Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (2 page)

Stand by.

His voice returned a couple of minutes later.
Either of them demons?

No,
the stone said.
Human.

Ah shit
, the Tiger said.
Well, okay, I’ll take them. A Horseman is on his way to get them.

‘Thanks,’ I said. ‘Why do you always want my injured demon students?’

The Tiger didn’t reply.

‘He has a group of his children researching demon nature,’ the stone said.

‘Dear Lord, he’s not doing any genetic experimentation on them, is he?’

Nah, just having a look inside
, the Tiger said.
They’re moving way ahead of us in breeding research, they always have. I thought it was about time that we caught up.

‘Breeding?’ I said, horrified.

‘The Tiger is breeding demons?’ Edwards said.

No, no, of course not
, the Tiger said.
We just collect them as we go along. Some of yours would be fun to have
—
a few of yours are the results of some very interesting breeding experiments. That’s why they have so much free will and have joined you in the first place.

‘You hurt one hair on any of my demon students’ heads and your tail is in serious trouble,’ I said.

‘Hear, hear,’ Edwards said quietly.

‘He’s not breeding them, he’s collecting them and doing research,’ I said for Edwards’ benefit. ‘He wants some of ours ‘cause they’re the result of some “interesting breeding experiments”.’

Edwards leaned back in his seat and crossed his arms. ‘No way is that bastard laying his paws on any of my students. My kids are not guinea pigs.’

I promise I won’t hurt them
,
Jim
, the Tiger said.

Edwards gave an excellent British harrumph. ‘The psychological damage of undergoing that level of medical examination would undo all the good work we’ve done in getting these kids over what they’ve
endured in Hell. The Tiger can piss off, he’s not getting any of mine.’

What if they volunteer?
the Tiger said.

‘Oh, now that’s clutching at straws,’ Edwards said with amusement.

It’s like a holiday for them, Jimmy
, the Tiger said.
You know how nice it is out here. Let them come and check it out.
His voice became eager.
How many good demon students do you have anyway?

‘None of your damn business, and shut the fuck up,’ Edwards said. He winced. ‘Sorry, ma’am.’ His tone was amused as he spoke to the Tiger again. ‘Get lost. You’re not getting any of my demons.’

‘You’re not getting any of the Academy demons,’ I added. ‘Get your own. And if I send any over to you for medical attention and find that you’ve experimented on them, your tail is mine.’

Fine thanks I get for helping you out here
, the Tiger grumbled in my head.
Just one or two
—

‘No!’ Edwards and I said at the same time.

Fine!

‘Oh, and Ah Bai?’ I said.

What!

‘Thanks for looking after these students for me, my friend. Most appreciated.’

Stop sounding like Ah Wu
, he said, and went quiet.

‘Be interesting to see what he’s finding out about them,’ Edwards said. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by demons. Never knew they existed when I was back in the UK, but I must have run into a couple of them without realising.’

‘You think so?’ I said.

‘It follows. Demons are often in on the nasty stuff that goes on.’ He nodded towards the prostitutes, who cowered in their seats at the back of the bus as the students tried to explain to them that they were no
longer slaves. ‘We were often called in to deal with this sort of thing.’

‘Ever run into any nasties that seemed more dangerous than your average felon?’ I said. ‘That gave even a group of trained fighters like yourselves a tough battle?’

He thought for a moment. ‘Never had anybody that didn’t drop when we shot them, and demons would be unaffected by guns.’ He hesitated. ‘But some of them did seem tougher. We were given extensive training, and it’s like they were too.’ He shrugged. ‘Stronger, faster, smarter. A match for us. Could have been demons.’

‘But if you shot them, they fell down,’ I said. ‘Never had any explode into demon stuff?’

‘Never,’ he said. ‘Must go back to the UK and have a look one day.’

‘I’ll come with you,’ I said.

He harrumphed again. ‘Neither of us have the goddamn time, ma’am. We’re both flat out keeping our people here safe from the Demon King and his little kiddies.’

I sighed. ‘I know.’ I touched the stone. ‘How’s Simone doing?’

‘Let me see,’ the stone said. ‘She’s just arriving there now.’

‘Can you link me up, please?’

Simone appeared as a small image in front of us, running downhill towards the demons from where the phoenix was standing guard at the entrance to her nest. She was wearing her school PE uniform—a pair of green shorts and house T-shirt—and carrying her father’s sword, Dark Heavens. The sword was completely without adornment on either the handle or the blade. It was slightly too big for her but it was her weapon of choice.

As she closed on the demons, she lifted into the air,
her tawny hair flying around her. She raised Dark Heavens horizontally above her head, and held her left hand up, her first two fingers pointing towards the demons, ready to use chi energy if necessary.

She flew lightning-fast over the Snake Mother, somersaulted directly above it and sliced diagonally through its skinless body. It fell in two pieces, the snake part writhing across the ground, the human hands scrabbling at the gravel.

Simone landed in a crouch, and I was breathless for a moment thinking she had hit the ground too hard. She spun and rose and launched shen energy at two nearby demons, blinding white blasts that destroyed them. The red warriors that had been fighting the demons stepped back in shock and raised their hands.

About six of the fake stone elementals remained. Simone ran to the centre of the battle, concentrated for a split second, then rammed Dark Heavens into the ground. Her hair flew up, the gravel lifted from the ground around her and a shockwave spread outwards from the blade of the sword, creating a visible ripple in the stony ground. When the shockwave hit the warriors, it knocked them off their feet; but when it hit the demons, it completely shattered them. They fell to the ground in shards of stone.

The shockwave stopped and the gravel that had been flying around Simone dropped to the ground. She pulled her sword free, and walked back up the slope to the phoenix. The red warriors rose and checked the area; the demons had all been destroyed.

Simone shared a few short words with the phoenix, then they touched wing to hand, the flaming feathers doing her no damage. She nodded to the warriors, who saluted her, then she shot straight up into the air and disappeared towards the north, leaving behind a trail of vapour.

I thank you, Madam General
, the phoenix said into my head.
You and the Princess have saved my babies. I am your servant.

‘Tell her she’s welcome,’ I said to the stone, and the image of the phoenix snapped off.

‘Never ceases to amaze me how such a sweet young lass can kick so much serious arse,’ Edwards said.

One of the seniors called to us from the back of the bus. ‘A few of these girls don’t speak anything but Indonesian and Thai, and one is Vietnamese. We need your help, Masters.’

Sit moved to the back of the bus where he talked to the girls in Putonghua. Nevertheless, they all understood him.

‘I envy the Immortals,’ Edwards said.

‘Then you’ll never join them,’ I said.

He shook with a short, silent laugh. ‘I know.’

‘If you want to take the time to go and cultivate the Tao, it’s your choice,’ I said.

He considered for a moment. ‘One day maybe. They all encourage me to go and cultivate the Tao on the Mountain, living on pine nuts and spring water, but I don’t think I’m ready for the Art of Navel Gazing. I’m just having too much damn fun here.’

I nodded. ‘Just so you know. If you feel the time is right, then go. They will help you.’

‘Thanks, Emma,’ he said softly. He shifted to sit more upright. ‘Nearly there now. Let’s work out what to do with these poor girls.’

T
he team who’d rescued the prostitutes gathered for a debriefing in the conference room on the ninth floor.

‘Four of them can’t go home; their families sold them into this and they won’t be wanted back,’ Sit said. ‘Of the seven who can go home, we found only three of their passports in the brothel, the other four passports are missing. We’ll have stones tap into the relevant immigration computers to extract their details and make duplicates for them. Something very interesting, ma’am—one of the girls appears to be half-dragon and completely unaware of her nature. One of our dragons recognised her.’

‘I’ll talk to her,’ I said. ‘Arrange for her and Amy to meet me in my office after this; and to bring along the four girls that can’t go home. But first let’s have a look at Mr Lee’s recording. I want to see this energy blast that injured the students.’

Lee folded up from human to stone form and drifted to sit in the middle of the table. We waited for him to produce the recording of the standoff with the demons, but nothing happened. He returned to human form after a couple of minutes, obviously puzzled.

‘The recording’s not there,’ he said.

‘It’s not in your matrix?’ I said.

He shook his head, bewildered. ‘That area of my structure is clear. Like nothing was ever there.’ He looked concerned. ‘I’ve been hacked.’

‘Not possible, they were just Mothers,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘Bring out what you have either side, let’s see.’

Lee rubbed his hands over his face. ‘There isn’t anything there. I recall arriving at the building, going up the stairs, then going into recording mode. Then the next segment of data is me back down in the bus. I’ve been wiped.’

‘Not possible!’ the stone said.

‘Has anything like this happened to you before?’ I said.

Lee shook his head. ‘Very disturbing.’

‘Time to go back and see what’s going on there,’ I said. ‘Lee, grab a couple of other stones, take a couple of Celestials. See if you can get a dragon if they’re free, and teleport directly in. Everybody take a recording. Someone take an old-fashioned video camera from stores; ask Lok for one. We’ll meet back here in a couple of hours and see what we can see.’

‘Ma’am.’ Lee lowered his head and disappeared.

‘Has anything like this ever happened before?’ I asked the stone.

‘It is possible for us to experience damage to part of the matrix, but usually we can piece together the undamaged parts to give us an idea of what went wrong,’ the stone said. ‘Being erased like that is unheard of.’

‘Are you passing it through the stone network?’

‘Quite a few stones have dropped what they’re doing and are going along with Lee. A few want to examine his matrix. We’re looking into it.’

‘Good,’ I said. ‘Sit, get a stone to make some duplicate passports for these girls, and let’s send them home. I’ll talk to the dragon and the four that can’t go home in my office. Other than that, I think we’re done here.’

‘Ma’am,’ Sit said, and disappeared.

‘I’m very concerned, Emma,’ the stone said.

‘You’re not the only one.’

‘So it’s your choice,’ I said to the five girls. ‘Go home to your own country, or stay here. If you stay, we can give you the right of abode and you can find a job and work here. We will give you somewhere to live. It is up to you.’

One of the girls sniffled. The others sat looking down at their hands, silent and disbelieving.

‘If you don’t know what you want to do, take your time,’ I said. ‘We will look after you; we won’t make you do sex work. We will train you to do office work if you like, and you can find yourselves good jobs back home.’

None of the girls moved or spoke.

‘My staff will show you where you’re going to live until you decide,’ I said. ‘The lady who brought you here is waiting for you outside the office. If you want to go, just tell her, she’ll take you home. If you’re not sure, then you can stay with us until you know.’

I called to Martha and she opened the door and came in. ‘I’ll do the rest,’ she said.

She smiled at the girls and folded her hands in front of her. ‘I will look after you, nobody will hurt you any more. I can take you home or you can stay here; either way you are safe.’

The girls sat without moving.

Martha put her hand out. ‘Come with me.’

The girls rose like automatons, still looking at the floor, and went out with Martha. One of them sniffled again and wiped her nose on her sleeve.

Martha gently put her hand out to stop one of the girls from leaving the room. ‘Not you, you stay here. Madam needs to talk to you.’

The girl stopped, still staring at the floor. The other girls went with Martha without looking back.

I checked my notes for her name. ‘Hien. Please sit again, and I’ll tell you a story.’

She returned to her seat and glanced up at me through her long fringe. I smiled. Actually looking at me was a promising step.

‘About eleven years ago, I took a job as nanny to a little girl named Simone. Her father was a wealthy Hong Kong businessman.’

Hien didn’t move.

‘After a while, I discovered that he wasn’t a businessman at all, but a god. He was Xuan Wu, the black Turtle Snake God of the North.’

Hien glanced at me through her fringe again.

‘I don’t know how much you know about the gods, but he was the North Wind, an Immortal. He married a human woman and had a child with her. It’s a long story, but because of his wife he was forced to stay in human form for a long time and this made him weak. His wife was murdered by a demon before I met him; that’s why he needed me to nanny. He and I fell in love and he died about three years after that, murdered by a demon. I’ve been looking after his daughter, Simone, ever since. I’ve also been given the job of looking after his martial arts academy and some other stuff related to him being Emperor of the Northern Heavens.’ I put my chin on my hand. ‘Not exactly what I was intending to do with my life, but one day he’ll come back and we’ll get married.’