Necropolis (29 page)

"Now you must practice walking," Lohan said. "Walk like a boy, not like a girl."

For the next two hours, Lohan kept her pacing up and down with slouching shoulders, hands in her pockets. Scarlett had never really thought that teenage boys were so different in the way they walked, but she was sensible enough not to argue. Finally, Lohan was satisfied. He crouched next to her. "It is time for you to leave," he said. "But there is something I must tell you before you go."

"What?"

She was alarmed, but he held up a hand, reassuring her. "There is a boy who is coming to meet you," he said. "He is on his way already, traveling from England."

Her first thought was that it was Aidan — but that was ridiculous. Aidan knew nothing about what was happening.

"His name is Matt."

The boy in her dream! The boy who had led her through the door at the church of St. Meredith's. Scarlett felt a surge of hope and excitement. She didn't know why, but if Matt was on his way, then she was sure that everything would be all right.

"He is not coming to Hong Kong," Lohan went on. "It is too dangerous here. But he will be in Macao.

He is being protected by the Master of the Mountain. He will remain there until he knows that we have been successful and that you have escaped. Then he will follow you, and our work will be done."

"Who is the Master of the Mountain?" Scarlett asked.

"He is a very powerful man." That was all Lohan was prepared to say. He straightened up. "Don't speak until you are on the boat. If anyone tries to talk to you, ignore them. When you are with your new parents, hold your mother's hand. She alone will talk to you, and you'll smile at her and pretend that you understand. When you are on

The Jade Emperor, she will take you straight to her cabin. You will remain there until the ship leaves."

"Thank you," Scarlett said. "Thank you for helping me."

Lohan glanced at her, and just for a moment she saw the hardness in his eyes and knew that whatever else he was, he would never be her friend. "You do not need to thank us," he said. "Do not imagine that we are helping you because we want to. We are obeying orders from the Master of the Mountain. You are important to him. That is all that matters. Do not let us down."

They opened the warehouse door and, remembering her new walk, Scarlett went out. She found herself in a concrete-lined alleyway. It was after five o'clock and the light was already turning gray. As she stood there, a car drove past and she flinched, afraid of being seen. But she was a boy now, the son of Chinese parents. Nobody was going to look at her twice. Jet and Sing had joined her. The three of them set off together, making their way toward the main road.

The alleyway came out at the very tip of Kowloon, where the Salisbury Road curved around on its way to the ferry terminals. The harbor was in front of them. Scarlett could see all of Hong Kong on the other side of the water, with The Nail, the headquarters of Nightrise, slanting diagonally out of the very center where it seemed to have been smashed in.

"Walk slowly," Jet whispered. "If you see anyone looking at you, just ignore them. Don't stop…"

They walked down the Salisbury Road, passing the Hong Kong Cultural Center, a huge, white-tiled building that looked a little bit like a ski slope. The weather had changed again. The sky was clear and the evening sun was dipping down, the water shimmering silver and blood red. Despite the horror of the last thirty-six hours, everything looked very ordinary. There were several groups of tourists on the promenade, enjoying the view. Crowds of people were pouring out of the terminal for the Star Ferry, on their way home. Young couples walked together, holding hands. Newspaper and food sellers stood behind their stalls, waiting for business. A fleet of ships, all different shapes and sizes, was chugging back and forth.

And all the time Scarlett was thinking:

What is real and what isn't? Which of these people are shape-changers? How many of them are looking for me?

She walked on between Jet and Sing, trying to behave normally but knowing all the time that there were a thousand eyes searching for her. She was already beginning to sweat with all the padding pressing down on her. It made it difficult to breathe.

They passed the Peninsula Hotel. Just a few days before, Scarlett had gone there with Audrey Cheng.

They had sat down for tea and sandwiches. It felt like a lifetime ago. They turned into a wide avenue, and she found herself walking past a police station. Two men came out, chatting together in dark blue-and-silver uniforms. Both of them carried guns. Scarlett remembered what Lohan had told her — the Old Ones controlled the police as well as the government and the civil service. These two men would have her description. If they recognized her, it would all be over before they got anywhere near the ship.

But they didn't. They continued past, and it was only when they had gone that Scarlett realized she had stopped breathing. She felt completely defenseless, waiting for someone to shout her name and for the crowd to close in. A few inches of padding and a handful of makeup was all that stood between her and capture. She was terrified that it wouldn't be enough.

Harbor City lay ahead of them. It was just another shopping center, though much bigger than any she had visited with Mrs. Cheng. They strolled in as if that was what they had always intended to do, as if they were just three friends out for an evening's shopping. The interior was very ugly. It was brightly lit with small, boxlike shops standing next to each other in corridors that seemed to go on forever. They were selling the usual goods: jeans and T-shirts and sunglasses and souvenirs, with fewer famous names than could be found in Hong Kong Central and presumably lower prices.

They continued past a luggage store and there, ahead of them, Scarlett saw a neon sign that read tsim chai kee herbal remedies and knew that they had reached the place where the exchange would happen.

The shop was directly in front of them. It was filled with cardboard boxes and glass bottles. Three people were standing with their backs to the front door. A man, a woman, and, between them, a boy.

The woman was plump with gray hair, dressed in black. The man was smaller than her, laden down with shopping bags, with a camera around his neck. Their son was dressed exactly the same as Scarlett. They were waiting while the shop assistant wrapped up a packet of tea.

Scarlett walked in. Jet and Sing didn't follow her but continued on their way. At the same time, the boy walked forward, farther into the shop, and disappeared. The man and the woman stayed exactly where they were so that as Scarlett entered, there was a space between them. And that was it. A moment later she was standing between them. The woman paid for the tea. The shopkeeper handed over some change.

The three of them left together.

A mother, a father, and a son had gone into the shop. A mother, a father, and a son walked out of it. As they left, Scarlett glanced up and noticed a TV camera in the passageway, trained down on them. She wondered if there was anybody watching and, if so, whether they could possibly have seen anything that might have aroused their suspicions. Still, for the first time, she was feeling confident. She was no longer on her own. She was part of a family now. She would be joining hundreds or even thousands of tourists returning to

The Jade Emperor.

Even the Old Ones with all their agents would be unable to spot her.

The family left Harbor City through a set of huge glass doors that brought them straight out onto Ocean Terminal. And there was the ship, tied to the quay by ropes as thick as trees.

The Jade Emperor was massive, with at least a dozen decks, each one laid out on top of the other, with two smoking funnels at the very top. The lower part of the ship was punctuated by a long line of tiny-looking portholes, but farther up there were full-size sliding windows that probably opened onto staterooms for the multimillionaires on board.

The Jade Emperor was entirely white, apart from the funnels, which were bright green. Crew members, also in spotless white, were hurrying along the corridors, mopping the decks and polishing the brass railings as if it were vital for the ship to look its best before it was allowed to leave.

Scarlett examined her surroundings. The ship was on her left, blocking out the view over to Hong Kong, with a single gangplank, slanting down at its center. On the right, running the full length of the quay, was a two-story building lined with flags. This was the back of Harbor City, the shopping center she had just visited. Between them was a strip of concrete about ten feet wide, which they would all have to walk along if they wanted to go on board.

The way was blocked by a series of metal fences that forced passengers to snake round to a control point where half a dozen men in uniforms were checking passports and embarkation slips. The sun was beginning to set now, and although it still sparkled on the water and glinted off the ship's railings, the actual walkway was in shadow. So this was it. Five minutes and maybe fifty paces separated Scarlett from freedom. Once she was on board

The Jade Emperor, it would be over. Matt was waiting for her. Help had finally arrived. She would set sail, and she would never see Hong Kong again.

The woman acting as Scarlett's mother, Mrs. Soong, said something and reached out for her hand.

Scarlett took it, and together they began to walk toward the barrier. Nobody stopped them. Nobody even seemed to glance their way. They passed a restaurant with floor-to-ceiling plate-glass windows and tables and gas umbrellas outside. It was too late for lunch and too early for dinner, so there was hardly anyone there, but as they continued forward, Scarlett noticed a man with gray hair and glasses, sipping a glass of beer. He was partly obscured by the window, but there was something familiar about him, the way he sat, even the way he held his glass. She stopped dead.

It was Paul Adams.

Maybe if she hadn't stopped so abruptly, he wouldn't have noticed her. But now he looked up and stared at her. Even then he might not have recognized her. But they had made eye contact. That was what did it. Even with the spectacles and the contact lenses, the strange clothes and the short hair, the two of them had made the link.

And Scarlett was glad to see him. For the past week she had been worrying about him, wondering if he was dead or alive. She had hated the thought of skulking out of Hong Kong without letting him know, and if there had been any way to warn him what was happening, she would have done so. This was her opportunity. She couldn't just leave him behind.

A second later, he burst out of the restaurant and onto the quay. He still couldn't decide if it was really her. The disguise was that good. But then she smiled at him, and he came over to her, his face a mixture of bafflement and relief.

"Scarly… is that you?"

Scarlett felt Mrs. Soong stiffen beside her. Mr. Soong stopped, his face filled with alarm. None of the guards at the passport control had noticed them. Tourists were streaming past on both sides, taking out their documents as they approached the fence. Scarlett knew she would have to be quick. She was risking everything even by talking to him, but she didn't care. She felt a huge sense of relief. Her father was alive.

"Scarly?" Paul Adams spoke her name again, peering at her, trying to see through the disguise.

"Dad," Scarlett whispered. "We can't talk. You have to leave Hong Kong. We're in terrible —"

She didn't finish the sentence.

To her horror, Paul Adams grabbed hold of her, dragging her hand up as if to show her off. His face was flushed with excitement — and something else. He looked demented. There was a sort of terror in his eyes. He was like a man who had just committed murder.

"It's her!" he shouted. "I've got her! She's here!"

"No, Dad!"

But it was already too late. The uniformed policemen had heard. They were already heading toward them. The tourists had stopped moving, and in an instant, Scarlett saw that half of them weren't tourists at all. They began to close in, their faces blank, their eyes shining with triumph. More people appeared, pouring out of the shopping center. Matted hair. Dead, white skin. Their mouths hanging open. Dozens of them. And the flies. They burst into the air like a dark geyser and spread out, swarming overhead.

"Dad…what have you done?"

He clung on to her, one hand on her wrist, the other around her neck, strangling her. Mr. and Mrs. Soong stood there, paralyzed, then tried to run. The woman was the first to be brought down. One of the tourists grabbed her. A few seconds earlier he had looked like a grandfather, an Englishman enjoying his retirement. But the mask had slipped. He was grinning and his eyes were ablaze. He was holding her with terrible strength, his hooked fingers gouging into her face, forcing her down to her knees. Then they were all onto her. Mrs. Soong disappeared in a crowd that was moving now like a single creature.

Mr. Soong had taken out a gun. He pointed it at one of the approaching policemen and fired. The bullet hit the policeman in the face, tearing a huge hole in his cheek, but he didn't even flinch. He kept on coming. Mr. Soong fired a second time, this time straight into the man's chest. Blood spouted, but still the policeman came. Mr. Soong was trapped. He had nowhere to run. Scarlett saw him push the barrel of the gun into his own mouth. She closed her eyes a moment before he fired.

It was easy to tell the real tourists now. They were screaming, in hysterics, dropping their new purchases and scattering across the quay, unsure what was going on, not wanting to be part of it. A woman in a fur coat slipped and fell. She was immediately trampled underfoot by the rest of the crowd trying to get past. Two men were knocked over the side into the narrow space between the ship and the dock. Scarlett heard them hit the water and doubted that either of them would ever climb out again.

Her father was still holding her. She couldn't believe what he had done. He had deliberately told them she was there. He had been waiting for her all along. And she had helped him. There had been one final trap, and she had fallen into it.