'Has he lived out here for long?'

'He doesn't really live here as such, Tue Hwa admitted. 'He comes and goes, taking care of his enterprises around the world.' They had reached a cluster of glass lifts and Yue Hwa moved to one that had no buttons, only a keyhole. He turned a key in it, and the doors opened.

Through long experience, Sarah had developed some little talent for knowing when she was being watched or stared at. This time, it felt decidedly uncomfortable, not just the usual annoyance one might get from workers on a building site.

She turned, before entering the lift, to see another business-suited man standing in the doorway of an office suite. He was about the same age and build as Yue Hwa, but with a thinner, more angular face, large ears and a more formal haircut. He had the expression of someone wondering by what right she was there.

'Looks like not everyone is as welcoming.'

"That's Tse Hung,' Yue Hwa said, without needing to look round. 'Head of Security. His job requires him to be more cautious and suspicious of people, which can be quite stressful.' The explanation was strangely unconvincing, but Sarah didn't challenge it. Better to think about it later.

There was no sensation of movement in the lift. She could see through the glass that it was rising, the stone garden dropping away, but didn't feel the usual lurch in her stomach. 'This is a very smooth lift,' she said admiringly.

Yue Hwa nodded. 'Our lifts are state-of-the-art. Everything is.'

'You wouldn't happen to know what the secret is?' It was definitely something that should be universal. Whatever it was, Sarah was glad of it.

He shook his head. 'They're just the best money can buy'

The doors opened on to a room that was part modern office and part Victorian university study-room. Leather-bound books lined the panelled walls, and a few fine oil paintings added just the right amount of decoration.

The indirect lighting and LCD monitors dotted among them managed to be not too intrusive. Sarah liked the room immediately.

Her half-hearted suspicions about the company president were dispelled as soon as he entered the room. There was no sign of a beaky nose or Edwardian taste in clothing; in fact, the little man reminded her of Peter Falk as Columbo Columbo: a dishevelled face, almost unkempt dark hair, yet piercing and perceptive eyes. He wore a tweed suit and a blood-red waistcoat. The effect was vaguely Edwardian, if casual.

'Miss Smith.' He greeted her, sounding genuinely happy to meet her, in a slightly nasal Scottish accent. 'It's such a pleasure to see you.' Was there an unspoken 'again' or was it her imagination? Seeing the police box must have teased her mind more than she thought. 'Please take a seat.' He indicated one of two plush leather chairs, next to a small table with a sherry decanter and glasses.

As Sarah sat, he turned to Yue Hwa. 'Oh, Yue Hwa. Are you taking care of that that?'Yue Hwa nodded. 'Good, I'll see you shortly, then.'

Pendragon sat next to Sarah, beaming, with a twinkle in his eye. 'Now& what brings you to my neck of the woods? I'd have thought trade stories would be far too tame and dull for someone who usually exposes arms dealers and drug peddlers.'

'Oh, not dull,' Sarah replied. 'Just different. A nice change of pace.'

'Ah, a change is as good as the rest&'

'Something like that.' She couldn't help smiling, though she had no idea how seriously he was taking this. 'The effects that Hong Kong's handover to China will have on global business is important, especially post-Tiananmen.'

'Oh, I don't think there's any need to worry. I'm sure the Chinese realise that Hong Kong is a valuable resource for tourism and the importation of hard currency currency'

Yue Hwa took the lift down to Tse Hung's office. The Smith girl seemed harmless enough, though he recognised in her the determination that had so upset the Thai porn lord who had tried to have her killed a few days back. She had the sort of air that made him wish he didn't have any guilty secrets.

Tse Hung looked up from his desk as Yue Hwa entered. Yue Hwa was half-surprised to see him actually sitting at it. 'We need to know about the component that Wing took, 'Yue Hwa said.

Tse Hung leant back. 'The UNIT people are still watching Wing's apartment. That can only mean they don't have the box yet.'

'If UNIT don't have it, then what about the cops?'

Tse Hung shook his head. "The cops searched the place thoroughly, but there was nothing. We've got enough cops on the books - if they'd found it, we'd have heard by now.'

'Unless your bribed officers are not quite as bribed as you'd like them to be?"

'Oh, they are,' Tse Hung insisted.

'What about our own people?'

"The Tao Te Lung are utterly trustworthy,' Tse Hung snapped. His reaction was instinctive, though, and didn't stop him from immediately thinking about the possibility of betrayal. His subordinates were criminals, after all, and there were always people who put ambition above loyalty.

'I suppose it's just possible,' he admitted reluctantly. And, if true, he'd deal with the offending party himself. It would be a personal betrayal, losing him face.

'Who was at Wing's apartment?'

Tse Hung's mental card file flipped over madly. He had so much to keep track of. 'Lefty Soh, the pak tsz sin for us in Kowloon.' Soh was essentially an accountant, fiddling the finances and in charge of gathering protection money. 'He sent a couple of his 49s, I'm not sure who.' 'Then find out.

Perhaps one of them has it.'

It had been a good interview, considering. Big business wasn't really Sarah's forte, but Pendragon had made things clear and simple. However, he hadn't explained how or why his company came to be on her itinerary to start with. She wondered why, but didn't ask as it would make her look foolish.

At any rate, he didn't seem bothered by the upcoming changeover of government. Many people were worried, and were making arrangements to move their businesses elsewhere, but Pendragon was quite sanguine about the whole thing.

She couldn't help feeling that it was almost as if - and she wouldn't put this in her story - he somehow already knew how things would turn out. Almost as if, for him, it was something that had happened long ago.

That was impossible, so she smiled politely, enjoying his company, and planned to research his business in the news-cuttings archives later.

When the interview was over, Sarah left the building, studiously resisting an urge to look back. There was something about the little Scotsman that seemed both familiar and worryingly alien, yet she couldn't put her finger on it. It wasn't just a hunch, or her instinct as an experienced journalist, but something else. On such a simple assignment, she could really do without such a nuisance.

There was an MTR station only a hundred yards down the road, where she could catch a commuter train back to the vicinity of her hotel. Sarah headed for it, not yet aware that every step she took was being frozen in time and immortalised in glossy prints.

Hoping the shots would come out well, Tom Ryder packed the camera into its case on the passenger seat. He kept one eye to the scope, watching Sarah. He knew he should already be gone, his job done, but something about her kept him in place until she vanished from sight.

That night he would dream of her, her face taking the place of that of his last girlfriend, in memories of distant nights. When he woke, he would be angry with himself for letting his subconscious do that to him.

From Pendragon's office, Pendragon and Yue Hwa had also watched Sarah leave.

'She seems intelligent,' Yue Hwa said. 'A good friend, or a dangerous enemy.'

'Sometimes they're one and the same thing. You know what these girls are like - never just take a hint and stay out of the way' Pendragon sighed, presumably not realising that Yue Hwa didn't know what 'these girls' were like after all. 'Keep an eye on her.'

'As you wish, 'Yue Hwa said with a nod, 'Doctor.'

Anyone who knew her would vouch that Captain Fiona Clark paid exactly the right amount of attention to Major Barry's briefing, and kept the rest of her mind on how to disagree with his plan. She was like that. Their mission was covert and although taking the logging camp would make things more comfortable, it was unnecessary and a distraction.

It was also the sort of thing that started trouble with local factions.

Clark was too professional to let her doubts show in front of the other troops, or allow them to get in the way of doing the job properly, but they were there nonetheless.

As the sounds of radios and a satellite TV channel wafted thinly from the loggers' huts, the UNIT team closed in on the camp. Though noise carried further in the dark, the sounds of the jungle were mostly loud enough to mask any rustling or rattling of equipment.

There were only half a dozen men on guard - civilians or crooks with some basic training; no competition for Clark and the others.

The procedure was one they'd trained for many times, so Clark hoped it would be simple. She knew better, really. The instructors and fellow students in the training programme didn't have AK74s with live ammo.

Even the most stoned of amateurs could hit something if he let off a burst from one of those.

No misgivings could stop her going about things as she was trained to do.

That's what the training did; made the way you did things instinctive.

It was a piece of cake. First they hit the guards with tasers from twenty feet behind. Two thin wires carried about 30,000 volts from the taser handset to the electrodes, which had just been shot into the victim. Nobody stayed standing when the charge kicked in, and it screwed up the vocal cords so there was no scream either. While the guards were stunned, they were disarmed, and finally woke up to a gun at the head. Plastic ties quickly secured the prisoners' wrists.

It didn't take more than a minute to strip the logging camp of its guards, and all without a sound. Speed was security, or so went the litany.

The first Pranh Due knew of the attack was when the invaders' machine guns opened up. Suspecting a clampdown by those wimps in the government, he sounded the alarm immediately, calling the men out to fight.

They wouldn't be able to do much with their axes and chainsaws, against the army's automatic weapons, but they would show they were made of sterner stuff than those who hid behind their guns.

As soon as the loggers got out of their huts, thunderflashes were going off, blinding them to the attacking force. Due saw that its members were mostly white, with UN flashes on their uniforms.

'Western Imperialists' was a cliched insult, but Due wasn't trying to be original. He grabbed a rusting flare pistol and aimed it at the nearest westerner. Before he could fire, something exploded nearby and knocked him into temporary oblivion.

Colonel Tsang hated paperwork, but at her level of service, there seemed to be few other duties. There were reports for UNIT-SEA in Singapore, reports for UNIT-HQ in Geneva, press releases, analyses for future references references The list was endless and boring. The list was endless and boring.

Sometimes she wished she had gone back to civilian life when her compulsory tour in the People's Army was over, but what else could she have done? She knew nothing about farming -gardening was another matter, though - and didn't want to work in a shop or be an office girl.

So she had stayed on. Eventually she was seconded to UNIT-SEA and, to her chagrin, ended up as a penpusher after all.

The bright side was that it gave her time to think and consider the plans and orders she would issue. She could also cover herself in advance, thanks to all that experience with the thrice-damned paperwork.

She supposed it could be worse. She could be out in that jungle like Barry, and not be able to fly home to her grandchildren at weekends.

Right now, she was in conference with Nomura and a couple of adjutants, going over the minutes of various meetings that still had loose ends to tie up. 'What about scientific advisers?'

'Wildthyme is on vacation,' Nomura said, 'and you know how the Americans are about loaning people out.'

'Couldn't we borrow Ml6's Time Lord?'

'I asked. They said, "How the hell did you know about that?" Eventually I gathered he's on assignment on the Russian/Afghan border'

Tsang scored off another line on the minutes. 'I'm not happy about this. We need someone who understands the way these creatures think.'

'As soon as one becomes available&' Nomura's voice trailed off helplessly.

There wasn't much else he could do. "There is some good news - we've identified the two people who entered Wing's apartment at the time of the theft.'

'Who are they?'

'Two Triad 49s. We've covertly searched both their apartments, with no luck. We did find various other pieces of incriminating evidence that might be useful as leverage if we bring them in.'

'And how will that look to the local police? The fewer people who have any idea what we know, the better.' One of the office phones rang and Tsang picked it up. 'Go.'

'Message from Dragon One, Colonel.'

'Put them on.'

"This is Dragon One, over.' Major Barry's voice came through strongly.

'I hear you, Dragon One.'

'We've established a base camp outside the perimeter of the affected zone.

It's a logging camp, so we should be able to use it as a staging post and land choppers here. I've also got prisoners for transport out.' Tsang groaned inwardly. Now she had to find a way to keep the prisoners incommunicado for however long Barry's mission took, without anyone finding out about such an illegal action. She'd deal with Barry when he got back.

'Understood. We'll be in touch when a courier is ready. Out.' She hung up the phone, and looked at the others. 'Get me that box. Now.'

It had been a good night; almost better than Yi Chung had hoped. He and Emily Ko had eaten well, danced and drank, and now he was showing her around the south side of the island where they could put the car's top down and enjoy the night air.

Below the hillside, the lights of the little built-up areas around Stanley Bay clustered like jewels. 'This is nice,' Emily said.

Yi Chung agreed, and pulled the car off the road. The night was clear, and there was little sign of the city's bustle. It was just quiet coastal countryside, where they wouldn't be disturbed as they kissed.

Just as Yi Chung had begun to unbutton Emily's blouse someone pressed one of reality's buttons, and switched on a blinding UFO thirty feet above them. A shaft of solid light pinned the car to the tarmac, like a moth to a collector's board.

They both screamed and Yi Chung tried to start the car, without success.

The engine was utterly lifeless. The light seemed to thicken and build up outside the car like floodwaters. He kept trying the engine, knowing it wouldn't work but too terrified to think of anything else to do.

The night had fallen completely silent, the distant traffic sounds muted out of existence. The only remaining sound was a hum of whispers, and this seemed as much at the edge of the mind as at the edge of hearing. Just when Yi Chung thought he and Emily couldn't be more scared, shapes began to coalesce beside the car doors.

They were vague and indistinct, but being so unknown just made them more terrifying. They were emaciated figures, their vague limbs reaching out with the fluidity of coiling snakes.

Their flesh pressed against the car windows, trying the doors. Yi had locked the car, but any relief he felt faded when wiry fingers somehow caught hold of the windows and started forcing them down.

Then headlights flashed in the rear-view mirror, and the light and figures snapped out of existence. A truck rumbled past the car, startling Yi and Emily almost out of their skins.

Yi gunned the engine, which sprang to life this time. Gulping in deep breaths, he sped in the direction of the Central District. 'Look,' Emily whispered. Yi Chung risked a glance in the direction she indicated. Above, a silver flash shot off to the southwest.

It didn't look like a plane to Yi Chung, and there was no sound of a helicopter. 'Take me back to the city,' Emily said, sharply. Yi Chung looked at her, feeling like a kicked puppy. 'Please, before they come back.'

The idea that they might was enough to convince Yi Chung that he also desired the safety of a crowded city.

Chapter Seven.

K H Confidential