by P J Tierney
‘That’s the one,’ Jamie said, pointing at Castel Rock on the chart. Wing set the course.
Jamie had visited Castel Rock once before. It was close to the deep-water fishing grounds the fishermen liked to work, so from May to September it had a small population. A few fishing families had built shacks there. In the summer months it also boasted one of the best seafood restaurants in the territory, if you didn’t mind eating in a long, open-sided shack and using a roll of toilet paper for napkins. With summer a few months away, Castel Rock should be abandoned.
With Wing at the wheel, Jamie was free to think. He rested his head on his hand and stared at the newspapers Lucy had left on the chart table. Four missing children stared back at him, and they were just the ones they knew about. Jamie sighed and added Errol, Mr Leung and the twins to the list of Zheng’s unwilling recruits.
How many men were they likely to come up against on the island? He added up those he knew of: the six riverboat crew; Eugene the security guard, who was neither a guard nor called Eugene; the four crew on the fast boat that had beat them to the bi disc and their leader with the twice-broken pelvis. His stomach churned as he thought about the three of them fighting all those men at the same time, and maybe Zheng too. He just hoped a few of them were doing some of Zheng’s dirty work elsewhere.
Wing cleared his throat, drawing Jamie from his thoughts. ‘You’ve probably already thought about this,’ he said, ‘but I’m sort of worried that if Zheng does have a Recollector, he’ll know we’re coming.’
Jade whipped around to Wing. ‘Zheng’s got a Recollector?’
Wing was taken aback. ‘Um …’ he said, his voice trailing off as he looked to Jamie for support.
Jade turned on Jamie, glaring at him. ‘Who is it?’ she demanded. ‘It can only be one of two people: the raven Recollector or your mother.’
Jamie felt his cheeks burn.
Jade went on before he could say anything. ‘Well, you’d better hope it is your mother and not …’ Her mouth continued moving, but her words seemed to have failed her.
‘And not your grandfather,’ Jamie finished for her.
Jade trembled with rage. ‘He’s not my grandfather,’ she said. She turned on her heel and stormed from the bridge, slamming the door behind her.
When the ringing of the steel door finally died down, Wing said, ‘Idiot, he’s way too old to be her grandfather.’ He adjusted the trim of the Lin Yao before adding, ‘He’d be her great-grandfather, at least.’
‘Yeah,’ Jamie huffed, ‘more fool me.’
Wing swallowed. ‘Well, if that’s his great-granddaughter’s reaction to the prospect of seeing him, he must be a real piece of work. Maybe you could Remote View and see what we’re heading into?’
Jamie shook his head. ‘Zheng’s too attuned to the Way. Any disruption in it and he’ll be all over us before we get to the shore. We’re not Master Wu; we need the element of surprise.’
‘So we’re doing this the old-fashioned way?’ Wing asked.
Jamie nodded. ‘Sadly.’
Wing took a great big breath, then gestured towards the door. ‘We’re going to need her then. You’d better go and make things right.’
Jamie made a face. ‘How do I do that?’
‘I don’t know,’ Wing said. ‘Talking to her is probably a good start.’
‘I don’t suppose you want to?’
Wing shook his head. ‘Not on your life.’
‘Well, it might just be on my life,’ Jamie said as he gritted his teeth and hobbled towards the door. He stopped at Jet’s perch and said brightly, ‘You want to come with me?’
Jet slunk down and tried to hide behind the narrow pole.
‘Coward,’ Jamie said.
Wing chuckled. ‘You’re the one who likes her.’
‘I do not.’
‘Yes, you do.’
Jamie limped onto the gantry and yanked the bridge door shut behind him. It closed with a satisfyingly loud bang. ‘No, I don’t!’ he yelled at the door, then leaned his forehead against it to muster his courage.
He heard Wing’s voice say again from the other side, ‘Yes, you do.’
Jamie limped down the stairs, careful to place his feet where Lucy’s vomit wasn’t. Jade was leaning against the stern rail, looking out over the water. He stumbled over to stand beside her. He didn’t say anything; he didn’t know what to say. But he remembered Mr Fan standing beside him on the bridge when he felt the weight of responsibility to those missing children and how it had been enough to know he wasn’t alone. So he stood there in silence and watched the tug’s wake churn out beneath them, then fan out into the darkness.
Eventually Jade said, ‘I’m scared it is him.’
‘But surely he’d be dead by now?’
‘You’d think so, but it’s easy to dodge a bullet when you know it’s coming.’ She looked out into the night. ‘It’s much harder to face it.’
‘Is that why you just sat there when Cheng attacked you?’
She shrugged. ‘I was supposed to die. It was how it was supposed to end back there.’
Jamie looked at her. ‘I’m pleased it didn’t end that way, Jade.’
Jade didn’t answer; she simply shrugged again.
They stood side by side, staring at the water for a while, then Jamie asked, ‘So is your great-grandfather really that bad?’
‘Don’t call him that,’ she said. ‘I don’t need to be reminded that I’m related to him. Apparently he knew his great-granddaughter would be a Recollector so my parents hid me. They even dressed me as a boy for those first years to fool him in case he happened to View us. My parents brought me to Chia Wu so he wouldn’t find me, and then they went and died.’
‘Went and died?’ Jamie repeated. She made it sound like they’d deliberately set out to hurt her by drowning.
‘My mother took the easy way out,’ Jade said softly. ‘I might have been only young, but I remember it clearly. When the boat hit the rocks, my father tried to get us all overboard, but it sank so quickly. All three of us went down with it. It was so deep and I couldn’t swim. I remember my lungs feeling like they would burst. I reached out for my mother, but do you know what she did?’
She looked at Jamie and waited. He shook his head.
‘She looked me in the eyes and then she sucked in a great big breath of water. She didn’t even try to get out from under the boat; she just gave up. Too weak to watch me die, she chose to drown instead.’
Jamie heard the pain in her voice. He said, ‘She didn’t leave you, Jade.’
She made a scoffing sound.
‘No, she really didn’t,’ he said. ‘What happened next? You obviously didn’t drown.’
She glared at him. ‘I swam. You learn quickly if you have to.’
Jamie nodded. ‘And I bet it was cold when you learned to swim, wasn’t it? Freezing even.’
Jade eyed him suspiciously.
‘And the water swirled around you, didn’t it?’
She nodded, very cautiously. ‘How do you know that?’
‘Because it happened to me too. I nearly drowned in that exact place, twice. But your mother saved me both times. She might be gone, Jade, but she’s still looking after you. If it wasn’t for her saving me from drowning earlier tonight, neither of us would be here now.’
He paused and let her look at the water for a while, then said, ‘You’re a bit like her, aren’t you?’
‘What makes you say that?’
Jamie grinned. ‘Oh, I don’t know — a kick up the backside to hurry me up might have had something to do with it.’
‘She kicked you?’
Jamie nodded. ‘Hard too.’
‘Good,’ Jade said, and she wrapped her arms around herself and smiled broadly. Then she said quietly, ‘I never thanked you for saving me. I’m pleased I’m not dead.’ She stared out at the water again, then she tilted her head as if something had suddenly occurred to her. She smiled and said very slowly, ‘I’m not dead.’<
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Jamie chuckled. ‘Yeah, I can see that.’
‘No, Jamie,’ Jade said slowly and with a thrill in her voice, ‘I should be dead. The Recollector thinks I’m dead because that’s what was supposed to happen.’ She held Jamie’s shoulders and said, ‘For the first time ever, he doesn’t know what’s coming.’
They looked at each other, their eyes bright and their smiles large. Then they rushed back to the bridge with a new urgency to pore over the chart and plan their attack. For the first time since Jamie had learned that his purpose in life was to defeat Zheng, he thought he might just have a chance of succeeding. All that stood in his way were twelve men trained in kung fu and one evil Recollector.
Chapter 17
When they were still some way off from Castel Rock, Jamie had Wing pull in close to one of the smaller islands in the chain. He couldn’t risk anyone consciously listening while they prepared the raft. The Lin Yao’s keel would make it impossible to get close to the island so they would be going ashore on the life raft. Even tucked behind one of the islands, they still took precautions. He stood poised over the self-inflating life raft and waited till the largest wave formed. As the white crest began to tumble down and create a crashing sound, Jamie pulled the tab on the raft. A deafening hiss erupted from the internal compressor, forcing the air into the raft, and it flopped about like a fish out of water as it unfolded and grew taut.
Jamie strapped his dive knife to his thigh while Jade hunted around down below for likely weapons. She came up the stairs carrying a handful of chopsticks. She held a single one in her right hand, twirled it in her fingers and aimed it at the inflated life raft.
‘Whoa,’ Jamie said, lunging in front of her to block her aim.
She smiled. ‘Just teasing.’ Then she turned and threw the chopstick like a dart into the cabin door.
Wing turned off the Lin Yao’s navigation lights and all the internal lights too. They motored on in complete darkness with only the shimmering line of moonlight to mark the way.
A dark shadow on the horizon gradually took form. Jamie took the wheel and disengaged the motors so he could feel the pull of the current. He altered course so the Lin Yao drifted towards the western end of the island.
He nodded to Jade and she went to the deck. He patted Wing on the back and felt him shaking. Jamie pointed at the chart to remind Wing to tuck the Lin Yao behind the islands to the north of Castel Rock and wait for them there. Wing nodded.
Jamie whispered, ‘We’ll call you when we’re ready, okay,’ and tapped the side of his head.
Wing nodded. ‘I’ll hear you, I promise.’
As Jamie made to leave, Wing grabbed his arm and whispered, ‘It’s not just me my mum would miss if we didn’t make it back. You know that, don’t you?’
Jamie squeezed his friend’s arm and walked over to Jet. He patted the little monkey goodbye, but Jet seized his forearm and clung on. Jamie tried to shake him free, but Jet held fast. Wing tried to drag him off, but the little monkey dug his claws in deeper. Wing pulled Jet one way, Jamie pulled his arm the other, and the little monkey shrieked. Wing let go and Jamie clamped Jet’s mouth shut. He glared at Jet and Jet glared back. They were at a silent but intense stalemate.
Jamie slowly lifted his hand from Jet’s mouth, pointed at him as a warning not to shriek again, then opened up the top of his satchel. The little monkey swaggered down Jamie’s chest and into the bag, preening as he got comfortable.
Jamie looked at Wing and shook his head. Wing gave a nervous grin.
On deck, Jade already had the raft over the side and was holding it up against the tug’s hull with an oar. Jamie climbed down into the wobbly inflatable, then held it stable while Jade climbed over the side too. As she dropped down into the smaller craft, her satchel snagged on the rail and she was held suspended for a moment. The satchel broke free and she landed on her feet, but the bag fell heavily, and something metallic inside it clanged loudly. Jamie flinched and Jade cringed. She mouthed, ‘Sorry.’
They each positioned themselves on one knee, and plunged the oars into the water as if on a dragon boat. The only sounds were the soft splash as the oars dipped into the sea and the trickle of water from the blades when they lifted out.
Jamie directed the raft towards the western end of the sandy beach. A few last powerful strokes of the oars and they glided in over the rocks. Jamie crouched in the bow, ready to slip over the side to drag them the final few metres. He peered into the inky shallows but couldn’t make out anything except his own reflection.
He slipped over the side, but the water was deeper than he’d thought — he went in up to his chest. He held onto the side of the raft and his legs swung up underneath it, his knee flaring in pain. Then he remembered Jet was in his satchel. He quickly pulled it up and dumped it in the boat. A bedraggled Jet pushed the flap back and glared at Jamie, before climbing out and shaking himself dry. Jamie shrugged in a way that said, You’re the one who wanted to come.
The swell pushed them closer to shore and Jamie found his feet on a slippery piece of rock. He dragged the raft in, noticing that Jade stayed nice and dry until they were at the shoreline. Even though she barely got her feet wet, she still held her satchel up high above the waterline.
They dragged the raft up the rocks, stumbling on the uneven, slippery surface. Every step was agony for Jamie. They managed to get the raft to the cliff face and Jamie sat on its side to heal his knee some more. While he worked, Jade washed away the telltale drag marks on the sand. Jamie was sparing with his energy as he carried out the healing; he knew he was going to need it for more than a damaged knee. He did enough to get by, then helped Jade shove the raft beneath a ledge that had been hollowed out by the pounding sea.
Above, Jamie could see the last of the fishermen’s shacks perched along the shore. He listened consciously, carefully extending his scope from the tiny shack close to him through to the restaurant on the other side of the sandy bay. On this side of the island, at least, there wasn’t a sound; not a breath, not a heartbeat. What he did hear was the low rhythmic drone of a generator from the top of the headland.
He pointed to the top of the escarpment and Jade nodded. She led, clambering up the piles of rocks at the base of the cliff. Jamie followed tentatively, favouring his injured knee and using his hands. He hauled himself where Jade leaped and was grateful for all the upper body training she’d put him through.
There was a path at the top that wound around the headland. They dashed across it and hid behind a flimsy-looking shack. Jamie looked around and figured they needed to be further inland to see down to where the generator noise was coming from. He pointed out an animal track through the low, windswept shrubs. They hunched over and scurried along it.
The shrubs ran out and they had to cross a cleared area to see where Zheng’s camp was. Jamie’s heart pounded in his chest. There was a lone rock sticking up in the middle of the field; it reminded Jamie of the Dragon Rock at Chia Wu. He pointed it out to Jade. She nodded at him and they ran across the open field. They slid behind the rock and crouched low to get their bearings.
Behind them, the island raked upwards to the steep cliff they’d seen on the chart; below them was a clearing lit by industrial floodlights. They could see everything in that harsh light, including a strange construction that looked like a cobbled-together version of the Grand Pagoda at Chia Wu. Part of it was built from the signage from the seafood restaurant — its lettering offered salt and pepper squid or steamed scallops. Its roof was made of corrugated-iron panels with their ends bent up in a crude attempt to copy the curves on the eaves of a pagoda. On the verandah of the strange building was a single wooden chair that looked like it might have come from a classroom.
There was a long, narrow building to one side of the clearing, little more than some columns with an angled roof. In front of it stood a training rack and four wooden dummies. The dummies were like those they used at Chia Wu, about the same size as a person, with rods sticking out so you co
uld practise strikes and blocks. These four dummies each had a sheet of paper pinned to them where the head might have been.
Closest to Jamie and Jade were two steel cages, both with a pile of rags in the bottom. One of the piles had just moved. It was Cheng. Jamie felt Jade tense beside him.
Two men appeared in the clearing — Jamie recognised them from the rivercraft. They dragged Cheng from his cage and threw him into the middle of the open space. His hands were bound and he winced with pain as he struggled to get up. His left eye was swollen closed and he wobbled like he was concussed.
The men laughed at him. He turned towards the sound, but they moved quickly then laughed again. Cheng crouched low and followed the noise, but every time he lunged they moved just out of his reach.
When the men stopped, an eerie silence fell over the clearing. There was a tuneless chiming sound and the door of the haphazard pagoda opened wide. The rivercraft captain came out first. With his pointed beard and beady eyes, he looked just as cruel as when Jamie first saw him. He went to the long, open building and beat a stick against the tin roof. The clanging noise rang across the island and grated against Jamie’s ears.
A dark mass at the back of the building stirred. Jamie edged forward and held his breath. He saw Mr Leung first, although he barely recognised him. His face was bloodied, his lips were swollen and he was missing a big chunk of hair from the side of his head. His hands were bound in front of him.
Jamie’s stomach clenched tightly. He vowed to make Zheng pay for hurting Bohai’s father.
The rest of the huddled mass shuffled forward. Jamie recognised Elizabeth, although she was skinnier than she had been in the newspaper photos. Her once silky hair was matted and her face was filthy. The magician, Hong, was there too. His eyes were wide and wild and darted every which way. Jamie could see that he was close to hyperventilating. The two Kwok boys stood with their arms touching, and the youngest was holding onto Mr Leung’s shirt tail as well. Mr Leung’s twins cowered behind their father. There was another boy Jamie didn’t recognise — maybe Errol; he had a slash of dried blood across his forehead. And there was a Eurasian girl, probably no more than eight, who stood by herself. All of them, even the youngest, had their hands bound together.