Gang waited for Anton to regain some composure.
In quiet tones, he said, ‘what’s happened, Anton? Now I am frightened, has something happened to Anna and William?’
‘My mom was killed on Friday night. Vampires took dad away and said that they would bury him in silver,’ Anton said, wiping tears from his face.
Gang stood up, his face paled. Li put her hands over her mouth, her eyes wide.
‘You must stay here,’ Gang said decisively. ‘This is terrible news. Someone must have betrayed their secret.’
Anton looked Gang in the eyes, ‘how do you know so much?’
‘I was a student of your grandfather. Back then, there was much trouble in the Order, murders and lies, your parents and your grandfather had to go into hiding.’
‘I don’t know what the Order is. Chloe Armitage - the one who killed my mother and took my father away spoke of the Order of Thoth.’
Gang paused for a long moment, ‘this vampire, can you describe her, and did she have a henchman?’
‘She’s quite tall for a woman, young, maybe nineteen or twenty, brunette, blue eyes, sounds posh, looks like a supermodel, and yes, she had a man with her, tall, solid, blond, named Marcus Drake.’
Gang pursed his lips, giving a soft whistle, ‘Anton, you’re still with us - which is a miracle,’ he stroked his chin, ‘Li, maybe something stronger tonight, pass over the shot glasses.’
Gang reached beneath the bench, ‘Saki, family reserve,’ he poured out a stiff drink for each of them, stoppering the bottle, he put it back beneath the bench.
They sipped their Saki, and it burned with a smooth fire down Anton’s throat.
‘I will contact your grandfather; he must be told what has happened. As for the Order, it is enough for tonight that you know that we have been fighting vampires for the last five thousand years. You are with friends now.’
Anton put his hand out and Gang took it, clasping his arm.
‘Thanks, Gang’, Anton looked over at Li and said, ‘and Li. I can’t thank you both enough.’
Li arched a quizzical eyebrow and smiled.
Gang shook his head slightly, ‘there is only one reason why you didn’t die with your mother. It serves the Demon’s purpose that you live.’
‘She said things to me.’ Anton murmured.
‘Beware of what Chloe Armitage has told you. Every word serves her agenda, not yours,’ Gang said. ‘Now off for a shower, I don’t often agree with my daughter - but in this instance, she is absolutely correct. You do resemble a scruffy, stray dog. Li, show him the bathroom and the guest room.’
Li said, ‘follow me, Anton.’
As they left the kitchen, Anton heard Gang call after them. ‘Tomorrow I will teach you how to wash dishes, we are a kitchenhand short, and you can help out while you’re here. I have special techniques that I will share with you. You will be the best dishwasher in all of Chinatown.’
For the first time in days, Anton smiled. Li led him to the building next to the restaurant. It was the Wu family home.
Twenty minutes later, Anton had showered and was falling asleep in a comfortable bed.
Chapter Three
Terrorism link to Friday night murder
By Stephanie Hurd | Mercury Correspondent APRIL 29,
The murder of a woman in Jamaica Plain has been linked to terrorism with the case being handed from the Boston Police Department to the FBI.
Police had been notified of the murder and attended the house where the body of the woman was found in the early hours of Saturday Morning. An arrest warrant for a suspect was issued but was later rescinded after the FBI took over the case.
The FBI from the Manhattan Joint Terrorism Task Force Annex has jurisdiction for this case, said Boston police spokesman, Harold Jacobs in a phone interview Saturday.
The FBI Special Agent in Charge, Jim Alexander, declined to comment on the case, stating that policy dictated that active operations against terrorist cells were not a subject for media discussion.
- Boston Mercury Newspaper article on the Internet.
* * *
Boston
May 5th
23:00
Anton finished washing the last of the dishes, hanging up his scrapers, brushes and dish washing cloths.
The job was done, he looked up at the clock, it was eleven pm. Flicking off the kitchen lights, he left the restaurant, making his way to Li and Gang’s home. Entering the ground floor, he heard the sharp crack of wood on wood coming from the backyard, and went to investigate what was happening there.
A square wooden deck about ten yards on a side dominated the backyard, it was covered with a peaked roof, supported by four thick pillars at the corners, providing an open air training environment. In the middle of the deck, Li and Gang sparred with pairs of wooden sticks. Anton watched in growing amazement at the remarkable display of skill and control as Li and Gang trained with each other. After three minutes, they paused, stepping back and bowed to each other.
‘I see that we have an audience for our Arnis training,’ Gang said.
‘Would you like to join us?’ Li said, questioning and challenging at the same time.
‘It is time to begin your training, you are hunted by vampires, the Order of Thoth is your natural home,’ Gang declared.
‘How do I begin?’
‘You have already started with that question,’ Gang said, ‘but before we start with “how” we must answer “why.” Why do you want to learn what we have to teach?’
‘To defend myself, to avenge my mother’s death, to rescue my father,’ Anton declared with quiet intensity.
‘The first part of your answer makes sense, the rest not so much,’ Gang paused, ‘your father is beyond saving, he will have been turned, being buried in silver is a punishment for vampires. As for your mother, do you really want vengeance to be the center of your life?’
‘Chloe Armitage needs to be destroyed.’
‘I agree, but the man who walks in the shadow of vengeance is a different man from the man who walks in the light of justice.’
Fortune cookie wisdom?
‘... Is there a difference?’
‘I see that for you there is no difference,’ Gang hesitated, frowning, ‘but you are also young, inexperienced and foolish.’
‘Thanks,’ Anton said, sarcastically.
A second later he was face down on the woven mats that were embedded in the floor, his arm twisted up behind his back. Li had dropped him; just as quickly she was gone and Anton rose to his feet, rubbing and rolling his shoulder.
Gang smiled, ‘never mind Anton, I was even more arrogant than you are at your age. You will find out that humility is an essential virtue or you will not survive.’
Anton took a deep breath, ‘okay. I’m sorry.’
‘If you approach Chloe Armitage with anger in your heart, she will gut you like a fish.’
‘I’m sorry, I just don’t see how humility is going to help me fight vampires and defeat her.’
‘Humility will allow you to master what you need to learn, and to be fully present when the moment comes to use what you have mastered.’
Anton frowned, ‘... okay, I will try.’
Gang snorted, ‘try,’ he laughed, ‘we’ll see about that.’
Anton frowned again, ‘are you always going to be laughing at me?’
‘Well ... yes,’ Gang smiled, ‘I’m sure that your training will be very amusing.’
‘Are you serious?’
‘Very serious.’
‘You’re kidding me.’
‘No - the more serious something is, the more we need to laugh at it.’
‘... Okay.’
Gang sighed, ‘now before we proceed, there are things you must know and agree to, or else you must walk away for here and never come back.’
Anton frowned, ‘okay, sure.’
‘The Order of Thoth is a harsh mistress, and I mean harsh. I’m not talking about “Wishy Washy 101”
at the local University. There are some hard and fast rules that you must understand and agree too. Is that clear?’
Anton nodded.
‘Then let us begin. Rule number one, once you join there is no going back. The Order is for the rest of your life. Once you commit to the Order, the only way to leave is via the grave. Is that clear? Do you understand and accept this rule?’
Anton responded without hesitation, ‘yes, I understand.’
‘Rule number two, as a member of the Order you will keep the Order secret, and you will keep the Order’s secrets. Is that clear? Do you understand and accept this rule?’
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Rule number three, as a member of the Order you will obey the orders of your superiors without hesitation? Is that clear? Do you understand and accept this rule?’
Total obedience, or I walk away with nothing and Chloe Armitage gets away with it?
‘Yes, I understand.’
‘Do you agree to and accept all three rules?’
‘Yes.’
‘Okay then,’ Gang said. ‘Anton, please take off your shirt.’
‘Huh?’
‘Rule number three Anton,’ Gang said, arching an eyebrow and tilting his head.
‘Okay,’ Anton said.
He took off his shirt, dropping it to the floor.
Li stared at Anton, slowly smiling.
Gang put a consoling hand on Anton’s shoulder, and said quietly. ‘I must warn you, what I’m about to do, I have never done before, but your grandfather taught me this.’
What’s he going to do, hit me hard in the face? Some sort of initiation test?
Anton braced himself, and said, ‘go for it.’
Gang shaped his fore and middle fingers into a stiff knife which blurred over Anton’s torso in a tightly controlled sequence, striking him deeply a dozen times in less than a second.
Each strike sent a shockwave through Anton’s body. Anton felt silvery light flaring at the base of his spine and racing up his body. The light burned with an intense cold fire fountaining through the top of his skull. With his eyes rolling up in his head, he fell to the floor unconscious.
Anton woke up, a living flame ripping through every fiber of his being. He felt like he was being consumed by fire. He desperately wanted to scream, but only a high pitched screech got past his clenched jaws. A white wall of agony swept through his skull, threatening to blow his head apart.
For what seemed like an eternity he trembled and shook, and then lay still. Panting for breath, he felt gentle hands on his shoulder and hip, as someone rolled him into the recovery position. Pain beyond anything he had ever felt before overtook his body in waves. Great floods of agony washed through him, all but taking his sanity away. Time disappeared and there was only the dark ocean of pain in which he was drowning, all light vanished as eternal night descended and overwhelmed his mind.
There was a gap in which nothing existed, not even himself.
A frail spark reignited and the dark gave ground to the light.
He sobbed once with terror, but no one heard.
A rift cracked open between the past and the future - two opposite worlds beckoned with equally seductive powers.
Oblivion or Life.
But I do care, I can never give up.
Forced to choose, he drew his next breath and the darkness retreated. The spark grew with the returning of the light. The ocean of pain ebbed away, slowly replaced by intense pins and needles as his body and mind returned to a calmer state.
Oh my God ... oh my God.
He opened his eyes, sat up and was immediately wracked with a fit of harsh coughing.
Li put her hand softly on his shoulder, ‘that’s your lungs learning to really breathe for the first time.’
Anton couldn’t speak for a long moment, then regained enough control to gasp, ‘what was that? What did you just do to me?’
‘I just switched you on,’ Gang chuckled, slapping Anton on the shoulder, ‘that’s the first time I’ve seen that work.’
Pushing himself up, Anton groaned, ‘switched me on? I feel like I’ve been run over by a Mack truck ... twice.’
Gang shrugged his shoulders, ‘but now you can Ramp.’
Anton shook his head, his nose had started bleeding, ‘what’s the Ramp?’
Li gave him a hand towel, Anton pressed it to his nose, looking at Gang.
Gang explained, ‘the Ramp is an epigenetic phenomenon. The outcome of a set of techniques that bind muscles and rewire nerves. There are very real physiological changes that enable us to reach our full potential as a human being. That enables us to match the speed and capabilities of vampires. That allow us to enter combat with vampires and win.’
‘You could have warned me,’ Anton said ruefully.
‘If I had told you how much it would hurt - would you have chosen differently?’
Anton shook his head, ‘no.’
‘Good answer. By the way, not everyone survives that process, most die.’
‘Most die, I’m not surprised. I thought I was definitely going to die. It was a big risk, was there no other way?’
‘There is no way that you can stay in the Order as a fighter without the Ramp. I trusted in the fact that you are a Slayne. You have over two hundred generations behind you of continuous membership in the Order. If anyone was going to survive the process, it would be you.’
Anton looked at Gang and Li, ‘so the both of you have been through that?’
Gang grinned broadly, ‘no, of course not. We both started training at three years of age, and the transformations that you just went through were accomplished over fifteen years of dedicated work.’
Anton winced as Gang slapped him on the back and said, ‘you got off easy, you got the condensed version.’
Anton smiled wryly, then grimaced as he stiffly got up off the mat.
‘You can’t train an adult body for the Ramp, it is no longer adaptable, what my father did was the only way,’ Li added.
Anton’s blood nose had stopped, rubbing his forehead, he picked up his shirt. He felt utterly drained and exhausted, but exhilarated as well, as if he had just won a championship game.
‘So what happens now?’
‘All I have done is open the door,’ Gang said. ‘You still have to walk through it. The development of skill and control is still in front of you. Please believe me when I tell you that there is much for you to learn, but for now, drink plenty of water and get some sleep.’
‘Thanks, sounds like excellent advice,’ Anton said, walking gingerly to his room.
Everything hurts like hell.
He managed a couple of glasses of water in the bathroom before flopping into his bed and falling immediately asleep.
* * *
Chloe and Haras stood on top of a rampart at the Tower of David Citadel in Jerusalem.
The evening light show had finished and the revelers had all left, bar two unfortunate souls whose bodies were in the back of a Shadowstone van being driven by Peter Dench to a designated disposal facility. The other praetorian, Washington Jones, stood a dozen yards away on another part of the Citadel wall. All four vampires wore barely visible in-ear communication headsets that provided secure communications via encrypted satellite links to any location in the world.
‘We are wasting our time. We have been here nearly a week without a hint of Red Empire activity. We need a new strategy,’ Haras said, staring out over the old city of Jerusalem.
‘First we need good intelligence,’ he continued. ‘We need to find the secret Citadel of Shabbah al Ahmar. It was moved in 1850, two days after I was converted before Crane could launch an attack on it. The Red Ghost of that time had acted quickly when his chief lieutenant was taken alive by vampires. Back then it was in Istanbul, the city that I grew up in as a child. It is a distinct possibility that the Red Empire have moved back there and now they simply run operatives through Jerusalem to lay a false trail. It is a task for Shadowstone and the Pan
opticon to find the Red Empire’s men and track them back to their lair. Then we can come in and deal with the main force of the Red Empire.’
Chloe tilted her head slightly, ‘you talk of war when our mission is one of stealth.’
‘You’ve never shirked a battle before.’
Chloe’s lips twitched with a slight smile, ‘of course not, but open war with the Red Empire is not our mission.’
‘We don’t have enough information to execute our mission as it stands.’
‘Crane must believe that the Red Empire is here; otherwise, he would not have sent us, we are too valuable for him to waste our time here.’
‘But we are wasting our time here.’
‘The Red Empire must be here somewhere - we need a new method of searching.’
‘I will take Jones, if you catch up with Dench we can split this city into two halves. I will take the west side -.’
Chloe nodded quickly, ‘and I will take the east.’
They both saw the flash at the same time, turning to look at what was happening. Jones immediately joined them, appearing next to Haras, as another pair of flashes followed hot on the heels of the first. A plume of smoke erupted about six miles away in the direction of the disposal facility. Then the sound of the explosions reached them.
Chloe activated her ear piece on broadcast, ‘Dench, report in ... Dench?’
The only sound on the line was static.
‘He’s gone, Ma’am,’ Jones said.
Jones opened his Shadowstone smartphone, quickly bringing up a Panopticon satellite feed covering the area of the explosion. He held the phone out so that Haras and Chloe could see what was on the screen. The Shadowstone van had been dismembered by the explosions, people were cowering in the street, frozen, or running away. A pair of men were carefully approaching the remains of the van. Even with a satellite view, they could see the men point toward the center of the remains of the cabin and shake their heads.
Haras opened his own smartphone, running a program, in seconds it gave a quick succession of beeps, ‘we have targets, three of them.’
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