“She who strikes from afar.” Jiang laughed as he spoke. “She wants to take the kids across the border.”
Emily’s chest seized up at his words, at the very thought of being separated from Li Li and Stone. She guessed he meant Margie, though that supposition didn’t entirely fit. It was difficult to imagine she’d know to come all the way from Beijing to help. No, that’s not possible. He must mean something else by striking from afar.
“Which border?” she asked, skipping over the confusion. When Jiang responded, “Myanmar,” her head began to spin, and she felt her powers of attention fade, and her head dropped back onto a pillow. By the time she’d gathered herself again, a familiar face had appeared.
“Connie… you’re here. Thank goodness. But how? Where…”
“Don’t worry. The kids are downstairs with a friend. The thing is, time is short. I know you’re not feeling strong, and a week in a hospital bed would be the best thing. But if we can get you and the kids across the border now, before…”
“Into Myanmar?”
“Yes, Myanmar. Danko is waiting on the other side to take you to Hsu Qi. You’ll be safe there.”
Finally, a word that made sense, a name that acted like a balm on her mind, Hsu Qi. If only it were true that they could get to whatever haven she’d established, if only she could finally let her guard down in the company of the woman who knew how to see directly into her heart. The fact of the civil war going on in Myanmar didn’t even make it to the top of her list of worries.
“What about Kit Yee’s people?”
“That’s why we need to move quickly,” Jiang said, his head angling over Connie’s shoulder. “When your friend here put two rounds through her chest, it bought us some time. But those events will attract a great deal of official attention soon.”
“She’s dead?”
Connie nodded. “As a doornail.”
Emily turned to bring Jiang’s face into focus. “I’m so sorry. I should have seen it. I didn’t listen to what my heart…”
“Oh, no, sifu. If anyone has been played for a fool, it’s me. No one else is to blame for allowing her to cause such havoc. If Connie had not arrived at the right moment…”
Emily reached for his hand. “But she did… and you did, too.” She paused to gather herself. “Li Li needs you to be strong for her.”
“Maybe I have to be strong enough to leave her with you. I let that woman play me for a fool. What must Li Li think of me?”
There was no reassuring him, Emily saw this right away, but he had no one else to vent his recriminations to. Offering consolation he couldn’t accept was the office of a friend, and she was glad to be able to perform this little service for him. She glanced at Connie, and she left them alone.
“Are you safe now?”
“Yes, I believe so. Kit Yee seems to have filed no reports, probably afraid she’d have to share the glory of betraying me, so greedy was she for advancement. Only a few subordinates were even aware of the resources she had employed, and they’re all dead. As for your friends…”
“My friends?”
“The ones who helped you at Wudangshan, there is still an active alert, though the information on them is sketchy, and they’re thought to be terrorists. It’s possible they will never be found,” – Jiang arched an eyebrow as he spoke these words – “though caution will be needed for… well for the next several years. If you have a way to contact them…”
“I… I don’t even know who they are. There’s no way to contact them.”
This was not entirely true, and Jiang didn’t look like he quite believed it. Getting a message to Meng Yu Fei or Shao Yao directly would be impossible, but she had a pretty good idea where to find them, at least once a year, since they’d spoken of an annual pilgrimage to the mountain.
“Vagabonds, then?”
Speaking had begun to feel like a burden, since it threatened to require more breath than she really had. But Emily hoped to satisfy his curiosity now, and maybe give him a reason not to inquire any further into the matter.
“You could call them that, I suppose, though without their help, we’d have been killed, both of us, since Kit Yee had no qualms about killing Li Li.”
“You rub salt in my wounds, sifu. I scolded you for your choice of companion, and my own was so much worse.”
Emily’s head throbbed with the injustice of Jiang’s confession. She had resented his scolding that day under the bridge in Beijing. But she couldn’t help suspecting that Kit Yee had found them in Wudangshan simply by following Wu Dao. Would it make Jiang feel any better to hear this? Perhaps not.
“Won’t you be implicated in her death somehow, even if only as her co-conspirator?”
Jiang rubbed his chin as he considered the question. “It’s possible… though the terrorist story ought to confuse any inquiry. That’s the danger of propaganda, it can fool the wrong people. Since she made no reports, the only people who actually know the Uighurs had no involvement were part of her team, and they’re all dead. Perhaps that will keep your friends safe, and leave me free to play the grieving fiancé, and collect sympathy rather than suspicion.”
The room swam as Jiang explained how he’d realized what Kit Yee had done, and how he knew to come to Pu’er. His eyes gleamed as he bragged about how his tech guys tracked the leak that led to Choi’s death in Seoul
“I realized only she could have known about Choi. She’d covered her trail well, but, you know, my tech guys are better than theirs.”
He must have seen that she had begun to flag, and switched to a more important inquiry. “Sifu, in Kunming, when her people confronted you in the street…”
“I don’t remember much about that day,” she croaked out warily. “It’s mainly a blur.”
“Some of Kit Yee’s team had wounds consistent with what was found at Wudangshan, slashing wounds and baton bruises, but two other men met a different fate, not subtle beatings delivered by a martial artist, something much fiercer. One man’s face was caved in, and the coroner’s report says death was caused by blunt force trauma, as if he’d been struck by a heavy object. But the bruising visible in the photos suggests a single blow from a fist. The other was thrown through a car windshield, but not in an outward direction, as in a crash, but inwards, as if he’d fallen from a tall building, or…”
“… or been smashed through by human hands?”
“Yes, exactly. Do you have any idea how that happened? The force of those blows… it’s hard to imagine.”
Emily’s eyes glazed over for a moment, as she let her mind explore the bits and pieces of that day. She had suspicions about what had happened to those men, and who had done it, but she shuddered to think about what it might mean. An immense reservoir of aggression beckoned to Stone, she’d sensed it for a while now, the same one that had provided so much animal power to his ‘big brother.’ She dreaded the thought that he might become accustomed to it, as Ba We had. If there was any hope that he could live in human society, it would depend on his never accessing such ferocity. Now that he had, she worried that he might not be able to put it away.
“I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I have no answers.”
The door creaked open before Jiang could press her further, and Connie reappeared, glancing at her watch. “Zero nine thirty. Jiang says the best time to attempt a crossing is around eleven, when the morning shift beings to feel hungry.”
“Yes,” he said. “You should rest until then, conserve your strength. You need to be able to walk across. Connie should take the children across first, separately. If anyone is still looking, they won’t pay attention to such a grouping.”
“My friend will cross with you,” Connie said. “She’s very reliable. Do you think you can stand?”
Emily turned to Jiang. “Aren’t you coming?”
“My work is here, sifu.” His eyes glistened as he spoke, and she could read the swirl of emotions behind them. Shame and guilt, disappointment, anger, and maybe even a tinc
ture of resolve – if only he could find a way to rebuild a life for himself out of the ruins of nightmare he’d just survived, something Li Li might one day share.
The ride back to Kutkai was uneventful, other than the ruggedness of unpaved roads, which was exaggerated by the springs of the sedan in which she rode. But Stone was by her side, and feeling his gentle spirit so close provided some comfort, as well as seeing Li Li in the front seat, still safe.
A smallish woman, scarcely more than a girl really, sat next to Li Li and issued unintelligible instructions to Danko, her father’s friend, as he maneuvered the town car along distinctly uncivilized roads. Connie had introduced her as Ip, and Emily remembered leaning on her shoulder, at the border control office, and trying to seem casual, rather than like someone on her last legs. Something about her manner was quietly reassuring. Perhaps it was the way she wore her hair pulled into a tight braid, or the crisp white blouse and jeans she wore, or maybe it was the unflappable, placid expression in her eyes. She didn’t resemble the Han, whose features dominate the scene in the rest of China. Higher cheekbones, a sharp nose, and full brows, her face was framed in a perfect oval by jet black hair.
“It’s okay, Uncle Bao,” she’d said to the man in the booth, who hesitated before stamping their passports. At least, that’s what it sounded like, and he certainly could have passed for a relative, judging from the cast of his eyes and nose. But she may have misunderstood entirely, since the dialect in this part of China still eluded Emily’s comprehension. It sounded even more different from Mandarin than Cantonese did, which she’d only just begun to develop a feel for. In this part of the country, consonants were softer, and some even seemed to roll over the teeth, and a few vowel sounds were completely unfamiliar.
On the other side, another border guard simply nodded to Ip and waved them through. No one seemed to have any interest in looking in her pack, and Emily assumed Jiang had disabled the cameras on the Chinese side. She managed to glance back over Ip’s shoulder, half hoping to catch a glimpse of him, waving perhaps, but this was not a realistic expectation.
A pothole jostled the backseat passengers, and Emily returned from her reverie to see Li Li’s smiling face beaming at her over the seat back. She’d reached around to touch Emily’s hair with one hand, and ended up turning completely around to perch on both knees. The other hand clutched one of Connie’s, who seemed now to have taken up the role of favorite aunt.
The rush of emotions must have swept Li Li along, from abject terror in the face of their tormentors to a stunning reunion with Jiang and Connie, and two more new friends. It looked like she’d come to terms with her uncle, and that there’d been enough time for him to give her some reassurance of his love. She was bound to live estranged from him for a few more years, and Emily feared the loss would devastate her. But now, watching her eyes flash and gleam, she wondered if the intensity of the past few days might not make it easier to reconcile herself to the situation. She was a child of the world, and the sprawling network of friends she could rely on had proved to be larger than she ever could have understood back in Virginia. Perhaps it was mere wishful thinking on Emily’s part, but she couldn’t quite quash the hope that her girl might emerge from the experience just a little bit stronger in her heart.
Perhaps she ought to have recognized, from the content of the wish, that she’d already tipped over out of the conscious world, and the rocking of the car abetted the illusion until finally everything went still and dark.
A noise from what sounded like a kitchen – metal clinking against glass or ceramic vessels, voices frothed and hushed – had been tickling her ear for several minutes, and she wasn’t at all confident she remembered how to open her eyes. Perhaps she was out of practice… or could it be that she’d slipped entirely from the world? But a kind of music in the voices drew her out, and she wondered if she could pick herself up.
In the dim light – dawn or dusk, she couldn’t tell – the room unfolded itself before her gaze. Beyond the foot of the bed, curtains shifted with a slight breeze in the otherwise heavy air, next to a writing table and a filigreed chest of drawers. A mirror glinted further along the wall, and she shuddered at the thought of looking at her reflection.
“You remember what your uncle said, right?”
This was Connie’s voice, and the other was Li Li’s, soft and song-like, but with a melancholy note as well.
“I know, but it still hurts.”
“Does it make it any better that Stone came for you?”
“Yeah, I guess so.”
“You guess so? He risked everything for you, traveled across China by himself, just to find you.”
“I think he was probably looking for Emily.”
“Yeah, maybe… What are you talking about? Did you see his face when those men grabbed you? There’s no way he wasn’t there for you.”
Of course, she would have her moments of doubt. What teenager doesn’t? But hearing Connie, of all people, trying to cajole Li Li out of them – a stone-cold assassin playing the confidante – nothing could have been more reassuring to Emily at this moment.
“She’s awake,” the young woman with the braid called out, when Emily lurched from the bed and steadied herself against the table. Connie’s friend, Ip, who had proved surprisingly sturdy in a stressful situation – Emily couldn’t even begin to guess how she’d worked her way into Connie’s affections, the woman who didn’t know friendship.
How odd that she recognized the voice, having only heard it, as far as she knew, the day before – and what a relief to be stronger than she expected, and relatively free of pain. It suddenly occurred to her she had no good idea how long had she been asleep.
“Oh, Emmy,” Li Li said, eyes glistening, when she opened the door and slipped both arms around her for a hug. The others waited in the next room, probably restrained by Connie, until Li Li had her fill. What words did she have for the girl who’d shared such an ordeal, hunted by a dangerously ambitious agent of the Chinese security service, nearly killed on several occasions, rescued by the the near-miraculous intervention of strangers, of Stone, and by her uncle… and maybe even Connie?
“I’m sorry, sweetheart.” Emily cupped Li Li’s face in both hands and gazed into her eyes, Surprisingly, or perhaps not, she found no smoldering sorrow there, no scars or traumas, just a resilient young spirit.
“Sorry for what, Emmy?”
“You know… for putting you through that ordeal.”
“It wasn’t your fault… “
“… and for the disappointment… with your uncle. I never should have agreed… I should have trusted my intuition.”
It gradually became clear that Li Li had little sense of the recriminations that pressed so heavily on Emily. Ip came bounding into the room a moment later, now a giddy teenager herself, clutching a magazine and beaming up at her.
“Is this really you, Mrs.?”
The image on the cover was familiar. There she was, leaning against a red sports car, enjoying the attentions of a fashionable young man. It brought back some of the happier memories of the past few months, though these were also burdened with perplexities and vexations. Emily nodded.
“Who is he, Emmy?” Li Li asked. She’d have found out sooner or later – might as well face it now.
“His name is Wu Dao.”
“I can read, you know. That’s what it says right here,” she said, one finger touching the caption. “But how do you know him?”
“I met him at a party, and he insisted on showing me the city. The tabloids got a few pictures of us together, like this one, and started a bunch of rumors. It was really nothing.”
“Does Perry know?” Connie asked from under an arched eyebrow. The others had gradually made their way into the room.
“I’m hungry,” Emily said, hoping to change the subject, though it was clear enough she’d be hearing a great deal more on this subject for the next few weeks.
“Come, come, everyone. Let’s find our gues
t some food.” This voice was a welcome echo of a happier past, and perhaps even the promise of some sort of spiritual renewal. Hsu Qi took Emily’s hand in hers and led the way into the kitchen, where Danko and the others took up seats around a large, country-style wooden table.
Eventually, the others tired of hearing about their experiences of the last several days. Emily tried not to be a wet blanket, even though she found it distasteful to discuss violent things, and she’d have liked to send Stone some sort of subliminal message about them. But Li Li seemed to enjoy retelling some episodes, like how she met some other teenagers at a concert in Shiyan, and how she drove the car in Kunming. But when she wanted to chatter about Meng Yu Fei and Shao Yao, Emily drew a line.
“Why don’t you tell everyone about Zhenwu, and how you learned a new style at Wudangshan?”
“They’re like real-life vagabonds, you know, and they use…” Li Li stopped in mid sentence as soon as Emily caught her attention with a shake of the head. “But…”
“I’d rather hear about how Stone found us,” Emily said, and Stone rocked back and forth in his seat in excitement. “He traveled all the way across China by himself.”
“I think that’s amazing,” Connie said, exaggerating for Li Li’s benefit, who frowned and huffed.
Meanwhile, Stone scribbled something on a scrap of paper, and handed it to Emily.
“He says he overheard Andie and Michael mention Wudangshan, and he had enough money for a train ticket.” Stone growled and whooped as she read it aloud. “And when he arrived, everyone in the station was talking about a battle on the mountain, and how the terrorists had escaped.”
“Terrorists?” Hsu Qi asked, glancing meaningfully at Emily.
“Yes, apparently Uighurs caused trouble along our entire route.”
“Yes, enemies of the regime can be so convenient that way,” Connie said.
Emily took up another of Stone’s notes. “When he heard we’d escaped, he got back on the train, because he just knew we’d keep going south for as long as we could.”
Girl Goes To Wudang (An Emily Kane Adventure Book 7) Page 34
