Necropolis

receptionist was in his usual place as they left Wisdom Court, sitting stiffly behind the desk and wearing the same dark suit and white shirt, watching them with no expression at all. As they went past, Scarlett noticed something. The man had a black spot, a mole, on the side of his face. At least, that was what she thought. Then the spot moved. It crawled over his cheek and began to climb up, and she realized that it was actually a fly, one of the fat, black insects that had come to her window that morning.
    The receptionist didn't move. He didn't try to swat it. He didn't even seem to have noticed it. He did nothing as the creature reached the corner of his eye and began to feed.
    Scarlett couldn't get out of the building fast enough. Wisdom Court was only a few minutes from the tram station — they could have walked, but Karl drove them anyway. At least he had decided not to come to the top. Mrs. Cheng bought tickets for the two of them, and she and Scarlett got onto the tram.
    Although the station looked new, the tram itself had been built more than a hundred years before.
    Climbing on board was like stepping back in history. They took their places on the polished wooden seats, and a short while later, with no warning, they set off, trundling up the tracks through thick vegetation with occasional glimpses of the city, ever smaller and more distant as they went. There were about twenty tourists sharing the ride, some of them small children, laughing and pointing. Watching them, Scarlett wished that she could be part of an ordinary family, out here on holiday. She was only a few seats away from them, but they could have been inhabiting a different world. Had they really got no inkling about what was happening in Hong Kong? Was she the only one to feel the all-pervading sense of evil?
    We will be waiting.
    She focused her mind on what lay ahead. Who would be there and why had they chosen The Peak, of all places? Maybe it was because it was outside the city, away from the buildings. At the summit, there would be no crowds, no surveillance cameras. It was somewhere with room to breathe.
    The tram arrived and the passengers poured out, straight into a complex that seemed to have been specially built to make as much money from as many tourists as possible. From the outside, it looked like a bizarre observation tower, like something out of
    Star Wars.
    Inside, it was full of tacky shops and restaurants with a Madame Tussauds and a Ripley's Believe It or Not with signs inviting visitors to come and see the world's fattest man.
    Scarlett couldn't wait to get out.
    "Let's go for a walk," she suggested. She was careful to sound as innocent as possible.
    Mrs. Cheng looked doubtful. She wasn't dressed for a walk — in a short, gray skirt, black stockings, and high-heeled shoes. "Maybe a short way…" she muttered.
    There was a distinct chill in the air as the two of them made their way down a slope, passing a man who was sweeping leaves. Scarlett knew what she was looking for: a path that led off from the Lugard Road.
    That was what the fortune-teller's note had said. She saw the sign almost at once. Without even waiting for Mrs. Cheng to catch up, she set off.
    The path was three miles long, snaking all the way round the mountain, paved all the way. On one side, there was The Peak itself, with a tangle of exotic trees and bushes hanging overhead. On the other was an iron railing, to prevent anyone from falling down the hill. There weren't many other people around.
    The changing weather must have dissuaded them, and the other tourists who had come up in the tram had all stayed inside. Soon Scarlett found that she and Mrs. Cheng were entirely on their own.
    There was a strange atmosphere on The Peak. The mist had returned, hanging in the air, almost blotting out the sun. Everything was washed out, dark green and pale white. There were birds whistling, squawking, and rattling in the undergrowth, but none of them could be seen. The path was lost in the clouds and it was impossible to see more than fifty feet ahead. As she made her way forward, Scarlett found it easy to imagine that she had somehow traveled back in time, that this was some Eastern version of Jurassic Park and that a dinosaur might be waiting for her round the next corner.
    But then she arrived at an observation point where the vegetation had been cut back and Hong Kong appeared, sprawled out below. It was incredible to see so many skyscrapers packed together on