The Legend of the Red Specter (The Adventures of the Red Specter Book 1)

by M. A. Wisniewski

  She shook her head. "I was too scared to look that way."

  About what she figured. Anyway, that story could wait. There were more important things to deal with now. "And you've been holed up here ever since?"

  "Yes," said Hsiu Mei. "I took the chance to run when I had it. I had no time to think of what next. I don't... everything here is strange. I don't know anyone. I have no family here. I know staying in this room is no good, but..."

  Her voice broke under the weight of her desperation. Joy reached over and rubbed her on the shoulder. "Don't you worry. I'm here now. From here on out, I'll be your big sister, all right? I'll be taking care of everything."

  As soon as Joy said it, she knew it felt right. Hsiu Mei needed comfort and support. Joy remembered when Mrs. Jakuba had insisted on being called Tishka. It had really helped.

  Hsiu Mei blinked. "Big sister? Why would you do that?"

  Joy shrugged. "Well, I've got three real little sisters, and three little brothers, but because of my job, I've had to move around a lot, and I don't see them often any more. But I'm just used to being the big sister, and right now, I think you need one. So I just can't help myself."

  "But, you can't," said Hsiu Mei. "If you help me, you'll be in trouble, too. You can't—"

  "Well, that's backwards, actually," said Joy. "Because we're in Dodona now, and it's against the law to sell people. And all these weapons in this room are against the law, too. When I report this to the city officials, the Triads are going to be in so much trouble you won't believe it."

  Hsiu Mei shook her head, frantic. "You don't understand. The Triads are vicious. And they're everywhere. I seen them... and it's not just the men. There is this one woman with them, with terrible scars. She is the worst... she told us all what she'd do if we ran. She said—"

  Joy shushed her with a gesture, while taking a mental note of this mention of a woman—it must be that Ah Nei Wei who Chen didn’t like. "Don't worry about it. I know they're scary, but that’s no surprise. That's how they control people. By scaring them, so they won't fight back."

  "But—"

  "I said not to worry. You've had more than your share of worry, and now you need to stop. You've been a very, very brave young woman, but you don't need to do that any more. You just leave everything to me."

  Hsiu Mei hugged her knees and let her hair fall over her face. Joy had to strain to hear her next words. "Not brave. All I do is run and hide."

  "You escaped, and that's more than brave enough. That's braver than a lot of people in your situation would've been, take it from me."

  The teenager sniffled and shook her head.

  "You may not believe me now, but one day you'll look back and see that I'm right." Joy gave Hsiu Mei one last squeeze and started to back out of the alcove.

  Hsiu Mei looked up. "Where are you going?"

  "To get help. Don't worry, I won't be long."

  "Don't leave me! I'm scared."

  "I said not to worry." Joy kept her voice gentle. "I’d take you, but you’ve got those chains on, and they’ll rattle and draw attention. You've been nice and safe in here for three whole days. You'll be just as safe for another hour or so. Though I doubt it'll be that long."

  The sunlight leaking through the cracks in the shipping container was fading. The goons chasing her would've had to have given up by now. "I'll be back with help and you'll be back with your aunt and uncle in no time, trust me."

  The poor girl gazed at her desperately. "I don't... why are you doing this? You don't even—"

  "Because," said Joy. "I'm a big sister, and it's my job to look after my little sister. It's just what we do."

  Hsiu Mei just stared at her.

  "You just sit and hold tight," said Joy. "I'll be right back." And she turned and eased her way to the little entrance crack at the other side of the huge crate, and prepared to rejoin the outside world.

  Joy had intended to just stick her head out through the crack to make sure the coast was clear, but that didn’t give her the field of vision that she wanted, so she stuck her shoulders out too. That was better, and the coast was clear, so she tried to pull herself back in so she could exit feet first, but the loose panel grabbed at her like a pair of jaws, and she didn’t have the leverage to push it open and pull herself back up at the same time. In the end she had to just surrender to gravity and slide all the way out headfirst, and she ended up in a heap on the ground with a painful bruise on her hip, but basically okay. And there hadn’t been anyone around to see that, thankfully.

  She dusted herself off as best she could, noting the irreparable damage to her outfit with dismay. Nothing to be done for it, though. She reached back up through the crack in the shipping crate to retrieve her purse. All she had to do for now was avoid the Triads long enough to track down the guards. She still had their emergency whistle, which had managed to remain on her neck through her little tumbling act, but she didn’t want to use it unless she absolutely had to.

  Joy started to creep along the side of the cargo aisle when a metallic clinking behind her made her jump. She turned to see Hsiu Mei slide out of the cargo container and stumble towards her.

  “Hsiu Mei! What are you doing?” Joy said. “I told you to stay inside and wait—“

  “Please,” the girl gasped, and Joy stopped short as she saw Hsiu Mei’s face. There were fresh tracks through the grime where her tears had been falling, and her face scrunched up in a rictus. “Please, you have to save the others. The others on the ship. The ones I left behind.”

  “Well, of course we will. We’re going to save everyone. I didn’t forget—“

  “But I did! I forgot about them! I saw my chance to run, and I did, and I left them behind. I was only thinking about myself.”

  Hsiu Mei clutched at her, and Joy staggered a bit. Standing up, they were nearly the same height. Joy needed to get her calmed down. “That’s okay, Hsiu Mei. You did—“

  “No, it is not okay! I left her behind! I left my sister behind!”

  Joy blinked, “Your sister?”

  Hsiu Mei sniffed and nodded. “My little sister Lin Lin. She was on the boat with me. I am supposed to take care of her. I was the only one she had left, and I abandoned her.”

  “Hsiu Mei, listen,” said Joy. “Listen to me carefully—you did not abandon her. You did—“

  “No, I did. I left her. I ran away and left her alone. And then… and then…” Hsiu Mei stared up at Joy with big, watery eyes as she struggled to catch her breath. “I knew if I ran I’d be punished if I was caught. But I didn’t think… I thought only of myself. They still have Lin Lin. Since they can’t punish me, they’ll punish her instead. It’s been days! They’ve probably been doing it for days, while I cower and hide. And I’m supposed to be the big sister! I’m supposed to be the one protecting her. But instead I… I…”

  Hsiu Mei made a pathetic whimpering noise and buried her head in Joy’s chest. Joy made shushing noises and stroked her hair, but she couldn’t be as reassuring as she wanted. Unburdening Hsiu Mei’s guilt wasn’t a trivial thing, but this was a really bad time for it. Joy supposed she hadn’t helped earlier with all that “leave it to Big Sister” talk. She’d been inadvertently twisting the knife. But she hadn’t known! She’d assumed that Hsiu Mei was an only child. Actually, something about this whole situation was nagging at her, like she was missing something, some important detail. But she didn’t have time to think about that. She needed to take control here.

  Joy grabbed Hsiu Mei by the shoulders, shoved her out to arm’s length, and gave her a firm shake. “Hsiu Mei! Look at me,” she said, but the girl shook her head and kept her eyes low.

  “No, I need you to look at me. I need to see your eyes. C’mon, little sister.” Joy understood the shame that kept the girl’s gaze fixed on the dirt, and that was exactly what she needed to break.

  Slowly, Hsiu Mei raised her head. Joy finally got a bare glimpse of her pupils, though they seemed to be pointing somewhere around her collar, and w
as about to launch into her best impromptu pep talk, when she was interrupted by the worst thing possible.

  “Well, look at this,” crowed Yang. “I look for one and got two.”

  Joy whirled around, searching for him, then finally looked up, to where he was perched—on top of the stack of cargo-netted crates. They’d stolen her trick! She’d given them the idea.

  “Chen! I got them! Over here!” Yang waved over towards the center of the maze, then turned to leer at them. “You’ve had some fun playing hide and seek, girls. Well, playtime’s over. Time to come home to Daddy.”

  Chapter 32

  Catch As Catch Can

  Hsiu Mei’s eyes went wide, and she lunged back towards her hidey-hole. Joy seized her by the arms before she could get far.

  “No, they’ve seen us,” she shouted, pulling in the other direction as hard as she could. “That won’t work. We’ve got to run! C’mon!”

  They lost precious seconds in that tug-of-war while Yang descended on the cargo net, but Hsiu Mei gave in and they both sprinted for freedom, only to see Chen round the corner to cut them off. They tried to rush past him anyway, but he was too quick, catching hold of the chain hanging from Hsiu Mei’s collar, and then grabbing Joy when she tried to free Hsiu Mei. Joy managed to twist free of Chen’s grip, but by then Yang caught up with them and it was too late.

  Joy struggled in Yang’s grip. “Let me go,” she yelled. “This is kidnap—“

  The blow caught her off-guard, as the back of Yang’s hand caught her across the cheek. She’d never taken a hit like that. It was nothing like the slap she’d gotten from her father that one time. They’d never gone all-out in her supplemental combatives practice. Even with Quintus, it had been more of a wrestling match than anything. Her ears rang and her knees went wobbly, but Yang hoisted her up by her collar, so she’d choke if she let herself fall.

  “Shut your fucking mouth,” he roared, and gave her a hard shake. “You’ve given us more than enough grief today, and I ain’t taking any more from you.”

  Joy gasped and struggled to regain her balance. Right now she was more aware of the fact that she had a left cheekbone than she’d ever been aware of anything in her whole life, and that was because it was screaming at her. She felt stinging tears leak from her eyes and tried to blink them away. Okay, that hurt, but that’s all it did. She had more important things to worry about now. This was an emergency situation, and she’d have plenty of time to curl up in a little ball and whimper later. She forced herself to ignore the pain and found, with some surprise, that she could.

  “Just looking for the Red Specter, huh?” Yang snarled, and pointed at Hsiu-Mei. “Tell me, does she look like the Red Specter to you? Hey, Chen—be careful there, she might be your devil-ghost in disguise or whatever.”

  Chen rolled his eyes and snorted. He was controlling Hsiu Mei with one arm, yanking upward on her collar, so she was forced to stand on her tiptoes to take the pressure off. Terrified didn’t even begin to describe her expression.

  “Don’t look like Chen buys that, does he? Looks like you didn’t find any Red Specter. Seems like what you found was a filthy little whore, ain’t that right, Chen?” Yang said this all in gutter-level Xiaish, just so Hsiu Mei could understand it.

  “Please,” said Joy. “Please listen to me. She’s very young and she’s lost her parents. It’s not—“

  “What part of ‘Shut the fuck up’ do you not understand?” he screamed in her face. Joy cringed as he did, but fortunately, he didn’t bother hitting her again. “Bitch, I saw which of those crates you came out of. You just poked your nose in the wrong shit. You are so fucked right now, you’ll need to—“

  “Sir, please,” Hsiu Mei choked out. “Please let big sister go. It is my fault. I am the one who ran away. So please punish me instead. She will promise to say nothing and I will go with you. Please let her go.”

  Joy was terrified that Yang would deck her for interrupting him, but he looked more confused than angry. “Let Big Sister go?… Oh, wait. You mean her?” he said, pointing back at Joy. “She’s your big sister?” Yang found the idea ridiculous enough to burst out in a fit of nasty, braying laughter while Chen just looked bored. “She’s not big anything. But I’ll tell you what, little whore. You’ve been getting a nice easy ride so far, from what I hear. You’re valuable goods. Except now it’s starting to look like there ain’t gonna be no deal at all, so it looks like you’re gonna have to earn your keep some other way. Well, I got some ideas about what you can do, you and your big sister can…“ and then Yang proceeded to spew out the most vile torrent of sadistic and obscene sexual practices, all in graphic detail, while Hsiu Mei started bawling.

  And Yang kept going. He kept piling more and more twisted details on. The jerk had already won, but he just wouldn’t stop. But of course. That’s how it always was, wasn’t it? It was never enough. The assholes of the world would do whatever the fuck they wanted, and no amount of reasoning or begging or pleading would stop them until they got what they wanted, and then they’d take even more. Because they felt like it. Because they thought it was fun. And, most of all, because they could. So, of course they’d never stop. How long had it been like this? Quintus at the office. Flynn who pretended not to take a side, thus enabling Quintus. The Guardsman who ignored her report of assault. The mashers and stalkers all along the docks and throughout the streets of Dodona. Everything wrong with her life: her rotten job and her crap apartment and her hunger and her worry. Every single fucking little detail was all because of them, because they never let up, not once, and she was just so sick and fucking tired of it she could scream. And something in Joy’s head went ‘click.’

  “Hey!” she said. “Asshole!”

  Yang reacted as he had before, he whirled around to snarl in her face, except Joy had anticipated it, had thrust her own head forward, spine straight, power coming from her entire body, neck and shoulder muscles braced for impact. Yang ended up bashing the softest and squishiest part of his own face against the hardest and thickest portion of Joy’s skull.

  Joy felt the impact hum through her whole body, felt the opposing force yield with a crunch. Yang clutched at his face and yelped, staggering back, and Joy followed, measured the distance, and channeled every ounce of her fury into her leg, firing it off in a kick that went straight into the asshole’s crotch, striking clean and true.

  Yang croaked and doubled over, trying to clutch at her, but Joy managed to squirm free, trying to get enough space to knee him in the head. pulling the thug’s jacket over his head and shoulders in the scuffle. It was an accident, but she went with it, throwing her knee into the space where she knew his head was.

  Yang actually managed to pull back from the blow a bit, but Joy felt it connect, and Yang staggered backwards, wobbly-kneed with his arms thrashing around wildly as he tried to get his jacket back on right.

  Joy had a second to worry that her best shots weren’t enough to put this gorilla down, when she heard a frantic yell from Hsiu Mei. Joy spun to see Chen’s charge, and she reacted without thinking, sitting straight down while planting a foot in his gut and catching hold of his lapels. Chen felt like he barely weighed anything as she rolled back and sent him flying off her foot, most of the power coming from changing the direction of Chen’s own energy. He sailed through the air, upside down, and crashed into Yang, who had just managed to get his jacket back on straight. One of Chen’s heels whipped into Yang’s bloody face, and Chen landed mostly on his head. Joy couldn’t have aimed that better if she’d planned it. Yang fell back onto a crate, which broke, and they both ended in a dazed heap, tangled up in the debris.

  Joy stared at the two Triad thugs in astonishment. That had worked. All that stuff from her combatives courses. She couldn’t believe that had actually worked. She caught Hsiu Mei staring at her, eyes like saucers.

  “You beat them up,” she breathed.

  Joy felt a weird electric thrill run through her, like her whole body was humming. That had
been so satisfying. Amazing what could happen when you got so mad you forgot to be scared. Then she noticed that Yang and Chen weren’t knocked out, not by a long shot, and were struggling to their feet. Rage and luck would only get her so far.

  “Enough fighting, time for running,” said Joy, as she grabbed Hsiu-Mei’s hand and half-led, half-dragged her off to sprint for the exit of the cargo maze.

  Yang and Chen yelled and gave chase, but the girls had a nice head start on them, and Joy was riding an adrenalin surge for the second time today. She was sure she’d outrun them this time, but Hsiu Mei was holding her back. Joy urged her to keep moving, but from the look of things, she was already pushing past her limits, staggering and gasping, and Joy realized Hsiu Mei had been hiding in a weapons cargo crate for three days. What had she been eating in all that time? She couldn’t have much energy left. Nothing they could do about it now, though. Joy pulled at her, exhorted her to keep moving. Sheer willpower could do a lot. They just had to keep going for a little while longer.

  She heard the Triad thugs yelling behind her, getting closer and closer. She couldn't let them catch her before they reached the end of the maze. The exit was about fifty yards away. Joy clutched at Hsiu Mei and tried to double her running for the both of them. They passed another stack of giant crates, and from the corner of her eye, Joy saw it wobble.

  There was a huge crash right behind her, followed by terrified cursing from Yang and Chen. Joy and Hsiu Mei both jumped, and neither could resist looking behind them to see what happened. An entire column of supply crates had just tipped over to block the path behind them, and the ones that had fallen furthest had split open, spilling their contents all over the storage yard. Potatoes and sugar--or was that salt? What a shame to waste food like that. And why had they just fallen over? Joy looked to where they'd been stacked up, and thought she saw a flicker of movement. Then she heard a thump, and saw one of the thugs' hands reach over the top of one of the crates. No time to waste.