
‘Open it,’ Bo repeated.
Slowly, reluctantly, Luke leant forward and released the catch on the top of the case.
The moment the lid sprang open the smell hit them. Luke recognized it from his time serving in Afghanistan. It was the smell of an informant caught by the Taliban and left to rot in the sun after suffering an excruciating death. It was the smell of three Pashtun farmers they’d come across who had been strafed in error by a NATO warplane. It was the smell of decaying human flesh.
‘Jenny, for God’s sake, don’t look!’ Luke shouted, holding her back as he forced himself to glance inside. But his words and actions came too late. He heard her gasp in horror, and choke back a sob as she clasped her hand to her mouth. Throwing herself to the side of the room, she was violently and noisily sick; nobody stopped her.
Luke never did have the chance to meet the two protection officers Leach had arranged to shadow them and now he never would. Because staring up at him from the Styrofoam case were two severed human heads.