He heard the footsteps in the corridor. He lay there listening, hearing his heart hammer as he fought to come out from the anaesthetic. Mann heard the swish of a uniform, starch, shoes, leather soles slapping on linoleum. Mann stirred in his drugged stupor. Helen was talking to him again now. ‘Get up! Move. Run…run…she’s coming for you, darling.’ Click, clack down the corridor…He stumbled out of bed and doubled over with the pain. He pulled his clothes from the locker and rested against the bed as he got dressed.

Chapter 109

Run, Johnny, run. He staggered as he bounced off the walls of the hospital. He felt the adrenalin in his body as it met drug sedation head on and had nowhere to go. In the middle line they fought for ground. He ran down the corridor, his legs buckling. Click, clack.

He heard Mia’s voice. ‘Where’s Mann? He’s not in his room. Find him, quick.’

Mann didn’t know why but he knew he had to get away. Turn left at the end of the corridor, first right, now stay, stay, stay…breathe…wait, listen. Shush…He slid down the wall and stayed there. Click, clack…click, clack…

He crawled along on his hands and knees, his eyes struggling to keep focused, he was seeing double on double. His bandaged hand was bloody now.

He turned a corner and looked down the empty corridor – he could see the empty reception. He stood, found his balance, lurched on his feet and very carefully inched forward.

Now Ruby came click-clacking down the corridor, the urumi coiled in her hand. She would finish him off. She would flail him to death whilst he was lying in his hospital bed. Ruby could be anyone; nurse, patient, saviour, murderer. Ruby was Ruby.

He felt a hand on his arm, guiding, supporting. A young police officer looked at him. ‘You all right, Inspector?’

‘Yes. Where’s your car? I’m borrowing it.’ He took the keys from the flustered young officer. He staggered outside and unlocked the car door. He slipped into the driver’s seat and managed to manoeuvre his body into a position where he could drive. He switched on the engine, slammed it into reverse and then sped forward and away from the hospital.

He got halfway back to his flat when he got a call. It was CK.

‘Hello, Inspector. I heard about your unfortunate accident this evening. I do hope you will feel recovered enough to accept an invitation from me.’

‘I’m busy right now.’

‘Nursing your wounds? I have a friend here who wishes to talk to you.’

Mann heard Ng’s voice. ‘Genghis…don’t do it. They will kill me anyway.’

CK took back the phone. ‘That’s enough talk from Sergeant Ng. What he meant to say was that we have rekindled an old acquaintance, him and I, and now we have made a deal. You sign your father’s estate over to me and I will give you his life in exchange. Friendship is a dreadful thing, just like the love one feels for a woman, a daughter even. It weakens a man. It makes him vulnerable. But, your friend’s fate depends on you. How much is his life worth to you? I have the document ready. You just have to sign it. It means I take everything out of your hands. You no longer need to worry about your conscience. It will be as if you never knew. How does that sound?’

Mann heard an awful sound of Ng screaming and choking.

‘Meet me on the top floor of the Piccadilly Club in Central.’ CK hung up.

Chapter 110

Mann went home to pick up the one weapon he would be able to conceal beneath his bandages: Delilah. This time she was modified, made special. He re-strapped himself to keep her pressed flat against his chest. He drank a large vodka to take away the pain.

He got back in the car and phoned Victoria en route.

‘Thanks for asking. I’m okay.’

‘I went with you in the helicopter, don’t you remember? I left you when you went in for your operation. I’m glad you’re okay. Thank you, Mann. They would have killed me on that roof if you hadn’t come. Someone set me up. I thought it was you at first. But then I realized you wouldn’t do that kind of thing. You feel something for me, don’t you, Mann?’

‘No. I can’t and I won’t. I am going to see CK. He has my friend, Sergeant Ng. He wants to exchange his life for my father’s estate. He wants me to sign it all over to him.’

‘Don’t do it, Mann. It’s a trick.’

‘I know but I am going to kill CK, Victoria. Don’t come near me as I may have to kill you too.’

He drove back into town and parked outside the Piccadilly Club. The street was being watched. He saw CK’s men everywhere. He would have a hard job getting out alive but then he wasn’t thinking that far ahead. He hoped his body would last long enough to do the job he came to do and to rescue his friend. He realized now that nothing meant more than that to him. He had weathered so many storms with Ng’s help. He would lay down his life for him now if he had to.

The bodyguards on the street nodded to him. They frisked him. They checked his boots and up his sleeves. Mann had known they would. He had hidden Delilah along the gap between two ribs. They were rough enough to open up some stitches. He knew they would. He had purposely left his bandage bloody across his chest.

The bodyguard looked at the blood on his hands and stepped back in disgust. ‘Jesus Christ, let him through. He isn’t carrying anything.’

Mann took the lift up to the top; eighty floors in a highspeed elevator.

‘No Mann, please…’ Victoria had raced straight there. She met him as he got out of the lift, she tried to make him turn around. ‘You’re sick. You’re bleeding. Leave it now. Look at your face.’ Victoria went to touch his swollen, stitched cheek. He pulled away. ‘I’m sorry for what has happened. It’s all gone wrong.’

‘Get out of my way, Victoria. You play around with people’s lives all for your own gain. You leave a trail of destruction everywhere you go. You’re a fucking tornado destroying everything in your path. You’re just like him.’

CK’s bodyguard was waiting at the door for him. He held a gun to Mann’s back. Mann put his hands in the air and walked slowly into the Red Salon. As he entered he saw Ng on his knees. His head was bowed. CK stood over him with a gun at his head.

‘Ng? You all right?’

Ng lifted his head and Mann could see his mouth was pouring blood. He looked at Mann with the hopelessness of one in the world between life and death where there was only pain and fear and sad regret.

‘You bastards.’ Mann lunged at CK, the bodyguards held him back and punched him in the mouth. ‘I should have killed you a long time ago, CK.’ Mann wiped the blood from his split lip.

The bodyguards pinned Mann’s arms back. CK smiled. In the gloom of the office Mann saw it was a strange sight like a grinning dog that should not be able to grin.

‘Then why didn’t you? You were not able to then and you are not able to now.’

CK looked Mann up and down. Mann’s wounds were breaking open on his legs. Blood seeped in dark patches through his jeans. Victoria looked anxiously at Mann.

‘Show him.’ CK turned to his bodyguard. ‘We saved it for you.’ The bodyguard came forward, opened his palm and showed Mann Ng’s tongue. ‘You can have it sewn back on if you hurry. Now sign it.’ CK pointed to a table where the contract was waiting for him with a pen.

Ng shook his head at Mann. The front of his shirt was saturated with blood. CK swiped Ng’s head with the butt of his revolver. ‘Sign it. You are wasting precious minutes.’

Mann went over to the writing desk. Its handmade parchment paper contract, a gold Duofold Parker pen waiting for Mann to use. He picked up the document. He glanced over it. He picked up the pen, held it tightly as he pressed, there was the faintest sound of a snap. He signed and leant over the desk, resting as he wiped the blood from his mouth. He recovered, stood back up. His body stopped hurting. His head cleared. His pulse slowed. His bleeding stopped. Mann’s body was turning to icy hatred. A bodyguard stood behind him, a gun at his back.