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“I have nothing to say to either of you,” he replied in perfect English. “I don’t care who you are or what you’re here for.”
“The police think you murdered our colleagues,” Zhang Daiyu responded. “If you didn’t, you need all the help you can get.”
Zhou sneered at her. “You’re not here to help me. I have nothing to say.”
“I don’t think you’d be stupid enough to kill the men who were tailing you,” I chipped in. “But even if you weren’t involved, you were there that night. You can tell us what happened. One of our colleagues is missing. The police think he’s dead. We need to know what happened to him.”
Zhou glanced at me. I could tell he had something to say, but he stayed silent.
“Let us help you,” I told him. “If you’re innocent, we will find who really did this and you’ll walk.”
“If you find who really did this, you will end up dead,” he replied. “I didn’t know your organization was following me until the police informed me I was being charged with luring your colleagues there to be murdered. I’m innocent but I’m no fool. Look around you. See where we are. I’m here because someone has declared me an enemy of China. I’m rich, powerful, and have friends. If they can do this to me, what do you think they will do to you?”
“Appreciate your concern, Mr. Zhou, but we can take care of ourselves,” I replied.
He scoffed. “You think it’s safe to go into the cave because it’s dark and you can’t see what’s inside. If you knew, you would run.” He sat back in his seat, stretching the chain to its limits “Run! Run away from the darkness while you still can.”
Then he hesitated for a moment, his expression visibly softening.
“I don’t know what happened to your colleague but you should expect the worst.”
He barked something I did not understand and one of the custody officers opened the door, speaking to Zhang Daiyu.
“He wants to know if we’re finished,” she said.
I was about to reply but before I could say anything, David Zhou cut me off.
“Yes, we’re finished.”
CHAPTER 16
ZHANG DAIYU’S UNCLE chivvied us back to the lobby, eager to beat the shift change. We were searched again and our belongings X-rayed before we were allowed out.
“What do you think?” she asked me as we crossed the perimeter road to the parking lot.
“He’s claiming innocence,” I replied, “which isn’t surprising. And he’s suggesting someone is out to get him. Someone with the power to put him in there.”
“He doesn’t trust us,” she observed.
“I don’t blame him. I wouldn’t trust anyone if I were in his shoes. Whether he’s innocent or guilty, one wrong word might get him killed.”
Zhang Daiyu nodded and we got in her SUV.
The heat had become stifling in the late-afternoon sun, andI was glad when she started the engine and the first breaths of ice-cold air-con hit me, soothing away the heat and humidity.
Zhang Daiyu drove us out of the parking lot and gave a cursory nod to the gate guard before we joined Huaichang Road, a large and busy highway that would take us out of the valley and back into the city. We sped through fields, past industrial estates and factories, into suburbs that grew denser the farther west we went.
“So what now?” she asked.
I never got to answer her question. Instead, when I looked over I saw something that froze my blood. A motorcycle had drawn alongside the driver’s side of the H6. Both rider and pillion passenger were in black helmets with opaque visors, and the second man was pointing a QCW-05 suppressed submachine gun directly at Zhang Daiyu. I had only had a split second in which to act.
I grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it right, hard.
“Down!” I yelled.
She cursed. She hadn’t seen the threat, and only looked left when I pushed the wheel that way in an attempt to side-swipe the bike.
Muzzle fire blinded us and there was a terrible rattling sound followed by the crack and crash of shattering glass. The bullets missed their target, flying in front of Zhang Daiyu before smashing the windscreen. My maneuver of turning toward the bike had startled the motorcyclist, causing him to go heavy on his brakes. It looked as if the two assassins had been left behind..
