‘Then they need to move faster. Longer we’re here, more chance we get spotted.’

Dempsey did not reply immediately. Instead he just nodded his head in agreement, a smile threatening the corners of his mouth.

He forced that smile away. With the endless cultural differences between China and the West, Shui Dai might not understand it as an expression of admiration. And Dempsey would not risk an inadvertent insult. Not with Dai.

‘Agreed,’ he said to her. ‘I’ll see what I can do.’

He put his hand to his ear and activated his wrist-mic.

‘How long until the safety net? Over.’

‘Three minutes at the outside. Last birds moving up high now. Over.’

The reply said what was needed and nothing more, exactly as Dempsey had learned to expect from the NYPD’s SWAT unit.

‘OK, confirm when ready. Over.’

He changed the mic’s frequency with a flick of his finger before speaking again.

‘Alpha Two, you get that? Over.’

‘Confirmed.’ The response was immediate. Another American voice. ‘Ready to move in three. Over.’

‘Beta? Over.’

‘In place and waiting. Over.’ German this time. It was a clear, crisp response and would be worthy of a joke about Teutonic efficiency, if only the entire team were not equally well-drilled.

‘Hold to my mark,’ Dempsey instructed. ‘Out.’

He lowered his wrist and turned back to Dai.

‘Happy now?’

‘I’ll be happy when we get in there,’ she replied.

‘Then you won’t have long to wait.’

Dempsey did not speak again. There was little point. He had seen Shui Dai like this before. ‘In the Dai Zone’, he had come to call it. The expression didn’t translate well to Dai’s native Mandarin, and he’d given up trying to explain.

Dempsey, though, knew exactly what he meant.

It had been over two years since he’d joined the International Security Bureau, a multi-national intelligence agency formed by the United Nations Security Council. In that time he had worked with agents from all over the world. Some were good: well-trained, intelligent and resourceful. Others were not. But a few – a very few – were exceptional.

And none were better than Shui Dai.

Dai had been recruited from China’s Secret Service, an agency so effective that it had no official name, or at least no name known to the West. And while it had taken her time to settle in to New York City, where the ISB was based, Dai had taken to the Bureau itself like a fish to water.

Dempsey had rarely seen a more effective operative. Maybe never.

That Dai was smarter than most – certainly smarter than him – had come as no great surprise. But what had been eye-opening was her ability in the field.

Standing five foot one and weighing 115 pounds, Dai was over a foot shorter than Dempsey’s six two and barely half his 225 pounds, yet she had proved to be every bit as fearsome as her team’s English leader. Highly skilled and utterly ruthless, Dai’s diminutive appearance gave no hint whatsoever of her physical capabilities.