Feng Shui Assassin

  Chapter twenty two

  Sucking in cold air, Amanda gasped with the shock of chill in her lungs, the sudden biting cold on her hands and knees. She gave a small prayer that she was still alive.

  A tall, scruffy man stood at the edge of her vision. He was panting hard, his hands on his knees, and glaring at her. With a shock, Amanda also saw the creature within the man. It twisted about in its host's skin, seething with rage.

  Dread and a churning nausea dropped through her stomach and Amanda bit down on the wave of revulsion.

  I can see them, Amanda realised. I can see them for what they really are.

  She rose up from the wet pavement, the ends of her hair spraying water, and grabbed at a nearby Christmas shopper. A big man with wrapping paper under one arm. She shoved the man hard and he stumbled into the scruffy demon-hybrid, and they both crumpled to the ground, yelling surprise and anger.

  'Calm down,' Harvey said, grabbing Amanda by the shoulders. 'You're out of that place. You're safe now.'

  'Safe?' Amanda writhed in his grasp. 'Can't you see him? Him there.' She pointed at the hybrid form. The terrors of the past few hours were nothing to the grip of near hysteria she now felt. Here, as she breathed in fresh, cold, Christmas air, a monster that she recognised was stalking her - and undoubtedly the others she saw would descend soon enough.

  She grabbed Harvey's hand from her shoulder, twisting it into an armlock and pushed him, walking him backwards on his toes.

  'Ow, ow, ow . . .' Harvey rose higher to ease the tension in his arm.

  'I know what I have to do,' Amanda said. 'But we have to get out of here. Get away from them.'

  She released Harvey and nodded to where the scruffy man struggled to rise to his feet.

  'What is your problem?' The scruffy man imitated in an irate voice. Shoppers stepped by him, unwilling to get involved. He glanced around, baleful eyes picking out any of its nearby comrades. There was another one, a creature within the frame of a woman, winding its way through the crowd. They spotted each other and both looked toward Amanda.

  'We have to go,' Amanda insisted. She was on the verge of sprinting through the street when a familiar face loomed out of the crowd.

  'Step this way.'

  Amanda recognised the old Chinese gentleman from early today. Was it today? Or another lifetime? He seemed to know Harvey too, and she let herself be led away from the busy street and into the store.

  'That was quick,' the old man said, locking the door and flipping the open sign closed. 'I am glad that you were able to find her. Was the compass of any use?'

  'She found me.' Harvey handed a bag to the old man. 'I stepped into the umbra - and she ran in to me.'

  Amanda backed into the shop and watched, horrified, as three of the demon-hybrid creatures at the window were joined by a fourth. One of them rattled at the door and knocked bony knuckles against the thin glass.

  The old man waved away the people outside the shop window and huddled over to Amanda. 'How are you feeling? Do you feel sick? It was a traumatic experience, yes? Are you able to understand what happened?'

  'I have to stop him,' Amanda said. 'Stop it from happening. And I need to get away from them.' She pointed towards the four people at the window. One of them had its face pressed against the glass, leaving streaks of spittle on the window pane. 'Is there a back way out of here?'

  'Perhaps you are in shock,' the old man said, patting her hand gently. 'I can prepare a nice cup of tea and . . .'

  'Are you mad? Can't you see those creatures at the window? I have to get to the offices before they do it again. I can't let it happen.'

  Harvey looked around at the people at the window. 'They may just be concerned for you. After you pushed that man in the street.'

  The tapping at the window became louder, faces pressed against the window pane. The door handle rattled and the wood creaked.

  'Yes, perhaps . . . But maybe there is something else to our eager shoppers.' The old man hesitated, squinting at the front window. He dipped at his pocket and withdrew a pair of blue-tinted glasses and gasped as they settled into the crease of his nose.

  'Out the back. Get out, now,' he said, pulling at them both and making his way down the shop.

  'What's wrong?' Harvey said, rushing behind Amanda as she led the way to the back of the shop and into the small kitchen.

  'They are po. Broken man. Ti-mon possessed. There are no visible scarring - so perhaps they are not banded.'

  The tear of wood and plaster sounded from within the shop and the noise of the street intermingled with heavy footsteps that burst through the front door. The lights flickered and shadows flitted between the shelves, lengthening down the aisles.

  The scruffy hybrid ran to the counter, a snub-nosed pistol clutched in his hand.

  'What is the meaning of this?' Wing Loo growled, his voice loud, but level. And hard as iron.

  The pistol rose up and fired, a dragon belching lead. Wing Loo moved swiftly, his hand reaching up, snatching, and settling down by his side in the moment it took for a bullet to leave the muzzle. His fingers gripped the cooling bullet.

  Then his other hand rose up, a blurred version of a tai chi stance, stork spreads wing, and cracked the interloper in the chest, lifting him up and away. He crashed into a stack of shelves, limbs flailing.

  The others charged through the counter, smashing the flimsy wood and glass, destroying the rear of the shop. Amanda readied herself for the onslaught but the old man stepped in front of her.

  He struck each of the attackers squarely in the chest, all in quick succession with open palm slaps. A radial burst of chi cracked with each hit, flaring like a mini sun, as the attackers flew back into the shop, sprawling amongst the wrecked shelves.

  'There is more to this than at first appears, little Salmon,' Wing Loo said. 'The Po are dangerous indeed, but they are working for someone.'

  Harvey and Amanda bundled through the small kitchen and into a storage room.

  'Weapons!' said Loo. 'Arm yourself in case there are more Po lurking.'

  'There are more,' Amanda said.

  Harvey turned and pulled a small leather pouch from a shelf. Amanda scanned about and caught sight of a 'slugger' baseball bat. She took hold of the bat and hefted it in her hands.

  Wing Loo stood at the kitchen doorway, circling his arms in figure of eights. A blue haze drifted from the pattern, and the figures beyond clawed and scratched at the air, blunting human fingernails on the energy.

  'You two had better be gone. Go now, Little Salmon. Take the detective to a safe place. She is your ward now.'

  Amanda kicked open the back door and ran out into the alleyway. Unfortunately it was not deserted.

  Large shadows that had crammed up against the opposite wall detached themselves and made their way to her. She saw the glint of their smiles before the moonlight caught their demon faces, fading into the sickly light and walking toward her. Harvey stepped next to her.

  'These also Ti Mon?' he muttered.

  'Yeah.'

  'No escape for you now,' one of them said, her lips pulled back to the gums. 'You're both gonna feel the cut of the Macoute.'

  Amanda wrapped her fists around the baseball bat, bracing herself for the onslaught. All fear had gone now, replaced with a murderous rage, cold and deep and unflinching. She eyed the monsters before her, waiting for a reaction or a step from their ranks.

  A rapid mechanical coughing sound erupted from the group and a handsome man with a long fringe of hair stepped to the fore. Amanda saw the demon within, saliva dripping from its idiot grin. Stranger even than the crimson creature residing in the man was the curious chainsaw he held. The machine revved in his hands, clattering as the barbed chain whizzed around the main blade. The chainsaw looked as if it was made from magazines and newspaper. She recognised a timeout cover and the Big Issue.

  'Well, well,' he said, gripping hold of the origami chainsaw. 'Not only do I get to off the bitch, but I get to finish the
job on the assassin too.'

  'Origami?' Harvey asked, nodding at the chainsaw.

  'It's a damn sight more useful than feng shui,' Duncan said, raising the buzzing saw for effect.

  Harvey dipped into the leather pouch he held, levelled a pistol at Duncan and fired. The bullet hit him in the chest and he crumpled to the cold floor, the chainsaw tore at the air for a moment then bit into the tarmac and ceased.

  The others closed ranks and stood in silence, a crescent of macabre faces.

  'You got many more bullets?' A voice called out from the group.

  Before he could answer a flurry of figures rushed out from the darkness, briefly caught in the moonlight. These figures crashed into the Macoute, silver blades rising high in the air, slashing downwards and upwards again, trailing blood splatters. Suddenly the dark street was a jumble of people. Fighting, slashing, cutting. Attacking each other in voiceless slaughter, only the sounds of limbs flopping to the ground, or the soft pumping hiss of arteries spraying the trashcans and walls, indicated that anything was happening.

  'Who the hell are these guys?' said Amanda, watching the carnage colour the street.

  'China Town residents,' said Harvey. 'Mostly students, I think. Perhaps Master Loo has got word out to the neighbourhood.'

  Harvey pulled Amanda back to the doorway as a meat cleaver spun through the air and thudded into the door beside them. A Macoute leapt from the darkness, her face distorted, the demon within pushing through the thin skin to snarl and spit. Amanda swung at the hybrid demon, smashing the baseball bat into his chest. He grunted and fell back and Harvey stepped up and shot him in the head.

  Another figure loomed from the darkness. Harvey raised his gun, but lowered it as a stern looking man approached, one hand raised in supplication, a bloody fan in the other hand.

  'Oh, it's you, little Salmon. We heard that you were back.'

  'Hello. Hungry Bear.'

  A number of people darted past, rushing into the stores and through to the emporium.

  'Where is Master Loo?' said Hungry Bear.

  'In the shop,' Harvey muttered. 'Thank you for your help.' Harvey cast about as more residents stepped from the darkness.

  'This was no help for you, sparky,' he said. 'We responded to the Po. Broken men have no right to be here. And without permission. This was simply a territorial issue.'

  Harvey looked around. In the background a wet thud was repeated over and over. The last of the Macoute being pounded into the pavement.

  'We have to get to the Duvalier & Rose law firm,' Amanda said, staring up at the moon. 'We have to get there before it's too late.'

  'What happened to you in the other place?' said Harvey, grabbing her arm. 'What did you see that makes you so certain we have to go to there?'

  'I saw the end of the world.'

  Amanda ran off into the darkness, in the direction of the river. Harvey looked about him, police sirens wailing closer in the distance, then set off after her.