Free The Dragon's Tale: A Jack Lauder Thriller by Clive Hindle Page A

bed, he was dog-tired. As he went off to sleep something banged away in his head. He was a sitting duck here. The answer lay with Gerry Montrose in Hong Kong. What did the Triads think Jack had of Gerry’s? 
     
         In the morning the telephone rang. It was Lowther. "Sorry to tell you, Jack, but Kwok flew to Amsterdam last night. He was on the plane for Taiwan today." That was convenient in the sense that the British Government had no extradition treaty with the Republican one in Taiwan. "Look on the bright side, though. This does demonstrate that your theory was right. For once." Jack ignored the jibe. After hours of thought, he had made up his mind and had a game plan. He had no pressing cases on now Peter’s was over and he could leave the office to his partners for a couple of weeks. A sweet song beguiled him, its melody the perfume of orchids and incense, its libretto the sounds of the raucous night. It was the song of the Orient. All in all he had a couple of good reasons for looking up old friends in the East.
     
    7 Sir
    8 Tournament
    9 Going
    10 About
    11 I’m
    12 Alright
    13 Nice
    14 Blokes
    15 Don’t know
    16 Pal
    17 To do with
    18 once
    19 Where’s that
    20 Yourself
    21 Told
    22 Myself
    23 Want to know
    23 outside
    25 head
    26 Mouth out
    27 Mate
    28 Wasn’t
    29 Child’s
    30 Don’t
    31 murder
    32 All wrong
    33 Mate
    34 Wasn’t
    35 was
    36 Nothing ersonal
    37 was
    38 Down
    39 You deaf
    40 Someone from Sunderland
    41 Nothing personal
     
     
     
     
     
     

PART 2
     
    CHAPTER 1
     
     
     
     
         At Heathrow he found himself with a couple of hours before take-off so he headed for the restaurant. Not long after he had ordered, his attention was attracted to the arrival of a young Chinese man and a European woman. He was supremely self-confident. She was restrained by comparison and Jack had the impression the young man was showing off. She had her back towards him but she was older than her companion. It was the way she dressed: casually elegant but not in an overly youthful way. He took an interest now. She was blond with a superb shape but he could not get a good enough view. He had a nagging sense of déjà vu . There was there was something familiar about her, and it had him trawling the memory banks of well-known celebrities, but he couldn’t put his finger on it. A little later his plane was called.
     
         The journey was uneventful until the aeroplane arrived over Hong Kong. The descent into Kai Tak was a thrilling if slightly uncomfortable experience as the plane came in between the high rises towards the runway which jutted out on reclaimed land into Victoria Harbour. No wonder a new airport was being planned over on Lantao; you could reach out and grab the clothing off the lines here.
     
         He had to wait a short while in the baggage reclaim and noticed once again the couple he had seen at Heathrow. They must have travelled first class. Again he had that distinct feeling of deja vu when he looked at the woman. Perhaps she was an actress or something but it nagged at him because it wasn’t that kind of familiarity. It was something much more personal, just out of context. It was really annoying because it was like he was looking at someone through a haze, just waiting for the object to heave into view, but it never does. There was another odd feeling as well: as if there was a reason for the sighting; as if his life was interlocked in some way with this couple’s. It was a stupid thought, no logic to it at all, but he couldn’t get away from it.
     
         Instead of travelling first class, he had booked into the Mandarin on Hong Kong Island. Typical of such an establishment the hotel Roller was waiting to collect its only passenger. Soon, Jack found himself once again among the garish neon signs and the streets full of teeming humanity, which, in his younger days, had proved initially such a culture shock, but which had rapidly captivated his senses. The