Jake Maroc - Shan Part 11

Bliss glanced at him and he said, "What is it, bou-sehk?"

"Nothing. I justa I don't know why you must shoulder so much pain," she said.

Zilin peered into her shadowed face. "If I did not feel the pain, I would no longer be certain that I was alive. I am alive now, heya? You must think of that."

He struggled to sit up and she reached to help him. When their flesh touched, she jumped.

"What did you feel?" he wanted to know.

"A current a an electric shock. But that is impossible."

Thinking of Senlin he said, "Nothing is impossible. You know that very well."

"Yes. But some things a"

Out of the ensuing silence, Zilin said, "There are no limits. Whatever may happen in the future it is imperative that you keep this thought close beside you."

In a moment, he had twisted her around. Their faces were very close. He saw the soft light falling like a mantle across her golden skin and he thought of her mother and how he had aided her in her time of need.

"You have served me well and faithfully in the past, bou-sehk. You kept my son safe under the most trying circ.u.mstances. Do not think that for a moment I have forgotten this service." He shook her a little. "Now I know that you have something to tell me and you must do so.

"You have so many other"

"Do as I say, child!"

Her eyes locked on his and she thought that the entire universe must reside there. "I want to, a-yeh, I so much want to."

"But you are afraid," he said, intuiting as was his wont.

She nodded wordlessly.

"You are not easily frightened, bou-sehk. This I already know. Da-hei has frightened you. What else?"

She shook her head again. "Only da-hei," she whispered. "Only that."

"What has happened, bou-sehk?"

"I used" She took a deep shuddering breath. "I used it. Or, more accurately, it came to me. Jake and I were in bed. We were a"

Zilin nodded. "I understand. Go on."

"At the end, just before the a the clouds and the rain I was opened up; I was, I don't know, an empty vessel waiting to be filled up. Filled up with Jake's love. I reached out with my qi, seeking to embrace his. And I found"

She broke off. She was pale, her eyes were averted.

"You found what?" he prompted.

Another shuddering sigh and he could feel the emotion tremoring all through her frame. "Nothing." Breath like a mist at dawn. "I found nothing at all. It was as if I had fallen down a well and instead of hitting bottom just continued to fall."

Now that it was out, the hideous secret was shared, Bliss searched the Jian's face. "What has happened to Jake, a-yeh? What is it that I found?"

For a long time there was no sound in the room but the creaking of the fittings as the junk rode at anchor. Every now and again a quiet plash of water against the hull.

At last, Zilin said, "Do you remember the story of the mouse who asked, *What is it?' "

"I don't think I ever heard it."

"No?" The Jian seemed surprised. "Well, then, it is high time that you did." He settled down into a more comfortable position. "It was his friend, the rat's, birthday and there was a present waiting at the edge of the rat's burrow. It had a delicious smell, the mouse thought. What is it? he wondered. Carefully, he undid the wrapping. It is not my present, he thought, but after all the rat is my best friend. How could he possibly mind if I take a little peek at his present?

"It was a piece of cheese, one that the mouse was not familiar with. It had the most delicious smell, wafting even stronger now that the wrapping was undone. Well, he thought, the rat is my best friend and I love him like a brother. Would he not invite me to share in his present were he here? Of course he would, the mouse decided, answering his own question.

"He began to nibble on the cheese whose flavor, though unknown to him, proved to be quite delectable. So that without quite knowing how it came about, the mouse ate up all his friend's present.

"When, sometime later that night, the rat returned from his nocturnal foraging, he found his friend, the mouse, stiff and cold in front of their burrow. The rat grew cautious and sniffed the area. When he crept close to the dead mouse his keen nose scented the rat poison, familiar to him but totally unknown to the mouse."

Zilin was quiet for some time. From abovedecks, Bliss could hear the low growl of a walla-walla pa.s.sing close by.

"Are you saying that I should not ask what it is I found?" she said then.

The Jian's eyes were already closed. She heard his stentorian breathing. She had asked a question and he had told her this story. Why? There was danger in the story a and death. Was that true here? Was Jake in danger or was she?

Then an even more important thought came to her: Zilin had not been surprised when she had told him of the well without a bottom. Why?

Suddenly that question overshadowed all the others.

The three j.a.panese rendezvoused near the docks at Aberdeen Harbor. They checked and rechecked to make absolutely certain that their security was intact, though none of them believed that they had been followed.

Now they were dressed as Tanka sailors and in the softly glowing night it would have been difficult save at very close range to determine their true ethnic origin.

They were exceptionally well disciplined. They knew the way to the proper quay as if they had been born here rather than in the j.a.panese highlands. They worked as a team rather than as individuals. In j.a.pan they were known as a dantai, by far the most deadly of raiding groups. This was because the dantai developed a group ident.i.ty. We think, therefore I am. In effect, the individuals did not exist separately. They thought as one, moved as one. This was coordination of the highest order.

A walla-walla was waiting for them at the foot of a narrow concrete stair cut out of the side of the quay. It was unattended and ready to go, which was unusual in Aberdeen Harbor.

One man climbed in to check the outboard engine while a second began to untie the small boat. The third stood at the foot of the tiny pier casually smoking a cigarette. All the while his highly trained eyes were taking in the immediate environment in calculated sectors.

When all was ready a low whistle brought him around. He threw his b.u.t.t into the water and jumped in. The walla-walla took off.

The man at the outboard carried no map save the one that he had memorized. Though he had never before been to Hong Kong he knew the maze of Hakka and Tanka waterways and junks that composed this floating city almost as well as did its oldest residents.

While he steered, the two others huddled amids.h.i.+ps. They withdrew Gion 30-09s from oilskin bags tucked into their waistbands. These were miniaturized machine pistols with the stopping power of a .357 Magnum handgun. While they were maneuvered through the shadow-shrouded waterways between the high hulking junks, they pulled the Gions completely apart, checking all parts for alignment and oil. When they were through with theirs the steersman gave them his and they performed the same painstaking checks.

By the time they were finished, they were almost to their destination.

"I feel the storm, bou-sehk." His voice, or rather what he said, made Bliss start.

"What storm, a-yeh? I don't understand. It has been clear all evening." Heart hammering against her rib cage with such force that she could feel herself trembling.

"I speak now of another kind of storm," he said in a reedy voice. "A storm far more violent than any that nature can create." He stirred. "Can you feel it, now, bou-sehk? Do you feel the evil?"

She could say nothing, she only knew that the Jian, his qi stretched out wide upon the velvet night, was in touch with some element of which she was not yet aware.

"My qi tells me that it is time for my life to end, bou-sehk."

"No!" she cried, flinging herself upon him as if in this manner she could protect him from all evil. "A-yeh, a-yeh," she chanted. "Do not say such a terrible thing."

"It is the truth, bou-sehk."

"But how? How?"

"My qi is still strong, my child. My second sight has been my s.h.i.+eld and my sword for seventy years. Do you think that it would fail me now.

"But I love you. I will take you away."

"It is too late," Zilin whispered. "Listen."

The small hairs on the back of Bliss's neck lifted. The soft put-put-put-put of a walla-walla very close and dying away at the same time, penetrated the bulkhead of the cabin. She grew very still until she felt as if she had ceased to breathe. Felt the gentlest of b.u.mps.

"Who?" Her whisper echoed his. "Oh, a-yeh!" She clutched him as tightly as a mother does her child.

"Bou-sehk, listen to me." His voice was the only sound in the cabin, permeating even the darkest shadowed corners. "That my death comes is meaningless. Joss, One lives, one must die. It cannot be otherwise."

She could hear the rustle of clothing as he moved beneath her. "It is the manner of my death that concerns me. I do not wish to die by an unknown a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet." He was lying face up now and his thin bony fingers gripped her arms. "Do you understand me, bou-sehk?"

At first she did not. Her mind was gripped by a cold dread. It was as if his physical paralysis had seeped into her brain, numbing it.

"I don't"

"Bliss!" His eyes were black, burning with a kind of green fire she had never before seen. It was as if he were some incarnation of an ancient G.o.d: Vishnu or Buddha. And she swore to herself later that she had actually seen the soft aura engulfing him, pus.h.i.+ng back the darkness of the cabin. "There is no time left. You must do as I tell you. Take the pillow upon which my head rests."

"Ah, dear Buddha!" A rising terror gripped her. Now she could not breathe. Her mind was on fire. Nevertheless a moment later she found her hands gripping the pillow and she never knew whether it was the ethereal green fire in his eyes or the sounds of the timbers creaking above their heads that caused her to do as he said.

She felt the presence of others aboard the junkthe guards Three Oaths had left? Intruders?and she wondered whether this was because she was now linked so intimately with the Jian. She had never really understood the expansion of his qi as he had described it to her, before this moment. Now she experienced it intimately. With a gasp she felt the three men as they crept across the junk abovedecks; she felt the chill of their intent, the searing cold of their determination. For the first time in her life she experienced the true meaning of evil. It was a stench that caught in her throat and made her gag.

"Now, sweet child. It must be now. They are too close to hesitate." She heard his voice as if from the mists of some unknown void, and she knew that he was right. She could feel them silently descending the companionway.

She was weeping uncontrollably. "Jou-tau, a-yeh." Good night. She could not bring herself to utter the words good-bye.

In a moment, the cabin exploded in deafening fury as the three j.a.panese a.s.sa.s.sins emptied their Gion 30-09s into every corner.

"It's a matter of economics, plain and simple." Jin Kanzhe was far too agitated to sit still.

He paced the study of the villa. Beyond the gla.s.s doors, he could see the vast tiled veranda. But then every room in this splendid house was vast. It did not seem like China hereat least China as it had been since 1949. This villa was the dwelling place of an emperor. The furnis.h.i.+ngs were precious antiques, painstakingly selected from the finest works of the most skilled of the dynastic artisans. But the antiques not only encompa.s.sed the history of China but of other Southeast Asian cultures as well. There were Tibetan prayer wheels, patinaed wooden reclining Buddhas from Thailand, black-rubbed bronze sitting Buddhas from j.a.pan. There were a series of exquisitely carved stone Apsarases, sacred dancers, from Cambodia's richest archaeological treasure trove, Angkor Wat; miniature Mandalay temples, carved of gold and precious gems so intricately that it made Jin Kanzhe dizzy to look at them. What small portion he had seen of the contents of the villa were worth many times more than the totality of the Beijing Historical Museum.

"I don't see how we're going to be able to finance this." His breath steamed the air. What he thought but would not say is: Your obsession is going to undo us in the end.

"I trust you are quite finished," said a voice from out of the shadows. "Or are you merely out of breath for the moment?"

Jin Kanzhe swung around. His expression said more forcefully than any words how serious he was on this subject.

A withered hand lifted, fell like a dying b.u.t.terfly. "Come and sit down, Jin tong zhi. Have some chrysanthemum tea. It will restore your calm."

"It won't take care of the money that is needed." But all the same, he came over and sat beside the shadowed chair on the end of a rattan settee. He accepted the tiny porcelain cup, drank the tea without tasting it.

"I think," the voice out of the shadows said, "that you must beware of your own obsession, Jin tong zhi."

"Meaning what?"

"Your tirades are becoming more frequent as well as more vitriolic."

"Finances are my concern."

"And they are mine as well, Jin tong zhi. Please do not do me the discourtesy of thinking me ill prepared."

"Huaishan tong zhi, the future is unknowable. One cannot prepare for all eventualities. Even you."

"Of course not. But the prudent warrior is able to translate the terrain about him into the variables he must consider."

There was silence for a time. The great dog which slept by the shadowed figure's side stirred, growling in its sleep, perhaps dreaming of a kill. Jin Kanzhe stirred as well. He did not like dogs, especially ones that had been trained to rend flesh on command.

"You leave the money-gathering to me," Huaishan Han said. "I have many friends, many political connections still."

"But even they, Comrade, must someday come to the bottom of their pockets. I fear that day has come."

"Do you see the extent of your obsession, Jin tong zhi? I told you that money is no problem. It flows through my hands like an endless river. I no longer concern myself with money." The old man's eyes were blazing, his breath filling the room with his expanding qi. " think, instead, of our lizi. Our plum who is our trigger. How very ironic a and fitting a that it should be she who will seek out Jake Maroc. And at the proper time, the time I shall choose"here the old man began to laugh"he will rush to meet her. We will dislodge him from his own territory. And he will run headlong to meet his own doom!"

Huaishan Han's head was trembling with emotion. "I do not have to remind you of our great good joss in discovering her. Colonel Hu will work his magic on her mind. He can turn night into day. I myself have seen him do it.

"Ah, my vengeance will be sweet indeed. So long in coming, now all the sweeter." What spoke to him in horrendous incendiary glyphs? Jin Kanzhe wondered. What was the source of the eerie light that glowed behind his eyes? "How much suffering should my revenge engender, Jin tong zhi? You cannot see it but, oh, how I can! Suffering enough! More than any human should have to bear."

The atmosphere in the villa seemed charged with the force of Huaishan Han's hatred and rage. "Jake Marocor should I say s.h.i.+ Jake he is my ultimate target. And aren't we training the perfect a.s.sa.s.sin for him!" His voice, once so fragile, seemed to echo through the rooms filled with treasures. "Think of it, Jin tong zhi. His own daughter will hunt him down and kill him!"

Jake saw Neon Chow and Three Oaths strolling down the quay several hundred feet in front of him, and he was about to call out to them when the screaming sound of the machine guns began. And, even as he began to run, he thought, Gion 30-095!

His heart froze and his soul withered as he flung people from his path. The night had exploded into ten thousand incandescent fragments. He could not catch his breath. Fires were lit inside him as well, and he thought of the woman who had followed him, of how much sooner he would have been here had she not delayed him.

Delayed him.

And from out of the past, Lan, covered in blood, sprawled half in the river, calling, Bah-ba, bah-ba; dream and reality converging with the sudden impact of a granite slab hitting him in the chest. "Jake a Jake a Dew neh loh moh, Jake!" Neon Chow running alongside him. Her fear in the air as he jumped aboard the walla-walla. "Call the police!" he cried, pus.h.i.+ng her away as he shoved off.

Gunning the engine, slipping through the narrow harbor lanes between the high junks and the small craft. Gemlike lights winked merrily in the background while the night was filled with cruel explosions, the stink of cordite, while death groaned out its horrific litany, a runic chant as old as time.

What's happened? he thought. What's happened? Intent on the navigation of the craft, he wound his tortuous path through the floating city, and came up on Three Oaths's junk.

Saw the walla-walla tied up by the side of the junk and he cut the engine, drifting in without a sound; copper eyes searching the shadows, every square inch of the upcoming environment, all senses alert.

The walla-wallas touched, b.u.mped, and Jake was already over the side. Climbing the rope twisting over the side, hand over hand, his breath sounding in his ears, the pounding of his heart overwhelming. Shadows enshrouded the deck. The lights of Jumbo were far away, their brilliant sparkle too weak to pierce the chill.

The stink of cordite floating like a miasma, bitter and choking. Soft noises from below, as if rats had invaded the kitchen.