She worked her jaw and glared at him. ‘No way did you go to this much trouble just to have me race.’
‘That’s true,’ Wu conceded. ‘There’s something I want you to find for me on Teijouan, before Strugatsky does.’
‘We’re using the Devil’s Run as a cover story,’ explained the Englishman. ‘Strugatsky has the same objective as us, and he’s already putting together a team to go in and retrieve the…items we’d like you to help us acquire. But putting you into the Run is the only way we can do that without alerting him to our plan.’
‘They won’t let me into the race without a navigator. Unless you can get me some kind of exception like they did for Lucifer Black.’
Wu nodded at the Englishman. ‘Harry here will be your navigator.’
‘I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me what it is you’re looking for on Teijouan?’
‘Harry will tell you, but not until the race is underway,’ said Wu, a flinty look in his eyes. ‘If you succeed in helping us achieve our goal, we’ll pay you far more than you’d ever get from winning the race.’
‘The Devil’s Run isn’t a picnic,’ said Dutch. ‘I need to know more than you’re telling me.’
Harry opened his mouth to speak, but Wu raised one hand, dark with liver-spots, to silence him. ‘You were very young during the evacuations, were you not?’ the old man asked.
Dutch shrugged. ‘Sure. Why?’ She had a brief mental flash of her father gripping her tiny fist in his, of vast crowds of desperate refugees milling about a port while commandeered passenger ships crammed far beyond capacity steered away from shore.
‘I remember Teijouan as it was,’ said Wu. ‘A proud nation. One that pulled itself out of poverty by its bootstraps. Then came the Rift, and men like Strugatsky, who exploited its misfortune for profit.’
Dutch glanced around the interior of the plane. ‘You don’t seem to have done so badly out of it yourself.’
‘Better me than some laowai who knows nothing of our culture or history, yes?’
‘If you’re trying to appeal to my sense of patriotism,’ said Dutch, ‘I grew up in New Detroit.’
‘Stealing cars and performing illegal modifications on others,’ said Wu. ‘Part of Teijouan’s lost generation. If Strugatsky beats us, he will use what he finds merely to enrich himself.’ The old man clenched one liver-spotted hand into a fist. ‘Anything found there belongs to us. To the people of Teijouan, scattered to the winds though they may be.’
As if, thought Dutch, the money he made from putting drivers in the Devil’s Run went anywhere but his own pockets; and he hadn’t even answered her question. But if he was serious about putting her back in the race…well, that was a different matter.
‘So what happens when I turn up at the starting line, three days after taking part in one of the biggest jail breaks in Russian history? Isn’t somebody going to wonder about that?’
Wu took out a phone and held it up where she could see it. ‘One call is all that is required. By the time you walk in front of the cameras, the whole world will believe you were released the day before the jail-break occurred.’
‘And if I say no?’
Wu settled back on his couch and cast a not-insignificant look towards the door of the plane before shifting his gaze back to her. ‘Then as far as the world will know, you died in the riot. But if you say yes, we’ll fly straight to Japan for the time-trials.’
That much was clear and unambiguous. ‘Guess I don’t really have much choice but to say yes,’ she said dryly.
All three men relaxed noticeably, and she sensed a sudden shift in the atmosphere. ‘A wise decision,’ said Wu, looking satisfied.
Fuck you, thought Dutch, watching as Harry put his Taser away. The limo driver, who had said nothing since boarding the jet, listened and watched with evident interest. Something in his body language made her think he might be something more than a chauffeur.
‘If you’re supposed to be my navigator,’ she said to Harry, ‘I need to know what kind of experience you’ve got.’
‘Harry’s a former Captain in the SAS,’ said Wu. ‘He took part in the mass airlifts from Teijouan back when the Rift first formed. Not to mention he’s a veteran of the Second Korean War.’
‘I also drove in a couple of cross-continent rallies,’ Harry added with evident pride. ‘And I reached the finals in the Silk Road Rally, and the African TransContinental. I can handle myself fine on the road, Miss McGuire. You’ve got no concerns there.’
‘Not bad,’ said Dutch. ‘Did you ever come face to face with any Kaiju? I mean the really big, nasty ones like a Spine-back, or a Viper-tail, maybe?’
Harry hesitated a moment. ‘I can’t say I did,’ he admitted. ‘But I don’t see why it should be any problem. I’ve made an extensive study of all the current research on Kaiju encounters.’
Dutch sucked her lips and thought. ‘Tell you what,’ she said, leaning towards him, ‘I don’t drive with anyone until we shake on it.’
She reached out her right hand. After a moment’s hesitation, Harry grasped it. ‘I think we’ll work together very—’
Before he could finish, Dutch reached out with her other hand, took hold of Harry’s index finger, and twisted it in a direction it hadn’t been designed to go. She heard an audible crunch, and the Englishman’s face turned white.
‘Jesus!’ he howled, yanking his hand back and staring at her with murderous fury. ‘You broke my finger, you fucking bitch!’
Dutch sat back with her hands held high before either of the other two men could react. The driver had stood, his face dark with fury and a second Taser in his hand.
‘Take it easy!’ she shouted. ‘I had to do it for the sake of everyone involved.’
The driver moved towards her, but Wu reached out and stopped him with a hand on his arm.
‘The reason you’re not
