SHE cut an unremarkable figure as she hobbled across the hotel lobby. Casually dressed, wearing unfashionable thick-rimmed glasses, her hair flecked with grey, she stuck out her hand in greeting and said quietly: ''Hi, I'm Cathy Palmer.'' She could have been mistaken for one of the thousands of American tourists who come to Hongkong - but her visit was strictly business.
Ms Palmer, an assistant attorney in New York, is the top heroin prosecutor in the United States.
She has never lost a drug case and is widely recognised on both sides of the law as being the scourge of southeast Asia's heroin traffickers. There are plenty of Hongkong traffickers who are now behind bars who can vouch for that.
To the Hongkong drug underworld, Ms Palmer is Enemy Number One, but while she was here there was not a bodyguard in sight. Even her injured knee was attributed to something as unremarkable as a clash during a basketball game.
When she travels abroad Ms Palmer, nicknamed ''The Dragon Lady'', is escorted by US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents, although she played down the threat to her life - even though there has been one attempt to kill her.
''The cops on the street put their lives on the line all the time, the least I can do is to do my bit,'' she said. ''If you start worrying about that stuff then they have won. It will affect how you work.'' Ms Palmer was in town last week to prepare for the trial of yet another accused Hongkong drug trafficker, Law Kin-man.
The US authorities believe Law was a key player in one of the biggest heroin cases of all time - two tonnes of heroin with a street value of US$4.76 billion ($37 billion) that were smuggled into the US in the mid to late-1980s.