Yi Chung swore, suddenly certain that the whole thing had been a trap, and that Sarah had just played along to steal the box from him. Fine, he decided, let her be abducted by aliens. No fence could pay him enough to take shit like that anyway.

He kept running.

Sarah ran without even knowing why. Experience had taught her that it was usually best to run first and rationalise later. If the pursuers were friendly, one could always contact them again later.

She dashed through unfamiliar streets, barely dodging congee stalls and caged chickens, resisting the urge to shout at the population whose meanderings blocked her flight path.

She risked a glance back and saw no sign of pursuit. She slowed. If those men were cops, as Yi Chung had thought, then presumably they were after him. She couldn't say she was surprised; his story seemed genuine, but he was obviously not a law-abiding citizen. She'd met his type on the streets of enough cities to spot a petty gangster a mile off.

Relaxing to catch her breath, she tried to get her bearings; she had no idea where she was, beyond that she was somewhere in Yau Ma Tei. In the distance, she could just make out a flash of green that might be a park.

Then a hand grabbed her shoulder firmly. She reacted instinctively against this potential bag-snatch or indecent assault, trying to jab the man's groin with her elbow. He was prepared for that, and twisted aside easily.

'Please come with me, Miss Smith,' he said. 'Don't make a scene.'

She looked round at him. He looked Japanese rather than Chinese, and now she saw the tiny earpiece plugged into his left ear and the bulge under his left armpit. Whoever he was, he wasn't a mugger or rapist.

If he was some kind of government agent or police officer, she knew righteous indignation was a far more effective technique than flight or fight.

'What is this about? Why were you chasing me? I mean, I'm a journalist in pursuit of a story, and suddenly there are you gorillas chasing me, and fighting, and -'

He flashed a photo ID card with a too-familiar winged-globe symbol on it.' lieutenant Nomura, UNIT-SEA.'

'UNIT?'.

'South-East Asia.'

Sarah's anger subsided. She had always had a friendly relationship with UNIT and didn't want to spoil that. 'Why didn't you just say who you were?'

Nomura smiled politely. 'I tried to, but your fast friend preempted it. We came to ask if you'd come to our office. Some things have been happening lately that we might be able to share information on.'

Mark Sing looked up at the decaying apartment block in Kowloon. 'This is Yi Chung's place?'

One of the two uniformed officers with him nodded. 'He lives on the fourth floor.'

'Cool.' He checked his revolver. 'This guy's a suspect in murder and arson, so take no chances. You know what I mean?' They nodded.

Steeling himself, Sing began walking towards the apartment building's lobby. A car horn halted him, and he turned to see Cannonball Siao's little two-door pulling up.

She bounded up to them as a descending airliner blacked out the sun for a few seconds. 'What are you doing here?' she asked when the noise receded.

"The results came back from the prints we took at Wing's apartment. A Fei Jai with a prior record who lives here broke into the flat.'

'Why didn't you call me?'

'I tried, but the buildings are too high around here to get a good cellular signal. How about you? What brings you here?'

'Same as you. It gets worse - it's the same guy who made that UFO report.'

Sing grunted. 'Probably trying to lay the groundwork for pleading diminished responsibility or insanity, just in case.' He put his gun away.

'Well, no time like the present.'

They rode up in the lift together and easily found Yi Chung's apartment.

There was no reply to their knocks. 'Got a warrant?' Siao asked.

'No.' Sing could see them losing their quarry because of devotion to the book.

'He could be injured, I suppose,' Siao said after a moment. 'Is that gas I smell?'

Sing grinned. 'It could be.'

'On three.'

Sing nodded, one-two-three, then kicked the door open. The place was empty. 'What now?'

'Now we see if he's got a car.'

Nomura had been polite but firm, and Sarah had no illusions that the invitation to chat was one that couldn't be refused without either string-pulling from on high, or a fight. All things considered, it was easier to go along with him. Besides, she'd just heard about a UFO sighting and attempted abduction, so she doubted UNIT'S interest could be a coincidence. She might find out something of interest. To her surprise, Yi Chung's little problem was becoming worth following up.

UNIT were operating out of a small office block in Mongkok. It was fairly nondescript, and she had the impression they had simply rented it for a while. As far as she knew, UNIT-SEA's headquarters were in Singapore.

Spartan though the place was, it was kept clean and quite secure: only one door in and out, with a guard inside and a coded keypad outside. It had the feel of any small business office in any city; all open space, desks with PCs and a few soft seats in reception for visitors.

A Chinese woman, around the same age as Sarah, was waiting when they were allowed in. She wore simple fatigues that could belong to half the militaries in the world, with UNIT shoulder flashes and a photo ID tag. 'A pleasure to meet you at last, Miss Smith,' she said politely. Sarah could see that she was hard behind the politeness, and that this was someone not to cross. 'I'm Colonel Tsang. I'm pleased you could spare us the time to come and chat. I know you must be very busy busy'

"That's all right,' Sarah told her. 'One of the pleasures of being freelance is the ability to take time off whenever it suits.'

'Of course.' Tsang led Sarah through to a small office and ordered some refreshments to be brought in.

'Why did you ask to see me anyway?' Sarah asked. 'I haven't worked with UNIT in a couple of years.'

'Just an informal chat. We're always willing to listen to experienced advice, and when we saw you were in town we felt it might be worth checking in.

Just keeping in touch, so to speak. Also, we were wondering what you knew of the Doctor's business.'

Sarah was surprised, to say the least. 'The Doctor? I haven't seen him in ages.'

'But you spoke to him today. At the Pimms Building.'

'What?' Sarah hadn't met the Doctor there. Not as far as she knew anyway.

'Yes, he calls himself Pendragon.'

Yi Chung hadn't stopped running until he hit Kowloon Park Drive. Any sign of pursuit was long gone, and so were his hopes of meeting up with Sarah.

He had no doubt they had taken her off, willingly or otherwise.

He stopped, bent almost double, and leant on a lamppost to get his breath back. His fear was abating, replaced by a rush of exhilaration. He had cheated fate, and it felt so cool.

Less cool was the fact that he had run so far. When he checked Ms bearings, he realised he'd have to catch a bus or taxi just to get back to where he'd left his car.

Siao and Sing had parted from the uniformed cops and were now squeezed into Siao's car, waiting for a sighting of Yi Chung's car.

They had spent ages waiting for a reply from some filing clerk who was checking the database of driving licences in Hong Kong. Eventually, the clerk had turned up a driving licence for Yi Chung, and a licence number for his car. Siao then put the number out over the airwaves.

After about twenty minutes, a call came through that the car had been found, parked off Jordan Road.

When Yi Chung got back to his car, he wasn't thinking about dates or girlfriends. His frantic look told everybody in the vicinity that he was thinking only of his own skin.

He set off and headed south towards Austin Road. He knew that if the cops had made him they would be waiting at his apartment. There was no sense in going there. Instead, he'd try to find Ah Fei. Fei had connections, and could surely get him to safety for a while. He could go to Macao or Taiwan, and lie low.

It was not to be. He realised that when a police car popped out in front of him as he tried to go through the crossroads at Chatham Road South. His car broadsided it, and his air bag exploded into his face so fast that he didn't see a second police car come up in his mirror. That one stopped too late and rammed his tail.

Car horns were blaring, and people were shouting, but Yi Chung couldn't make sense of any of it. His head was pounding too much, and he wasn't sure if it was the shock of the impact, or his uppers wearing off. Either way, he had to get out of the trap he was in.

The air bag pinned him to his seat, but a slash from a butterfly knife put paid to that.

Sing stamped on the brake just in time to avoid adding a fourth car to the pile-up. 'What the hell?!' Siao exclaimed. Sing neither knew nor cared what had happened, but was glad they'd found their man.

Uniformed cops were staggering out from the damaged cars as Siao and Sing exited theirs. 'Police,' Siao yelled over the sounds of car horns. 'Come out of the car with your hands up.'

In response, there was a loud bang and cops and bystanders alike hit the tarmac. 'He's shooting at us,' a voice called out. Sing had already worked that one out. He drew his own revolver and started firing back. By the time he loosed his second shot, the other cops were starting to join in.

Yi Chung breathed easier when the air bag popped and was no longer crushing his chest. He had reached for the door handle to get out when the car started banging, hit by gunshots.

The cops were trying to kill him. Yi Chung wasn't too surprised, but he would have thought they'd have arrested him first and arranged an accident at the station, rather than do it in front of so many witnesses. Maybe they were practising for being more authoritarian when Beijing took over.

He reached into the glove compartment where there was. a mini-Uzi, and started shooting through the windscreen at the cops from the broadsided car in front of him.

Yi Chung's one advantage was that police forces the world over are trained in defensive shooting - firing from cover and not taking risks. He was therefore free to engage in offensive shooting. He floored the accelerator, pushing the wrecked police car away, then reversed into the one behind.

His head snapped around painfully as the back of his car imploded, but the police car came off worse. It rolled backwards, causing the cops sheltering behind it to break cover.

Yi Chung let rip at them, hitting at least one. He couldn't tell whether the cop was dead or not, and wasn't stupid enough to get out and check.

If he could move both police cars just a little further, he realised, he could zigzag back out into the traffic and make a run for it.

Sing fired his last shots into Yi Chung's car door, then dropped behind his own car boot, out of ammunition. Siao joined him, ducking bullets. 'I'm out,'

he said.

'Me too.' They peered round and saw Yi Chung's rear wheels spin. 'He might get away yet,' Siao said.

'Shit.' Sing thought hard. Yi Chung was mostly concentrating on the uniformed cops who were blocking his escape. He might be able to get over there, and and then what, he asked himself? He had nothing left to fight with, and he wasn't stupid enough to take on a man with a machine gun unarmed. then what, he asked himself? He had nothing left to fight with, and he wasn't stupid enough to take on a man with a machine gun unarmed.

Siao reached into the car to retrieve a half-litre cola bottle, and drained it. 'I hope more back-up arrives soon.'

'Quick, give me that.' Sing took the bottle from her and popped open the boot of the car. From somewhere inside, he pulled out a thin rubber tube.

Then he opened the car's filler cap, stuck the tube into it, and began to suck on the tube.

He barely managed to let go of the tube before the petrol hit his tongue.

Drinking the stuff would be a quick and painful way to go, which he'd prefer to avoid. Instead, he directed the new flow into the cola bottle. When he had enough he swirled it around and stuffed a silk handkerchief into it.

He was sorry to lose that as it was a present from a girl, but he knew that needs must. He took a lighter from his pocket. 'Wish me luck.'

Then he was off, praying to Kwan Chai - ironically the patron god of both policemen and Triads - that Yi Chung wouldn't see him.

He was unlucky. Shots sparked off the road and shattered a shop window behind him, forcing him to bend painfully low. Then gunfire from the other cops drew Yi Chung's attention just long enough for Sing to pop up from behind a neighbouring car, light the handkerchief and toss it in through Yi Chung's shattered windscreen.

It burst and splashed, burning liquid spattering throughout the car. Yi Chung tumbled backwards out of the door, screaming, and dropped his gun. He rolled away as the car really began to burn, and stood up shakily.

A volley of shots took him in the chest and back as he tried to beat out the flames on his trouser leg.

The leg that was on fire kept twitching after he was dead, but only Siao felt sick at the sight and smell. Everybody else was fine, because at least they weren't the ones burning.

Borisovich liked to conduct business in the restaurant. Partly it was because he enjoyed food and drink, but there was also the added advantage of the tables. Sitting at a table meant that concealing a weapon was easier for him than it was for his visitors - who in any case were searched when they came in -and also meant there was a barrier between him and them.

To offset the barrier, he played the good host, supplying visitors with drinks and snacks, so that the table setting looked more natural.

He had already seen a couple of pimps and dealers this morning, but his latest visitor was different. He was a naval officer, still in uniform, though he seemed to have had no time to shave. 'What can I do for you, Lieutenant Lieutenant?'

'Morozich. Actually, it's more what I can do for you.'

'Go on.' Borisovich was always willing to listen to business offers.

'I have something that my comrades and I think might be valuable.' The officer put a briefcase on the table. Borisovich grimaced, half expecting it to go off. However, Morozich simply opened it and took out a piece of metal.

'We found this, and figured it might be worth something.'

Borisovich almost laughed, and was within a hair's breadth of throwing the lieutenant out with a good kicking for wasting his time. Then he remembered the e-mail from the other day. This metal certainly fitted the description of what was wanted. 'Tell me more more' he suggested slowly.

The deal with the naval officer had gone well, and now Borisovich returned to his office and his PC. He brought up the e-mail from Lung Tau, and hit 'reply to author'.

Fran: grizzly To: Lung Tau Subject: Re: prospecting Date: Wednsday, 16 April 1997 13:12 Lung Tau writes: > Just a quick shopping list. We're in the market for certain new types of ores > which might be discovered, or have been discovered in the recent past.

> Properties of the desired ores include a complete lack of corrosion regardless > of environmental situation. Also a flexibility not usually seen in metal.

> Ttp prices will be paid as usual Have something that might interest you. Found by a traveller.

Package includes ore sample, plus coordinates and video of source.

Reserve price US$250,000.

Meet at the usual place?