The Black Dragon Read Online Free PDF

for a second or two. It just doesn’t match the relaxed posture of the rest of his body. “Pay attention when things don’t fit,” Dad always said. “Be interested in the details.”
    But then the man claps his phone shut, shoves it in a pocket, and ambles off toward the terminal doors. As if he has all the time in the world.
    â€œCome on,” Zamora says, clambering into the rear seat of Mr. Kwan’s cab. “Your aunt’s in a blooming hurry. As usual. And I’m hungry.”
    Mr. Kwan revs the taxi and they pull away toward the expressway.
    â€œWhole lot better arriving here than the old airport,” Zamora says. “Safer too!”
    Danny looks back at the terminal building—and sees the man in the suit dart back across the tarmac, summoning the next taxi on the rank with a flick of his fingers. He moves with precision, ducking his long, thin head as he jumps into the backseat—glancing in their direction as he goes.
    â€œI’ll tell you, it was scary in a crosswind,” the dwarf continues. “Planes sliding sideways . . .”
    But Danny’s not listening. His curiosity has been roused by the actions of the white-suited man, and he looks around again, trying to pick out the other taxi. There it is. Close behind.
    It follows them across a couple of intersections and then down the ramp onto the North Lantau Highway. Most taxis from the airport would be going this way, of course. Then again, the man has no baggage, and he was in a hurry to grab a taxi as soon as they left the rank. A bit odd.
    Mr. Kwan wipes his forehead with a red handkerchief, urging the car onwards. They climb an elegant suspension bridge, cables webbed against the sky. Zamora taps Danny on the shoulder, dragging his attention from the following cab.
    â€œTake a look, Danny.”
    All of Hong Kong and its harbor is spread out before them in one breathtaking sweep. Boats plow snow-white furrows on the water. Green hills rise and fall and rise again, cradling the bay. Everywhere the thrust of skyscrapers, towers of glass and steel vertical at the water’s edge, catching the light.
    â€œOne of the most densely populated places on Earth,” Laura says. “That’s why everyone builds upward. Up and up.”
    â€œAnd me with my vertigo,” says Zamora, grimacing. “
Ay caramba!
”
    The expressway snakes through flyovers and sprawling intersections. Danny’s eyes drinking in the approaching city. Signs flashing by in a clutter of Chinese characters, coded messages that feel as though they should be decipherable, but are beyond reach.
    â€œIt’s strange to think of Mum growing up here,” Danny says, watching the city grow around them, the towering blocks swallowing them up.
    â€œHow do you mean, Danny boy?” Laura asks.
    â€œI mean, it’s like there’s a whole life she had here that I don’t really know.”
    â€œPerhaps you’ll get a better feel for it . . .”
    Danny smiles. “I’m glad I’ve come.”
    â€œGood. I’m sure it was the right thing to do.”
    Mr. Kwan pilots them surely enough through the hustling traffic and then down a ramp into the cross-harbor tunnel to Hong Kong Island itself.
    Danny turns around to squint through the rear window.
Is that taxi still following us?
he wonders. No fewer than twenty other virtually identical red and white cabs crowd behind them. No chance of picking it out. Maybe he was mistaken anyway.
    He keeps looking for a long time before finally twisting back again.
    Zamora glances at him. Not hard to see the mixture of anxiety, excitement, and grief playing on Danny’s face.
Going to be a bit of a balancing act
, Zamora thinks.
We need to lift the boy’s spirits
.
    But we need to keep our eyes open too. Just in case.

6
    HOW TO TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS
    They turn along the waterfront. The traffic has snarled, bumper to bumper. People nudge to change