Dim Sum Asylum

by Rhys Ford

  The love he had for a woman whose name I knew but had never met was evident in his expression. In the cold, harsh planes of his face, cracks were forming, bits of passion splintering the façade he wore. Still, lies were his coin, and after all the years we’d fought about what I wanted out of my life, he still didn’t understand any of it… didn’t understand me.

  A part of me wept, the tiny bit of the child I’d been, tucked away inside me. I’d longed for a family, one of those large, sprawling boisterous tribes I’d seen throughout my life, and I’d made one of my own before the Takahashi, with its fierce petty jealousy, stole it from me and broke it. I wouldn’t let my grandfather or any of his clan near me again. But that didn’t mean I would walk away from them.

  “We’ve been over this. You’ve already tried to give me everything, and I don’t want it.” It was like talking to a rock sometimes, but I forged on…. “I’m doing this because it’s the right thing to do. Because it’s my job… my true birthright. I’m here to protect and serve. This is what I do. This is why I cannot be your heir—your second-in-command—because your first thought is to pay me… to bribe me… to do something to benefit you, and what you don’t realize is that for me, there’s no thought of me not going to get them. So, one last time, where are they, Sofu? Where did he take them? And who the Hell is he?”

  “I do not know who he is. I can see you do not believe me, but I would tell you if I did. And as for where he took them, he didn’t ‘take’ them anywhere, Rokugi.” My grandfather looked away, his eyes dampening with unshed tears, and I was frightened for Nobu’s life even though I had the old man’s promise he wouldn’t kill my cousin. “They are at the home I bought for her in Presidio Heights. But you cannot bring the police into this, Roku. If you do, he has promised to kill her, very slowly, and then he will go after you. If I have to lose Yukiko, then so be it. But I will not—shall not—lose you too.”

  Nineteen

  “YOU’RE HEADED there now?” Gaines chewed through the air and dug into my ear through the phone line. I knew him well enough to know his prodigious brain churned with who he had where and how he could get them to my side. “Damn it, I don’t have anyone close by, and the mayor’s commandeered a lot of the heavy fire for tactical support because of the storms. The whole damned city is falling apart around our ears right now. He’s taken the SWAT teams to help evac some of the gōngyù and the pier districts. How far are you from the station?”

  “I’m about ten minutes out without traffic, but it took us about that just to get up the hill from Stockton. There’s a lot of bounce on the towers, so reception isn’t great. I’ve been trying to call it in for the past half hour since we left the teahouse.” I calculated the distance between where I was now to the address Grandfather’d given me. “At this rate, we’ll be another half an hour or more until we get there. Guy doesn’t want cops, but I’m thinking we can use any help we can get.”

  “It’ll take me forever to requisition backup for you. If the damned mayor will even give them to me.” I was in awe of the profanity Gaines unleashed in the space between his grumbling and his next breath. “Can I get you to hold? Recon the situation and wait?” My chuckle was enough for him to curse again, then sigh. “Okay, guess not.”

  “He’s had Jie for more than twenty-four hours and… his other victim for around six hours now. It’s been a little over a couple of hours since I got that call, and Takahashi got his info about an hour after that. They’re on borrowed time, Captain,” I reminded him. “Takahashi can’t move against this guy, not without weakening his position.”

  “Shit, this is a mess. I’m glad I didn’t say she was your grandmother in the briefing. I didn’t think you’d want that, but this…. Your grandfather just couldn’t make this simple, could he. I can’t even get the Organized Crime guys in on this.” It took me a second to process what Gaines was saying. Struggling to recall what I’d told the task force he’d gathered up… and subsequently lost to the mayor… I realized Gaines’s never once said Yukiko’s name when briefing the team. Rubbing at my eyes, I longed for the pounding in my temples to go away. “Well, your profile says Akemi is your grandmother.”

  “I’ve never met her, but I’ve known Yukiko was my grandmother since I was a kid. Grandfather told me that. I probably made her and Akemi the same person in my head,” I confessed. “Not like I had anything to do with the family to begin with, and the few times I saw my dad, he was mostly stoned out of his gourd. Hell, I don’t know if he knows.”

  “That escalates the situation down quite a bit if no one knows the truth, but that doesn’t mean shit for those women. Considering what we’re dealing with right now, we don’t need a feud started among the families, and if no one knows she’s—” Someone spoke to Gaines, a burble of sounds more than words, and he assured them he’d be there as soon as he could. “Okay, I’ve got to go. Get over there. If you’ve got to go in… shit, I don’t want to lose you, kid. I’m going to get someone there as soon as I can. Hell, if I can get free, I’ll meet you there myself.”

  He hung up before I could argue, and I looked up to find Trent staring me down. Pointing at the green light, I said, “Shouldn’t we be moving along? I’ve got shit to take care of. If you want, I can drop you off someplace—”

  “Finish that statement and I’ll….” He trailed off, easing the car forward. “I’ll figure something out. Maybe I’ll just tie you to your bed and fuck some sense into you.”

  “As fun as that sounds, let’s see if I’m functional after this.” I did another scan of the aerial shot I’d gotten of the house and the surrounding area. It was fuzzy, obviously shielded by a healthy dose of Takahashi’s money and influence, but at the moment, I wished my grandfather had less power so I could form a better idea of the grounds’ layout. “Remind me. Did I say Yukiko’s name during the briefing?”

  “Gaines did all the talking, remember?” Trent’s eyes went stormy, flaring blue around his lenses. “Nothing in that room. Just Gaines. You don’t ever talk about your family. That was something Yamada told me right off the bat.”

  “Small favors, then. Shit, I really hope he doesn’t kill Nobu.” I didn’t feel right about the whole damned thing. I’d never met Yukiko, and until today hadn’t even put a name to any of the cousins’ faces. I’d purposely kept myself out of the Takahashi and their family dynamics, because I knew once I’d stuck my nose in, it would be impossible to get it back out. Now I was giving a shit about Nobu, and that would only lead to trouble. “I don’t want to care about these people. And fuck me if I’m not starting to.”

  “Answer me this. Why does your grandfather want you to take over the family?” The rain was thickening, something I hadn’t thought possible, and Trent slowed the sedan to avoid a trash bin caught up in a stream of water pouring down the hill toward us. “Other than apparently you’re the only grandchild from the woman he loves. He’s got other children, right? Sons and daughters?”

  “The Takahashi mon… clan sigil… is a dragonfly.” I waited for Trent to connect the dots, something he did quickly, and I heard a slight ah from his side of the car. “The old man is traditional. Maybe too traditional. In his eyes, I’m a sign from the Seven Gods.”

  “Well, to be fair, those wings on your back are pretty incredible.” It was a tease, ill-advised and ill-timed, but he made me laugh anyway. “Talk to me about what we’re going into. And what are we going to do when we get there?”

  “I stashed as much spell-breaking components as I could in the trunk, but a lot of it takes time. We don’t know jack shit about the place, so I brought along a sight-seer, but if the guy can animate dead stone, I’m pretty sure he’ll ward against far-seeing.” Our options were limited. The house looked like Takahashi picked up an Edo-era fortress and plopped it down in the hills. Tall stone walls and sweeping tile rooflines set far inside of a bristling perimeter. There weren’t large trees up against the outer stone ring, but several stood inside, blocking aerial imagery, so I couldn’t t
ell what was where behind the estate’s walls. “Grandfather gave me access codes, but we can’t say for certain that they’ve not been changed.”

  “Any good news in there?”

  “He gave me the schematics for the estate, but that’s not going to do us much good. I can guess they’re being kept outside—maybe—Jie said it was dark, maybe they were placed in a teahouse or a shed instead of in the house. This is all a shot in the dark.” I glanced through the data Takahashi had sent to my phone. “There’s a lower escape tunnel on the far side of the hill, but access to that is going to be sketchy. He says it’s keyed to open from the inside out, but there’s a casting he can use to crack that.”

  “Which he gave to you?” The hopeful note in Trent’s voice was one I hated to shoot down, but there was no avoiding it.

  “Nope, the spell’s tied to his blood signature. And to Yukiko’s. They’re the only two people who can open that lower portal.” I contemplated the spell for a moment. “Probably can’t force it, even if I’m theirs. I hate to waste any more time.”

  “Any more word from Takahashi?” Trent asked, frowning when I shook my head. Even with our lights and siren flashing, it was slow going. There simply wasn’t anywhere cars could go in what little clear street we had open to us. “And just so you know, our ETA is about ten minutes. I can try to ice our way in, overload the circuits. I’ve done that before.”

  “Might work on the lower tunnel.” Contemplating entry was always difficult. Even if we had the SWAT team with us, it could turn out to be a disaster. We would need to finesse our way in. It was the only chance we’d have to surprise whoever held Jie and my grandmother. “Just get us there and we’ll figure a way in. Hell, we don’t even know what we’re facing when we get there. I can’t get any intel on any channel.”

  “Well, we’re going in blind with no backup but each other,” Trent remarked with a grin. “Gaines definitely was right. It’s a Hell of a roller-coaster ride of fuckery being your partner, but the sex is damn good.”

  “Yeah, let’s just hope that it doesn’t become a ‘was,’” I cautioned. “Because with as powerful as this guy is, we could get our asses handed back to us in such little pieces, we’re going to have to pay someone to sit down for us.”

  IT WAS odd being out of Chinatown. I didn’t realize how entrenched I was in the district until I left it. I’d made other forays out, but when I thought back to when I’d done more than a few hours at another station, it’d been almost two years since I’d spent any time actually outside of my home turf.

  The lack of tall, looming buildings threw me. I’d been immersed in brick, glass, and asphalt for so long it took me a moment to realize the sound I couldn’t identify was actually silence. The city had hills. And trees. And minivans. It was a slice of suburbia I’d forgotten all about, one I’d lived a lifetime ago. It was all there. From the neatly trimmed lawns with tricycles left in the middle of the driveway to the occasional trash can left too long at the curb, warranting a snippy remark or three from the one old lady on the block who watched everyone’s comings and goings through her living room window. All of it was there.

  I didn’t miss it. I missed the people I’d shared that life with, but the daily trudge down winding black roads with gaily painted mailboxes and the infrequent lemonade stand was never how I’d imagined my life would go. As lonely as it’d been without John and the girls, I’d been comforted by the familiar, the spice of sound and smells coming up from Chinatown’s cramped, busy streets.

  But I still missed the fuck out of them, and a part of me—a deep, aching, weeping part—would never heal over that wound. Now I wondered if I was that wound for Yukiko… for my grandfather… a piece of them that’ll never be there. Not like I ever had been.

  “You okay?” Trent’s prodding broke through the gloom of my thoughts. “We’re about two blocks out. Just past the grade there and we’ll be in the neighborhood. You thinking we should wait for backup?”

  “No,” I said around a grimace. “No to the second. Yeah to the first. I’m fine. Just… geese flying over my grave. I think that’s the phrase.”

  “Never heard that before,” he admitted. “But then I’ve got holes in my knowledge. Not a lot of anecdotes and homilies told around the campfires when you’re dodging sniper or phoenix fire. Holy crap. Look at these houses.”

  At some point in the road, we’d left the working middle-class behind and entered a world I’d never known, a rarified place of high walls, fixed sightseers, and security cameras on columns set ten feet apart around a property line with signs announcing the promise of armed security guards routinely patrolling the area. The broad street with its gated homes and enormous ancient trees wrapped around the hills’ upper mounds, providing the best view and privacy money could buy.

  It was also deserted as Hell and drenched in the torrential rain, thick with the soupy fog rising from the Bay.

  The mists rolled up and over us, choking away any visibility in its nebulous fist. A salty taint clung to it, the barest kiss of the Pacific beneath a sulfurous slap from the arcane sconces running along the top of an estate’s black rock walls. Trent was forced to bring the sedan to a crawl, unsure of the terrain despite the map we were following. The road dipped and rose, following the natural lines of the land.

  “Where are we?” Trent peered through the windshield, the glass clouding where his breath hit it. “We should be right on top of it.”

  “Technically this used to be the Presidio. Or at least a part of the golf course. Now this part and some of the old post are where you spend a lot of money to live someplace no one can get to you.” I tried to look through the trees and vaguely spotted the Spire. “There it is. Go past it and park at the end of the property line. There’s some tree cover there.”

  We spent a few minutes going over what we knew of the estate and the access codes my grandfather passed along to me, then another minute staring at the wall. The inside of the sedan grew warm, muggy from our breathing and the heat of our worry. I did one final check of the antispell components in the pockets in my raid jacket, trying to recall the last time I’d had its enchantments refreshed. Trent’s nearly sparkled as he fought to get it around his massive shoulders, clipping me with his elbow when he shook out his arm. He probably gave me an apology, but I wasn’t listening, too lost in the futility of what we were about to do. It wasn’t until his hand closed over the back of my neck and he leaned in to kiss the breath from my body that I realized it was time to go.

  “You always kiss your team before you go storming the castle?” I tried teasing, but it felt flat, disconnected from the turmoil inside of me. My belly warmed from Trent’s contact, and despite every admonishment I’d given myself about sleeping with him… wanting him… I was damned glad he was there.

  “You’re the first one I’ve ever wanted to kiss,” he confessed. “Not that I’ve been a saint, but… certainly not been a sinner. You make me want to sin something fierce, Roku, so let’s get through this, and we can go back to your place, make sure the cat’s got something to keep her busy. Then we can get back to figuring out every way our bodies can fit into each other. Sound good?”

  “So, you’re a carrot–stick kind of guy, then? ’Cause that’s a Hell of a carrot.” I laughed despite the worry gnawing at my spine. What Trent was offering… what he held out to me in those few words… I was afraid to take. I’d already lost too many people, but damn, he felt good against me and in my life. “Okay, I’ll send Gaines a text telling him we’re going in. With luck, he’ll have someone coming up the hill behind us, and this’ll go down quick and easy.”

  “And if it doesn’t, that’s fine,” Trent murmured, grabbing the shotgun he’d primed with iron-speckled salt rounds. “Because slow and dirty works for me too.”

  THE DAMNED access code worked on the side gate. I stared at the green light for a good three seconds before Trent nudged me in the ribs. The wall was giving us some shelter from the downpour, but not enough to keep us
dry. We’d been soaked immediately after getting out of the car, even though the rain appeared to be easing off. The rolling black clouds overwhelming the city were lightening to slate gray in spots. Somewhere above us, a nerve-shattering scream echoed across the hills, and I spotted a coiled draconian silhouette against a far-off splash of sheet lightning, but it was too far away for me to see which of the gate guardians was taking a swim through the storm.

  “Planning on opening the door, or are we just going to stand here?” He glanced up at the sky. “Sure, it’s not pouring down any more but—”

  “This is too easy.” I paused, reluctant to pull the gate open, and instead took a mental tally of the weapons I had on me. Other than my Glock, I had two of the long daggers my mother gave me in my teens strapped to my forearms, and with the help of one of the arcane librarians, I’d loaded my pockets up with as many spell components as I could carry while still being able to walk. I felt as prepared for whatever lay beyond as I ever could be, and still I hesitated. “God, every bit of me is screaming trap. But we know they’re in there if we believe my grandfather.”

  “He’s got no reason to lie and everything to gain if we go in through that door.” Trent scanned the area behind me. “I’m just hoping the asshole is alone.”

  He sounded more confident than I felt, but then he also had a Hell of a lot more innate magic than I did. The only magic I was carrying was my funky blood mix and a bit of sparkle leftover from some dead mage tucked somewhere in the family tree.