Dark Serpent

by Kylie Chan

  ‘We have to go back immediately,’ John said. ‘Give me a second and I’ll ask Peta to arrange accommodation for us, off Holy Island this time, slightly further away on Anglesey.’

  ‘The Jade Emperor’s not letting you give up?’ Simone said. ‘I thought all duties were cancelled if you died.’

  ‘In this case, it is most important,’ John said. ‘But first I need everybody to come down to the basement with me to discuss which weapons would be most suitable to take. We will not be surprised like that again.’

  The Emma copy shrugged. ‘I don’t need anything; I’ll just summon the Murasame.’

  ‘I didn’t know we had weapons in the basement,’ Simone said.

  ‘Firearms,’ John said, ‘in a locked chest. These are humans and I won’t take any more chances with them.’

  ‘Oh,’ Simone said.

  ‘Good idea,’ the Emma copy said. ‘Shoot them before they shoot us.’

  Simone glanced at the copy, obviously wondering if it was joking.

  ‘Right now?’ Leo said.

  ‘Right now. Let’s go,’ John said. ‘We’ll sort out weapons, then pack and return and carry on from there. Today.’

  ‘What’s so urgent?’ Simone said.

  ‘It’s a long story. I’ll tell you on the way. Right now, we go down and sort out weapons, then we pack clothes and go.’

  ‘Trust you to put weapons before clothes,’ the Emma copy said with humour.

  That was exactly the sort of thing that Emma would say, and John nearly let the anguish and frustration overcome him. They had her.

  Down in the basement, he went to the corner and pulled out the chest. He put one hand over the lock and moved the tumblers inside. When the lid opened, he turned back and kept his expression carefully neutral.

  ‘Emma, do you know what gun oil looks like?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Good. You’re probably the only one. Check in Franklin’s cell, will you? I think it’s on one of the shelves in there.’

  He turned back to the chest and watched the copy with his Inner Eye. It trusted him completely and didn’t hesitate; it walked right into the cell. The minute it was at the shelves on the back wall, he turned to face it and slapped one hand through the air, slamming the door shut. He locked the door with a twist of his wrist.

  To its credit, it stood completely still at the back of the cell. ‘You’d better have a very good reason for doing this.’

  He walked up to the cell bars. ‘Move to the other end of the room, Simone.’

  ‘What are you doing, Daddy?’ Simone said. He felt her Inner Eye on him and he summoned a small amount of yin. ‘Okay, I get it, you’re you, but what’s going on?’

  The Emma copy fell to sit on the bed and ran its hand over its forehead. ‘It’s me, isn’t it? Has the Jade Emperor passed an Edict about me after he saw what happened?’

  ‘Tell me what happened in Holyhead,’ John said.

  ‘We talked to Ruby at the quarry. Then we went back to the inn, they took us to their clubhouse, they shot at us and we ran away.’

  ‘What colour is Ruby’s hair?’ John said.

  ‘Uh …’ The Emma copy looked confused.

  ‘Oh shit, no,’ Leo said under his breath.

  ‘What happened at the clubhouse?’

  ‘They took us to their clubhouse, they shot at us and we ran away,’ the copy said. It stopped. ‘That’s exactly what I said last time.’

  ‘After you ran away, what happened?’

  ‘We swam until we ended up on the beach near the air force base, and the soldiers found us.’

  ‘How many soldiers?’

  ‘The soldiers found us,’ the copy said automatically, and appeared even more confused. Then its expression cleared. ‘They brainwashed me? I seem to be reciting something told to me.’

  John went down on one knee on the other side of the bars from the copy. ‘Tell me exactly in your own words what happened in the ultrasound clinic.’

  ‘They wheeled me into the clinic and I filled out forms. Then I went in, and the woman did the ultrasound, and then they took me out again.’

  ‘Do you remember who wheeled you into the examination room?’ John said.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Do you remember who wheeled you out?’

  ‘Oh yes, that’s much clearer. There was a young man looking after me, he made sure I remembered everything. He kept asking me what had happened, having me tell him the story over and over.’ The copy looked stunned as it realised. ‘Everything’s just a story until I was taken out of the ultrasound. That’s when the real Emma was replaced with me.’

  John didn’t reply.

  ‘No, John. Please, no.’ The copy put its head in its hands and moaned. ‘Oh god, after what happened in Singapore this is my worst nightmare. Tell me it isn’t true. Tell me I’m the real me.’

  ‘Leave us,’ John said. ‘Leo, Simone, prepare to return there. We don’t need to pack; we’ll be flying, the three of us.’

  ‘I want to stay with her,’ Simone said.

  The copy visibly rallied, and in an impressive display of courage worthy of Emma herself it rose to speak to Simone. ‘Go and find the real me.’ Its voice cracked slightly and it took a deep quivering breath, very close to tears. ‘Whatever happens now, it’s what I want. Let me spend some time with him, and then go find the real me. She’s probably alone and afraid and you need to get her out of there. I can only imagine what they’re doing to her. I’m safe and I won’t hurt anybody here. Go.’

  ‘Come on, Simone,’ Leo said. ‘Let’s get ready to find her. The copy’s right.’

  At the word ‘copy’, the demon collapsed to sit on the bed and leaned its head on its knees.

  ‘You know the cruellest thing about all this?’ it said into its knees.

  ‘What?’ John said.

  It glanced up at him and smiled through the tears, its voice thick but controlled. ‘They didn’t program me to explode. I don’t get the kindness of a quick end. They knew we’d be here like this, and you’d have to murder your love.’

  ‘I think they knew very well it would end like this,’ John said.

  The copy wiped its eyes and rose. It took a deep breath and stood straight and strong, looking him right in the eye. ‘I’m ready. I love you. Do it.’

  ‘I’m not doing anything,’ John said, rising as well. ‘I’ll leave you here with instructions for Peta and Paul to care for you, but to be extremely careful. When I return with Emma, it will be her choice what to do with you. If I know her, she will show the compassion your creators didn’t and allow you to live out the rest of your life on the Mountain.’

  ‘You can’t trust me unless I’m tamed.’

  ‘I can’t trust you even if you are tamed. If you’re programmed to explode that will override everything.’

  ‘True. But if I’m tamed I’ll follow orders, and it will bring me peace.’ The demon knelt and lowered its head. ‘Better to do it now before Emma has a chance to protest. Protect me, my Lord, I am yours.’

  It stayed on its knees and waited for the next order.

  ‘Rise,’ John said.

  The demon’s expression was no longer full of misery; it appeared calm and at peace.

  ‘Put out your hand.’

  The demon put its hand out. John took it and fed the Fire Essence Pill into it. He checked it: it was tamed.

  He ran his hands over his face. ‘I never want to see another tamed Emma as long as I live.’

  ‘Find the ones who created me and you won’t,’ the copy said.

  ‘Good point. Now I need information.’

  ‘I’ll try to remember as much as I can.’

  ‘I need to know where you were created. Think past the story to images you may have seen.’

  The demon closed its eyes. ‘This is hard.’ It took a deep breath and relaxed. ‘I have fragments of visual memory in between the bright hard words of the story. I see windows. Many, many really big windows, and the view from
them is high above everything. Lots of glass.’

  ‘Well done. Do you have memories of people?’

  ‘Strange faces. Many faces.’ The demon concentrated and its face twisted. ‘That bitch Kitty Kwok. I remember … a man with Kitty — with the Demon King. An older European man. His name wasn’t Semias, it was something else.’ It shook its head. ‘That’s all. If I think of more, I’ll have Peta call you.’

  John put his hand through the bars and onto the side of its face. It closed its eyes and raised its face slightly to welcome his touch.

  ‘You have done well,’ he said. ‘Stay here and stay quiet and harm no one. I will return as soon as I have found Emma.’

  ‘My Lord,’ the demon said. ‘I will wait.’

  It sat on the bed and watched him as he headed up the stairs.

  Simone, Leo, Peta and Paul were waiting in the entrance hall.

  ‘Is she all right?’ Simone said.

  ‘It’s tamed. It’ll behave,’ John said. He turned to Peta. ‘That’s not Emma in the basement cell —’

  ‘What?’ Paul said.

  ‘I don’t have time to explain,’ John said. ‘Emma’s been kidnapped and they put a copy in her place. The copy’s in the basement cell. Do not under any circumstances release it from the cell. Any circumstances, even if the house is burning, you leave it in there. Understood?’

  ‘I can’t just —’ Paul said.

  ‘You can and you will,’ John said. ‘It may be tamed, but it can’t be completely trusted until it’s proved itself — there may be previous programming. It could explode if it’s let out. Don’t let it out.’

  ‘What about feeding it and such?’ Peta said.

  ‘No need. It’s a demon. It won’t need to eat anything for a week, and we should have returned before then.’

  ‘We’re going right now?’ Simone said.

  ‘Yes. We’re flying back as fast as we can right now. Where’s the stone?’

  ‘Still asleep upstairs,’ Leo said. ‘He’s exhausted.’

  ‘Stone!’

  Sorry, my Lord, on my way.

  This. This. And this.

  By the Grandmother. I never sensed it.

  The stone appeared next to them in human form.

  ‘We’re going to find her now,’ John said. ‘We’ll start at the ultrasound clinic.’

  ‘Did the copy have any idea where they might be?’ Simone said.

  ‘It mentioned many large glass windows from a high vantage point; that’s where it was created. It may be one of the big houses that Emma mentioned.’

  ‘She’s out there alone and I’m not with her,’ the stone said. Its voice became fierce. ‘I should have stayed in her back!’

  ‘Do you need me to carry you?’ John asked Simone.

  ‘I’m okay. Maybe ask me again in an hour or so.’

  John teleported to the sky above the house and waited for them. Leo appeared next to him and summoned a cloud. Simone just floated with the Jade Building Block in True Form next to her. John didn’t have the energy to make the whole journey without a cloud. He summoned one, nodded to Leo and Simone, and they took off.

  It took them nearly two hours to arrive back at Holyhead. After an hour, Simone had joined John on his cloud and he was feeling the strain from travelling halfway around the world and being so far from his Centre.

  When they reached the outskirts of town, it became obvious why the centre was deserted and many of the shops had closed. A supermarket chain had opened a shiny new building away from the centre, a chain hardware store had opened nearby, and a couple of strip malls had sprouted up next to the huge car park. People were streaming in and out of the supermarket.

  They landed behind the buildings and went around to the front of the strip mall where the ultrasound clinic stood. John didn’t hesitate at the ‘closed’ sign; he teleported inside. The interior appeared to be a normal clinic but completely bare. There were no papers or files, the drawers in the desk were empty. A computer was the only thing remaining.

  Leo opened an inner door to an examination room. ‘Ultrasound was through there,’ he said.

  ‘Stone, we may need Gold to come and help us with the technology,’ John said.

  The stone was floating in midair in True Form. ‘Don’t assume I’m inferior with technology just because I’m older,’ it said. ‘I taught Gold everything he knows.’ It rested on top of the computer box. ‘Give me a second to run through these drives.’

  ‘I see,’ John said.

  He went into the examination room. The whole setup had been minimal, thrown together in a hurry. The examination couch was still there, but the machine was gone. Another door led out to a back alley and he went through it.

  ‘Stone,’ he called.

  ‘My Lord?’

  ‘Call the …’ He rechecked the label on the machine sitting next to the back door. ‘Penrhos Stanley Hospital in Holyhead. Tell them that their stolen ultrasound is here and appears reasonably unharmed.’

  ‘One of these costs a fortune,’ Leo said, putting the machine back on its wheels correctly. ‘I’m sure they’ll be thrilled to have it back.’

  John lifted the lid of the dumpster and pulled out some papers. They were all blank. He picked up a manila folder; it was full of blank pages. He floated above the dumpster to move the papers out of the way.

  ‘That’s rank,’ Leo said. He dropped his voice when he saw. ‘No way.’

  The body parts had been cut into pieces, presumably to lessen the chances of discovery. The heads were under the limbs.

  ‘Some of those bits are black,’ Leo said.

  ‘Yes, it’s a copy of you, and one of Simone,’ John said. ‘Obviously they weren’t needed.’

  He yinned the contents of the dumpster. Anyone finding these demons would ask the real Leo and Simone too many difficult questions.

  He returned to the ground. ‘Let’s see if the stone found anything.’

  ‘The computer’s completely empty,’ the stone said when they returned. ‘It’s brand new and nothing was put on it.’

  John closed his eyes and reached into the energy flowing through the room. He sensed Emma’s presence from the previous day; Leo had been there as well. There was no dark trace of any demon having been there. It appeared that only humans had been present in the room in the past twenty-four hours. He leaned on the desk; he was exhausting himself again but he couldn’t afford to rest yet. They had to find her.

  ‘Next stop the air force base,’ he said. ‘There were no demons here. Let’s see what the soldiers have to say for themselves.’

  They landed in the infirmary room at the base and John checked the area. He felt a moment of dizziness and leaned on the bed, then sucked in some energy from the air around him and straightened.

  ‘Whoa, it just went real cold,’ Leo said.

  ‘That was me,’ John said. ‘Is the same nurse outside this room?’

  ‘Yeah, same guy,’ Simone said.

  ‘Put your watch under the bed you were in.’

  ‘I’m not wearing a watch,’ she said. She pulled her mobile phone out of her pocket and put that under the bed instead. ‘Ready.’

  They teleported outside the front door and Simone knocked on it, then went in. Darren was sitting behind his desk, and rose as they entered.

  ‘I wasn’t expecting to see you back here,’ he said. ‘Did you leave something behind?’

  ‘Yeah, I think I left my mobile here somewhere,’ Simone said. ‘Mind if we check?’

  ‘Go right ahead, but there isn’t much chance of finding it. The cleaning staff have already been through.’

  Simone shrugged. ‘I’ll have a look anyway.’

  ‘Sure.’

  He followed them into the room and leaned against the bed as Simone rummaged underneath it. ‘This your dad, then?’

  John held his hand out to Darren. ‘That’s right. I’m Simone’s father, John Chen. Thanks for looking after them.’

  ‘I’m glad I could hel
p,’ Darren said, shaking his hand.

  John tightened his grip, pulled Darren closer and put his left hand over Darren’s face. He quickly shuffled through Darren’s mind before he had time to resist. When he’d seen enough, he released him. Darren took a huge breath and fell backwards slightly.

  ‘What was that?’ he said.

  ‘What was what?’ Leo said.

  Darren shook his head. ‘Nothing. Never mind.’

  ‘Found it,’ Simone said, rising and waving the phone in triumph. ‘Thanks, Darren.’

  ‘No problem at all,’ he said.

  ‘We’ll be on our way then, many thanks,’ John said.

  ‘No problem at all,’ Darren repeated, obviously still slightly stunned.

  They left the office through the front door and John headed for the beach, Leo and Simone following him. He landed on the sand and they stood next to him.

  ‘What’s the verdict?’ Leo said.

  ‘As far as he knows, he called the hospital for an ultrasound and the hospital sent someone to collect Emma,’ John said. ‘He was unaware of the deception.’

  ‘We’re back where we started,’ Simone said. She ran her hand over her forehead and turned away. ‘We have to find her.’

  ‘We will. We still have some leads we can follow,’ Leo said.

  ‘I’ll contact Ruby as well,’ the stone said.

  ‘Good idea, we’ll speak to her first,’ John said. ‘She should know what’s happening. We can check the houses that Emma and the King’s Number One were talking about; she’s probably in one of them. We just have to find the one with the big windows.’

  ‘Good idea,’ Leo said.

  ‘Daddy, you’re cold, I can feel it coming off you,’ Simone said. ‘Do you need to rest?’

  ‘Yes,’ John said. ‘But not yet. Let’s go.’

  23

  Emma

  I came around in a heavy dark-wood four-poster. Pale green velvet swags fell from the sides and the bed itself was carved with twining vine patterns. The room was like something from a European palace. The ceiling must have been four metres above me, with much decorative plasterwork and a heavy crystal chandelier as the centrepiece. Tall panels on the walls showed Art Nouveau style paintings of blissful country scenes, with men and women in gorgeous flowing robes riding horses and hunting with dogs.