“He’s meditating.”
“It’s urgent,” Tommy added. “And we need privacy.”
George surveyed his visitors with fresh eyes. There was a disturbance that he didn’t notice when he first answered the door. “I understand. Please come in.”
Inside the closed bedroom, Master Wu, Garret and Tommy sat cross-legged on the floor. Master Wu’s face remained emotionless as Garret and Tommy poured out their painful story. Even though it had been years since he had seen them, they were still his students and he would never abandon them. Master was still master, and disciple was still disciple.
“We should have listened to you,” confessed Garret.
Master Wu shook his head. “What is done is done. Regrets serve no purpose. What is important is to preserve the living.”
“We want to go after Chin, and we need you to help us,” Tommy stated emphatically. “Now.”
Master Wu shook his head again. “Patience. Now is not the time. Your daughters need you. Who will take care of them if you are dead?”
“When then, Master Wu?” Garret asked.
Master Wu was firm. “Not until your daughters are grown and can fend for themselves if you are not here.”
Gazing down at the cups, Master Wu poured some tea for Garret and Tommy. “And the two of you have to go back to work for Chin.”
“What?” exploded Garret.
“That’s crazy,” said Tommy.
“Can you defeat Chin now?” asked Master Wu, not really needing them to answer.
“We can never amass what is needed to battle Chin,” exhaled Garret. “And look at us. Tommy has eaten half of Hong Kong, and I haven’t done anything to keep in shape since law school.”
“Which is why you need to go back to work for him. If you don’t, don’t you think your daughters would be next?”
Garret tapped his little Chinese teacup on the table, then stopped. “I can’t do it.”
“If you don’t wait, then both you and your daughters will die.”
Garret exhaled. He knew Master Wu was right.
“What do we do for fifteen years then?”
“You train.”
“Won’t work for me. If I go back, eating and drinking is about all I do,” said Tommy.
“How about you, Garret?”
Garret’s voice hardened. “I could make time. No, I will make time if that’s what it takes.”
“Good. We start training again after we finish tea.”
“But by then, I’ll be over fifty. I couldn’t keep up with Chin. He hasn’t let up, and I’ll never catch up with him.”
“Not you,” said Master Wu. “I have someone else in mind.”
They heard the slamming of a door closing on the outside of the bedroom.
“Noah, what happened to you?” they heard Mary scream.
They heard a teenage boy brag, “You shoulda seen the other guys. Bam. Bam. Bam!”
“Fighting’s not excusable, son,” said his mother sternly.
Master Wu, Garret, and Tommy stood up. Master Wu opened the door and the three saw a scrawny thirteen-year-old boy with one helluva shiner lying on the couch.
Mary, carrying an ice pack, shook her head. “Master Wu, what am I going to do with Noah? He’s getting into all kinds of trouble with the things you teach him.” She put the cold, plastic sac on Noah’s bruised eye.
“I promise, Master Wu, I didn’t start it. Honest. They were stealing Jenny’s buns, you know the lady with the cart down the street. You know how hard she works. I couldn’t let them get away with it. Right? Right?”
“Not exactly right, but it’s a start.” Master Wu glanced at Garret and Tommy. He saw Garret’s breaths quickening and could sense Tommy’s body stiffening. He winked. Noah is the one.… Trust me.
Then, the sifu’s eyes sparkled as his focus returned to Noah.
If you enjoyed EVIL RISES, I think you’ll love BETRAYED. Noah’s all grown up and Chin’s illicit empire has become one of the largest in Asia. Pick up a copy at AMAZON or read for free with KU!
Betrayed - Sample
Los Angeles
Twenty-eight-year-old Noah Reid stood in the wings of the Henry Wilson Hall’s stage, waiting for his name to be called. Even though he was decked out in loose-fitting academic graduation regalia, it was hard not to notice his lithe, athletic build and his Ryan Gosling-like charming good looks.
Noah’s eyes searched among the eight hundred seated faces in the audience, wondering whether a special person would show up. He started at the back of the auditorium and patiently worked his way toward the front. There he was! Sifu Wu was seated in the eighth row in seat eight. Noah chuckled to himself. I should have figured that out. Typical Chinese. Lucky number eight.
Dressed differently than everyone else in the room, Wu appeared every bit the grandmaster of Hung Gar martial arts that he was. He wore a loose-fitting navy blue traditional uniform: pure satin trousers and a jacket with his Chinese surname embroidered in a small, single gold letter over his heart. Definitely not Hollywood, he much more resembled Bruce Lee’s mentor, Ip Man, than the Karate Kid’s Mr. Miyagi.
Although Master Wu wore his usual stoic face, Noah thought he detected a hint of pride sneaking through. That would be perfectly understandable. The two of them had been there for each other’s best… and worst times.
Noah’s fingers drummed his thighs as he recalled the family tragedy of nine years ago. A drug addict who was staying with Noah’s family needed a fix. Xenos was sure there was cash stashed somewhere and ransacked the home searching for it. When he discovered nothing, the drug-addled young man stabbed George and Sarah to death before committing suicide.
When Noah made the gruesome discovery, he sank into despair, drowning himself in alcohol. Without Master Wu’s patience, prodding and understanding, Noah too might have fallen permanently off the rails.
While nurturing him back to wellness over a year, Master Wu encouraged the poverty-stricken Noah to explore every avenue to finance his dream of going to an American school and getting a law degree. Noah felt it was hopeless but went through the motions. It was unbelievable to Noah that he received a ‘special scholarship’ with the proviso that he also teach three martial arts classes a week. The Northern Summit Law School was not Harvard but it did provide a decent basic legal education.
“Noah Reid.” The voice of the president of the Northern Summit Law School brought Noah back to reality.
Noah proudly stepped forward, received his diploma and shook the president’s hand.
“Congratulations, Noah. Now life begins.”
Although the president would likely say that three hundred times that day, Noah felt this was true. Life would begin today.
“Didn’t think you’d make it. Thought you hated airplanes,” joked Noah to Master Wu at the garden reception.
“That was my first time and going back will be my last. I head back to the airport in fifteen minutes.”
“Don’t you want to see Hollywood? Or the La Brea Tar Pits? Or Knott’s Berry Farm? Or the Getty Museum?”
“I came here to see you graduate and now that I have confirmed that you actually did, I have no other reason to be here.”
“See you back in Hong Kong then.”
Young man and old bowed deeply to each other. Noah returned to the reception while Master Wu walked to the entrance.
Enjoy yourself while you can, Noah, because the day I have been preparing you for is coming soon. Your destiny with Tiger Master Chin is coming soon… and I pray I guessed right.
===========
Hong Kong
The wide-bodied commercial airliner landed smoothly in the growing darkness at the Hong Kong International Airport. Flanked by glowing red lights, the metal behemoth ambled down the runway like a giant sloth, slowing gradually until it reached the arrival gate.
An hour later, inside the Hong Kong terminal, Noah relaxed—he was home. After clearing customs and collecting the huge duffel bag that containe
d all his possessions, he went to catch a cab.
Ouch! There was a lineup of twenty fares ahead of him in the taxi queue. Sighing in resignation, he shook his head, eyes wandering throughout the airport.
And then, a jaw-dropping sight: four hardened toughs with ravaged faces and battle-scarred forearms rode on a flatbed truck carefully holding onto a cage that contained an angry, thrashing Bengal tiger. Even more astounding was the person standing erect on top of the truck’s cab overseeing the proceedings: a superbly conditioned Chinese man in his fifties, wearing an impeccably tailored navy blue Chinese suit. If martial arts superstar Bruce Lee had lived to his fifties, this is what he would have looked like. Noah didn’t know it but this was Chin Chee Fok, the renegade disciple whose greed caused Noah’s sifu’s downfall two decades ago.
Noah stood transfixed, watching the surly feline pace and gnash at the cautious and fearful handlers.
“Hey, Boss! Rajiv, at your service. You coming in or not?” shouted a voice speaking with a strong Indian accent.
Noah twisted his head to see a turbaned young man holding the door open to an old Yellow Cab.
“Sorry about that. Can I sit in the front? I like to see where I’m going.”
“Sure.” The cabbie stuffed Noah’s duffel bag in the back seat while Noah climbed into the passenger seat. “Where you going, Boss?”
Before Noah could answer, mayhem erupted before his eyes.
The driver of the flatbed carrying the tiger hit a rare pothole, knocking the cage off balance. To keep it from tipping, a handler grabbed one of the iron bars. That split second was all the tiger needed. With one swift bite, the tiger chomped through the man’s Kevlar glove, severing several of his fingers.
The victim screamed, releasing his hold on the barred prison. Reacting, the driver slammed on the brakes. With acrobatic agility, Chin remained on top of the cab, but the forward momentum carried the cage forward, smacking the other handlers. The freaked unfortunates frantically pushed the cage off their bodies.
That was a mistake. The tiger’s attempts to bite its way free from the cage were partially successful—the lock had been broken with one of the animal’s bone-crunching chomps. However, the broken tooth stuck in the keyhole kept the door closed.
Until now.
One handler yanked on the cage’s door when he tried to steady himself. The tooth in the lock loosened and dropped to the ground.
The gentle sound of enamel hitting asphalt was a thunderous toll of catastrophe. The prison’s door burst open.
The beast surged out, teeth bared. It chomped the arm of one of the hapless minions, severing it, then made an electrifying dash to freedom. The handlers and onlookers shrieked and screamed as they haphazardly dashed in all directions, trying to evade the striped fury.
Chin’s reaction was completely opposite. His face steeled, transforming from respectable businessman to mammalian stalker. He leapt from the top of the cab to the ground and chased the raging beast down the walkway of the airport terminal, weaving around all the bystanders.
“Follow them,” shouted Noah, pointing at Chin and the tiger.
“That’s a plan!” yelled Rajiv as he stepped on the gas.
The cat was fast, but its hunter, blazing like a world-class sprinter, matched the tiger stride for stride.
With Chin gradually gaining ground, the feline terror’s innate jungle survival instinct kicked in. It sprang from the sidewalk to the top of a passing station wagon.
The vehicle’s panicked passengers squalled white-knuckled fright as the cat’s paws slashed downward, trying to break the window. Picking up the pace, the driver swerved frenetically, trying to dislodge the unwanted passenger.
Chin was relentless in his pursuit of his savage prey. He effortlessly sprang onto the roof of a passing SUV, then leapfrogged from vehicle to faster vehicle to keep up with the tiger.
He was almost there when the animal vaulted to the top of a hundred-foot-long van that drove by the station wagon.
With a superhuman leap, Chin followed suit, bounding and then landing at the opposite end of the van from the tiger.
Tiger and man, both on top of a moving truck, with nowhere else to go except the inevitable destination: each other. The two locked eyes—hatred flared in the feline’s and confidence emanated from the human’s.
The two charged, taking less than two seconds before the battle’s next phase. The beast, gnashing its razor teeth, leapt at Chin. Simultaneously, Chin, combining grace with power, sprang to meet his foe.
Noah gasped in horrified wonder as man and beast collided in midair. The tiger tried furiously to sink its teeth into his captor, but Chin restrained it by adeptly grasping the feline’s nape. Crooking his forearm under the animal’s neck, he applied viselike pressure to choke the animal.
It seemed an unfair battle. The tiger had the strength to bring down an animal eight times its size, and its bite could decapitate a deer. Strong as Chin was, he was no match for an infuriated tiger, and the tiger broke free.
Chin lunged after the beast and leapt onto it. He held it tight and the two rolled off the van’s roof. As they plummeted, Chin positioned himself on top. The beast was his cushion when they slammed the ground. With its back now badly injured, the tiger struggled to writhe free, but Chin locked the animal’s head and secured its body with his legs, preventing its escape.
“C’mon, boy, you can do it. You can do it,” whispered Noah, hoping against hope that there was a miracle in the feline’s future.
Chin began grinding his knuckles into the tiger’s temples. The beast tried to bite its way to freedom, but it was too weak to withstand Chin’s relentless assault. It sagged, unconscious.
Chin stood victoriously and stepped aside as the handlers arrived and threw a mesh net over the insensate animal.
Rajiv drove his cab slowly by the victor and his booty. “You ever see anything like that?”
“Never. That was one crazy, scary mother.”
“Who? The ninja or the tiger?” swallowed Rajiv.
Noah turned back for a final glimpse. Chin’s hard angled face with unwavering eyes seemed to penetrate his soul. “My mistake. Those are two crazy, scary mothers that I would never want to mess with.”
“Be careful what you don’t wish for. Brahma has a habit of humbling us.”
“Well, my karma’s good.”
===========
Like every cabbie in the world, Noah’s hoped a little conversation might bring a bigger tip. “So I, Rajiv, am the finest taxi driver in Hong Kong. What brings you to Hong Kong, boss?”
“Just finished school in L.A.”
“Everyone wants to live in America. New York Yankees, Hollywood, Statue of Liberty and my favorite, the Green Bay Packers!” Rajiv reached down under his seat and took out a foam Cheesehead that he placed on his head. “Like it? This is real. From America.”
Noah glanced at the cabbie. Rajiv looked ridiculous. “Hate to tell you, buddy, but I bet it’s made in China.”
Rajiv refused to be discouraged. “That’s good. That means it’s cheaper… Why you come back? I’ve been trying for years to get out of Hong Kong. Nobody wants me,” grumbled Rajiv.
“I start work tomorrow.”
“What kind of job? “
“I’m a lawyer.”
Rajiv’s face lit up—lawyers were big tippers. “Driving cab is dangerous. Maybe you give me a discount on my will.”
“Sure. But then you have to give me one for the taxi fare.”
Noah and Rajiv shared a chuckle, and then Noah couldn’t fight nature anymore. Exhaustion was the victor. He leaned his head on the taxi’s window, using it as a pillow. Sleep descended onto the young buck.
Butterflies rumbled in Rajiv’s stomach as he drove through this grungier part of town. Had it not been for the fact that he was a lazy cabbie who didn’t know the city as well as he should have, he would have turned the fare down. The streets here were narrow, and most of the tenement buildings were more th
an a hundred years old and in bad need of repair. Some didn’t have running water, witness the public toilets and communal sinks housed in little buildings outside the apartment entrances.
Rajiv groaned. All the signs were in Chinese, and very few buildings had numbers on them. Of the buildings that did, most were faded beyond recognition. Not much British or modern Chinese influence here.
Uncertain, he shouted to wake Noah up. “Hey, man, where are we? There’s no sign or number or anything here.”
“Who needs numbers? You go by feel,” croaked Noah with the hoarse voice of the newly awakened. He shook his head to clear his bleary head to see the old rundown buildings. “Hey, I’m home. Don’t you just love it?”
“I love to stay alive, and I’m not sure I will be here,” moaned the cab driver.
“You have no worries. Chinese don’t like to eat browns,” laughed Noah. “Just kidding. They haven’t eaten anybody here since the war.”
Rajiv quivered in response. “What war?”
“Duh.” Noah tapped Rajiv on the shoulder and pointed to a dilapidated old building in a street full of dilapidated old buildings. “Slow down. That’s the one. This is where I get off. Thanks, man.”
Rajiv pulled to the side. As Noah got out of the taxi, two toughs appeared from behind a building. One had a knife and the other wielded a baseball bat.
Rajiv stepped on the accelerator but the taxi barely moved before the hoodlum with the knife stooped and rammed the blade into its tire.
The car spun out of control toward a streetlamp but Noah raced to the taxi and pushed it out of harm’s way.
“Tough white boy,” sneered the guy with the baseball bat. He began swinging at Noah.
Noah ducked the stroke coming at his head, then sent a roundhouse kick to his enemy’s mid-section.
The guy had abs of steel and Noah’s foot did nothing. “A-hole!” the gangster swore as he raised the bat over his head, then came down with full force at Noah’s.
This time, Noah stood his ground, reached up and grabbed the tough’s wrists, stopping the movement. It was a stalemate battle of force and wills.
Evil Rises Page 5
