rounding a gaping hole where several containers had been plucked from the tier. The other roadway was considerably wider, with room for containers to be lowered on to flatbed trailers. The great yellow crane spanning the block along which he was running was ahead, slowly lowering a container towards a waiting truck.
But the huge machine wasn’t what caught his attention. Instead, it was a rotund figure a hundred yards away, shouting into a walkie-talkie as he ran.
A look ahead told Eddie where he was going. The floodlit, slab-like sides of cargo ships rose above the containers. The waterfront.
But West wasn’t going to board a ship. He was trying to dispose of the memory card. On the ground, even in the dockland sprawl, the Singaporean authorities could use CCTV and dogs to retrace his steps and eventually find it. But in the water, amongst the currents and traffic and floating garbage, the tiny plastic chip would be lost for ever.
‘Not a fucking chance,’ Eddie muttered as he set off at a run. He could easily catch up with West on the ground – but first had to get down there.
He was too high up to risk dropping to the concrete. But doubling back and descending that way would cost him too much time. He needed an intermediate step . . .
The crane.
He ran at it, the driver in his elevated cabin reacting in surprise at the sight of the interloper, then hurriedly hitting the emergency stop. The container jolted to a halt above the trailer—
Eddie made a running jump, crossing the gap and landing with a bang on the container roof eight feet below. He ran along the container’s length, vaulted the end of the spreader and thumped down on his backside on the truck’s roof to slide off and drop the last nine feet to the ground.
The impact jarred his joints. He rolled with a pained grunt and jumped up. The startled truck driver threw open the cab door and yelled in Chinese, but Eddie was already running after West.
The fat man disappeared round a corner. Eddie pushed harder, reaching the corner of the container block just in time to see West make another turn about fifty yards ahead, still heading for the waterfront. Feet splashing through puddles, Eddie followed. At the turn he saw that he had closed the distance again, West only forty yards away. He would be able to tackle him well short of the sea—
Lights came on behind him, his running shadow stretching ahead on the wet ground.
He looked back – and saw a forklift bearing down on him.
Eddie jinked to one side of the roadway. The forklift changed course, tracking him. West had called for help over the radio, and a dock worker had responded.
The containers were stacked too high for him to climb. The machine charged at him like a bull, its forks great steel horns lowered to punch into his chest. Eddie backed against a container. He could see the driver’s face between the headlights, fixed in malevolent expectation—
‘Olé!’ Eddie cried, whirling and dropping flat as the twin forks speared over him and punched through the metal wall.
He had gambled with his life that the container was full – and it was. The vehicle slammed to a stop just short of him as the forks hit whatever was inside. The corrugated side tore open with a screech . . . and dozens of cans tumbled out of the mangled hole, thunking off him as he scrambled out from beneath the embedded tines. The sickly smell of dog food filled his nostrils.
The forklift whined and jolted as it tried to pull free. Eddie snatched up a can and hurled it at the driver’s head. There was a ringing clonk of metal against bone, and the man let out an almost comical squawk of pain before toppling nervelessly from the open cab.
Eddie looked back towards the waterfront. West was out of sight again, having gone down another intersecting roadway. Had the fat man gone left or right? If he followed the wrong path, it could cost him his chance to catch up.
He sprinted for the junction. Left or right? He had only a moment to make a choice—
He made it – and carried straight on.
Whichever way he had gone, West would still be heading for the sea. A broad expanse of rain-soaked concrete glistened in the floodlights between the end of the container stacks and a waiting ship.