Chapter 51
Poe parked under the shadow of St James’ Park. He pointed at the stadium and told Esmerée it was where Newcastle United played their home games.
‘What’s that?’
‘They’re a football team.’
‘Like soccer?’
Poe sighed. ‘If you must.’ He wasn’t a football fan.
Even at school he hadn’t really caught the bug.
One of the guys in the NCA said his sister had been in the same maths class as Alan Shearer.
Poe had thought it a strange thing to brag about.
When it came to contact sports, he preferred rugby.
He didn’t understand the rules, but that was OK; neither did the players.
‘Soccer sucks,’ Esmerée said. ‘Why can’t you guys play a real sport like football?’
‘What, idiots in tights hitting other idiots in tights? No thanks. If I’m going to watch a football match, I want to see life-changing tackles and pitched battles between rival supporters.
I don’t want to see players dressed like human cannonballs.
And as for baseball, why the teams wear pyjamas is a mystery to everyone. ’
‘It’s because—’
‘I don’t care,’ Poe said. ‘While in this city, you’ll keep your opinions about soccer to yourself. The Mags can get quite pugnacious when it comes to perceived slights against their team.’
‘Who the hell are the Mags?’
‘Newcastle’s home strip is black and white. They’re nicknamed the Magpies.’
‘What a bunch of assholes.’
‘All football teams have nicknames. Anyway, that brings us neatly to the ground rules. The first one is you don’t call anyone an asshole.’
‘What if they’re being an asshole?’
‘Then I’ll deal with it.’
‘What’s the second rule?’
‘We’re here to learn about Kai Jin,’ Poe said.
‘That means I’ll be dropping his name into as many conversations as possible.
Hope that in a tight-knit community like this, word will eventually reach him, or someone who knows him.
The object is for us to be easy to find.
The downside of that is if someone doesn’t want us talking to Kai, we’ll still be easy to find.
So if I tell you to run, you run and you don’t stop.
You get the heck out of whatever place we’re in and you keep running until you’re back at the car.
I parked at St James’ Park for a reason.
Because of football violence, it has excellent CCTV coverage.
If you can make it to this area, no one will bother you. ’
‘What about you?’
Poe shrugged. ‘I’m scrappy.’
Esmerée paled a little. Or maybe she didn’t. Maybe Estelle had been giving her more lessons in looking gothy. ‘Nothing will happen, though, right? These triad assholes aren’t going to find us, not on our first visit?’
‘I can’t imagine we’ll be that unlucky,’ Poe said.