by P J Tierney
It felt as if a giant vacuum cleaner had been turned on. Jamie was sucked feet first back into his body. Through the bright glare he saw the black bugs swarming towards him. He squeezed his eyes shut and thought of the white light that had protected him once before. He woke up, seemingly whole again.
Lucy was leaning over him and screaming into his face. ‘Come back, Jamie!’ The slightly bloodied needle had been cast aside.
Wing hovered behind her, looking terrified.
Jamie smiled and opened one eye then the other. Lucy threw her arms around him. He blinked, and in that fractional moment saw a shadow break into a thousand minute pieces and pass through the dormitory wall.
From the other side of the wall he heard footsteps then someone cry out, ‘Ouch.’ He wasn’t entirely sure but he thought it might have been Cheng.
Chapter 8
Jamie trembled all through breakfast. He barely got any abalone congee into his mouth, as it kept sloshing over the side of the spoon. That wasn’t such a bad thing since it tasted like it had been strained through old socks.
Master Wu watched him closely. Afterwards, he took Jamie aside and asked him what was wrong. Jamie assured him he was all right, but Master Wu ordered him back to his room to rest. Jamie was just about to obey, when Jade came over.
‘Master, there is one more lesson for Jamie,’ she said.
A chill ran through him. Was Jade planning to use the aconite root now? He gave Master Wu an imploring look.
Master Wu frowned. ‘Is there a problem, Jamie?’
Jade cleared her throat loudly and Jamie swallowed the accusation that was on the tip of his tongue.
He looked around for Wing. ‘I, um, think I’m sick,’ he said, playing for time. ‘Maybe I should go back to bed.’
Jamie heard someone scoffing behind him, then Cheng said, ‘I’m not surprised since you were wandering around the grounds half the night.’
Jamie froze. Had Cheng been spying on him? He felt Jade glaring at him too.
Master Wu looked disappointed. ‘If that’s the case, Jamie, training might be the best cure. You will sleep better if you are tired.’
‘Master Wu,’ Jamie protested, ‘I can explain.’
But Master Wu was already on his way. ‘I’m sure you’ll feel better after your training. I hear it’s going very well.’
Jamie swallowed. Well, for Jade maybe. She gestured for him to follow her. His eyes darted frantically for Wing, or an escape, or an excuse to keep him from whatever Jade had in store.
Jade took him outside the gates of Chia Wu and down towards the dock. Jamie’s brow beaded with sweat and his stomach churned.
Jade looked across the bay, which was heavy with fog. ‘You can swim, can’t you?’
He nodded and Jade toyed with her belt.
‘Good.’
Jamie turned to inspect the water, imagining how cold it would be today. And before he realised what was happening, Jade had removed her belt, passed the tail through the stitched end and had thrown it lasso-style over his head. When it had fallen as far as his feet, she yanked on it.
‘What?’ Jamie yelled, falling backwards helplessly.
Jade lashed his legs together, while Jamie struggled. Although he thrashed and punched and cursed as loudly as he could, she had him bound and in the water in an instant. Jamie gasped as he sank into its frigid depths, his legs a dead weight that pulled him down.
He clawed his way back towards the surface. He took a great breath of air and screamed, ‘What are you doing?’
‘I’d swim if I were you,’ Jade said, pointing to the far side of the bay. ‘Before you sink again.’
He looked across the bay as he was dragged under again. He pulled himself back up to the surface and put his head down to start swimming. She was right: the only way to stay afloat was to keep moving. He used a freestyle stroke with a heavy butterfly-type kick to get as far away from Jade as he could. He reached the other side exhausted and with his throat raw from sucking in the salt water. He sat in the shallows to untie his feet.
Jade yelled from the dock, ‘Backstroke over to this side!’
‘No way,’ he muttered under his breath, along with a few other choice words that the foul-mouthed fishermen of Sai Chun would have been proud of.
‘What are you going to do, Jamie?’ Jade called across the water. ‘Go and tell Master Wu?’
Jamie flinched at her words. She was right: without a boat this side of the wall or an influential friend on the other, he was stuck.
She smirked as she watched Jamie resign himself to swimming across the bay again. He dragged his bound feet back into the icy deep. He stretched out on his back and continued with the butterfly kick, but it was his arms that had to do all the work. His shoulders and neck ached, but stopping to rest meant sinking. It was a long, clumsy crossing of the bay.
When he finally got back to the dock, he grabbed onto the timber deck to haul himself up. Jade put her foot to his chest and pushed him back in.
Next, she made him put both strokes together. He lay face down in the water and made a freestyle loop with one arm, then rolled his shoulder up and out of the water till he was on his back. He did two backstrokes and followed the second one all the way round till he was face down again. It was a bizarre, spiralling, dizzying motion. By the time he’d crossed the bay for the third time, he was gasping for breath and felt slightly seasick. He leaned over on the sand and vomited up all the salt water he’d swallowed.
Jade made him swim back the same way. When he finished, he was so drained he couldn’t even lift himself up onto the dock. His arms failed him and the weight of his legs dragged him under. He struggled and gasped and swallowed water. He got back to the surface. Jade leaned over, grabbed him by the back of his shirt and hauled him up onto the dock.
While he lay on the timber, coughing and spluttering, Jade wiped her hands on her shirt. In a voice so cold that it could have come from Zheng, she said, ‘You’re a constant disappointment. It’s no wonder your mother left you.’
That was it. Jamie had been humiliated enough. He clenched his stomach and his jaw and pushed up from the dock with such ferocity he became airborne. He locked his bound legs together, twisted and followed his shoulder round like he had in the water, shooting towards his target like a missile. He aimed for Jade’s knees, but felt himself slowing down, his trajectory too low. He hit her shins with such little force that she barely even stumbled. He landed on his side, panting and humiliated.
Jade looked down at him, her lips curved into a tiny smile, and she nodded. ‘The lateral spinning side kick from a seated position.’
Jamie’s mouth dropped open. He had just done the Wu-spin.
From the other end of the dock came a harried voice. ‘Jamie,’ it called. Footsteps beat a frantic rhythm along the timber.
Jamie had to force himself to look away from Jade; he was locked in a moment he didn’t want to end. The Wu-spin! He had done the Wu-spin.
It was Edwin approaching. ‘Jamie, Master Wu wants to see you straight away. You’ve got to go to his office.’
‘What?’ Jamie started. ‘Why would Master Wu —’ but he stopped short. It must be about last night. Oh, Jamie thought. What did I do?
He remembered the blood on his hands and hoped it really had been just his.
As he got to his feet, water dripped from his clothes and hair and pooled beneath him. He suddenly felt very cold. He took a step and remembered too late that his legs were still tied together. He fell straight back down onto the dock.
His cheeks flared red and he expected Jade to make fun of him. Instead, she looked disappointed. She shook her head as she stepped over him and let her foot clip the back of his head.
‘I just did the Wu-spin,’ he called out. He yanked at the soaked belt tied around his legs and worked himself free. ‘I don’t know what else you want from me!’ he yelled after her.
Edwin stared at him. ‘You can do the Wu-spin?’
Jamie stood
shivering at the entrance to Master Wu’s office. The rosewood screen had been ripped to shreds in a wild frenzy. There was absolutely no trace of the carved princess or the friend who was about to ambush her, just a pile of splinters and sawdust. On the jagged pieces of timber that were left, Jamie could just make out the tiny bits of flesh that would undoubtedly match the gouges in his fingers.
He squeezed his hands into tight fists to hide the evidence.
Lucy came running up the corridor. ‘You wanted to see me,’ she said to Master Wu, then came to a sudden stop in front of the damage. ‘Whoa.’
Master Wu stared at the remnants of his screen. He said, ‘There is a stranger among us.’ Then he turned to Jamie. ‘And you need to get off this island.’ Jamie gasped like he’d just been punched before Master Wu continued. ‘I need to know you are safe from whatever has infiltrated us.’
Jamie breathed again. He opened his mouth to tell Master Wu it was him who’d wrecked the screen, but he felt Lucy watching him. He glimpsed her ever so subtly shake her head.
Master Wu looked through the window to the banana grove and ocean beyond. ‘I will not allow any of us to be sitting ducks. And this is where you come in, Lucy.’
Lucy stood a little straighter.
‘I believe your father has offered us a boat on previous occasions?’ She nodded eagerly. Master Wu turned to Jamie. ‘I’d like you to go with Lucy to pick up a boat from her father.’ His voice cracked with emotion as he looked out over his precious Chia Wu and said, ‘Make sure it’s a vessel big enough to carry all of us, Jamie. We might all have to escape this site.’
Master Wu looked so sad at just the thought of having to abandon his home that Jamie began to speak. ‘Master,’ he said, but Lucy kicked him in the shins. ‘What?’ he demanded of her.
She glared at him, while intermittently glimpsing towards Master Wu to check he was still looking out the window. ‘Master Wu wants us off the island,’ she said slowly and with great emphasis. ‘Away from whatever is doing this,’ and she gestured at the screen. Then she mouthed the words so Master Wu wouldn’t hear: Away from Jade.
Jamie tilted his head back as he got it. He adjusted his expression to one of seriousness and said, ‘I won’t let you down, Master Wu.’
Master Wu turned to them and gave a small smile that did little to belie his sadness. He patted Jamie on the shoulder and said, ‘And maybe you could bring back some food supplies when you return. I don’t think any of us can face any more of Mrs Choo’s abalone congee.’
Jamie grinned.
‘So should I call my dad and ask him to pick us up?’ Lucy asked.
Jamie’s ears pricked up as he glanced around their remote and isolated setting. ‘Call him, like, telepathically?’
Lucy made a face like he’d said something stupid. ‘No, like on the satellite phone.’
An hour later, Jamie and Lucy were standing at the lookout waiting for Mr Wang to arrive. Jamie had his satchel slung over his shoulder; it contained his dive knife, a spare shirt and his monkey. Lucy’s bag looked like she’d stuffed her entire wardrobe inside.
Lucy checked her watch. Jamie thought it was a bit too early to be getting impatient. On The Swift, it would take a good two and a half hours to get underway and this far out to sea, and she was a powerful boat.
‘Is your dad bringing a speedboat?’ he asked.
Lucy gave a coy smile in response.
Jamie heard a low, droning sound coming from the southwest. He scanned the waterline but didn’t see anything. He looked higher, to where a black dot hovered above the horizon. It quickly got closer and louder — much, much louder. It hovered low over the water and cast a shadow that made it look like it was being chased by a shark. The drone became a deafening, throbbing, pulsing roar. Jamie grinned; he’d never been in a helicopter.
As the helicopter passed overhead, Jamie and Lucy covered their heads. The downdraught plastered their hair and their clothes to their bodies and made dust swirl around them. Except for the noise, Jamie thought it felt a bit like the water pressure on a deep dive.
The helicopter hovered near the Grand Pagoda, then descended below the tree line over the training ground.
Jamie stared. ‘So just how rich is your dad?’
Lucy simply smiled again.
They ran to meet the helicopter and arrived just as a man in a dark suit was getting out. He ran, hunched over to avoid the blades, towards Master Wu. Jamie recognised the man instantly: he not only owned most of the businesses in the territory, he was the face of them too. You couldn’t walk along a city block without seeing Mr Wang beaming down from a billboard. His airline offered the cheapest flights and his aircraft were the newest models. He owned both telecommunications networks, and while he was offering a free handset with every contract for one network on one television channel, his cartoon avatar would be on a different channel offering a no-contract, no-download limit for the other. He supported charities and sat on boards; he featured in the society pages, where he and Lucy’s mother were always smiling and impeccably dressed. She spent most of her time visiting children’s hospitals and hosting fundraisers. They contributed to government think tanks. And while he was universally loved, he had only two real passions: his daughter and his newspapers, both of which he took very seriously indeed.
Deiwei bowed to Master Wu, then the two men embraced. He looked around and spotted Lucy, who took that as her cue to charge across the field and leap into his arms.
After Mr Wang put his daughter down, he had a long conversation with Master Wu, which was interspersed with lots of hand gestures due to the noise from the rotor blades. Mr Fan joined them. He was dressed in travelling robes, had a satchel over his shoulder, and looked exactly as he had the day Jamie first met him.
Soon, it was time to leave. Jamie glanced over at Wing, who was standing beside his mother with his hands rammed into his pockets. Jamie grinned at him, but Wing looked away. Jamie waited till he caught Wing’s eye again and pointed at his shoulder. Wing frowned and his mouth moved like he’d said, ‘What?’
Jamie looked around to make sure no-one was watching, then he tapped his own left shoulder where Wing’s wound was. Wing grinned.
What followed was a performance worthy of an award. Wing wobbled on his feet and held his mother’s shoulder for support. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then doubled over as a hideous pain racked him.
‘Yulong!’ Mrs Choo bellowed, so loudly her voice was heard over the roar of the helicopter. ‘Please take Wing with you, he needs a doctor.’
Mr Fan paused at the door of the helicopter. Mrs Choo’s expression made it clear that she wasn’t going to take no for an answer. Wing gave a weak cough. Mr Fan hesitated and looked towards Master Wu, who tilted his head towards Mrs Choo and exhaled in a I-wouldn’t-mess-with-her way. Mr Fan counted the seats in the helicopter and gave Mrs Choo a nod. He sent Jamie to help bring Wing aboard.
Jamie tried to contain his smile as he ran to get to his friend. He took Wing’s arm to support him and continue the façade, but Mrs Choo yanked Wing back to face her.
She bent down so she was eye to eye with her son and said, ‘Don’t think for one minute that ridiculous display worked, young man. The only reason you’re getting on that helicopter is because I want you off this island while we track down whatever shredded that screen. Understood?’
Wing lowered his eyes. ‘Yes, Mum.’
‘Besides,’ she added as she straightened up his shirt, ‘some antibiotics wouldn’t hurt either.’ She kissed Wing on the top of his head and said, ‘Get better, son.’
As Jamie took a step towards the helicopter, Mrs Choo reached for his arm and pulled him back. She kissed him on the head too.
The rotor blades were still roaring, but as soon as the door closed the inside of the helicopter became a cocoon of luxurious quiet. It wasn’t as if Jamie had anything to compare it to, but if he had to guess he’d say this helicopter had to be one of the fanciest models available. The s
eats were made of leather and enveloped Jamie in cushiony softness. They had padded headrests and retractable footstools as well. There was a fridge hidden behind one veneer panel and a television monitor behind another. Wing pushed every button and pulled every lever in sight.
Mr Wang smiled at his exuberance. ‘Feeling a bit better then, son?’
Jamie watched how Lucy wrangled the five-point seatbelt and copied her. She was sitting opposite her father; Jamie was next to her, with Wing opposite him. Mr Fan was in the front with the pilot.
The engine changed pitch and the increased speed of the rotors made the cabin pulse. Jamie grinned and looked out the window. Master Wu bowed and Mrs Choo waved. The helicopter lifted up and hovered only centimetres from the ground, as if it would take a great effort to break free from the earth’s hold. Then it shot up into the air.
Jamie gripped the armrests and watched as the downdraught created waves on the lake’s surface. He saw the roof of the dining pavilion, the thick green canopy of bamboo palms and a lone runner charging along the winding path towards the training field. It was Jade. She stopped and waved frantically, then put her hands to her mouth and shouted to them. Of course, he couldn’t hear her. He put his hand to his ear and mouthed, ‘What?’ But he knew she’d never see him all the way up here.
She kept calling out and Jamie concentrated. He blocked out the first layer of sound: movements in the cabin and the low drone of the engine. He willed Jade to continue shouting as he searched for the second layer of sound. And then there was a shattering pain. He threw himself back in the seat and clamped his hands to his ears as a wall of roaring noise from the rotors hit him. His ears rang and he checked they weren’t bleeding.
He leaned into the window and looked down at Jade. She was tiny now. Wing peered at her as well, and Jet climbed out of Jamie’s satchel and put his palms to the glass between them. Jade dropped her arms to her sides, then started waving again with great big gestures, pointing at her head and then up at the helicopter.
‘What’s she trying to say?’ Wing asked.