His mobile bleeped. “
Good morning Alex, Ling here.”
Alex returned the greeting.
“I have some information that is worth looking at,” Ling continued. “Can you meet me on the waterfront in a few minutes?”
“Just say where,” Alex replied easily.
“Good. Right opposite your hotel you’ll see an estate agent’s office. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”
“That’s fine, see you there,” Alex agreed, taking a final gulp of his tea and returning the mobile to his pocket.
He wandered down to the lobby and out and into the sunlight. Instantly aware of the searing heat and deafening traffic noise, he looked in vain for a pedestrian crossing. Undeterred, he following some locals, who simply took their lives in their hands and stepped into the path of the slowest looking vehicle. Then, amidst the sound of screeching tyres and the blast of a multitude of horns, he scrambled to the other side.
“I’ve lived dangerously most of my life,” Alex greeted Ling as he entered the estate agent’s office, “but crossing that road was the riskiest thing I’ve done for years!” He shook his head in genuine wonder.
Ling laughed.
“Then let me tell you, I think that your trip to Hong Kong is going to get even more exciting. Here, sit down.” They were in a tiny air-conditioned interview room. “I asked my cousin at the harbour office if he knew of any unusual shipping movements.” Ling noted Alex’s look of concern. “Don’t worry — you can take my word that he’s definitely one of us,” he reassured Alex before continuing with his information. “The derelict part of the old docks was to be redeveloped as part of a vast project, planned to go ahead if the lease extension for the Hong Kong and New Territories had been agreed. In the event it was not, so the area remains a ghetto for smugglers and rogues. Last month a small site was cleared and fenced off, apparently by the military. There have been a few visits by a small coaster but none of the dockings were recorded. The traffic was noted by my cousin, simply because his apartment looks out over that particular quay. Such unregistered movements are not unusual in this part of the world and nowadays no member of the general public really cares.”
“So what’s your idea? Where is this quay? Can we go now?” Alex sensed a thrill at this fortuitous piece of intelligence.
“First my cousin will show us the site from his apartment, then if you think it’s what you’re looking for, we take a closer look tonight,” Ling said, leaning towards Alex. “I guessed you’d be interested — so I told him we’d be there before eleven — it’s a fifteen-minute taxi ride.” Ling looked at his watch and stood up. “Shall we go?”
“Lead the way,” Alex willingly accepted the invitation.
They pulled up outside a large and rather tired looking apartment building. There were at least ten floors. Alex made a private bet with himself that the lifts would be out of order. He was right; they looked as though they hadn’t been working for some time.
“We take the stairs yes?” Ling nodded knowingly.
The rusting external stairs, which doubled as the “Fire Escape”, zigzagged up the gable end of the building. They climbed to the fifth floor.
Ling’s cousin waited at the entrance to the floor.
“Oxygen?” he offered. “Hi I’m David,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand.
Alex shook the hand. David didn’t look oriental to him.
“David is a cousin on the European side of the family,” smiled Ling, noticing Alex’s mild surprise.
“Pleased to meet you,” Alex smiled, still puffing in spite of his fitness. “How long have the elevators been out of action?”
David looked saddened.
“About two weeks. You see under the new regime, some things work and others don’t and taking responsibility for maintenance in an apartment block is not, it seems, on anyone’s list of priorities,” he smiled. “Still it keeps me fit.”
“David, please show us the dock area we talked about and tell Alex what you know about it,” Ling brought the conversation back to the business in hand.
“Over here.”
David moved to the window and pointed towards a sprawling collection of derelict looking buildings. Many were quite obviously occupied.
“Hundreds, possibly thousands of people simply squat over there. Many operate little businesses making things to sell, earning enough to stay alive. If you look over here,” he pointed towards the quay, “you can see that an area has been fenced off and the roof on that old warehouse has been patched up.”
Alex could the roof repairs and noted the bright yellow mobile crane parked close by. Otherwise the dock appeared to be deserted.
“I’ve seen at least two different coasters working at that quay recently. I checked with the harbour log — they were not registered. Of course that’s not entirely unusual — many independent water traders come and go without any paperwork. Some are legal local traders; others I’m sure are not. It’s almost impossible to manage the thousands of movements inside a large harbour like this,” David waved his hand in a hopeless gesture.
Alex accepted the binoculars Ling produced from his brief case.
“Here, try these,” he said simply.
Alex nodded his thanks and looked into the lenses. He was silent for a moment as he studied the fenced area. “There doesn’t seem to be anything obvious to me.”
He passed the glasses to Ling, who also studied the site for a while.
“I have to agree,” Ling said after a couple of minutes, “but perhaps we need to be a little closer?”
“I’m going into the office now so I’ll have a quiet dig round for any new information on the area.” David volunteered. “I’ll call as soon as I have anything.”
Later that day David called Ling.
“It certainly is a mystery. The records have undoubtedly been tampered with. I can’t find any current evidence of any current or historic contracts for those buildings or the quayside facilities. In fact, as far as the harbour authority records are concerned, that area simply doesn’t exist,” he concluded.
“Thanks for that David. Perhaps you will keep your ears and eyes open for anything else unusual?” Ling rang off and called Alex to relay the information.
That evening they met near David’s apartment block. Ling carried a small holdall. He greeted Alex with a grin.
“See I’m a good Boy Scout, ready for anything.” He patted the bag.
They walked the five hundred metres or so to the fenced area in silence. Stopping near the wire, they surveyed the buildings and quayside. There was no sign of life. Cautiously, they walked the perimeter. At one point they discovered that the wire finished against the decaying wall of an ancient building. Circling around the gable, they found that the wire started again on the other side.
“Strange there isn’t any sign of life on this side of the fence either,” Alex commented in a whisper as they stopped by the edge of the quay to assess their findings. “Looks as though there’s only one entrance in the whole circuit and the warehouse is completely isolated from the perimeter, except of course where it joins the remains of the old building,” Alex concluded, looking back. “I suggest that we take another look.”
They gingerly retraced their steps. There had once been a door but that had been replaced with a new piece of heavy shuttering ply, screwed firmly into place. The only window was broken and boarded up from the inside.
Peering into the darkened alcove next to the door, they stumbled on the body of a man. Well at first they thought he was dead but when Ling touched the prostrate form with his foot and the face looked up at them with a start they were as stunned as he was.