S
imone’s face was serious as she sat in the living room with Leo and me after visiting the schools. Their brochures were spread on the coffee table. ‘I don’t know, Emma,’ she said. ‘Which one did you like better?’ I said. Simone tilted her head. ‘I like them both.’ ‘The Australian one has the big playground,’ Leo said. Simone didn’t say anything.
‘You’ll be safe in the American one, sweetheart,’ I said. ‘You saw the big walls.’
Simone glanced quickly up at me. ‘Where are
you
from, Emma?’
‘Australia.’
‘You went to an Australian school?’ I hesitated, then, ‘Yes. But Leo went to an American school.’
‘I think you should go to the Australian one, sweetheart,’ Leo said.
Simone picked up the brochures and looked at them, then up at me again. ‘I want to go to the Australian one. I liked the teachers there better.’
Leo tried to hold back a triumphant grin.
‘You sure?’ I said.
‘Yep.’ Simone dropped the brochures. ‘I like the Australian one. I want to go there.’
I shrugged. ‘Okay, your choice. I’ll ring the headmistress and arrange it.’
Simone smiled at Leo and he smiled back. He would be unbearable for ages now that he’d won.
Mr Chen drove us to the school with me providing directions. When we arrived he walked across to the opposite side of the road from the school and stopped. I waited patiently while he studied the school silently. Then he nodded and we both went in.
The headmistress was waiting for us in her office. She sat us down and closed the door, then sat herself and pulled out Simone’s file.
‘Emma hasn’t told me much about your line of work, Mr Chen,’ she said, opening the folder. ‘Exactly what business are you involved in?’
‘Mostly government work,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Administration, management. Occasionally fieldwork, but not since Simone was born.’
She raised her head and stared at him. ‘Emma said that you had a private import-export firm in China. Not government work at all.’ Her eyes widened. ‘Oh.’
Mr Chen opened his mouth to say something and I kicked him under the table. He glanced at me and I shook my head.
‘Which government?’ she said, smiling. ‘China or Hong Kong?’
‘Neither,’ Mr Chen said. I wondered if it was a speech that he’d worked out over time. ‘The truth is, a much higher government than either.’
‘Oh my,’ she said. She flipped through the pages of Simone’s file. ‘No wonder security is such an issue for you.’ She grinned at me. ‘Universal Exports, eh, Emma?’
I grinned back. ‘Precisely.’
‘Chen Enterprises,’ Mr Chen said, missing the point entirely.
‘Would you like to see around the school?’ the headmistress said, rising.
‘What was all that about in the office?’ he said as we returned to the car.
‘She thinks you’re a spy,’ I said.
‘What?’
‘“Government work”. She thinks you’re a spy. Let her—it means they won’t give us as much hassle about the security.’
He closed the car door. ‘I hadn’t thought of that.’
‘Oh, come on, it’s obvious,’ I said. ‘That’s what I thought when you gave me that line.’
‘Did you?’ he said, bemused.
‘That’s why she said “Universal Exports”. That’s James Bond’s cover company. Used all the time in the films.’
‘Who?’ he said.
I sighed and closed the car door. ‘I’ll rent some videos,’ I said. ‘I can’t believe you’ve never heard of James Bond.’
When we returned to the Peak, Mr Chen, Leo and I sat together and discussed the logistics. I had the school timetable and a rough plan of the area from the handbook. We examined the alternatives.
‘It is extremely likely that the demons will try something the minute Simone starts school,’ Mr Chen said, very calmly. ‘We will need to be ready right away.’
‘What sort of attack should we prepare for, sir?’ Leo said.
‘Probably through the front door to start off with,’ Mr Chen said. ‘We’ll be looking for someone walking
in off the street, wandering through and then grabbing her. They’ll try the direct approach first.’
I was horrified and made a small choking sound. They both ignored me.
‘Any suggestions on how to handle this securely, Leo?’ Mr Chen said.
‘I think I should be stationed outside the classroom, sir,’ Leo said, studying the plans carefully. ‘And follow her when she’s not in class.’
I exploded. ‘No
way
! You will wait outside that school and watch for suspicious people going in. You will
not
go inside while she’s there unless she’s attacked!’
‘If she’s attacked it may be too late,’ Leo said.
Mr Chen cut through us. ‘Both of you, listen. I will teach Simone some skills that will make this point irrelevant. She will be able to tell if a demon is nearby and contact you to come and defend her. You won’t need to be inside the school grounds.’
He glanced sharply at me. ‘I just had an idea. The school is quite new. Emma, I would like you to ask the headmistress if she wants a free fung shui consultation, as a donation from me. Push it hard, tell her it is very important for Chinese. If she’s already had one done, tell her I said it wasn’t very good.’ He paused, concentrating. ‘She has, and it wasn’t. You must get her to agree. The fung shui master will be one of mine. He won’t just do an assessment; he’ll set seals on the school building, to stop demons from materialising there and to keep large numbers from entering at once. Similar to what we have in this apartment.’
I listened carefully and nodded. I knew there were seals on the Peak apartment, but I wasn’t sure exactly what was involved. Putting seals on the school was a brilliant idea. ‘You can count on me, Mr Chen.’
‘Once the seals are set, Leo, you won’t need to be inside the school building. You can stay outside and watch for demons entering the grounds. Simone will be able to tell you if they are approaching her.’
‘How about on the street outside then?’ Leo said, studying the plans.
‘That would probably be close enough,’ Mr Chen said.
‘I’ll stake out the school in the car,’ Leo said. ‘And if you’re right about this skill of Simone’s, then I’ll be nearby if she senses anything and I can be there right away.’
‘Is there a place on the street outside where you can do that?’ Mr Chen said. ‘There were only parking meters nearby, with a two-hour limit.’
‘How about we wave the chequebook at the headmistress and ask for a space to be allocated in the car park?’ I said.
‘Good idea, Emma,’ Leo said. ‘And if that doesn’t work, there are places on the street where I can wait. But the car park would be better.’
‘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.
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; all 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
?’
Leo’s expression didn’t shift. ‘When you get mad, you are extremely scary.’
I glared at him, then I couldn’t help it. I collapsed over my knees, laughing. The four-thousand-year-old God of the Arts of War was scared of
me
!
‘You are more and more scary every day.’
When I returned to the Peak I stormed straight into Mr Chen’s office without knocking. I leaned on the mess on his desk and glowered at him.
‘Don’t tell me—you were attacked,’ he said.
‘No,’ I said, ‘I was followed. Why didn’t you
tell
me?’
He just watched me silently.
‘You
are
scared of me.’
He smiled slightly.
‘You’re a
god
, John,’ I said, exasperated. ‘What the hell can I possibly do that you could be so scared of?’ He didn’t say a word. I spun and opened the door. ‘You could leave us,’ he said softly as I went out.
The next day at noon I didn’t see Jade arrive; it was as if she had been there all the time. She smiled and quickly embraced me. ‘Where would you like to go for lunch?’
‘How about yum cha?’ I said. ‘I haven’t had any in a long time. Mr Chen doesn’t go; nothing vegetarian. Are you vegetarian?’
‘Absolutely not,’ she said. ‘I know a good place nearby, excellent yum cha. Come with me.’
After lunch we dodged through the taxis and cars and went into the Landmark.
‘I bought that gold dress here,’ I said. ‘It cost a fortune. Since we’re doing these charity things all the time now, having something more comfortable would be good.’
Jade stopped and looked at me. ‘You go out with him all the time?’
I stopped as well. It had never occurred to me that she might be jealous. ‘As friends. That’s all.’
‘Good.’
She walked to the escalators and we rode them past the enormous Christmas tree that had been set up in the atrium.
‘What do you do for Christmas?’ I said. ‘What does Mr Chen do?’
‘Christmas?’ Jade looked at me blankly. ‘Christmas is about the same time as Winter Solstice, so we get together with family. But for Christmas?’ She shook her head as we stepped off the escalator at the top. ‘No. Nothing.’
‘It’s a big thing in Australia. It’s different, because it’s in the middle of summer, but we have a lot of traditions.’
‘It is a big festival?’
That stopped me dead. I’d never thought of Christmas as a festival. ‘I guess you’re right. It would be fun to share it with you.’
‘You are very generous, Emma—willing to share your family time with me.’
‘We’re all family. You, Gold, Mr Chen, Monica, Simone, Leo, everybody. We’re all family.’
She took my hand and squeezed it. ‘You’re right.’
She stopped in front of a tiny tailor’s shop with a couple of faded mannequins wearing tuxedos in the window. ‘This is it.’
She led me inside. The shop had bolts of cloth along the walls and a desk against the back corner. A door next to the desk opened and a tiny wizened old Chinese man came out. He grinned broadly and approached us. ‘Princess Jade. Welcome.’
‘Princess?’ I said, glancing at Jade.
She smiled and waved him down. ‘I am very low in precedence, Mr Li. Just Jade.’ ‘How is your father?’
‘My father is well, thank you.’ Jade touched my arm. ‘This is my friend, Emma. Cheongsam, please.’
‘May I have your hand, please, miss?’
I held my hand out and Mr Li took it. He turned it over so that it was palm up and stroked it with the other hand. He didn’t stop grinning at me the entire time. It began to feel creepy, him holding my hand like that.
‘No need, Mr Li, Emma is human,’ Jade said. ‘The Dark Lord’s human nanny.’