Red Phoenix Read online

  ‘It’s too early to tell, John. It’s only been a few days.’

  He sighed and sat on my couch. ‘We should have taken precautions.’

  I laughed softly. ‘We never had a chance. Besides, the timing was wrong. I don’t think we need to worry.’

  He looked up at me, his eyes full of pain.

  ‘Yes, John. I hope it happened as well.’

  I stood quietly outside the uniform shop waiting for the kids to come out. Leo was inside with them, they were fine.

  I looked down at the football field. There was a demon there.

  More appeared. Many more. Dozens of them. They filled the field. They approached the stairs to come up to the uniform shop. I studied them carefully: they were mostly humanoids, but some worms too. Not too much of a problem; mostly low-level stuff, level two or three, biggest about level five.

  Damned if they would get near my family.

  I let my breath out in a long hiss.

  I went to the top of the stairs and waited for them to come up. I wasn’t worried at all; in fact I was looking forward to this.

  As the first ranks of them reached the top of the stairs, I raised myself on my black coils, opened my mouth and struck.

  I woke and shot upright, panting. I looked around. My room. The lights from Central leaked through the curtains covering the large picture window above the bed.

  I threw myself down, turned over and tried to go back to sleep.

  John poked his head around my bedroom door about mid-morning the next day. ‘What time do we leave tomorrow?’

  ‘Flight leaves at ten. Early start tomorrow.’

  ‘I haven’t even packed yet. Can you control all the emergencies for the next hour or so?’

  ‘No, I’m having lunch with Rhonda, and I’d better move.’ I sighed with exasperation. ‘She wanted to go for yum cha and I can’t.’

  He was amused. ‘You can’t eat meat at all any more, can you.’

  ‘I know I don’t have to be vegetarian any more, but if I eat meat I feel awful afterwards.’

  ‘I’ll need to arrange some pine nuts and spring water for you in the near future, I think.’

  ‘What the hell is that supposed to mean?’

  ‘Where’s Leo? He can mind Simone while I pack.’

  ‘Leo’s in your room packing for you right now.’

  He went still and his eyes unfocused as he looked into his room. Then he snapped back and raced to the door. ‘If I let him pack I won’t have a single black shirt to wear the entire time we’re there!’

  ‘That’s the idea!’ I called to him as he ran out, his long hair flying behind him.

  I’d arranged to meet Rhonda MacLaren for lunch at Central. I needed to talk to her about Michael before we took him to Paris with us the following day. My car’s alarm popped and I climbed in. I wound my way out through the car park to the gate. I smiled and waved to the guards as they opened the gate for me, and they waved back.

  I went slowly down the drive and stopped at the end. An English guy further up the hill drove his Porsche like a bat out of hell down the hill sometimes, and never checked to see if someone was coming out of our drive. Nobody there. I turned out onto the road and drove down towards the Peak Tower.

  There weren’t many tourists on the viewing platform and the fountain in the tower’s forecourt had been turned off again to save money. The clouds descended onto the Peak, and would probably engulf us in the afternoon. John had made such a mistake buying that building, it was so damn damp all the time. And then I understood: up high. On a mountain.

  I headed for Magazine Gap Road, and turned on the CD player.

  Freddie Mercury attacked me from all sides.

  I turned the volume down and changed to the next CD in the box in the back, silently cursing Leo.

  Freddie Mercury again. Best of Queen.

  I flipped through all six CDs in the box. All of them were Best of Queen.

  That bastard. He hadn’t just been through my CD collection, he’d been through my goddamn books as well and obviously been reading them.

  I smiled at the deliberate irony. Best of Queen. Cute.

  I quietly contemplated revenge as I wound my way down the hill. Gold must have helped with this one; Leo wouldn’t have been able to copy the CDs himself. It would take me a while to think up something suitably cruel to get him back with. Maybe Michael could give me a hand. Yes.

  I turned left at the bottom into Connaught Road and crawled through the traffic of Central. Lunchtime crowd; but I was adding to it. I went past the Star Ferry terminal on the right. I wasn’t parking there today, although it was the most convenient car park for John’s building in Central. He had a small office in the building to manage the tenants, and I made a mental note to drop in there after lunch and talk to them about occupancy. We needed to keep the building completely leased out, even if it meant dropping the rent.

  I continued along Connaught Road, under the huge overpass that carried pedestrians to the Star Ferry. The office workers in their business suits and smart shoes bustled from one side to the other. I still hadn’t bought any suits. Miss Kwok would definitely dock my pay. I smiled. I had come such a long way since she’d asked me to spy on John Chen and I’d resigned on the spot.

  Kitty Kwok still called me. She had been a total bitch to me at the first charity function I’d attended with John, but after that had suddenly warmed up and kept asking me to lunch or to visit her house. It was obvious I made an excuse every time, but she still kept at me. She’d probably worked out what the ring meant, and was trying to keep me onside. She even had April harassing me about visiting as well. April’s baby was due in another month. I made a mental note to give her a call and check on her.

  I turned left and meandered up a tiny one-way street. The sidewalks overflowed with people and many of them walked on the road. I sounded my horn to let them know I was coming and they looked at me blankly then moved to let me through. Normal working day in Central.

  I turned right and went down the ramp under the shiny new building, The Centre. Spectacular neon lines marked out its floors, making a rainbow of colours that moved slowly up its sides at night.

  I grabbed a ticket on the way into the car park and parked at the bottom of the casual area away from the other cars. One of the reasons I’d chosen The Centre: the car park was large and convenient to where I was going, but even better it often had areas that were empty of cars. I stepped out, locked the car, and waited.

  Gold appeared next to me and quickly saluted. I nodded back and we went to the elevators together.

  We exited at the ground floor. Huge silver-clad pillars supported the building over the open paved area at ground level with small gardens and fountains. A large-screen television to one side displayed the latest stock prices.

  Central Market stood on the other side of the road. It was old and blackened from the car exhausts, and reeked of blood and ripe meat from the butcher stalls inside. The pigs were delivered in the morning, butchered and the meat hung in the heat without refrigeration for the whole day. A public toilet under the market at the end of the street added to the aromatic mix, making the walk past quite unpleasant.

  As usual for a summer’s day it started to rain. I pulled out my umbrella and opened it, and Gold huddled underneath it with me. Eventually he gave up, turned towards me and made a large umbrella appear in his hand. He moved away and opened it. The road was awash and we skipped over the puddles to the market.

  We stepped onto the escalator outside the market and turned onto the walkway at the bottom of the Mid-levels escalator. We were under cover now; I folded my umbrella and put it away. We stepped onto the long moving ramp, and Gold turned towards me and made his umbrella disappear. Neat trick: I wished I could do that. Sometimes I would accidentally leave the umbrella at home, drying, and be stuck without it in one of Hong Kong’s massive rainstorms.

  Gold peered at the water gushing from the sky. ‘May get an amber rainstorm warning.�
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  ‘If it keeps up like this, we’ll get a red or a black warning and all the kids will be sent home from school. Anybody able to carry me and my car back home so I can miss the traffic?’

  He grinned. ‘Not that I know of. You’ll have to put up with the traffic.’

  ‘Damn.’

  It was only a short distance to the prestigious apartment blocks of the Mid-levels, but the vertical nature of Hong Kong meant that it was too steep to walk. The government had built a continuous series of escalators that went up the hill, allowing office workers to travel up and down without needing to take the bus. The escalator travelled down until ten in the morning, then changed direction and went up for the rest of the day. Very convenient.

  ‘Where’s Ms MacLaren’s store?’ Gold said.

  ‘Halfway up Hollywood Road. Between one of those tiny shops selling trash and an antiques store that sells the real thing. She specialises in furniture bought on the Mainland and restored in Shenzhen.’

  We stopped halfway up the hill outside the restaurant. Hollywood Road was a steep narrow street lined on both sides with stores selling antiques and furniture. Since the construction of the escalator, a number of Western-style restaurants had also sprung up along the corridor, catering to the expat crowd riding the escalator home.

  I steeled myself, then opened the restaurant door.

  ‘You’ll be fine, ma’am. She’ll understand,’ Gold said softly behind me.

  Rhonda smiled and waved to us from a small table near the windows. Good, I could talk freely over there, nobody would hear us. I winced inside. I didn’t want to tell her this.

  I was ready to shake her hand as I approached, but when I was close enough she embraced me instead. I was thrilled. I had a great deal of respect for Rhonda and really liked her, and was delighted she thought of me as a friend. It made it even more unpleasant, though, thinking of what we were about to discuss.

  Gold shook Rhonda’s hand and we sat.

  ‘Rhonda, have you met Gold?’ I said, trying to remember if she had.

  She shook her head and smiled kindly. ‘No, I haven’t. Hello, Gold, unusual name.’

  ‘He’s one of them,’ I said pointedly, and she nodded without losing the smile.

  ‘I should be offended, my Lady,’ Gold said, his boyish face full of good humour.

  ‘Why? I was about to say that you’re a lawyer,’ I said, and Rhonda laughed quietly. ‘He’s a Shen as well, by the way.’

  Gold’s grin widened. ‘Two strikes against me already, ma’am, and I haven’t even said a word to Ms MacLaren.’ He turned to Rhonda. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you. I handle the Dark Lord’s legal matters here.’

  Rhonda blanched. ‘Is Michael in trouble? He’s not in trouble with the police?’

  I waved my hands in front of me. ‘No, no, nothing like that.’ She relaxed. ‘But we do have some things we need to discuss. No problem with the police,’ I reassured her quickly when I saw her face. ‘But let’s order something to eat first, I’m starving.’

  The waiter presented us with menus. I ordered some mineral water and Rhonda asked for a basket of bread.

  It was an upmarket Western restaurant with an interesting fusion of East and West, and from the descriptions on the menu possibly well done, which was unusual. There was even a varied vegetarian selection for me.

  ‘Are you vegetarian, Gold?’ I said, wondering what stones ate.

  ‘Human form, I can eat what I like,’ Gold said. ‘I love ice-cream. Strawberry. But I feel weird…’ He hesitated. ‘Eating the flesh of animals. Not really keen on the idea at all.’

  ‘I am so glad I don’t have to put up with that any more,’ Rhonda said as she eyed the menu. She put it down. ‘There’s obviously something up for you to bring your lawyer, Emma. How about you just tell me?’

  ‘If we’re ready to order I think we should do that first,’ I said, pretending to study the menu. ‘I’m ready. Gold?’

  Gold called the waiter over and we ordered. The vegetarian ho fan with fungi sounded good. Gold ordered a vegetarian pizza-type thing and Rhonda had a chicken Caesar salad.

  When the waiter had taken the menus and moved away, I buttered some bread and sighed. ‘This is hard, Rhonda.’

  Gold dropped his head without saying anything. Rhonda shifted impatiently.

  ‘We’ve been under attack quite a lot recently, and last week someone was killed,’ I said.

  Rhonda’s eyes went wide but she didn’t say anything.

  ‘Michael obviously had some friends in very unpleasant places. He’d left them a long time ago, but they came after him.’

  ‘I’m sorry, Emma, I honestly didn’t know,’ Rhonda said. ‘I knew he had some nasty friends, but I didn’t know he was that caught up in it. I’ll kill him!’

  ‘We handled it.’ I didn’t elaborate. ‘But John’s housekeeper from London was visiting, and fainted from the stress. We took her to the hospital. A particularly nasty demon took her as second prize when he couldn’t get his hands on Simone or me. He used her as a bargaining chip, and when she was no longer useful, the slimy little bastard killed her.’

  Rhonda’s face didn’t move.

  ‘Michael’s learned his lesson. They know who he is, what he is, and they want him for that. The demon who killed our housekeeper,’ I said, and took a deep breath, ‘is the Big Brother of all the Big Brothers. And he wants Michael for his own amusement.’

  ‘Shit!’ she exploded quietly, and banged the table softly. ‘I’m going to kill him!’

  Gold jumped, but didn’t say a word. His face said it all.

  ‘Rhonda.’ I tried to keep my voice even. ‘Michael is in big trouble. This guy wants him. Michael is an enormous target. He’s the son of the West Wind, and they know that. He’s a Retainer of the Dark Lord, and they know that too. They want him very badly.’ ‘Is he safe with you?’

  ‘He is safer alongside the Dark Lord and the Dark Lady than he is anywhere else on the Earthly Plane,’ Gold said.

  Please don’t call me that, I begged Gold silently.

  The food arrived. All three of us sat and looked at it miserably, without touching it.

  ‘Why did you bring your lawyer, Emma?’ Rhonda said softly. ‘You want me to sign a release? In case something happens to him?’

  ‘I want a witness,’ I said, trying to stay calm. ‘I don’t want a release from you; I know you trust us, there’s no need for that. What I do want is your permission to move him to the Western Palace if things get out of hand. We have control of the situation right now…’ I tried to sound confident. ‘But if it appears that Michael is in real danger, and we can’t protect him, then we’ll move him to the West where he’ll be completely safe. If he refuses to go, Gold will be able to back me up that it’s your wish as well.’

  The noodles were going cold. Ho fan were absolutely no good cold, they went stiff. I didn’t care.

  ‘Would you like us to move him to the palace now?’ I said. ‘I asked him if he wanted to and he refused, but you’re his mother and it’s your decision as well.’

  ‘Don’t you dare,’ she said fiercely. ‘Not unless you absolutely have to. I do not want my son spending all his time with his father, I don’t want him learning anything off that man. Only move him if you have to. I’d much prefer he stayed with you and John, as long as you think you have it under control.’ She leaned back. ‘I trust you not to put him in danger. I leave the decision up to you.’

  ‘What if he wants to visit the palace and have a look?’

  ‘He can go for short stays, maybe school holidays or something. But I don’t want him spending all his time there. He’ll learn too much of his father’s attitude.’

  ‘His father asks about you all the time,’ I said.

  She didn’t say anything, but her face spoke volumes. She hadn’t remarried after leaving the West.

  ‘You ever think about going back?’

  ‘Not as long as I’m one of a hundred.’ She straightened, picked
up her fork and stuck it into the salad. ‘I think I deserve better than that.’

  ‘You definitely deserve better than that,’ I said. ‘I think you’re the only one who ever left him.’

  Her face said it all.

  ‘Getting involved with Shen is always an extremely bad idea,’ I said, trying to cheer her up. ‘Look at me.’ I became serious again. ‘You still okay about Michael going to Europe tomorrow?’

  ‘Sure. From what I understand, they’re at their most powerful near the centre of China. Europe is a long way away, and they’ll be weak. It’ll be good for him to see a bit of the world. Take him, show him around. Just make sure he rings me now and then so I can keep track of him.’

  ‘I’ll make sure he does. Every day.’

  The apartment was quiet when I returned. I poked my head into the kitchen. ‘Where is everybody, Ah Yat?’

  Ah Yat’s eyes unfocused. ‘Master Leo and Master Michael have taken Miss Simone to the park. The Dark Lord is in his room, resting.’

  ‘Any messages?’

  ‘No, ma’am.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  I went down to my room and called April.

  ‘Wei?’

  ‘Hi, April, it’s Emma. I’m just checking. How are you? How’s the baby?’

  ‘Not long to go now,’ she said with satisfaction. ‘You should see me, I’m huge. I’m not going out until the baby comes, it’s too embarrassing.’

  ‘And it’s due mid-September?’ I said.

  ‘I’ve already chosen a good day.’

  ‘What?’

  ‘A good day for the baby to be born,’ she said patiently, explaining.

  ‘Oh God, April, you won’t have a caesarean just so the baby’s born on a lucky day, will you?’

  ‘Of course I will. But they won’t do it in Hong Kong any more, they’ve gotten stupid about it. They want all the babies to come naturally; the rates of caesar here were very high or something, and it made them look bad. So Aunty Kitty’s arranging something for me in China.’

  ‘Aunty Kitty? Kitty Kwok?’

  ‘Yes,’ April said. ‘You should go and visit her, Emma, she really wants to see you.’ I didn’t say anything.