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

respect, love and excitement. She had buried her feelings in the months following his departure. The attempts her mother had made to talk to her about him had fallen on deaf ears. As the year passed her mother stopped talking about him until his existence had become shrouded in silence.

Nancy’s mind drifted again towards the vast expanse outside her window. She bent forward and brought her face up against the plastic double glazing. The world below was plunged in darkness. There was no sign of light nor life. She closed her eyes for a moment.

“Whatever it is MI6 want, they’re not having it until I am sure Pole is safe.”

* * *

“Call me.” Two words that felt like a shot across the bows. Jack knew he was in trouble. His boss, Robert (Bob) Hunter III, was usually rather more forthcoming in his emails. Short was not his style. Thankfully the 12 hour time lag meant that he was probably still fast asleep at 4am.

Could his boss in fact be waiting for his call though? Jack hesitated and pressed the call button. Hunter III was indeed waiting for him.

“Where are you?”

“Just landed in Hong Kong, Sir.” Jack was in the queue for passport control. The line was moving swiftly.

“Call me when you’ve gone through immigration.” How did he know?

“You’re going straight to the consulate. I want a call with you from a secure line.” The phone went dead. Jack barely had time to press the recall button after walking through customs. He pursed his lips … certainly he would be going to the consulate, but not before he had followed Ms Wu and secured a room in the same hotel.

Waiting at the conveyor belt, Nancy’s suitcase came up almost first. Jack cursed as she would be gone within seconds. He was in luck and his case was spewed out by the system just as Nancy had loaded hers onto a trolley.

It was easy to follow her to the taxi rank. There was nothing curious about that. They had made eye contact, but why wouldn’t a business class passenger find himself in the same five-star hotel … he hoped it was a decent place she had chosen for her trip.

Nancy’s choice did not disappoint him. The Mandarin Oriental had been rated the best Hong Kong hotel for the past twenty years and none of its competitors had managed to shift it from the top spot.

The receptionist did not bat an eyelid when Jack arrived without a reservation. She found a couple of options. The suite he was first offered was ridiculously expensive, but the deluxe bedroom, overlooking the Peak rather than Victoria Bay, suited him fine.

Jack dumped his suitcase in his room and jumped into another cab, direction – the US Consulate General. The taxi driver shrugged. It was hardly any distance he said. Jack took out a $20 bill from his wallet and the driver made his way swiftly through traffic.

Within minutes of having arrived at the consulate Jack was being ushered into one of the basement rooms. A polite Asian woman had lead him to it without any explanation. There was a table, a couple of chairs and several phones and computers. Clocks on the wall indicated the time in New York, Hong Kong and London.

“Jack Shield.” A voice boomed from behind him. The man was tall and stocky. He threw a large hand in Jack’s direction. “Adrian Wong … Bob tells me he needs a chat with you on a secure line … always happy to oblige.”

Adrian didn’t seem to have been told what it was about. He might not even care, as long as it was not him at the receiving end of Hunter III.

The phone rang only once. “Where have you been?” was the only preamble to the conversation.

“There was a lot of traffic.”

Hunter grunted.

“What have you got yourself involved with? And I don’t want some bull about a case of mistaken identity or some pissed off agent resurfacing from the past.”

Jack considered his options. Telling the truth, at least a simplified version of it, might work. He spoke about Ollie, his suspicions and the two attempts on his own life.

“The problem is, Jack, that Viro-Tech’s CEO Jared Turner is a no-go area.”

“Why would that be, Sir?”

“Let’s say he is central to some delicate negotiations … and the US government has given those negotiations top priority.”

“What if he is abusing his position?”

Hunter considered his answer for a moment.

“It would have to be a pretty sizable breach …”

“What if it threatens national security, and involves a large foreign power? And how about attempted murder?”

Hunter was almost thrown by the comment.

“You have 48 hours, after that I want you back home. Otherwise, your next mission will be to a desert island in the middle of the Pacific.”

* * *

The alarm rang a long time. Pole had woken up at 4am, just as Nancy’s flight was touching down in Hong Kong. He had pretended he could go back to sleep but simply drifted in and out unsuccessfully.

A text pinged on his new burner phone. “Settled at the Mandarin Oriental in a room overlooking the Bay. Tout va bien.”

She was eight hours away, in a country with which he had few connections. Pole threw off the duvet but didn’t get up. The long list of to do’s had started to churn in his mind, but he was most preoccupied with the way Ferguson and Marsh were going to react. How far would Ferguson go? Marsh was more of a containable problem … for once his soft spot for Nancy might stop him becoming more than an irritant.

Pole shivered. He swung his long legs over the edge of the bed, running a hand through his hair. He left it there for a short moment, then grabbed his new burner phone and typed a response. “Glad all well. Call me if you need anything, anytime.”

He had once resented owning a mobile phone, but here he was juggling his professional mobile and two burner