Limit (88 page)

‘You’re not so bad!’ said Daxiong.

‘My pleasure,’ Jericho grinned. ‘Be nice to the nurses.’

‘And you look after Yoyo till I’m out.’

‘Will do.’

‘So, see you tonight.’

Jericho thought he had misheard. Daxiong turned his head to one side as if any further discussion about his release were a simple waste of time.

‘Leave it,’ said Yoyo as she left. ‘I’m just glad he didn’t want to come with us straight away.’

‘And now?’ asked Chen Hongbing as they trotted back to the Silver Surfer. It was the first time he had said anything at all since they had left the park. His blank face, whatever hell had caused it, made him seem strangely uninvolved, almost uninterested.

‘I think there are some things I should explain to you.’ Yoyo lowered her head. ‘Except – perhaps not right now.’

Chen raised his hands in a helpless gesture. ‘I don’t understand all this.’ His gaze wandered to Jericho. ‘But you’d—’

‘I found her,’ Jericho nodded. ‘Just like you wanted.’

‘Yes,’ Chen said slowly. He seemed to be wondering whether this was really what he had wanted.

‘I’m sorry about what happened.’

‘No, no. I’m the one who should be thanking you!’

That sounded exactly like the man who, two days ago – had it really only been two days ago? – had come into his office, conspicuous for his excessive formality. But lurking in the background there was also the question of how someone might seriously expect thanks for having set off on a simple missing-person job and come back with the Horsemen of the Apocalypse in hot pursuit.

Jericho said nothing. Chen said nothing back. Yoyo had discovered something fascinating in the sky. Tu paced about for a while among ferns, bamboo and black pines, and issued a stream of instructions into his phone.

‘So,’ he announced when he came back.

‘So what?’ asked Jericho.

‘So someone’s going to the Westin to collect your computer and the rest of your stuff and bring them to my place, where you’ll be living for the next little while.’

‘Oh. Fine.’

‘And I’ve organised two people to keep an eye on your loft in Xintiandi. Two more are on their way to Siping Lu. To clean up and stand watch.’ He cleared his throat and put his arm around Chen’s shoulders. ‘Of course we’ll have to ask ourselves, my dear Hongbing, what we will tell the police when they come to examine the state of your sitting room.’

‘That means we’re flying to your place?’ Yoyo concluded.

Tu looked at them all. ‘Does anyone have a better idea.’

Silence.

‘Anyone rather spend the night at home? No? Then excuse me.’

With a quiet hum, the Silver Surfer lifted its wing doors.

‘The highest are the wise,’ Jericho whispered as he climbed into the back seat.

Tu glared at him.

‘Those who are
born
wise,’ he said. ‘Get Confucius out of your head. I can do it better than you. Longnose!’

Without Daxiong, who counted as two, the flying machine swiftly gained altitude. Tu lived in a villa in a gated area, a fortress-like guarded compound in the hinterland of Pudong, surrounded by park-like areas of green. They landed right in front
of the main building, peeled themselves from their upholstered seats and climbed a flight of steps leading to a porch with double doors.

One of the doors opened. An attractive Chinese woman with red-dyed hair appeared in the doorway. She was the complete opposite of Yoyo. Less beautiful, but more elegant in her appearance and, strangely, more sensual. A person with no gaps in her CV, who was used to having the world rotate around her. Tu greeted her with a hug and marched inside. Jericho followed him. The woman smiled and kissed him fleetingly on both cheeks.

‘Hi, Owen,’ she said in a sonorous voice.

Jericho returned her smile. ‘Hi, Joanna.’

Tu had instructed Joanna to focus all her care and attention on Chen as soon as they got back. What he really wanted was for her to distract him for a while, a task which Joanna dedicated herself to fully. Steering the confused Chen into her palatial kitchen with the same uncompromising attitude as someone pushing a shopping trolley in front of them, she demanded to know what tea he preferred, asked whether he would like a sauna, a bath or a hot shower, where it hurt, what had happened, whether he would like some cold chicken from the fridge. He didn’t know how it had all ended up like that, the guy just suddenly appeared in the room with the gun, and oh God, how did he even get in, and oh, you’ve got scratches all over you, they could get inflamed, hold still, don’t argue, and so on and so forth. She didn’t have a clue what was going on, of course. But Joanna wouldn’t have been Joanna if that had been a problem. She exuded the bountiful aromas of her optimism, bathing Chen in confidence until he was ready to believe that everything would be okay, purely because she said so. Jericho had never met any other person with such powers of conviction that things would turn out fine, without having the faintest idea
how
. Joanna bluffed for all she was worth. In her world, the tail wagged the dog. Presumably Chen was convinced that he was having a conversation, or even that he had started it. Joanna had a way of driving a man in front of her in such a manner that he would swear it was
her
following
him
.

* * *

‘So what should we do?’ hissed Tu.

‘Notify the police,’ said Jericho tersely. ‘Before they turn up of their own accord.’

‘You want to go on the offensive?’

‘What other option do we have? That maniac set half the steelworks on fire. It won’t take them long to find the bodies and then some witnesses in Quyu. It looks as if a bomb just went off on Siping Lu – doesn’t it, Yoyo—?’

‘Yes.’

‘—and there’s a crashed airbike decomposing in the courtyard, chock-a-block with heavy-duty weapons. And one that brought the traffic to a standstill. They’ll be able to piece together some of the puzzle from all that.’

‘But how much of it?’

‘I’m telling you, it will only be a few hours before they start asking what your friend Hongbing had to do with the massacre in Quyu. They’ll think of Yoyo in no time at all. I mean, the thing in the steel factory looks like some campaign of destruction against the City Demons, don’t you think? And Yoyo’s part of the group.’

‘And what about you?’ asked Yoyo. ‘Do you reckon they’ll think of you too?’

‘How would they? My car was incinerated in Quyu.’

‘But they’ll be able to identify it.’ Tu pursed his lips. ‘And besides, Siping Lu has security cameras. Which means they’ll have recordings of all of you meeting up, of Yoyo and Daxiong going into the building, of how that – that—’

‘Kenny.’

‘—Kenny guy herded the two of you in front of him—’

‘Not just us,’ said Jericho. ‘Think about it. You were just as easily visible, in your state of heavenly wrath. And who is it who works in your company to finance her studies?’

‘Yoyo, the girl who just can’t keep her mouth shut,’ snorted Yoyo.

‘Yes, my dear, you really do have a sparkling reputation,’ commented Tu, scratching his bald head. With his new glasses on, he looked almost civilised. ‘So what are we going to tell them? That Yoyo happened to overhear Kenny, completely by chance, while—’

‘Forget it,’ Yoyo interrupted him. ‘You want me to tell the police that I’m in possession of secret information? With my record? If that arsehole is from the government I might as well lock myself up and throw away the key. Or better still, just shoot myself!’

‘I don’t think the police are in on this,’ said Jericho.

‘Yes, but you don’t know what might happen if they get their hands on me.’

‘Hold on a second.’ Tu was shaking his head energetically. ‘Let’s be realistic. We’re assuming the Shanghai police force has the same powers of deduction as a quantum computer. They’re not going to put all the pieces together
that
quickly.’

‘Well, either way, we still need to notify them,’ said Jericho.

‘But perhaps not straight away.’

‘Yes,
straight away
. If someone trashes your apartment and you don’t report it, that looks odd. Not to mention that Yoyo, Daxiong and I turned up just beforehand, and that I have a flying machine just like Kenny’s.’

‘Okay fine, then how about this: someone holds up a motorcycle club in Quyu and causes a bloodbath. He has accomplices, all of them on flying machines. What they don’t realise is that Yoyo had a family friend visiting, Owen, and he ends up creating a hell of a problem for them, right? Both Yoyo and Owen get hold of one of the airbikes and are able to flee. Not long after, Yoyo receives a call from Hong-bing, telling her that someone’s trying to break into his apartment.’

‘No way!’ Yoyo shook her head. ‘You don’t call your daughter if someone’s trying to break into your place.’

‘Fine, then—’

‘I know. Kenny threatened to kill all the members of your family,’ Jericho suggested. ‘So you call your father. He doesn’t answer, so you go to see him, enlisting the help of Hongbing’s best friend, Tian.’

‘And we have no idea what the guys want?’ asked Yoyo sceptically. ‘You expect them to believe that?’

‘That’s the plan.’

‘God, what a cock and bull story.’

‘The most important thing is to keep you out of it,’ said Tu. ‘No dissident background, no Guardians.’ He gave Yoyo a reproachful look. ‘On that note, you could have told me you were all hanging out in a blast furnace. I only knew about the Andromeda.’

‘I’m sorry. You weren’t supposed to get dragged that far into it.’

‘How do you figure that out? I provided the infrastructure for you and your troop of pests. You can’t get much deeper involved than that.’ Tu sighed. ‘But fine. Point two on the agenda. What do we tell Hongbing?’

Yoyo hesitated. ‘The same story?’

‘
What?
’ barked Jericho.

‘Well, I just thought—’

‘You want to have your father believing this was all the act of some nut job?’ Suddenly he was furious with her. He pictured Hongbing, filled with all that sorrow. And now they wanted to pull the wool over his eyes yet again?

‘Owen.’ Yoyo raised her hand. ‘It’s great, everything you’ve done for us, but this really has nothing to do with you.’

‘Your father deserves an explanation!’

‘I’m not sure if he really wants one.’

‘Exactly. You’re not
sure
. My God, he was taken hostage, held at gunpoint, his daughter was threatened, his apartment destroyed. You
have
to tell him the truth! Anything else is pure cowardice.’

‘Stay out of it!’

‘Yoyo,’ said Tu softly but firmly, as if commanding a dog to come to heel.

‘What?’ she snapped. ‘What is it? It has nothing to do with him! You said yourself that it would be a mistake to burden my father with it.’

‘The circumstances have changed. Owen’s right.’

‘Oh yes, I forgot.’ Yoyo contorted her face mockingly. ‘He’s a family friend now.’

‘No. He’s just right – pure and simple.’

‘But why? What does Owen know about my father?’

‘Well, what do you know about him?’ asked Jericho, antagonised.

Yoyo glared at him. Clearly he’d hit a sore spot.

‘Hongbing is embittered, set in his ways, introverted,’ said Tu. ‘But I know him! I’m waiting for the day when he’ll break out of that bitter shell, and I don’t know whether I should long for it or dread it. He’s had to spend years of his life feeling utterly, terribly helpless. Up until now there was no reason to rub his nose in the fact that you’re China’s most-wanted dissident, but that just changed. After this morning he knows full bloody well that you have some explaining to do.’

Yoyo shook her head unhappily.

‘He’ll hate me.’

‘He’s more likely to hate me for having helped you, but I don’t genuinely believe that either. You can’t carry on lying to him, Yoyo. For him, the worst possible thing would be you not confiding in him. You’d be taking away his—’ Tu seemed to be struggling to find the words, ‘his purpose as a father.’

‘His purpose as a father?’ echoed Yoyo, as if she’d misheard.

‘Yes. Everybody needs to feel significant in some way or another. Hongbing tried to do something too, a long time ago, and he was punished for it. His purpose was taken away from him.’

‘And now he’s punishing me.’

‘Punishing you is the last thing he wants to do.’

Yoyo stared at him.

‘But he’s never spoken to me about his life, Tian! Never! He’s never confided in me! And you don’t think that’s a punishment? In what way have I been significant to him? Okay, he worries about me from morning to night, and I’m sure he’d rather lock me in out of sheer worry, but what’s the point? What does he want from me if he won’t even talk to me?’

‘He’s ashamed,’ said Tu softly.

‘Of what? I’m the one suffering. I have a – a zombie for a father!’

‘You can’t talk like that.’

‘Can’t I? What about
him
explaining something to
me
for a change?’

‘He’ll probably have to,’ nodded Tu.

‘Oh, great! When?’

‘It’s your turn first.’

‘Why me
again
?’ exploded Yoyo. ‘Why not him?’

‘Because you’re the one in a position to reach out to him.’

‘Don’t come to me with your emotional guilt trip,’ she shouted. ‘My friends are dead, and my father was nearly killed too. I’m the one who’s had the most to deal with here.’

‘We’ve all had a lot to deal with,’ Jericho interrupted. He had heard enough. ‘So solve your problems, but solve them somewhere else. Tian, when do you think my computer will be here?’

‘In a few minutes,’ said Tian, grateful for the change of subject.

‘Good. I’ll get to work on the Swiss films again. Can I use your office?’

‘Of course.’ Tu hesitated, then shrugged his shoulders submissively. ‘So I’ll notify the police then. Agreed?’

‘Yes, do it.’

‘Are we all available for questioning?’

‘There’s no point hiding, otherwise they’ll just pay us personal visits.’ Jericho furrowed his brow. ‘They may have already started. The first victim in Kenny’s dirty game was Grand Cherokee Wang.’ He looked at Yoyo. ‘Your flatmate. They’re going to be all over you like a pack of hungry wolves.’