Hemmed in by dozens of towering skyscrapers, it felt like they were ants in a bowl, and the added pressure of the intense humidity only made things harder. With sweat pouring down his back, they met up with Officer Eddie Cheung and his SDU men, made brief introductions and then Hawke ordered his team to break into sub-units and make their way to the agreed positions.
Spectators holding cocktails or pitchers of cold lager bumped into each other as they jostled for the best views of the track. The horses and their riders were coming into view now, and preparing to start another race around the course. Excitement rippled through the growing crowd of people, many of them anxiously gripping betting stubs in their hands as they stared up at the screens and made their wishes.
From the position he had taken up, Hawke surveyed the seven-storey stands running along the western edge of the track. Capable of taking well over fifty-thousand people, these stands gave the perfect view of not only the course, but also an inner field containing several hockey and football pitches as well a rugby field. Running along the tops of the stands were numerous arc lights blazing down on the course.
“Anyone see him yet?” Hawke asked.
Scarlet was the first to speak. “Not from where I am.”
“Nor me,” Devlin said. “But I’ve been watching a very beautiful woman over in the bar on the Pavilion Stand so he might have slipped by me.”
“Stop being a tit, Danny.”
“Sorry, Cairo. You know me.”
“Unfortunately that’s true.”
“What about you, Reap?” Hawke said.
“Not yet.”
Hawke called Eddie Cheung over the comms. “Eddie?”
“We think we have something, Hawke — a potential sighting in the Grandstand. I’m just getting verification now via facial recognition software.”
Hawke kept his eyes peeled. “Stand by everyone.”
Eddie’s voice crackled over the comms. “It’s him, Hawke! I repeat, we have conformation via the facial rec system. Rat is at the rear of the Grandstand, wearing a black denim jacket and a white t-shirt.”
“I have him!” Reaper said.
Scarlet said, “Me too.”
“Okay everyone,” Hawke said. “Close in on him, and keep it subtle.”
With the crowd hysteria reaching a peak, Hawke moved down through the stands with the men from the SDU close behind him. He reached the bottom of the stands and made his way toward the exit. The roar of the crowds boomed all around them as people cheered their racehorses on and willed them to finish ahead of the rest of the string.
He weaved through the crowd of spectators, keeping his weapon out of sight in the holster. The last thing he wanted now was a mass rush for the exits as people fled what they believed to be a terror attack.
He turned into the bottom access aisle of the Grandstand and started to walk up the steps to the top. He and Scarlet looped arms and tried to look like a couple as they meandered closer to the Zodiac agent. Only the closest inspection would reveal the earpieces they wore, and the guns beneath their jackets were imperceptible to all but the most skilled observer from the world of law enforcement and espionage.
Hawke let go of Scarlet’s hand and wrapped his arm around her shoulder.
“I love it when you take charge,” she said with a wink. “Who says we couldn’t have made it?”
“Pack it in, Cairo.”
“We’re almost there,” Reaper said over the comms. He and Devlin were on the other end of the Grandstand now. The SDU agents attached to them were a few paces behind.
“He’s on to us!” Reaper said. “I repeat, he knows we’re here.”
“Dammit!” said Hawke. “He must have recognized one of the SDU men in the crowd.”
“He’s on the move!”
“Everyone get after him!”
CHAPTER SIX
Hawke burst into action, using his formidable upper-body strength to slam spectators aside as he pushed through them in pursuit of Rat. Some objected, but they settled back down again when his jacket flapped back to reveal the flash of the Glock’s grip in his shoulder holster.
The young Chinese assassin spun around and fired on him, the bullets cracking above the sound of the cheering crowd.
“Get down!” Hawke yelled.
Only the gaggle of people around him heard the command. They hit the deck with their drinks and betting stubs still in their hands, no time even to scream. Hawke dived down and hurled himself in a forward roll. When he exited the roll he was gripping the gun and squinting as he aimed at Rat. He moved to fire on the man and stopped himself, cursing. Too risky, you idiot.
He pounded along the top row of the Grandstand after the assassin, grimly aware he was chasing a man several years younger but up for the challenge nonetheless. Either side of him the SDU men were drawing their weapons and barking commands into their palm mics as they closed in on their mark.
Rat fired again. The bullet traced over Reaper’s head as he slammed into the ground. The bullet missed, but far behind him he heard a horse grunt in pain and turned to see one of the animals in the race collapse into the turf. The jockey was crushed under its weight and a sense of confusion in the crowd started to morph into fear as they realized the horse had been shot.
Hawke knew things were about to get badly out of control. Of all the situations he tried to avoid, pursuing someone in a crowded public space offered the most opportunities for innocent bloodshed and carnage. Now the racecourse authorities were using the tannoys to calmly instruct everyone in the venue to move slowly to the exits.
Great, it just got much harder to take Rat down, he thought. “We need to move quicker,” he said into the comms. “He’s heading across to the pavilion stand, Danny. You’re closest.”
“Ah, for fuck’s sake, Hawke. I just got myself a beer!”
“Stop pissing about, Danny,” Scarlet said.
“I’m on him already,” Devlin said, his voice suddenly businesslike. “Bastard’s slowed down to a walk to blend in, but I know a rat when I see one.”
Up ahead, Hawke saw some officers in the regular Hong Kong Police Force swarming around one of the entrances. “Looks like we have some back-up.”
Devlin’s voice crackled over the comms. “He’s walking past the Pavilion Stand and continuing north. He’s either heading toward the Racing Museum or the Jockey Club HQ, or maybe… no wait. He’s turning left. All units, the mark’s heading toward the exit at the northwest section of the course, just past the Happy Valley Stand.”
“I have him,” Scarlet said.
“Moi aussi,” Reaper said. “I see him now. He’s very calm.”
“He just walked through the line of punters at one of the betting windows.”
They made it to the betting hall and pushed through the long lines of gamblers who were still trying to make a wager.
“Over there!” Scarlet said. “I see him.”
Hawke saw him too. He was heading for a fire escape in the far wall of the betting hall, and looking pretty shifty as he did it. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the ECHO team and decided to make a break for it. Bursting into a run, he kicked open the fire door with his boot and vanished into the darkness beyond it.
“He’s doing another runner!” Hawke yelled. “Get after him!”
They sprinted through the shifting crowd, pushing their way through until they reached the fire escape. With Devlin right behind him, Hawke kicked open the door. Finding himself in a corridor lit by emergency lighting, he lifted his gun into the aim and made his way toward the only other place Rat could have run — a set of concrete steps leading down to what he presumed was an underground car park.
They reached the top of the steps and Eddie Cheung and the SDU men filed down first. Seconds later, they came under heavy fire. Rat had ambushed them and was blasting them with his handgun. He was deadly accurate, instantly killing the SDU attachment who had been in the lead.