Bond decided to take a risk by going back to the Mandarin Oriental. A room there would provide some privacy for a phone call to London. When he left the aviary, he noticed nearly a hundred people, most of them Chinese, walking through the park carrying signs. Written in Chinese and English, they were pro-democracy slogans. One read “Stay out of our hair, China.” Another read, “One country, two systems—remember your promise, China.” Yet another read, “No troops at the border.” It reminded Bond that Chinese troops had massed north of the New Territories. That alone would make any citizen of Hong Kong nervous.
Bond walked to the hotel, stopping only to eat a quick dinner in a fast-food Chinese restaurant. Woo had checked him out of the hotel as promised, and Bond quickly learned that there were no other rooms available. Bond asked the attractive girl at the reception desk to locate the manager. There really were no rooms available, but the manager allowed 007 to use a private office for a phone call since he knew Bond personally.
He dialled the access number to get a secure line. When the duty officer answered, Bond said, “Predator,” the code name which had been his for the last several years. The duty officer asked him to hold the line. After a few clicks, he heard the voice of Bill Tanner.
“James? Where the hell are you? M’s beside herself!”
“I’m fine, Bill. I’m at the hotel at the moment, but I’ve really no place to stay. The safe house …”
“We know all about the safe house, James. Woo contacted us.”
“Where is he?”
“He’s all right, and so is his son. They are in hiding. I’m afraid the brother was killed.”
“Christ. What about the girl?”
“Girl?”
“There was a girl at the safe house who helped me. We were going to try and get her to England.”
“Oh, yes, we got that request. You should have heard M’s comments on that one! I won’t repeat them here. I don’t know about the girl. Maybe she’s with Woo. As far as a passport is concerned, M is thinking about it.”
Bond hoped so. “What happened? Do we know who was responsible?”
“Woo was out of the shop when it happened. He returned with his son to find his brother slashed to bits and the place in a shambles. He called a clean-up crew to dispose of the body and he and his son got out fast. We’re not sure where he is at the moment, but I imagine we will hear from him soon. Woo thought it was Triad.”
Then it was possible Sunni wasn’t with him after all.
“Do you know what happened to Thackeray?” Bond asked.
“Yes, it’s all over the news already. Our morning television news programmes have covered it. EurAsia Enterprises is the hot topic. There’s a lot of speculation, and the PM is trying to contact China regarding the so-called sale of the company. It’s all extremely bizarre.”
“It doesn’t make any sense to me, either. I’ve been unable to find out a thing, I’m afraid. Do we know who the killer was?”
“It’s still too early. According to the Royal Hong Kong Police, the man had no identification on him. No one knows who the hell he was. Anyway, M still wants you on the case. Just because Thackeray’s no longer with us doesn’t mean you can’t still get to the bottom of it. Keep digging. If you can establish and prove the link between EurAsia and that Triad, you’ll have done your job.”
“All right, I know where to go next. What’s happening in Australia?”
“Nothing new there,” Tanner said with a sigh. “It’s as if it never happened. If anyone knows anything about it, they’re not talking. No one has come forward claiming responsibility. It’s a big mystery.”
“Great.”
“The worry now is the transition. The number of Chinese troops at the border is increasing. Beijing is complaining about all the prodemocracy demonstrations that are taking place. They’ve asked the Hong Kong Governor to put a stop to them, but he’s refused. He’s standing up for their rights. We all want the transition to be peaceful and dignified. Right now the air is full of distrust and near panic. I should probably tell you that we’ve sent a couple of warships your way.”
“The Royal Navy?” Bond groaned. This was serious.
“Let’s hope their presence will act as a deterrent.”
“Right. Anything else?”
“No. How’s your arm? I heard you got cut.”
“Hurts like hell, but I’ll live.”
“You always do. Keep in touch. We’ll get you and Woo back together.”
Tanner signed off and Bond suddenly felt very much alone, sitting in the middle of a powder keg just waiting to explode.
The Container Port at Kwai Chung was Bond’s next stop. Woo had given him directions to EurAsia Enterprises’ warehouse located within the huge complex. The only problem was that he would have to get over a barbed-wire fence, but he had encountered worse obstacles in his life …
Bond took a taxi to Kowloon and then further north into the western New Territories. He told the driver to let him off in front of the fenced Container Terminal on Kwai Chung Road. It was night now, and Bond’s dark clothing should disappear into the shadows.
Hong Kong is one of the busiest shipping ports in the world. The Kwai Chung Container Port is one of many such terminals in the colony, but it is the largest and serves as a transhipment centre for Chinese export goods because China’s own transport infrastructure is inadequate. It is as important to China as it is to Hong Kong.
From where he stood, Bond could see hundreds of containers stacked high like coloured building blocks. They all had labels and logos painted on the sides—EVERGREEN, UNIGLORY, HYUNDAI, K LINE, WAN HAI, CHO YANG, HANJIN, and others. Tall orange cranes loomed over the containers at strategic points around the port, along with equally tall blue barges. White warehouse buildings were scattered throughout the extended terminal. One could easily get lost, but luckily Bond was equipped with the map that Woo had prepared for him.
He removed his left shoe, pried open the heel, took out the small wire cutter and replaced the shoe. He climbed the fence and easily snapped the barbed-wire, slipped through and over the fence, and jumped down to the pavement on the other side. He took a moment to replace the wire cutter, then pulled the map from his pocket. The EurAsia Enterprises warehouse was at the southern end of the terminal.
Apparently the port never closed, for there were men working here and there, even after hours. The place was well illuminated by tall floodlights. So much for dressing in dark clothes … Bond darted from one pile of containers to another, hoping no one would see him. After ten minutes, he found the warehouse. It was fully lit and its loading doors were open.
The warehouse was near the shoreline, and Bond could see a large white cargo ship in Rambler Channel, the body of water adjoining the port. It was too far away for him to read the name on the side, but he assumed it was one of EurAsia’s ships. A smaller lighter was travelling from the ship to the shoreline, where cranes were ready to unload cargo. It appeared that the lighter had already made a trip or two, for men were busy moving crates into the warehouse on forklifts. Bond moved closer to the building, looking for an entry somewhere at the back.
There was a door behind the warehouse, probably an emergency exit of some kind. Bond was sure it would be locked, but he tried it anyway. He was right. Twenty feet above him was an open window, but he had no way to scale the wall. Without a second thought, Bond snapped open the clasp on his belt buckle. Q Branch had devised this standard field issue piece of equipment many years ago. A set of fibreglass picklocks was hidden inside, undetectable by X-ray. Bond squatted so that he was at eye level with the door knob, and slowly tried each pick until he found one that worked. In three minutes, the door was unlocked. He replaced the picklocks and slowly inched open the door.