Fixx pressed a card into her hand. She ran her fingers over it. “The High Priestess. Is that me?”
“Could be. You have the look of her.” He reached over and took the green and gold box. “Will you do somethin’ for me, Juno? Make me a promise?”
“If I can…”
He rattled the box, the pills whispering inside it. “No more. Don’t take the blue anymore. That’s where the dark is coming from. It’s not helping.”
Juno heard herself speaking, as if someone else were animating her. “I believe you.”
He smiled warmly. “That’s a good start. Now, you gave me trust so I’m goin’ to give you a thing in return, okay?” He gently cupped his mahogany fingers under her chin and met her gaze. Juno felt the material real of the club become gossamer and faint. The depths of his amber eyes held her transfixed. “I’m gonna give the past back to you, girl. It’ll be slow and it won’t come easy-like, but in the end… You’ll know who you really are.”
“I want that,” she breathed. More than anything, she wanted that.
“Then, child, listen to me. Listen to me. Listen. Listen. Just listen.”
Phoebe Hi, there under the glow of the lamps in Tze’s library. Her plastic smile, the too-perfect face on the dumpy little body. I worked closely with your brother. I hope to do the same with you.
“Bitch…” hissed Frankie, half in anger, half in shock. “Why? Why the hell would she do that?”
Ko chewed his lip. “Happens all the time in HK, man. You’re a corp, you know how it is.” He made a fist. “Like in history, when guys in the palace did shit to each other so they’d look preem in front of the Emperor, make the other sucker take the rap.”
Frankie got up in a rush and he wobbled, the revelation making him dizzy.
Ko grabbed his shoulder to steady him. “You all right?”
He shook off the hand. “Don’t…” He tasted bile in his throat. “I… I gotta think…” Frankie could barely hold the thought of it in his head. His suspicions had been raging for days, and while he knew that YLHI were no strangers to dirty tricks, it still hit him like a sucker punch. It was one thing to sanction something on a rival or apply pressure to a client-but to hire criminals to kill a high level executive in the same corporate clan? On some level of denial, Frankie had been hoping that the obfuscation of the truth was some attempt to protect him from a darker threat, something that had cost Alan Lam his life; but now his certainties rocked around him. Hi had ordered Alan’s murder! Had she done it alone? Who else might be involved? Alice? The Masks? Even…
“Tze?”
A round of clapping came from the lower floor, drawing their attention. The clientele were toasting a new arrival, a gaunt figure flanked by a broad man in a dark green suit and a woman in a white strapless dress. The man and the woman wore shimmering Peking Opera masks.
Frankie’s heart shrank in his chest. “Speak of the devil…”
Ko spat. “You set me up.”
“No, no,” insisted Frankie, “I didn’t know he was going to come here!”
But the thief was already moving, snatching up his reward from the table and sprinting for the spiral stairs to the lower level. When Frankie looked back from the balcony, Tze was staring up at him. The older man gave him a nod and knowing smile.
Ko had the case in his hand when the cloakroom floor rose up to meet him. He rolled, the black attache skating away from his grip.
“Hello again.” The rasping voice came from behind Deer Child’s mask, newly repaired after the melee in the car park. “Remember me? You have unfinished business with Mr Tze-”
Ko did a scissor-kick that put a boot in Deer Child’s crotch, and spun, coming to his feet in a rush. He ducked to dodge a salvo of fast blows to the chest and head, marvelling at the speed of the bodyguard.
One punch shattered an oil lantern and in a whoosh of sound, a tapestry flooded with hungry flames. Ko moved to avoid more attacks, on the defensive as The Han’s clientele began to panic and flee.
He was a second too slow, and Deer Child snared his throat, one large hand choking the life from him. “Teach you about pain,” said the guardian.
In the confusion of the crowd bolting for the door, Ko saw motion, predator-quick and deadly. The glitter of a nickel-plated handgun. The muffled roar of a heavy gauge bullet.
Then the pressure was gone, the grey mist fogging his brain receding. Fixx was carrying him out into the humid, screeching night.
Ko saw flickers of Deer Child’s face though shattered porcelain. Flayed flesh, dataprobes pressed into optic jelly, lipless mouth over shark teeth.
“Wait, the case…” he coughed. “The cash… ”
There was a moment when Tze made the briefest eye contact with the black man who rescued the presumptuous little thief. His breath caught in his throat; the dark face, the hooded eyes. This face was known to him. He had plucked it from the songbird’s mind while little Juno slept. At the time, Tze had dismissed the moment as a spasm of random memory, bereft of any meaning-but his presence here, in the city, on the eve of the ascendance? Tze knew there were no coincidences, only synchronicity. Did the little doll sense something that I did not?
The palpable aura of threat the dark man radiated made his jaw clench, but he had no time to dwell. The Masks would have to deal with this new variable, and swiftly, before it could expand to alter the pattern. He turned, sniffing archly at the commotion. “How disappointing. The standards here fall lower and lower.” He studied Frankie’s flushed countenance. “Francis, you look perturbed. Is something wrong?”
The anger and frustration overtook any good reason in Frankie’s mind. “Alan’s death wasn’t a mistake,” he snapped, “he was murdered!”
The older man’s face became sad. “Yes, son. I know. I was hoping to keep this awful truth from you, but you seemed so determined to find out for yourself. ”
“You… you knew?”
“Francis, there’s more to this than you understand. What happened to your brother, who was responsible… There’s a pattern to these things that you are only now becoming aware of. ”
He rocked on his heels, giddy with emotion. “But Hi, what she did-”
“She’s at the tower, right now.” Tze leaned in closer. “Blue Snake will take care of Juno. Perhaps you and I should have a word with Phoebe, yes? I’d like you to get a better handle on things.”
Francis felt his hands coiling into fists, a sudden and potent fire kindling inside him. “Yes,” he said. “I want that.”
“Come,” said the CEO, and pressed him toward the door.
The Statue Park at Victoria Peak is one of the city’s most popular tourist attractions. The park is a fantastic fusion of the modem and the ancient. Using design elements from Hong Kong’s stunning skyline combined with actual stonework and statuary dating back more than two thousand years, the Statue Park brings past and present together in one place.
The layout of the park is based on astrological charts from the Qin Dynasty; those of you walking the route follow runes drawn by Chinese magicians, so breathe deep and you might take in a little “qi” of your own! The exhibits at the Statue Park include stone temple guardians from the northern provinces, a troupe of authentic terracotta warriors and the preserved wood beams from a Ming warship. The park is free to all, funded by generous donations from corporate sponsors such as Buell Tool Inc, GenTech East, Yuk Lung Heavy Industry, and Lan Ri Foods.
The Peak Rail Tram operates a half-hourly service. Tickets are available at the terminus in Garden Road. Gangcult activity, while at a minimum across the city, is distinctly possible late at night or during periods of activity such as concerts, festivals or eclipses. Passengers travelling at these times are advised to consider a personal defence device for peace of mind. The terminus gift shop sells a range of semi-lethal deterrents, including tanglers, taser-touch gloves and Nauseator™ gas dispensers.