Without A Trace

by Sandra Moore

  Whoever had been hunting them down in the wee hours might, as Johnny suspected, already know Diviner’s next destination and simply wanted to reduce the competition for Diviner’s wares—whatever they were. And in that case, who needed to follow them?

  “Are you just being careful?” she asked.

  “After Regina?”

  She shut up and concentrated on studying the leaning houses amid once-lush surroundings made thin by overdevelopment and made gray by the thunderstorm. People hurried everywhere, dodging puddles and carrying baskets of wares through the streets. At a crossroads, when the view opened up, she glimpsed the steel towers of downtown, architecture inspired partly by the East, partly by the West.

  Johnny saw her looking and said, “My contact is in an outlying village. It will be safer there for us.”

  Nikki clamped one hand on the Peugeot’s door handle as he swerved to avoid a car drifting toward them. Diviner’s container was due to arrive late the next day, around seven in the evening. Another evening and day to kill.

  Another evening and day to spend with someone she couldn’t read unless he chose it.

  Emote, dammit, she thought to him, and then blushed faintly because when he emoted, he really emoted. She ignored the low ache prompted by her too-damned-good memory.

  He finally pulled the Peugeot into an alley that crept beside a well-kept house about a block long. As he set the emergency brake, he said, “Lee Wan is our host. He will give us food and weapons and a car. Stick with me, and don’t smile at anyone.”

  She must have looked baffled because Johnny caught her chin in his hand. “Like the Electric Dragon. Only this time you are with me.”

  When she’d recovered her breath from his thoroughly possessive kiss, she stepped out of the car. The alley was the house’s drive, she realized, and it was jammed with cars. She sidestepped a puddle and tried to get her brain out of the lust-haze Johnny had left it in.

  A tall, skinny man with a hundred years’ worth of laugh lines and clearly dyed black hair ducked out of a low doorway to meet them. He nodded and bowed toward Johnny, ignoring Nikki completely. To her surprise, he greeted Johnny in English.

  “My friend! How long it has been!”

  “Not long enough.”

  The skinny man’s smile revealed perfectly white, straight teeth. “Come in. Family is here, but you are welcome.”

  Johnny shot her a warning glance.

  So the family meant trouble. No smiling. Smiling at strangers had got her in trouble at the Electric Dragon.

  They shed their shoes in the foyer next to rows of other shoes, and followed their host into a large, square room dominated by a low table covered with bowls of breakfast pudding. At least a dozen people sitting on cushions laughed and talked while they scooped rice porridge from a common dish. They seemed friendly enough on the surface. And there were as many women, dressed in stylish Western slacks and shirts, as men. Nikki started to relax a little.

  Johnny took her hand and led her to the seats Lee Wan indicated. It was only when Nikki was settled cross-legged on the cushion that she realized conversation had utterly stopped.

  They were staring at her.

  Nikki tamped down the urge to zip up her windbreaker to hide the little bit of cleavage exposed by her fitted top. Her natural inclination was to smile, to show she was friendly, but she didn’t dare. Instead, she stared back, meeting each of their frankly curious, hostile and leering gazes in turn. One of the young men, ponytailed and sporting a knowing look that spelled trouble in any language, winked at her. Johnny appeared completely unconcerned but Nikki smelled the pine beginning to waft in her direction.

  “You are welcome at my table, Johnny Zhao,” Lee Wan said loudly. “You and your friend.”

  The patriarch’s pronouncement seemed to kick the manners into gear, and each person nodded politely as Lee Wan spoke their names in introduction. Han Su, the ponytailed man, flashed a charming smile that suggested he wouldn’t mind getting to know her a little better. Johnny scowled.

  Introductions finished, Lee Wan sat next to Johnny and wrapped his long, wiry arm around Mei, a twentysomething with short, stylishly cut hair.

  “You haven’t come to see me in a long time.” Lee looked past Johnny at Nikki, and gave her an up-and-down inspection. “Where’s Bai?”

  Nikki felt her face flame. Johnny’s jaw clenched and he steamed furious copper before he answered. “Bai’s been history for a long time.”

  “She was prettier,” Lee said bluntly. “This one is…”

  “Feisty,” Johnny finished.

  Lee burst out laughing. Everyone at the table stared briefly, but this time Nikki had no desire to smile. At anyone. Johnny included. Han Su’s gaze definitely gained interest. The young woman on his left tugged at his elbow, but he pointedly ignored her.

  Johnny’s near-ribald comment must have raised her in Lee’s estimation, however, because he leaned around Johnny to say, “You are American?”

  “Yes.”

  Lee gave Johnny a stern look. “Your trial, not mine.” He whispered in his young woman’s ear. She rose gracefully from her cushion to hurry into the next room. “How is your honored grandfather?”

  “In good health.”

  “And his girls?”

  “The Sun Yee On raided the dojo yesterday looking for us. They stole two of the girls.”

  Lee tsked and shook his head. “Lower than dogs, the Sun. But you and your grandfather are well?”

  “Master Wong is a survivor.”

  “Your friend is unharmed, and for that I am glad.” Lee bowed politely toward Nikki.

  Johnny’s lips twitched. “She pinned a Red Pole’s hand to the floor with a sai.”

  Lee Wan’s cackle sliced through the murmured table conversation, which faltered into quiet. “Whose?”

  “Chen Hsien.”

  A stunned silence filled the room, then copper speared Nikki’s mind with such force she sprang to her feet and backed off a step. Bowls scattered and broke as Han Su came over the table at her, a knife in one hand. She sidestepped the jab, avoided the sweeping arc as the blade sought her rib cage. Then she had his wrist in both hands and twisted in, toward his body, to take him facedown to the floor. His elbow stretched, straight and vulnerable.

  “Drop the knife or I break your arm.”

  She was aware of Johnny standing between her and the rest of the men, knew that Lee Wan was there as well. Shouts echoed around the large room. Han Su, wiry and strong, tried to yank his arm away. She could barely hold him, so she stuck her toes against his groin and pressed in. His face went red.

  “Fuck you, gwai-poh,” he shouted, and for the second time, Nikki heard the utter contempt in a man’s voice when he used the term. He didn’t let go of the knife.

  “Your choice.”

  She popped a palm heel into his elbow. The joint snapped like a strong, dry branch. His grunt escalated into a cry. The blade slipped from his stunned and useless fingers. A woman screamed. Nikki kicked the knife skittering across the wooden floor.

  Then Johnny was yanking Han Su to his feet by the ponytail. The man clutched his forearm to his stomach, sputtered what she knew were obscenities about her. Nikki stood on the balls of her feet, hands in loose fists, poised and ready for another attack. The swirling array of emotion in the room threatened to overwhelm her senses, but she fought the effect.

  Don’t take it in, she ordered herself. It wasn’t as bad as the opium. Nowhere close.

  Lee Wan’s voice knifed through the sudden quiet. “Where is your honor?” He got in Han Su’s red face, wagging an admonishing finger. “Whose house is this? Who is your father’s brother?”

  Han Su opened his mouth, but Lee snapped, “Shut up. You have dishonored your father with your behavior. Take your wife and get out. You are no longer welcome here.”

  The young man, still holding his forearm, shot Nikki a murderous look. He made as if to say something, but Johnny took a single step forward. That see
med to be enough to change Han Su’s mind, and he just jerked his head at the woman who’d clung to his arm during the meal. No one spoke as they left.

  When the door slammed hard, Nikki found herself shaking.

  Johnny’s hands found her shoulders and turned her to him. “Are you okay?”

  She nodded. “Thanks for the help.”

  He smiled at her sarcasm. “I knew you could handle him.” He lowered his voice to say in her ear, “Feisty.” A wealth of respect—and heat—lay in the word, then he said politely, “Come, sit down again.”

  LeeWan bowed deeply toward Nikki. “My greatest apologies for my nephew’s behavior.” He frowned at his remaining guests, who now vaguely resembled a still-life oil painting. “I hope no others of my brother’s family will dishonor my house as Han Su has done.”

  With great solemnity, a young man stood and stalked into the foyer, his wife following. Then another. And again and again, until only Lee Wan and his twentysomething were left with Johnny and Nikki in the suddenly overlarge room.

  “I wondered when it would happen,” Lee Wan said, but his voice sounded more tired than upset. “Misplaced loyalties. I tell you, Johnny, when the triads become stronger than families, they have become too strong.”

  Johnny said nothing, and Nikki guessed he was thinking of his own father choosing a triad over his wife and son.

  “They cannot change the fact their only uncle was a police officer, but they also cannot control themselves. How are we to live?” Lee Wan shook his head as if shaking off the regret that surrounded him, and turned to Mei. “Come, daughter, bring fresh tea for our guests.”

  “I thought your family worked for the Fourteen-K,” Johnny said as he watched Mei clear away the broken tea service and bowls of food.

  “Three years ago, just after I left the Bureau, they switched allegiance to the Sun Yee On.”

  Tears pricked Nikki’s eyes. “So your family would have known where the Sun are taking Mingxia and Yanmei,” she said in a low voice.

  “The market’s strong in Turkey, Australia and Kestonia right now. Sometimes the Sun boats come through Singapore. There is no guarantee.”

  “That’d be too much to hope for,” Nikki murmured.

  “We’ll keep our eyes open.” Johnny squeezed her hand beneath the table.

  When Lee frowned in puzzlement, Johnny explained. “We’re here on other business, but if there’s a chance we can intercept the Sun smuggling boat, we want to retrieve my grandfather’s charges.”

  “Of course. And this is why you need the car and weapons?”

  “Among other reasons,” Johnny said smoothly as he released her fingers.

  “Come on, Johnny. What are you up to?” Lee Wan’s sparkling black eyes settled on Nikki. “Or what has your feisty woman done?”

  “Nothing serious.”

  “Don’t be humble, boy.”

  Johnny grinned and winked at Nikki before he said, “The Sun and the Wo Shing Wo would be happy to see us again. We’ve pissed them both off.”

  “That’s the Johnny Zhao I know!” Lee Wan clapped his hands in delight.

  “What have you heard about the Spider Woman?” Nikki asked Lee Wan.

  The older man’s laughing face abruptly sobered. He turned to Johnny to say, “You never do anything by halves, do you, my friend?”

  The two men studied the tea Mei was pouring. Unwilling to talk? Nikki wondered, or just unwilling to talk in front of her?

  Screw that. “Do you know who the Spider Woman is?” Nikki asked.

  Lee Wan stirred himself from his thoughts and shook his head. “No, no one does. She is only a name who has a long arm and powerful hand.”

  “What’s she into?” Johnny pulled a bowl of spiced noodles toward himself and started lobbing spoonfuls on Nikki’s plate. “Guns? Industrial espionage?”

  “Rumors fly, my friend.”

  “But no one knows exactly what she does?”

  Lee Wan shook his head. “Only that she’s an…influencer, getting people to do what she wants.”

  “What does she want?” Nikki asked.

  The old man shrugged his thin shoulders. “What all tyrants want. Money. Power.”

  Genetically modified women like me.

  “Whatever drives her,” Nikki said aloud, “if she’s hired the Sun Yee On to go after Diviner, she’s after whatever he has.”

  “If we can get to him before anyone else does,” Johnny said around a bite of pork bun.

  “The Wo Shing Wo ought to know where he’s headed,” she pointed out. “They’re the ones who brought him into the country to begin with.”

  “If they do know, they’re going to keep quiet about it. He paid them in vengeance for his passage.”

  “But they have to know by now that the Sun Yee On want Diviner, too.” Nikki lowered her voice to say, “We’re about to walk into another gang war. Hell, we don’t even know which side was shooting at us last night.”

  Nikki had the uncomfortable impression that their exploits were gaining stature in Lee Wan’s estimation. To get back on track, she asked, “What does this guy have besides information that makes him so valuable?”

  “His information was already used to kill off the Sun Yee On second-in-command,” Johnny pointed out. “Imagine information like that used on a large scale.”

  Nikki, who’d never really conceived of “knowledge as power” in that way, thought for a moment. “Blackmail.”

  “Yes. Blackmail, murder, price-fixing. Among other things.”

  Lee Wan nodded. “And by ‘large scale,’ you’re talking about government agencies.”

  “Or governments themselves.”

  And building an army of superwomen might just help Arachne keep that power.

  “That’d be a trick and a half,” Nikki observed.

  Mei, who’d sat quietly throughout the conversation, now carefully placed her teacup on the table and said, “But doable. The Chinese government struggles with the fine line between using the triads to keep order and keeping them under control.”

  “What control?” Lee Wan snorted. “They do as they wish, including raid the home of a well-respected man.” He nodded toward Johnny, but Nikki guessed his deference was for Master Wong.

  Johnny’s jaw clenched briefly. “And kidnapping orphans.”

  Nikki wanted to curse the Sun Yee On, but the effort seemed pointless. Getting angry all over again wouldn’t help her keep her focus. She’d learned that the hard way—when she’d forgotten her gift and lost the girls in the first place because she’d been so intent on being pissed off.

  She had to do things differently this time.

  “But with both triads after us now,” Johnny was saying when she pulled herself out of her thoughts, “we have to be even more careful.”

  “You’re here, so you’ve been suspended again. Making trouble?”

  “It wasn’t me,” Johnny protested. “Nikki’s fault entirely.”

  Lee Wan’s eyes nearly disappeared in his laugh lines as he regarded Nikki anew. “After what I saw today, I don’t doubt you.”

  Then Lee Wan shook his head sorrowfully. “My stupid nephew, dishonored in his uncle’s house.”

  Nikki felt a brief swell of sadness for Lee Wan until he added, “Bested by a woman! The shame!”

  Chapter 17

  N ikki woke, groggy, from a nap. The cinnamon scent that greeted her was real—physical—and was coming from burning incense. Not deep affection for a loved one. She opened her eyes.

  Mei’s sleeping room was about six feet by six feet, and held nothing but the narrow pallet Nikki lay on and a small table where the incense stick smoked. A mirror hung on one wall, and a pop group’s glittering poster hung on another.

  After the relative splendor of the dining room, Nikki had expected a larger room than this for Lee Wan’s only daughter, but then, she supposed, the sleeping area was for sleeping and who needed all that extra space when you were just going to be unconscious, anyway?

/>   She closed her eyes and tried to hear past the walls and closed door. No voices outside, no clattering in the kitchen, nothing. What day was it? Had Lee Wan and his daughter gone to work?

  Nikki rolled off the pallet. She checked the mirror. Her hair had pulled from its ponytail, so she fished the band from the coverlet she’d slept on and stuck it in her jeans pocket. A couple of finger-combs got the curls more or less presentable. That was the advantage of curly hair—no matter how badly it needed a brush, she could normally get it to look decent without one. She straightened her top. Her jacket lay across the pallet’s foot, but she left it there. With “the family” out of the picture, she felt relatively safe in Lee Wan’s home.

  And hungry.

  She slid Mei’s door open. Not even a ticking clock greeted her. Maybe she should find Johnny first before she raided the kitchen. It’d be pretty rude to just snack down on leftovers without asking permission.

  Double doors at the end of the dining area opened onto an interior courtyard filled with trees. Its flagstone path wound through explosions of colorful plants where butterflies fluttered. Nikki looked up at the open roof where the trees grew well past the roofline. How had she missed seeing their tops protruding from the roof when she and Johnny had driven up? The flagstones were still wet from the day’s rain, so she stripped off her socks and padded along the path into the yard’s center.

  There she found Johnny, shirtless, on his hands and knees, weeding the garden. Sun slanted through the open roof, lifting the damp into a muggy heat. She paused to admire Johnny’s wide, sweat-slicked back, how the old scars did nothing to detract from his masculine beauty. She blushed when she saw the faint red scratches down his lower back. Had she done that with her nails last night?

  He sat up to chuck a handful of weeds into a bag. “Hello.” His pleased smile called up so many emotions, she was flummoxed for a moment.

  “Hi,” she said lamely. Then, because she felt like an awkward teenager, she went straight to business. “Did you get guns and a car from Lee Wan?”