‘She’ll fight both of them?’ my mother said softly.
‘Yes!’ Roland said. ‘I have a video camera in my office. Wait! Please!’
‘There are a hundred and fifty demons out there waiting for you,’ I said.
‘Let them wait,’ he said. ‘I don’t think this will take long.’
Roland came back with a video camera. ‘Move into the big room.’
‘But there are students in there!’ I protested.
‘Tell them you taught her,’ John said to Roland.
‘They wouldn’t believe me, Your Highness,’ Roland said. ‘I’d have to tell them that she taught me.’
‘That would work,’ John said. He pulled himself up off the floor and took Simone’s hand. ‘Let’s go.’
‘You know Emma’s only been learning off the Dark Lord for less than a year and a half?’ Leo said to Roland as we went out.
‘Wah!’ Roland said. ‘Amazing! Such talent!’
‘Damn,’ I said softly.
‘She turns into a snake, you said. Why is that? Is she a Shen?’
‘Nobody’s quite sure what she is,’ John said amiably. ‘She’s not a demon, that’s for sure. We’ll just have to wait and see.’
‘Maybe she’s the White Snake,’ Roland said.
John stopped and his face froze. ‘Not possible.’
‘I’m black in Serpent form,’ I said.
‘If the Pagoda has fallen then she may be the White Snake,’ Roland said.
‘If I’m the White Snake then where’s the Red Snake?’ I said.
‘Ah. You know the legend,’ Roland said.
‘Of course I do,’ I said as I entered the larger room. ‘I’ve been doing an enormous amount of research on the nature of Serpent Shen, for obvious reasons.’
‘She is not the White Snake,’ John said, moving to catch up with us. ‘Not possible.’
The students lounged against the long wall, waiting quietly for Leo to return. Roland directed them loudly in Cantonese. ‘All of you, back to the far short wall, stand still, stand quiet. You are about to be extremely privileged. Silence!’
The students moved back, quiet and cowed.
Roland gestured. ‘Whenever you are ready, my Lady.’
‘Mum, Dad, you okay?’ I said. My parents nodded. ‘Go stand with John.’
My parents moved over to John and Simone in front of the mirrors. This room was larger, about six by four metres. Simone took my mother’s hand and smiled up at her.
‘Wait,’ Roland said. He pulled the video camera out and turned it on. ‘Okay, go.’
I nodded to both Leo and Michael. They saluted back. We moved into position. Both of them faced me, side by side.
I held my staff out in front, guarding. Leo I could take easily, but Michael was an unknown quantity: not just half Shen, but half tiger as well. He had been learning from John for months now, and had probably come a long way since I had easily bested him when I trialled him for the job as trainee bodyguard to replace Leo.
Leo came at me first. He swung at my head. I blocked it with my own staff, swung it down, twisted it, and tried to take his feet out from under him with the other end.
Michael came at me at the same time. As Leo’s staff went down, Michael went for my head. I flipped my staff under Leo’s and guided it into Michael’s. Their staves clashed together hard and both of them winced.
Leo dropped one hand from his staff and shook it, grimacing.
I jumped back and waited for them.
‘Don’t hurt them too much, Emma,’ John said with delight.
Michael went for my feet, trying to sweep them out from under me.
I leaped over his staff, somersaulted, and planted both feet into Leo’s chest, hard enough to knock him over without hurting him. I bounced off him and somersaulted backwards. I jammed the end of my staff into the floor before my feet hit, spun around it and hit Michael in the chest with my left foot. He staggered back but didn’t fall.
I landed lightly on my feet in front of Michael, jumped right over the top of his head, and spun my staff behind me to take his feet out from under him before he had a chance to turn around.
I rolled and spun to face them, snapping my staff under my left arm and my right hand out into a guard. They were both on the floor, Leo on his back, Michael on his stomach.
‘Come on, guys, up you get,’ I said. ‘I didn’t hit you that hard.’
‘No,’ Leo said without moving. ‘It’s comfy here. These mats are nice and soft, and your feet are damn hard.’
‘What he said,’ Michael said, gasping.
‘Said it wouldn’t take very long,’ John said.
The students suddenly cheered and clapped as one. Some of them whistled. I could swear a couple of them were jumping up and down with delight.
Michael pulled himself to his feet. ‘Can you reverse the Five Point Push?’
‘Uh, yeah,’ I said. ‘Why?’
‘Five Point Push?’ Roland cried with glee.
‘Oh no! I am not a circus act!’
‘Who’d like to feel a Five Point Push?’ Roland called in Cantonese. ‘Step forward!’
Just about every goddamn student in the room stepped forward with a huge grin.
‘Good,’ John said. ‘I’ll time you. Twelve students. See how long it takes.’ He fiddled with his watch. ‘Wait.’ He pressed the buttons. ‘Forgotten how to use the stopwatch on this thing. There. Got it.’
‘Line up,’ Roland said in Cantonese.
The students lined up side by side, and I moved to the end of the line.
‘Ready?’ John said. ‘Go.’
I didn’t bother with all five points on the students. I just hit each of them with a focused band of chi into the central dan tian, one after the other. I had to stop and gather my chi after the fifth student but I made it to the end of the line. ‘Done.’
‘Twelve and a half seconds,’ John said. ‘Pathetic.’
Roland went up to one of the students and studied him closely. ‘And they’re all completely paralysed?’
I picked up one of the students, then laid him carefully on his back on the floor. He was completely rigid.
My mother was astonished. ‘Emma!’
‘What?’
‘How much can you lift?’ my father said. ‘You picked up that kid like he didn’t weigh anything.’
I looked down at the student. His eyes were amused but his face was rigid. ‘I have no idea.’
‘Oh, good idea,’ John said. ‘Lifting from a distance. Must try that later.’
‘PK?’
‘What?’ John said, bewildered.
‘Later.’
I reached down and tapped the student’s stomach, undoing the Push. I held my hand out and helped him up off the floor. He stood and saluted, grinning like an idiot.
‘Take it easy,’ I said. ‘If you feel dizzy then sit.’
I went down the line and undid the rest of the students. A couple of them flopped to sit on the floor, but most of them just shook themselves out.
‘Dismissed,’ Leo said, and the students carefully saluted us and filed out with huge grins on their faces. The minute they were in the hallway they started loudly discussing in Cantonese what they had just seen.
Roland turned off the camera and came to me. ‘Do you think you could come in sometimes and teach?’
‘Oh, no, Roland,’ I said, exasperated. ‘It’s bad enough teaching at the Academy as it is. No more. You have Leo and Michael, and that should be enough for you.’
‘Could you teach me?’ Roland said softly.
‘Tell you what, my friend,’ I said, patting him on the shoulder, ‘how about you come over to Wan Chai and learn from the Dark Lord himself? You are welcome to join an occasional class in the Wudang Academy. If you don’t mind being put in with a bunch of young people.’
‘Wudang?’ Roland breathed. ‘Wudangshan? Really?’
‘Yes. His Mountain,’ I said. ‘We moved it down here. It’s in
Wan Chai until we repair the damage.’
‘Very good, Emma,’ John said. ‘Anyone got a card?’
‘Gamma can call Roland later and organise it,’ I said.
Roland fell to his knees and saluted me, then John. ‘I can’t tell you what this means to me.’
‘Get up off the floor or the deal is off,’ I growled. ‘And if you do that to me again, the deal is off anyway. I’m starving, John. Let’s have something to eat here before we go to the Valley. The demons can wait.’
John bowed slightly to me. ‘My Lady.’
I went to my parents. ‘You guys okay?’
‘That was amazing, Emma,’ my mother said. ‘You beat both of those huge men with no trouble at all. I was sure you’d get hurt. But you made it look easy. Some of the stuff you did was astonishing.’
‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Let’s go and eat. Leo, Michael, want to come with us?’
‘Maybe next time,’ Leo said.
‘Say hello to Rob for me,’ I said, and Leo grinned.
‘I’m meeting somebody,’ Michael said.
‘Cynthia?’
Michael’s grin matched Leo’s. ‘Maybe.’
‘Okay, see you guys later.’ I turned to Roland. ‘Want to join us?’
‘Yes! Sure!’ Roland said, delighted. ‘But only if you let me buy.’
John opened his mouth to do the polite Chinese thing of arguing backwards and forwards about who would pay but I was too hungry to mess around. ‘Shut up. Roland can pay. Let’s go.’
Roland stiffened, then grinned broadly.
John slapped Roland on the back and guided him out. ‘You see what I have to put up with? Typical barbarian Foreign Devil. Manners of a peasant.’
‘At least I’ll get fed some time today,’ I said loudly as I linked my arm in my mother’s and held my hand out for Simone. ‘Come on, guys, let’s go find something to eat.’
We went to a noodle bar not far from Roland’s building. It was a typical small Hong Kong restaurant, about five metres wide, with a glassed-in area at the front where the noodles were prepared and a small kitchen at the back for the rest of the dishes. It was nearly full; usual lunchtime crowd, mostly people sitting in the booths at the side, but some larger groups at the round tables in the middle.
A waiter guided us to a large round table that seated six, its plain green laminate top worn through with use. A few menus and cards with daily specials were jammed into a plastic stand next to the bottles of soy and chilli sauce and the big steel chopstick holder.
The walls on both sides were covered with cracked and tarnished mirrors, an attempt to make the restaurant appear larger. Large sheets of cardboard with specials were stuck to the mirrors, the dishes written vertically in black marker with the prices underneath. The floor was well-worn green mosaic tiles, slippery with oil; the walls were matching pale green bathroom tiles. The ceiling was black with grease and a huge, ancient air conditioner throbbed painfully in the centre.
The owner of the restaurant greeted Roland in Cantonese, and plonked glasses of black tea in front of each of us.
‘Are you sure this place is healthy? It’s awfully…’ My mother searched for the right word.
‘Don’t worry, you can’t get sick while you’re with him,’ I said, gesturing towards John. ‘Besides, being old and tatty doesn’t mean anything. The food is still good.’
‘Old and tatty?’ John said, eyeing me with amusement.
‘Exactly,’ I said. ‘But still good.’
Roland was speechless.
‘Can I have some beef brisket ho fan?’ Simone said.
‘Do you want tendon in it?’ I said.
‘Tendon?’ my mother said.
‘Yes, please,’ Simone said. ‘Tendon’s good.’
‘Tendon?’ my mother said. ‘Like, gristle tendon?’
‘When it’s been boiled for a few hours it turns to jelly,’ I said. ‘It’s actually very good. You should try some.’
‘Could you choose something suitable for us, Emma?’ my father said. ‘You know what we like. Something…something normal.’
‘Beef stir fry ho fan,’ John said. ‘Gwang chau ngau ho.’
‘Good idea,’ I said. ‘Vegetarian for us?’
‘Of course. Roland?’
‘Fishing boat congee,’ Roland said. He pulled out the video camera and turned it on with a musical ping. ‘I have to see this again.’
‘Don’t show it to anybody, please, Roland,’ I said.
He nodded as he flipped open the LCD screen to view the video. The sound of us talking came through the speakers on the camera as he played it back. Then he went completely rigid and his mouth dropped open. ‘Wah!’
I bent around to see, then quickly put my hand over the screen to hide it from the people at the next table. ‘Turn it off! For God’s sake, Roland, turn it off!’ I grabbed the camera and pressed the button to turn off the playback. ‘Really don’t let anybody see that!’
Roland stared at John with his mouth still open.
I placed the camera on the table.
‘Was it me?’ John said.
I nodded silently.
‘What?’ my father said.
‘It was him,’ I said. ‘Really him. What he really looks like. I thought you were taping us, Roland.’
‘You should show your parents,’ John said. ‘I think they should see.’
I leaned over the table to speak softly to him. ‘Yeah, let’s just rub it in for the poor people that their daughter is engaged to a goddamn animal.’
‘Shen,’ John said.
‘I want to see. Can I see?’ Simone said. ‘I want to see, Daddy.’
I looked around. Nobody else in the restaurant had noticed, and if Simone was next to me I could hide the screen. Roland picked up the camera and handed it back to me. ‘Show her.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘Just don’t say anything too loud, okay?’ I gestured. ‘Next to me.’
Simone moved next to me, leaning over my shoulder. My mother bent around to see as well. I turned on the video camera and pressed the playback button.
There we were. Leo and Michael readied themselves. I had my back to the camera, preparing as well. The camera panned to the side wall and my parents appeared. Next to them was the Turtle. It appeared about a metre and a half long, with a massive, gleaming black shell. Its face had the wise expression of a natural turtle, but its eyes were John’s and full of amusement as it watched us. John’s human form was there as well, a transparent image over the top of the Turtle, holding Simone in his lap.
I froze the image so that Simone could look properly.
‘I look really weird like that,’ she said.
‘What do you see?’ John said.
‘Both of you,’ I said. ‘Haven’t you seen it before?’
‘Nope,’ John said. ‘Never played it back to watch it.’
We shared a look. He’d made tapes for me, and I’d done the same for him, but we never looked at ourselves, we only watched each other.
His eyes crinkled up when he saw my face. ‘Often wondered what I’d look like. In still photos you only see the human form, and I thought it’d be the same in videos as well. I was wrong.’
‘It depends how drained you are,’ I said. ‘You must be running on empty right now. Usually it’s just a very faint shadow, almost invisible. This is the clearest I’ve ever seen it.’ He didn’t make tapes for me when he was very drained, as well, but neither of us mentioned it. ‘How long before you need to see the Lady again?’
‘I still have a while. Let me see,’ he said.
I passed the video camera to him and he studied it with the same amusement that was visible in the Turtle’s eyes. ‘Damn, but I’m ugly.’ He passed the camera to my father who viewed the image, his face rigid with control.
‘The Turtle’s not pretty either,’ I said, and Simone giggled.
‘You really are a turtle,’ Roland said with awe.
My father passed the camera to my mother. Sh
e stared at it with her eyes wide. She glanced up at John, then back at the image. She didn’t say anything.
I took the camera from her and passed it back to Roland. ‘Could you do me a favour, Roland?’
‘Of course, anything, Lady Emma,’ he said, without looking away from the image on the camera.
‘Could you make a copy of this for me, my friend?’
Roland glanced up at me, then at John. ‘Of course.’
CHAPTER FOUR
Oh, good, you’re out. After breakfast, come into my office.
I didn’t wait; I made myself a cup of tea and went straight into the study. Gold and John sat on either side of the desk.
‘Your parents are still asleep,’ John said.
‘Probably the time difference screwing them up,’ I said. ‘They’ve never been overseas before.’
‘It’s only two hours,’ Gold said.
‘They’re worn out,’ John said. ‘You’ve been dragging them around too much. Take them for a drive today, rest their feet.’
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘I’ll take them out to the New Territories, away from the concrete and pollution for a day. We might go to the riding stables—the Country Club’s gardens would probably be a nice change for them.’
‘Good idea,’ John said. ‘I thought you should know about this—Gold just told me. He’s been cultivating a senior police officer and heard some interesting information about the investigation into Kitty Kwok.’
‘That’s not a very honourable thing to do,’ I said. ‘I’m surprised at both of you.’
‘I didn’t know he was involved in the investigation until we’d been going out for a while,’ Gold said. ‘Purely a happy coincidence.’
‘Yeah, right, a coincidence,’ I said. ‘Wait a second, he? Oh for God’s sake, John, are any of your staff straight?’
Gold chuckled. ‘I thought you knew.’
‘Gold’s a stone,’ John said. ‘Gender neutral.’
‘I think the term is bi, but it doesn’t really apply to us,’ Gold said. ‘We can take either gender, but in essence we are neutral. If we like someone, we mould ourselves to fit their preference.’
‘And you’re my staff too, technically, Emma,’ John said. He grinned broadly. ‘I thought you and Louise were very close.’