This alley is so narrow I can touch the sides. Fire escape landings and street signs bunt overhead so I can barely see the night’s sky. I’m out of the crowd, but now the buildings are making me claustrophobic.
And... I’m being followed.
Two men trailed me into the alley, less than a minute behind. Their voices are low but there’s an echo, every now and then I pick up on a bit of their conversation. What I’m hearing isn’t good. They sound like they’re Triad on the job. They’re discussing ammunition. But why me? Maybe the sauce man was connected, someone who didn’t like to be f&*%ed with. It’s not as if I knocked him over intentionally!
I guess I’m not all that concerned. I can take care of myself. It’s just the complication I don’t need. I’ll play it cool for a while, pick up the pace for a bit and duck into a foyer the first chance I get.
These must be Beijing’s poorest residential buildings. They’re not slums but they’re a world apart from the uber skyscrapers that house the cities new rich.
All of the doors I pass are dead-locked and some are even chained. I’m not ready to stop for a locked door and let Huey and Duey catch up with me yet . A middle-aged couple appears out of nowhere and I step aside and bow politely. Behind them an entrance door is swinging shut. I grab it before the lock clicks. Bingo.
Inside there’s a single elevator, a stair well and three apartment doors. They must be absolute shoeboxes if they’ve fit three of them into the ground floor of this building.
The door locks behind me and I duck into the stair well to wait it out. It’s definitely not going to be my night though. It can’t have been two minutes when I hear the door buzz and click open. I take a peak, it’s Huey and Duey, somebody has bloody let them in!
I breathe in and breathe out but neither of them looks my way. Instead they approach one of the ground floor apartment doors. It’s opened by a scared old lady.
They’re not after me. They’re asking her about someone, but she keeps shaking her head. She is offering them cash. Whatever it is, its not enough. One of them knocks it out of her hand, the other pulls a knife.
F*#%, I can’t just stand here and watch a couple of thugs cut up an old lady.
‘Leave the lady, no trouble.’ I say, stepping out of the shadow of the stairwell.
The one with the knife is so surprised he drops it on the ground. The other one yells at him to pick it up. Then they all start screaming indiscriminately at me, Huey, Duey and the old lady.
My Mandarin is too basic to have any real idea what they are all saying now, but when Duey’s right hand slips under his left lapel I know exactly what’s going to happen next.
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And... I’m being followed.
Two men trailed me into the alley, less than a minute behind. Their voices are low but there’s an echo, every now and then I pick up on a bit of their conversation. What I’m hearing isn’t good. They sound like they’re Triad on the job. They’re discussing ammunition. But why me? Maybe the sauce man was connected, someone who didn’t like to be f&*%ed with. It’s not as if I knocked him over intentionally!
I guess I’m not all that concerned. I can take care of myself. It’s just the complication I don’t need. I’ll play it cool for a while, pick up the pace for a bit and duck into a foyer the first chance I get.
These must be Beijing’s poorest residential buildings. They’re not slums but they’re a world apart from the uber skyscrapers that house the cities new rich.
All of the doors I pass are dead-locked and some are even chained. I’m not ready to stop for a locked door and let Huey and Duey catch up with me yet . A middle-aged couple appears out of nowhere and I step aside and bow politely. Behind them an entrance door is swinging shut. I grab it before the lock clicks. Bingo.
Inside there’s a single elevator, a stair well and three apartment doors. They must be absolute shoeboxes if they’ve fit three of them into the ground floor of this building.
The door locks behind me and I duck into the stair well to wait it out. It’s definitely not going to be my night though. It can’t have been two minutes when I hear the door buzz and click open. I take a peak, it’s Huey and Duey, somebody has bloody let them in!
I breathe in and breathe out but neither of them looks my way. Instead they approach one of the ground floor apartment doors. It’s opened by a scared old lady.
They’re not after me. They’re asking her about someone, but she keeps shaking her head. She is offering them cash. Whatever it is, its not enough. One of them knocks it out of her hand, the other pulls a knife.
F*#%, I can’t just stand here and watch a couple of thugs cut up an old lady.
‘Leave the lady, no trouble.’ I say, stepping out of the shadow of the stairwell.
The one with the knife is so surprised he drops it on the ground. The other one yells at him to pick it up. Then they all start screaming indiscriminately at me, Huey, Duey and the old lady.
My Mandarin is too basic to have any real idea what they are all saying now, but when Duey’s right hand slips under his left lapel I know exactly what’s going to happen next.
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