Feng Shui Assassin

Chapter twenty three

  Amanda ran through the busy streets of London once more. This time she ran with the cold wind on her face and the chill city air numbing her cheeks and ears. Every breath was a freezing gulpful in her lungs. A coldness within her body that was at odds to the burning heat of her tired muscles. Her legs and arms were hot. But the fine lace of sweat beneath her shirt turned into beads of ice that numbed her limbs.

  She looked around for a taxi, but there was none. Not even a police car which she might stop and persuade to give her a lift. Although what she could say to them when they asked her why she needed to get to a closed law firm? At almost midnight on Christmas Eve? With a baseball bat in her hands?

  Harvey Barker ran alongside her. The two of them dashed between slow moving pedestrians, half in the road, making their way towards the Duvalier & Rose offices. He kept pace with her, effortlessly moving past people and skirting around larger groups. It's alright for him, Amanda thought, I've run this stretch already tonight. Ran through this very spot, perhaps through these very people.

  Amanda slowed to a halt, a feeling of d?j?-vu overwhelming her. She looked about at the people around her, wrapped up and heads covered, making their way to tube stations or dashing to someplace or other. She remembered the creatures clinging to people in that other place. Foul, gem-skinned parasites that rode on the backs and sank their claws deep into shoulders. She noticed a young man close-by, barely out of his teens, hands in his jean pockets. He fidgeted as he walked, his lips moving silently. Did he have a creature on his shoulders? A glittering demon clinging to his head?

  An older man and his daughter walked the opposite way. He was angry; she was pulling at his arm. Both seemed tired and upset. Did things ride upon them? Squealing and chattering and jabbering to each other.

  'Are you Ok?' Harvey asked. He was at her side.

  'Is it true?' Amanda said. 'Are there creatures all around us that we can't see? Things that ride around on us?'

  'In the Umbra? Yes. I'm afraid so.'

  'I saw so many of them. All around us. What are they?'

  'Minor creatures of evil. Denizens that have slipped through the gates of one of the Hells and made their existence in the Umbra.'

  'One of the Hells?' Amanda said. 'There's more than one?'

  'There are as many Hells as there are religions that believe in them. The things that crawl around the Umbra are minor feeders. They prey on the shadowy forms of people. Feed on the negative emotions of their hosts. The stronger ones can create negative feelings in the host and nourish themselves for years.'

  'So it's real,' Amanda said, staring about her at the crowd. 'It's all real.'

  The reality of Harvey's words made her head itch, and she suddenly scratched at her hair, afraid that some creature in another world was tearing at her skull with hot claws. She imagined that welts had appeared on her head, angry and inflamed. She probed the places where the scratches may be, but couldn't find any tender area. Oh please, she said to herself, don't let me slip into insanity.

  She watched the passing crowd with renewed attention. Every flinch, every start, every involuntary wince from individuals hurrying by. What was real and what was caused by an Umbra denizen? And if such things really did exist, were there nastier creatures ready to abuse humanity?

  At least I can do this, Amanda let the thought repeat like a mantra, I can stop this one bad thing from happening.

  Amanda continued along the road, walking briskly and rubbing the warmth back into her arms. Her legs were shaking with the effort of the run, but she had to keep moving toward the direction of Duvalier's offices.

  'And you, Harvey Barker, are you a killer? The assassin of the Trustees?' Amanda asked as they crossed into a deserted alleyway.

  'Yes,' he replied.

  'And how did you kill the trustees?'

  'Feng Shui,' Harvey said. 'I influenced their fate through the manipulation of chi and karma.'

  'Feng Shui?' Amanda shook her head. Her ears heard words that she couldn't quite understand but knew were a truth. A truth akin to the Umbra. 'So you are a part of all this. You're a part of the problem.'

  'They killed my sister. The trustees, they murdered her.'

  'And this is a revenge kick for you? Out for a bit of payback?'

  'After I found out about her death, I needed to do something. I just couldn't function knowing they were still out there. All of them sat around a boardroom getting fat on the death of my sister.'

  'And what about Duvalier?' Amanda rounded on Harvey, rooting him to the spot with her glare.

  'I didn't know much about him. He's the administrator to the Trust, just a lawyer. He wasn't responsible for their actions.'

  'He's the one controlling the Tonton Macoute. The one with plans to use the funds in the Trust now that all the trustees are dead.'

  Harvey stared into her eyes. Clear blue even in this darkness.

  'I've been following the deaths of the trustees,' Amanda said. 'The suicide, the accident, the slaughter in the Eastend, and Duvalier has been a shadow behind them all. Duvalier has been frustrating my efforts in the investigation and blocking access to the trustees.'

  'But I killed the trustees. Or most of them, until I was ambushed.'

  'Yeah,' Amanda said. 'You putting it together yet?'

  Harvey felt the familiar rise of dread bubble in his chest. Clips of the last moments of the trustees played over in his mind. The fall from the tower building. The explosion tearing through the manor house. The bullets riddling into the high-back chair. He was doing what he felt was right. He was avenging his sister. After reading that article in the magazine. Even his horoscope led him along this path of revenge.

  'I'm really sorry about your sister. But you have done some wicked, stupid things. Very stupid. And have done exactly what Duvalier has wanted.'

  The horoscopes. They all led him to kill the trustees. Even gave him clues as to where they would be and when they could be vulnerable. The past few months clicked, tumblers of the lock dropping into place. His sister had been killed so that he would return to England and do what came naturally. She was bait and he had taken a big old bite. He felt sick. The flush of dread dropped low and heavy within him.

  Amanda turned and continued to walk down the street. Harvey followed aimlessly.

  'I . . . I didn't think . . .' Harvey said.

  Amanda shook her head. 'Yeah? Well, you might wanna start,' she said, and started to jog through the streets of London.