The Noah Reid Series: Books 1-3: The Noah Reid Action Thriller Series Boxset

by Wesley Robert Lowe

  “Yo, bros. What’s your pleasure?”

  Duke took his sunglasses off. “Look at me. I’m not your brother.”

  Chad trembled. “No worries. Seems like you need coffee. I can do that. What can I get you, my man? Double cappuccino, no wait. You look like a latte kind of guy. That frilly froth stuff doesn’t cut it for you... like if you...”

  “Shaddap,” interrupted Duke. “I want you to pass a message on to Noah Reid.”

  Duke whipped out a hundred dollar bill and plunked it in front of the barista. “The Tiger from Hell sends his greetings.”

  The big men walked out.

  Chad muttered to himself. “What are you doing, Reid, messing with animals like that?”

  He did a quick Google search on Pittman Saunders. “Holy tamale, this is one big-ass boring-as-shit company you’re working for, Noah.” He explored the Pittman Saunders website. “Okay, Noah, let’s see what it is you really do here.”

  His fingers flew over the keyboard as Chad muttered to himself. “Oh, you think you can stop me that way, huh? If I can break into the Pentagon, you are a piece of cake.” Furious typing. “Take that, you dumb piece of code.”

  For serious code breakers like Chad, breaking through the firewalls and protection systems of government bureaucracies, military intelligence and ultra-sensitive corporate security provided more thrills than any mass-produced video game. Chad reveled in the challenge of digging into the guts of Pittman Saunders. He tried several times with no luck.

  And then, the window shattered as an arrow came flying through it, embedding itself in the wall. Chad dropped to his knees and crawled behind the counter, raising his arm high enough to try to pull the arrow out.

  Blood covered the shaft. He timidly glimpsed toward the hole in the window and saw Duke poised to release another arrow from a crossbow. He ducked. Two seconds later, an arrow flew through, missing Chad by half an inch.

  A petrified Chad cowered. He heard a car door slam and cautiously looked up to see the black Mercedes driving off. After letting his nerves calm down a bit, Chad quickly punched in a cell phone number.

  “Hello,” answered Noah on the other end.

  “Where the hell are you?”

  Noah was half a block away, frantically panting and totally exhausted.

  “Noah? Noah!” Chad yelled into the phone.

  “I’m right here,” whispered the young lawyer as he watched the black Mercedes drive off.

  “What are you talking so quietly for?” Chad asked.

  Noah walked the final few steps to the cafe and waded through the shards of glass. “Because I don’t want anyone to hear me.” He slumped to the floor. If he’d ever been more exhausted in his life, he couldn’t remember.

  Chad dropped beside him. “Those gorillas told me to tell you that the Tiger from Hell said hello. Like, what the hell is happening, Noah? You’re a boring-as-vanilla lawyer. I saw your work file. It’s even more boring than you. Golden Asia this. Golden Asia that...”

  “That’s the official version. The real stuff is off book. Golden Asia is the front for the organization of the guy who came here yesterday—Chin Chee Fok.”

  “He’s a Triad leader?”

  “Exactly. And my boss is their lawyer. Part of Garret’s job is to make sure nobody knows too much about him or his holdings. There are holding companies of holding companies but, by the time Garret is done, the whole operation is sanitized. It looks completely clean, which is what you found.”

  A fitful Noah shivered, silently brooding. This was not at all what he expected when he entered law school three years ago.

  “So what’s the plan?” Chad asked.

  “I can’t take it anymore, Chad. I quit.”

  “Don’t you watch TV? The only way you leave organizations like that is when they carry you out in a body bag.”

  “I’ll go back to LA,” Noah said. “I’ve got lots of options there. A bunch of people in my class want me to join them in their new intellectual property law firm. Or another one can get me into the mailroom of a big Hollywood agency.”

  Chad interrupts his friend’s babbling. “Now I know what to get the girl who has everything.”

  “What?” murmured Noah.

  “A guy with some guts.” Chad crossed his arms across his chest, glaring at Noah.

  “That’s low.”

  “That’s true.” Chad stood up and offered Noah a hand.

  “Where are we going?” asked Noah without enthusiasm as Chad yanked him up.

  “To the only person you have ever listened to.”

  I was afraid you were going to say that. Noah groaned as they walked to the door.

  “Are you giving up because you’re scared? Because if you are, that’s not the Noah Reid I know,” challenged Chad.

  “Fear is a powerful motivator.”

  “But it’s not a reason.”

  ***

  They walked down the block and turned the corner to their parked sports car. They saw something neither of them wanted to see—Duke was sitting on the hood of their car. Beside him was one of the car’s bucket seats that he yanked out.

  Duke gave them a quick salute. “Greetings, gents.”

  Oh, shit was the unified thought of Chad and Noah.

  Duke picked up the seat and threw it hard at the two best friends.

  Chad ducked, then foolishly charged at Duke who, with a quick sideways forearm blow to the head, knocked the wind out of Chad. The barista fell to the ground, gasping for air.

  “Leave him alone,” said Noah.

  “You wanna play, too?” mocked Duke, whipping out a dagger.

  Noah grabbed a trash can and ran at Duke, too. Duke lunged at Noah with the knife, but Noah threw up the trash can as a shield. The razor-sharp blade sliced through the garbage can metal as if it were paper, but at least it stopped the blade from carving Noah up like a slab of beef. Noah swung the trash can hard, smashing Duke on the head, sending the tough guy reeling back a dozen yards.

  Noah accelerated toward Duke. Momentarily stunned, Duke quickly regained his composure and flung the knife at his opponent. Noah launched into a flying leap and grabbed the hurtling knife out of the air. He did an aerial somersault and pile-drove his head into Duke’s stomach, knocking him into a lamppost. Noah jumped up, spun and did a left-right combination double kick into Duke’s face.

  “Like I said, leave him alone,” panted Noah.

  Two Triad underlings pulled Duke, bleeding and almost unconscious, into the black Mercedes. The car roared away.

  Chad, still lying on the ground from Duke’s initial assault, grunted at Noah, a hint of a smile teasing his lips. “Remind me never to get you mad at me.”

  He pushed himself up off the ground, then he and Noah put the seat back into the sports car. Unfortunately, when Duke yanked the seat out of the car, the thug managed to break the front window and the snaps that attached the soft roof, which meant Noah and Chad got drenched as they drove because the rain started again. The drowned rats parked the vehicle in front of Master Wu’s studio. They rushed in to discover the old man bleeding and seemingly at the point of death.

  “No, please, God!” yelled Noah with a quick prayer.

  Chad ran to the bathroom and got a wet cloth and some water while Noah pressed his fingers and thumb at strategic healing points on the top of Master Wu’s head. Noah knew that Wu would never consent to Western medicine, preferring the five-thousand-year-old Chinese healing acupressure techniques.

  “He’s not moving or nothing. Shouldn’t you push a little harder?” asked Chad as he wiped the blood from Wu’s face.

  “No. I just need to increase the circulation,” said Noah, moving his fingers to healing points on the hands.

  In the Chinese healing cosmos, all parts of the body interconnect through energy, or qi. That was why head trauma could be treated by massaging the back, or blood pressure might be changed by manipulating the spine.

  Noah pulsed his digits, then let out a sigh
—the master groggily opened his eyes. “Are you trying to scare me, Sifu?”

  Master Wu pondered a moment then said quietly. “I’m not scared for myself, only that I may run out of time for you.”

  “I have no idea what you are saying.”

  “Noah, it is time for you to know.”

  “Know what?” Noah asked.

  Wu gripped Noah’s hand and spoke weakly. “To know the truth. Your truth. There is little point in being a master or grandmaster or sifu unless you have someone who can carry your torch. That is why I have never stopped teaching.” Wu shook his head, as if trying to shake off his confusion. “Once I thought it might be Chin, but that was a mistake on my part, a mistake that has taken me the rest of my life to try to correct.” Wu sighed. “For a while, I thought it might be Garret, but his time with Chin tainted him. Once you break an egg, you can never really put it back together properly again.”

  The elderly master struggled to sit up and looked at Noah directly. “From the time you brought me to your parents, I saw that not only they, but you, were special.”

  Noah smiled. “Sifu, I was always the kid who got beaten up by the school bully. Nothing too special about that.”

  “But it was how you reacted after such moments. You didn’t give up, but it was more than that. As I trained you, I saw something in the character of your parents and in you that I did not understand. I saw a humanity that transcended anything I ever experienced, that went far beyond the superficial world.”

  Master Wu balled his fists and lifted them to Noah. “Strength is not merely muscle. There will always be someone stronger than you.” He pointed to his temple. “Nor is knowledge a matter of intelligence only. If brains and brawn were the only ingredients for honor, we would be ruled by robots.” He took Noah’s hands. “But I look at the great leaders of history: Genghis Khan, Jesus Christ, Winston Churchill. What did they all have? They had a heart that people would follow to the ends of the earth.”

  “I’m no hero. I’m a chicken.”

  “And that is what will make you strong. Use your fear, and let it morph into courage. You have that heart, Noah. I have waited from before you were born for now. You didn’t win a scholarship to university or to law school. I asked Garret to set it up without you knowing. Just as I asked Garret to hire you. Because I believe there is something else for you, Noah. Do you remember, Noah, about the superior man?”

  Noah fidgeted a bit, then nodded. This was a truth he always suspected but had never been able to confirm. He spoke in a barely audible voice.

  “The superior man has neither anxiety nor fear. There are three things of which the superior man stands in awe.” Master and disciple recited together the age-old words of Confucius. “He stands in awe of the laws of Heaven. He stands in awe of great men. He stands in awe of the words of sages. The superior man in everything considers righteousness to be essential.”

  Noah contemplated a moment then said sadly, “If I am in debt to Garret, and Garret is in debt to Chin, then I am in debt to Chin.”

  “But that does not mean he owns you. That is an important difference. Do you understand now, Noah?”

  Noah nodded. “You waited a long time for me, Sifu.”

  “If there is one thing I learned from your parents, it is patience. If the Jews waited thousands of years for their Messiah, a few decades is not worth complaining about.” Master Wu took Noah’s head and turned it to the painting on the wall that Noah gave to him so many years ago—the tiger and crane entwined together.

  “What do you see, Noah?”

  Noah’s breaths got rapid. “I see that... it is time to release the Tiger.”

  “Finally.” Chad and Master Wu high-fived Noah.

  Chapter 37

  In the rainforest-like space, Stella watched with horrified fascination as Chin pummeled a battered and bruised Garret. Tightly bound to a chair, he had no means of resistance and winced after the latest devastating blow.

  A bruised black eye glared at the Tiger Master. “Hardly a fair fight, Chin. Didn’t think that was your style.”

  “I’m not here as your battle opponent,” Chin sneered. “We will wait for the right time for that. I’m here as your master. I want information.”

  “I told you I will not be your Joe Boy anymore.”

  Chin leaned down to Garret’s eye level. “What do you possibly gain by turning me down? Even now, Garret, I will forgive you. You will be king of Golden Asia.”

  “I would be your puppet.”

  “You already are,” smirked Chin.

  “I don’t want to have my every move controlled by you,” Garret spat. “I want freedom.”

  Chin stood up and shook his head. “You lost that years ago.” He delivered another bone-crunching wallop to the face. “I want the access codes to all of my accounts.”

  Garret looked up at Chin, daring him to hit him again. “Not telling you is the only thing keeping me alive right now.”

  “Wrong answer.” Chin straightened his right leg and twirled it with a solid blow into Garret’s stomach. “Works for me.” A second kick sent Garret crashing unconscious to the floor.

  ***

  Noah and Chad were in the MG, climbing up Victoria Peak. “So where exactly are we going?” Chad asked.

  “Not exactly sure. Olivia said that her best friend, Abby, lives in the biggest house on the hill.”

  “Oh, that one. Everyone knows where that one is. Owned by that Tommy Sung. Girls out the yin-yang, parties with swimming pools full of booze, one of the richest guys in Asia. The dream of every guy in the Orient.”

  “More like nightmare than dream. He’s the guy who was killed by the arrow last night,” Noah said.

  The car started to sputter as the mountain’s incline got steeper. In fifteen seconds, at a forty-five degree angle, the sports car completely conked out.

  “Did you really think banging the engine with a wrench was going to fix the damned thing?”

  “I didn’t think we were going to have to drive up Mount Everest with it.” Chad groaned when he saw there was another half mile of increasingly steep terrain to climb.

  “Let’s go.” Noah hopped out of the car.

  “Can you piggyback me?” asked Chad.

  ***

  Abby took two guns from Tommy’s bedroom drawer and gave one to Olivia. “Daddy has these things all over the house,” she said. “Don’t know why because he didn’t know how to use one.”

  “How about you?” asked Olivia.

  “No, but I’ve seen Dirty Harry ten times.”

  “You like guns?”

  “No, I like Clint Eastwood,” Abby quipped. “And he’s a piano player, too.”

  “Get him to accompany you.”

  Before Abby could make a comeback, the women heard gasping noises downstairs in the front from where the door used to be.

  Olivia grabbed the gun from Abby. “Let me do it.”

  All the lights went out. “Damn,” Olivia said. “Let’s go.”

  Olivia and Abby walked stealthily to the bedroom door, then started firing blindly in the dark. They were inexperienced marksmen, and the recoil of the guns sent them tumbling to the floor.

  “I surrender!” shrieked Noah.

  Just as suddenly as the lights went out, they came back on. A momentary power outage at one of the worst times possible.

  “Noah?” asked a startled Olivia as she and Abby picked themselves up off the floor.

  “No, I’m the damned ice cream man making a home delivery. Of course, it’s Noah, and this is my friend, Chad.”

  “Where’s my father?” Olivia demanded.

  “We were in WWIII with some guys who ambushed us at a building site. He kept them distracted and told me to leave and find you.” Noah conveniently left out the part of him taking off without wanting to be involved.

  “Why didn’t you just call?”

  Chad turned to Noah. “Does she always ask so many questions?”

  Olivia glared at t
he grinning Chad as Noah replied, “I was preoccupied with gangsters who were using me as target practice, so excuse me if I lost my stupid cell phone in the process of trying to climb up out of a hundred-foot dirt excavation. So what happened here?”

  Olivia squeamishly pointed to the tiger paws and the organs. “There. Delivered by some brute. Two hundred and fifty pounds and five ten with a Mohawk.”

  “Oh, him,” groaned Noah.

  “How do you know Duke?” asked Abby.

  “We’ve been introduced,” said Noah.

  “He said my father had something that belonged to his father. He suggested that I help get it back,” said Abby. “It had to be money. They were always arguing about money, where it was going, why Dad was spending so much.”

  “Have you heard from your father?” asked Noah.

  “No, and I don’t know where to begin to look,” said Olivia.

  “Excuse me for interrupting the party, but can I ask a dumb question?” Chad cut in.

  Everyone looked at the barista.

  “If everybody hates you guys so much and your dads have done all these bad things together, why are any of you alive? Like if it were me, bang! bang! You’d be dead.”

  “Psychological terrorism,” asserted Olivia. “My dad would never break, no matter how hard you tried. Nor is he afraid of any of us dying because death is a transition.”

  “Right.” Noah thought hard. “Your dad and Tommy were in this together. If there are missing funds to be found, the clues are somewhere in this house or at the office.”

  “Why not Olivia’s dad’s place?” asked Chad. “I mean, he is the head honcho law dude.”

  “Because there is nothing there,” Olivia said. “There is no furniture, no desks, no beds, no hiding places. Dad leads two lives. His public persona is of an extraordinarily powerful lawyer. His private life is that of an ascetic Shaolin monk. At his home, there’s not a television or even a radio around. His laptop never enters his apartment.”