Author's note: I was asked about how I research locations. Except for Quebec City used in an earlier story, I have been to the location if it is a real place. Made up sites are combinations of experience and imagination. I lived in Singapore for over six years and travelled extensively in Asia for work. I have been to Hong Kong many times and, pollution aside, it is one of my favourite cities. I sometimes refer to my photos, or Google Maps, Streetview etc. to help me with specific points.

Also, we are nearly there. Only 2-3 more chapters... Hopefully, I will finish it this weekend.

Tommy checked his watch every few minutes until Barbara laid her hand on his arm. "Stop it. You're making me nervous."

"I told him we'd wait here, but I had no idea it would be so big or complex. What if they're waiting on another level? Or they went over to the Galleria building?"

"He won't have gone to the other building. You were very clear. Stay by the escalators. You wait here. I'll go up to the other floors and look them come back down. Don't move from here unless your life depends on it."

Tommy ran his hand through his hair then nodded. "Be quick. I don't want to leave you alone."

Barbara squeezed his arm then walked calmly to the escalators. Those going up crossed over those going down in an open atrium. Even if they were on the escalators, she or Tommy would see them.

Five minutes later she returned. "They're definitely not up there. We just have to be patient."

"Not one of my strengths," Tommy admitted.

"Good practice."

"For what?"

"When we have kids, and your daughter misses her curfew."

Tommy smiled. "She won't be allowed out of the house until she's 30."

Peter had no choice. They had to take the next tram. With the Black Pants Brigade already waiting, and Thornbury and the elder Tan behind them, this was the only tram they would be alone.

"My brother, if he come here, he mean to kill us," Mr Tan said as the tram began its ascent.

"That thought had crossed my mind."

"What we do? I not ready to die."

"Neither am I," Peter said. His mind was racing trying to think of a way out. As they passed the Kennedy Road Station, he had an idea. "Offer those boys money for their coats and hats."

"Why? They Chinese Home boys. Terrible coats."

"And the last things your brother would look for you in."

Mr Tan's face lit up. "Peter has plan."

Peter smiled tightly. "Hurry please."

Mr Tan purchased their new lightweight faux-silk coats for an exorbitant price. Peter chose the blue one with a Minnesota Timberwolves logo along with a Chicago Cubs baseball cap. He hurriedly pulled them on, ignoring the sweaty smell. Mr Tan had the red of a Chinese team Peter had never heard of, but they made the coats look more authentically theirs.

While MR Tan had been bargaining, Peter had studied the map that came with their tickets. After they passed the May Road Station, Peter pressed the stop button. For another two agonising minutes, the tram climbed the steep hill. As a platform came into view, the tram slowed, and the doors opened. Peter and Mr Tan hopped out and walked casually towards Barker Road.

"This way," Peter said as soon as the tram pulled out of site. "Findlay Path is hidden from the view of the tram."

They hurried up the hill on the narrow concrete path. The wok-like shape of the Peak Tower soon came into view. "My brother is waiting in there, but that's where the tram pulls in."

"How we let him know?"

"Good question."

They walked a little further. Peter spotted the path for the Lions Pavilion. It was a rougher track through the trees, emerging at a two-storied lookout. With thick, grey stone balustrades, and red-tiled roofs highlighted with shiny green tiles topped with carved dragons, it was styled like a Chinese garden temple. The view over Hong Kong was quite spectacular, and Peter stopped to admire the nuanced character of Hong Kong expressed in the architecture, harbour and the quiet but determined way that nature and old values merged with the bustle of the modern age.

"No time for view."

Peter grunted. "Yes, sorry."

Again his mind was trying to formulate a plan. Then he spotted his mark. A Caucasian woman aged about thirty stood alone looking wistfully at the city. Her clothes were cheap but clean and functional. Her hair was shiny and healthy like her skin but was cut without any consideration of her head's shape or the way her hair grew. The result was an unruly mop with a lock that flopped into her eyes. The way she continually brushed it away reminded him of his brother.

"Excuse me. Are you walking down into the city, or returning to The Peak?"

"Me? Er, The Peak. Why?"

She sounded English but with an odd flattening of her vowels. "Are you English?"

"Not really. Australian, although I did live there for three years when I studied there."

"Which university?"

The woman blushed slightly. "Oxford."

"I was at Oxford; at Exeter, same as my brother. We both read history."

"Pembroke. Philosophy, Politics and Economics."

"I was wondering if you would do me a favour?"

The woman looked him up and down. He tried his best smile to allay her suspicions. "What?"

"It sounds incredible I know, but my friend here lost money, a lot of money to a very nasty Chinese gangster. My brother is wealthy. He is meeting us to bail him out, but there were henchmen on the tram, so we brought these coats off two youths and alighted at Barker Road. We can't go to The Peak. I was wondering if you could take him a message?"

"If you'd been visiting me at Oxford, which way would you have come?"

Without hesitation, Peter answered. "Down Market into Cornmarket then straight down St Aldgates then right at the church into Pembroke Square."

"And I suppose to do this I have to pay you money, or you want to hold my camera as security."

"I'm not trying to con you. No, I would simply be placing my trust, and possibly our lives, in your hands and trusting you would honour your commitment."

"How would I find him?"

"He'll be waiting near the tram entrance with a blonde woman. He's the tall and handsome brother. Most women notice him. Peter pulled out his map and a pen he had taken from the hotel. He circled the pavilion. Just give him this and say 'necessary change of plan'. I will always be obliged."

The woman took the paper and gave Peter a genuine smile. "I hope he knows how to get to Pembroke."

She turned and walked towards The Peak, leaving Peter amused and slightly entranced.

"Do they look suspicious to you?"

"Who?" He turned to look.

"No, don't turn. They'll come past in a second. Bad fitting coloured polo shirts and black army pants. I think they have pistols under their shirts."

Tommy spotted them. A group of four men were arguing in Mandarin and gesticulating towards the tram station entrance. "Welcome committee. How the hell did they find out?"

"They just came up in the tram. Maybe Peter is on the next one. There are probably others on that tram too."

"And here I was, thinking we would pick them up, escort them to the transfer point and hand them to Paul's men then have time for lunch."

Barbara raised her eyebrows. "Hmm, that must be why you have worn a bald patch in your hair."

Automatically his hand felt his head. Barbara laughed, and he quickly pulled his hand away. "The next tram is due in a minute."

"Yes, dear," Barbara said still grinning.

Excited tourists spilt from the station. The first ones, mainly young people, rushed towards the escalators leading up to the rooftop viewing platform. Some locals escorted foreign friends, pointing out Madame Tussaud's and the many dining options. A few people in olive green lightweight travel pants or shorts had hiking sticks and heavy boots in readiness for the steep descent via the park, or perhaps a trek through to the southern coast. The rest seemed like tourists. Three or four couples were in a tour group. They had cameras draped around their necks and maps in their hands. Tommy smiled sympathetically at their smiling female guide being berated by their complaints about the humidity, the steepness of the tram making them seasick, or their hotel bed giving them a crick neck.

The stream dwindled to nothing. "No Peter," he said grimly.

"Next tram maybe."

The men who had argued earlier became visibly agitated, and after some staccato orders from the man in pink, they split up and pushed through the crowd. "The reception committee was expecting them too."

"How do you get to Pembroke College from Exeter?"

Tommy turned. A young woman with fierce eyes was looking directly at him. "Exeter the town, or the college?"

"The college."

"Left On Turl, right into Market, left onto Cornmarket, straight ahead onto St Aldgate's, right at Pembroke Square."

"Your brother asked me to give you this and say he'd had a necessary change of plan." Her hand touched Tommy's, and he grabbed the paper she held. "He was right. You are more handsome."

The woman was gone as quickly as she appeared. "Did she just proposition you?" Barbara asked staring after the woman.

"No, I think she was Australian."

"What? Do they just walk up to people and start chatting them up?"

Tommy laughed. "Not in my experience. She had a message from Peter. Let's go."

Tommy steered her onto the escalators and up to floors. They went out of the building onto the concourse between the Peak's buildings. For the first time, Tommy dared look at the paper. It was a standard tourist guide map like the one he had in his pocket. He opened it and turned it over looking for a clue, almost missing the circle around the Lion's Pavilion in his haste.

"Well?"

Tommy looked up and got his bearings. "This way. The woman had a message from Peter."

They hurried across the open square resisting the temptation to break into a run. At the junction, they checked that no one was watching. The sign above the narrow road said the pavilion was a five-minute walk. "Looks clear," Barbara said as they began walking along the narrow, tree-lined concrete path.

Peter's mind paced anxiously even though his body stood still with his hands in the pockets of his coat and a fixed stare towards the distant hills behind Kowloon.

"That China," Mr Tan said. "Just beyond those hills."

Peter looked at his watch. Where was Tommy? He walked back to the path and looked up the hill. A short crop of blonde hair emerged from the trees. "Barbara!"

She smiled as his brother came into view. Tommy looked at the coat and raised his eyebrows. Peter shrugged. "We had to improvise. There were four goons on the tram ahead of us..."

"We saw them. They are looking for you."

"Mr Tan's brother and James Thornbury are on the one that just went past."

Tommy cursed. "With helpers I presume?"

"I didn't stop to count. What's your plan?"

"Our rendezvous is on the other side of The Peak." Tommy pulled out the map. If we go this way we can bypass the station but we still have to get onto Harlech Road. They will have someone posted there."

Barbara took the map. "It's much longer, but what if we took this path long the Old Peak Road then right onto Lugard and followed it around? Hang on. It says it is a pleasant walk along a historical plank road, whatever that is. Takes about... bloody hell... an hour. The other way is only twenty minutes."

Tommy looked at Mr Tan. "Would he make it?" he asked Peter.

"I make it," Mr Tan said, clearly annoyed that Tommy was treating him like a package and not a person.

Tommy nodded an apology. "It's better than a confrontation. I don't think they would hesitate to shoot us."

"I don't suppose you have a gun?" Peter asked.

Barbara interrupted. "No. We need to go right now. I can see black pants running up there on the path."