Journey to Wubang 01 - Earth to Hell (33 page)

Leo came out from his bedroom and into the living room. He saw all of us sitting on the couches and approached us, curious. ‘What’s going on?’

The stone flew up into the air, hovered about a metre off the ground and disappeared.

Simone and the Tiger both jerked their heads up and their eyes unfocused, then they disappeared as well.

‘They’re tracking it,’ the stone in my ring said.

‘That stone was destroying our seals,’ I told Leo. ‘We think the Demon Prince Six planted it here.’

Leo flopped to sit on the couch and put his head in his hands. ‘And it took off when I moved near it. Wonderful.’

China
, Simone said.
Just a sec.

Homing
, the Tiger said.
Dammit!

I’m helping out
, Michael said into my head.
This thing is fast!

Lost it!
the Tiger said.

I’m on it…
Simone’s voice trailed off.
Heading northeast…still going…I’m nearly past Guangzhou already…

I see you
, Michael said.

Got you
, the Tiger said.

Still going northeast
, Simone said.
Gah! This pollution is awful!

Industrial centre
, Michael said.
I’m having trouble with the pollution.

Me too
, Simone said.
I’m losing it! Uncle Bai?

Gone
, Michael said.

I lost it a while ago
, the Tiger said.

It went underground, everybody
, the stone in my ring said.

There was silence for a moment.

Somewhere around here
, Simone said.

Simone, where was the last place you saw it?
Michael said.

Here.

This is my last location, it was moving in this direction…it disappeared somewhere around here
, Michael said.

Emma, we have an area of about twenty kilometres to a side
, Simone said.
We’re going to have a poke around. Tiger, where exactly are we?

That’s Shantou, Eastern Guangdong seaboard, northeast corner of Guangdong Province
, the Tiger said.
Nothing terribly exciting there, just a lot of noise and pollution. Not even famous for good-looking chicks.

‘Do you think I can be transported in serpent form?’ I asked the stone.

‘I have no idea, but there’s nobody here to take you,’ it said. ‘And it’s a good four hours’ drive from Guangzhou to Shantou.’

I’ll send you a cloud, hang on
, the Tiger said.

She can’t ride clouds, she can’t make herself invisible
, Simone said.
Hang out there, Emma, we’ll be fine.

After a few minutes of nervous waiting I said, ‘Any news, stone?’

The stone didn’t reply, and I glanced down at it. The setting in the ring was empty; the stone was gone. I threw myself up and went to the training room to do a Tai Chi set to remain calm. Intellectually I knew that the three of them were some of the most powerful demon destroyers in this part of the world, but my heart wouldn’t stop reminding me what my head already knew: Simone and Michael might have been powerful but they were still mortal, and if they ran into more than they could handle there was a very real chance they could get themselves killed.

Leo didn’t move from his position on the couch as I headed to the training room.

I had already completed a forty-eight-form yang set and was halfway through a full eighty-eight-form set when the doorbell rang. I took a deep breath, centred what remained of my chi, and went out to answer it.

Leo had already opened the door. A huge demon stood there, nearly as big as any Number One. He was in human form, a man in his mid-sixties with long grey hair held in a topknot, wearing a traditional robe of grey silk. When the demon saw me he raised his hand, pointed at me, and said, ‘Hold her.’

I turned to run but Leo grabbed me and spun me around to face the demon. I should have been able to shake him off, but he was vastly stronger than me and held me easily.

The demon entered; the seals were completely down. He stopped and looked around the living room, then turned back to me and grinned. ‘Lady Emma. Let’s go.’

L
eo marched me out of the apartment, holding my arms behind me. A huge Chinese human, at least six five and a wall of muscle, stood in the lift lobby pointing a gun at me.

‘Don’t try anything or Chang here will shoot you,’ the demon said. ‘Come quietly, please, Miss Emma.’

The Leo copy released my arms, and I hesitated. I was inhumanly fast, but I wasn’t fast enough to risk getting shot. I raised my hands.

‘Oh, very good,’ the demon said. ‘We won’t hurt you, we just want to talk. Please, come with us, have a small chat, and we’ll be happy to let you go.’

‘Jade Building Block,’ I said.

The demon’s grin widened. ‘Nice try, ma’am, but you’re with
me
and I am an expert in dealing with stones. Your little green friend is a long way away and cannot hear you.’ He nodded towards the lift. ‘Let’s go, shall we?’

They took me down to the car park. A bucket of soapy water stood next to the front wheel of my Mercedes and a sponge sat on the hood.

‘Where’s Denis?’ I said.

‘Who?’ the demon said.

‘My driver.’

‘Oh, he was
fun
,’ the demon said with pleasure. ‘Horsemen are
good.
’

‘You will pay for that,’ I said.

‘Yes, of course I will,’ the demon said. ‘The car’s out here.’

They guided me outside the building and pressed the button to open the pedestrian gate at the end of the drive. A white Mercedes waited at the side of the road, its engine running. Another demon was standing next to the car, in the form of an elderly Chinese woman in a blood-red cheongsam with gold trimming.

‘Miss Emma in the middle in the back,’ the male demon said. ‘I will sit on one side, Three the other. Leo in the front.’

The man with the gun moved it slightly to indicate that I was to get into the car. The male demon opened the door for me and watched me carefully as I entered. I sat in the middle, and the demons sat on either side of me. Leo sat in the front next to the big Chinese, who passed the gun to him. Leo turned and pointed the gun at me.

‘Let’s go, Chang,’ the male demon said. ‘We have a suite at the Shang, on Pacific Place. Please, ma’am, just come quietly. We won’t hurt you, we just want to talk.’

‘I won’t try anything,’ I said. ‘I want to hear what you have to say.’ I nodded towards the Leo copy. ‘Did you make him?’

The demon settled more comfortably into his seat. ‘No.’

‘Who did?’

The demon hesitated slightly, then said, ‘Who made you, Leo?’

‘My mother and father,’ Leo said, the gun not moving from my head.

‘Very good answer.’

Leo nodded. ‘Thank you.’

‘Do you know who I am, Leo?’ I said.

‘Emma Donahoe. Promised of the Dark Lord. Known as the Dark Lady, you also turn into a goddamn huge snake and a Snake Mother.’

‘Who is the Dark Lord?’

An expression of bewilderment swept across Leo’s face. ‘What?’

‘Disengage, Leo Four,’ the demon said.

Leo’s face went blank.

‘Nice try, ma’am,’ the demon said. ‘Let’s just wait until we’re at the suite before we talk any more, shall we?’

‘Your choice,’ I said.

We drove in silence down Garden Road, past the office buildings of Admiralty, and up the ramp onto the top of Pacific Place, where three of the Territory’s most luxurious hotels and serviced apartment blocks were located. We travelled past the bottom of Hong Kong Park, with its manicured gardens and fountains, and pulled up at the entrance to the hotel.

‘Please don’t try anything as we take you up, ma’am,’ the demon said. ‘I would have to use force.’

‘You won’t use force on me in plain view of everybody,’ I said.

‘Ah, you see, that’s the thing,’ the demon said, as if he was telling a charming story to a small child. ‘Nobody can see us.’

The female demon opened the car door and guided me out. They took me through the lobby of the hotel, the gun at my head, and nobody seemed to notice. We went up in the lift to the club suites on the highest floors. The suite they took me into had a living room, two separate bedrooms and overlooked the harbour. The winter day was fading and the neon lights on the buildings across the water were beginning to come on in a colourful spectacle.

A couple of bodyguards were waiting for us inside, and the big driver nodded to them as we entered. They stationed themselves on either side of the door.

‘Sit, Miss Donahoe,’ the demon said.

I didn’t say anything, I just sat.

The demon nodded to the bodyguards and spoke in Putonghua. ‘Order some Western tea from room service.’

One of the guards nodded and picked up the phone.

The elderly female demon led Leo into one of the bedrooms, then returned and sat on the couch across from me.

‘You may call me Six,’ the male demon said. ‘This beautiful lady is my consort, Three.’

I took a good look at Three and felt a jolt of shock. She was bigger than Six; she was upwards of a high-level eighties Snake Mother, one of the biggest I had ever seen. She watched me with amusement as I recognised her.

Six raised one hand and the big driver opened the door to the second bedroom, went in and brought out Billy, the stone in my first-year class. The kid was in human form and had his hands bound in front of him with a plastic zipper slide, the newer alternative to handcuffs and impossible to wriggle out of. I shot to my feet and the driver immediately pulled out his gun and pointed it at Billy’s head.

‘Sit down, Ms Donahoe,’ Six said amiably. ‘We won’t hurt the kid, we just want to talk. We thought you’d need convincing.’

‘Tell me what you want,’ I said.

‘Don’t do anything for them, ma’am,’ Billy said. ‘Just kill me and then run.’

‘Have they harmed you in any way whatsoever?’ I said.

‘No, ma’am.’

‘Not at all?’

‘Not at all, ma’am,’ he said. ‘They did something to me that meant I couldn’t use energy, I couldn’t change form. I fought back in human form and they took me down without harming me. This guy,’ he gestured with his chin towards the big driver, Chang, ‘must have trained at Shaolin. Real Shaolin. Has to be ex-monk. He’s like rock.’ His voice dropped with shame. ‘He took me down without even hurting me. I thought I was better than that.’

Chang smiled slightly and nodded.

‘These demons control stones somehow, Billy,’ I said. ‘Besides, you’ve only been learning a few weeks. In a year you’ll be able to take down anyone who’s learned from any other school on Earth. But right now there’s no shame in losing to someone like him.’

Chang frowned.

‘I think we should do the deal.’ Six leaned back on the couch, relaxed. ‘Miss Donahoe, your students make our lives miserable. They catch our…’ He hesitated, looking for the word. ‘
Operatives
—’

‘Gangsters,’ I said.

He ignored me. ‘—who are working their livelihoods and the students use their talents to shut them down. We’re losing at least a million dollars a week because of your kids. The copy DVD and software sales where a group of people will go past and all of the disks are suddenly ruined. The illegal fuel stations where the fuel goes bad. The drug deals where the drugs simply disappear. Frankly, Emma, we’ve had enough, and we’d like your help.’

‘I don’t think I can give you any help,’ I said.

‘We just want you to ease up on our members only, please. Since Three and I left Hell, our activities here have kept us in an extremely comfortable lifestyle, one we could not otherwise afford. One Two Two was
stupid and went after more than he could handle. All we want is to be left alone.’ He gestured towards Billy. ‘As a show of good faith you can have this one. Lay off us for a week, promise to continue to do so for good, and you can have your retainer, Mr Alexander, back.’

‘Remember, Miss Donahoe,’ Three said, ‘your students are trained to defend themselves against demons. Our Little Brothers are humans, they have guns, and there is no Art that can defeat someone with a firearm.’ She smiled like a kindly socialite. ‘We have no desire to make trouble, ma’am, we just want to be left alone to make a small living doing what we do best.’

‘Were you two together with One Two Two?’ I said.

Their smiles widened slightly but neither of them replied.

‘I don’t remember seeing either of you in the meetings with him.’

Six spread his hands. ‘We may take many forms, ma’am.’

‘So, Miss Emma, do we have a deal?’ Three said. ‘Lay off our Little Brothers, and you will have your Leo back, and your students will not be in danger.’

‘What happens in a week?’ I said.

‘We make a final pact for both our benefits,’ Six said, his wide grin not moving. ‘Your students gain the protection of one of the most powerful demons outside Hell; no other demon will challenge them. And you will gain the return of the Lion.’

I grimaced when he said
protection
. I was being drawn into one of the oldest Triad games in the book—protection money. Wonderful. I needed to stall them for the week and use the time to find out where their nest was, because if I hadn’t taken them down in a week I would have to renege on the deal, my students would be targeted by humans with guns, and Leo would die.

‘Why wait a week?’ I said. ‘Why not just do the deal now?’

‘Two reasons,’ Six said. ‘First, the real Leo is so deeply hidden it will take that long to get him out. Second, we want to see a show of good faith from you so we’d like to see our activities untouched for a full week.’

‘I want a way to identify your gangsters so my students can still practise on other Triads,’ I said.

Six and Three visibly relaxed. ‘That we will provide as early as tomorrow, ma’am. Does this mean that we have a deal?’

In two days the Demon King was going to provide me with the location of these demons’ centre of operations. Doing the deal would give me some breathing space to gather the resources I needed to take them down. And, more than anything, I needed to protect my students, who had no defence if someone came after them with a gun.