Inside, they made their way along a plush corridor decorated with porcelain statues of tigers and elephants until they reached a kind of mezzanine boxed in by an ornate carved wooden screen. Beneath them was a plush executive suite — what could only be Sheng’s study, a sumptuous affair of dark hardwood panels and an extensive art collection hanging on the walls.
A moment later Sheng Fang himself entered into the room and moved to his desk. He was wearing a white suit, no tie, and smoking a cigarette. He casually glanced through some papers and tapped his fingers on the side of his desk. Seconds later, Hawke and Lea watched in silence as the Lotus and Luk entered the study with the man from the super yacht. They bowed deeply in front of Sheng before stepping back and awaiting his next order.
“We have the device,” Sheng told the man.
“Where is it?” the Russian replied.
Upstairs on the mezzanine, Lea whispered: “What’s that accent?”
“Very heavy Russian,” Hawke said. “Probably somewhere south of Moscow.”
“The device is in a safe place,” Sheng said. “All ready for the true enemy.”
The Russian drummed his fingers on the arms of his chair and made no reply for several long, awkward moments. “I must see the device or I will not even consider moving on with our plan.”
Now it was Sheng’s time to think.
After another long silence, he spoke: “You know I cannot transport the device out of China. The Americans are closing in on me, and certain, shall we say, obstructive elements within my own government are also joining the chase. Therefore I need you. You know this.”
The Russian nodded slowly before he replied. “I am happy to transport the device to the location we have agreed on, but before I do so I must make sure it is real, that it is what you say it is and not, for example, a nuclear device. When this is verified I will order my men to take it on board my yacht and transport it to the target destination.”
High above, Lea whispered to Hawke. “What a shame we don't have a gun, Joe! We could take the whole fucking lot out right now and be home in time for tea.”
“You should have become a poet.”
“Why, thank you, sir! But seriously, we’re going to need to communicate this stuff to the outside world in a hurry. If something happens to us then no one’s going to know about the device being moved from psycho to psycho like this.”
Sheng and the man spoke for several more moments and then reached an agreement. They left the study, and Hawke and Lea retraced their footsteps back outside the house and watch as the Russian’s men loaded the device onto the tender and climbed aboard. Below them, the Russian spoke to another man in rapid Russian, but one word was mentioned several times — and that word was the same in Russian as it was in English — Tokyo.
“Oh my God,” Lea said. “They’re going to destroy Tokyo.”
“That was what Sheng meant when he told the Russian about the true enemy. I thought he meant the Americans, or the West in general, but I should have known better. The Chinese and Japanese have an ancient history of warfare between their two nations. Clearly Sheng wants to settle that once and for all by totally destroying the Japanese capital.”
He listened again, and this time heard another word repeated several times vody, the word for water.
“How do you know that?” Lea asked.
“Same root as the word vodka… And just then he said St. Petersburg as well and that’s the limit of my Russian, I swear. Either way, this bloke looks pretty serious about doing Sheng’s bidding.”
“But what the hell’s in it for him?” She nodded her head at the Russian who was now making his way back to the tender with the Lotus at his side.
“I don’t know, but whatever it is, it must be pretty big to try and kill twenty million people. And it looks like Sheng’s sent the Lotus to oversee the job.”
With everyone on board, the super yacht turned in the harbor, its massive engines now powering the vessel out of the small bay and away from the island. They watched in despair as it slipped effortlessly toward the hazy horizon and moved at great speed to the east where Tokyo bustled in total ignorance of the lethal threat to its existence now racing towards it.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Jason Lao met Scarlet and the rest of her team at Hongqiao International Airport and less than an hour later they were flying in a Chinese army helicopter south over the city and out over Hangzhou Bay on their way to Dragon Island. Below them in the water Scarlet saw a tiny armada of RIBs racing across the bay, filled with whatever forces Lao could put together with the smallest amount of fuss.
It seemed the self-styled Thunder God had finally rattled someone high enough up in the food chain to give Lao some extra muscle and the authority to go in and take him out. Scarlet Sloane was only too pleased to be heading up that operation with all of her SAS experience.
The thought of a whack-job like Sheng getting hold of the map and using it to locate the elixir of immortality was enough to freeze the blood in her veins, but what really enraged her was the thought of Joe Hawke and Lea Donovan, kidnapped and held at his mercy. That had happened once before in Greece when Zaugg took Lea, Ryan and Sophie, and she had sworn never again. Now was revenge time and Sheng would pay not only for his crimes, but for everything Zaugg had put them all through as well.
Now, sitting in the lead helicopter her mind was focused like never before, and the events of her turbulent past seemed to align in perfect clarity for the first time. She could finally begin to understand what was happening in the world. For men like Zaugg and Sheng, limitless wealth wasn’t enough. They wanted more. They wanted the ultimate power — the power to live forever. Men, she thought… total idiots.
But these men were dangerous idiots. They knew the power existed somewhere in the world, but it was hidden by the ancients — maybe even the gods in the far distant past. But all that remained today was an ancient map, older than time itself for all anyone knew, and whose very creation was perhaps the biggest mystery of all.
Zaugg had tried to find it and failed in spectacular fashion, but only thanks to the bravery and determination of a handful of people from all walks of life. Even Joe Hawke had turned out to be an asset, something she was pretty skeptical about when he had walked back into her life in Geneva.
Perhaps one day he would know the truth about her — about everything — but that wasn't her call to make. For now she was focused on rescuing him and Lea and stopping Sheng and his insane henchmen from getting their hands on the map of immortality. Something told her that would be very bad news indeed, plus she thought of all the fun she could have taunting Hawke with the fact she had saved his life. Some things were beyond priceless.
A warm subtropical breeze blew in through the open door and brought her attention back to the moment. Opposite her, Bradley Karlsson was joking with one of Lao’s soldiers, but most of the humor seemed to be lost in translation. Times like these had a way of bringing people together, no matter what languages they spoke — they all knew the way missions like these panned out. They all knew not everyone would be coming home after the battle.
At the front of the chopper Lexi was sharpening her combat knife. Something told Scarlet that Lexi and the Lotus had met before, and that Lexi Zhang had decided this time would be the last. Opposite her, Hart was sitting silently with her eyes closed.
Ryan and Sophie were sitting to her left at the rear of the helicopter, talking quietly with one another while Sophie checked her gun was fully loaded and ready for action. Ryan looked at the weapon in her hands with cautious eyes. Perhaps he should have stayed back in Shanghai at their makeshift headquarters, but he’d insisted on joining Sophie, probably just to impress her. Whether Ryan Bale really wanted to be there or not, it was too late to change his mind.