by Kylie Chan
‘Who?’
‘The guy that attacked us at the charity concert. The one that took off Gold’s arm and nearly killed you. He was at the bottom of the stairs with the rest of the demons.’
Leo stiffened. ‘Let’s get home.’
CHAPTER TWENTY
After Leo had showered and changed we all met in the dining room to discuss the attack. Simone noisily slurped her ramen. ‘How many?’ Mr Chen said.
‘Five. Level twenty, according to Simone,’ Leo said. ‘Appearance?’
‘Young male humans. Looked like triads.’
‘Do you know what their True Form was, Simone?’ Mr Chen said.
Simone shook her head, still slurping the noodles. She swallowed quickly. ‘I don’t know, Daddy.’
‘No demons more senior than that? No indication of who sent them?’
‘The Demon Prince that attacked us at the charity concert was at the bottom of the stairs with more demons,’ I said.
‘Waiting for you to run,’ Mr Chen said. ‘If you’d run out of the car park he’d have grabbed you. You did the right thing in staying together.’
‘Emma’s really good,’ Simone said.
‘I know,’ Mr Chen said, smiling into my eyes. ‘Nobody was injured?’
‘Leo was hit in the head,’ I said.
Mr Chen glanced sharply at Leo. Leo shrugged. ‘I’m fine.’
‘I’ll check you,’ Mr Chen said. ‘Give me your hand. I’ll have a look.’
Leo leaned over the table and banged it softly. ‘Don’t you dare waste your energy trying to heal me. I’m fine.’
‘If your head is injured it may not show up for days, Leo,’ Mr Chen said, unfazed.
I leaned over the table as well. ‘Don’t waste your energy. If Leo’s unwell, he can see a doctor. Trying to heal him is total overkill. You need to look after yourself.’
Mr Chen looked from me to Leo, then smiled and shook his head. Both Leo and I relaxed.
Simone giggled. ‘There’re two of them shouting at you now, Daddy.’
‘He needs it,’ I said without looking away from Mr Chen. He smiled into my eyes again and I felt a rush of affection for him. I slapped it down. Friends.
Mr Chen rose. ‘I have work to do. Believe it or not, there are people who work for me who do as they’re told. Stay vigilant, Leo, it appears that the demons are starting to move in. This one in particular appears to have made Simone a target. And mind your head; if you feel unwell tell me immediately.’
After he had gone I studied Leo. ‘Are you really okay?’
He shrugged. ‘Yeah, I’m fine. I know what to look for, don’t worry about me.’ He rose, pushing his chair back. ‘Mind Simone, I’ll go down and clean the car up. I made a hell of a mess in the front, and if Mr Chen wants to use it and finds it like that he’ll skin me alive.’
‘You’re the one that shouts at him, silly Leo,’ Simone said, grinning through the noodles.
‘Emma’s pretty good at shouting too,’ Leo said, amused.
‘He needs it,’ I said.
‘Yep,’ Leo said as he closed the door.
Leo drove us to Tsim Sha Tsui for Simone’s birthday dinner. Simone was excited and jiggled all the way through the Cross-Harbour Tunnel.
We pulled into the lay-by in front of one of the five-star hotels and the doorman came to open the doors for us.
‘Whoa, I thought you said you rented a room,’ I said over the back of the seat to Mr Chen.
‘I did,’ Mr Chen said. The doorman opened the car for him and he got out.
Leo grinned triumphantly as he opened the door for me. ‘Told you to wear that dress I bought you.’
‘Buy me another item of clothing and I will delete every single file on your computer.’
His grin widened. ‘You wouldn’t dare.’
I shook my head and followed Mr Chen and Simone into the high-ceilinged lobby of the hotel. I had worn plain jeans and a shirt because I thought we’d just be going to a rented room in a restaurant. I hadn’t realised it would be a five-star hotel restaurant.
When Mr Chen led us into the ballroom I hung back. Leo grabbed my arm and escorted me. ‘Come on, Emma, this is going to be fun.’
Mr Chen had taken the whole ballroom. About twenty-five huge twelve-seater tables were set up around the hall under the glittering chandeliers. The main table had a red tablecloth instead of white.
Leo led me to our table. As staff, we were put out on the edge of the hall. That was the way it worked. Simone and Mr Chen sat at the red table with the senior notables. Kwan Yin was there and greeted Simone with a warm hug.
Most of the guests were in Western business suits, but quite a few wore traditional Chinese floor length robes: mandarin collars, long sleeves, with trousers underneath.
‘This won’t be as much fun as one of their usual parties,’ Leo said as we sat at our table. ‘The staff here are human and don’t know about them. They’ll all have to behave.’
‘You talk like you do this all the time,’ I said.
‘Before…’ He took a deep breath. ‘Before Michelle died, we went to a lot of dinners like this. Simone’s onemonth birthday party was a night I’ll never forget. They completely let their hair down. Some of the Shen took True Form and scared Michelle half to death.’
‘Is this the first one since then?’
He looked wistful. ‘Yeah. Even for Simone’s fourth birthday, he only had a couple of them over at our place.’ He smiled. ‘Looks like he’s finally starting to come out of his shell.’
I turned to watch some of the other guests arrive. Qing Long came in; he’d shed the long turquoise hair and settled for standard Chinese short and black, but he was still more than six feet tall. He wore a silver robe embossed with turquoise scales.
‘It’s good to see Mr Chen getting out more,’ Leo said. ‘He’s been a lot happier since you came.’
I looked at him.
‘Don’t even think about it though. It can’t happen,’ he said.
‘Don’t know what you’re talking about.’ I turned back to the guests.
A young European man in a tan suit came in. He had sandy hair and tawny eyes. He came straight over to me, dragged me out of my chair, hugged me and kissed me on the cheek. ‘Hello, Emma.’
I pulled back to see him properly. He grinned evilly at me, and suddenly I knew who he was. ‘Bai Hu. What the hell are you doing looking like that?’
He shrugged. ‘Don’t you like me better like this? As one of you?’
I moved closer. ‘I liked you better with fur.’
‘I knew you liked my fur,’ he said.
I glanced at the main table. Mr Chen had seen us. His face was rigid.
‘You should see the look on his face,’ I whispered.
‘I know. We should do this more often.’ He clasped my hand and pulled away.
‘Are you going to spend the whole evening like this?’
He shrugged. ‘Sure. Drives the waiters nuts. They can understand me, so they think I’m speaking Cantonese. Like a native. Confuses the hell out of them.’
‘What language are you speaking?’
‘No idea. I just talk and they understand. For all I know, I could be speaking Tiger.’ He stiffened. ‘Whoops. He wants me. Probably going to tell me to lay off his staff again.’ He turned away. ‘Later.’
‘Don’t go falling for that one either,’ Leo said.
I snorted with amusement. ‘Not likely.’
‘Zhu Que hasn’t turned up.’
‘The Tiger threatened to eat her last time she was over. She’s probably still mad with him.’
A group of stern-looking middle-aged men in standard Western business suits came in, accompanied by aloof women. They went to Mr Chen and paid their respects, saluting him.
‘Generals,’ Leo said. ‘There are thirty-six of them altogether. Only about ten of them here tonight.’
I could see from her face that Simone thought they were really boring.
Jad
e entered and came straight to me. She wore a beautiful green silk cheongsam with embroidery of gold peonies. It had three-quarter sleeves and swept nearly to the floor, with short splits up the sides. The mandarin collar framed her slender neck beautifully.
‘That’s a gorgeous dress, Jade,’ I said after we’d said hello. ‘Where did you have it made?’
‘I know a place in Central where you could have a lovely cheongsam made, Emma.’
‘You think I could get away with it?’
‘Anything would be better than what you’re wearing now,’ Leo said from behind me. I swiped a kick at his shins without looking back, but missed.
Jade’s smile widened. ‘Let me take you shopping. I’m sure you would look lovely in one.’ Her eyes became unfocused. ‘I’ve been summoned.’ She took my hands and squeezed them. ‘I’ll call you, we’ll have lunch and have a dress made for you.’
‘That sounds like great fun, thanks, Jade.’
She waved me down and went to Mr Chen.
I sat and pulled my chair in, then saw that Leo’s face was rigid with restraint.
‘What?’
‘Leo. A pleasure,’ an elderly male voice said behind me.
I turned to see a tiny ancient Chinese man in a threadbare suit three sizes too big for him. ‘Great Sage,’ Leo said, saluting. ‘Lord Sun,’ I said, also saluting.
‘Emma.’ The Monkey King pulled his staff from his ear and expanded it from the size of a toothpick to a full-sized bo. He spun it in front of himself and leaned on it.
‘The staff here are human, my Lord,’ Leo said.
The Monkey King shrugged. He didn’t care.
‘My Lord.’ I twisted in my chair to face him and he grinned down at me, still leaning on his staff. ‘Lord Xuan has a copy of Journey to the West in Wu Cheng’en’s hand, the original. I thought it would be more appropriate if he gave it to you. It’s your story, after all.’
He threw his head back and roared with laughter, attracting the irritated attention of some of the nearby Shen. When he’d stopped laughing he shook his head. ‘I gave it to him.’
I watched him, bewildered.
‘I love it that you offer it as if it were your own,’ he said, leaning further down to watch me intently. ‘You are very presumptuous.’
I struggled to explain. ‘I just thought, that it’s your story, and that you would probably—’
‘She only wishes to assist you, my Lord,’ Leo said, breaking in to defend me. ‘Emma has the best interests of everybody in mind.’
The Monkey King turned his attention to Leo. ‘You, me. Any time. Think you could take me?’
‘Your skills far outweigh mine, my Lord,’ Leo said, carefully polite. ‘I would not presume to challenge you.’
The Monkey King grinned. ‘One day, Leo. One day we’ll know.’
‘My Lord,’ Leo said.
The Monkey King disappeared.
‘Geez, he’s going to blow it and be in so much trouble,’ Leo said.
‘For him, that’s behaving himself,’ I said. ‘I know.’
The celebration was a huge multi-course vegetarian dinner that seemed to go on forever. By the end of it Simone was falling asleep.
I quietly vowed that for her sixth birthday, Simone would have a proper children’s party with plenty of kids her own age and absolutely no Shen.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
Simone’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.’