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  ‘Why is Mother being so mean to me?’ Xian Mei said.

  Her grandmother shook her head wearily. ‘She’s not being mean. She’s just upset. She’s protecting you.’

  ‘I don’t need protecting,’ Xian Mei said. ‘I’m strong.’

  Li smiled. ‘Maybe you are.’

  ‘I am,’ Xian Mei insisted. She looked at her grandmother. ‘Won’t you tell me what’s happened?’

  Li averted her gaze. ‘Maybe in the morning.’

  ‘Now,’ Xian Mei said. When her grandmother didn’t reply, Xian Mei said almost defiantly, ‘Father’s dead, isn’t he? Something happened to him tonight, and now he’s dead.’

  Li’s eyes brimmed with tears, and she nodded. She wiped her face with a trembling hand. Eventually she said, ‘He was very brave. He died a hero.’

  It wasn’t until the next day, or the day after that, that Xian Mei found out the full story. Her father had been killed in the line of duty, shot dead while trying to apprehend a gang of drug smugglers. It wasn’t until he was gone that Xian Mei really discovered how loved and revered her father had been. In the days following his death, many people came to the house to pay their respects, and each of them had a story to tell about her father’s courage, or humour, or kindness, or loyalty. As Xian Mei helped her mother prepare the house for his funeral – covering the statues of deities with red paper, removing the mirrors so the reflection of the coffin would not be glimpsed in the glass and bring bad luck, hanging the white cloth over the doorway and placing a gong to the left of the entrance – she vowed she would honour her father’s name by following in his footsteps.

  It was a vow she neither forgot nor relinquished. For the next few years, driven by a steely determination and a single-mindedness she liked to think she had inherited directly from her father, she strove for excellence in all areas of her life. Always a good student, she now became an exceptional one, achieving the highest grades possible in every subject. But she knew that academia alone would not secure her a place in one of the toughest and most ruthlessly efficient police forces in the world, so she took up Changquan and trained tirelessly, day after day, pushing herself through physical barrier after physical barrier, until she became one of the foremost martial artists for her age and gender, not only in China but in the world.

  The day she was inducted into China’s first all-female Special Forces squad was the greatest day of her life. Throughout the ceremony, as she stood there in her beautiful black and grey uniform, she thought only of her father and how proud he would be. Indeed, she strongly believed his spirit was there with her, standing at her shoulder, revelling in her success.

  It took almost no time at all for the dream to turn into a nightmare.

  What became apparent to Xian Mei and her fellow inductees very quickly was that China’s first all-female Special Forces squad was, in effect, little more than a glorified PR stunt. Xian Mei had had high hopes of becoming a pioneer, of helping to usher in a new age of equality in China, but almost as soon as the induction ceremony was over, the squad was broken up and its members distributed around the globe on ‘special assignments’. Xian Mei’s assignment was to come here, to the Royal Palm Hotel in Banoi, and to spy on the decadent rich, using her receptionist’s job as cover. What Xian Mei found particularly insulting was that her superiors didn’t even bother to pretend she was doing vital work. It was abundantly clear to her that she had been shunted aside simply for the sake of convenience – a case of out of sight, out of mind.

  Although it was another gloriously sunny day in Banoi, Xian Mei felt her spirits plummeting as a bus pulled up outside the main doors, transporting the latest batch of holidaymakers from the airport. Although she planted a smile on her face, she wondered what her father would think if he could see her now. Would he be ashamed of his daughter or angry on her behalf? If the latter, she wished his spirit would give her some guidance on how to escape from this trap. Not only was she under strict orders to maintain a constant vigil and supply her superiors with weekly reports (reports in which she was finding it increasingly hard to say anything of value), but her government had paid for everything – her flights, her expenses – and she could not leave without their say-so. Even resigning from the Special Forces squad and flying home by scraping together her own meagre savings was out of the question. She would be ostracized and labelled a trouble-maker, and it would bring great shame on her family. Despite the idyllic surroundings, therefore, in many ways she felt just as much a prisoner as the rapists, murderers and terrorists incarcerated in the high-security jail a couple of miles offshore.

  The bus was disgorging its passengers now. As always, they looked bleary-eyed, sweaty and flustered from all the travelling, but many of them were peering around with wonder and satisfaction. Xian Mei was not surprised. There was no denying Banoi was beautiful. It was a place of sunny skies, white sand, sparkling blue seas, palm trees and flowers in abundance. For a tourist resort, the pace of life was laid-back, relaxed, and the atmosphere – even at night – was relatively peaceful. The soundtrack was one of insects, birds and the sighing of the tide, rather than of loud music, drunken shouting and people throwing up.

  The first of the holidaymakers were trudging into the hotel now, carrying their suitcases or dragging them on wheels behind them. They were pretty much the same as any other group of holidaymakers, as far as she could see, the majority of their number composed of families and couples. Banoi was a location that appealed to all age groups, which meant that in any sample selection of customers you would find young honeymooning couples, middle-aged couples on a romantic break and elderly couples hoping for a week or two of rest and gentle recreation. Xian Mei had been led to believe that westerners were conniving and deceitful, and so shamelessly decadent that they posed a serious threat to the world’s very stability, but in the three months she had been here she had seen little evidence of that. On the contrary, once you looked beyond their loud, revealing clothes and their open, sometimes abrasive manner, they were not that dissimilar to her own people. Unless Xian Mei was missing something, all they really seemed to want were healthy, happy, fulfilled lives for themselves and their families.

  Occasionally people would arrive here alone, and it was this group that Xian Mei observed most keenly. For the most part, though, they too seemed harmless, and in fact she often ended up feeling sorry for them as they took their meals alone, or went for solitary walks along the beach, or spent their days sitting silently by the pool, their heads buried in a book. Sometimes she would strike up a conversation with one of them, find out they were a widow or a widower, or treating themselves to a quiet break after a painful divorce. Or sometimes they were single simply because they chose to be, content with their own company.

  As ever with a batch of new arrivals, the first hour was a flurry of activity. Xian Mei and her three colleagues, who were often interchangeable depending on their shift patterns, tried to get through the check-in procedure as quickly and efficiently as possible. They all knew there was nothing more annoying for customers who had spent the whole day travelling, and who were desperate to freshen up and relax, than having to wait in yet another queue. But however efficiently she worked, she knew it was inevitable that one or two people out of a group of fifty or sixty would give her a hard time. In this case, it was a young, muscular, tattooed man with a flushed face and a slight limp. He thumped his elbows on the desk and leaned in towards her with a leer. Xian Mei tried not to recoil at the smell of alcohol on his breath.

  ‘So where can a guy get a little action around here?’ he said by way of introduction.

  Xian Mei gave him a professional smile. ‘That depends what you mean, sir. There is an abundance of restaurants and bars on the island.’

  ‘That so?’ said the man thoughtfully. ‘And I guess you’d know all the best ones?’

  Xian Mei hesitated. ‘I don’t go out too often. I work long hours here, and I’m usually very tired at the end of the day.’

 
; ‘Sounds to me like you could use a little R’n’R,’ said the man, leaning in even closer.

  ‘As I say, I work long hours,’ said Xian Mei. She focused on the monitor in front of her. ‘Do you have a reservation, sir?’

  ‘I do indeedy,’ said the man. He grinned and leaned back, like a hunter who had failed to bag his target on this occasion but knew it was only a matter of time.

  ‘Could I take your name, please, sir?’

  The man pushed out his bottom lip, feigning offence. ‘You mean you don’t recognize me?’

  Xian Mei glanced at him. ‘I’m afraid not, sir.’

  Next to her, her colleague, Lan, was dealing with the reservation of a young black man wearing a red bandanna. The black man glanced over at Xian Mei’s customer and shook his head. ‘You givin’ this nice lady a hard time now?’ he drawled in a voice as deep and warm as melted chocolate.

  The tattooed man spread his hands. ‘I’m just being friendly is all.’

  The black man raised one eyebrow. ‘There’s different types of friendly. I don’t think the nice lady likes your particular flavour.’

  Xian Mei smiled, genuinely amused. ‘It’s really not a problem, sir.’

  ‘You see!’ said the tattooed man triumphantly. ‘Not a problem.’ He turned back to Xian Mei. ‘I think you and me are going to hit it off just fine.’

  Xian Mei smiled, but didn’t comment. Instead she said, ‘So if I could take your name, sir?’

  The tattooed man sighed theatrically. ‘It’s Carter. Logan Carter. Football star, Logan Carter.’

  ‘Ex-football star,’ muttered the black man.

  Logan scowled. ‘Just like you’re an ex-rapper, you mean?’

  The black man turned and gave Logan a cool, appraising look. ‘We’ll see about that, won’t we?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Logan said. ‘I guess we will.’

  Xian Mei typed Logan’s name into her keyboard and pressed Enter, and immediately his details scrolled up on her monitor, together with a flashing red symbol in the top left-hand corner. Because of her briefing from her manager that morning, she recognized the symbol as the logo for the US National Blood Drive Campaign. Looking up, she said, ‘I see you’re one of our blood drive people, Mr Carter?’

  Logan nodded. ‘Sure am. Helped promote the blood donation campaign, what with being a nationally-known face and all. Had my picture taken giving an itty bit of blood and got an all-expenses-paid holiday in return. Sounded like a damn good deal to me.’

  Beside him the black man said, ‘Snap.’

  Logan turned. ‘Pardon me?’

  ‘I’m in on that blood drive deal too. Gave some blood at a celebrity event in New Orleans. Next thing, I get a call offering me a two-week gig here in Banoi. Pretty cool, huh?’

  Before Logan could respond, a voice behind the black man said, ‘Double snap.’

  Both men turned to reveal an elegant and strikingly beautiful dark-skinned woman in a short, sleeveless, green summer dress. The woman waved her plastic room key, on which was stamped the red National Blood Drive Campaign logo.

  ‘After I gave blood I didn’t even know I’d been entered in a sweepstake till I got a call to say I’d won an all-expenses-paid holiday. Thought it was a scam at first.’

  The black man turned to Xian Mei. Nodding at their fellow guests who were still waiting in line to check in, he said, ‘Hey, are all these dudes here because of this blood drive thing?’

  Xian Mei tapped a couple of keys on her keyboard. ‘No, just the three of you,’ she said.

  ‘Hey,’ said Logan, ‘we’re like a club. Well, ain’t that nice?’

  The black man looked at Purna and raised an eyebrow. ‘Yeah,’ he said drily. ‘Maybe we should all get ourselves some T-shirts.’

  Chapter 3

  WHO DO YOU VOODOO, BITCH

  ‘WELL, NOW, AIN’T this somethin’!’

  Logan stood out on the balcony of his hotel room, looking at the view. He had showered and changed, and was now ready to have himself a little fun. He swirled his scotch and soda round in his glass, liking the way the ice cubes tinkled and chimed. He had popped some Prozac a while ago and was currently feeling mellow, relaxed. His knee had been throbbing some after the flight, but a couple of Tramadol had taken care of that. He thought about the cute Chinese girl on reception and wondered what time she finished work. Despite her resistance earlier, he still had high hopes of reeling in that particular fish. In his experience, it was often the initially shy and reluctant girls who ended up being the wildest between the sheets.

  Ten minutes later Logan was sitting at the hotel bar, his gaze roaming around the room. The place was full of couples and families, all dressed up for dinner. There were no single women here, not even that Purna chick. Maybe he should have knocked on her door on the way down – he, Purna and that rapper guy, Sam, had been given adjacent rooms, just as they had been given seats together on the plane, almost certainly because of that blood drive bullshit – though something told Logan he wouldn’t make much headway in that direction. The woman was stunningly beautiful, sure, but she was also tough and angular and had a don’t-fucking-mess-with-me look in her big brown eyes. In Logan’s view women should be docile and vulnerable and sweet if they wanted to attract men, not opinionated ball-breakers.

  He had a couple more drinks at the bar and then decided to move on. He knew if he stayed in the hotel he could have free drinks all night, not to mention a free dinner, but he would rather put down a few of his own hard-earned dollars if it meant getting himself a little action.

  ‘Same again, sir?’ the bartender asked.

  ‘Maybe later,’ replied Logan. He stood up and began to make his way towards the exit, but then something occurred to him and he turned back. ‘Hey, I don’t suppose you know what time Sam B is doing his thing, do you?’

  ‘Ten p.m. I believe, sir.’

  ‘Thanks, buddy.’

  It wasn’t until the fresh air hit him that the world started to spin. He paused a moment, blinking. Must be the jet lag. That and the fact that he hadn’t eaten in hours. He began to weave away from the hotel, heading for the bright lights of the main street. It was beginning to get dark now, streaks of lilac cloud appearing in the blue sky.

  Every fisherman knows there are days when the fish just don’t bite, and such was Logan’s luck that night. He trailed the bars of Banoi’s main street for over two hours before deciding to head back to the hotel. He had talked to a few likely looking girls, had even persuaded a couple of them to accept his offer of a drink, but somehow they kept slipping the line before he got the chance to reel them in. By the time he arrived back at the Royal Palm, with nothing to show for his evening but a lighter wallet and a smear of seafood sauce on his shirt from the crayfish sandwich he had eaten in a bar called the Sailing Boat, he was foul-tempered and so drunk that the ground was tilting and yawing beneath him like the deck of a ship.

  Noting blearily that the little Chinese girl was no longer on reception, he decided to make for the bar for an on-the-house nightcap or two. Then he heard the thump of music coming from somewhere off to his right and remembered all about Sam and his gig. Moving carefully so as not to trip over his own feet, he changed direction and followed the pulse of the beat. He was going not out of any sense of loyalty to his new-found blood drive buddy, but because if there was any decent and available pussy here in the hotel, then this is where he would be most likely to find it.

  The main ballroom, where the gig was taking place, was hotter than a sauna. Logan breathed in the heady scent of sweat and perfume, his head swimming. All around him, people were gyrating or nodding in time to the music. The heavy bass throbbed in his teeth and chest like a second heartbeat. The darkness of the room, combined with the ever-changing light display up on stage and the alcohol in his system, seemed to scramble Logan’s senses, to blur individual bodies into a single pulsing mass of humanity. Feeling a little overwhelmed by it all, Logan felt instinctively he should head for the light, and so
began to push through the crowd towards the stage, at first muttering ‘Excuse me’ as he barged his way through, and then, following his ball player’s instincts, simply lowering his head and charging forward.

  If anyone protested or tried to stop him, Logan wasn’t aware of it. He simply kept pushing until there was nothing left to push against. When he finally raised his head it felt like surfacing from a warm pool. He was drenched in his own and other people’s sweat, his shirt sticking to him like another layer of skin. Right in front of him, level with his face, was the edge of the stage. The music was so loud now that his whole body seemed to be convulsing with it. He looked up.

  And there was Sam B, prowling from one side of the stage to the other like a caged tiger. He was scowling aggressively, jabbing at the audience as he spat out his lyrics. He looked much angrier up on stage than he did in real life. He was bare-chested, a huge, gold ‘B’ pendant swinging on a chain round his neck. There was more bling round his wrists, and his stomach was imprinted with a tattoo – a black skull above a pair of crossed Uzis. He looked fit and predatory, totally in his element.

  Logan was impressed in spite of himself – and more than a little envious too. He turned and peered drunkenly into the crowd. They were clearly enjoying themselves, grinning and bouncing and punching the air. There had been a time when Logan himself had enjoyed this kind of adulation – crowds cheering and whooping; girls wanting to fuck him; guys wanting to be him. All at once, standing there alone, he felt a wave of self-loathing sweep over him. Not quite knowing why he was doing it, he turned and waved his arms.

  ‘Sam! Hey, Sam!’ he yelled.

  It was only when the rapper carried on as if he wasn’t even there that Logan realized he did know why he was trying to grab his attention. It was because he wanted Sam to acknowledge him, to bathe him in a little reflected glory. The fact that Sam didn’t even look at him caused a red mist to descend in front of his eyes.