“Cool your jets, Alexei. I did go to the 7th. And guess what? You can be mad at me for taking out JJ or you can be happy with me for getting that little piece of tail, Tanya, that you so want to taste.”
“You have Tanya?”
“And all the girls. So are you happy with me or mad with me?”
Alexei refuses to answer and changes the topic. “Not only did JJ kill one of my men, I was attacked by Noah Reid in my own restaurant. I just got out of the doctor’s office.”
“What about Noah?”
“I shot him and then injected him with my special mix. He will fly to Neverland if it doesn’t kill him first.”
“So is he dead or not?”
“I don’t know.”
Prince snorts. “Not much of a soldier, are you, Alexei?”
“We were supposed to meet at my place.”
“Change of venue. We’re meeting back at The Ranch.”
“Your place is in the middle of nowhere.”
“Would you rather meet at the 7th where there’s a murder investigation, or maybe we can meet at Kandinsky’s. But then again, I found some of the restaurant’s business cards on him, and maybe the police might be paying you a visit there.”
“What about Noah and JJ?”
“I have made it easy for them to track me down. On my territory, I am King.”
Alexei breathes deeply. “I will be there.”
***
Officer Willie Mays Potter makes a phone call.
“Hello?”
“Olivia, this is Officer Willie Mays Potter. I spoke too soon a few minutes ago. I was just worried about Walrus.”
“I don’t blame you. Worried about all of them.”
“It seems JJ was an intended victim, not the aggressor. I was able to expunge any record of his being involved.”
“You...?”
“Yes. Give my regards to him when he gets back.”
The words that aren’t said are more important than what has been spoken. Willie Mays is probably at his precinct office and is surrounded by people listening in or passing by. He knows that JJ isn’t in Atlantic City and that if JJ killed Igor, he must have had a good reason to do so.
“Furthermore, if you need anything, please contact me. I... I... also have access to unofficial means of information, should you need anything. Walrus has a younger brother, Jackie. He’s even worse... or better than Gaylord.”
“Jackie as in Robinson?”
“Who else?”
“Thanks, Willie Mays. If I need something, I’ll be in touch.”
“I’m going off duty in half an hour. Goodbye.”
Again hidden meanings beneath the conversation. My other son can get you help from NYPD resources. Let me know when I go off shift.
In half an hour, Olivia is going to call Willie Mays on his personal line and tell him everything. Jackie has got to be able to track Abby’s cell.
***
Two young men, in the prime of their lives, lay on the tables in Dr. Tang’s office. Neither of them warriors by nature, both of them yanked into battle by the evil of men. One of them will survive, the other has death knocking on his door.
“Can’t we give him something? Noah’s got white spots on his tongue, his breathing is labored and his blood pressure is still way too low,” says Olivia as she watches to Dr. Tang clean JJ’s wound.
“Giving him something more may not help. What he needs to do is cleanse his system. He’s thrown up about as much as he can, the cupping is still pulling out toxins and the acupuncture is stimulating his system. Trust me, Olivia, for someone who has never taken even prescription drugs, this was a massive overdose,” says Dr. Tang.
Olivia sighs. She’s knows that the doctor is right, but it just so pains her to see the man that she loves more than anyone else in the world on the verge of death. Wow. Did I really just think that? The man that I love.
“Shouldn’t we call in Zach to do this?” asks Olivia as she watches the senior Dr. Tang force feed him some Chinese medicine.
“Not if you want to get the tox results back from the lab soon. We need him at the hospital to rush the process. It might take days otherwise,” says Dr. Tang. He notes her uneasiness. “Relax, Olivia. I have done my share of surgeries and treatment here. And if I need other expertise, there are others of us around.”
“Others of us” refers to the huge underground network of medical providers catering to those that can’t afford regular services or need to stay away from any kind of official radar. You can get anything from a root canal to a liver transplant to a heart transplant.
JJ begins to stir, and Dr. Tang spoons him more medicine. While still unconscious, JJ is able to voluntarily open his mouth - a good sign.
Olivia turns to the unconscious Noah. His breathing has slowed, he’s sweating yet his body is cool to the touch. He’s vomited so many times that all that comes out now is yellow bile - all classic signs of heroin overdose. The few times he’s awakened, he doesn’t know where he is, stays awake just long enough to throw up, then lapses into unconsciousness again.
Treating Noah has been one of the most intense and complex treatment sessions that Dr. Tang has ever performed, combining simultaneously three kinds of Traditional Chinese Medicine techniques: 1. There are the long, thin Chinese acupuncture needles placed strategically from his head to his toes. 2. There is the suction “cupping” where half a dozen cups are placed on Noah’s chest. Prior to placement, they are heated so that after placement on a person’s a body, a small vacuum is created that the sucks out the “cold” or toxins. 3. Moxibustion where sheets of mugwort have been rolled into what looks like a cigar, then cut and burned in the area of key acupuncture points.
“How long, Dr. Tang?” asks Olivia.
“It could be ten minutes, it could be ten hours or it might be never.”
Dr. Tang’s phone rings. “Yes, Son... What do you suggest?... That isn’t acceptable.... I’ll figure something else out. Thank you.”
Dr. Tang puts the phone down. “Zach says preliminary results show a cocktail of drugs in Noah’s system. Heroin, fentanyl, cocaine, diazepam... He suggested at three days in detox, and I told him that wasn’t possible.”
“So what do we do?” asks Olivia in despair.
There is a mumbling from JJ.
“What did you say, JJ?”
Olivia and Dr. Tang go close to JJ’s mouth.
JJ murmurs softly. “Pray, Dr. Tang. You know The Way of the Chinese. And if you name a son Zachariah, you must know The Way of the Fish... ”
“Yes JJ, I am part of the Way of the Fish.”
“How can you be Chinese and believe that?” asks JJ, now moving his body back and forth and opening his eyes.
“Do you know Shangti?”
“Yes. The God of Ancient China.”
“That is the universal God.”
Dr. Tang quickly takes out a Chinese calligraphic pen and makes a few strokes. He shows it to JJ, who stops rocking and stares. “What do you see, JJ?”
“That is Zheng. The Chinese word for China and center.”
“What else do you see, JJ?”
JJ raises himself and squints very hard. He breaks into a giant grin.
“Now you see what I see?”
“Yes, I do, Dr. Tang. I see a man hanging from a cross.”
Dr. Tang nods. “The Way of China, the Way of the Fish.”
Dr. Tang bows his head, closes his eyes and prays.
CHAPTER 20
Abby lies in the middle of the aisle, eyes closed, feigning unconsciousness. It just about kills her not to do anything, but she knows that if she does, it would be fruitless. It would be her against Prince and his other two idiots in the bus. One thing about being a singer is that you need to know how to act a bit. When Prince stuck his tongue down her throat, she wanted to bite that fleshy organ off and spit it out, but she knew that would just mean her death so she just continued to pretend that she was dead to the world.
No
w, Prince is going down the rows of the bus playing Santa Claus to the kids. He’s handing out rocks of crack, injecting Ace of Spades - that combination of heroin and fentanyl that actor Philip Seymour Hoffman overdosed on, lighting sticks of weed... and she can’t do a damned thing about it. None of the kids can resist, not the Russian girls, not the Chinese girls, not Sam and Walrus.
Suddenly, the bus slows down to a crawl and starts jerking and bumping. Prince makes an announcement.
“Anybody want anything else just let me know. We’re on the home stretch. Just look at the trees,” he laughs. “Nothing else to look at for about an hour.”
Just what Abby needed to hear. She makes her move.
She opens her eyes, jumps up and dives headfirst out of the broken window Prince created when he kicked his way into the bus.
Putting her hands out, she uses the ground to soften the blow and handsprings to her feet. Like a torpedo, she races partway down the dirt road, then takes off into the woods.
“Get her,” screams Prince.
The bus stops, and the two henchmen jump out and chase after Abby.
However, Abby had a thirty-second head start, and the underlings chase after a speedster that is nowhere to be seen.
After ten minutes, they give up and head back to the bus.
“Couldn’t find her. She was just too damned fast.”
Prince growls. “Let’s go home.”
The bus starts worming its way slowly again down the dirt road.
From her hidden vantage point, Abby watches the bus disappear. She knew that the men after her would likely assume that she went as deep into the woods as she could go. She also knew that with their superior conditioning they would probably find her.
A bit of deception was needed. As soon as she darted into the woods, she quickly scaled a tree and hid in its branches where she could see the bus and her pursuers.
She clambers down the tree and begins walking on the dirt road in the opposite direction that the bus was going.
***
“Was Jackie able to track Abby’s cell?” asks Olivia on Dr. Tang’s speakerphone with Willie Mays.
“He can’t find anything. The battery must have died or the cell phone is destroyed.”
Olivia groans. “Now what?”
“Maybe... ” says Dr. Tang. “Although Prince stopped seeing me, I continue to see the illegal Chinese brought over here by his family. The last couple months, there’s been a lot more of them coming for work-related injuries from a place they call “Leopard Country.” They don’t know the exact location, but they drive along Garden State Parkway South for an hour and then half an hour through some almost-hidden dirt road.”
“Let’s get a chopper,” says Olivia. “That can find things faster.”
“Not a good idea,” says Willie Mays. “You’ll put everybody into greater danger if they think the Marines are coming. We should just drive.”
“You got to be kidding.”
“Trust me. My kid is at stake, and if I though any other way would work, I’d do it.”
“You any good at finding needles in haystacks, Willie Mays?”
“Can’t even find my glasses half the time. I’ll come now.”
***
The bus arrives at The Ranch. All the kids are zoned out or sleeping.
“Put them in The Barn,” says Prince. “Anyone you want try out, go ahead.”
Now, that’s motivation for the men to move quickly.
“What do you want me to do now, Prince?” asks Li Peng, the only one who hasn’t taken one of the girls.
“Noah and JJ are probably dead. If they’re not, wounded warriors are easy to take care of if they’re stupid enough to come after me. When Alexei comes, I can hand over the girls. That’s a million dollars.”
“What about Super Match?”
“Maybe it’s not for me.”
“That is the prudent move,” says Li Peng.
“What do you mean by that?” asks Prince.
“It is the safe move, but is it the move that will satisfy you? You are a Leopard, and you are the son of a Shaolin. We are warriors... ”
“That is the thinking of my father.”
“Whether you like it or not, you are your father’s son. You can choose to accept to accept or reject it.”
“What would you do?”
“I am Shaolin. I am a warrior. But you are not me.”
***
“It ain’t fancy, but it works.”
JJ and Olivia look askance at Willie Mays’ old beater of a Toyota.
“Hey, you want a nicer ride, get me some of that foundation money. But on a New York cop’s salary with a mortgage and two teenagers’ appetites as well as a wife whose second home is Costco, this is about all you’re gonna get.”
“As long as it gets us there,” says Olivia.
“We need to make a stop at our apartment first,” says JJ. “I need weapons.”
“You should have told me. I could’ve gotten anything,” says the NYPD cop.
“Not my kind. I need throwing stars, darts and some short daggers.”
“Sorta like Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Wesley Snipes?” grins Willie Mays.
“Sorta.”
Willie Mays lets out a huge Bruce Lee-style epic scream. “OOOWW!”
JJ and Olivia stare at the grinning cop.
“Always wanted to do that.”
The three squeeze into the vehicle.
***
It’s always about his father. Ever since Prince was young. Damn it. He’s his own man now, but what does Li Peng drag out? His father.
The worst part of it: Prince knows that this is the right call to make. Prince presses the buttons on his cell phone.
“Hello, Prince.”
“I’ve gotten rid of Noah and JJ.”
“That’s not what I heard. Alexei said it was him that did it.”
“You talked to Alexei?”
“He knows how to get a message to me. But I wouldn’t believe it unless I see the bodies. Have you seen them, Prince?”
“No, but... ”
“If you haven’t, then you have to assume they are still alive. Is there anything else?”
“Yeah, I need advice. I put together a deal with Alexei and want to know what you think.”
“Wouldn’t the smart thing to have done is tell me before you put it to him?”
He’s so exasperating, and he’s so right.
“I’m sure you’ve seen my fight with the leopards yesterday.”
“It is hard not to avoid them.”
“I want to do it big, big time. Alexei puts up all the money to build a new huge arena, 3,000 seats. He does all the promotion, sells all the tickets, gets everybody there. We split the profits fifty-fifty, and we both take a cut of the gambling.”
“This is your bright idea?”
“Yeah. The video’s gone viral. They can’t get enough of me and the leopards. Everybody’s going to buy a ticket at fifty grand a pop, I can net maybe seventy, eighty million at no risk. We’ll do it in nine months, and then I’m out, out, out... What do you think?”
There’s a brief moment of silence before Chin answers.
“That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard from you, and you have spouted off a ton of them. This proposal is risky from top to bottom.”
“That’s total bull.”
“Is it? Let me ask, does Alexei have the money to do this? He took a big hit when he tried to help Queenie. As for 3,000 people paying fifty grand a pop? What world do you live on? You managed to fly under the radar because you only had a few hundred people yesterday... ”
“We had five hundred,” interjects Prince angrily.
“Whatever. With 3,000 people, you are going to attract a whole lot of attention, and there’s bound to be some cops, authorities, someone snooping around. You think movie stars, Russian Mafia, Yakuza or Triad leaders want to hang around that?”
“I got that covered. We don’t announce d
ate, time and place until six hours before.”
“Good luck with that. I don’t trust or respect Alexei. No one does. He has called me a hundred times at least, trying to get me to do a deal with him. I have never, ever said yes. Why? It’s not because I have anything against Russians, Americans or any other of the white ghosts. It’s because of him - he’s crazy for little girls. I can’t do business with someone like that. And trust me, everyone thinks men like that are scum.”
“You married mom when she was fifteen.”
“I married her to make you. She was lousy in bed but perfect for bearing children.”
Prince bites his tongue. Does his father know about his own designs on young girls? Not going there.
“And then there’s the leopards. For you to say there’s no risk is crazy. The damned leopards. No matter how hard you train, one little slip, and you are dead, dead, dead.”
“I’m not worried about that. Anything else?”
“And your last statement proves what I’m going to say. The number one risk in this deal is you. You think because you have muscles, people will bow down to you. Nobody cares about your beating up a leopard. I’ve been doing that for years with tigers. They’ll just say you’re copying me. It’s been done before. If you want to do something that shows how great you are, you do something better than me, you do something original. You hate me. I get that, but you are not better than me. You have to do something that I haven’t been able to do.”
“And what’s that?”
“You get my money back from Reid and his foundation. All three billion of it. If you conquer the person that conquered me, then you will have respect. Everyone will bow to you. No one cares about a circus act with a leopard. Especially if you get killed.”
Prince snorts sarcastically. “Now I understand your game, and you’ve been talking total bull. You rant and go about being special, blah blah blah. You just want me to risk my ass to get you your dough back. No thanks. I’m not falling for that.”
SLAVERY UNBOUND: Cruelty & Lust with the Emerging Eastern Mafia (Noah Reid Action Thriller series Book 4) Page 13