by Kylie Chan
‘I’m just too honest for my own good, I suppose. I was expecting a different sort of reaction.’
‘How many police are involved?’
‘Just the two.’
I hesitated, weighing up the options, then decided. To hell with the Jade Emperor’s little rules, this was major. ‘Where are you right now?’
‘In my office. They’ve given me five minutes to get my stuff together, then we’re off to hospital to see if we haven’t had a bump on the head.’
‘Is Bridget with you?’
‘Yes. She came to back me up.’
Bridget called out in the background, her voice sounding tinny. ‘Bring a weapon of some sort to use on him, Emma!’
‘Tell her I will. I’ll be there in five minutes. Have your staff expect us and let us straight up.’
He breathed a loud sigh of relief. ‘Thanks, Emma.’
I tapped the stone. ‘Hey, stone, wake up.’
‘I wasn’t asleep, I was playing solitaire on my desktop. What?’
‘Did you hear that phone call while you were cheating?’
‘No. What? Accessing.’ The stone was silent for a moment. ‘He’s supposed to be smart!’
‘I need someone powerful enough to blank out the cops’ minds. Who’s free?’
‘Me,’ Martin said.
‘Are you skilled enough to do it without damaging them?’
‘Yes,’ he said.
‘Can you take me down there?’
‘Yes.’
I held my hand out and he took it. ‘That’s what I like about you, Martin, you’re an extremely agreeable young man.’
‘Yes. But not young.’
We landed outside the old Star Ferry terminal building. The autumn breeze from the harbour was still warm and damp even this late in the evening.
David’s office was in a large, silver-plated tower that had round windows, each two metres across, instead of the usual glass walls — a sensible precaution next to the harbour. When typhoon winds became very strong, standard plate glass could blow out, as had happened to a new tower in Wan Chai.
‘Change your clothes,’ I said, looking around for more police.
‘Sorry,’ Martin said, and his green robe slipped almost imperceptibly into a dark green pinstripe suit with a brown shirt and green tie. He left his hair long and in a topknot.
I looked him up and down. ‘You look like a gangster. If you and your father ever get together in business suits, the police will arrest you on sight.’
‘It seems to be a twentieth-century thing — they check my ID whenever I pass them,’ he said.
‘Twenty-first century now,’ the stone said. ‘And that explains his skill with the mind-blast.’
We headed towards the round-windowed building.
‘Stop calling it a mind-blast, that’s ridiculous,’ Martin said. ‘For a stone you are overly prone to exaggeration.’
‘It’s a troll, it does it for the attention,’ I said.
Martin stopped, then shook his head, smiled slightly, and caught up with me.
We had to pass a security guard to get to the top floor; it was the middle of the evening and all the offices were closed. I signed the guest book and the guard unlocked the lift.
‘Just blank out what David said and fill the cops’ heads with something more believable,’ I said in the lift on the way up.
‘Understood.’
On the top floor, a receptionist sat at a huge mahogany desk in a wood-panelled entrance lobby, a metre-tall company crest on the wall behind her. She showed us to David’s office: a corner office, ten by five metres, with a view over the harbour to Kowloon on the other side.
I stopped when I saw Lieutenant Cheung. ‘Oh shit, not you.’
Cheung drew a gun and pointed it at me. ‘Just the woman we wanted to see. Good. Now we have you all together, we can work out what happened here. I think I’ll have you accompany me to the station where we can talk about this kidnapping.’
I raised my hand to stop Martin. ‘You can’t do this one. He’s had his mind blanked two or three times, and last time was by the Tiger.’
Martin went to Cheung and put his hands on either side of his face. The other policeman, a man I’d never seen before, stood silent and frozen.
‘Oh dear. I wish the Tiger would sheathe his claws when he does things like this,’ Martin said.
He released Cheung and stepped back. Cheung dropped his gun and collapsed into a chair.
‘You’re right,’ Martin said to me. ‘This one can’t be blanked without permanent damage. It’s already been done too many times, and the Tiger has the finesse of a big stupid elephant. What will you do?’
‘Second-best option: take him to see Tian Guai. At least then I won’t have to deal with him any more.’ I turned to David and Bridget and waved one hand without enthusiasm. ‘Hi, guys.’
‘Hi, Emma,’ David said, his shame making him look smaller than his usual height. ‘Sorry about this.’ He nodded to Martin. ‘I don’t think we’ve met.’
Martin held his hand out to David, who shook it. ‘My name’s Martin, I’m Xuan Wu’s — John Chen’s son. Madam.’ Martin nodded to Bridget, who put her hand on her cheek then tidied her hair.
‘I saw that,’ David said out the corner of his mouth.
‘Don’t be concerned, David. Right now Martin’s dating Leo,’ I said.
‘That’s okay with them up there?’ David asked Martin. ‘You being … you know?’
Martin shrugged. ‘I am what I am, and that is the essence of the Tao. Besides, the Jade Emperor gave up on us reptiles a very long time ago.’
‘They’re more relaxed than we are,’ Bridget said with amusement.
‘More like what Martin said — they gave up,’ I said. ‘You really don’t want to know what those damn reptiles get up to.’
‘Wait — you’re a reptile?’ David said.
Martin nodded. ‘I’m a Turtle, like my father.’
‘Oh, very good, you just insulted yourself and your father in a single breath,’ Leo said from where he’d appeared on the other side of the room.
‘What can I say? It’s a gift.’
Leo looked around and spoke more briskly. ‘So what idiocy have you people been up to? I hear Emma’s in trouble with the police again and we need to bail her out.’
I pointed at Cheung, sitting in the chair. Martin had frozen him too. ‘Cheung again. We can’t wipe his memory because it’s been done too many times already. David told him the truth about us, so we need to do it James Bond-style and take him to see the head of the Secret Service.’
‘Give me a moment,’ Leo said, and concentrated. ‘You’re lucky: Tian Guai’s working late. I’ll get the car, meet me downstairs.’ He disappeared.
‘Who’s Tian Guai?’ David said, fascinated.
‘Second-in-command of the PLA stationed here in Hong Kong,’ I said.
His mouth fell open. ‘The second-in-command is one of yours?’
‘No,’ I said. ‘The commander is one of mine. The second-in-command is his writing brush.’
David stared at me, then realised his mouth was still open and closed it with a snap. ‘You almost sound like you mean it,’ he said.
‘Absolutely. Celestial objects can gain sentience and awareness after being around an Immortal for enough time. Tian Guai is Major General Xin Jiang’s brush that has gained a life of its own.’
‘And it’s second-in-command at the PLA barracks,’ David said. His face lit up. ‘You have to let me come too. I’ve met him before; I have to hear this from his own lips.’
‘We won’t all fit in the car,’ I said.
Bridget put her hands on her hips. ‘I’m not coming. It’s late and the boys are at home with the amah.’
‘You go in your car, darling,’ David said. ‘I’ll come in my own car. I need to be in on this so that I can explain further to Cheung when we’re done.’
‘He has a point,’ Martin said. ‘Bring him with us.’
>
David raised one hand, mock-serious. ‘Let us therefore travel in state from the House of a Thousand Assholes to the Upside-down Gin Bottle.’
I choked with laughter. ‘You know this building’s called that?’
‘With these round windows …’ He gestured towards the view, framed by the two-metre circular opening. ‘Could it be called anything else?’ He opened the door and spoke conspiratorially to me. ‘Besides, have you met some of the other executives? I think it’s a very fitting epithet.’
‘I’ll tell Tony you said that,’ Bridget said.
‘He’s the one who first told me about it when I arrived here,’ David said. ‘Kiss the boys for me; I’ll be there as soon as I can.’
She reached up to peck him on the cheek. ‘Don’t do anything silly, okay? We need you.’
He smiled down at her. ‘Don’t worry, I know.’
The guards opened the gates for us and we swept through into the PLA barracks next to the harbour between Wan Chai and Central. The old Prince of Wales Building, which had housed the British before the handover, really did look like an upside-down gin bottle: the rectangular building was perched on top of a pillar about half its width, with an upside-down pyramid shape supporting the building above the pillar. It had been designed this way to make it near impregnable to a climbing attack, and it sat next to the water in a vast open space that gave a clear view all around it.
A young woman in a khaki PLA uniform, complete with peaked cap, was waiting for us at the entrance. She saluted me Western style. I nodded back to her and she opened the doors for us to go in.
Cheung came out of his trance about halfway to the visitors book. He stopped and stared at the armed guards on either side of the lift doors, and then back at the entrance. He went rigid, obviously confused about what to do.
David put his hand on Cheung’s arm. ‘I apologise if you’re disoriented, sir. But the medication only just wore off when we entered the building.’
‘I’m in the PLA building?’ Cheung said.
‘That’s right, and I apologise as well,’ I said. ‘I’m taking you to see my boss. He can tell you the whole story.’
‘You work for the PLA?’ he said, aghast. ‘But you’re not Chinese! How could they let you … Wait, you work for the mainland government?’
‘That’s right,’ I said. ‘I owe my allegiance to China. I want to help the Chinese people, and the glorious army of liberation is giving me an opportunity to show my loyalty.’
Lay it on with a spatula, why don’t you? Leo said.
Why not? They do in the propaganda, I said.
The lift doors opened and I gestured for Cheung and the other policeman to go in. Once inside, I pressed the button for the top floor and the doors closed.
‘You work for them as well?’ Cheung asked David.
‘No, no,’ David said. ‘I help out, that’s all. That business in the car park was the closest I’ve gotten to any of it.’
I forgot about that. Can we give Tian Guai a good cover story to explain the blood and disappearances to the policemen? I asked the stone.
Way ahead of you; just nod and smile, the stone said.
We reached the top floor, the bell rang, and the doors opened.
Tian Guai in his khaki PLA uniform was waiting for us in the lobby. He was tall and strongly built with a huge welcoming smile. He shook my hand in both of his, grinning broadly, and spoke Putonghua to me. ‘Miss Donahoe. So good to see you, but don’t make a habit of this, all right? We don’t want people seeing you come in and out.’
‘Brigadier Tian,’ I said, nodding with deference and replying fluently in the same language with Martin’s assistance. ‘Thank you so much for helping me on such short notice.’
Tian turned to Cheung and switched to Cantonese. ‘Lieutenant Cheung. I believe you have been following your civic duty and pursuing Miss Donahoe’s activities. You are to be commended.’ He gestured with one hand. ‘But it is entirely unnecessary. Please come into my office and I will explain everything.’
About half an hour later, I slipped out of the office with David, leaving Cheung and the other policeman, who’d turned out to be called Chan, with Tian Guai. Leo and Martin were waiting in the lobby.
‘All sorted?’ Leo said.
‘Tian wants to recruit Cheung,’ David said. ‘Said he’s going to bring him into the Chinese Secret Service because he’s so dedicated.’
‘Can he do that?’ Martin said.
‘Yeah, they have a lot of pull in the Territory,’ I said. ‘It’ll keep Cheung out of my hair, so I’m not complaining.’
‘Then he threw us out because I don’t have enough clearance to hear what they’re saying,’ David said.
‘Suits me,’ I said. ‘The rest was boring.’
‘You don’t think one of you could do a magical lift home for me and my car, do you?’ David said as we went back down in the lift. ‘It’s nearly bedtime for the boys. If I drive all the way back to Shek O I’ll miss them altogether.’
‘Leo? Martin?’ I said.
‘I’ll take our car back to the car park, then take Emma home,’ Leo said. ‘Martin, can you carry Mr Hawkes and his car?’
Martin nodded. ‘Done.’
David shook Leo’s hand, then bent and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Thanks, Emma, you make my life way more fun. And now I get to spend another evening telling stories to Bridget.’
‘Let’s try not to make a habit of this, okay?’ I said, and waved as he and Martin got into his car and Martin drove it away.
‘He forgot to put his hands on the steering wheel,’ Leo said, watching them go. He opened the rear passenger door of our car. ‘Ma’am, if you’ll permit me to escort you home.’
‘Where’s Simone?’ I said as I settled into the back of the car.
‘Waiting for us back at the Mountain; she made her own way home,’ Leo said as he pulled himself into the driver’s seat. He glanced at me in the rear-view mirror. ‘You’re even paler than usual, Emma, are you all right? You look unwell.’
I rubbed my hands over my face. ‘Just tired. Too much all at once, and I haven’t fully recovered. I just need to go home and rest.’
‘Take some vitamin C,’ Leo said as he pulled out of the PLA compound and headed towards our private car park under the Landmark shopping centre. ‘Meredith said it would only take three months, but you’re still not back to even half of what you were. You should talk to them about it.’
‘I did. They said I’m doing too much and I need to rest,’ I said, leaning back on the seat and closing my eyes.
He didn’t reply and I opened my eyes. He was watching me in the mirror and I glanced away.
CHAPTER 14
‘This will be the first night in a while it’ll be just us three for dinner,’ I said over breakfast the next morning.
‘Curse our frantic social life,’ Leo said.
‘Uh, actually … I was planning to go out tonight. Is that okay?’ Simone said.
‘Where to?’ Leo said sharply.
‘Just … out,’ Simone said, obviously cringing.
‘Where … to?’ Leo said slowly and with force.
‘The movies with a friend.’
‘You have another date with that dragon?’ I said.
Simone opened and closed her mouth a few times, then looked down at her congee. ‘Maybe.’ She glanced back up at me. ‘How do you know about this? You’re stalking me.’
‘He’s one of Qing Long’s. I was concerned about the … family aspect of it,’ I said. ‘So I asked Qing Long.’
‘Yeah,’ Leo said, rounding on Simone. ‘Qing Long is like a brother to your father. Dating one of his kids is like dating your own cousin.’ He leaned back and spoke with satisfaction. ‘You can’t date any of the Four Winds’ children, so there.’
‘Well, if you asked Qing Long then you know there isn’t any family aspect about it at all,’ Simone said, defiant. ‘The kids aren’t blood-related, they’re not even real family, and they
get together all the time.’
Leo glanced from Simone to me. ‘Really? I would have thought they were like cousins.’
‘Like Simone said, not blood relatives; there’s no restriction on them getting together,’ I said, then turned to her. ‘You have school tomorrow so don’t be home too late.’
‘He’d better not be anything like his father,’ Leo growled.
‘He’s a lovely kid,’ I said. ‘I’ve met him. He’s in Simone’s poisons and demon classes at CH.’
‘You’re too young to be dating anybody,’ Leo said.
‘I’m seventeen!’ Simone said.
‘Only just seventeen, young lady. Way too young. This kid’ll turn out like his father and treat you like rubbish.’
‘Leo, I’ve only ever been out with him once, and that was with some other friends. This is the first time for the two of us alone.’
‘I don’t like it.’
‘I don’t believe you’re actually sulking about this,’ Simone said. ‘I thought Emma would be the one giving me trouble, and here you are acting like my over-protective auntie.’
‘Demons could come after you, and you’d have no bodyguard —’
‘Leo!’ Simone and I both exclaimed at the same time.
I finished the point for both of us. ‘She’s the second most powerful thing on any Plane, Leo Alexander, and you know it. About the only thing that could take her down is a demon army, and even then they’d have trouble. She can call for help any time; and she has access to Seven Stars and knows how to use it.’ I turned to Simone and winked at her. ‘Frankly, I think this young man should be the one who’s worried.’
Leo sat lower in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. ‘I just don’t like it.’
‘What you don’t like,’ I said, pouring him some more coffee, ‘is the idea of our little girl growing up.’
He glared at her over his crossed arms. ‘I won’t let you.’
‘What, grow up?’ she said.
He settled even lower and recrossed his arms protectively. ‘No.’
‘Oh, and I’ll be a bit late home from school, Freddo and me are having another session with the therapist.’
