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

by Wesley Robert Lowe

  There were Chinese RMB, Canadian, Australian, Hong Kong and U.S. dollars, Philippine and Mexican pesos, euros, British pounds and more from countries Noah didn’t even know existed.

  “Your fathers knew that if the funds were kept in any bank, sooner or later Chin would find them,” stated Master Wu simply.

  Olivia nodded in understanding, impressed. “That’s why there was never any paper trail, bank or computer records. It went directly here.”

  She turned to Master Wu. “But my father was willing to let me die for the sake of not revealing the hiding place. How could he do that?”

  “He could do that because he never knew the location. Only Tommy and I knew about this. Your father knew that, if he did know the whereabouts of the money, Chin would eventually force it out of him, either by direct torture to him or to you. Tommy chose me because I was the one person Chin would not suspect. I was too stupid and old-fashioned but, most important, I couldn’t care less about money. That’s something Chin can’t understand, so that’s why it would never even cross his mind to think about me.”

  Olivia looked at Abby. Both were thinking the same thing. My father was willing to risk my life for this?

  Master Wu continued, answering the unspoken question. “Abby, Olivia, your fathers had no choice. If Chin continued, the tears would never stop flowing. Garret and Tommy did not have the kinds of networks Chin had. Your mothers were the loves of your fathers’ lives. They tried to stand up to him. Then look what happened.”

  Master Wu shook his head sadly. “They never forgave themselves for what happened to your mothers. But it wasn’t simply about them.” He looked at Abby and Olivia. “You are both beautiful young women. Chin had an insatiable appetite for forbidden fruit. He would taste it then dispose of it. There was no doubt that those would become Chin’s designs on you. If you did nothing, he would rape and kill you. The only chance to keep you safe was to put you into danger. Yes, they put your lives into danger, but they knew if they didn’t, you would be dead anyway. Terrible odds, but the only ones available. Honor and revenge are important, but the real reason they did this was because of love.”

  Olivia and Abby began crying. It was hard to believe their nightmare was finally over.

  “But they knew they could not accomplish it alone. I told them about the Reids and their young son. They were skeptical but...” Master Wu smiled, “...they didn’t have a lot of choices.”

  Master Wu made the Shaolin hand sign. “You did it, Noah. I’m proud of you.”

  Noah’s eyes devoured Olivia. “Well, Counselor, what are we going to do? I believe you and Abby are a few dollars richer than you were one minute ago.”

  “You decide, Olivia,” encouraged Abby. “It’s doubtful that the original owners are in a position to make a claim.”

  Noah looked at Olivia. Olivia looked at Abby. Abby looked at Master Wu. Master Wu looked back at Noah.

  Noah took a bundle of cash and removed the teapot from the burner. He put the money directly above the flame and asked, “What would the virtuous man do? Would he say that the proceeds of Hell should go to Hell, or would he use them to bring Heaven to earth?”

  Chapter 44

  Chin’s hideout was barely recognizable. Walls were stripped bare, the rooms opened up and brand-new hardwood floors put into place, creating two basketball courts, a few lounges and some executive offices.

  Noah and Olivia played basketball with the youngsters Noah and Chad played with on Noah’s first day on the job with Pittman Saunders. In this brand-spanking new facility, and with the teams wearing their brand-spanking new uniforms, the players looked like they were ready for serious action.

  Sam drove down court and passed Noah for an easy layup. The buzzer rang, and the scoreboard read, NOAH’S TEAM—45, SAM’S TEAM—46.

  Sam pumped his arm. “Yes!” Then Sam, Noah and Olivia walked toward the dressing rooms.

  “You really gonna give me a job, Noah?”

  “Of course,” said the ex-lawyer of Pittman Saunders. “We are building a hundred gyms, and we need to hire a lot of people.”

  “Oh, great. Is that the only reason you hired me, because you’re desperate?” asked Sam.

  “No, Sam, it’s because we need someone with your abilities, your skills, your know-how, to reach kids just like you. We old farts can theorize about it, but it takes a real young person to do it.”

  “Okay. I accept.” Sam rushed off, waving his arms, crazy happy.

  “Who you calling an old fart?” asked the other ex-lawyer from Pittman Saunders in mock dismay.

  “I dunno. Maybe someone who wants to be the musical director of the Chad Huang Foundation?”

  “Can I apply?”

  Noah kissed her. “I think I need to interview you personally. In private. And multiple times.”

  “I can handle that. How about Abby?”

  Noah laughed. “She’s lost her mind and plans to go to law school.”

  “If being musical director doesn’t work out, she and I can be partners.”

  “Uh-oh. Watch out, world. Maybe I should convince her to work for me instead.”

  “You’re really serious about this foundation business, aren’t you, Noah?”

  “Someone has to be.”

  THE END… As you have seen, Noah walks in multiple spiritual worlds—Christian, Buddhist, Taoist. And even though Chin was a lousy father, his kids managed to inherit the worst of his fault. Both of these converge and collide in HEAVEN BURNING. Buckle up for a great ride!

  HEAVEN BURNING

  Introduction

  Like in many pieces of fiction, the facts have been played with, so please don’t use any information found within to use in essays, research papers, or publish on Wikipedia.

  And yes, Chinese do eat snakes and no, they do not taste like chicken.

  Chapter One

  On the Sundarbans Animal Preserve in India, a Bengal tiger runs quickly and freely through the towering sal trees, thick grasses and lush bamboo. Hyenas and porcupines poke their heads through the jungle, and a herd of elephants trumpets their existence along a dusty path.

  Entering an obscured mountainside cave reveals a whole new world: cavernous, shadowy and full of unknown odors. A distant light flickers. Moving carefully toward the glow, caution is needed to avoid the forest of stalactites and stalagmites that wait to impale any careless passersby.

  A grisly assortment of carcasses, bones and bits of Bengal tiger skin attracts more attention than these natural rock wonders though.

  The cave end reveals the light source 150 feet to the left at the end of a smaller tunnel, where generator-powered lamps illuminate a heavily bandaged man on a hospital gurney. With several IV drips injecting different parts of his body, this man is seriously far from recovery.

  In the room with him are four of his children. The siblings only slightly resemble each other, but that is to be expected. They are children from different mothers from different cultures. Their father is the bandaged man, the legendary gangster and renegade Shaolin monk Chin Chee Fok.

  Chin is here because of the betrayal of his top two men, Garret Southam and Tommy Sung. Tommy was the figurehead president of Chin’s Golden Asia empire, a vast conglomerate of real estate holdings and commercial enterprises. Garret was Golden Asia’s chief lawyer, whose main job was to launder Chin’s illegal earnings from drugs, gambling, smuggling and prostitution... anything that would make a buck.

  Golden Asia was profitable for many years. Ostensibly, the future looked bright, and expansion plans were well underway. However, things were not well below the surface. To keep a tight rein, Chin’s methods were ruthless.

  Fifteen years earlier, when Garret and Tommy raised some concerns, he rewarded them with the deaths of their beloved spouses in a plane explosion. Chin’s guilt could never meet the standards of burden of proof that would get a conviction, but for Garret and Tommy, it wasn’t necessary. Chin demanded absolute loyalty, and if he didn’t get it freely, he had n
o qualms in using any methods possible to extract it. He thought that killing Mary and Jocelyn would cement his two lieutenants’ obedience—after all, there was an implicit threat that Olivia and Abby, Garret and Tommy’s children, respectively, would be targets if his two top men dared stray from Chin’s path.

  For fifteen years, it seemed to work. Garret and Tommy bit their tongues, ostensibly helping Chin and Golden Asia prosper into a mammoth respected network, but this was a façade. Chin and Tommy’s job was to get the cash, and Garret’s job was to sanitize the billions of dollars. Secretly, they squirreled away much of the money, but they had no plans for it―all they wanted was a way to hit Chin where it counted. To pull this off, they relied on one serious flaw of Chin’s character―he is not a detailed numbers man.

  Garret and Tommy had allowed their plot to be discovered once their plans for revenge on Chin were in serious motion.

  A mega-development project, Golden Asia Developments, designed to transform Hong Kong and Macau, started going off the rails for lack of funding. Several years of planning and initial construction went smoothly, but six months ago, Garret and Tommy’s plan of hiding assets started working―Golden Asia Developments started defaulting on payments, and the project was shut down.

  When Chin found out, he acted quickly and decisively.

  A crossbow bolt killed Tommy. Garret and Chin fought in an epic battle of the ages. Garret burned to death, but somehow Chin survived—just barely. Very few know this as he now convalesces in this dark, dank cave. The failure of Golden Asia Developments has put a severe dent in his fortune. No longer a billionaire, he’s worth less than one one-thousandth of what he was worth just a few months earlier. Not chump change, but for the first time in years, Chin has to be careful with money. He hates that just as much as he hates Noah Reid, the young lawyer who worked with Garret to bring him down, and his former sifu of Hung Gar Tiger and Crane style martial arts, Master Wu, who also was Noah’s and Garret’s mentor.

  Chin has summoned his four remaining children, whom he meets only infrequently. They are not thrilled to be here. Yes, he got them started on their own fledgling personal criminal enterprises, but for the most part, he was an absentee father who treated their mothers like disposable chattel. For Chin, each of the five children he sired represents one of the Five Traditional Animals of the Shaolin: Tiger, Crane, Leopard, Snake and Dragon.

  Tiger was Duke, Chin’s bullying, belligerent son whom Noah killed mano-a-mano, trying to prove to his father that he was a worthy son.

  Leopard is the youngest son, Prince, a twenty-three-year-old Chinese punk. Just beginning his career, he deals drugs at the lower level, and he pimps out unwitting young girls whom he keeps under control by feeding their drug habits.

  Dragon is the oldest, Prez, a clean-cut woman in her thirties. With manners more lawyerlike than thuglike, Prez spends her time lobbying and bribing politicians: gaining favor for gambling, evading environmental concerns and changing bylaws for her business concerns.

  Standing beside her is Crane, Chin’s younger daughter, twenty-five-year-old Queenie, a beguiling and bewitching Eurasian. Within moments, she can change from soccer mom to seductress. Not terribly interested in the family business, she supports her extravagant New York lifestyle by helping her stepbrother King’s business.

  The last is twenty-eight-year-old King, the Snake. While he dabbles in other parts of the family business, his prime responsibility is as the leader of a snakehead, a group that smuggles illegals onto the West Coast of North America with eventual passage to New York. When transporting the human cargo, throwing in a few kilos of heroin into a ship’s hold makes extra bucks, too.

  This is the first time they have ever met together as a family, and the children are not sure if they are there to pay their last respects to their late stepbrother, Duke—or if something else is on the agenda. All they know is that when Chin calls, you drop everything to answer.

  A turbaned Indian man comes over with a tray and lifts the globe top off. Underneath are a tiger’s head, penis and the bones from its tail.

  Seeing this reveals the source of the tiger remnants strewn throughout the cave’s floor and why Chin chose this hidden Indian grotto: it is close to a bountiful supply of medicine.

  “Your progress, Master Chin, is remarkable. Not many people could have survived that much of their body being burned, not to mention all that blood loss. That was ingenious, to use the man who was holding you as a shield against the flames. With a bit of luck and proper nutrition, you will be out of here in two months. What do you plan then?”

  In a familiar voice barely audible through the bandages, Chin says one word. “War.”

  Chin’s four children raise fists in the air and repeat. “War.”

  King, Queenie, Prince and Prez, all titles of leaders. All given with expectations of greatness.

  Chin rasps, “Your brother Duke was killed. I was almost killed. This is unacceptable.”

  “What do you expect us to do?” asks Queenie. A totally urban New Yorker, she hates being in this clammy hollow in the boonies.

  Even though bandages cover his entire body and face, Chin’s eyes shine through like fire. “You will find Master Wu and Noah Reid.”

  The turbaned man hands each of them a sheet of paper, which each child scans.

  Prince tears the paper in half. “You dragged my ass all the way to Timbuktu to give me this? A phone call or email would have done just fine.”

  “I gathered you here because three billion dollars of my money―your inheritance―is missing. The people responsible are Noah Reid and Master Wu.”

  Three billion dollars! Indignation and anger and greed spread across Chin’s greedy children’s faces. This is no longer a matter of revenge but a business deal. A business deal bigger than any of them has ever experienced.

  Tough guy Prince snorts. “Piece of cake. No worries there. I’ll just pound it out of them.”

  The leer in Chin’s voice is evident. “Muscle alone will not work. If it did, I would have the money now. I tried. Duke tried. You need information from them, and that will not be easy to get.”

  Prez asks, “How do you know there is that much money? You never watched the business end of things.”

  But before the conversation continues, Chin lapses into unconsciousness.

  “Oh shit. He’s not going to die, is he?” asks Queenie.

  “Why? You care?” questions King.

  “No, but if he’s not around, this job just got a lot harder. I don’t know anything about these people.” Queenie reaches to touch Chin, but the turbaned man grabs her hand.

  “No! No! Go away! He must rest. He has already spent too much energy.”

  “Maybe he’s just dreaming about the money. He’s just a tough guy with no brains who just got lucky,” says Prez.

  The turbaned man quickly wheels Chin’s gurney ten feet down the cave.

  Iron bars disguised as stalactites jolt down between the four children and their father, barricading access to Chin.

  At the entrance, four tigers bound toward the four young people.

  None of the kids has a gun or any kind of weapon.

  One tiger leaps at Queenie. She ducks, and it flies overhead. As it passes over her, she grabs the tiger’s tail. Holding it tightly, the deceptively strong young woman starts spinning slowly like an Olympic hammer thrower. However, the tiger claws the air, and its airborne body jerks up and down, causing her to release her grip and toss the tiger twenty feet away. The enraged animal gets ups and races toward Queenie.

  Seeing a tiger approaching him, Prince runs right at it. Twelve feet before impact, Prince does a handspring. He flies into the air and lands on the tiger’s back. The tiger continues running and shakes Prince off. It jumps on Prince and starts biting at him. Prince frantically beats at the tiger’s face, trying to stop it, but this is not a battle he is going to win.

  As another tiger steals steadily toward her, Prez cocks her head and stares at the
animal in the eyes. Curious as to why this strange creature shows no fear, the cat comes right up to Prez. She calmly puts her arms around the animal’s neck. Suddenly, she pulls tight, thinking to break its neck. However, the cat has different ideas and breaks free of her hold. It leaps on top of Prez and swipes at her. It’s a double threat. The force of a blow could easily paralyze Chin’s daughter if it landed on her neck. Or the sharp claws of the cat’s paws could blind if they went into the eyes or kill if they slit her throat.

  King goes into a snake stance. The tiger ignores the martial artist’s posture and leaps at him, knocking King down. He gets back up and delivers a kick to the animal’s side, incensing the animal. Its jaws open and are about to clamp down on King’s arms.

  Death is imminent for the four.

  Suddenly, five flying martial arts stars fly through the air.

  One hits the tiger approaching Queenie in the jugular. Queenie leaps and holds the animal’s head up. Blood gushes out of the severed vein in the tiger’s neck.

  Another star hits the left eye of the tiger menacing Prince. The animal roars. Prince seizes the opportunity to leap on the distracted pained tiger and snap its neck.

  The tiger threatening to make a meal out of Prez has the pentagonal missile embed in the middle of its forehead. The animal slumps, and Prez brings an elbow down hard on the tiger’s skull.

  The animal on top of King gets its ear sliced off. A second star slices off the other ear. With the tiger bleeding profusely on either side of its head, King puts an end to the animal’s misery. He pulls the star out of the forehead of the tiger that attacked Prez and uses it to slice across the throat of the cat that assailed him.

  The bars that block the cave entrance rise up. At the other end, the bandaged man sits upright on the bed, facing his children, still protected by the iron rods in front of his bed. The IV drip tubes hang loosely at his side—ripped from the pole when he expertly launched each star to a vulnerable spot on each tiger.