BLOOD DRAGON Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📖

focus on the pages. She was only a few hours away from the place where she’d been born so many years ago. Glimpses of her grandfather’s garden kept coming back. The colour of the flowers, the glitter of the water in the pond … and the distinct smell of Sichuan pepper trees.

Nancy unclipped her seat belt, stood up and made her way to the bathroom. She didn’t want to remember the past just yet. She splashed some water on her face gently … Take it one step at a time, she murmured.

“When we disembark, we’ll take a taxi to a little restaurant …” Licot announced as the plane was prepared for landing.

Nancy nodded. The seat belt sign came on. She was not a nervous flier but this time she clutched the armrests with both hands.

The photos she had kept of her childhood sprang before her eyes, tearing her between anger and hope.

The gentle bump of the aircraft told her they had landed. The plane taxied for a few hundred yards and came to a stop.

Passengers were standing up. She slid into her leather jacket, making herself ready to step into a country she should have called hers.

* * *

The ICU room looked disturbingly familiar. Pole had spent a little too much time on the ward for his liking in recent days. He approached the bed on which Natalie Price was lying. Despite the protests of the nurse, he had fitted her with a set of handcuffs. One around her wrist the other locked over the metal frame of the bed.

“This is not a prison.”

“Perhaps not, but one of my officers is having his neck sewn back together because of what this woman did. I wouldn’t want that to happen to you.”

This did the trick. The young man retreated into the corridor without a word.

Pole had spoken to the specialist who carried out Natalie’s brain scan. It was miraculous that she had no brain damage, or even a broken bone, despite the force of the crash. The doctor had allowed Pole to spend just a few minutes with her. She had been drifting in and out of sleep, but the medication the paramedics had given her was slowly wearing off.

Pole took a chair and sat down next to her bed.

Her eyelids fluttered a few times. She was awake. Her restrained hand had moved a few times. Natalie knew she was in handcuffs.

“If you can hear me, listen carefully, Natalie.’ Pole bend forward a little to deliver his message. “I have enough evidence to link you to the intimidation of Cora Wong on the Regents Canal seven days ago, the attempted murder of Ollie Wilson four days ago and, of course, today’s attempt which resulted in three of my officers being hurt, one of them now in a critical condition. This is not only going to send you to jail for a very long time, it is also going to piss off your Russian handlers. And, as you know, they are not the sort of people who tolerate failure.”

Natalie’s face had changed from relaxed to frozen.

“The Russian or Bratva is not a forgiving gang, and you just failed them not once, but twice. I doubt you will complete your prison term, or that you will even live to come to trial.”

Natalie opened her eyes wide. The hatred in them had changed their colour to the harshest of blues.

“I’m not talking, if that is what you have in mind.” Her speech was a little slurred, but she was fully conscious.

“You’ve not been listening …” Pole moved closer to the bed, ignoring the venom in her tone. “I don’t need you to own up to what you’ve done. I have plenty of evidence to send you to jail for a very, very long time. What I am prepared to do, however, is to offer you a deal.”

“I don’t need a deal. I need a lawyer.”

“I’ll get you a lawyer, if you like, but once I make the call there will be no turning back.” Pole’s voice kept an eerie calm. “At the moment you’ve just been brought into ICU, looking all but dead. The fact that you have escaped unscathed is almost a miracle.”

“Lucky me.”

“But if I get you onto the witness protection programme, I’ll make sure you vanish today. You will become witness X. You’ll be given a new identity, and can even move country, if that is what you want. Natalie Price will have died of her injuries after a terrible motorbike crash.”

Silence fell in the room. Pole didn’t move. His eyes rested lightly on her face. Fear had crept slowly into her expression.

“I know you do drugs, a lot of it. … Cocaine and Heroin are an expensive habit that you can get rid of. It’s now or never, Natalie.” Pole moved his head slightly to look at his watch. “I’m going to get a coffee and when I come back, you can give me your answer.” He stood up in a slow and deliberate motion.

“Sod off.” Natalie turned her head towards the wall.

* * *

“They’ve just left for Chengdu.” Jack found a seat in the first floor of the internet kiosk at Hong Kong airport.

Harris should have been sound asleep at 1.30am London time, but he had been expecting Jack’s call.

“How long have you got?”

“Till tomorrow night … but since there is no non-stop flight leaving for New York after the deadline expires, I’ll be on the 3.40pm American Airlines flight the following day.”

“Unless Hunter shoves you onto a military plane that just happens to be flying by.”

“That’s always a possibility, but I guess he would’ve done it by now if he had been that pissed off. He is interested in the intel, he just can’t tell me that yet.”

“On that subject.” Harris was moving around the room. Jack imagined him brewing himself yet another cup of tea … the remedy for all ills, according to his British friend. “I was wondering which one of us was going to broach