The Tomb Of Hercules

3 Shanghai

It was more than two years since Chase’s last visit to Shanghai, and he was impressed-though not surprised-by the scale of the change in the city’s skyline. New skyscrapers had sprung up wherever he looked, and the spaces between them were filled with towering construction cranes that formed gangly silhouettes against the dusk sky.

The new structures weren’t the boring boxes that dominated cities in the West. Flush with money and determined to show off the fact, the booming corporations of Shanghai were engaged in an architectural arms race, competing to have the tallest, the coolest, the most outrageously designed headquarters. Ancient Chinese temples stretched vertically to a hundred stories or more, gleaming silver spires, domes, corkscrews and even some bizarre organic shapes that defied easy description, everything blazing with neon.

The building Chase took a particular interest in as the taxi drove along an overpass on the city’s eastern side was not as tall as some, but it still made a statement with its size and design. The headquarters of Ycom-pronounced yee-com-were around thirty floors high, one side of the building a sheer cliff of black glass while the other dropped away in a smooth curve that reminded him of a skateboard ramp. The roof of the building was festooned with communications masts, all picked out in neon, with what looked like a helicopter pad at the center.

Ycom, he knew, was one of Richard Yuen Xuan’s corporations.

“So, Eddie, you still like Shanghai?” said the woman driving the cab. Her petite frame made to seem even smaller by her oversized, boyish clothes, Chao Mei appeared to be barely out of her teens. In fact, she was several years older than she looked, and her pretty, innocent face, partly hidden below the brim of a floppy turquoise beret, belied some of the less-than-legal activities Chase knew she’d been involved in through her family’s connections to the Triads.

“Yeah, it looks pretty cool. All these towers, though-the whole place is like one giant dick-waving contest.”

Mei giggled. “You still always joke about sex, Eddie. Maybe if not for this”-she patted her stomach. Not even her padded jacket could disguise the fact that she was several months pregnant- “we could have finally done it for real, hmm?”

“Yeah, bloody Lo and his powerful sperm,” said Chase, knowing she was joking. “But I’m probably going to need to get out of town fast when I’m done.” His voice dropped. “Also, I’m sort of involved with someone.”

“You are?” She looked back at him, pleased but also a little surprised. “Good for you! What’s she like? Is she beautiful?”

“Eyes on the road, Mei,” Chase reminded her, trying not to wince as the taxi drifted out of its lane towards a bus. She jerked the cab back into line, then watched him in the mirror. “And yeah, she is.”

“I knew it! When I told Lo you were coming, he got very jealous. Wanted to know how someone with your face always ended up with beautiful women.”

Chase snorted, rubbing his flat, oft-broken nose. “Guess it’s because I’m just such a great bloke.”

“That’s what I told him! So, tell me about her. Are you in love?”

The skyline disappeared as the taxi descended into the tunnel under the river bisecting the city. “I… I don’t know. I dunno what we are right now, to be honest,” said Chase, wanting to change the subject. He looked out at the skyscrapers again as the taxi emerged from the tunnel on the city’s western side.

Shanghai’s Grand Theatre was an ultramodern structure of steel and glass on the western side of the People’s Park. Mei pulled the taxi over by the plaza in front of the building. “Okay, this is it. You got everything you need?”

“My ticket’s right here,” said Chase, holding it up.

“Sorry I couldn’t get you a better seat. Very short notice.”

“I didn’t come here to see some fat bloke singing,” he reminded her with a grin.

“What about a signal when you want me to get you?”

“Just keep your eyes open. You’ll know it when you see it.”

Mei frowned. “Eddie, please don’t blow up the Grand Theatre. I like it, I saw Les Mis there.”

“Sounds like a good reason to blow it up!” The frown deepened. “Okay, okay, I promise I won’t completely destroy the place.”

“Thank you.”

“Might be some breakage though.”

“Eddie!”

“Just kidding. Okay, time to go.”

“Hold on.” Mei reached back and adjusted his bow tie. “There. Perfect.”

“Aren’t I always?” He tugged the lapels of the tuxedo she had obtained for him.

“Take care of yourself,” she told him as he stepped out of the taxi. He winked in reply, then set off across the plaza.

Chase had deliberately arrived early, and he hung around in the Grand Theatre’s glass-walled foyer to observe the other audience members as they came in.

He was quickly able to distinguish the genuine opera fans from the corporate show-offs. The former were excited to be there, filled with anticipation for the performance. The latter were more interested in braying loudly, displaying a dismissive, seen-it-all-before attitude to prove this was just another in a long line of expensive perks. Fancy phones, expensive watches and showy jewelery were on open display. Yuppies were as obnoxious in China as anywhere else.

There was another division, as well. The auditorium in which Don Giovanni was being performed occupied two levels, floor and balcony. According to the seating plan in Chase’s program, the balcony level was mostly private boxes. He had no doubt that his target would be found there.

Keeping watch on the main doors, he familiarized himself with the lobby’s layout, then climbed the stairs to the balcony level. Theater staff at the end of a velvet rope cordon examined tickets to make sure that only the wealthy gained access-and beyond them were a couple of heavyset, thick-necked men in dinner jackets. Private security. Holstered guns bulged noticeably under their jackets, and Chase was sure that was deliberate. A show of force.

He looked back down at the main entrance-and saw the people he had been waiting for.

Yuen swept into the lobby as if it were his own personal domain. Four men surrounded him in a protective square, tuxedoed hulks who could have been stamped from the same mold as the guards along the corridor. A few of the yuppies made moves as if hoping to get a personal audience, but glares from the goons deterred them.

Sophia followed a couple of steps behind her husband. She was wearing a long cheongsam in shimmering red silk, and even her hair had been pinned up in a traditional Chinese style. She was also carrying a little handbag and wearing shiny black spike-heeled shoes-the platform soles making the heels even more ridiculously high, at least five inches-secured to her feet with a web of thin straps. Chase frowned. That could make things awkward.

The group headed for the elevators at the back of the lobby. Chase made his way through the guests on the balcony level, also heading for the elevators.

The doors opened and the four bodyguards emerged to clear a space, followed by Yuen and then Sophia. Chase stepped forward. One of the goons moved to block him-

“Eddie!” Sophia cried.

Yuen froze, regarding him suspiciously. “Mr… Chase, isn’t it?” he said slowly. The bodyguard stepped back, allowing Chase to approach. “This is kinda unexpected.”

“I’m a huge opera fan,” Chase said. “Never miss a performance.”

Yuen’s suspicion deepened. “It’s a long way to come from New York.”

“I get around. But it turned out well, because it means I can apologize to your wife.” He turned to Sophia. “I was… rather rude to you the other night. I’m sorry about that.”

“Thank you,” she replied. “I know we had some problems in the past, but I wouldn’t want you to still be angry with me.”

“I’m not. So, where are you sitting?”

“Box number one,” Sophia told him. “Best seats in the house.”

“I’m down in the cheap seats, I’m afraid. Oh well, maybe we can meet up later.”

“We’ll be leaving as soon as the performance finishes,” Yuen said pointedly.

“That’s a shame. Some other time, then?”

“It’d be a really big coincidence if we met again.”

Yuen nodded slightly at one of his guards, who interposed himself between Chase and the group. “We have to take our seats. Enjoy the opera, Mr. Chase.”

“Nothing I like more. Oh, by the way, Sophia… nice shoes.”

She stopped, tipping her right shoe on its toe to show it off to him. “They are rather good, aren’t they?”

“Very high heels. What are they, five inches?” Sophia nodded. “They can’t be good for your feet. You really should take them off once you’re in your seat.”

“I didn’t realize you were a podiatrist, Mr. Chase,” said Yuen cuttingly. “Or are you more of a shoe fetishist?”

“Hey, they’re very handy when you need to get something off a high shelf.” Chase flashed him a grin. It wasn’t returned. “Anyway, nice to meet you again.”

“You too,” Sophia said quietly as she was led away.

From his seat on the auditorium’s main floor, Chase used his program to locate Yuen’s box. By hanging around in the lobby until just before the performance began, he had spotted two of the bodyguards who arrived with Yuen heading downstairs, apparently not opera fans. With luck that meant there were only two men in the box with Yuen and Sophia.

There were still the two goons in the corridor, but he was sure he could handle them when the time came.

It came roughly twenty minutes into the performance. He left his seat, earning annoyed tuts from the other people in his row as he squeezed past them, then headed for the lobby and went up the stairs. As he’d hoped, the theater staff manning the cordon had gone now that everybody was seated.

That just left the two armed guards.

Chase peered around the corner. They were stationed almost directly outside the entrance to Yuen’s box. One leaned against the wall by a fire hose on a large reel, looking bored out of his mind, while the other fidgeted and ran a finger around his shirt collar. Chase knew the feeling.

He unfastened his dinner jacket, then stepped into view.

Or rather, he staggered into view. The two guards straightened, watching him cautiously. As he got closer, he saw that both men had radios, coiled wires running down their necks from small earpieces.

“Ay up, lads!” Chase said in a loud, slurred voice as he approached. “Couldn’t ‘elp me out, could you? Think I’ve ‘ad a bit too much to drink, an’ I’ve got a bit lost. Lookin’ for the bogs, but all the signs are in Chinese!” He was only ten feet from them, six… “Can you point me int’ right direction?”

One of the guards extended a fat finger at a sign on the wall. Directions were given in Mandarin and English, as well as the international symbols for male and female. Chase squinted at it. “Oh, it is in English! Bloody ‘ell, must be more pissed than I thought. Thanks, lads.” He gave the two men a bleary-eyed smile. They grinned back-and Chase drove his fist into the nearest man’s face.

He fell backwards, out cold, a spray of blood radiating from his crushed nose. The other man gawped, then fumbled at his jacket. He barked a word in Chinese-

Chase leaped at him and body-slammed him against the wall. He clawed at the man’s jacket, snagging the transmitter under his lapel and tearing it loose. A wire popped free as he threw it onto the polished floor, at the same time delivering a crunching kidney punch with his other fist. The guard’s face contorted in pain.

But that didn’t stop him from smashing his fist against the side of Chase’s skull.

Chase staggered, this time for real. Filled with sudden fury, he threw himself shoulder-first against the guard’s chest, plowing him back against the wall with such force that it drove all the air from his lungs.

Before the man could even begin to catch his breath, Chase seized him in a headlock and hauled him back across the corridor. The guard’s head hit the reel of the fire hose with a bong! that left a dent in the metal. He instantly collapsed, unconscious.

But he’d gotten off a warning, however brief. Yuen’s other goons would burst out of the private box at any moment.

Chase grabbed the heavy brass nozzle of the fire hose and yanked it free of the reel, several feet of fabric-covered rubber playing out behind it. He swung it around his head, faster and faster, letting out more of the hose through his hand with each turn.

The door opened-

And the first of Yuen’s goons to emerge took the full force of the nozzle across his jaw. It hit so hard that he flipped over backwards in an involuntary somersault, blood and teeth arcing across the corridor.

Shouts from the lobby. Chase glanced back towards it. He could hear footsteps clattering up the stairs: more of Yuen’s bodyguards on the way.

And one more guy in the box.

Chase tilted his raised arm, still whirling the hose like a lasso but now bringing it down closer to floor level as the other guard vaulted over his fallen comrade, pulling a gun from his jacket-

The hose whipped around his ankles.

The man stumbled, throwing his arms out to keep his balance. Before he had a chance to bring up the gun, Chase charged at him, bending to ram into him at waist height and scoop him off his feet. Without slowing, he ran into the darkened box, seeing the surprised faces of Yuen and Sophia as he shot past them and threw the guard over the edge of the balcony.

The hose snaked past him at frightening speed, the bodyguard letting out a high-pitched shriek of fear…

The shriek was cut off abruptly as the hose snapped taut, vibrating like a plucked guitar string. Chase looked over the balcony. The bodyguard’s fall had been brought to a stop with his head inches above the auditorium’s main aisle. The opera continued, the performers and musicians unable to see what had happened through the glare of the lights-though Chase did hear a chorus of “Shhhh!” over the singing.

He turned to the occupants of the box. Sophia stared at him in amazement, while Yuen’s expression was one of disbelief and growing rage.

“Sophia, get up,” Chase ordered. She did. He hoisted her over his left shoulder in a fireman’s lift, realizing she still had her high heels on. Muttering a curse, he backed to the edge of the balcony. “Hold on to me, and whatever you do, don’t let go.”

She clung to him. “What are you going to-”

He wrapped the hose around his right arm, lifted it clear of the balcony railing-then vaulted over the edge.

The hose hissed as he slid down it, feeling the sharp heat of friction through his sleeve. Sophia yelped in shock as they dropped towards the floor, the bodyguard still dangling below-

Chase tightened his legs around the hose, using the guard’s upturned soles as a landing pad for his feet. He bent his knees to absorb the impact, then said, “Brace yourself!” as he unraveled his arm and jumped the last few feet to the ground. He felt Sophia’s stomach muscles tense against him just before the impact, body heat against his cheek.

Old memories…

They hit the floor. Sophia gasped. Chase looked up the aisle towards the rear exit, aware that the audience was gawking at him. Someone shouted from above. Yuen leaned over the balcony, pointing down at them. Chase gave him a cheeky salute, then ran up the aisle, Sophia still over his shoulder. Little coils of smoke wafted from his right sleeve. The black cloth had been scorched brown. He hoped Mei hadn’t paid a deposit on the tuxedo, as she wasn’t going to get it back.

“You okay?” he asked Sophia.

“I’m fine!” she replied, somewhat winded. “That was… that kind of reminded me of how we first met!”

“Yeah, but I had a machine gun then, and there weren’t any civvies around to worry about. Mind your head!” He turned sideways to slam open the double doors with his right shoulder, emerging in the brightly lit lobby. Sophia’s legs waved in front of him, her spike heels glinting. “I told you to take off your bloody shoes!”

“I didn’t realize you were going to burst in like some crazed rhino halfway through the opera!” Sophia objected as he hurried for the exit. “I was expecting something more subtle!”

“You really didn’t know me at all, did you?” More shouts came from above. He looked up to see Yuen’s two remaining bodyguards hurrying back down the stairs, guns in their hands. The handful of people in the lobby screamed when they saw the weapons and ran for the exits. “Hellfire! Will these guys shoot at me if I’ve got you?”

“I certainly hope not!”

“Then make sure and tell them not to!” He looked back as Sophia shouted commands in Mandarin. He was only halfway across the lobby, and the two bodyguards were almost on him-

“Put down Lady Sophia!” one of the men yelled in heavily accented English. Whatever Sophia said had worked; neither guard had put away his gun, but nor were they aiming them at him. “Put her down now!”

“Come and get her!” Chase called as he turned to face them, right arm outstretched to counterbalance Sophia’s weight over his shoulder. They were moving to flank him, one on each side. “You keep up with the fight training?” he asked her.

She was puzzled. “Yes?”

“Good, because you just became my weapon! Get ready-”

One of the bodyguards rushed at them. Chase whirled around and hit him square in the face with Sophia’s feet as she kicked out, the heavy platform soles cracking into his jaw. The man’s head snapped to one side and he dropped to the floor, dazed and bloodied.

“Nice one!” Chase told her, spinning to look for the second guard. He had been closing from the other side but had now stopped abruptly, realization spreading across his face that Sophia was helping her kidnapper. He brought up his gun.

Chase turned faster, hoping Sophia still thought as quickly as she used to. She did, lashing out with one expensively shod foot-

The gun flew out of the bodyguard’s hand and clattered away across the lobby’s marble floor. He stared in surprise at the tip of the spike heel protruding through his palm. Sophia pulled her leg back, a little spout of blood jetting from the hole in the man’s hand as her heel withdrew. He howled-only for the cry of pain to stop abruptly as Chase punched him in the face and knocked him flat on his back.

“Aren’t you glad I kept my shoes on now?” Sophia said.

“Okay, I’ll give you that one,” Chase replied, jogging for the exit.

“It would have been much simpler if you’d just shot him, though.”

“I didn’t bring a gun,” Chase admitted.

Sophia’s voice filled with disbelief. “What? Why not?”

“I’m trying to cut down on shooting people. Too much paperwork.”

“Since when do you care about paperwork?”

“My life’s changed!” He booted one of the glass doors open and hurried outside, looking back for signs of pursuit. Yuen was running down the stairs, and the bodyguard Sophia had kicked in the head was struggling to his feet.

A car horn hooted frantically. A taxi charged across the plaza towards the front of the Grand Theatre, pedestrians jumping out of its way. “That’s our ride!” he told Sophia, waving to Mei as she brought the taxi to a screeching stop in front of them. He pulled open the rear door, then quickly bowed to deposit Sophia on the pavement with a click of her heels. “Get in, quick,” he ordered, now all business. Behind, Yuen was rallying his troops, the bodyguard now helping the second man up, and another coming down from the balcony level.

Chase shoved Sophia into the taxi, then leaped in after her. Mei stamped on the accelerator before he even had a chance to close the door, the taxi taking off with a shriek of rubber. He poked his head up to look through the rear window-

“Duck!” he shouted, shielding Sophia with his body. Yuen and one of the bodyguards were now outside the theater, the guard raising his gun. Chase heard four shots, but none of them seemed to hit the speeding taxi.

“Good thing this isn’t my cab!” Mei yelled, swerving the taxi onto a grass verge. It skidded over it in a shower of turf and careered across a pavement. People dived out of its path, yelling obscenities after them as Mei turned again, merging into a line of identical cabs as they sped along the street.

Chase looked back. Yuen was an angry silhouette against the illuminated glass foyer-then trees blocked him from sight. “Okay, we’re clear. Nice driving, Mei.”

“That was nothing. You should see me when I need to get home to pee!” She looked at Sophia in the mirror. “So, you rescued your lady friend? Hi, I’m Mei.”

“Sophia Blackwood,” Sophia told her. “I’m very happy to meet you!”

Mei’s expression became confused. “Sophia? But wasn’t that your first wife’s…” She glanced back at Chase. “Is she who you told me about before, the one you-”

“No,” said Chase emphatically. “Let’s get to the station. The sooner me and Sophia get out of here, the better.”

“We have to go to my husband’s company headquarters first,” said Sophia. It was a command, not a request.

Chase raised an eyebrow. “You what?”

“I can’t leave the country otherwise-Richard keeps my passport in his office safe.” To Chase’s disbelieving look, she went on, “I said in my letter that he was controlling.”

“Wait, and you let him? You?”

“Can we not start, please?” Sophia sighed, exasperated. “And there’s more there than just my passport. I can access his private computer files-and give you the proof that he’s connected to the sinking of the SBX rig.”

“And you couldn’t have done this before?”

“Don’t you think I would have done if I could?” she snapped. There was a brief, frosty silence. “I’m sorry. Eddie, I’m so grateful that you would do this for me, you have no idea. But you don’t know what Richard is like. He’s very… suspicious. Paranoid, even. And now that I’ve found out what he’s involved in, I know why.” She touched his hand. “Once we’re in his office, it’ll only take me ten minutes, less, to get what I need.”

Chase looked down at her hand on his, thinking. Then he gave it the briefest of squeezes before leaning forward. “Okay, Mei. Looks like we’re making a detour. Take us to the Ycom building.”