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

He cast an eye towards Nancy Wu’s seat; she seemed to have settled.

Laurie had completed a schedule of meetings too, combined with the tracking of Turner’s mobile phone. Jack called up the two documents side by side. There was no discrepancy with regard to dates, but the locations seemed to diverge.

Turner’s mobile drifted out of Beijing on almost every visit he had made to China in the past six months. His mobile reappeared in Chengdu, in Sichuan province.

Laurie had made further in-roads in identifying the location of his visits. She had found a small industrial estate on the outskirts of the city. She was drilling down into the site details to find out what was being produced there.

Jack set the idea on one side. In itself, visiting an industrial site for a company head was acceptable, but why not record it on his business planner?

The aeroplane encountered a patch of light turbulence. The seat belt signs might come on at any moment. It provided him with the perfect opportunity. Jack left his seat and went towards the bathroom. The plane started shaking even more when he was on his way back. He lost his balance and fell into the back of the seat next to Nancy’s.

Her face was illuminated by the light of a laptop … fine regular features, high forehead, and beautiful slanting eyes. Jack noticed the quirky notepad she had placed to one side, yellow with ruled pages.

He took a moment to recover his balance and apologise just as Nancy lifted her eyes to check what the commotion was. The disgruntled businessman sitting in the seat behind mumbled a complaint. Jack apologised again and returned to his seat to take stock of what he had just seen.

Ms Wu was perusing the same document as he was … Jared Turner’s schedule of meetings in China.

* * *

“Rubbish …” Pole threw a cushion across the room and leaned back further into his favourite armchair. Andy had sent a flurry of emails.

The bank account trail had gone cold. In the chain of accounts Andy was trying to identify, the last account had been closed. No doubt everything was being done to wipe out records of who had opened it.

The other email he had received from Yvonne Butler’s lab confirmed the drug used on Ollie Wilson came from Afghanistan, Herat province. Tomorrow he would have to call the drug squad and let them know.

All this was neatly leading to one conclusion. Ollie Wilson had been involved with a Russian trafficking gang and had paid the price for it. It was very tidy, evidence rolling in, one piece after another, wrapped with a bow.

His gut thought otherwise, but the only possibility to counter the argument was the pile of documents from Cora which Branning had delivered to him.

There was, of course, Harris’s opinion, but Pole was in enough trouble with Ferguson to mention industrial espionage or the sale of sensitive biotechnology research to a foreign power.

For all they knew, the biotech Viro-Tech was researching and selling to China was completely legal. Unless national security was endangered by the research or sale, the company was free to deal on the market as it wished.

Pole poured himself a large glass of red wine and took a mouthful. He had not yet allowed himself to dwell on Nancy’s decision to leave for Hong Kong. He had witnessed her resourcefulness first hand, but when it came to her father’s story, her brilliant mind succumbed to a whirlpool of emotions. His best plan of action was to push Harris to produce more evidence and persuade Marsh that he had to take a trip to the former British colony.

His burner phone rang. He let it go to voicemail.

“Pole … I know you’re listening. No, I don’t have cameras in your home. Call me back. It’s about Ms Wu and her Hong Kong trip.” Harris sounded unusually serious.

There was no point in delaying the inevitable … Pole snatched up his phone.

“Harris … to the point please.”

“I presume she told you she’s on her way to Hong Kong.”

“Why, yes.”

“That’s a good move … Ferguson is going to jump at it and Marsh will follow his lead, because he has no other choice.”

“I’m not sure I agree to …”

Harris interrupted. “It gives us a bit more time to tell our story about the burner phone.”

Pole remained silent. As predicted, Nancy had become the bait and he was not happy to fall in with Harris’ suggestion.

“Besides, she won’t be on her own in Hong Kong. My CIA contact is with her on the same flight.”

“What?” Pole sat up. “She’s already got the counter-terrorist squad after her. I’m not having the CIA involved too.”

“Relax, Jack is a good guy. He’s not the sort to shoot from the hip and ask questions afterwards. He’s got me out of a tight spot or two in the past.”

“Does he think she’s involved with Viro-Tech?”

“That’s the premise … I’ve tried to indicate he might want to reconsider, but …”

“… but you bloody well haven’t because you need something else from him.”

“It’s a bit more complicated than that. He hasn’t told me what he knows about Ollie Wilson … so I need to bide my time.”

“I thought he was a trusted friend?”

“And he is a good spook too, but I can’t expect him to disclose everything to me. Hell, I wouldn’t either. That’s the way it works, and don’t tell me the different teams at Scotland Yard always work together like a happy family.”

“So is that all your news? A CIA agent is chasing Nancy across the globe, believing she’s involved in some goddamn conspiracy when all she’s trying to do is find out what happened to her father.”

“Not quite … her good friend Yvonne Butler has facilitated a bit of information gathering from my service and MI6 has been happy to oblige. At the moment, Ms Wu is aware of a possible connection between her father’s