Hong Kong

by Luke Richardson

  * * *

  On the eighth floor, Allissa heard the shriek of the alarm. Its two-tone undulating whine seemed to get beneath the skin of anyone in its radius. It certainly worked for her as she stuffed their clothes into the bags as quickly as possible. She’d already made sure she got their phones, travel documents and money. It was lucky Yee had left it all there, but then why would he move anything when he didn’t think they’d be returning?

  Pushing the last few items in, doing up the backpacks and sliding one over each shoulder, Allissa half-walked, half-stumbled to the door. There, she turned to scan the small room. On the floor, by one of the bed side tables lay something dark and crumpled. She didn’t recognise it at first.

  Cursing under her breath, Allissa put the bags down. It might be important. Stepping back across the room, she picked it up. It was the sports jacket Isobel had given Leo at the bus stop.

  While turning it in her hands, Allissa heard something fall to the floor. Something had dropped from the jacket.

  The sound was nothing more than a drop of rain against a window, but it got Allissa’s attention.

  Scanning the floor Allissa saw, glinting in the dull yellow light of the room, a ring.

  Chapter 97

  With the sound of the alarm, the ground floor became frantic. It was clear to Leo, rushing past, that no one knew what to do. Some stall holders scurried to secure their stock, while others continued to negotiate with passing customers. At one stall, Leo passed a man holding up outfits for the attention of two women wearing brightly coloured headscarves. At the next, a toddler tugged on his mother’s arm whilst she finished a box of noodles.

  There had to be a gas isolation valve somewhere. If he could turn that off it would stop any of the fire from getting started.

  Heading for the back of the mall, Leo passed the security guard he had seen minutes before. The guard was now shouting at people to move. Then, Leo noticed, behind the place where the guard had been sitting, a small door. It was painted the same dirty light blue as the rest of the mall.

  Walking towards the door, Leo checked the guard wasn’t watching. He was arguing with a group of men on the other side of the mall who were intent on browsing phone cases despite the alarm. He wouldn’t notice a thing.

  Leo pulled open the door and stepped inside.

  * * *

  On the eighth floor, Yee still hadn’t seen Jiao, Leo or Allissa. Had his mind been playing tricks on him? Had he been seeing things?

  He had been so sure it was them.

  His brief concern for the residents who continued to ignore the alarm had turned into a kind of pity. Yee had not seen any of them making their way out as they should. Although the alarm had disturbed their chores, rest or play, it was treated as an irritant rather than a concern.

  There really was no helping some people.

  Reaching the balcony, Yee scanned the apartment doors. He knew there was an apartment on this floor where a family had been evicted only days ago.

  Which one was it?

  All the doors were closed, no doubt to keep out the noise of the wailing alarm. All except one. That must be it. Jiao must be in there already.

  * * *

  Inside the apartment on the eighth floor, Jiao pulled the cooker from the wall. This was the tenth and final one.

  Nine rooms were now filling with gas. In five minutes, nine devices would ignite it into beautiful, destructive, cleansing flames.

  The alarm, which had initially concerned him, now reassured him. Both because he could see the residents ignoring it and because he knew he’d disconnected it from the network. It wouldn’t call anyone to help.

  Jiao knew that the fire service in Hong Kong took anywhere between ten and twenty minutes to respond. Within a few minutes of the first detonation the whole building would be on fire. There would be nothing anyone could do.

  With a grin, he pulled the pipe from behind the cooker. Gas started to fill the room.

  Chapter 98

  “It’s been in my family for three generations, it’s worth a lot of money, no one knows how much. It can’t just be replaced.”

  Allissa remembered Yee’s voice as she picked up the ring from the floor. It was priceless, apparently. No wonder he was pissed off.

  Smiling to herself, Allissa thought of Isobel on the plane to Kathmandu.

  “Good girl,” she whispered. She was surprised, shocked, but strangely impressed by Isobel’s resolve to get revenge on Yee by stealing from him.

  That girl will be alright, Allissa thought, tucking the ring into her pocket. They would decide what to do with it later, although Allissa doubted Yee would ever get it back.

  Turning from the room and picking the bags up again, Allissa opened the door and headed back towards the balcony.

  Outside the balcony was empty. People had either listened to the yelling alarm and left the building or closed their doors to try and block its noise.

  There was only one door that was open and that was the door of the apartment next door. It was the door to the apartment from which the family had been evicted a few days before. The heavy chain lay open on one of the handles, the padlock dangling from the end.

  Curiosity rising inside her, Allissa stepped towards it.

  Why would that be open now?

  * * *

  As Leo’s eyes adjusted to the light, he began to see the contents of the small room. It was essentially the control room of the building.

  Two old, large TV screens flickered showing a dozen images from the CCTV cameras around the building. A desk occupied one corner, littered with dusty magazines. The two covers Leo could see showed scantily clad Chinese women pouting at the reader.

  On the opposite wall, some kind of control system flashed intermittently beneath years of filth. And to the left, almost behind the door, two vertical pipes ran from the floor to the ceiling, one black, one red.

  Leo looked at them closely. This could be it.

  In the centre of both, large valves were buried beneath cobwebs.

  Leo stepped across to the pipes and examined them. If one was the water main, then the other was what he was looking for, the building’s gas valve. Turning this off could save the building from the inferno that Leo and Allissa had almost been part of in the restaurant the day before.

  Chapter 99

  On the eighth floor, Allissa peered through the gap in the door. Inside she saw two people she recognised immediately. The first, facing away from the door, was Yee. His grey-flecked hair was now out of place and he was shouting wildly at the larger man, who Allissa recognised as his assistant, Jiao.

  Jiao looked at Yee but didn’t stop what he was doing, pressing buttons on the device he was setting up next to the cooker.

  Looking at the door Allissa made a decision.

  Silently she pushed the door closed and threaded the chain back through the lock. Then, pulling the chain tight, she closed the padlock around it.

  Give them a taste of their own medicine.

  * * *

  The valve was stiff as Leo tried to turn it. He’d assumed the smaller of the two pipes was the gas feed to the building.

  Leo felt metal grinding against metal as he strained. The valve wasn’t budging. He tried again. The sores on his hands from breaking the glass earlier stung.

  He’d need something to help him. He looked around the room. Something that he could either hold the valve with, or thread through it for leverage.

  In the shadow of the opposite corner, Leo saw an iron crowbar. The sort used for prising open doors when they were jammed.

  That would do.

  Crossing the room, Leo picked it up. It was solid.

  Threading the thin end through the valve, he leaned down on the crowbar. With the added leverage, the valve crunched and began to turn. Leo repeated the process until it had done a full turn and jammed shut. The gas was off.

  Glancing at one of the screens, Leo saw a fire engine pull up outside. It was time for them to get
out.

  Putting the crowbar back, Leo opened the door and peered out. The security guard was now arguing with one of the stall holders.

  Ducking out of the room, Leo joined the throngs of people still ignoring the screaming alarm and walked towards the exit.

  Chapter 100

  Mya packs quickly, throwing the few things she needs into a small bag. She’s not taking much – a clean set of clothes, passport, money, credit card. Just enough to get her off the island.

  For a moment she stops and thinks about what she’s doing. She thinks about Leo out on the jetty metres away. Then she thinks about the time they’ve spent together. The question he’s just asked. Finally, she thinks about the man waiting for her outside.

  Mya pulls the ring from her pocket and looks at it. The ring Leo has just given her. She makes a fist around it and holds it tight.

  Maybe Leo deserves to know. Maybe she should try to explain. But he wouldn’t get it, he wouldn’t understand.

  He will go back to Brighton, go back to his grey life in the drizzling city, and that’s him. Just as much as that’s not her.

  Opening her hand and looking down at the ring again, its diamonds glinting fiercely in the light, Mya knows she’s doing the right thing.

  Placing it on the dressing table, she slips from the door of the cabin. Leo is still at the end of the jetty looking out to the sea. He’s got his life, and she’s got hers.

  “I thought you weren’t coming,” a voice says as Mya walks down the path beside the cabin.

  “I’ve got us a hotel on the other side of the island,” he says. “We will stay there tonight and then we’re on the boat to Samui at 6 a.m. You got everything?” He starts to walk up towards the main road. “There’s a taxi waiting for us.”

  “Wait a sec,” Mya says.

  Leo stands from the end of the jetty and walks towards the land. Behind him the stars stretch out like a map, a universe of possibilities. Many of which he’s yet to discover.

  Black and white. Light and dark. Stay or go.

  The night-time noise of the jungle swells. Somewhere a bat pounds the air, and an engine idles softly.

  “Yeah, ready,” Mya says. “Let’s go,”

  * * *

  Five minutes must be up, Leo thinks, turning his back on the Kao Tao night. To arrive in Kao Tao with Mya has been incredible, one of the most completing experiences of his life.

  The sound of the island intensifies around him. Two animals yammer somewhere far off. The sea and the sand breathe together in harmony and insects call to one another in the undergrowth.

  Light from the window of the cabin they’re staying in shimmers across the water.

  Somewhere up the road a car starts, its engine whines for a moment before fading.

  Reaching the cabin, Leo looks back out across the dark ocean and the map of stars spread above. Right now, on this beautiful island, waiting for the answer to the question of his life, Brighton feels like a million miles away.

  “I’m coming in…” Leo says to the door.

  Inside, she lies on the bed, facing away from him. He sees the curve of her back, the pinch of her waist, the swell of her bum. He knows what it’s like to lie next to that body, to feel that woman next to him and he can’t wait to spend the rest of his life doing it.

  “You’re full of surprises tonight,” he says, sitting on the bed next to her.

  She doesn’t reply.

  Then she turns.

  Her skin is darker, her hair bigger, her eyes bright but different. Her smile is still intoxicating. But it’s not Mya.

  Chapter 101

  Leo’s eyes shot open. Until a moment ago he’d slept soundly on the giant bed in the comfort and safety of their hotel room, but something had disturbed his sleep. He couldn’t work out what it was.

  They’d checked in the day before, bedraggled, tired and sore after a ridiculous two days of not enough food or rest.

  Usually in hotels, Leo and Allissa got a twin room. Last night the hotel didn’t have one available and neither of them had the energy to discuss it.

  They’d started the night on their separate sides of the giant bed, but now waking, Leo felt himself wrapped around Allissa’s sleeping shape. Realising their closeness and feeling as though he was doing something he shouldn’t, Leo rolled back to his own side. From there, he looked at Allissa. A feeling of warmth rose within him. To try and suppress it, Leo concentrated on trying to work out what time of the day it was. It looked like morning from the light piling through the blinds, but he couldn’t be sure.

  His mind and eyes wandered back to Allissa. He’d not been physically close with anyone since Mya had gone missing. The thought of it still made him uncomfortable. Current events had distracted him from looking for her, but he still felt that he owed something to their relationship. Finding out at least. And Leo knew that if he admitted the search for Mya was over, that would raise all sorts of questions in his friendship with Allissa.

  Things are simple like this, he repeated to himself, don’t make them complicated.

  He was looking for Mya. He and Allissa were just friends.

  But looking at Allissa again, he did have to admit, as he had always known, she was incredible.

  Then Leo thought of the events of the previous day. They’d avoided death twice, saved one person’s life and possibly countless more if Yee’s plan of the fire in the flats had worked. Leo smiled. He wouldn’t have done it without Allissa. In fact, as ever, he felt that she did more than he did.

  It was amazing sometimes, Leo thought to himself in the silent room, how when two people work well together, the good they can do is not just added but multiplied. She’s incredible, he thought again, forcing himself out of bed before the thought could develop any further. Then as some kind of penance, Leo crossed to their giant bathroom, put the shower on the coldest setting, stripped and stepped beneath it.

  “I’ve just ordered breakfast,” Allissa shouted as Leo turned off the shower a few minutes later. Hearing the mention of breakfast made him hungry.

  Two English-style cooked breakfasts: bacon, eggs, sausage and baked beans. Served with coffee, orange juice and extra toast.

  While finishing off the food, Leo looked on his phone for flights. There was one the following morning to London Heathrow.

  “That’s great, as there’s one more thing we need to do,” Allissa said. “Then we’ll get that flight.”

  Leo looked at her uncomfortably. He had been afraid she was going to say something like that.

  Chapter 102

  Mrs Yee, returning from visiting family in Shenzen, drove her BMW towards the apartment block on Hong Kong’s mid-levels. It had been a good journey; her two daughters had slept draped across the backseat throughout.

  She looked up at the tower, dark against the dishcloth clouds threatening to ring above the city.

  She didn’t miss the place. Her brother had again suggested they move up to live with them. Her girls could go to school with their cousins and her family would be there for support and company.

  Again, she’d declined – they had to return to Hong Kong. The girls needed their father and she needed her husband. She was used to ignoring the cracks of doubt which covered her mind like cobwebs.

  A few years younger than her husband, Mrs Yee got married when she was only twenty and had their first child a year later. Before meeting Yee, she’d planned to go to university in the United States or Europe.

  “You don’t need to do that now,” he’d said. “I’ll look after us.”

  She often wondered what life would have been like if she hadn’t met him. Or what would have happened if she’d said no. If she’d followed her dream, rather than being part of his.

  He was a good man, she thought. He was a good man. He’d never done anything wrong. He provided for her and their daughters. But that was where his influence ended. She didn’t know what absorbed so much of his time. In a way she didn’t want to.

  Turning the f
inal corner, the dark mouth of the underground car park ahead, Mrs Yee saw a man standing at the side of the road. He looked like a tourist. He looked lost. Seemingly, without thinking, he stepped into the street in front of the car. Mrs Yee applied the brakes just in time to avoid hitting him.

  Absorbed in avoiding a collision, Mrs Yee didn’t notice the woman approach the car window. Tapping on the glass, the woman smiled.

  Mrs Yee lowered the glass. The smell of the city tumbled in – humidity, foliage, exhaust fumes.

  “You’re Mrs Yee aren’t you?” the woman said.

  How could she have known that?

  “We’ve had dealings with your husband. He’s done a few things I think you deserve to know about.” She passed a brown envelope through the open window. “Obviously what you do is up to you, but I think you and your beautiful daughters deserve better.”

  Mrs Yee sat in the car holding the envelope as the woman walked away. She watched in the rear-view mirror as their reflections grew small against the city below. Somehow, she knew the contents of the package would be important. Something about the way the woman had spoken told her she was not wasting her time.

  Still holding the envelope, Mrs Yee looked out at the residential district she’d called home for nearly ten years. People were at work. Children were at school. The other wives in the block would be out on one of their spa days or fulfilling some element of their beauty regime. She thought most of them to be fake or shallow.

  Sliding a finger underneath the unsealed flap of the envelope, she tilted it up. A printed photograph slid out into her hand. It was of a girl, lying naked, looking directly at the camera.

  For a few seconds, Mrs Yee stared at the picture wondering if she knew the girl. She didn’t think she did. No memories came forward.

  Then she realised why she had been given the picture. It had been taken in their bedroom. She would recognise it anywhere. The table lamps, the picture on the wall, the bed covers.