Shadowboxer

by Tricia Sullivan

  ‘Aren’t you a little young to be doing this kind of work?’ I said. ‘How many guys your age have their own expense accounts?’

  He was not comfortable talking about his age. He stammered and stuttered and finally mumbled, ‘I took a gap year in between school and university and ended up working for a... mumble mumble...’

  ‘What?’

  ‘Ahem. For a moderately famous investigative reporter. I was working as Marco Lewis’ translator and research assistant in Asia, sort of an internship. I kept meaning to go back to London and finish my studies, but I’ve learned so much on the job that it never seems worth it.’

  ‘That’s funny,’ I said. ‘I just got back from Thailand. Well, you know that. But if you’re Thai then shouldn’t you know more about boxing?’

  We sat down to eat, and he said, ‘Are you a big baseball fan?’

  ‘Me? Baseball? Couldn’t care less.’

  ‘But you’re American, right?’

  ‘Yeah, so?’

  ‘Yeah, so, that’s why I don’t know about Muay Thai.’

  ‘That’s a stupid reason,’ I said. ‘You’re bullshitting me.’

  He was looking straight into my eyes. It made my stomach unsteady. I told myself I was probably just hungry; I picked up half a BLT and tore into it. He watched me for a little, and I gave him my you got a problem with me? look.

  ‘Right,’ he said, still in that funny, lilty accent that I now knew was Welsh. ‘Here it is, then. You’re right. I haven’t been entirely truthful with you.’

  ‘No kidding,’ I said. ‘Go ahead. Confess. You just want the female angle on Khari, right? Well, I ain’t giving it.’

  He frowned. ‘I wish it were something so trivial. No. Here’s where I bent the truth with your Mr B. I do work for the Independent, but I’m not writing an article on lady fighters.’ He leaned forward, lowering his voice. ‘I’ve been investigating a criminal ring, and I got a lead that brought me to your gym. I wanted to talk to you about your experiences in Thailand and ask you if anyone asked you to bring anything back for them.’

  Speaking of geckos. When he said that it felt like six or seven of them were running up and down my back. I stopped chewing and scratched my tattoo.

  He added, ‘But it looks like I was too late.’

  ‘What do you mean, too late?’ I said with my mouth full.

  He shrugged. ‘I read the papers. I saw the TV report. And I know how to read between the lines. I’m concerned about you, Jade. Shouldn’t you be with your family or something? Should you be going to work as if nothing happened to you last night?’

  I swallowed. ‘Nothing did happen to me,’ I said. ‘It was my cousin. And I didn’t bring nothing back.’

  ‘I know what you gave them. The question is, where did you get it?’

  ‘Get what?’ I batted my eyelashes cluelessly.

  ‘The phone, of course. Who gave it to you?’

  ‘How do you know so much?’

  ‘It’s my job to know things.’

  ‘And how do you know what happened to my cousin last night? Did you have something to do with that?’

  He looked shocked. ‘I’m not a criminal,’ he said. ‘I’m a journalist. I’m a Buddhist. I’m a... a... I’m a vegetarian!’

  I laughed. ‘OK, you’re a vegetarian. Does it offend you that I’m eating this BLT?’

  ‘Can we stay on topic, please?’

  ‘OK,’ I said, putting the sandwich down. ‘If you’re a non-violent vegetarian journalist, how do you know so much about the... item... I allegedly gave to a band of criminals? Were you snooping around my place? Do you know who these guys are? I don’t want to mess around, Vija... Vija...’

  ‘Everyone calls me Shea.’

  ‘Shea.’

  When I was done fumbling his name and spearing him with my wicked stare, I picked up my sandwich again and took a giant bite. There hadn’t been any BLTs in Thailand.

  ‘Those men are not my friends. On the contrary. I can’t answer those questions at the moment, but I assure you my intentions are honorable.’

  ‘That’s reassuring,’ I mumbled around a lettuce leaf. Insincerely.

  ‘So will you keep my cover?’ he said. ‘I need to find out what’s going on in your gym, what the connection is to the men who were at your place last night. And I assure you, there is one.’

  I wiped my mouth, hiding a burp behind my hand.

  ‘You gotta be kidding. Mr. B is like family to me. He took me out of the corrections system and got me into MMA. He gave me another chance. I know he’s a little into the wheeling and dealing, and I know he’s tacky, but he’s got a heart of gold. There is just no way I’m not telling him about our conversation.’

  I stood up.

  ‘Sit down, Jade. You need to know more before you make that decision.’

  ‘What more do I need to know? You’re a fake, you’re a liar, but it takes all kinds in this world, so thanks for the coffee.’

  ‘Jade!’ He stood up, too, in that reflexive, old-fashioned way some guys still have. It was kind of cute, bizarrely.

  I sighed.

  ‘Please sit down.’ He said it through clenched teeth. He needed to work on his jai yen.

  ‘You don’t know squat about combat sports,’ I said. ‘You were just flattering me to get me to help you. You think I’m really that pathetic?’

  ‘I’m sorry. You’re right, I don’t know much about martial arts. But I wasn’t flattering you. I did my research and I found out what the cognoscenti say about your gym in general and about you in particular. I knew you’d just been to Thailand, where you won a very impressive victory over a Dutch champion in Lumpinee Stadium.’

  I narrowed my eyes. ‘The cognoscenti?’

  ‘Yeah. Well, Jamie from The Cage told me most of what I needed to know.’

  ‘Jamie thinks I’m that good?’

  ‘Please, won’t you sit down for just one more minute?’

  I looked at my watch. ‘Sorry, I can’t. Late for work.’

  I set off, and he followed me. I walked fast up the sidewalk toward Mandino’s, but he had longer legs—much longer legs—and he kept pace with me easily.

  ‘Jade, I don’t want to compromise you but there’s no way of preventing that now. I think you should know that the crime ring I’m investigating is into a lot of rackets, but the one I’m most particularly concerned with is human trafficking. Specifically children.’

  I looked away.

  ‘I can’t believe you just said that. Are you talking about selling kids?’

  ‘You know it goes on.’

  ‘Yeah, I know it goes on, but Mr B wouldn’t be into that stuff. And Coat is more likely to rescue kids who have been trafficked than anything. This whole conversation is so offensive, Shea.’

  ‘I’m sorry. But you must understand that I have to look into it, and I can’t do that unless everybody believes I’m really writing about cage fi—MMA.’

  I shook my head. ‘I don’t know. You’re not telling me everything.’

  He spread his hands on the table. ‘It’s fairly complicated and I don’t want to make accusations without evidence. Give me a chance. We can talk more. I’ll fill you in as I learn. Please just don’t blow my cover. And in return, I’ll do everything I can to protect you and your cousin.’

  I laughed.

  ‘You? Protect me? You carry a gun?’

  ‘No! I told you, I’m—’

  ‘A vegetarian, I know. Look, Shea, I’ll think about it. But if you don’t watch yourself, I think you’re going to be the one who needs protecting. Mr B’s fighters are loyal. If anybody else finds out what you’re really doing, you’re gonna get messed up real bad.’

  We had reached the entrance to Mandino’s. He held the door open for me.

  ‘You are not coming in here,’ I said.

  ‘Please, just give me a chance,’ he murmured, bending down closer to me.

  I shivered. There was a scent on his breath—not the coffee, somethin
g else. Kind of nice, sweet, and familiar... I pulled back.

  ‘Don’t push me,’ I snapped, and stalked into the dark restaurant.

  ‘I’m not pushing!’ Shea called after me in that cute, lilty accent. ‘I wouldn’t dream of pushing you, Jade! Just think about it.’

  ‘Ooh, Jade,’ Miguel crowed from behind the bar. ‘Just think about it, baby! Could this be the end of your long, long dry spell?’

  ‘Shut up, Miguel, or I’ll put glass in your cheeseburger.’

  Raiding the Fridge

  MYA FOLLOWED SHEA and Jade on the bus and then sneaked after them, waiting outside while Jade and the police and Shea came and went. Shea went into the apartment but did not come out, even after Jade was gone. So Mya went around to the back by the garbage cans and called up to him.

  Shea did not answer, but a black cat that looked like a miniature Kala Sriha jumped on the windowsill from the inside. He peered down at her. Mya put her hand over her mouth.

  ‘Shea?’ she asked hesitantly. The cat turned and she heard a loud thump followed by Shea’s voice, cursing, from inside the apartment. He must have changed then and there. Shea stood up and looked out at her.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ he demanded blearily. ‘What just happened?’

  A strange conversation followed. Again Shea made noises about ‘authorities’ and ‘police’ and then he reached into the pocket of his jeans and handed her the phone, the same one she had given to him in the forest.

  ‘This is important,’ he told her. ‘Please keep it safe. Don’t lose it. It’s very important.’

  ‘Why don’t you keep it?’ she said.

  ‘Because I can’t control... things.’

  ‘You mean you can’t control when you change.’

  ‘You saved my life,’ he said. ‘I’m very grateful. But this is all too strange for me.’

  ‘Strange or not, you must know it’s true,’ she told him gently. ‘You know I can go to the forest. And you—’

  ‘No, I don’t know anything,’ he said.

  So she showed him. Putting the phone in her pocket, she slipped right through the potted pine tree in Jade’s apartment.

  The forest on the other side was still. Maybe too still: the air was hot and thick, as before a thunderstorm. But one thing had changed: the way she had used to get to Jade’s apartment was now visible, like a passage through the air of the forest.

  She clapped her hands together and let out a happy sound. Now she didn’t have to go back to that gym or its awful parking lot. She could go from the forest to the apartment now, directly.

  That was good, because whatever else you might say about Jade, she kept plenty of food in her house. Fighters were hungry, apparently.

  So was Shea. When Mya returned to the apartment, he was gone; but he had taken half a loaf of bread. She cleaned up the crumbs from the hallway carpet. Then she gathered food to bring to the forest for the animals. The food smelled strange, but there was plenty of it. Mya felt badly about stealing. Very badly.

  ‘I promise I will make up for it somehow,’ she said to Jade’s apartment. The place was so untidy and the food so plentiful that she hoped Jade wouldn’t notice too much.

  Mya felt responsible for Shea now as well as the animal-children. Kala Sriha had not come near Mya since uttering that one terrifying roar, but Mya nevertheless felt that she had unleashed Shea on the human world and needed to ensure his good conduct. He refused to believe in Kala Sriha even as the god infused his very cells. He thought he was being drugged, and he stayed doggedly faithful to his original purpose—the quest for justice against Richard Fuller.

  Mya’s quest was a different one. She was trying to bring the animal children back into the world. And to do this, she needed to remind them of their human lives. Food was the most obvious.

  So here she was, in Jade’s kitchen, tasting unusual things. Cold yellow noodles in the fridge with orange sauce all over them. The remains of a chicken cooked in spicy marinade. She found a plastic bag and put fruit in it, then added tins of fish—she didn’t dare steal a can-opener so she opened two cans and put them in the bag with their lids still attached. Brine began to drip out of the bag. Flustered, Mya cast about quickly for one more thing to bring back, and that was when she found the plastic box of sweet bread-things.

  She opened the lid and sniffed at the sugary pastries inside. When she touched one, sugar came off on her finger. She licked it. Then she saw Baby Lek, the infant naga, come sliding through the leaves of the potted pine tree. He must have found the opening in the foliage that she’d made. Lek had no arms or legs, but he made an eager sound and lunged for the box of pastries with his mouth open. She shoved one at him before he could knock over the whole box.

  ‘You’ve come back to the world,’ she breathed, amazed. ‘You can cross over!’

  Mya had always felt sorry for Lek, because Mr. Richard used the naga’s venom to make the antidote to the night flower extract. Every time Mr. Richard needed the venom, he commanded Lek to surrender it, and Lek always did. Now Lek could leave the forest... and anything might be possible.

  Mya and Lek brought the box of pastries back to the forest, and Mya shared out the food. It had a miraculous effect. When they were eating, the other animals flickered back and forth between their mortal and immortal bodies. The transformations only lasted for a few seconds at first, but there was no doubt about it: right before Mya’s eyes, the animal-children were remembering how to be human.

  Itchy Gecko

  ‘WHAT THE HELL happened to you?’

  I slid into the seat opposite Shea at the back of the Palace Diner. He had a black eye and was awkwardly eating a salad with his left hand. There was a big bandage wrapped around the other hand. He smiled anyway when he saw me, and started to get up in that super-courteous way he had. But I was in my seat in a flash. He lowered himself slowly back into the padded seat of the booth.

  It had been three days since he’d told me about his investigation. He had texted me to say he needed to show me something.

  ‘So what’s going on,’ I said. ‘You taking up fighting as part of your cover?’

  He tried to laugh but I could tell even that was hurting him. Broken rib, maybe.

  ‘I’m glad you came. I wanted to see you but I didn’t want to be pushy. You must be hungry. What would you like?’

  What I’d like wasn’t the point. It was what I should eat to build muscle. I ordered a turkey sandwich without the bread and a skinny milkshake. Shea raised his eyebrows but didn’t comment.

  ‘You don’t look too good, Shea.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘I told you it would be you needing the protection,’ I reminded him. ‘What’s the deal?’

  He waved off the question. ‘Misunderstanding. Some people tried to shake me down for something I don’t have. Right. Well, you’ll be pleased to know I’ve got nothing on Mr. B so far. It’s very frustrating. There’s no association between the gym and the... thugs who came after you. They’ve been sent to bring the phone back to Thailand.’

  I reached out and touched his eyebrow. ‘So did the Thai Mafia give you that?’

  The bruise covered a good part of his face, and even the unhurt eye looked deeper and darker. It was kind of sexy.

  What am I saying? Forget I said that.

  ‘It’s nothing.’ Obligatory macho bullshit response. Very funny, coming from him.

  ‘Was it the same guys who done Malu?’

  He didn’t answer, which I took as a yes. Our food came, and I took my eyes off Shea. I looked out the window where a pickup truck and a Volkswagen were going for the same parking space. There were only a few spaces in front of the diner thanks to some digging going on. Construction workers had left a fenced-in pit and a JCB behind, plus a couple jackhammers. I was surprised nobody stole the jackhammers.

  ‘You should go to the police,’ I said. ‘I mean, you’re on the up and up. They might even believe you.’

  He shook his head. ‘I can�
��t. I have my reasons.’

  The Volkswagen shot into the space and the driver of the pickup hit her horn so loud that everybody in the diner turned to look. She had to back out into the highway, nearly hitting a black SUV that was turning in. These drivers wouldn’t stand a chance in Bangkok.

  ‘That’s stupid.’ I crumpled my protein bar wrapper and chucked it on the place mat. ‘You’re doing a story, you get messed up by some guys who are already wanted by the police, so you go to the police with whatever information you got. See, Shea, people like me can survive without the cops, but people like you are soft. You need help.’

  He looked miserable again. Man, I always know what not to say to a guy. He sighed.

  ‘I know you’re right, and normally I would, because I am normally, er, a law-abiding taxpayer and all that. But there are some issues with my passport and I don’t want to draw attention to myself. Homeland security and suchlike.’

  ‘You came in illegally? Why?’

  ‘It wasn’t intentional. It just sort of happened that way.’

  ‘How can you accidentally get into the country illegally?’

  He took a deep breath. Put his hands flat on the table like he’d made a decision. Let the breath out. Then he said:

  ‘I’m sorry, Jade. I can’t tell you.’

  ‘Omigod.’ I swallowed the last sip of my shake and dropped my voice to a whisper. ‘You’re a spy. You work with MI-4 or is it MI-6. Stirred not shaken...’

  ‘It’s MI-5 and no, I’m not a spy. Although it’s flattering that you would think so...’ He grinned winningly.

  ‘Do you always flirt with the people you’re investigating?’

  ‘Only if they’re fit. And they seldom are. Which is what makes this such a treat.’

  I felt myself grinning even though it was a stupid line. There was just something about him. Even through the aromas of coffee and frying burgers and diesel fumes, I could get a faint, intoxicating scent of him. Maybe he was getting to me subliminally. Maybe he had on spy cologne, with pheromones or something.