by H L Stephens
I gave Avery a big hug and thanked him for my present.
"Don't mention it kid," he said. I thought I saw the smallest blush dance across his cheeks. "Knock 'em dead, Jane. I mean that. Give no quarter this time."
I just nodded my head and left for Chinatown and a new chapter of my destiny.
Birth of the White Lotus
The Peking Palace Restaurant seemed more imposing to me than it had the other times I had walked through its swinging doors. Maybe it was because I was preparing for the performance of a lifetime. This wasn't some dimly lit club where I was trying to convince a half-drunk pervert Bratva that I was an authentic Asian woman of ill repute. This was a well-lit Chinese establishment run by a woman who spearheaded a branch of the deadly Triad and referred to herself as the Poisoned Arrow just so everyone would know how scary she was. One false move on my part - one word inflected incorrectly - and my Mandarin duck was cooked. I had to be perfect. Better than perfect. I had to be flawless, or I could kiss my burgeoning life goodbye.
Mrs. Tong approached me as I entered the restaurant. Her face was leaden, without any trace of pleasantry. I reminded myself I was now YanMei, stranger to all in this establishment. I kept the image of Meiqiang in my mind as I prepared myself for the encounter.
"We are closed," Mrs. Tong said. She was curt and clipped in her address, and made as if she would shoo me from the premises.
I bowed low but remained firmly in place as I said in a delicate voice, "I am YanMei, and I come at Dú jiàn’s bidding."
Mrs. Tong pursed her lips and eyed me suspiciously.
"We don't want your kind here," she said in a low voice. "We have enough trouble without the likes of you. Please go."
Again she shooed at me like I was vermin. I reached for the hand she was using to usher me to the door and said in a low voice of my own, "Mother of the missing, I am here as a friend to you. Do not treat me as you would an enemy. I am helping the one you call Jane. I was asked to come here by Dú jiàn. Please, mother of the lost, look kindly upon me and allow me to see the one who summoned me."
I could see the struggle in Mrs. Tong's features.
"You are a friend of Meiqiang's?" she asked.
"In a way I am," I replied. "I am here to help bring her home, so if that makes us friends, then, yes."
Mrs. Tong nodded. She stood there for a moment as if she was determining what she should do. She nodded again and led me back to the room with the curtain of jade beads. Dú jiàn was sitting on the same cushion at the same low table, but this time the tea tray was gone, replaced instead by an ornate oriental box.
"YanMei to see you mother," Mrs. Tong said as she waved me into the room. Mrs. Tong did not wait for me to be seated before she disappeared back the way she had come.
"My daughter does not approve of my business," Dú jiàn replied as if answering an unspoken question. "She does not understand is the very thing she despises is the same thing that protects her from greater evil. Please YanMei, sit. I wish to speak with you."
I bowed to the woman before me, keeping the Meiqiang's image ever before me. With every movement I made, I emulated the friend I wished to save.
"Forgive me for saying this," Dú jiàn said, "but you remind me of my granddaughter. Such grace in movement is rarely seen."
I smiled at the old woman with the viper's eyes.
"It is high praise indeed to be compared to her."
"You must be wondering why I requested to meet you," Dú jiàn said. "Your friend Jane was reluctant to agree to our meeting, but she gave into the wishes of an old woman."
"A woman such as you demands obedience and nothing less," I replied. "How could I refuse when I learned of your request? I will admit I was curious. For a woman of your status to desire to meet a lowly foot soldier; it makes one wonder the reason."
"You are too modest," Dú jiàn said. "You offer yourself to the enemy for the sake of my granddaughter. I would know the face of the one who might die for Meiqiang's sake that I might remember her fondly."
I bowed with a smile.
"I am hoping things fair a little better than that. Perhaps Meiqiang and I both will arise this day with the sun shining upon us. It is my hope at least."
"Then it is good you came," Dú jiàn said, "for I have a gift for you that may help you in your journey."
Dú jiàn opened the ornate box which lay between us. She pulled out a delicate, fan shaped hair comb made of intricately carved jade, mother of pearl, and inlaid gold. It was very old from the looks of it and was as wide as the length of my hand. Three elegant gold hairpins were used to hold it securely in place.
"Beautiful, is it not?" asked Dú jiàn.
"It is," I agreed and was just about to protest my wearing such a lovely piece, when Dú jiàn triggered some mechanism within it that caused the rigid tines to extend another three inches, transforming the hairpiece into a deadly fan of small blades.
"It is called the widow maker, so used by the concubines of the Emperor to eliminate his greatest enemies," Dú jiàn said. "The center jade decoration causes the blades to extend or retract. The blades are sharp enough to sever a man's spine, and the hairpins can puncture a man's windpipe, preventing him from raising the alarm."
Dú jiàn flung one of the pins at the wall like a dart. It hit its mark with deadly precision and remained buried in the plaster to a third of its depth. Dú jiàn handed the deadly yet beautiful gift to me with a smile. "Use them well, YanMei, and bring my granddaughter home to me."
"Thank you," I said. "I too have a gift for you, though not as elegant. Jane asked me to bring this to you." I handed Dú jiàn the box Marcus had given me. "She said it was for your men to coordinate with the others. It comes with the message that time was of the essence. Your men must move quickly."
I got up to leave, and Dú jiàn joined me at the jade curtain.
"You remind me of the white lotus flower," she said.
"Why is that?" I asked.
"The lotus is one of the most beautiful flowers," she said. "It grows up from the mud yet is pure and unstained by the foundation from which it springs. It is treasured by all who gaze upon it and is jealously guarded from being harmed. YanMei, do what you must to survive, yet remain like the lotus. Allow your spirit to remain pure and unblemished. Never lose the purity in your heart YanMei, or should I call you White Lotus?"
Dú jiàn smiled and held the jade curtain back for me. I could feel her eyes upon me as I left the restaurant. Ever watching.
I pondered Dú jiàn’s words as I made my way to my third and final gauntlet. I had never thought of myself as a lotus flower before, but as I hardened my heart for the battle ahead and set my deadly jade comb in place, I thought perhaps there might be hope for me after all when the dust settled and the body count was taken. Then again, it was God's reckoning, not Dújiàn's, whether there would ever be room in His heavenly garden for a slightly trampled, bloodstained white lotus flower from Ironco, Texas.
Snatch and Grab
Back home in Ironco, Texas one of my favorite pastimes with my dad was going fishing. Ironco had claim to a single natural waterway. It wasn't much to look at by most fishermen's standards, but it was ours, and we casters-of-the-line relished the time we spent there, even when it was a little dehydrated from a lack of rain.
One of the beauties of our trickling tributary was a little critter called a hellgrammite. The hellgrammite was the ugliest, meanest cuss of a bug you ever saw. If you weren't careful in your approach, it could slice your finger open faster than you could cuss the resulting injury. I should know; I have been its victim enough times in my life to respect its ability to defend itself.
To the naturalist, the hellgrammite was the larval stage of the Dobson fly that spent the first few years of its life in the water eating other soft-bodied critters to survive. To the fisherman, the hellgrammite was pure gold for catching bass. The challenge was finding the little boogers without getting the crap cut out of your fingers by their leth
al pinchers. Hellgrammites lived under rocks and sunken logs, and a fisherman had to be determined if he hoped to find one of these little beauties to use as his bait.
As I trolled the streets of Little Odessa, or Little Russia as the natives called it, I felt like I was hunting hellgrammites, turning over the proverbial rocks and sunken logs of that part of the city looking for a nasty little Bratva that I was hoping were going to snatch me. Unfortunately, Murphy's Law was work against me. When I needed to locate the Bratva the most, they were nowhere to be found.
I spent over an hour looking for my Bratva hellgrammites but could not find a single one in any of the usual crevices where liked to take their leisure. I was beginning to lose hope of ever finding one, or more precisely of being found by one, when something caught my eye. I saw the woman with the stroller.
"Hey guys," I whispered. "It's her."
"Who her?" Marcus said into my ear.
"The stroller woman," I said. "The one who helped snatch Dorthia."
"Are you sure?" Marcus asked.
"Yes I am sure," I said. "We may not have gotten a look at her face, but everything about her is the same, right down to the placement of the bag beneath the stroller and the phone in her hand. It is the same exact ploy, and she is coming right for me."
"Get out of there Jane," Avery said.
"Are you crazy?" I said. "This was how Dorthia was taken. If they snatch me in the same way, it may lead me to Dorthia and Meiqiang."
This time, Jameson piped in with, "Jane we don't know what drug was used or what its effects are. If you are knocked out, you will be of no use to us."
"Trust me guys," I said. "Whatever this woman uses to deliver the drug, it has a short needle. I don't think it will penetrate the leather of my tactical suit."
"Then how will you know what to do?" Marcus asked.
"I'll just mimic what happened with Dorthia," I said. "After she taps me, I'll freeze. Then when she moves on, we know the goon squad is seconds away. Just say a prayer."
I was standing at a railing overlooking the sand and water when the woman came towards me. I saw her approach in my periphery. Her hair was a sandy blonde with long dark roots. She wore large sunglasses that covered much of her upper face, though the day was overcast with the sun low in the sky. Even with the glasses, her features were distinctive enough that I could identify her without them.
The woman was roughly my height, though she wore hooker-heel boots and tight spandex pants. How she kept from getting the heels caught in between the slats of the boardwalk was a miracle to me. She chewed gum and had the habit of snap-snap-snapping it every so often. A real baby was in the carriage though whether the child was hers was a debatable point.
I purposefully did not look in her direction, but instead focused my attention on the water, as though I was entranced by the surf. I awaited the impact that came just as I anticipated it would.
The stranger hit me with the stroller just as she had done with Dorthia. I squelched my true desire to leap across the stroller and beat the ever living crap out of her until she told me where Dorthia was. Instead, I grabbed my leg.
"Oh I am so sorry," the woman said in a thick accent. "I wasn't looking where I was going." She held up her phone just as she had done with Dorthia. "I am trying to find Tatiana's Grill. Do you know where it is?"
Though I loathed turning my back on this snake, I had to keep the ruse going.
"I think it is that way," I said pointing in the direction of the restaurant I knew she wasn't really searching for. I added the appropriate Chinese accent to my voice as I spoke.
I felt the barest pressure of her hand on my back, but my leather prevented the prick of any needle. I flinched all the same, just as Dorthia had done.
"Thank you for your help," the woman said. She gave me a dead gap-toothed smile.
I will remember you, I thought.
I let my shoulders slump just a touch as Dorthia's had, and I allowed the slightest hint of fear to flash across my face.
The woman said into the air, "She's ready for you," and she walked on.
Within a matter of seconds, a van screeched up behind me, and two men jumped out. They were covered in prison tattoos. I remained rigid just like Dorthia had and let them put the hood over my head. I offered no resistance but kept my muscles taut. I didn't relish being in such a vulnerable position nor did I like remaining so the entirety of our journey, but they had to believe things were going as planned.
My two kidnappers spoke to one another in Russian as the van raced down the road, and though I had been doing my best to learn the language, I greatly appreciated the seamless translation that began flowing through my ear bud, courtesy of the crew.
"Should we knock her out as we did the last one?" thug one asked.
"The drug will keep her under control for now," thug two said.
"I forget how long she will be like this all hard like a board," thug one said.
"A few more minutes and the muscles will relax," said thug two, "and then she will be soft like a kitten and ready to pet."
Both men burst into a disturbing round of laughter that left my hair standing painfully on end. I had no intention of allowing them to discover my tactical suit or of being molested on my way to rescuing my friends. I was just beginning to mentally walk through my self-defense plan when the driver of the van told both thugs they were to leave me alone - boss's orders. I was never so glad for honor among thieves. Protests abounded, but the order held.
It is devilishly hard to keep track of time when your head is shoved into a bag, so I had no sense of how long we had been driving. When I felt the shift from a smooth asphalt road to a bumpy gravel one, I knew we were heading towards the Butimen Ash plant. The smells confirmed my suspicions. The stench hit me as soon as the van doors opened after we ground to a halt. Our suppositions about where the Chinese girls had been taken were correct. Now all I had to do was survive long enough to find my friends.
Enough time had passed since my supposed drugging for me to allow my muscles to relax. When the van stopped and the door opened, my body was dragged from the vehicle and rudely dropped on the ground. I suppressed the 'Oof' that desperately wanted to escape my lips as I made contact with the gravel. A fight ensued between two of the thugs about what my treatment should be.
"What the hell did you do that for?" the driver of the van asked.
"Why do you care?" the thug who dumped me on the ground said in reply.
"Yeah, why do you care?" the third thug said in defense of his snatching cohort. "You thought she might be the one the boss was looking for. Besides, she is just going to get the hell beat out of her just like the others anyways. What are a few more bruises?"
"We don't get to touch her until the boss says the time is right," the driver said. "If either of you has a problem with that, I am sure you can take it up with him. He's very reasonable about being challenged. Just ask Mishka. Mishka challenged something the boss told him to do. You talk to Mishka and see how things went. Oh wait...... Mishka's dead. I guess things didn't go so well for him after all."
Silence filled the air after that exchange, and I quickly found myself tossed over someone's shoulder like a sack of flour. Whoever it was held my legs with one hand and cupped the cheek of my rear end with the other. I thought about the different knives I had tucked throughout the various places in my tactical suit and longed to show him how easy it was to cut through the bone and sinew of a man's hand.
I heard the familiar sound of boots on industrial metal stairs but could not tell if we were going into Kovalski's pleasure quarters or some other area altogether. When the stink of chemicals grew stronger instead of less pronounced, as it had been in Kovalski's living area, I had my answer. The longer I was on captor's shoulder, the staler the air became. It grew dank and told me we were descending into one of unventilated areas of the plant. I heard the angry creak of a metal door.
"Move over suka," my handler barked. "You have company."
I was so elated at finding my friend so quickly, I nearly killed myself when I tried to jump up from where I had been tossed. In my exuberance, I had forgotten my hands and feet had been bound. My sudden thrash cracked my head against the hard wall of the cell. It was a sobering spark of pain but not nearly as sobering as seeing Meiqiang's condition when I opened my eyes for the first time.
Monsters
How Marcus' software could find any features to identify were beyond my ability to comprehend. There wasn't anything of the Meiqiang I knew beneath the swollen, bloodied pulp. Nothing remained of her once beautiful face. Her eyes were both so engorged with blood, I feared she might lose her sight if she was not taken to a hospital, and soon. Seeing what merciless hands had done to her ignited a wrath in me that would not be extinguished until the blood of her enemies ran like a river at my feet.
I broke free of my bindings and stripped out of my frock and pants, making sure to take the Sem-58 patches with me. I untied Meiqiang and laid her out as gently as I could. Every movement caused a fresh moan of pain from her which tore at my heart and sickened me beyond my ability to control. My stomach roiled with each cry until eventually I lost the battle and vomited in the farthest corner of the room. I hated myself for my response, but it could not be helped.
When my stomach and my friend were quiet once more, I rolled the discarded pants up and put them beneath Meiqiang's head. The frock I used as a make-shift blanket to keep her as warm as I could. If I moved her, I could easily throw her into shock. Her life was in a delicate balance, and it wasn't going to be my hand which sent her careening over the edge.
