Nothing stopped her. Behind me I heard Mark also shouting, then some scurrying activity, then thudding footsteps as Mark came chasing after us. Mo Ruo had zipped across the street, creating a blast of hornhonking chaos. We stirred it up again when Mark caught up to me, waving his gold shield as though it could protect us from the cars we dashed in front of. Everyone on the street was mad at us, and the people on the sidewalk didn’t think much of us either as we ran past and around them, forcing them to jump aside or be knocked out of the way just as they were recovering from the typhoon of Mo Ruo’s passage. Mo Ruo turned left and blasted up a side street. Mark pulled away from me, gaining on her faster than I did. I was hampered by my bag, bouncing along over my shoulder. At home I rarely carry one, because it gets in your way in situations like this. In Hong Kong I hadn’t expected any situations like this, I thought as I sped along; still, you’d think Lydia Chin could at least keep up with, if not outrun, an old lady and a chubby cop.
