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shut. Danny had thought about Houdini’s escapes from the “living burials.” It was one trick his father never wanted to emulate. (He had started working on it, but couldn’t cope when the soil hit his face, choking him. Each time he sat up and shook his head violently—and then got out of the open grave.)
    In the cemetery Zamora had come up and stood next to Danny, letting his quiet presence do the work. After a long while watching the snow fall the dwarf had said, “You can always rely on me, Danny. Always.”
    Danny believed it then. He needs to believe it now.

10
    HOW TO REVEAL HIDDEN MESSAGES
    Thirty minutes later they’re sitting by the window in their hotel room. Across the South China Sea the last of the lightning is guttering away to nothing.
    Danny looks at Zamora. “So you were going to tell me about the dots.”
    The dwarf looks thoughtfully at his hat as he twirls it in his stubby fingers.
    â€œPlease.”
    â€œI don’t know much. Honest. Your aunt always keeps things close to her chest, you know. Remember, it was three weeks before anyone even knew she was in
prison
!”
    â€œYou were Dad’s closest friend,” Danny presses. “He trusted you. I
need
to know.”
    â€œWell. There’s always been a rumor. A rumor about a criminal organization—a global organization—that pulls all the strings behind the big gangs and crime families. That’s what Laura told me. She got interested in it some time ago. But she was sure it was just a myth. Like Bigfoot, or UFOs. She thinks some gangs use it to scare people . . . you know, what do they call it—a bogeyman.”
    â€œGo on.”
    â€œLaura wrote about it a year or so ago. And then she got a number of anonymous notes and emails via her editor. That same symbol on each one. She thinks it’s just some crank trying to put the wind up her and make out that it really exists.”
    â€œThat what exists?”
    â€œIt’s called the Forty-Nine. Because there are meant to be forty-nine members from affiliated gangs around the world. A kind of supercrime syndicate. Always forty-nine. When one dies—or disappears—another takes his or her place. Sounds fantastical really, but now with the dots turning up all over the place, well . . .”
    â€œAnd what has it got to do with the Black Dragon?”
    â€œLaura didn’t say. She just wanted to bring you along to . . . show you Hong Kong. What with school being shut and all.”
    â€œAnd that’s all you know?”
    Zamora turns to look out the window, but Danny catches his reflection in the glass. Caution. His hands are tensing slightly, as if holding on to something.
    â€œThat’s all I know about the stupid dots.” Something definitely unsaid. Danny goes to challenge him, and then decides to let it pass. He will trust Zamora. People always said that Zamora had the word
honest
running through him like a stick of rock candy says
Brighton
. If he’s not being a hundred percent truthful he must have his reasons. So forget about it for now. Find the right way forward.

    It was Dad’s contention that any problem—almost any problem—could be solved if you just broke it into small enough parts. He would sit Danny down, with a mug of tea for each of them, at the big table in the trailer, then write a problem in capital letters at the top, like
HOW TO DO THE BURNING ROPE ESCAPE
.
    â€œBut it could equally well be how to mend a tap or how to make a cup of tea,” Dad said. “The principle is the same. I call it my atomic strategy. The main thing is that your problem contains masses of other little ones hidden inside it. Maybe ten, maybe a hundred. You have to take it to pieces, so it becomes something like: ‘How to escape from a burning rope, while you’re held fast in a straitjacket and you only have sixty seconds to get free.’ Then you can see how to break it down