After weeks of discussions, the diagnosis was that he was a sociopath, who could easily turn into a psychopath without extensive counselling. This meant he was among the four percent of people born entirely without a conscience. The standard advice for dealing with psychopaths is to avoid them at all costs. They might not be inclined to hurt you, but if they are, they have no conscience to stop them.
Luk had never found any of this to be at all problematic. In fact, he had found his total lack of conscience to be nothing but conducive to getting ahead in the world. It had proven particularly useful when he was navigating the series of juvenile detention centers and prisons he grew up in after the care home years.
But there was a downside: like most psychopaths, Luk got bored very easily. He often filled the void with drugs and alcohol, only this made him even angrier. He knew no joy, no love, no grief, no guilt. He knew only about gain and loss. Life to Luk was a simple zero sum game which he generally won.
Today, staring at the pathetic and forlorn spectacle of the inspector as he begged for his life, he was reminded of that kingfisher, the one he had killed in the hills of eastern Kowloon.
“Mr Inspector,” Luk said quietly, his hand gripping the blow lamp. Its fierce flame was blindingly bright in the half-light of the humid boatshed. “It is unfortunate for you that I do not believe a word of what you say.”
Luk stepped forward, his short, bulky frame now looming over the restrained police inspector. He smiled like a kindly teacher and raised the blow lamp. Moments later, the inspector’s screams frightened the distant herons and terrified them up into the sky.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Hawke glanced through the window of the Airbus A321 at the countless ships in Hangzhou Bay as the plane descended through wispy clouds on its way into Shanghai Pudong International. With a population over three times bigger than London’s, the city loomed up to the west of the aircraft like a terrible, sleeping monster. He hoped Victor Li hadn’t sent them all on a wild goose chase.
He checked his watch. The two and a half hour flight meant it was still before lunch and they had the whole afternoon to track down Johnny Chan and the missing portrait, which hopefully would lead them to Lea. But it turned out he’d been optimistic about local traffic and it took over an hour to get from the airport to their hotel. Eden had booked them into the Ritz-Carlton, which Hawke was certain wasn’t within the usual parameters of Her Majesty’s Government’s travel allowance, but that was a question for much later and he filed it with all the other questions he wanted answers to.
The ride had been tedious and stressful so when they finally arrived they took a few minutes to freshen up before starting their search for Johnny Chan. Standing in the heart of the Lujiazui financial zone the hotel offered a breathtaking view over the Huangpu River far below and the endless sprawl of the city beyond its far bank. Somewhere in all of that, Hawke thought, was Johnny Chan and the stolen Xi Shi portrait.
The others joined him on the balcony. Scarlet yawned and stretched her arms, surveying the massive metropolis for the first time. “Where the hell do we start?”
“Your man Lao didn’t give us much to go on,” said Ryan. “So far all we have is a stolen portrait of one of the famous Four Beauties and a dead German researcher with the Chinese characters for an ancient god of thunder carved into his stomach.”
“Who was murdered by someone trying to frame me,” Lexi said.
Scarlet raised an eyebrow. “And what was that other thing? Oh yeah, I remember — a missing Tesla device capable of levelling an entire city.”
“Oh yeah,” Ryan said. “That’s the best bit!”
Scarlet perused the drinks menu. “We’re going to need some refreshment.”
Moments later, Lexi ordered room service — a bottle of chilled vodka and some cigarettes to smoke on the balcony.
The door buzzed.
“That’ll be the room service,” Lexi said, looking through the spy hole in the door.
She opened the door and Hawke heard her thank the room service attendant. A moment later Scarlet was pouring out glasses of chilled vodka.
Hawke took a long drink and settled his mind. “Any progress on Lea?”
Ryan cleared his throat. “Not really. As we now know, Eden sent her over here to gather information on Felix Hoffmann. He was in Hong Kong researching something but then he flew out suddenly and without any warning. We know Lea never left the city because of passport records, and we also know what happened to Hoffmann in Paris, so the concern is that whoever killed Hoffmann has something to do with Lea’s disappearance.”
“But we don’t know she’s actually been taken though?” Scarlet asked.
“No,” replied Sophie. “She may have had to drop off the grid. We don’t know if she’s in danger or not, but it’s unlike her to break protocol in this way. That is why Eden has such grave concerns.”
“You all seem very well briefed,” Hawke said.
“Eden contacted me less than an hour ago,” Sophie said in a matter-of-fact tone.
Hawke got serious and slammed his glass down with a smack. “All right, then we know what we have to do. Our priority is the safe return of Lea and to get to the bottom of this Hoffmann murder. Eden says they must be linked and so we’re working on them simultaneously.”
He turned to Ryan. “You and Sophie stay here at the hotel. We need some kind of temporary HQ and this may as well be it, plus I’ve asked an old friend of mine to join us — Commodore Hart. I called her when we left Lao’s office. If she turns up while I’m away, make her feel at home.”
“No problemo,” Ryan said, collapsing on the bed and powering up his laptop.
Hawke pulled on his jacket. “Stay in contact with us while you’re researching this Tesla machine and anything else in this mess that can throw some light on things. In the meantime, we’re going to have a word with Johnny Chan.”
“And where is Chan?” Sophie asked.
“According to Victor Li, he lives in a villa on the Hengshan Road in the Minhang district. How long will that take us, Lexi?”
“Maybe a half hour by cab.”
An hour later, Lexi paid the cab driver and he pulled away into the traffic. They were in a broad, tree-lined avenue in the heart of one of Shanghai’s up-market areas. It didn’t take long to knock out Chan’s CCTV and climb over the wall and then they walked casually up to the front door of his luxury villa.
Hawke paused along the way to peer through a side gate into the rear garden where he saw an expansive swimming pool surrounded by persimmon trees. “Very nice,” he said, nodding his head with genuine appreciation.
“Amazing what the proceeds of crime can bring a man,” Scarlet said. “I’m obviously in the wrong line of work.”
“You think?”
“Uh-huh. Actually, I’ve been giving that a little thought. After our little sojourn into the vault of Poseidon I was thinking about what would happen if we located a large amount of treasure, only this time we should decide not to let the Americans walk away with it.”
“Do you ever think of anything besides money, Cairo?” Hawke said.
“Of course. Sometimes I think about sex.”
Hawke sighed. “We can talk about your early retirement later, but now I think it’s time for a chat with little Johnny.”
Hawke moved silently over the fake grass, but despite the lack of noise a man on an upper balcony began shouting and seconds later he was pouring fire down on them from the muzzle of a submachine gun.