Dragon's Eye [antikvár]

Chapter 1THE BUND (ZHONGSHAN LU), SHANGHAI. THE PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF CHINA.A tide so low. A night so dark. A secret so raw.The bodies of the eight, caked in black river mud and twisted around each other in the strange and silent choreography of death . . . could not be seen from the Bund, once the most famous street in the East.Only when down amongst the debris that clogged the Huangpu riverbanks and away from the deep rooted shadows of the grandiose neo-classical edifices that skirted the old commercial heart of Shanghai. . . could their hfeless hmbs be made out. And even more clearly, the dark steel hnks, the heavy chains that bound the weld of bodies together in death. Leg to leg. Neck to neck. A permanence about the chains, as if they had always rested there between the once hving, the once breathing individuals.A dazzle of headlight. A car door slamming.The Homicide Squad of the PSB. The tall shadow amongst the smaller shadows . . . the Senior Investigator. Eyes trained into beheving that they had seen it all. StiU, Sun Piao felt the shiver shde up his spine; wings of nausea flutter in his chest. With difficulty, moving forward. Swearing, cold mud oozing over the top of his shoe. A few more muttered to himself as his eyes fell upon the gaping holes. Black. Bottomless. Cleaving the chests of the corpses closest to him. SpHtting them, neck to navel. Finding himself thinking of overripe peaches. Of a melon cut and halved . . . sticky centre of seeds spooned away.