Contents
Cover
Author's Introduction
PROLOGUE
CHAPTER 1
CHAPTER 2
CHAPTER 3
CHAPTER 4
CHAPTER 5
CHAPTER 6
CHAPTER 7
CHAPTER 8
CHAPTER 9
CHAPTER 10
CHAPTER 11
CHAPTER 12
CHAPTER 13
CHAPTER 14
CHAPTER 15
CHAPTER 16
CHAPTER 17
CHAPTER 18
CHAPTER 19
CHAPTER 20
CHAPTER 21
CHAPTER 22
CHAPTER 23
CHAPTER 24
CHAPTER 25
Sample: Ritual Sacrifice
Also By Wesley Lowe
About The Author
Acknowledgements
Slavery Unbound
By
Wesley Robert Lowe
Copyright © Wesley Robert Lowe 2016
All Rights Reserved
This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the copyright owner except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Author's Introduction
Prince, Chin’s steroid-fueled son, shares a depravity with a Russian mob partner: a lust for children. Noah has taken “their girls” and they want them back. Can Noah shut down this unholy alliance before they drown the Big Apple in depravity?
Slavery Unbound is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places, events, business establishments or locales is entirely coincidental or used fictitiously.
Many children, especially those who have dysfunctional relationships with their parents, spend a lifetime trying to prove that they are better than their mother or father.
The consequences can be devastating to themselves, and to society.
PROLOGUE
Twenty-three Years Ago
A fifteen-year-old new mother gives her three-month old son to the thirty-year-old father to hold for the first time. She wasn’t sure it was such a good idea for her to be going out with such an older man, but he was just so handsome, so strong and so... so rich. When one of the nuns told the story of baby Jesus and how Mary, his mother, was about the same age as her and that Jesus’ birth father was even older than Chin, well...
After all, she was so tired of the restrictions that the sisters put on her, and Chin promised her an apartment of her own. He brought her there to show her. She was so impressed with the fact that the building had an elevator, and when she opened the door to the suite, it was brand new! She leapt into bed with him, just as she done that afternoon and the night before and the afternoon before...
He had a voracious sexual appetite, but a week later when he found out she was pregnant, he stopped touching her. In fact, he disappeared, and this was the first time he had seen her since then. However, he was a good provider. Made sure she had best physicians to nurture her, that she exercised regularly, had the best of prenatal care. But she was worried. No phone calls, text messages, e-mails. Just regular appearances by of one of his men to make sure all the bills were paid and that she was looking after herself.
She was sure that he would be there at her son’s birth and was hurt when he wasn’t. What she didn’t know is that Chin wanted to wait for three months to make sure that the baby lived. After all, infant mortality is at its highest in the time right after birth, so there was no point in showing up if the child was not going to live. However, the child did live, and the girl was shocked and joyous to see the man at the door.
“Here is your new son.”
She offers him for Chin to hold, but he simply raises his hand in the air and waves it - no thanks.
“What do you think, Chin?”
“He is weak. Weak cubs become weak leopards. He was in the hospital for a month. He was in an incubator.”
“He’ll grow stronger. I’ll give him the best Chinese herbs. I nurse him with my own milk. You can train him yourself,” cries the young mother.
“Raising children is not my job.”
“He’s not any child, he’s your son.”
“I have others.”
And he does. As well as two daughters. Each child was given the name of a ruler. Each child represented one of the Five Animals of the Shaolin. Prez, the oldest daughter, was the Dragon. King, the oldest son was the Snake. Duke, the next son, was the Tiger, Queenie, the younger daughter, was the Crane.
Prez, King, Duke, Queenie. Chin wanted a child to be the Prince.
Dragon, Snake, Tiger, Crane. A Leopard would complete the complement of animals.
As Chin turns away to walk to the door, the girl grabs him. “Chin, I need you. I want you.”
She rips her blouse off, but Chin looks away disinterestedly. A teenager ballooned with fat with from the pregnancy is hardly attractive to a man who has starlets throwing themselves at him wherever he goes. He continues to the door.
Before opening it, he turns to her and says, “Only one of you can live. When I come back in an hour, I will either make another child with you or bring the baby to a new mother.”
Chin opens the door. As he leaves, a leopard is unleashed from its chain and released into the room.
Thankfully for baby Prince, the cat had been starved for three days prior to this visit. It had an easy choice as to who to make its meal.
Five Years Ago
For an eighteen-year-old, Prince is pretty buff. Not scrawny like most kids his age. He dropped out of his school two years ago and spends six hours a day in the gym, lifting weights. He’s got a private trainer and has been studying Thai kickboxing, street fighting with an MMA fighter and a Kung fu grandmaster. And of course, downing and injecting a ton of anabolic steroids.
The rest of the time, Prince is out on the street - pimping or impressing young chicks, distributing and dealing drugs.
He’s hanging out right now half a block from his old school, surrounded by twelve- to fifteen-year-olds - Hispanic, Asian, white, Middle Eastern, brown and black. He’s an equal opportunity destroyer of young souls.
“Okay, like man, here’s the deal. Each of you’s got six ounces of high-quality weed. Like, I’m giving you a super deal. You divide it up, sell any which way you like. I’m coming back in two days, and each of you is going to give me two thousand bucks. The rest is for you. Got it?”
With eight kids there, that’s gonna be sixteen grand. A profit of almost ten grand after expenses. Not bad for a week’s work. But a hell of a lot better than the legit jobs that any of them could get.
“All right.” The kids fist bump Prince and disperse to peddle their product to their friends, friends of friends, friends of friends of friends...
A white panel van followed by a black Mercedes with tinted windows pulls up. The back door of the Mercedes opens, and Chin walks out.
He hands Prince a large suitcase. “Happy birthday, Prince.”
“What brings you around?”
“I want you to stop this penny ante stuff with children. It’s too dangerous. Every cop on the street will be looking out for you. Every two-bit dealer is ready to stick a knife in you or shoot you in the head.”
“You don’t need worry about me. I can handle myself.”
Prince rolls up his shirt and flexes an impressive bicep. He then bangs his fist on the hood of
the Mercedes, creating a dent about six inches deep.
He then launches a hammer fist at Chin. Chin calmly grabs the balled hand, twists it, and lightning kicks Prince three times: one in the head, one in the chest, one in the balls.
Prince buckles over. Chin elbows his head, sending Prince tumbling to the ground.
Chin shakes his head. “When are you going to stop being so stupid? Who do you think you’re impressing by being a badass? You’re a punk, you’ve always been a punk and you’ll always be a punk.”
“Asshole,” gasps Prince.
“The van is yours too.”
Chin gets into the Mercedes, and the car drives off.
Prince crawls over to the briefcase and opens it. Inside is one million dollars in cash.
He stands up and hobbles over to the panel van and opens the door. Inside is a cage. Inside the cage are six strong, healthy leopards.
CHAPTER 1
When someone you saw die suddenly isn’t so dead anymore, you get a little anxious. No, you don’t get a little anxious, you get totally freaked. Here you are in a room watching Chin, Prince’s dad, being burned up like a Roman candle on Halloween. And then, out of nowhere, in a random hospital room, the television clicks on by itself, and you see the Shaolin gangster’s mug warning you about your personal future.
That’s the way it is for Noah Reid, Olivia Southam, Abby Sung and Wangdan or “JJ,” four key members of the Chad Huang Foundation. Noah and Abby were ready to fly back to foundation headquarters in Hong Kong while Abby and JJ set up shop to help a dozen young Russian girls they had rescued from a new life of sexual slavery.
That changed when Chin’s face flashed briefly to say that news of his death was premature.
It’s a little more complicated than this. The Chad Huang Foundation is primarily funded by illegal funds stolen from Chin by Olivia and Abby’s late fathers, Garret Southam and Tommy Sung. Garret was Chin’s main lawyer, and Tommy was his right-hand man. In order to keep them in line a number of years ago, Chin had their wives killed in an airplane accident. It took them fifteen years, but finally they enacted vengeance.
Noah was the unsuspecting conduit for this action. Not really in his character to fight really bad guys, tigers, snakes and cranes; he had no choice because he made a mistake that men throughout the years have made: He fell in love, and to win fair maiden’s heart, he had to conquer hell. That girl was Olivia.
Noah met JJ when his now deceased mentor, Master Wu, wanted to visit his old Shaolin monastery, Heaven, before he died.
What a tangled web we weave. Master Wu was also the sifu of Garret, Tommy and Chin before Chin decided to turn rogue.
Another of Chin’s sons, King, the “Snake Man,” tried to force Noah to hand back his father’s money. Unsuccessful, he blew up Heaven in the process. At Heaven, Noah met JJ, of similar age to him. JJ felt the destruction of Heaven was his sign to move on, and he joined Noah at the foundation.
JJ met Abby and well, there are reasons why one leaves a monastery...
***
Chinatown in Manhattan is in sharp contrast to Hong Kong, Beijing or Shanghai. Unlike the bustling contemporary metropolises of Asia, New York’s Chinatown is almost an anachronism. A picture of the past when most Chinese that came to America with empty pockets and dreams in their hearts. While there are of course bits of modernity, the blocks south of Canal Street are an enclave of poverty, recent or illegal immigrants full of old tenements, old traditions and old ways of life. Cramped quarters, sharing bathrooms, facilities falling apart... and yet Chinatown is filled with the spirit and vibrancy of a people that survived oppression for thousands of years.
As Noah and JJ walk through the bustling, colorful streets, they are deep in conversation and don’t notice the statue of a Qing Dynasty official, the fresh food markets, a two-hundred-year-old Catholic Church, street vendor carts, the colorful and massive Mahayana Buddhist Temple and quirky hole-in-the-wall restaurants.
“I don’t see the point in going,” says JJ.
“So why did you ask me to take you?” replies Noah.
“I wasn’t serious.”
“Okay, let’s go back home then.”
“We’ve come this far. Might as well finish it off. But I definitely don’t want to speak to anyone there.”
“Don’t worry. We’ll just take a look inside. Pretend we’re tourists,” assures Noah.
“Whatever you do, don’t try and convert me.”
“Even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be able to do so.” My parents would say only the Holy Spirit can convert, but that would completely blow you off, JJ. “We are here on an exploratory mission of curiosity.”
“Right.”
They arrive at their destination: A small, old Presbyterian church on Bowery Street. It’s nondescript and definitely not on TripAdvisor’s suggestions for places to visit in New York.
***
The last time that Noah stepped into a church was ten years ago - at his parents’ funeral in Hong Kong. Missionary teachers, the senior Reids had been murdered by a young man whom they were trying to help. Xenos had stabbed them to death and even now, Noah is conflicted about his personal position on faith. Why would a good God allow this terrible thing to happen? It’s a question that all Christians need to face up to, and Noah is still wrestling with it.
Noah’s rationale - and it’s not a very good one - is that maybe that’s how he got an American scholarship to university and law school in Los Angeles - sacrifice, karma and all that. However, what Noah didn’t know is that far-thinking Master Wu had arranged all that through Garret. Master Wu knew that neither Garret nor Tommy would be able to effect revenge on Chin by themselves - they were too tied up with Chin to see clearly. It took someone innocent yet potentially powerful like Noah to do what they could not. Whatever. God works in mysterious ways, that’s for sure.
The little building feels just like the one that Noah’s parents’ memorial service was in. Old wooden pews, a wooden cross and on the surrounding walls, posters of Bible verses written in exquisite hand-painted Chinese calligraphic script on rice paper.
They look up at the empty cross.
“I wouldn’t be here if Abby didn’t want to get married in a church,” mutters JJ, thankful that the church is empty.
“Marriage? Did I hear you say ‘marriage’? Listen, JJ, you’ve been a monk all your life, and now, a month after renouncing your vows, you’re talking about marriage?”
“I didn’t say we were getting married. I said Abby wants to get married in a church, and I don’t know anything about it. Know nothing about her religion or anything.”
“Did she force you to come here?”
“She doesn’t even know I’m doing this.”
“I could have saved us the trouble then. I know everything. Indoctrinated and force fed since birth. Can sing every song, recite two hundred verses, tell you the histories of half a dozen missionaries eaten by cannibals... everything.”
“I said ‘Don’t try and convert me’ five minutes ago. Remember?”
“You want to hear it or not? Doesn’t matter to me.”
“I know there’s the Chinese Dao, The Way and then there’s the Christian ‘Way of the Fish.’ How does it tie together, or does it?”
“You’re making things way too complicated,” says Noah, shaking his head.
“It’s just... it’s just... ” JJ stares at the cross. “It’s just that I hate what you people did to us. You got us addicted to opium for your own profits, put signs in Shanghai that said “No dogs or Chinese allowed,” discredited our Chinese gods and thinking.”
His own words make JJ pause in reflection. He turns to face Noah. “Maybe this is a bad idea. Let’s go... I want to go to back and see that big temple.”
Right. “Yeah, that looked awesome. Like, right in the middle of a park.”
“Not like this dinky little rundown building.”
“I can’t disagree with you, JJ.”
“Why aren�
��t you arguing with me, Noah? Isn’t that what your parents would have done? Convert the yellow heathen and all that?”
“Never, ever would my parents have done that. Sure, they were your typical God-crazy, save-the-sinner types. But they never forced or tried to argue with anyone about religion. They were who they were. Decent, honest teachers who really cared about the minds and hearts of their students. And if by watching them, a student wanted to know more, they’d be happy to talk to them about it.”
“And you’re saying what I know is wrong. That the precepts of Heaven are wrong. That the Dao is wrong. That the Shaolin are wrong.”
“Hey, I didn’t say squat. Remember, I had Master Wu mentor me for twenty years. He was not just a martial arts geek. He got me into Confucius, Chinese Buddhism, Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, Taoism...”
East is east, and west is west, and never the twain shall meet...
“Let’s just go to the damned temple.”
“First intelligent thing you’ve said in ten minutes.”
***
After this mini-confrontation on religious and ethnic sensibilities, this time when Noah and JJ walk the streets in the direction of a Buddhist Temple - although the buildings, people and activities are the same - there’s a different feel in the atmosphere. Yes, there’s still a vibrancy in the air, but it’s different - as if the spirits of bygone generations that never had a chance to fulfill themselves walk among the living.
And maybe they are, but that’s not Noah and JJ’s main concern right now.
Two blocks into their journey is a young Chinese girl - she can’t be more than fourteen - who tries to solicit every guy that walks by. Nothing unusual about that. Practitioners of the oldest profession are everywhere, but it is still pathetic to see a young girl, barely out of childhood, with garish makeup, wearing tops so tight you can see the outlines of the nipples, high heels that look like stilts and cutoffs so short you wouldn’t need to take them off in order to have sex.
SLAVERY UNBOUND: Cruelty & Lust with the Emerging Eastern Mafia (Noah Reid Action Thriller series Book 4) Page 1
