Li Jin watched the man called Oleg Krachev walk up the steps towards Kowloon Mosque. He knew it was the Russian because everything about him fitted the description. Even though the man he was looking at was somewhat older than he had expected, overweight and potbellied, there was something about his stride that led Li Jin to focus on him. There was also that determined look, the blotchy skin from too much drinking and the fact that he looked so out of place. He looked neither like a tourist nor a local expatriate.

Li Jin was about to move to the other side of the roof garden to watch Krachev emerge when his heart stopped beating. His body had responded even before he’d realized what his brain had registered. The small Chinese man he had seen in the shopping mall was walking up the steps, obviously following Krachev. How had the man found him? Li Jin realized that given the current situation, choosing the maze was a lucky break. If he played things well and remained calm, he could still emerge from his current predicament unscathed. He quickly turned round and moved to the other side of the roof garden. The side overlooking the maze.

Krachev was walking slowly but with determination through the park in the direction of maze. Li Jin removed his binoculars from his backpack, another oversight that he had corrected after fleeing from the shopping mall. Again, the gods were with him. He had walked past a shop selling cameras and huge telescopes and it had occurred to him that it would be difficult to track Krachev without a pair of binoculars. He had walked in and bought one haggling viciously with the small balding man behind the counter.

He trained the binoculars on Krachev. The man had some kind of weapon in the band of his suit trousers. The bulge was glaringly obvious. Li Jin realized then that he was playing a very dangerous game indeed. The small man had obviously been sent by the PLA to capture him and take him back to New China. They had probably realized that he had switched the processor and that the AI was an inferior product to Professor Yao’s creation. In fact, from the look of the man, who had also entered the park, he probably wasn’t here to take him back to New China. The man was a killer, plain and simple. This much was clear as he tracked the Chinese. That erect back, the fluid torso and only the legs suggesting movement, was somehow alien to the way everyone else walked. If the PLA had wanted him back in Beijing, they would have sent two men, not one. Definitely not one as small as this man. Small meant deadly.

Krachev disappeared into the entrance of the maze. Thirty seconds later the Chinese man followed. Li Jin realized that the Chinese, the assassin, probably thought he was inside the maze. The man was following Krachev to get to him. Li Jin reeled when he trained his binoculars on the assassin’s head. The gray lump on his neck suggested only one thing. The assassin was wearing one of Professor Yao’s prototype satellite-based cyberspace units. The one that interacted wirelessly with either a pair of glasses or directly with the brain, manipulating the thought patterns into some kind of virtual display. The professor had thought that this technology would never be used with a wet interface because the psychological effects on the subject would be horrendous and eventually fatal.

The prototype had been sent to a PLA unit in Longmen, Shanxi province for testing and that had been the last Li Jin had seen of it. The assassin was obviously using the device to interact with AIs and databases in Beijing. That was how the assassin had latched on to Krachev, through his messaging and telephone conversations. When he called Krachev to execute the wire transfer, the assassin would be able to trace his phone’s signal to within meters. Yet, he would also have to negotiate his way out of the maze, which would buy Li Jin some time. The maze was a gift from the gods, pure and simple.

Li Jin watched Krachev make several wrong turns in the maze, with the assassin just one step behind him. The man was good. Every time Krachev backtracked, the assassin would retreat, his head cocked, listening for Krachev’s footsteps. A bunch of children had made it to the center of the maze. Li Jin could see their parents waiting at the exit. It all looked so easy from up here. Finally, Krachev made it to the center of the maze with the assassin just one step behind.

Using the earpiece of his phone, Li Jin speed dialed Krachev and waited.

“What the hell do you think you are doing?” Krachev asked. He sounded angry.

Li Jin kept the binoculars trained on the Russian and the assassin who was standing very still a few feet away, only the thick hedge of the maze separating them.

“I am nearby. Don’t worry. I can see you.”

The Russian looked at the children who were leaving. They didn’t want to share the enclosed space with the heavily panting foreigner.

“Every corner of the park is being watched by my people. Try anything and you are dead meat,” Krachev bluffed. He had underestimated the seller.

“Just make the transaction and everything will be fine,” Li Jin said, giving the Russian the wireless ID of his credit receiver unit. The man muttered something to himself in Russian and pulled out a credit transmitter from his suit pocket. Li Jin watched him punch in the ID. He looked at his credit receiver and was relieved to see the message that a remote credit device was attempting to connect. He accepted the connection and watched a pulsating bar indicate that data was being sent across. A group of people came up to the roof garden and started moving in his direction. Credit transfer complete. Li Jin quickly scrolled through the simple menu and checked his bank account. The money was there. He refreshed the display. The money was gone, automatically wired into his other account as per his instructions. Li Jin switched off his credit receiver. He could hear the Russian breathing over the line.

“OK. You have your money. Where is the chip?”

The assassin had walked into the center of the maze. Krachev spun around and looked at the Chinese man. The Russian seemed to think the man was Li Jin but he couldn’t make up his mind. Krachev’s hands instinctively reached behind his jacket.

“Don’t do it, if you want to get out of there alive,” Li Jin warned the Russian.

Krachev hesitated, his hands ready at his side.

“The chip is in a bearer safety deposit box in your name at the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank on 82 Nathan Road. Just a few minutes walk from here. It’s a 24-hour bank so it will be open when you get there.”

“Why should I believe you, you piece of shit?” Krachev hissed, turning around.

“I am about to save your life. The man standing in the enclosure with you is not a tourist. He is a killer from New China out to retrieve the chip and eliminate whoever possesses it. He tried to kill me earlier.”

Li Jin moved the binoculars towards where the assassin was standing. He had disappeared. Then he spotted him in the maze, running towards the exit. He seemed to be having trouble finding it yet he was moving through the maze at breakneck speed. The assassin had pinpointed his location from the network signal of his cell phone. Li Jin placed the deposit slip under a concrete flower pot.

“Which man are you talking about?” Incredibly, Krachev was chasing after the assassin, his phone to one ear.

“The one you thought was me.” Li Jin said, rapidly descending the stairs leading from the roof garden.

“You are a dead man ... you fuckin ...”

“The slip is underneath the third stone flower pot from the left on the roof garden above the park entrance you came through. Nice doing business with you.” Li Jin hung up and walked briskly through the park entrance, down the stairs of Kowloon Mosque and melted into the crowds.