“That’s Mom and Dad,” intoned Noah softly.
“It certainly is. They took me in, even though we were completely opposite in views of God, life and death... I have never forgotten the kindness of these foreigners to a stranger. I could never pay them back, but naturally, when you came along, I taught you everything I could.”
“For me, I realized that mere muscle was not enough,” interrupted Garret. “I wasn’t that deep into it, but I had gone along with Chin, thinking we could get out of it when we paid the gangs back.” He snorted. “Fat chance of that. For me, practicality trumps altruism. Chin lent me the money to bankroll my education. I was a high school dropout with no cash, but eight years later, I was a Harvard law school graduate.”
“Chin owns you then,” stated Noah.
“I told you he wasn’t a fool, Garret.”
Garret smiled a humorless smile. “No one owns me. Come on, Son. I’m going to take you for a ride. Then you will understand.”
***
The view from the balcony of Chin’s penthouse was fabulous. The Sai Van Bridge could be seen from the steaming, oversized, sumptuous hot tub. However, perhaps even more attractive than the view of the night panorama was the view of Stella’s nude body wrapped around Chin’s. Every cent she spent on the spa and personal trainers had sculpted her into one of the most inviting creatures ever to grace the earth, and all was on full display.
“No man should look as good as you,” she said softly.
Chin didn’t react. He knew who he was. “No man does.”
Stella playfully stroked his abs of steel. She wanted to talk about something else but was smart enough to know that it would finish her chances with Chin. “I will have to leave in a few minutes.”
“Aren’t you waiting for me to say something?” Chin had her pegged to a T.
“I am at your service, at your pleasure, not mine.”
“I am expanding operations here and in North America. Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver, Los Angeles and New York will all share in the Tiger.” He stared hard at Stella. “You are capable, Stella, but you are not capable enough. Tommy was my puppet, but Garret Southam pulled many of the strings.”
Stella did her best to hide her hurt. “Mr. Southam is a brilliant lawyer. A master of strategic organization and negotiation, not to mention corporate structure and finance.”
“Which is why I want you to completely but discreetly monitor all the banking activities of Pittman Saunders, Garret’s family and Garret himself.”
Stella fondled Chin. “I won’t disappoint you.”
Two people entered. One was a doctor of traditional Chinese medicine who wore a stylish Chinese jacket embroidered with twin dragons. The other was a manservant, complete with white jacket and bow tie. The doctor carried in a large grinding bowl and pestle made from volcanic rock while the manservant wheeled in a cart with three globe-like covered trays, one larger, one medium, one smaller. The two arrived at Chin and Stella’s hot tub and bow.
The doctor raised the lid off one of the globed serving dishes, and inside was the skinned fur of a tiger’s tail. Beside it were the bones from the tail. He took several of the bones, put them into his grinding bowl and used the pestle to start grinding. “This was an especially fine tiger. Its bones will make you stronger, even invincible.”
The manservant lifted the lid off another tray. Inside was a steaming whole tiger’s head, fur still intact. The servant took a knife and carefully sawed off the top of the head, just above the eyes.
While he did so, Stella spooned out the two eyes. She put one into Chin’s mouth and ate the other.
Finished cutting, the manservant lifted off the top of the tiger’s head and handed Stella a golden spoon. She used the spoon to feed the cooked tiger’s brain to Chin.
Meanwhile, the manservant went back to the cart and took the lid off the smaller tray. Contained underneath was the tiger’s penis with the testicles still attached, an aphrodisiac of legendary powers. He expertly sliced them into bite-sized pieces, then placed them into a cast iron skillet and doused them generously with cognac. He took out a match and lit the cognac, causing it to flame up.
As the cognac burned, the servant gently tossed meat in the pan, ensuring the organs were evenly cooked. Once the fire was out, he placed them onto a silver plate. Stella skewered each of the sautéed testes with a chopstick, feeding one to Chin and eating the other herself.
She then used her hands and body to massage Chin until they finished eating. Lips touching, Stella fully embraced Chin. He lifted her off him and sat her on the hot tub’s edge.
The doctor finished grinding. He placed the powder into two brandy snifters and poured cognac into them, then handed one to Chin and one to Stella.
The doctor and manservant bowed and left.
Chin and Stella downed the potent drink slowly. Stella noted that there was a change in Chin’s mood as he sipped. In his eyes was both a look of obsession and resolve, mixed with the distant look of the ancient mystics. Perturbed, she quietly asked, “Am I doing something wrong?”
Almost to himself, without looking at his boy toy, Chin replied, “Strength without honor is weakness. I am not weak.”
Chin stood up and climbed out of the hot tub. Stella stared with fearful awe. Somehow, and she knew not how, Chin’s physique looked even more invincible than ever.
Chin stalked away, leaving Stella alone.
Chapter 34
One of the black Mercedes from Chin’s fleet blended in with the night as it leisurely wound its way up Victoria’s Peak. Although Duke was looking outside the car window, he didn’t really pay attention to this prime residential area of multimillion dollar homes. Instead, he reflected on his family.
He had no idea who his mother was. His father had sexual relations with upward of five hundred different women a year, each one as disposable as a used Kleenex. Knowing his father, Duke decided Chin likely had little use for his mother other than to bear him twenty-five years ago. Where she was or even if she was still alive was unknown. Nor did he have any idea why she might have been chosen to carry Chin’s child.
Honestly, Duke didn’t care. Chin had been father, mentor, teacher and protector to him. His greatest desire was to meet or exceed his father’s expectations. Duke never had any issues of teenage rebellion. He worshipped Chin, so there was never any need to rebel against God, his father.
Like his father, Duke had never had a meaningful, intimate relationship with another human. He’d tried both men and women, but neither of them exerted any kind of interest beyond a desire to relieve him of his occasional horniness. Duke thought he didn’t have much of a libido because he was too busy trying to emulate his father, but that was not the truth. The reality was, Duke’s system was pumped so full of steroids that his sex drive was less than thirty percent of an average young man his age. Even if he knew, he’d continue with the body-enhancing drugs because it was just a cost of doing business.
While not at all a model father, Chin was able to instill in Duke what he considered the most important traits necessary for success: obedience and excellence. Failing in either meant death. That included his right-hand man, Tommy. Chin hated any kind of personal exposure. Not that he was afraid of being famous, but notoriety just got in the way of empire building, especially if that empire was one of the world’s largest criminal enterprises. The stakes for what Chin did were too high for any other punishment to suffice. When it was clear that Tommy was no longer completely reliable, his usefulness was over. Even their relationship of over thirty years was unable to save Tommy from his fate.
That was why, at that moment, Duke was finding it hard to deal with his father’s latest request—to keep Garret, Olivia, Noah and Abby alive. As the lawyer and chief architect of the Golden Asia conglomerate, Garret had intimate knowledge of every part of its operations. Could his father have made a tactical error by trusting Garret too much? Olivia and Abby were totally insignificant. If it were up to Duke, he would
make use of them for fifteen minutes then dispose of them in the open sea. And Noah? Noah was a pipsqueak. He’d fall over the moment someone blew on him, so what was the point of his existence?
However, his father said, “The goal is not death but terror,” so there must be a reason. What that reason was, was totally unknown to Duke. To this glorified street thug, keeping useless vermin around was an excruciating command.
The car crawled to a stop in front of Tommy’s house. The chauffeur turned the car lights off, and Duke sat, awaiting the next command.
***
Inside, Olivia and Abby sat on the living room couch, listening intently to yesterday’s recording of their performance on Abby’s iPad.
Oh Danny boy, the pipes, the pipes are calling
From glen to glen, and down the mountainside.
The summer’s gone, and all the flowers are dying.
’Tis you, ’tis you must go, and I must bide.
But come ye back when summer’s in the meadow
Or when the valley’s hushed and white with snow.
’Tis I’ll be here in sunshine or in shadow.
Oh, Danny boy, oh Danny Boy, I love you so.
During the recording, a cell phone rang, and then they heard the sound of Tommy’s voice in his part of a conversation. “No, I haven’t heard from Chin yet, but it’s only a matter of time... Really, there’s nothing else to do... Abby is in less danger if I’m not around. Chin never makes useless kills... I know... Yes, that’s Abby singing. Voice of an angel, isn’t it?... It’ll be the last time... Chin will never find the money, and neither will you. I guarantee that... I will hold you to that promise and chase you from Hell to Heaven if you do not keep it... Goodbye, my friend...”
It was eerie listening to a conversation that predicted and foreshadowed a person’s death. It was even worse when that person was your father.
“Now do you believe me, Olivia?”
“I never doubted you. I just didn’t realize the extent.”
“Our fathers are tied to the hip, even more than we thought,” Abby said quietly.
“Which means, Abby, so are we, even more so than I thought.”
And I shall hear, though soft you tread above me.
And then my grave will warm and sweeter be.
And then you'll kneel and whisper that you love me
And I shall sleep in peace until you come to me.
Chapter 35
Master Wu sat in the middle of his studio, meditating. Chin entered silently. Wu sensed his presence, but his eyes remained closed. The grandmaster intoned quietly. “The superior man, even for the space of a single meal, does not act contrary to virtue. In moments of haste, in seasons of danger, he cleaves to it.”
“Do you think you haven’t told me enough times that I wouldn’t remember the Analects of Confucius? Stop talking philosophy. You know why I am here.” Chin’s voice held menace.
Master Wu opened his eyes and stood. “There will always be someone stronger. There will always be someone smarter. There will always be someone richer. This is a game you cannot win.”
Chin shook his head. “I made mistakes years ago, but those are long forgotten. I learned my lesson then. But you, you have failed to progress. You live in yesterday. There is no glory of the Shaolin. There never was. There is only power.”
“You think breaking someone’s neck or arm is power. You believe that inflicting pain on someone weaker than you shows strength.” Master Wu shook his head sadly. “That is why you can never be a true master. No one can apply strength to achieve virtue. Not you, not me.”
“That was bullshit to me thirty years ago. That is bullshit to me now,” Chin said, his voice relaxed.
“You will not insult The Way,” said Master Wu with resolute conviction.
“I will say whatever I will say,” sneered Chin, “and no one will stop me.”
Both men sprang into the ready-for-battle martial arts stance. Chin snatched up a tufted spear and flung it at Master Wu’s head. Wu moved his head slightly, and the spear missed by a quarter of an inch. With an agility beyond mortals, Wu made a flying handspring to an ax by the wall. He pulled it smoothly from its holder and launched it at Chin. Spinning like a maddened whirligig, it flew through the air.
With reflexes sharper than the ax blade, Chin pulled the ax out of the air by its handle and, in the same motion, propelled it with even greater force back at his former sifu. Wu dodged it and the ax gouged a deep cavity in the wall.
Chin remained on the attack. With the terrifying speed of a feline, he leapt at Wu. A Dragon palm strike from Chin targeted Master Wu’s ribs. Wu brushed off Chin’s blow, countering it by ramming a rapid-fire series of Leopard blows at Chin’s abdominals. However, twenty million sit-ups performed over thirty years made Chin’s stomach muscles immune to blows that would have killed an ordinary man. Wu raised his arms in Dragon claws and lunged to grab at Chin’s groin, but Chin quickly positioned his hands and, with unexpected fingers, thrust his thumbs into Wu’s eyes. The aged master howled in pain and backed off. Sensing blood, Chin sprung to attack the suddenly vulnerable master. He yanked three daggers from the fold of his jacket and launched one, two, three pointed projectiles at the weakened Master Wu’s head, abdomen and legs.
The first two missed, but the third found its target and embedded itself into Master Wu’s thigh. Blood gushed out. With a kamikaze-like scream, Master Wu jerked the dagger out of his leg and flung it back at Chin. However, severely debilitated, Wu’s throw had only minimal power. The sneering Chin flicked his index finger to deflect it out of harm’s way.
Full of confidence, Chin bombarded Wu with a blitzkrieg of combinations... left arm, right arm, left kick to midsection, right kick to the head, double kick to the chest... and more. The bruised and bleeding aged master could not withstand Chin’s relentless onslaught.
A final double fist to the back of Master Wu’s neck sent him unconscious to the floor. Chin stared at the senseless old man with contempt and loathing. He beat on his chest like Tarzan and shouted, “I win! You lose! I am the master!”
It would be straight out of a comic book if it weren’t so serious.
***
Rain drenched Noah and Garret as they arrived at a huge development site. A large billboard announced:
GOLDEN ASIA DEVELOPMENTS
THE CONCEPT FOR THE FUTURE
As they looked at the framework of the massive structure, it was clear it was a combination residential, entertainment, retail and corporate complex under development. Covering several city blocks, it was larger than anything Noah had ever seen.
Gaping holes were strewn around the site, interspersed with partially built buildings and mud everywhere. Backhoes, tractors, hundred-foot-tall cranes and other building machines were lit up with Christmas lights even though it was far from the yuletide season. All of it contributed to an odd juxtaposition of East and West over this stupendous, monumental and commercialized Shangri-La.
Garret and Noah walked to the chain-link fence surrounding the property. Garret nimbly scaled the fifteen-foot fence and then leapt to the ground on the other side. Noah followed suit.
Garret waved his arm over the enterprise. “This is the future of Golden Asia. When we are done, this will be paradise. You can shop, eat, do business, play tennis and never leave our complex. And, because we own everything, we make money on everything.”
“Mr. Southam, China has tried complexes like this before. There are whole pockets of buildings—they call them ghost cities, where builders have built but no one has bought. Ordos, Dongguan, Hangzhou. There are hundreds of thousands, maybe millions, of empty units in block after block after block.”
Garret smiled. “But you forgot one thing. We do not build for today. We build for tomorrow. The Golden Asia complex is hardly a white elephant. There is a mass exodus from rural China to the urban centers. Most of the people are poor and can afford very little.”
“That proves my point.”
“But people do not stay poor forever. They scrimp, they save, they put a dozen people into a bedroom and, sooner or later, they start accumulating wealth, and they will want to buy their own personal piece of real estate. If we build now, we build in today’s dollars. If it takes two, five, ten years to fill them up, inflation will guarantee a healthy profit.”
“That’s for the mainland. That’s not going to apply to Macau.”
Garret looked slightly exasperated. “Reid, you are absolutely wrong. Hong Kong and Macau are now the top tourist destinations for Chinese from the mainland. When we complete Golden Asia, this will be a breathtaking entertainment and residential complex that will be the envy of the world. Besides, we have a secret weapon.”
“Which is?”
“Legalized gambling in all of the five complexes, rivaling the Tiger Palace. The best of Europe, America, Russia, Africa and China will be authentically and vibrantly represented. We will make Las Vegas look like a sleepy little hamlet. Every Chinese will want to visit here or own property here. They will have all the benefits of travel without ever having to leave our enclave.”
Noah took a deep breath. What Garret was saying was not only visionary and awe-inspiring, but the chances of success seemed like one hundred percent—if he could finance it for the proper term.
The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset Page 17
