Necropolis

it."
    Richard had come onto the phone. He had heard what Matt was suggesting. 'You can't do this," he pleaded. "It's too dangerous. Please, Matt, think what could go wrong."
    "We don't know where she is, Richard. There's no other way we'll find her."
    "What about Paul Adams? Once they have no further use for him, you know they'll kill him."
    "He's prepared to risk it. He knows what he's done. And he'll do anything to get Scarlett freed."
    Six police cars had arrived at Wisdom Court just after, seven o'clock. Lohan — with Richard and Jamie crouching next to him — had watched the police go in. They had seen the chairman arrive and leave, and they were still there when Matt, semiconscious and in pain, had been dragged out. Jamie had started forward at that moment, wanting to go to him. But Richard had grabbed hold of him, forcing him to remain still. This was Matt's plan. It was all or nothing.
    Matt had been driven across the city, never out of sight of Lohan's men. They had seen him disappear into the prison close to Hollywood Road. So now they knew where he was being held. Hopefully, Scarlett would be there too. As the storm had worsened, Lohan had surrounded the prison, his men closing in from all sides.

    The storm.
    Lohan was beginning to think that it was getting out of control. In all the years that he had been in Hong Kong, he had never experienced anything like it. When he stood up, he could feel the wind trying to batter him down again. Dust and dead leaves whipped into his face. He could hear the air currents howling as they rushed through the streets. If it got any worse, it would be dangerous out here. But then, of course, it was dangerous anyway. If the storm destroyed the city, it would only be finishing what the Old Ones had already begun.
    A crash of thunder. Rain lashing down so hard that he could see it bouncing off the parked cars, turning into miniature rivers that coursed along the side of the road. In seconds, he was soaked. Richard was next to him. "What's going on?" Richard muttered.
    "We must move now," Lohan said.
    Victoria Prison was a huge building with barred windows and a single, massive door — the only way in.
    Six armed guards stood outside it in the rain, dressed in uniforms, with their faces partly obscured by their caps. Lohan, Richard, and Jamie were watching from the doorway of an antique shop across the road. Lohan's strategy was simple. There was no time to be clever. He knew he had to break in as quickly and as decisively as possible. Once the enemy knew they were there, they would fight back.
    He gave the signal.
    There was an explosion — the same explosion that Matt had heard — as a rocket launcher, concealed in a parked van, fired a 40mm shell at the main door. The prison hadn't been built to withstand such an attack. The doors were blown apart in a ball of flame. Half the guards were killed instantly. The rest were cut down by a burst of machine-gun fire as the Triad fighters surged forward, pouring out of alleyways and rising up from behind parked cars. Farther down the road, two of Lohan's men, disguised as construction workers, cut off the main power supply, isolating the prison and short-circuiting the alarms.
    "Move!" Richard and Jamie were unarmed, but they ran forward with Lohan and in through the shattered doors.
    And then they were inside the prison. Lohan's people were spreading in every direction, through the upper floors, smashing open the doors to reveal the empty cells behind them. Some of them were armed with guns and grenades. Others carried swords and chain-sticks. It was pitch-black inside the building now that the electricity had been cut, but they had brought flashlights with them, strapped to their shoulders, the beams slicing through the dark and showing the way ahead. Lohan's orders were clear: Kill anyone who gets in your way. Find Matt and Scarlett. We have only minutes to get them out.
    There were more guards on the upper levels. Although the building held only two prisoners, the chairman had taken no chances. Now they opened fire on the invaders.
    Lohan saw the flash of bullets, heard some of the Triad men cry out. A few bodies fell. Then someone threw a grenade. Another fireball, and one of the guards pitched forward as if diving into a swimming pool, disappearing into the darkness below.
    Lohan himself led a group of fighters four floors down into the basement, Richard and Jamie close behind him. Only now was Richard beginning to see