Necropolis

trying to knock him off balance, but he was too strong. The fumes of some sort of chemical, sweet and pungent, crept into her nose and mouth. Almost at once, all the strength drained out of her. She felt her legs fold, and the world spun. And then she was falling, being guided into the trunk, which had become a huge black hole waiting to swallow her up.
    The end came very quickly. Darkness. Terror. And then the welcome emptiness of sleep.
    TWENTY
    Lohan
    She was in a cage, not lying down but standing. And there was something strange. The wall was moving. It seemed to be scrolling downward in front of her. Or was it she who was moving up?
    As consciousness returned, Scarlett realized what was happening. She was in an elevator, one of the old-fashioned kind with a folding iron gate instead of a door. What she was looking at was the brickwork between floors in what had to be a very tall building. She was pinned between the Japanese man and the one she had decided to call Paper Face. They were supporting her. She could still taste the drug —
    chloroform or whatever it was — that had knocked her out.
    Scarlett groaned and the two men immediately tightened their grip. There was no chance she was going to start a fight in such a confined space, but she had already struggled at the car, and they weren't taking any chances.

    'You are safe now," Paper Face said.
    "Where am I?"
    'You will see…very soon."
    The elevator slowed down to a stop, and the Japanese man jerked the cage door open. They stepped out into a long, dimly lit corridor with walls that were either grimy or had been deliberately painted the color of grime. There were doors every few feet. The whole place looked like a cheap hotel.
    There was a Chinese man guarding the corridor with a machine gun cradled across his chest. The sight of the weapon struck Scarlett as completely bizarre. It was like something out of a gangster film. But the man didn't look anything like her idea of a gangster. He was dressed in jeans and a loose-hanging shirt.
    He was skinny, with a wispy beard, a tattoo on his neck, and a gold tooth prominent at the front of his mouth. A drug dealer, perhaps? Looking at him, it was hard to believe that he was on her side.
    The two men took her to the fourth room along the corridor. Paper Face knocked and the door was unlocked from inside. They entered. Machine Gun stayed where he was, opposite the elevator.
    Scarlett found herself in a large, almost empty apartment that looked as if someone had recently moved out… or in. There were a few pieces of furniture, some of them covered in dust sheets, and no decoration — no carpet, no lamp shades, no pictures on the walls. The windows had been blanked out with sheets of paper. Scarlett wondered why. They had to be fairly high up, so surely there was no chance of anyone looking in. An archway led into a small kitchen, and there was a corridor on the other side, presumably with a bedroom and bathroom at the end.
    Another man had been waiting for her to arrive. He was Chinese, more smartly dressed than the others
    — in a gray suit and gray T-shirt — and everything about him radiated confidence and control. Was he the one in charge? He examined Scarlett briefly. His eyes were very dark, almost black, and gave nothing away. There was a thin scar starting high up on his left cheek and then slanting diagonally across his lips so that the two halves of his face didn't quite meet, like a reflection in a broken mirror.
    But, even so, he was handsome. Scarlett guessed that he was barely more than twenty years old.
    "How are you?" he said. 'You must have been very frightened by your ordeal. I'm sorry that there was no other way."
    "Who are you?" Scarlett demanded. "Where am I, and who are these people? What do you want with me? And what was that with Mrs. Cheng? They said she was a shape-changer. What does that mean?"
    Once the questions had started, they wouldn't stop.
    The man held up a hand. He had long, elegant fingers, like a piano player. "We have a great deal to say to each other," he said. "Would you like a drink?"

    "No, thank you."
    "But I would." He nodded and Paper Face hurried into the kitchen. The man was obviously used to being obeyed. He turned back to Scarlett. "Please, come and sit down."
    Scarlett went over to the sofa. She was surprised how quickly the drug had worn off. She sat down. The man followed her and sat opposite. He moved slowly, taking his time. Everything about him was