Periodically, Dr. Xin checks Master Wu’s pulse. He forces open his mouth and checks his tongue. The result is the same every time: not good―but more disturbingly, not understood.
Lisa also conducts the same examination with a different conclusion: exactly what she hoped would happen.
Lisa turns to the assembly. “We need to try something different. None of this is working.”
This pronouncement raises the temperature of the room. Already, there are the purist monks who have been raising objections about a woman being in Heaven, let alone being allowed to treat a man.
She continues. “In addition to my work as a Doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine, I am one of the world’s experts in snake venom and their use for medicinal purposes. It is clear that none of the methods we have been using are working. What I believe will help is very simple but will go against the teachings of Buddhism. I believe the most effective treatment for Master Wu is for him to drink the blood and eat the bile of three snakes. Ideally, I would prefer the King Cobra, Russell’s viper and Multi-banded Krait, but the chances of finding the exact species here are extremely unlikely. However, as we were hiking here, I saw other members of those snake families, which I believe, will be adequate. With the proper dosage and combination, the potion will strengthen and revive him.”
There is a huge objection. Cries of, “Expel them,” and accusations of crimes against The Way are levied. What Lisa is proposing goes against the laws of Heaven, the precepts of Buddhism. To take the life of any living creature is an unpardonable sin.
Sigong Zhang stands up and all fall silent. “We cannot allow this to happen in our sanctum. Heaven is sacred.”
Jingsha looks at his unconscious, sweating friend. He lost him once and cannot bear the thought of losing him again. “There is a little house about a mile from here... sometimes the monks go there... when they cannot bear being a monk,” says Jingsha cryptically. “You can use that.”
“What the heck does that mean?” asks Sam.
No one answers but everyone except the teen has an inkling of what Jingsha means.
“Well, if nobody wants to say anything, let’s go,” demands the teen.
“We need a guide,” says Noah.
“And I need an assistant,” says Lisa. “I can help find the snakes, but they are extremely dangerous. I will grab the head and hold it tight, but I need someone to slice it and take the blood and bile.”
All the monks know the dangers of the local snakes. Not a year has passed without one or more of the monks succumbing to the bite of the serpent.
“I’ll do it,” says Sam.
“No, you won’t,” says Noah. “I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have any experience,” argues Sam.
“Neither do you,” replies Noah.
“I will do it.” All eyes turn to the source of the voice. It is Wangdan. “While I have not killed any, I have caught many snakes. I know their habits, I know their minds... and I know the house that Sifu Jingsha is talking about.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
“Noah and Master Wu went to the Shaolin Paradise in Shanghai. Why would they go to that tourist trap?” asks King.
The bandaged Chin ponders a moment then lets out a low moan. He nods his head. “There is only one reason a traditional Chinese like Master Wu wants to visit the homeland. He must think his clock is ticking away to an end and wants to make peace before he leaves the earth.”
“Make peace with who?”
“Not who. What. Heaven. Heaven is a secret monastery for those that are or aspire to be the most fierce and spiritual masters of the Shaolin. Master Wu left to become part of the world.”
“So it’s in the Shaolin Paradise?”
“I don’t know. That was part of his life that he never talked about...”
This was a waste of time. King gets up and walks out of the room for a moment. He comes back in carrying an eighteen-foot black-skinned King Cobra. “We will let the gods decide your fate. My pet has not eaten in three days.”
Chin’s life now hangs in the balance on the whims of a snake. If the reptile does not bite him, he will die from his injuries. If the snake bites Chin in the right area of his body, its venom is a powerful medicine that might cure his ills. However, if the cobra chooses a more vulnerable area, Chin’s death is likely. While not likely, there is the possibility that the cobra will coil around Chin like a boa constrictor and squeeze the life out of him.
As King leaves the room, the cobra raises its upper body up and flicks its forked tongue at the tiger master.
He’s an incompetent.
Chapter Thirty-Six
This secret house that Jingsha talked about has been around as long as Heaven has been in existence. It is full of guilt, it is full of shame and it has been entirely necessary.
Man is man and man is a sexual being. Despite all efforts to remain chaste, even the most godly can find it humanly impossible to keep their vows. Sometimes it happens in the privacy of their bedrooms, sometimes in a washroom... sometimes in a secret house a mile away from Heaven. To the outside world, what goes on in the secret house is not only not a crime; it is not even worth mentioning. However, to one who has promised to dedicate himself to holiness, chastity and celibacy, it is a secret shame... an occasional necessity.
For the first time in the history of this secret house’s existence, it will be used for another kind of sin. One of death. But even knowing what the goal is, it is still complicated.
Is it really a sin if the action brings or preserves another life?
Master Wu lies on the bed. The only ones with him are Noah and Sam, who keep silent vigil.
***
Fifty yards away in the mountain forest, Lisa and Wangdan forage for snakes. Like everything that seems so common, they are impossible to find when you need them.
“Who taught you how to catch snakes?” asks Lisa.
“No one taught me. Because this area is full of them, those of us that are sentries have to be careful because we spend so much time in the woods,” explains Wangdan. “Especially when we bring someone back who is not familiar with their behavior. Every time I go to Shanghai, I encounter a few of them. Some are dangerous; some are not. I don’t know why they are attracted to me.”
“Snakes have a keen sense of smell. By handling so many of them, your skin has probably absorbed some of the pheromones from the snakeskin,” ventures Lisa.
“Jingsha thinks it’s because my specialty in martial arts is the Snake Forms. To curve and coil, to strike out without warning. Speed is of the essence.”
Wangdan is so caught up in his explanation and his fascination with Lisa that he does not notice a baby cobra that leaps up and bites him in the neck. His cries piercing the air, he pulls the snake off his Adam’s apple and flings it against a huge rock, killing it instantly.
Lisa leaps to Wangdan and puts her mouth to the place where the snake bit him. She sucks in as hard as she can to remove the venom, then spits it out without swallowing even the tiniest amount. She takes a swig of water and spits that out, too.
She looks at Wangdan, who sits there quaking. Two things have happened to him that have never happened to him before. The first one was being bitten by a snake. For a person as careful as he is, it is unforgivable―especially because the reason is that he was attracted and distracted by the sight, sound and scent of a woman.
The second was having Lisa’s lips touch his body. No woman since his mother has ever done that and that was so long ago that he has no memory of it. However, the sensations that Lisa caused to arise are troubling and confusing to him. His pulse quickens, there’s a shortness of breath that wasn’t there before and his face turns crimson.
For Lisa, there was no confusion nor was she bothered. She couldn’t care less. She just needs him to stay alive to help keep alive whatever slim hopes still exist for her mission.
***
After this excitement, catching snakes is anti-climactic and easy.
With the fresh smell of the long limbless reptiles on his hands and body, other slithering cold-blooded species are even more attracted to Wangdan.
He and Lisa wade through a small pond, searching. Two water snakes sense Wangdan’s presence. This time prepared, Wangdan snatches them by their heads, one in each hand, before their jaws can open.
In a rocky clearing, they see a cobra sunning itself. With Wangdan’s lightning reflexes, it becomes captive number three.
Rubbing Wangdan’s legs against the feral creatures gives him additional snake scent. A slow walk through the mountainous woods and tangle of vegetation brings additional victims.
Within six hours, he and Lisa capture twenty slithering reptiles. They check each one out for size, health and qi and then choose six to bring back. They release the rest back to the mountains.
***
It’s almost dark by the time Lisa and Wangdan return to the secret house. They’re surprised to see another two visitors with Noah and Sam: Jingsha and Sigong Zhang.
Jingsha could not bear the thought of leaving Master Wu again. Years ago, when Master Wu told Jingsha of his plans to leave Heaven, Jingsha scolded and berated his friend for his sinfulness. Many years later, Jingsha realized that he should not have been so strict. His own visits to the secret house made him realize that he too was a sinner. He would not desert his friend again.
Sigong Zhang came because he now knows that Heaven is not the Utopia that he believed it to be. Over the years, he had heard rumors of the “secret house” but never accepted them as true. To hear Jingsha, his prize pupil, not only talk about the secret house but also to admit that he had been one of its visitors there rocked the Grandmaster. The world he thought he knew had not changed; it had never existed. He realized that Heaven could no longer hide itself, believing that it could isolate itself from the human condition, but needed to change. It could not change though unless he knew what ailed it. Sigong Zhang insisted on coming with Jingsha.
Wangdan carefully takes one of the snakes out of the cotton bag. With one hand, he grips its head tight enough to neutralize it but not to crush its skull. With the other hand, he holds the tail firmly. While the snake quivers violently, it is stable enough to be cut.
“Please let me do it, Noah,” pleads Sam, desperately wanting to kill the snake.
“Tell you what. You can hold the cup.”
“Yes!” Sam eagerly places the handmade earthward vessel underneath the slithering reptile.
Lisa makes two quick cuts. The first cut is just underneath the creature’s throat. The snake bleeds and Sam watches bug-eyed as the blood drips into his goblet. The second cut is lengthwise from head to tail. Lisa takes out the bile and places it in a small glass of illicit alcohol. That is, illicit to the monks of Heaven but another secret found in the secret house: the monks have been making their own moonshine. She then removes the reptile’s still beating heart.
While Noah props the unconscious master into a sitting position, Lisa takes the heart and places it in Master Wu’s mouth. She assists the unconscious master in chewing it. She then takes the goblet from Sam and forces the drink down Master Wu’s throat. After this, she forces the alcohol and bile down his throat as well.
This process is repeated twice.
Not a word is spoken during this time. Not because it is not allowed but because of the solemnity of the activity. There are no words that can possibly communicate the complexities of the churning emotions. Guilt, horror and hope are all intertwined and intermingled.
Thirty-two Years Ago
Three of Master Wu’s students were found dead at the doorstep of his recently opened “Hong Kong Shaolin” studio/temple.
Wu rent his clothes, flagellated himself but that would not bring the young men back to life.
He asks his three prize students, Chin Chee Fok, Garret Southam and Tommy Sung, what had happened. Chin replied that he had to go to borrow money from the Chinese underworld, the ruthless Triads, to help fund expansion—they three wanted to spread the message of Shaolin Hung Gar Kung Fu to the world. When payments were missed for months, the message was sent...
Master Wu, Garret and Tommy had been totally in the dark about this. Chin leaves to join the Triads and despite Wu’s entreaties, Garret and Tommy go along with him.
Master Wu spends two days in fasting, prayer and meditation, hoping for a peace that does not come. He has disgraced the proud Shaolin heritage and he is responsible for the deaths of innocents.
On the third day, the bailiff arrives and seizes the property.
Master Wu stands outside the building, staring at the sky, wondering whether he should have stayed with Sigong Zhang at the mountain monastery. Or maybe he should take his own life.
Suddenly, there is a tug on his jacket. He looks around and discovers a little boy looking up at him.
It is Noah. He is the savior.
Wangdan takes the bag containing the remaining three snakes outside and releases them back into the wild.
Lisa methodically skins the meat off the snakeskin. She then sautés it with some forest herbs. Neither Jingsha, Wangdan, nor Sigong Zhang partakes of the meat, but Sam and Noah sure do.
Then they sit and wait.
The three monks close their eyes and try to focus on useful mindful meditation. It is difficult as the sins that they have committed in the last several hours invade and pervade their consciences.
Unable to focus on meditation, Sigong Zhang begins chanting softly. Wangdan and Jingsha join him.
On the other side of Master Wu, Noah silently repeats over and over. Almighty God, hallelujah. Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, Almighty God, hallelujah. Jehovah Jireh, our Provider.
Lisa sits beside Master Wu, digging her fingers and thumbs at pressure points throughout his body. This should not have lasted so long. He should have been out of this hours ago. I’m sure I did nothing wrong... or did I?
The time at the secret house has become unbelievably boring to the teenager. Sam takes the snakeskin and plays stretching games with it, trying to see if he can cover his fist with it without breaking the snakeskin. This sucks. Saying he’s going for a piss, he leaves the house.
***
Sam steps into the bushes but not to urinate. Never really good at following orders, he pulls out one of Noah’s cell phones that he took out of the apartment, hoping that he might be able to engage in a combat game with one of his buddies for a few minutes. He disassembles it as quickly as he can and then with his sleeve, he dries it. Not an easy task, considering all it’s gone through. Feeling that it’s still damp, he tries to reduce the moisture further by blowing on it.
He takes out the SIM card and dries it out. He then puts the cell phone back together again and turns it on. The light flickers momentarily, but it dies before it can even connect with a signal.
Disgusted, he tosses it as far as he can into the woods and walks back to the house.
Now that was a total waste of time.
***
The chanting of the monks grows more impassioned, more intense. Noah’s prayers grow more fervent. Sweat beads on all the men’s brows. Lisa feels like her fingers are going numb from all the massage she’s been applying to the pressure points.
All are in their private worlds; all are with their private thoughts, all using their own personal methods to achieve a goal that has been so elusive.
Suddenly, success! Master Wu awakens, fully cognizant of his surroundings.
He pushes Lisa off him and examines his whereabouts. A frown crosses his brow. “Jingsha! Sigong! What are you doing in this place? This isn’t Heaven.”
“No, it’s not,” says Jingsha.
“Then let’s get out of here,” says Master Wu.
Noah tries to help him up, but Master Wu declines the offer of assistance and gets up by himself. “I’m fine, Noah. I really am.”
There are tears on Sigong Zhang’s face. There could not be a happier atmosphere in the cosmos than in this heavenly house of shame in
the mountains.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Anger colors judgment, so there’s no point in being angry. But dammit, after his conversation with his father, it seems as if he’s just about back at square one.
Give him an hour and he can have a chopper of men ready to rock and a lethal cargo ready to roll but as the old saw goes, “All dressed up but nowhere to go.” Saying that Noah and Master Wu are likely in Heaven is of little help. That’s 2500 square miles to explore. And where the hell is this place anyway?
A young tough barges in. “We picked up the GPS signal of one of Noah’s cell phones. It just flickered, so we couldn’t pinpoint the exact location, but it’s somewhere southwest of Shanghai, five hundred miles or so.”
King takes out a laptop and pulls up a map of the Shanghai area. He moves his index finger over the map, staring intently, wondering to himself. “Heaven? Heaven?”
He turns to his flunky. “What can you tell me about Heaven?”
“I dunno. Not that I think I’m going there but isn’t it like way up there?”
King snaps his fingers. “Way up there. Way up there is the only thing that makes sense. Let’s go. We’re heading for the mountains.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Heaven’s inhabitants come from everywhere and are of all ages. Every year, one or two sojourners find their way here. Every year, at least one―sometimes two or three―dies or drops out and leaves. By the time all factors are taken into account, the population of Heaven remains stable at somewhere between sixty and seventy. Except under extraordinary circumstances, there has been little variance in a daily routine that extends back six hundred years ago to when the founding ten monks decided they wanted to create “purest Shaolin.”
The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset Page 39
