They sat in the courtyard of the cafe outside the British Library, having lunch.
'I think I know where to go next,' said Janey, 'The paper trail points to Hong Kong.'
The Professor finished his sandwich and looked at her. 'Do you know your way round there?'
She shook her head.
'Speak the language? Have any contacts?'
Again, negative.
'Well, I'm sorry then, you haven't a chance in Hell of finding her.'
'Bugger that matey,' Janey grinned back. ''I'm not the quitting type!'
He leant back, lighting a cigarette, 'Some company might help though...' A smile flashed, briefly, wrinkling round his eyes.
'Serious mate? You offering to come along for the ride?'
'I'm free for the next fortnight and could do with a break, well?' He smiled again.
She jumped up, ran round the table and hugged him.
'You lovely old bugger!' She yelled, drawing odd looks from the other tables.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alan spent the afternoon on his laptop searching, making calls and planning. he worked meticulously, as with any other research project. It was nearly seven before he sat back, satisfied.
'Ok, that should do.' He said to the cat smiling. He rose from the desk, went through to the kitchen. took a bottle from the rack, opened it and went to sit in the garden.
He sipped the wine and pulled out his phone, He called, straight to voicemail, oh well.
'Hi, only me, the Prof, think I've got everything sorted now, I'll e mail you the details...I'll call again in the morning.'
He got up and went back inside to fix himself something to eat.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Janey sat on the bed in the cheap hotel room and wiped away a tear.
The phone flashing with a message had given her a brief moment of hope, but it was just from the Prof.
What had happened to her little Sis? It was two months now since she had last heard from Case and that just was not like her. Yes, she was much younger than her, nearly fifteen years but they had always been very close. Mom had died when Case was only three so she had helped out with the bringing up.
Casey had been so excited when she was offered the job, a chance to travel, see somethign of the world. Calls and messages came from all over the Far East then the last one.
'Janey, you won't believe this! New secret project - can't tell you where!! So up for it xxx'
She stared at the message, long saved on her phone, nothing since then, bugger all, no replies to calls, e mails, texts, even the Twitter was silent.
She hadn't been concerned for the first couple of weeks, but gradually a feeling that something was wrong grew. That was when she had started her enquiries.
Every avenue was blank, No trace of her since that message from Singapore. Then one day, out of the blue a letter. Written in poor English, the ill formed letters suggesting someone not familiar with Western script, it gave her a name, four Chinese characters and the words 'Bitish Ribry'.
She'd tried to translate the characters using her computer but only two gave any vague suggestions: something to do with blood, liquid or river and doom, death or end.
That was the start of her journey to London and the chance meeting with the Prof.
The characters had caught his attention but it took him a couple of hours searching ancient texts to come up with a rough translation.
Put together the four characters said, 'The river creature seeks the ruby, death lies in that path.'
She lay down to try and sleep, she'd read his e mail in the morning. Perhaps there was still hope.
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