Without him, there would be less profit.

'I didn't know you liked music'

'My people are more than just warriors, though my liking for music derives from its power.'

'Power?' Tse Hung couldn't imagine Cantopop having power.

'Power comes from the energy inherent in the tension between two opposing balances. Melody and counterpoint,for example. Or slow and fast beats.'

That Tse Hung did understand. 'Yin and Yang. Everything in life follows that principle,' he said. Chiu looked at him, and he felt vaguely like a specimen in a jar. 'When undying love and unending hatred are in balance,'

Tse Hung continued, 'then one is most powerful. Love or hate alone isn't enough enough It needs both.' It needs both.'

'Or neither. That too is a perfect balance.'

'For you, perhaps. But I'm only human, and we're stuck with them.'

Yue Hwa woke from the dream again, Qi Wang Chuan lading away to nothing.

He had been notified of the disaster at the Pimms Building by phone overnight, but knew there was nothing he could do at the scene until the fires had been put out.

By the time he arrived at the building firemen, cops and paramedics were crawling through it like maggots in a corpse. He shivered at the sight. He had always known his way of life entailed a certain amount of risk to health and to conscience, but he had never envisioned anything like this.

He had put so much time and effort into this organisation, but something like this could kill it before that effort paid dividends. No one would want to join a Triad that had been hit so hard by its enemies, and even if they did, so much of the record had gone they would spend months trying to work out what it was worth. It had all been such a waste.

Yue Hwa slumped. What did he have now?

Tse Hung was there, looking furious and exhausted. He had probably come to the building in the middle of the night, as soon as he heard what was going on. Give him his due, he certainly paid attention and put in a lot of hours for his ill-gotten gains.

Yue Hwa went over to him. 'Has anyone determined what happened?'

'Two lots of armed men broke in and had a firefight. Then the chopper used by one lot crashed. Shot down maybe, we don't know.' Tse Hung sounded as numbed as Yue Hwa felt.

'What about Pendragon?'

Tse Hung snorted dismissively. 'He's at his cottage. He hasn't said much about this. Personally I doubt he has any idea what to say. Neither do I.'

Yue Hwa wished he could admit the same thing, but people would be looking to him. 'We still have shipments to make. If nothing else, making them will prove we're strong enough to withstand anything.' He crooked his neck to look into Tse Hung's eyes. They seemed lifeless. 'Are you OK?' 'I'll let you know.'

No one knows how much of the alien technology would have remained at the plantation house, but it's doubtful that the owners would have wanted any of it to fall into the hands of even the most advanced terrestrial nations.

Chiu was certainly not one to abandon valuable equipment to primitives who might prove to be a threat to himself or his force. Lack of technology didn't indicate a lack of intelligence or ability.

One of the technicians came over to him. 'We have hacked into the computers of every military force on the planet, and only one set of communications traffic matches the circumstances of the crash.'

Chiu brought up the relevant data on a wall.

'Records pertaining to the actions of a USS Westmoreland, a vessel of the United States Navy's Pacific Fleet,' the technician told him.

'Then we were shot down&'

'Communications logs show the Qe'shaal was perceived as a threat.'

Chiu nodded. 'Understandable. Humans are quick to make such decisions.

Include this information in the skiff's computers. We will need to upload as and when we are able to log on to the Comnet.'

'As you command,' the technician acknowledged.

Only someone like Pendragon could have set up residence in a place like this, Tse Hung thought to himself. The slopes of Sunset Peak belonged to a different world in a different time, especially after the crowded ferry from Hong Kong to Lantau Island. If he didn't know better, he'd have said the whole population was coming out for a weekend trip to the beaches on the island.

But now it was easy enough to forget the crowds. A couple of hours'

walking up a steep and winding trail from the town of Pui O, and suddenly he was in the Alps of a bygone age. True, the view was of the island and the coast rather than snowcapped mountains, but the bells on the grazing cows were real enough.

In another half-hour or so he came to a small stone cottage set aside from the main path, with a view overlooking Silver Mine Bay to the northeast.

It was sandstone with a red tiled roof. The police box that used to stand in the Pimms Building's stone garden now stood a few feet away in the shelter of some trees. Tse Hung wondered if the aliens had brought it there. A few wisps of smoke were drifting up from the chimney of the cottage, so someone was in. Tse Hung was glad of that. He would have hated to have made this trip for nothing.

Pendragon looked round as Tse Hung entered. 'Ah. You're just in time for yum chal "Thank you, dai-k>: It always paid to be civil. Though respect had to be earned, there was never any doubt in Tse Hung's mind that Pendragon had earned it. He still didn't like him, but it showed that Pendragon and himself were a better class of enemy. He also felt it never hurt to be respectful of the dead.

'Now, I imagine you've come to tell me how the clean-up is going at Pimms?'

Tse Hung nodded. "The building is ruined. The Tao Te Lung will lose a lot of face, thanks to that.'

'Face can always be regained, lives can't. At least it's over for now. Our otherworldly colleagues are ready to leave - no thanks to you.'

'What?' This was unexpected. Tse Hung had assumed the aliens couldn't leave without the materials he had bought from the Russians -or that they at least needed to know their source.

'The chart you bought from the Russians. Did you really think I wouldn't know?'

So, Pendragon had indeed been spying on him. It was just as he suspected. 'You're not taking the aliens away from me.'

Pendragon glared at him. "They weren't here for you, but they've made you rich - financially, if not in your heart.'

'I'm not ready to retire yet. There's more money to be made from these creatures. They do well to carry our trade goods in their stealth ships as it is; with more of them we could corner the snakeheads' market.'

'It's too late. We're leaving.'

'No: 'What?' Pendragon looked shocked, and annoyed.

'I'm not going to let you just walk off with the geese that lay the golden eggs.' Tse Hung snapped his fingers and Ah Fei and a couple of other men who had accompanied him burst into the cottage. All were aiming guns at Pendragon's head. 'Time to start streamlining for business in the new millennium.'

'You have no idea what you're doing,' Pendragon said warningly. Tse Hung had to admire his courage. He rose and approached Pendragon, careful not to get between him and the guns.

'I'm getting rid of a traitor to the brotherhood. If you had let the Englishwoman be killed, the Pimms Building would not have been a battleground. We lost good men there as well as face, and now our enemies have struck at our heart. All because of your cowardice and betrayal!'

'Do you know your old Triad oaths?' Pendragon demanded. Oath 31: "I must not take advantage of the Hung fraternity so that I may oppress or take violent or unreasonable advantage of others; I must be content and honest. If I break this oath I will be killed by five thunderbolts".'

Tse Hung drew a cleaver from his jacket and hefted it. 'You like tradition, don't you? Perhaps you also remember this one: "I must not conspire with outsiders to cheat my sworn brothers&" He suddenly lashed out with a foot, kicking Pendragon in the chest so that he thudded back into a chair.

'Have I missed anything?'

Tse Hung looked up, annoyed at the interruption. It was Yue Hwa.

'Just me dispensing justice to this traitorous gwailo who has screwed us both over. When he's gone, we'll get Uncle Jackie to adjudicate which of us takes which position in the Tao Te Lung.'

'Then I'm just in time.'

Yue Hwa sounded relieved as he came over. Tse Hung waved to the gun-toting 49s to relax. This was another friend.

'If I missed this, I could never forgive myself, 'Yue Hwa said.

Tse Hung nodded understanding^. 'Don't worry. He's not going to cause any more deaths.'

He swung the cleaver at Pendragon's head. When Yue Hwa blocked it and kicked it out of his hand, it took a moment for the event to sink in. In that moment, Yue Hwa sidekicked Fei clean out the door and scooped up his gun. The other 49s dropped their weapons.

Years of teamwork vanished from Tse Hung's head, as illusory as dreams of flight. 'What the hell? You're sticking with that gwailo son of a bitch? You side with traitors?'

Yue Hwa shook his head. "That depends on who the traitor is.'

'Is that your twisted definition of loyalty?' Tse Hung was horrified.

'You seem,' Pendragon said, 'to be under a misapprehension about who works for who in the Tao Te Lung.'

'What?' Tse Hung looked from him to Yue Hwa. 'You're not trying to say he runs it?'

Yue Hwa smiled. 'I don't know if 'runs' is the right word. Baits, perhaps. The Tao Te Lung is a trap for up-and-coming godfathers.'

"Then you're -'

'Major Yue Hwa. Public Security Bureau. The Doctor here has been assisting us for some time.' Uniformed cops were now swarming into the cottage. 'Raids are taking place all over Hong Kong. My government would like to start its reign with an immediate drop in crime, and this sting operation will go a long way towards achieving that.'

'And the aliens?'

'Needed a collaborating organisation to hide them,' the Doctor said with a smile. "The two necessities dovetail rather nicely.'

'What went wrong?' Sarah asked when Tom came back. He was bruised and tired, but otherwise unharmed.

'Ah, it was nothing,' he said, but she could see something in his eyes that was very weary and quite shocked. She decided not to push it.

'UNIT was going in at the same time. A guard got shot, and that sparked a flrefight. They got the data from the Pimms computers, but we have a common ally in you. So we're working together.'

Sarah was delighted. If both UNIT and the DEA were working together, she need have no fears about whether either of them were the good guys or not. Things were starting to look up.

It was a small office, little more than an untidy anteroom of the homicide office, but it was all his. Mark Sing of the Independent Committee Against Corruption leant back in his chair while Katie Siao tried to avoid his gaze.

He was half-glad of that as it proved she recognised her guilt, and half-disappointed that she wouldn't see in his eyes how much he hated taking this role.

He still hadn't decided whether he should let her go, on account of the stuff in her house not being illegal, or charge her with something because of the clear intent she had. If it was anyone else - anyone who didn't have two kids to support - he wouldn't hesitate to take them down.

'What am I supposed to do with you, Cannonball?' he asked.

'Charge me and fire me.' She didn't smile at the pun. She probably didn't even recognise it. 'You have to, if you're honest.'

'Honesty and justice aren't always the same thing.'He wished he could think of something in the situation that proved this. Before he could, there was a knock at the door. Probably a uniform with Siao's personal effects. 'Come in.'

Sing couldn't think of a thing to say when he saw the pair who came into his office. One was Yue Hwa, a high-up in the Tao Te Lung. The other was the little white guy from Wing's apartment building. Before he could demand an explanation, the white guy was talking.

'I'm the Doctor, and this is Major Yue Hwa, of mainland China's Public Security Bureau.' Sing and Siao both remained silent, too surprised to answer yet.

Yue Hwa handed across a wallet with ID inside it. 'Inspector Siao has been cooperating with the PSB in a cross-border sting operation.' Siao looked as surprised as Sing to hear this.

'I've had no paperwork -' Sing started to say.

'Of course you have,' the Doctor interrupted. 'You'll find it in your in-tray somewhere.'

Sing stared at him for a moment then sifted through his in-tray. Sure enough, there was an unopened manila envelope. He opened it and pulled out a sheaf of papers. It was all there, dated several weeks ago: Siao was seconded undercover to trap Tse Hung and other members of the Tao Te Lung. Everything was in order and signed by the highest officials. 'Why didn't you say anything about this when we arrested you?' he asked her.

'She was under strict orders not to,' the Doctor replied. 'There was no telling how far the criminals' influence extended. Even the ICAC couldn't be trusted.'

Sing bristled at that. 'I've never been on the take -'

'I didn't mean to suggest you had,' the Doctor said hurriedly. 'But what if someone who was had seen her statement in the files, or if they overheard you speaking to Inspector Siao?'

Sing's anger subsided a little. It was a sensible attitude to take. 'All right, but I'll be studying those papers very carefully'

'Of course. Now, if I may speak to Inspector Siao alone for a moment&' The Doctor led her through the door.

Siao was surprised to hear of her heroic cooperation. 'What was all that about?' she asked, as soon as she and the Doctor were out of earshot.

'About not punishing people for foolish misjudgements.'

'But those papers are forged, surely? This will just make me look worse -'

'No, they're genuine. My friend Yue Hwa and I had to pull some strings to arrange it it ' he smiled faintly ' ' he smiled faintly ' or or we will have to, rather, but they are completely genuine.' His face grew more sombre. 'You've been given a second chance. Don't make the same mistake again.' we will have to, rather, but they are completely genuine.' His face grew more sombre. 'You've been given a second chance. Don't make the same mistake again.'

Chapter Nineteen.

The Only Hoq To Be Sure