Master Wu stayed silent for a moment, then confessed, “You always knew me better than anyone else, Jingsha. No matter how much medicine I take, or how healthy the doctors tell me I am, I know I am not long on earth. Before I leave him, I wanted Noah to come here. He is the son I never had. Like all young people, he thinks he knows everything but, the truth is, he is but a hairsbreadth from inner disaster. He lacks balance.”
Suddenly, Master Wu keeled over, dropping to the ground, senseless.
“Wu! Wu!” shouted Jingsha. “Call the doctors! Now!”
Right on time. Lisa rushed to the fallen sifu.
Chapter 33
In Heaven’s worship hall, Master Wu was being given perhaps the most bizarre medical treatment ever experienced. It was a combination of opposites; traditional and modern, East and West, science and religion.
Sigong Zhang led a group of Shaolin monks on one side, chanting and praying. Jingsha led a group of martial artists in the strictest regimen of performing the traditional animal form drills.
Lisa was tapping acupuncture needles in Master Wu’s body on the key meridians, hoping to stimulate qi, the Chinese concept of lifeforce. She had also placed suction cups onto Master Wu’s chest to draw out the “cold.”
Dr. Xin, Heaven’s doctor, set up an IV drip so a Chinese herbal potion could go directly into Master Wu’s veins. He forced the insentient patient to sip a potion of local herbs designed to cleanse and detox Master Wu’s system.
Noah stood at Master Wu’s side, praying. His parents had prayed over him constantly and Noah knew the only reason he was alive was because of their prayers.
Noah had never seen the intravenous use of Chinese herbs. After Xin had trained in Western and traditional Chinese medicine, the Shaolin became a new passion and he had been at Heaven for fifteen years. What concerned Noah was that illness in Heaven was rare with little opportunity for clinical study of using Chinese herbs intravenously.
Treatment had been going on for twelve hours, with monks and physicians rotating shifts of chanting and giving medical treatment.
Day turned to sunset, then to night, as the vigil continued.
Periodically, Dr. Xin checked Master Wu’s pulse. He forced open his mouth and checked his tongue. The result was the same every time: not good, but more disturbingly, not understood.
After a day, Dr. Xin admitted, “This is beyond my understanding. I don’t know what to do next. We must do something different.”
“Dr. Xin,” said Lisa, “I have an idea.”
This pronouncement caused a minor furor.
“Women should not be here, let alone treat a man,” bellowed an older monk.
There were murmurs of approval and growing dissension until Noah spoke up.
“I understand your objections. However, Lisa is a formally trained doctor of Traditional Chinese Medicine. She also trained under Dr. Tang, an esteemed doctor in Hong Kong, for years, and Master Wu’s best friend.”
“If Dr. Tang is such a good friend, why isn’t he here?” cried out a monk, the same age as Noah.
Noah steeled himself. Male chauvinism was hard to break and he knew he had to be convincing. “Dr. Tang started the journey with us. But when Master Wu had a sudden incident, he overexerted himself in treating him and crossed over the mountain. He trusted Dr. Mah, Lisa, implicitly, insisting that she be with us. There is no doubt in my mind that, should he be here, Dr. Tang would tell us that no one other than Dr. Mah could carry on his legacy.”
Noah’s speech grudgingly silenced the objecting voices. Besides, there were no other alternatives readily available.
“I am humbled by your words, Noah.” Lisa bowed deeply, then her tone became one of authority. “I am one of the world’s experts in snake venom and their use for medicinal purposes. What I believe will help is very simple but will go against the teachings of Buddhism, which is why I didn’t speak earlier. However, I don’t think we have any choice now… The most effective treatment for Master Wu is for him to drink the blood and eat the bile of three snakes. Ideally, I would prefer the King Cobra, Russell’s Viper and the Multi-banded Krait, but the chances of finding the exact species here are extremely unlikely. However, as we were hiking here, I saw other members of those snake families that I believe will be adequate. With the proper dosage and combination, the potion will strengthen and revive him.”
Sigong Zhang stood up immediately. “No! We cannot allow this to happen in our sanctum. This is against the laws of Heaven and the precepts of Buddhism. Taking the life of any living creature is an unpardonable sin.”
Jingsha looked at his unconscious, sweating friend. He had lost Wu once and could not bear the thought of losing him again. Years ago, when Master Wu told Jingsha of his plans to leave Heaven, Jingsha scolded and berated his friend for his sinfulness. He would not make that mistake again. “We have to do something. There is a little house about a mile from here. Sometimes the monks go there... when they cannot bear being a monk,” said Jingsha cryptically. “You can use that.”
“What the heck does that mean?” asked Sam.
None of the monks answered but they all knew what Jingsha meant.
“Well, if nobody wants to say anything, let’s go,” demanded the teen.
“We need a guide,” said Noah.
“And I need an assistant,” stated Lisa. “I can help find the snakes, but they are extremely dangerous. I will grab the head and hold it tight, but I need someone to slice it, then take the blood and bile.”
All the monks knew the dangers of the local snakes. Not a year passed without one or more of the monks succumbing to the bite of a serpent.
“I’ll do it,” said Sam.
“No, you won’t,” corrected Noah. “I’ll do it.”
“You don’t have any experience,” argued Sam.
“Neither do you,” replied Noah.
“I will do it.” All eyes turned to the source of the voice. It was Wangdan. “While I have not killed any, I have caught many snakes. I know their habits; I know their minds, and I know the house Sifu Jingsha is talking about.”
Chapter 34
The secret house Jingsha spoke of had been around as long as Heaven had been in existence. It was full of guilt, it was full of shame, and it was necessary.
Man was man, and man was a sexual being. Despite all efforts to remain chaste, even the godliest sometimes found it humanly impossible to keep their vows. Sometimes it happened in the privacy of their bedrooms, sometimes in a washroom, sometimes in a secret house a mile away from Heaven. To the outside world, what went on in the secret house was not only not a crime; it was not even worth mentioning. However, to one who promised to dedicate himself to holiness, chastity, and celibacy, it was a secret shame... an occasional necessity.
For the first time in the history of the secret house’s existence, it would be used for another kind of sin, the sin of murder. But even knowing what the goal was, it was still complicated. Was it really a sin if the action bought or preserved a life?
Master Wu lay on the hard wooden bed in the stone house. The only ones with him were Noah and Sam, who kept silent vigil.
Fifty yards away in the mountain forest, Lisa and Wangdan foraged for snakes. Like everything that seemed so common, they were impossible to find when you needed them. Especially when your hormones were on fire and you were trying to hide your thoughts, like Wangdan was trying to do.
“Who taught you how to catch snakes?” asked Lisa.
“I learned from necessity. Because this area is full of them, those of us that are sentries have to be careful because we spend so much time in the woods,” said Wangdan. “Especially when we bring someone back who is not familiar with their behavior. Every time I go to Shanghai, I encounter a few of them. Some are dangerous; some are not. I don’t know why they are attracted to me.”
“Snakes have a keen sense of smell. By handling so many of them, your skin has probably absorbed some of the pheromones from the snakeskin,” ventured Lisa.
“Jingsha thinks it’s because my specialty in martial arts is the Snake Forms. To curve and coil, to strike out without warning. Speed is of the essence.”
Wangdan was so caught up in his explanation and his fascination with Lisa that he didn’t notice a baby cobra that leapt up and bit him in the neck. His cries piercing the air, he yanked the snake off his Adam’s apple and flung it against a huge rock, killing it instantly.
Lisa leapt to Wangdan and put her mouth to the place where the snake bit him. She sucked in as hard as she could to remove the venom, then spat it out without swallowing even the tiniest amount. She took a swig of water, and spat that out, too.
She looked at Wangdan, who sat there quaking. Two things happened to him that never happened to him before. The first one was being bitten by a snake. For a person as careful as he was, it was unforgivable―especially because the reason was that he was attracted and distracted by the sight, sound, and scent of a woman.
The second was having Lisa’s lips touch his body. No woman since his mother had done that and that was so long ago that he had no memory of it. However, the sensations that Lisa caused to arise were troubling and confusing to him. His pulse quickened, there was a shortness of breath that wasn’t there before, and his face turned crimson.
For Lisa, there was no confusion nor was she bothered. She couldn’t care less. She just needed him to live to help keep alive whatever slim hopes still existed for her mission.
After the escapade with the baby cobra, catching the appropriate snakes was anti-climactic and easy. With the fresh smell of the long limbless reptiles on his hands and body, other slithering cold-blooded species were even more attracted to Wangdan.
He and Lisa waded through a small pond, searching. Two water snakes sensed Wangdan’s presence. This time, prepared, Wangdan snatched them by their heads, one in each hand, before their jaws could open.
In a rocky clearing, they saw a cobra sunning itself. With Wangdan’s lightning reflexes, it became captive number three.
Rubbing Wangdan’s legs against the feral creatures gave him additional snake scent. A slow walk through the mountainous woods and tangle of vegetation brought additional victims. Within six hours, he and Lisa captured twenty slithering reptiles. They checked each one out for size, health, and qi, and then chose six to bring back. They released the rest back to the mountains.
It was almost dark by the time Lisa and Wangdan returned to the secret house. They were surprised to see another two visitors with Noah and Sam: Jingsha and Sigong Zhang.
Troubled by what had been revealed, Sigong Zhang insisted that Jingsha take him there. Heaven was not the Utopia he believed it to be. Over the years, he had heard rumors of the “secret house” but never accepted them as true. To hear Jingsha, his prize pupil, talk about being one of its visitors rocked the grandmaster. The world he thought he knew had not changed; it had never existed. Sigong Zhang realized that Heaven could no longer isolate itself from the human condition, but needed to change. And he knew it could not change unless he knew what ailed it.
Wangdan carefully took one of the snakes out of the cotton bag. With one hand, he gripped its head tight enough to neutralize it but not to crush its skull. With the other hand, he held the tail firmly. While the snake quivered violently, it was stable enough to be cut.
“Please let me do it, Noah,” pleaded Sam, desperately wanting to kill the snake.
“Tell you what. You can hold the cup.”
“Yes!” Sam eagerly placed the handmade earthen vessel underneath the reptile.
Lisa made two quick cuts. The first cut was just underneath the creature’s throat. The snake bled and Sam watched bug-eyed as the blood dripped into his goblet. The second cut was lengthwise from head to tail. Lisa took out the bile and placed it in a small glass of illicit alcohol. That is, illicit to the monks of Heaven but another secret found in the secret house—supposedly teetotaler monks made their own moonshine. She then removed the reptile’s still beating heart.
While Noah propped the unconscious master into a sitting position, Lisa took the heart and placed it in Master Wu’s mouth. She assisted the unconscious master in chewing it. She then took the goblet from Sam and forced the drink down Master Wu’s throat. After this, she forced the alcohol and bile down his throat as well. She repeated the process twice.
Not a word was spoken during the process. Not because it was not allowed, but because of the solemnity of the activity.
A flood of memories filled Noah as he stared at the still form of his sifu. He knew that he was the son the master never had. For Noah, Master Wu was the one who kept him grounded since the death of his parents. Although the master’s face looked barren of thought, Noah knew that wasn’t the sifu’s true condition. Inwardly, there were no words that could possibly communicate the complexities of his churning emotions. Guilt, horror, and hope were intertwined and intermingled.
Noah prayed to himself, “Give him peace, O God.”
Wangdan took the bag containing the remaining three snakes outside and released them back into the wild.
Lisa methodically skinned the meat off the snakeskin. She then sautéed it with some forest herbs. Neither Jingsha, Wangdan, nor Sigong Zhang partook of the meat, but Sam and Noah sure did.
Then they waited.
Heaven’s monks closed their eyes and tried to focus on mindful meditation. It was difficult, as the sins they’d committed in the last several hours invaded their consciences. Unable to clear his mind for meditation, Sigong Zhang began chanting softly. Wangdan and Jingsha joined him.
On the other side of Master Wu, Noah silently repeated over and over. Almighty God, hallelujah. Jehovah Jireh, our Provider, Almighty God, hallelujah. Jehovah Jireh, our Provider.
Lisa sat beside Master Wu, digging her fingers and thumbs at pressure points throughout his body, worrying about the length of the effect. Master Wu should have awoken hours ago and she was terrified that she might have given him an overdose—there was no way to have made a proper measurement.
The time at the secret house became unbelievably boring to Sam. The teen took the snakeskin and played stretching games with it, trying to see if he could cover his fist with it without breaking it. This sucks. “Hey, Noah. I gotta piss. I’ll be back soon.”
Sam went out the door and stepped into the bushes but not to urinate. Never really good at following orders, he pulled out one of Noah’s cell phones that he took out of the apartment, hoping he might be able to engage in a combat game with one of his buddies for a few minutes. He disassembled it as quickly as he could and then dried it with his sleeve. Not an easy task, considering all it had gone through. Feeling it was still damp, he tried to reduce the moisture further by blowing on it.
He took out the SIM card and dried it out, too. He then put the cell phone back together again and pressed the “on” button. The phone’s display screen flickered momentarily, but it died a quick death. Thinking about it, it was useless anyway. There wouldn’t be a signal in the middle of nowhere.
Disgusted, he tossed it as far as he could into the woods and walked back to the house.
Now that was a total waste of time.
Chapter 35
King had arrived in Shaolin Paradise. He came directly after the call to his father and his men, hoping that he might get some clue of the whereabouts of Heaven.
So far, it was a bust. Everyone he approached in the circus-like fair acted like he was a fool when he asked, “Where is Heaven?”
But someone had to know. Otherwise, why was Master Wu so insistent on coming?
King had encountered so many dead ends that he wanted to give up. However, the thought of what might happen if he didn’t start paying his debts was motivation enough to keep going.
He just needed a break from somewhere. If he had that, give him an hour and he could have a chopper of men ready to rock and a lethal cargo ready to roll.
His cell phone rang. Looking at the caller, he saw it was Charlie, his hel
icopter pilot. It was a little unusual because the update was coming in fifteen minutes early. But what the hell?
“Yeah, so what’s happening?”
“Boss, we picked up a signal from one of Noah’s cell phones. It just flickered, so we couldn’t pinpoint the exact location, but it’s somewhere southwest of Shanghai, maybe a hundred miles or so.”
“That’s great,” said King excitedly. He took out a laptop and pulled up a map of the area. He moved his index finger over the map, staring intently, muttering softly, “Heaven? Heaven?” King remembered his father said Heaven was in a mountainous region.
Yes! “Charlie, load up the chopper and come get me. We’re going to Hongcun at the foothills of Huangshan Mountains.”
“On the way, boss.”
Chapter 36
The chanting of the monks grew more impassioned, more intense. Noah’s prayers grew more fervent. Sweat beaded on everyone’s brows. Lisa’s fingers were going numb from all the massage she’d been applying to Master Wu’s pressure points.
All were in their private worlds; all were with their private thoughts, using their own personal methods to achieve the elusive goal.
Suddenly, Master Wu’s eyes opened. He was fully awake and cognizant of his surroundings.
He pushed Lisa off him. “No need for that, Lisa. I’m fine.”
A frown crossed his brow as he saw Jingsha and Sigong Zhang staring at him. “Jingsha! Sigong! What are you doing in this place? This isn’t Heaven.”
“No, it’s not,” said Jingsha.
“Then let’s get out of here,” said Master Wu as he climbed off the bed.
Noah tried to help him up, but Master Wu declined the offer of assistance and got up by himself. “I’m fine, Noah. I really am.”
Master Wu turned to look at his protégé and saw tears streaming down Noah’s face. The sifu took Noah’s hand. “Thank you, Noah.”
The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series: Books 1-3 (plus special bonuses) Page 37