The Shadow Of Weng-Chiang Part 10

oo led Romana downstairs to the immaculately clean W garage built into the rear of the Club Do-San. Every instrument and tool gleamed on its shelf and there wasn't a patch of oil to be seen on the floor slabs. Woo tugged on the lever that operated the door and it slid up to reveal the courtyard and loading area which the club shared with its neighbouring buildings. A narrow street directly opposite led out of the square.

Rondo, meanwhile, gently peeled back a protective tarpaulin from one of the four cars in the garage. It was a two-seat sports car mostly in red and grey, though the covers for the folding top and spare wheel were a light tan. The wheel hubs were a sunburst of scarlet spokes, surrounded by whitewall tyres. The four thick tubes that emerged from the engine and disappeared under the car to link up with the exhaust pipe were as silvered as the mirror-like front grille.

Rondo held the pa.s.senger door open so that Romana could slide into the plush leather seat. He looked at Woo almost pleadingly and wiped a spot of dust off the top of the radiator grille. 'Don't worry,' Woo promised him, 'I won't get a scratch on her.'

'I thought this was your car,' Romana said.

Woo shrugged helplessly. 'It is but Rondo looks after the collection. He's worse than my mother. Of course, this one is rather special...'

'It is?'

'It's a Duesenberg SSJ. There are only two more of them in the world. The colour scheme is too conspicuous, but changing it ourselves would lower its value.' Woo started the car and they roared off out through the courtyard.

Sung-Chi Li was taking some hot soup in an impromptu air-raid shelter that was originally a hotel's wine cellar. Most of the occupants were women and children in a bizarre selection of hand-me-downs from the discarded clothes of several nationalities. They had obviously not spent much time near the International Settlement as they were staring in fascination at Li's unconscious prisoner. He didn't think much of having to come here but he wanted his prisoner in one piece, at least until after interrogation.

The position of police inspector had changed a lot since Li inherited it from his father; and city policework was much more complex than that in the village where he had begun.

There he would have been more respected, with the power to take whatever action he deemed necessary against anyone of whom he felt suspicious. Civilization, western-style, had a lot to answer for, not least for making his job much more difficult. Now they would make anyone a policeman, regardless of family history, so long as they could pa.s.s a few simple tests. He didn't know how they could expect him to trust or respect someone who had not been properly born into the job.

Well, actually, yes he did; they expected him to follow the rules. It was just that back in the old village, the rules had been much simpler and more effective.

It was morning now and he had already spent far too much time in this hole in the ground. His wife would be wondering what had happened to him, and he wanted to get on so that he could get back and rea.s.sure her that he hadn't been flattened in the rubble. She had always been rather highly strung, but he didn't mind since she was an excellent cook. He nudged the Doctor none too gently with his foot. 'Wake up, we're '

The Doctor suddenly sat bolt upright, his face lighting up.

'Of course! How could I have been so stupid? Telluric node interstices!'

Li started. This wasn't the fuzzy sluggishness he had been expecting from a man just coming round from unconsciousness. 'What?'

'Tellur Oh, it's you.' The Doctor looked downcast.

'Where's Romana?'

'The last I saw, your friend Yan Cheh was pulling her out of your car.'

'Yan Cheh? Oh, good. Who is he?'

'Let's not play games, Doctor. You were at the Tong safe house; was that a coincidence?'

'Well, that's a really stupid question, since you've obviously decided the answer already. I mean, if I say yes, you'll think I'm bound to say that and take it as proof of guilt, and if I say no, you'll take it as a confession. That is how this works, isn't it? I just like spending time in pubs. You meet all sorts of interesting people there. You know, gamblers, smugglers, actors, Black Scorpions...' He raised his right hand to ruffle his hair and dragged Li's left hand along with it at the other end of the handcuffs. 'Anyway, if you are an officer of the law, you know I'm innocent until proven guilty.'

Li pulled their hands back down angrily. 'Whatever gives you that idea? This is China, not Britain or America.'

'Aha! I've got you, then. You want me to prove I'm innocent of involvement in an arms deal at the docks, right?'

Actually, Li didn't; he was perfectly happy to convict the Doctor and get away on leave. Unfortunately, the Doctor had a point. There was an ordered scheme of things, and one of those things was that prisoners should have a chance to tell their side of the story. Many of Li's colleagues wouldn't have bothered with that bit, but he knew that order provided life's only certainties. 'Can you prove your story?'

'Easily. When we find the woman who was in charge at the docks, she won't recognize me, since we've never met.' He cleared his throat discreetly. 'Actually, she'll probably try to kill me once she knows that I know what she was doing there, but I don't imagine that will bother you too much. It won't bother you, will it?'

Li raised his left hand, the handcuff chain tugging at the Doctor's arm. 'It won't if she's a very good shot.'

The Doctor gave him a facial shrug which Li thought was irritating. Things were getting out of control here or at least out of his control. 'Listen what's your interest in this arms deal?' asked the Doctor. 'I thought you were investigating a murder.'

Li wondered how much he should own up to he didn't want to give any information which would have been proof of guilt if the Doctor already knew it. Still, it was proof of innocence that was the question now. 'A stevedore's pa.s.s was found at the opium den where we found the body of the man you killed. We set up a watch on the docks to see what the connection was.'

'Whose body was it?'

Li grunted; so the Doctor claimed not to know his victim.

Were even the gwai lo gwai lo indulging in random murder now? 'I'm told he was a caretaker at the Palace Theatrical Museum in London.' indulging in random murder now? 'I'm told he was a caretaker at the Palace Theatrical Museum in London.'

The Doctor looked up sharply. 'Theatrical Museum? Music hall relics?'

'I imagine so.'

'Was this museum by any chance halfway between Limehouse and Fleet Street?'

Li was pleased; he didn't know London's layout, but the Doctor's familiarity with it was a good sign. 'Perhaps.'

'Yes...' The Doctor rubbed at his cheek. 'There's something very odd going on here, Sung-Chi Li, and I hope you have your priorities right. That knife I found did you have it a.n.a.lysed?'

'The blood was '

'No, no, no. I mean the metallic composition of the blade.

You'll find it's like no substance you have ever seen before, and that's not the only thing.'

'No?'

'No. You followed us out into the country and back to the city; how do you think that instant journey was accomplished, eh?'

Li was trying not to think of it at all. It wasn't rational.

There were still tales of renegade sorcerers working for the KMT or the Communists. He would have no truck with such talk, though. His father had brought him up to believe only in fact and evidence, all neatly ordered for easy understanding. If people knew their place, as Li did, then it was logical that they should know the place of things in the world around them.

'You tell me.'

'I think someone has found a way of exploiting the telluric interstices.'

'What does that gibberish mean?' Other than the hope of an insanity plea, he added mentally.

'They say here that the journey of a thousand miles begins with but a single step. If I'm right, then a journey of a thousand miles will take but a single step.'

Li was about to denounce this nonsense when he recalled the dead caretaker, who had been seen alive in London only hours before his men found him. 'Or even six thousand eight hundred miles? From London to the opium den... And that woman was there, too.' It was a crazy idea, but he had experienced that sudden return to the city himself...The ability to do such a thing would be beyond value, not least to his employers. Control travel, and you had gone quite a long way towards controlling the crime levels, since criminals then could not move away from where you sought them. 'All right, Doctor. I'll give you your chance but just remember I have a gun.'

'Really? My condolences; I hope it clears up soon.'

Li was baffled by that. Insanity plea, definitely. 'How are we going to find this woman?'

The Doctor grinned, and produced a silver whistle. 'With a bloodhound.'

The somewhat singed olive and mustard-coloured tailfin of the j.a.panese bomber still poked out from the smouldering rubble when Woo's Duesenberg braked to a halt. Street urchins scarcely looked up from their search for souvenirs as the dapper club owner and the elegant lady stepped out of the car.

Romana surveyed the wreckage with an ill-disguised shiver. 'You pulled me out of that?'

Woo nodded. 'There wasn't much left of your car. I don't know whether this equipment of yours will be intact.'

She looked at him coolly. 'Actually K9 is built more solidly than the car was.'

'Canine? A dog?'

Romana hesitated. 'Well, sort of...'

Woo thought back to the previous day when he had seen them leave the police station. There had been that mechanical contraption... 'The metal thing?'

'He's actually a very sophisticated computer.'

Woo had seen some American film serials, with their ridiculous robots, but the metal dog had been something quite different. There was that remote-controlled mini-tank the German military were experimenting with for demolition purposes, of course; perhaps this K9 was a product of similar developments in Britain.

Romana scrambled across the shattered brickwork, pulling chunks away from the car. Woo wondered if that crack to her skull was more serious than Rondo had thought. He joined her in trying to clear the top half of the car.

Before long, the back door was clear and Woo could see a pair of close-set red eyes glowing in the darkness, like those of the spirit of some neglected ancestor. Romana leaned in, and Woo started forward to restrain her from this possible danger.

'K9, are you all right?' she asked solicitously.

'I have sustained minor impact damage to outer casing, but all primary functions are unimpaired, mistress.'

'It speaks?' Woo was astounded.

'Of course he speaks!' Romana sounded vaguely affronted.

'How else would we communicate?'

Woo hadn't thought of that; he had a.s.sumed the machine was merely a mobile weapon. 'Doesn't he bark?'

'Woof, ruff, yelp, howl,' K9 said curtly. 'Canine vocal effects completed. a.s.sistance required, mistress.'

Romana leaned into the wrecked car and heaved K9 out to the edge of the door. 'Take hold of him, Woo.' Together they lowered K9 to the ground. K9's antennae waggled briefly and his head moved around on its flexible neck. 'All internal systems and motors functioning normally.' His body raised itself slightly above his traction system to allow the drive and idler wheels to move freely over the rough terrain and he made for the nearest undamaged section of road.

Woo followed, speechless for once, while Romana caught up with the automaton as its body sh.e.l.l settled once it was on the road next to the Duesenberg. She looked round at Woo with a troubled expression and knelt beside K9. 'K9, can your sensors detect the Doctor?'

K9 rotated slowly, his antennae whirring. 'Affirmative, mistress. The Doctor-master has been calling for several minutes.'

Romana nodded. 'Good, we can go and fetch him.'

Woo shook his head. 'I doubt that would be a good idea. If he's still with the police, I can't risk you being arrested too.

We should find out more about HsienKo first. I know where she lives, but we won't be able to visit her easily. She occasionally comes into the club, and as you saw I have all the tables monitored by closed-circuit radio. Then we can free your friend by informing the police about her.'

'That could take too long and HsienKo is using a level of technology your police just couldn't possibly understand yet.

Still, K9 is better suited to rescue the Doctor than I would be.'

She knelt beside the automaton. 'K9, go and find the Doctor.

Tell him I'm at the Club Do-San, and that we know where to find the Black Scorpion's leader.'

'Affirmative, mistress.' K9 turned and glided off past the rubble.

'All right, Woo, let's go and think of a way to find out how the Tong are able to move over miles instantaneously.'

Woo opened the car door for her. 'If you're going to be around the club for a while, we'll need a cover for you.'

'Maintenance engineer?'

That would hardly be a suitable occupation for a lady, Woo thought, though he knew that the Nationalist Army did have such postings for women. That probably explained why the j.a.panese had taken Manchukuo so easily. 'I think not. Tell me, can you sing?'

HsienKo set her little companion on the ground and allowed a coolie to take the pram away. She had returned to her mansion and she now entered it quickly. 'Go back to your room,' she instructed. 'You needn't do anything more today.'

Her companion in the private-school uniform walked off towards the nursery, head bowed in disappointment. He did so like to play. It would not be long, however, before Kwok returned. They would carry their gains from Kanamaruhara to Utsonomiya, where the trucks had been left, and then drive back here. With only a dozen geomantic compa.s.ses, vehicles were needed to transport any reasonable number of people, and the number of paths wide enough to take a vehicle were limited to certain locations.

It seemed such a long time since she had discovered the Dragon Paths; while on a visit to a neighbouring village when she was twelve, a gang of youths had been chasing her with rape in mind. She had turned into a dead end and thought she was finished. Then, to her surprise, she had found herself skidding to a halt in the street outside her home.

Her mother had been worried that day, but when she found HsienKo safely at home, she a.s.sumed that the girl had run across country. HsienKo didn't know how to explain it and so decided it was safer not to bother. Once she had paid her coin to the Tong, however, it quickly became apparent that the ability was very useful in her new trade. So were its side-effects: she was barren and as there was only really one means of entry into the Tong for women, one who couldn't bear children was therefore even more valued. She should have run on those occasions too. Meeting Kwok for the first time was just about the only other thing that had affected her as much as discovering the Dragon Paths.

That, and her father's death. He had bequeathed her this house, which she had never even known existed. She often wondered if he had found its size and emptiness as odd as she did. It could probably house the entire population of their little nameless village.

It was so large that she sometimes felt terribly alone in it, even when Kwok was with her. At such times, she could easily imagine that they were the only occupants of a dead and deserted world. He didn't understand it, of course, and that sometimes made her feel lonelier still. At such times, there was nothing better than to hold him and relax in the feeling of comfort.