White Tiger

  ‘Is everybody happy with this solution?’ Mr Chen said.

  Both Leo and I nodded.

  ‘Good.’ Mr Chen placed his hands firmly on the table. ‘I will ensure that Simone is trained in the required skills before September. Emma, talk to the headmistress about getting a parking space for us. I think this will work out rather well.’

  As I returned to my room I heard a most satisfying squawk. Leo had discovered that I’d made all the colours on his computer fluorescent greens and pinks, with a photo of myself for wallpaper. He’d have to ask me how to change it back, or wait until Gold turned up. I was the only one in the household apart from Gold who knew how to change the colours. Yes!

  ‘No, Emma, look,’ Mr Chen said patiently. ‘Don’t be intimidated by my size. That has nothing to do with it. Use my size against me. Again.’

  I tried again. I failed. I brushed my hair out of my eyes, then tied it back. He tied his hair back as well. We had been struggling with this for twenty minutes and I still couldn’t do it.

  ‘It’s just not possible, Mr Chen,’ I said, exasperated. ‘You’re huge. There’s no way I could throw you like that.’

  ‘Once you master the skill you will be able to throw Leo,’ Mr Chen said. ‘You will be able to throw me in Celestial Form.’

  I stopped dead. ‘Was that what we saw on the plane?’

  He looked piercingly at me. ‘You saw that?’

  ‘Simone wanted to go to you. She nearly got away from me—I grabbed her just in time. She can be really strong when she wants to be, Mr Chen.’ I smiled and shrugged an apology. ‘Sorry about that. I did manage to stop her though.’

  ‘I’m sorry if I frightened you, Emma,’ he said. ‘I know that my Celestial Form scares Simone.’

  I grinned up at him. I couldn’t believe him sometimes. I shoved him on the arm, ribbing. ‘Hey, you were really cute. The big black face is really attractive.’

  He smiled gently down at me, amused. ‘You weren’t frightened?’

  ‘No, of course not,’ I said. ‘I know it’s you. What’s to be frightened of?’ This was a good opportunity to ask. ‘That wasn’t your True Form?’

  ‘No,’ he said. ‘That was more like,’ he paused, thinking, ‘a working form. When I’m on the job, it’s easier to manipulate the weather, fight demons, work with energy, things like that, when I’m in that form. Does that make sense?’

  ‘Perfect sense. So I could throw you when you’re that big?’ The Celestial Form must have been more than ten feet tall.

  ‘Of course. Once you get over this idea that I’m too big to throw. I’m not, Emma. You can do it. Try again.’

  ‘If I do it right,’ I said, ‘will you let me try to throw the Celestial Form?’

  His face went expressionless.

  ‘Oh, too much of a drain on your energy. Sorry.’

  ‘It’s a deal.’ He bent to whisper to me. ‘Just don’t tell Leo.’

  I bent towards him as well. ‘Don’t worry, I won’t.’ Our faces were very close. ‘I’d be in just as much trouble as you would.’

  He nodded and rose. ‘Okay.’ He reached out and stroked my shoulder affectionately. ‘Now you have some real motivation, let’s see you do it, Miss Donahoe.’

  I grabbed his hand where it lay on my shoulder, pushed, twisted, put my own shoulder into him and threw him onto his back.

  He stared up at me from the floor. ‘You vixen! You knew how to do that all along.’

  I bent over him and smiled down. ‘No, I didn’t, I swear. But the idea of having a go at throwing you when you’re that big was too much of a challenge to ignore.’

  He chuckled and shook his head with amusement. I put my hand out to help him up, and he took it, still laughing quietly. I pulled him up hard, he was big. But I didn’t realise how strong the training had made me and I jerked him straight into me.

  We both froze. He was pressed hard against me. He didn’t move away. His face went expressionless as he gazed down at me.

  He brushed a stray lock of hair from my face, then dropped his hand onto my shoulder. My heart leapt into my throat.

  I put my arms around his waist. I pushed closer into him. He didn’t move away.

  ‘I suppose I have to transform now so you can have another go at me.’ He moved his hand from my shoulder to my back. His other hand moved to my back as well and pulled me into him.

  I looked up into his glowing dark eyes. ‘Later,’ I whispered. ‘Let’s just stay like this for a while.’

  I put one hand up behind his neck to pull him down. His face went very intense as he dropped it to mine.

  Yes!

  A swift expression of pain swept across his features. ‘I’m sorry, Emma,’ he said urgently as he jerked himself away, ‘that would be a very bad idea.’

  ‘No,’ I said, trying to wrap around him again, ‘don’t stop now.’

  He shook my hands free and backed up. ‘It really can’t happen, Emma.’ His voice became more brisk. ‘You’ll need to move back and give me some room so that I can transform.’

  ‘Why not? What’s the big problem?’ I tried to move closer to him, but he backed away even more. I nearly had him pinned against the wall. It was like there was a bubble around me.

  He raised his hands defensively. ‘Trust me, Emma, it would be a very bad idea. I don’t want to hurt you.’

  ‘How could you hurt me?’

  ‘Believe me,’ he said, and the pain showed again in his face, ‘it can’t happen. I have my reasons. We should be nothing more than friends.’ He turned away.

  ‘If you’re worried about protecting me, you don’t need to be,’ I said fiercely. ‘I’m not frightened of the demons, and besides, it would be worth it. We could still be employer-employee when we’re out. Nobody would have to know. If they didn’t know, they wouldn’t have a reason to come after me.’ He didn’t say anything.

  ‘I know you feel the same way! Don’t throw it away! Even if it is only a short time, even if it’s only at home. I don’t need more than that.’ I sagged, desperate. ‘Don’t try to protect me. I don’t need protecting. What I need…’

  He didn’t look at me. He stood facing away from me, head bowed.

  ‘What I need is you.’

  He flinched as if I’d hit him.

  ‘It could be wonderful, John. Even for a short time.’ My voice broke and I tried to control it. ‘I know you want it too.’

  ‘It can’t happen, Emma,’ he said softly without turning towards me. ‘Go to Simone.’

  I hesitated. I could see his miserable face in the mirror. His eyes were full of pain.

  ‘I’m not finished with you!’ I shouted, then turned and stormed out.

  I ran all the way around the Peak trail by myself. I was gone for nearly an hour. It wasn’t mentioned when I returned. Mr Chen insisted on behaving as if nothing had happened at all. I had no choice: I had to respect his wishes.

  What I really wanted to do, though, was kill something.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

  I sighed as I went through my email. Leo had subscribed me to a number of alternative lifestyle lists. It took me nearly twenty minutes to unsubscribe from most of them, but Leo was an active participant on some and they seemed worthwhile.

  My phone rang and I picked it up. ‘Hello?’ ‘Emma.’

  ‘April! Where are you? Are you in Hong Kong?’

  ‘Yes, I came back to visit Andy. Lunch tomorrow? I’m meeting Louise. Want to come?’

  ‘Sure. How about the little Japanese place under the hotel in Causeway Bay?’

  ‘I don’t know it.’

  ‘Meet me outside the World Trade Centre, I’ll take you there. The teppanyaki’s good.’

  I met Louise and April outside the World Trade Centre and led them past the entrance to the hotel. Early December weather could be very pleasant, and today was particularly good: the fresh breeze blew across the harbour and the sky was clear blue for a change.

  The Noonday Gun sounded across the road; a
ll of us ignored it.

  We turned right after the hotel and walked down a filthy alley lined with garbage bins.

  ‘Where the hell are you taking us?’ Louise said. She picked her way through the puddles of water. ‘It’d better not be a dai pai dong, I get sick every time I eat at one of them.’

  ‘You do?’ April said. ‘I don’t. I missed them. No dai pai dong in Australia.’

  ‘Spoilt Westerner,’ I said. ‘Delicate digestion.’ I stopped at the end of the alley. ‘Here.’

  A tiny Japanese garden nestled under the towering wall of the hotel. I walked along the waist-high bamboo fence to the gate and showed them in. To the right a small fountain splashed into a pool of golden koi carp. A tiny lawn stretched the length of the restaurant, bordered by stands of bamboo.

  April was delighted. ‘This is so cute! I never knew it was here!’

  I opened the door for them and we went in. The restaurant had about twenty booths under the large picture windows overlooking the Japanese garden. At the end of the restaurant the large steel plates of the teppan sat on the marble benchtop.

  We sat together at the teppan. The waitress poured us some Japanese green tea and gave us the lunch menu. Typically for Hong Kong restaurants, it had a set-price lunch menu for the office crowd. We all ordered the same thing. Then Louise pulled out her notebook and I felt a jolt of dismay.

  ‘Uh, Louise,’ I said as I raised my hand, ‘don’t bother about that. I haven’t had time. I’ve been flat out busy and haven’t even been collecting names. So you win by default. I’m paying.’

  ‘Humph.’ Louise put her notebook away. ‘I had some really good ones too. There’s a guy in a shop in Mong Kok called Circus Wong.’

  ‘So how’s life in Australia, April?’ I said. ‘Andy’s not joined you there yet?’

  ‘He’s always having emergencies at work, he can’t leave yet,’ April said. ‘Soon.’

  ‘It’s nearly three months since you went yourself, April,’ Louise said. ‘He should be making a move.’

  ‘When he’s back in Hong Kong we’ll talk about it,’ April said. ‘He said he’ll see me again before I go home to Australia.’

  Louise and I stared at her.

  The chef came out from the back of the restaurant. He bowed to us and we nodded back. He turned on the teppan and polished the plate completely clean with a wet cloth.

  ‘Did you just say that your husband isn’t in Hong Kong?’ Louise said.

  April watched the chef. ‘He had another emergency at work. We had a couple of days together, then he had to rush off to China.’ She brightened. ‘But he says he’ll definitely come to Australia to see me at Chinese New Year. Because I’m his family.’

  Louise and I shared a look.

  ‘Are you still working as nanny, Emma?’ April said. ‘Yep.’

  ‘What about your study?’ ‘Still doing that.’

  ‘What gym do you go to?’ Louise said. ‘Gym?’

  The chef put some prawns on the plate and expertly moved them around.

  ‘You’ve been working out,’ Louise said. ‘You’ve lost a lot of weight.’

  ‘I run around the Peak,’ I said. ‘That’s all.’

  ‘Not learning martial arts off your Mr Chen?’ Louise said.

  I didn’t reply.

  Louise grinned. ‘I want some good news soon, Emma.’

  ‘Never going to happen.’

  ‘How about you come along with me on Saturday night then and I introduce you to a couple of new guys at the bank? Both of them are really cute.’

  I hesitated, then, ‘Not Saturday. I’m busy.’

  ‘Don’t moon over him if he isn’t going to do anything about it, Emma.’

  ‘I have study to do.’

  The chef placed the cooked prawns on our plates. April picked up a piece and delicately dipped it into the garlic sauce. She popped it into her mouth. ‘Eat. This is good. Fresh.’

  Louise and I tried the prawns as the chef cooked some chicken fillets.

  ‘You have to go and see Aunty Kitty, Emma, she has something for you,’ April said.

  ‘Geez, April, I resigned from the kindergarten nearly a year ago,’ I said. ‘Why doesn’t she just give up?’

  ‘She says you have an award or something. Because you were such a good English teacher. She says you have to go to her house and collect it,’ April said. ‘Apparently it’s a prize or something. A holiday.’

  ‘You can have it, whatever it is.’

  ‘You mean it?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘You’re too generous, Emma,’ April said. ‘I’ll go and collect it for you.’

  ‘Okay, whatever,’ I said. ‘I don’t have time to take a holiday right now anyway.’

  The chef placed thinly sliced beef on the plate, then put long-stemmed enoki mushrooms in the centre and rolled the beef around them. It cooked very quickly.

  My mobile phone rang and I answered it. ‘Emma.’

  ‘Hello, Emma. It’s Jade. Can you talk?’

  ‘I can talk, but nothing special.’

  ‘Okay. I was just wondering—I have an appointment with the tailor tomorrow afternoon and thought you might like to come along and have some cheongsams made at the same time. We could have lunch, then go and choose some silk and have some dresses made for you.’

  ‘Sounds great. When? Where?’

  ‘Can you meet me at the Princes Building? Noon?’

  ‘Sure. But I need to clear it with Mr Chen first.’

  ‘Don’t worry, I just asked him, he said it’s okay. He said something about buying your own clothes for a change. What does that mean?’

  ‘Don’t worry about it. Is he there? Let me talk to him.’

  ‘No, he’s not here, I just talked to him. I need to run. See you tomorrow?’ ‘Sure. Bye, Jade.’

  I snapped the phone shut, then checked to see if it had recorded her number. The call wasn’t there.

  The chef broke a couple of eggs on the teppan, stirred them around, and made fried rice for us. ‘Last dish.’ He bowed crisply. ‘Thank you.’

  ‘I have to go soon,’ April said. ‘I need to go to the Consulate and do some paperwork for Andy.’

  While April was in the ladies’ room Louise and I shared speculation.

  ‘Do you think it’s possible that he’s genuine?’ I said. ‘And that the emergencies are for real?’

  ‘Not in a million years,’ Louise said. ‘Something is definitely going on here. He’s avoiding her.’

  ‘If he married her for the Australian passport, he’d have been over there months ago. She must be a cover for him.’

  ‘The funny thing is,’ Louise said, ‘she doesn’t really seem to care. She’s quite happy to be married to a man who avoids her, provided he visits her at Chinese New Year.’

  After lunch I wandered through the shops of Causeway Bay for a while. I went to the computer mall in Windsor House to buy a few pieces of hardware for my computer, a new DVD drive and some more memory. I’d asked Gold to upgrade the machine but he never seemed to have time.

  I felt a coldness behind me as I walked back through Causeway Bay to the lay-by where Leo would collect me. I knew what it was. I quickened my pace without looking back, then dived into a tiny below-ground shopping centre selling Japanese collectibles and video games. The shopping centre had glass everywhere and I could see them following me.

  They looked like perfectly ordinary Chinese men in their mid-twenties, but they were definitely following me. Two of them. I felt a jolt of panic, then calmed myself. As long as they thought I wasn’t trained in the Arts they wouldn’t come after me; it wasn’t honourable. I checked them: they were only small, about level five or six. I could take them if I had to.

  The shops were in a loop and I wandered casually through, pretending to look at the collectible trading cards and gundam figures in the windows. The demons followed me.

  They were still further back in the shopping centre when I reached the entrance again. I trotted
smartly up the stairs into the busy Causeway Bay street and hauled my mobile phone out of the pocket of my jeans.

  ‘Yes?’ It was Leo on his mobile in the car.

  I headed quickly down the street towards the lay-by where he would pick me up. ‘How far away are you, Leo?’

  ‘About five minutes. Is there a problem?’

  ‘There’s a couple of demons tailing me. About level five or six. If you don’t turn up soon I may have to face them.’

  ‘Don’t take them on, whatever you do,’ Leo said fiercely. ‘Go to the pick-up point and wait. I’m on my way.’ He hung up.

  I hurried to the lay-by. Fortunately there were a large number of people there, waiting for taxis. There was the usual scramble every time a cab appeared; Hong Kong people would sometimes conveniently forget how to queue.

  I nervously stood at the lay-by and waited. The demons positioned themselves across the road at the entrance to one of the shoe shops, leering at me. They didn’t make a move towards me.

  The car appeared and I quickly climbed in.

  ‘Why did they follow me?’ I asked Leo when I was in the car. ‘They shouldn’t be coming after me; as far as they know, I’m not trained.’

  ‘They may try you out, Emma,’ Leo said. ‘It’s becoming obvious from the way you move that you’re trained.’

  ‘What?’ I cried, horrified. ‘They’ll attack me?’

  ‘I’m surprised they haven’t had a go at you already,’ Leo said. ‘I think it’s only a matter of time before something small gets sent against you, just to see if you really are learning from Mr Chen.’

  I thumped the back of his seat, furious. ‘Why the hell didn’t you tell me?’

  He shrugged. ‘We didn’t want to freak you out.’

  I leaned back, crossed my arms over my chest and looked out the car window. ‘You will both thoroughly keep.’

  ‘He knew you’d react like this, too, and he was scared.’

  I glanced at Leo. ‘He was scared?’