None of the contraband would remain long. Though only a small percentage of the Chinese population was in the market for illicit animal parts, in a nation of 1.4 billion people, that small percentage still amounted to a voracious appetite—one that Wan hoped to feed. Nearly half the sales would happen online, and Wan’s men were soon busy photographing the contraband and uploading product listings—not just on the dark web but also on popular Chinese Internet marketplaces, where coded keywords let them easily evade the filters meant to prevent illegal sales. Most of the animal parts, however, would be sold in cities along the South China Sea, where the Sun Yee On had developed street-level distribution networks.

That evening, four go-fast boats skipped across the open water of the South China Sea. The choppy surf gave way to glass as they entered the calm Victoria channel, flanked by the twin cities of Kowloon and Hong Kong.

Inspector Audrey Lam had also been on a journey of her own. Johnny Chu had given up the name of his supplier, who, in turn, had revealed that a new shipment would be arriving in Tsim Sha Tsui tonight. The revelation that the contraband would be coming through the harbor in Southern Kowloon didn’t surprise Audrey, for the area was known to be home to many gangs who dealt in illicit goods.

Audrey cased the waterfront and found an office building that overlooked the harbor. She entered and made her way up a stairwell to a fire door that opened onto the roof. Concealed by the shadows and the ledge, she photographed the go-fast boats as they arrived and were immediately offloaded by waiting porters. She zoomed in on what appeared to be gang tattoos on the arms of the men—one of the few clues that might help identify the smugglers.

The loads of animal parts were then transferred to motorcycles, which zoomed off into the night to be delivered to the street-level dealers. One load included a live and very rare pangolin (listed on CITES Appendix One), which would find its way to a traditional Chinese medicine shop whose walls were lined with dried shark fins.

Another TCM doctor, located inconspicuously in a second-floor office, received a shipment of paws severed from Asiatic black bears that had died on a bile farm in Laos.