BLOOD DRAGON by Freddie Peters (books to get back into reading .TXT) 📕

up. More bruises were appearing on her body, but the excitement of finding a contact that could deliver certainty made her forget the pain. There would be no dithering hesitation from her any longer, no matter how perilous the process turned out to be.

Her mobile rang again. She had forgotten someone had been trying to contact her. Pole’s name flashed onto the screen.

She cursed herself for not checking who had been calling. He hadn’t left a voice message but sent a text. Inspector Pole was mightily annoyed, and she couldn’t blame him.

* * *

He ran across Victoria Embankment, making his way through static traffic and stepped onto the Millennium Pier. Pole’s mac was hardly adequate for the plummeting temperature, but it would have to do. The River Thames humidity crept onto the pier and Pole shivered as he reached the inside of the waiting room. People were huddled there, waiting for the river taxis, others were buying memorabilia from the little shop close to the river boat terminal. Pole chose a seat at the far end of the room, activated his MI6 burner phone, and called the only number stored there.

Harris answered almost immediately.

“The old burner phone has been traced.”

“Relax, Inspector … it won’t give you away. My team has been cleaning up that data. We always do this as a matter of course but we’ve done a lot more than usual to make sure the calls won’t be traced.”

“I’ll only relax when Ferguson is off my back.” Pole shot back. “If anyone is going to find out what happened, it’s him.”

“Ferguson has a reputation, I’m aware. But so far he has found nothing, and he never will.”

“Don’t be so goddamn smug, Harris.” Pole’s voice rose. He looked around, no one had noticed. “I’m also calling about China.”

“Glad you are, because I too have news. But perhaps not what you might expect. It seems that Ms Wu is as incredibly efficient as ever at finding where the bad guys are.” Harris was moving around, and Pole suspected he was finding a quieter place to continue the conversation.

“I’m waiting.”

“She visited Ollie Wilson’s place of work this afternoon AND was spotted by one of my CIA colleagues …” Harris sounded amused.

“Shit …” Pole slumped back into the plastic seat.

“A good summary of the situation. Needless to say, I have not told them who Ms Wu is but it’s only a matter of time …”

“Hang on.” Pole interrupted. “How did he get her name in the first place?”

“Valid question …” Harris chuckled. “She announced herself at the door of Viro-Tech Therapeutics as he was surveying the place … bit of bad luck.”

“Which also means that those people, as you say, the bad guys, have her name too.”

“Spot on … I can’t imagine she wasn’t aware of that though. From what I have seen in the short period of time I have known her, Miss Wu is not the sort to flinch when it comes to risk taking.”

Pole groaned. “She doesn’t need any encouragement, a motorbike tried to run her over this afternoon … and I don’t think it was to steal her bag either.”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Pole, but that’s possibly a good thing … she’s getting close to information that rankles with whoever is involved in Ollie Wilson’s case and, as you and I know, sooner or later they’ll make a mistake.”

“What are you now, Harris … a detective at the Met?” But Harris was right. “I’d rather that did not put her in hospital alongside Wilson.”

“But Wilson did not know how to go about protecting himself … or how to go about an investigation.”

“So why has your CIA colleague, as you put it, come to London?”

“He’s on holiday … he has a an awful lot of days to use up.”

“Harris, I’m your source at the Met and your CIA bod is getting information from me, so why don’t you tell me what you know and cut the crap.” Pole looked at his watch. He needed to get back.

“Point taken.” Harris grew serious. “This is what I know.”

Harris gave Pole the details he had gathered from Jack. Pole took in the information and made a few observations.

“The problem for both of us is to decide whether this is a matter personal to Wilson or a corporate matter.”

“Or perhaps a bit of both … Biotech is a high-profile industry. No country is immune, if I can put that way, to the impact it may have.”

“I’ll keep an open mind.”

“And Pole … what about China?”

Pole sighed heavily. “Are you telling me the agency has finally found something about Mr Wu?”

“It’s not my department that has gathered it … but …”

“Come on … what have you got?”

“Mr Wu survived the Tiananmen Square protest.”

Chapter Seventeen

His mobile was still going to voicemail.

“Come on … speak to me.” Nancy was pacing up and down her lounge, following the large windows that overlooked well maintained gardens. The streetlights had just come on and the orange glow gave the surrounding buildings a peaceful look.

Her text apology had been genuine, but she also needed to follow her instinct about the case. Her intuition was telling her that all the things she spoke to Ollie Wilson about when he had asked about China had spurred on the young man. She didn’t know to what, but she was intent on finding out.

Pole had also been vague about the source of the information he had delivered to her. It had suited her at the time, but it had been careless of her. She should have been more insistent on finding out how Pole had managed to find the information he had brought to her. She now realised these details were giving her contentious information about her father and she doubted they would have been collected by the Hong Kong police 30 years earlier.

Nothing ever came free and Pole would no doubt have to reciprocate. He had convinced her the information he had obtained came from overdue favours he