Heroines and Hellions: a Limited Edition Urban Fantasy Collection

by Margo Bond Collins

  “If all I did was follow the law, you and Ching Shih would still be living in Wuyuan, playing princesses in a house of servants. You would not be here, arguing with me.”

  “Funny how good deeds come back around to bite you in the ass.” Xin was deliberately crude.

  “We’re not doing anything illegal. Even Danyael would have to concede that.”

  “Danyael has strong feelings about live blood transfusions. He’ll shut you down.”

  “Will he? Can he? Excelsior has developed a blood preservative that significantly extends the capacity of blood banks. Blood donations will no longer expire. They will no longer be wasted. Our experiments have isolated the active ingredient that rejuvenates the central nervous system, and we can reliably manufacture it in our laboratories without extracting it from children.”

  “So why are you still doing experiments on children?” Xin asked.

  “Because there is so much more to learn—”

  “Because humans aren’t built to be content.”

  “We are doing good work. Ground-breaking work.”

  “So said the people who invented chemical weapons and the nuclear bomb.”

  “We would have an energy crisis without nuclear energy powering our homes, businesses, and factories today,” Dr. Shen retorted. “There are two sides to everything—most especially in science. Even to Danyael, it’s not black and white.”

  “No, but he would say we don’t have to go out of our way to blend the colors into shades of gray.”

  Dr. Shen laughed suddenly. “And to his wife, it’s all gray.”

  “Of course. Never a dull moment with them.”

  The humor gentled the edge between them. The doctor drew a deep breath. “We are doing good work here at Excelsior. Even Danyael would acknowledge that.”

  “I’m not sure he will count the progress worth the cost.”

  “He is one man. His opinion alone will not direct what we do; neither will it shut us down.”

  “Be careful,” Xin said. “If Excelsior steps too far out of line next time, the situation could be beyond salvage.”

  “Are there situations his compassion and courage cannot fix?”

  “Yes, and that’s usually when Zara steps in.”

  “Is it a warning?”

  “She’s angry with him for risking his life, and it won’t take too long for her anger to focus on the right target. She won’t care if your research was legal. Where Danyael’s concerned, it’s black and white for her. If he’s fine, she is, too. If he’s not…”

  Dr. Shen’s chin lifted. “We’ll consider ourselves warned.”

  “Good.” Xin glanced at her mother. Ching Shih slumped against the pillows, and the taut lines on her face had relaxed. Xin placed her hand on her mother’s. For a moment, Ching Shih’s hand tensed, but she inhaled deeply, and as she breathed out, her hand relaxed. Her fingers twitched, and Xin grasped them gently. “Mother?”

  Ching Shih’s eyes fluttered open. The uncomprehending glitter had faded, replaced by the quiet patience of exhaustion.

  Xin concealed her relief behind a faint smile. “You haven’t had anything to eat or drink in almost twenty-four hours. I’ll get something for you.”

  Ching Shih shook her head, a scarcely noticeable motion. “Stay, for a while.” Her weak voice wobbled, but the ring of command was clear.

  Stay…A far cry from leave.

  We just have to learn how to listen.

  Love, Xin reflected, was not about staying or leaving. It was about knowing when to do the right thing.

  It was time to stay.

  Xin remained by her mother’s bedside when Dr. Shen quietly left the room. She did not need to hear the doctor’s instructions to the waiting technicians to know that within hours, the serum of Danyael’s antibodies would be in mass production for distribution to the jiangshi. Thousands of people will have something of an alpha empath in them—people who may not possess Danyael’s strength of will and self-control. Her mind recoiled from both the possibilities and the consequences. Too late now. We did what had to be done.

  Whatever happens now, we’ll deal with it as it comes.

  We’ll be strong enough; we have to be.

  21

  Xin glanced at her watch as the premier’s chief of staff strode up to her. “He is ready to see you now.”

  Only a half-hour late, which was amazing considering the ordeal the city had survived thirty-six hours earlier. From her mother’s hospital room, Xin had overseen the systematic distribution and administration of the antidote serum developed from Danyael’s antibodies.

  Distribution was simple; the massive production lines at Excelsior were reprogrammed to churn out vial after vial of the antidote. Within hours, thousands of vials were loaded into trucks and dispatched into the city.

  Administration, on the other hand, was a logistic nightmare involving an abundant application of military force and engineering acumen. Huge tankers filled with nitrous oxide pulled up beside the buildings and engineers, accompanied by soldiers, jury-rigged the ventilation systems to pump nitrous oxide into the buildings to knock out the jiangshi. The soldiers then accompanied the medical personnel into the buildings to administer the serum to the unconscious jiangshi before transferring them to the hospital where they were restrained to their beds.

  No one was taking any chances.

  Almost no one slept.

  But thirty-six hours after the first jiangshi had scrambled out of the subway tunnels, the situation finally seemed under control once more.

  The premier’s chief of staff held open the door and ushered her into the room. The premier sat at his desk, and Yu Long, General Wang, and Police Chief Chen lined up next to his desk. The corner of Yu Long’s mouth tugged up in acknowledgement. The general and the police chief inclined their heads.

  The premier rose as she entered. He stepped around his desk and extended his hand to Xin. “I thank you.” His voice wavered, and he cleared his throat. “Zhengzhou and China thank you.” He glanced at the general and the police chief. “They tell me they are honored to have served with the Lady Fu Hao.”

  “I was honored to lead them.”

  The premier frowned and dismissed Yu Long, the general, and the police chief with a wave of his hand. He waited until the door shut before inviting Xin to take a seat. Instead of retreating behind his desk, he sat in the seat next to her. He pressed the palms of his hands together into a steeple beneath his chin. “Are you really the Lady Fu Hao?”

  Xin smiled. “Perhaps the better question is, who do your generals believe I am?”

  “I did not think a mere clone could have established so much order so quickly in a situation so far out of control.”

  Xin shrugged and decided not to take offense at the denigrating tone.

  He continued. “I also wanted to thank you personally for the media blackout. We have enough issues to deal with here, although I do not care for the reach demonstrated by your National Security Agency.”

  “It wasn’t just the NSA. They called in lots of favors to create a virtual wall around the wireless and cellular signals in Zhengzhou. Everything considered, I thought you would have preferred to keep things quiet.”

  “Yes. We cannot conceal the truth indefinitely, but at least we’ll have a chance of affecting the message.” He lowered his gaze briefly. “How is Ching Shih?”

  “My mother has recovered, along with all the other victims of shuang kuangxi.”

  “Your mother…” An ironic smile twisted his lips. “She attained her greatest dream, then, the honor of being your mother.”

  Xin allowed the silence to invite more revelation.

  He shook his head. “No gift I could give, no promise I could make, no honor I could bestow on her exceeded the value of the baby she cradled in her arms. I do not know why she fixed so intently on you when you were not even her own.”

  Because love isn’t rational.

  “I had plans for her, for us. She listened
to me, but I could tell by how her attention drifted across the room…to you…that I had no hold over her.” A quiet sigh whispered. “I never understood it. Never forgave her for it.”

  “Did you love her?”

  “No, but I could have easily. She never gave me a chance.” The brief glimpse of sadness gave way to a chuckle. “I don’t think she anticipated or that anyone anticipated the impact of her actions.”

  “Would China really have gone to war over two runaway clones?”

  “Perhaps not, but I was the minister of defense. In that moment, when I realized she had run away not just from China, but also from me, it was hard to be rational. Besides, it was not just any clone, but the only two historic clones China had been able to awaken from the past.”

  “Surely there were other embryos of Zheng Yi Sao and Fu Hao that could be implanted and birthed.”

  “There were. There…are.”

  “And?”

  He drew a deep breath. “They never attained the glory you did.”

  “Are they still living in the Wuyuan compound?”

  “Ching Shih told you about it.”

  “Yes, she did.”

  He nodded. “They are there; I’ve seen them both, as recently as a year ago.”

  “Do they know who they are?”

  “No. We’ve learned our lesson.” He chuckled ironically. “We do not fill their heads with the glory of their past.”

  “Ching Shih didn’t leave to seek glory for herself. She left to give me a shot at it.”

  “You attained it, but did she?” His face hardened. “What is she but an immigrant housewife living in suburban America?”

  “My mother changed the direction of the Genetic Revolution and set a new course for clone rights. She completed the equivalent of a legal degree in a year and represented us in court, fighting for the right to live free and among people. She took the case all the way up to the Supreme Court, and her legal victory set a precedence for clone rights. Nowhere else in the world are clones treated no differently from a naturally birthed human, but in America.”

  “And then she retired to become a housewife.” His words were sardonic, but the tone was uncertain.

  “And then she raised me to claim all my rights, to walk the delicate balance between understanding my past and my potential without being constrained by them. You have others in your care—others with the same genes as I have, yet they have done nothing. The difference? They were not raised by my mother. I owe her everything, and in the end, so does China, and perhaps the world.”

  Yu Long was waiting in the antechamber when she left the premier’s office. He pushed himself away from his slouch against the wall. “How did it go?”

  “He was grateful.”

  “Yeah. We all are.” A smile tugged up at the corners of his lips. “Wang and Chen had to leave to supervise the cleanup. They asked me to convey their regrets at not offering their respects in person.”

  “Thank you.”

  “You know, you really had them convinced that they were Fu Hao’s reincarnated generals.”

  “And who’s to say they were not?” Xin turned down the corridor, and Yu Long fell into step beside her. “The evidence is in what they’ve accomplished, not what’s in their past.”

  “You would know,” Yu Long said.

  “And how is your cousin?”

  “Hui Leng’s fine, besides being deeply embarrassed and grounded for the rest of her life. She was the one.”

  Xin arched an eyebrow.

  “The one who first connected with Danyael outside Excelsior. She asked about him. I told her he was all right.”

  “He is.”

  “Good.” He paused as they stepped out of the building. The chauffer was waiting beside the open door of the limousine. “Will he be accompanying you and Ching Shih to Wuyuan tomorrow morning?”

  “Yes. Zara, too.”

  Yu Long rolled his eyes, and Xin laughed. “It’ll be fine. They balance each other out. Together, they’re almost normal.”

  “I think you and I have different definitions of normal.” He inclined his head to her. “I’ll finalize the Wuyuan travel arrangements and will pick you up at the pagoda tomorrow morning.”

  “I’m surprised you’ll be able to get away, considering the still-unsettled situation in Zhengzhou.”

  “My assignment is to keep you and Danyael from breaking anything during your visit to China. Solving Zhengzhou’s wave of murders earned a commendation for my file, but my job is only done when you and Danyael are safely out of my country.”

  Xin laughed. “We’ll be out of your hair soon enough. Danyael and Zara will come as far as Wuyuan, and Ching Shih and I will go on to the Mogao Grottoes near Dunhuang City before returning to the United States.”

  “But you’re not done in Zhengzhou, are you? Can we expect trouble tonight at your meeting with Excelsior?”

  Xin winced. “I told Danyael to leave Zara at home, but she’s never been particularly good at ‘sit and stay.’”

  “If blood’s going to get spilt, I’d like to have a cleanup crew on standby.”

  “Danyael’s going to be there. I doubt he’ll let Zara spill blood.”

  Yu Long shook his head. “It’s never clear who holds the reins in that relationship.”

  “They both do—that’s the beauty of it.”

  When the butler showed Xin, Danyael, and Zara into Brandon Richards’s penthouse, the first thing that caught Xin’s eye was the streak of red, yellow, and orange across the darkening sky. The floor-to-ceiling windows of the living room opened out onto the balcony. Brandon, casually dressed in a sports jacket and slacks, stood with his back to them, but he turned as they approached. A smile spread across his face but did not warm his eyes. “It’s good to see the both of you again. And you must be Zara.”

  He strode forward, his hand extended, but Zara did not reciprocate. Instead, she studied him with the curiosity of a predator deciding on her next meal. He froze, consternation creeping into his eyes. His gaze darted sideways to the cluster of beige leather couches where the doctor was seated. “Yi, come join us.”

  Dr. Shen pushed to her feet and walked up to Danyael. “How are you?”

  “Tired, but on the mend.”

  Brandon cut in. “I’m glad to hear it. It’s been a hectic two days.”

  Xin tilted her head. “I’m sure things were particularly exhausting for you, sitting secure in your penthouse, while the jiangshi tore through Zhengzhou.”

  Brandon’s face tightened.

  “Of course, I expect your phone has been off the hook since. Have you and the city come to terms on the settlement?”

  “The lawyers are still working on it. I’m sure we’ll have something within a day or two.” His tone was frosty. “Excelsior is a responsible corporate citizen. If the city can prove that we’re responsible—”

  “Prove?” Xin’s jaw dropped. “What is there to prove? Excelsior purchased illegally acquired blood samples, developed shuang kuangxi, and allowed it to be stolen. You did nothing to pull the formula off the streets even though you knew of its effects on mutants. Did you think that if you buried your head in the sand, the crisis might pass you by?”

  “We didn’t realize it would evolve to affect non-mutants.”

  “So people’s lives are worth something only if they’re not mutants?”

  “You’re twisting my words. The situation was small when it affected only the mutants. It became something much larger later. It’s just a matter of numeric scale. Believe me, we would have acted on it if we had known that the non-mutants were similarly affected.”

  Danyael held his hand up. “Shuang kuangxi is in the past. The formulas have been replaced, and we have an antidote.”

  “Absolutely.” Brandon smiled at Danyael. “Right you are.”

  “What’s not in the past are the live blood transfusions—”

  “They are not live blood transfusions.”

  “It may not be a direct t
ransfusion, but you’re transferring blood between young and old people. I’m not interested in technicalities. What you’re doing is wrong.”

  “Unfortunately, the law is all about technicalities.” Brandon interlaced his fingers in front of his chest. “And on that particular subject, Excelsior is completely blameless. We have all the signed legal consents—”

  “From orphans?”

  “From their guardians.”

  “Kimberly Hawkes?”

  “Of course not. The guardian is the state, or in this case, the city of Zhengzhou. It’s all perfectly above board.”

  “Children are dying.”

  “The risks were stated in the consent forms. Furthermore, the children did not die from blood loss; their state-conducted autopsies confirmed it. They wandered away from the orphanage and were attacked and killed by the jiangshi.”

  “Is that the official story? Who did you pay off?”

  “Look, Danyael.” Brandon seemed like he had been about to take a step forward, to close the distance to Danyael, but the subtle narrowing of Zara’s eyes apparently led him to change his mind. “The fact is you will get nowhere on this. We are not conducting live blood transfusions, and legally, our paperwork is in order. The IGEC won’t interfere with us, not with all the amazing advances in degenerative diseases and blood preservation coming out from our labs. It’s the nature of progress, of society. The few sacrifice for the many.”

  Danyael gritted his teeth. A muscle twitched in his smooth cheek. “I will find a way to shut you down.”

  Brandon spread his hands and smiled. “You believe what you want to, Danyael. We’re not doing anything wrong. We are, in fact, saving lives.” Something flickered across his face—a sudden flare of heartache, of desperation.

  Xin glanced at Danyael. Their eyes met; he had sensed the change in Brandon’s emotions too.

  Danyael opened his mouth to speak, but Brandon cut him off with a glance at the silent butler standing by the bar. “Can I offer you something to drink?” The veneer of polished charm was back in place.

  Xin shook her head. “This isn’t a social call.”

  “What is it then? A threat?”