Jade legacy, p.51
Jade Legacy, page 51
Wen drew the silk shawl over her shoulders. “You’re right,” she said with resignation. “I think maybe I’ve become so invested in this project to prove something to Hilo.” The Pillar supported his wife’s activities and acknowledged their value to the clan, but they were side projects, peripheral to No Peak’s core concerns of territory, jade, money, and warriors. A Kekonese film breaking onto the international scene in a major way might’ve changed that, and it would’ve been Wen’s victory alone.
Sometimes, when Shae was overwhelmed by the demands of being the clan’s Weather Man while also managing life as a wife and mother, she considered every obstacle her sister-in-law had overcome with quiet but immeasurable determination. She was always forced to conclude that in comparison, she had no reason to complain and no excuses for failure. “Wen, you have nothing left to prove to anyone.”
Wen gave her a sad smile. “Remember, Shae-jen, most of the clan would say I had only one truly important job.” To give the family an heir. It was no wonder that Wen had taken Niko’s departure even harder than Hilo had.
Red lights pulsed behind the SUV, causing them both to turn in their seats. Dudo, who’d just taken the freeway exit leading to the hotel, glanced in the rearview mirror at the Leyolo City police car behind them. He cursed incredulously.
“Pull over,” Shae said. “It’s only a Shotarian cop.”
Shae saw his foot hover indecisively between the gas and brake pedals. Then he obeyed her, pulling over to the side of the road and shutting off the engine. The squad car parked behind them. A uniformed officer emerged and walked toward the SUV. Shae’s Perception was not as sharp as it had once been when she used to carry more jade, but she could still easily sense the lone policeman’s nervous caution as he approached the driver’s side of the vehicle. Wen looked to Shae with a question in her eyes.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Shae told her. Leyolo City police officers carried only a double-action revolver and a baton. A single policeman would be no threat to one, much less three, trained Green Bones. Nevertheless, Dudo’s and Tako’s jade auras were humming warily, and Tako, in the passenger side seat, slid his pistol out of his jacket and tucked it out of sight under his leg, within easy reach.
“Calm down and be respectful,” Shae ordered. Gods forbid the police officer should be unwise enough to try to detain them, or that either of the Fists would give him reason to draw his weapon. None of them knew how to speak much Shotarian, and the last thing No Peak needed was for a foolish police officer to be accidentally killed by visiting members of the No Peak clan over some misunderstanding.
Dudo rolled down the window. The police officer shone the flashlight into the front seat and asked a question in Shotarian, which Shae assumed to be a demand for identification. She said to Dudo, “Hand him your driver’s license and the car rental paperwork.” The policeman swung the flashlight over to Shae’s voice coming from the back seat, playing the bright beam over the two women dressed for the theater—Shae in a short white coat and black skirt, Wen in a maroon dress and silk shawl.
“We are visitors. We don’t speak Shotarian,” Shae said, making use of a few phrases she knew in the language. The officer studied Dudo’s Kekonese driver’s license and the papers from the car rental company. He returned them and stepped back, giving an order in Shotarian and motioning for Dudo to step out of the car.
“What the fuck,” Dudo muttered.
Wen said, worriedly, “Maybe he wants to search the car for drugs.”
“Or weapons. Or jade. Both of which we have,” Tako said.
In Janloon, a police officer that stopped a car full of Green Bones would apologize and send them on their way. If there was some issue with behavior, he would bring it up with the Horn. Cops didn’t police the clans. The clans policed the clans. Dudo had never in his life obeyed a city police officer and didn’t move.
Any Green Bone of No Peak who traveled on official business for the clan was required by the Weather Man’s office to sit through an information session explaining what to do in case of a run-in with local law enforcement. Don’t hurt or kill anyone if you can possibly avoid it, cooperate fully, go to jail if you have to. The clan’s lawyers will take care of you and the clan will resupply you with any jade confiscated by foreign police and reward you further for your trouble—if you follow the rules. But Wen’s bodyguards were not going to adhere to those edicts if it meant being handcuffed or separated from the person they had sworn to the Pillar to protect with their lives. This unfortunate patrolman would be dead before such a thing happened.
Shae Perceived the police officer’s escalating apprehension as he put his hand on his belt, near his pistol. “Do as he says,” she ordered Dudo. “Get out of the car.”
“Kaul-jen—”
The police officer repeated his order in Shotarian, more insistently. His hand moved to the grip of his sidearm, his eyes darting between the occupants of the vehicle. Dudo swore under his breath, opened the door and stepped out. The officer motioned for him to turn around. Dudo did so, placing his hands on the side of the SUV. Cars passing them on the road cast pulses of light across the scene. Briskly, the cop patted Dudo down, finding the handgun in his waistband and the talon knife in his shoulder holster and removing them both with a few declarative words in Shotarian that none of them understood. Dudo didn’t move but Shae could Perceive the Fist’s jade aura swelling. What if the officer tried to take his jade as well? Shae’s mind raced, trying to think of a way to prevent the situation from escalating.
Tako’s shoulders jerked in alarm. “Something’s not—”
Three black cars roared up and surrounded the SUV. Before the vehicles had even stopped, masked men were spilling out of all the doors. The police officer dropped flat to the ground on his stomach, arms shielding his head, and with a flash of dreadful understanding, Shae understood that it had all been a setup. The sweating cop, if he was a cop at all, had kept them in place, distracted their sense of Perception.
Even taken by surprise, Dudo and Tako reacted with remarkable speed. Dudo hurled a powerful Deflection at the men jumping out of the nearest car, knocking several of them to the asphalt. He dropped and scrabbled for his weapons—the gun and knife the cop had taken from him—but before he could rise, three assailants set upon him with the startling speed and force that came only from having jade Strength. Tako leapt out of the passenger side, firing over the hood of the SUV.
Barukan. Shae flung open the rear door, drawing her talon knife. Wen let out a scream as a man’s silhouette filled the frame of the vehicle’s opening, reaching toward them. Shae slashed at the masked face. When the man jerked back, she kicked him in the chest with her bare foot and followed it up with a Deflection that sent him stumbling backward.
Tako yanked open the rear door on the other side, pulling Wen out of the vehicle and shielding her with his body as he continued to fire around the SUV at the attackers. One of his shots dropped a man. Another two were Deflected wide, punching into the sides of the black cars. “Kaul-jen,” Tako shouted.
Dudo had killed one of his assailants, who lay in the street with his neck obviously broken. Another was rolling on the ground, clutching his leg and moaning in agony. A man with a steel pipe smashed Dudo across his broad shoulders, and then square in the back of the head. The Green Bone’s Steel prevented his skull from being split open but he collapsed to the ground, limp.
Adrenaline and rage flooded into Shae’s brain. She could not believe this was happening. A part of her mind expected more No Peak Fists to appear at any second, to fly to their protection and slaughter these men. But this was not Janloon. These barukan thugs were crude and clumsy in their attacks. Their jade auras, burning with violent excitement, were as wild and uneven as those of untrained teenagers—but there were over a dozen of them.
Shae launched herself out of the car with a cry and felt a rush of fevered satisfaction when her Strength carried her to the nearest barukan in a second and her talon knife plunged into the side of his neck. The man’s eyes were the only part of his face visible; they flew wide with shock. For a second, Shae felt only astonishment. It had been years—more than a decade—since she’d drawn her knife to kill an enemy and she was disoriented by the moment, by the blood and the Perception of the man’s pain. Then instinct took over; she ripped the talon knife straight across with a surge of Strength, severing the carotid artery. “Get Wen out of here,” she shouted at Tako.
Another man grabbed Shae from behind. She twisted and sent a spear of Channeling into his chest. She could tell immediately that the strike was nowhere near strong or precise enough. That one kill had been a lucky thing. Shae was a Green Bone twenty years past her fighting prime. She didn’t have enough jade, she was too old and too slow. The Channeling strike meant to burst the man’s heart only made him gasp and cough violently.
At least he lost his grip on her. Shae tore away from him, sharp pebbles digging into the soles of her feet as she backed up with her talon knife extended. Other men came toward her, emboldened by her failure.
Tako was still firing his gun and throwing Deflections from behind the cover of the SUV and protecting Wen with his life. Shae thought she heard her sister-in-law screaming her name, but if so, the gunfire and the roaring of blood in her ears drowned it out. She glimpsed Tako’s face, twisted with frantic uncertainty. Dudo was unconscious, and Shae was too far away for him to help her without exposing Wen. Abandoning the Weather Man was unthinkable, but his first duty was to protect the Pillar’s wife. Snarling, the bodyguard unleashed a final volley of gunshots that sent the barukan diving behind their cars. Lifting Wen, crying and protesting in his arms, he ran.
The SUV was penned in, but a steep ravine dropped off from the side of the road. Even weighed down with Wen clinging to him, Tako cleared the gully in a single Light bound. Half a dozen masked men gave chase, leaping after him and firing at his fleeing figure, gaining quickly as he struggled to keep sprinting with Wen in his arms. Tako set Wen down on her feet and they ran, the Fist urging her along ahead of him.
Shae tried to follow. As if sucking in a breath with her whole body, she gathered her jade energy and leapt Light over those in her way. In three more steps, she reached the edge of the ravine and stumbled to a horrified halt as another gunshot rang out and she saw Tako go down. He scrambled up again, but Wen had spun around and run back toward him. Shae let out a guttural scream of denial as one of the masked men reached and seized Wen, pinning her arms, and from a distance too close to Deflect, another barukan unloaded two bullets into Tako’s torso. Even from a distance, Shae Perceived the bodyguard’s blinding red agony as he folded at the waist and collapsed into the brittle grass.
Shae turned. Four masked men with guns stood behind her, four across the ravine around Wen and Tako. The man with his arm around Wen’s throat walked back toward her, forcing Wen to stumble along in front of him. Shae could see the whites of her sister-in-law’s eyes, glistening with tears of fear and rage. The man called out to Shae, in accented Kekonese, “Kaul Shaelinsan! You think you’re one tough Janloon bitch. We’ll see how tough. Do you think you can move faster than the bullet of this gun?” He pressed the barrel of his weapon to Wen’s temple.
Shae said, “If you pull the trigger, every single one of you will die.” She was thankful her voice did not come out trembling, but it seemed to her that the world was tilting under her feet. These men knew who she was. They surely knew who Wen was as well. They’d gone to the effort of setting up the ruse with the police officer and they’d attacked with overwhelming force, clearly prepared to suffer casualties. They already expected death, so her threats were not going to make any difference.
“Drop the knife,” the man called. “Then take off your jade.”
If it had been only her own safety in question, under no circumstances would Shae allow herself to be disarmed and for her jade to be taken. Even outnumbered, she would’ve turned and fought until she was killed or subdued—which was sure to happen, seeing as how Dudo and Tako, trained Fists much younger than her, had been overpowered. But that would mean leaving Wen to the mercy of their enemies, which she could not do. The barukan hadn’t fired on the women. They wanted them alive.
Which meant they wanted something from No Peak.
Shae let the talon knife slip from her fingers and fall to the ground. She willed her fingers not to shake as she removed her earrings and bracelets. A sick sense of degradation crawled up her throat and made her face burn with shame and disgust. She felt as violated as if she were being forced to strip naked before her assailants. When she’d removed her jade, the man said, “Set it down on the ground and walk backward.”
Shae’s hands closed tight around her jade. It won’t get you out of this, she told herself. It won’t help Wen, either. She bent her knees and dropped the gems on the ground in front of her. The first disorienting jolt of withdrawal hit a couple of seconds later. Shae curled her hands in the folds of her skirt. She swayed, light-headed. A layer of gauze seemed to fall over her eyes and ears and turn the night even more surreal.
Slowly, she stood up and took two steps back. Rough hands came down on her shoulders and forced her down to her knees, scraping her skin against asphalt. Shae caught a glimpse of Wen’s terrified face, trying to say something—and then the black hood went over Shae’s head, her wrists were bound behind her back, and she was half pushed, half dragged into a car that began to move.
Hilo was in the training hall with his eighteen-year-old nephew, Maik Cam, when the housekeeper, Sulima, ran up from the main house and slid the door open without knocking. “Forgive me, Kaul-jen,” she panted, her face pale with alarm, “but someone… On the phone…”
The Pillar strode through the dark courtyard into the main house and picked up the phone in the study, hitting the button for the main line. An accented voice said, “Kaul Hiloshudon. If you wanted to invade Shotar, you should’ve come yourself instead of sending your bitches. You’re used to being in charge, but from this moment on, you’re not in charge anymore. If you want your wife and your sister returned alive and intact, you’ll do exactly as we say.” Silence. “Are you listening carefully, Kaul Hilo?”
“Yes,” Hilo said. “Prove they’re alive and unharmed.”
A rustle of movement in the background as the phone was handed off. There was a considerable amount of static interference, as if the connection was bad. Hilo’s heart stuttered as Wen’s voice came onto the line, hoarse and frightened. “Hilo?”
He managed to keep his own voice unchanged. “Have they hurt you?”
“No,” she said weakly.
“And Shae?”
“They took her jade, but she’s not hurt. Dudo and Tako are badly injured.”
“Stay calm,” Hilo said. “I’ll solve this.”
“Hilo, I—”
The phone was snatched away and the kidnapper’s voice returned. “You have the proof you asked for. Now this is what you will do. You’ll deliver forty kilograms of cut jade and two million Espenian thalirs in cash tomorrow at midnight, at a location of my choosing, in exchange for your wife. If this transaction goes smoothly, you’ll have seven days to shut down the operations you set up in Leyolo City, remove every single member of your clan from our country, and publicly announce that No Peak will make no further attempts, now or in the future, to enter Shotar. Then, and only then, will you get your sister back, along with your two men if they are still alive.”
“I’ll do as you say,” Hilo replied. “You’ll get the money and the jade you want. I’ll pull No Peak out of Shotar. I can overlook losing material things. If you harm the people I care about, however, that is a very different matter.” A fever was engulfing his brain. He felt as if the edges of his vision were closing in. All the most terrible possibilities he could imagine were crashing against a bulwark of consuming rage.
What he said next would have to be perfect. He could be neither defiant nor meek. If he was too aggressive, they would abandon their plans and kill their captives. If he sounded desperate, they would not fear him enough to commit to their end of the bargain. This damning calculation happened without conscious thought.
Hilo said, quietly, “You’re obviously thick-blooded, whoever you are, since you’re willing to do things even my worst enemies would not. I’ve led dangerous operations before, so let me tell you something: I’m not the one you have to worry about now. I’ll be as cooperative as a baby goat. Your own men, however… I know how dark men can be, how hard it can be to keep them in line. Safe, well-cared-for prisoners are your only leverage right now. If they’re mistreated in any way, none of you will get to enjoy the jade or money you’ve gone to the trouble of getting from me, because you’ll all die very badly.”
“You’re exactly as people say you are, Kaul Hilo,” said the amused voice of the man he was going to kill. “You could be burning in hell and have some arrogant thing to say to the devil. Just to be clear: If we see any police, your wife and sister will both die. If we see any reporters, they die. If we see any of your Fists or Fingers, they die. You may rule Kekon, but this is not Kekon.” The caller hung up.
CHAPTER
45
Very Bad People
Wen’s captors placed her in an empty room by herself and made her sit against the wall with her hands duct-taped together in front of her. They were in a house, but Wen had no idea where. When they’d thrown the hood over her head and pushed her into the car, she’d been hurled back in time to the garage in Port Massy and the agony of suffocating to death. She spent the interminable ride shaking and sweating with panic, certain she would choke or throw up, until at last one of the men noticed her hyperventilating and pulled the bag up so only her eyes were covered and at least she could feel the air on her face and not pass out.
Hours later, she was still seized by intermittent fits of trembling, and her heart would start racing as if it were trying to kill her before anyone else could. She pulled her knees close to her body and tried to take long, deep breaths, picturing herself in the garden back home, sitting by the pond amid blooming magnolia and honeysuckle. She told herself this was not like the situation she’d been through with the Crews. If it was, she would already be raped or dead. These men wanted something from her husband, otherwise they wouldn’t have put her on the phone with him for those two seconds. Hilo would move Heaven itself. He would bring down the full might of the clan to find her and get her out safely. In the meantime, she had to stay calm as he’d instructed, to think clearly and not surrender to blind terror.
Sometimes, when Shae was overwhelmed by the demands of being the clan’s Weather Man while also managing life as a wife and mother, she considered every obstacle her sister-in-law had overcome with quiet but immeasurable determination. She was always forced to conclude that in comparison, she had no reason to complain and no excuses for failure. “Wen, you have nothing left to prove to anyone.”
Wen gave her a sad smile. “Remember, Shae-jen, most of the clan would say I had only one truly important job.” To give the family an heir. It was no wonder that Wen had taken Niko’s departure even harder than Hilo had.
Red lights pulsed behind the SUV, causing them both to turn in their seats. Dudo, who’d just taken the freeway exit leading to the hotel, glanced in the rearview mirror at the Leyolo City police car behind them. He cursed incredulously.
“Pull over,” Shae said. “It’s only a Shotarian cop.”
Shae saw his foot hover indecisively between the gas and brake pedals. Then he obeyed her, pulling over to the side of the road and shutting off the engine. The squad car parked behind them. A uniformed officer emerged and walked toward the SUV. Shae’s Perception was not as sharp as it had once been when she used to carry more jade, but she could still easily sense the lone policeman’s nervous caution as he approached the driver’s side of the vehicle. Wen looked to Shae with a question in her eyes.
“There’s nothing to worry about,” Shae told her. Leyolo City police officers carried only a double-action revolver and a baton. A single policeman would be no threat to one, much less three, trained Green Bones. Nevertheless, Dudo’s and Tako’s jade auras were humming warily, and Tako, in the passenger side seat, slid his pistol out of his jacket and tucked it out of sight under his leg, within easy reach.
“Calm down and be respectful,” Shae ordered. Gods forbid the police officer should be unwise enough to try to detain them, or that either of the Fists would give him reason to draw his weapon. None of them knew how to speak much Shotarian, and the last thing No Peak needed was for a foolish police officer to be accidentally killed by visiting members of the No Peak clan over some misunderstanding.
Dudo rolled down the window. The police officer shone the flashlight into the front seat and asked a question in Shotarian, which Shae assumed to be a demand for identification. She said to Dudo, “Hand him your driver’s license and the car rental paperwork.” The policeman swung the flashlight over to Shae’s voice coming from the back seat, playing the bright beam over the two women dressed for the theater—Shae in a short white coat and black skirt, Wen in a maroon dress and silk shawl.
“We are visitors. We don’t speak Shotarian,” Shae said, making use of a few phrases she knew in the language. The officer studied Dudo’s Kekonese driver’s license and the papers from the car rental company. He returned them and stepped back, giving an order in Shotarian and motioning for Dudo to step out of the car.
“What the fuck,” Dudo muttered.
Wen said, worriedly, “Maybe he wants to search the car for drugs.”
“Or weapons. Or jade. Both of which we have,” Tako said.
In Janloon, a police officer that stopped a car full of Green Bones would apologize and send them on their way. If there was some issue with behavior, he would bring it up with the Horn. Cops didn’t police the clans. The clans policed the clans. Dudo had never in his life obeyed a city police officer and didn’t move.
Any Green Bone of No Peak who traveled on official business for the clan was required by the Weather Man’s office to sit through an information session explaining what to do in case of a run-in with local law enforcement. Don’t hurt or kill anyone if you can possibly avoid it, cooperate fully, go to jail if you have to. The clan’s lawyers will take care of you and the clan will resupply you with any jade confiscated by foreign police and reward you further for your trouble—if you follow the rules. But Wen’s bodyguards were not going to adhere to those edicts if it meant being handcuffed or separated from the person they had sworn to the Pillar to protect with their lives. This unfortunate patrolman would be dead before such a thing happened.
Shae Perceived the police officer’s escalating apprehension as he put his hand on his belt, near his pistol. “Do as he says,” she ordered Dudo. “Get out of the car.”
“Kaul-jen—”
The police officer repeated his order in Shotarian, more insistently. His hand moved to the grip of his sidearm, his eyes darting between the occupants of the vehicle. Dudo swore under his breath, opened the door and stepped out. The officer motioned for him to turn around. Dudo did so, placing his hands on the side of the SUV. Cars passing them on the road cast pulses of light across the scene. Briskly, the cop patted Dudo down, finding the handgun in his waistband and the talon knife in his shoulder holster and removing them both with a few declarative words in Shotarian that none of them understood. Dudo didn’t move but Shae could Perceive the Fist’s jade aura swelling. What if the officer tried to take his jade as well? Shae’s mind raced, trying to think of a way to prevent the situation from escalating.
Tako’s shoulders jerked in alarm. “Something’s not—”
Three black cars roared up and surrounded the SUV. Before the vehicles had even stopped, masked men were spilling out of all the doors. The police officer dropped flat to the ground on his stomach, arms shielding his head, and with a flash of dreadful understanding, Shae understood that it had all been a setup. The sweating cop, if he was a cop at all, had kept them in place, distracted their sense of Perception.
Even taken by surprise, Dudo and Tako reacted with remarkable speed. Dudo hurled a powerful Deflection at the men jumping out of the nearest car, knocking several of them to the asphalt. He dropped and scrabbled for his weapons—the gun and knife the cop had taken from him—but before he could rise, three assailants set upon him with the startling speed and force that came only from having jade Strength. Tako leapt out of the passenger side, firing over the hood of the SUV.
Barukan. Shae flung open the rear door, drawing her talon knife. Wen let out a scream as a man’s silhouette filled the frame of the vehicle’s opening, reaching toward them. Shae slashed at the masked face. When the man jerked back, she kicked him in the chest with her bare foot and followed it up with a Deflection that sent him stumbling backward.
Tako yanked open the rear door on the other side, pulling Wen out of the vehicle and shielding her with his body as he continued to fire around the SUV at the attackers. One of his shots dropped a man. Another two were Deflected wide, punching into the sides of the black cars. “Kaul-jen,” Tako shouted.
Dudo had killed one of his assailants, who lay in the street with his neck obviously broken. Another was rolling on the ground, clutching his leg and moaning in agony. A man with a steel pipe smashed Dudo across his broad shoulders, and then square in the back of the head. The Green Bone’s Steel prevented his skull from being split open but he collapsed to the ground, limp.
Adrenaline and rage flooded into Shae’s brain. She could not believe this was happening. A part of her mind expected more No Peak Fists to appear at any second, to fly to their protection and slaughter these men. But this was not Janloon. These barukan thugs were crude and clumsy in their attacks. Their jade auras, burning with violent excitement, were as wild and uneven as those of untrained teenagers—but there were over a dozen of them.
Shae launched herself out of the car with a cry and felt a rush of fevered satisfaction when her Strength carried her to the nearest barukan in a second and her talon knife plunged into the side of his neck. The man’s eyes were the only part of his face visible; they flew wide with shock. For a second, Shae felt only astonishment. It had been years—more than a decade—since she’d drawn her knife to kill an enemy and she was disoriented by the moment, by the blood and the Perception of the man’s pain. Then instinct took over; she ripped the talon knife straight across with a surge of Strength, severing the carotid artery. “Get Wen out of here,” she shouted at Tako.
Another man grabbed Shae from behind. She twisted and sent a spear of Channeling into his chest. She could tell immediately that the strike was nowhere near strong or precise enough. That one kill had been a lucky thing. Shae was a Green Bone twenty years past her fighting prime. She didn’t have enough jade, she was too old and too slow. The Channeling strike meant to burst the man’s heart only made him gasp and cough violently.
At least he lost his grip on her. Shae tore away from him, sharp pebbles digging into the soles of her feet as she backed up with her talon knife extended. Other men came toward her, emboldened by her failure.
Tako was still firing his gun and throwing Deflections from behind the cover of the SUV and protecting Wen with his life. Shae thought she heard her sister-in-law screaming her name, but if so, the gunfire and the roaring of blood in her ears drowned it out. She glimpsed Tako’s face, twisted with frantic uncertainty. Dudo was unconscious, and Shae was too far away for him to help her without exposing Wen. Abandoning the Weather Man was unthinkable, but his first duty was to protect the Pillar’s wife. Snarling, the bodyguard unleashed a final volley of gunshots that sent the barukan diving behind their cars. Lifting Wen, crying and protesting in his arms, he ran.
The SUV was penned in, but a steep ravine dropped off from the side of the road. Even weighed down with Wen clinging to him, Tako cleared the gully in a single Light bound. Half a dozen masked men gave chase, leaping after him and firing at his fleeing figure, gaining quickly as he struggled to keep sprinting with Wen in his arms. Tako set Wen down on her feet and they ran, the Fist urging her along ahead of him.
Shae tried to follow. As if sucking in a breath with her whole body, she gathered her jade energy and leapt Light over those in her way. In three more steps, she reached the edge of the ravine and stumbled to a horrified halt as another gunshot rang out and she saw Tako go down. He scrambled up again, but Wen had spun around and run back toward him. Shae let out a guttural scream of denial as one of the masked men reached and seized Wen, pinning her arms, and from a distance too close to Deflect, another barukan unloaded two bullets into Tako’s torso. Even from a distance, Shae Perceived the bodyguard’s blinding red agony as he folded at the waist and collapsed into the brittle grass.
Shae turned. Four masked men with guns stood behind her, four across the ravine around Wen and Tako. The man with his arm around Wen’s throat walked back toward her, forcing Wen to stumble along in front of him. Shae could see the whites of her sister-in-law’s eyes, glistening with tears of fear and rage. The man called out to Shae, in accented Kekonese, “Kaul Shaelinsan! You think you’re one tough Janloon bitch. We’ll see how tough. Do you think you can move faster than the bullet of this gun?” He pressed the barrel of his weapon to Wen’s temple.
Shae said, “If you pull the trigger, every single one of you will die.” She was thankful her voice did not come out trembling, but it seemed to her that the world was tilting under her feet. These men knew who she was. They surely knew who Wen was as well. They’d gone to the effort of setting up the ruse with the police officer and they’d attacked with overwhelming force, clearly prepared to suffer casualties. They already expected death, so her threats were not going to make any difference.
“Drop the knife,” the man called. “Then take off your jade.”
If it had been only her own safety in question, under no circumstances would Shae allow herself to be disarmed and for her jade to be taken. Even outnumbered, she would’ve turned and fought until she was killed or subdued—which was sure to happen, seeing as how Dudo and Tako, trained Fists much younger than her, had been overpowered. But that would mean leaving Wen to the mercy of their enemies, which she could not do. The barukan hadn’t fired on the women. They wanted them alive.
Which meant they wanted something from No Peak.
Shae let the talon knife slip from her fingers and fall to the ground. She willed her fingers not to shake as she removed her earrings and bracelets. A sick sense of degradation crawled up her throat and made her face burn with shame and disgust. She felt as violated as if she were being forced to strip naked before her assailants. When she’d removed her jade, the man said, “Set it down on the ground and walk backward.”
Shae’s hands closed tight around her jade. It won’t get you out of this, she told herself. It won’t help Wen, either. She bent her knees and dropped the gems on the ground in front of her. The first disorienting jolt of withdrawal hit a couple of seconds later. Shae curled her hands in the folds of her skirt. She swayed, light-headed. A layer of gauze seemed to fall over her eyes and ears and turn the night even more surreal.
Slowly, she stood up and took two steps back. Rough hands came down on her shoulders and forced her down to her knees, scraping her skin against asphalt. Shae caught a glimpse of Wen’s terrified face, trying to say something—and then the black hood went over Shae’s head, her wrists were bound behind her back, and she was half pushed, half dragged into a car that began to move.
Hilo was in the training hall with his eighteen-year-old nephew, Maik Cam, when the housekeeper, Sulima, ran up from the main house and slid the door open without knocking. “Forgive me, Kaul-jen,” she panted, her face pale with alarm, “but someone… On the phone…”
The Pillar strode through the dark courtyard into the main house and picked up the phone in the study, hitting the button for the main line. An accented voice said, “Kaul Hiloshudon. If you wanted to invade Shotar, you should’ve come yourself instead of sending your bitches. You’re used to being in charge, but from this moment on, you’re not in charge anymore. If you want your wife and your sister returned alive and intact, you’ll do exactly as we say.” Silence. “Are you listening carefully, Kaul Hilo?”
“Yes,” Hilo said. “Prove they’re alive and unharmed.”
A rustle of movement in the background as the phone was handed off. There was a considerable amount of static interference, as if the connection was bad. Hilo’s heart stuttered as Wen’s voice came onto the line, hoarse and frightened. “Hilo?”
He managed to keep his own voice unchanged. “Have they hurt you?”
“No,” she said weakly.
“And Shae?”
“They took her jade, but she’s not hurt. Dudo and Tako are badly injured.”
“Stay calm,” Hilo said. “I’ll solve this.”
“Hilo, I—”
The phone was snatched away and the kidnapper’s voice returned. “You have the proof you asked for. Now this is what you will do. You’ll deliver forty kilograms of cut jade and two million Espenian thalirs in cash tomorrow at midnight, at a location of my choosing, in exchange for your wife. If this transaction goes smoothly, you’ll have seven days to shut down the operations you set up in Leyolo City, remove every single member of your clan from our country, and publicly announce that No Peak will make no further attempts, now or in the future, to enter Shotar. Then, and only then, will you get your sister back, along with your two men if they are still alive.”
“I’ll do as you say,” Hilo replied. “You’ll get the money and the jade you want. I’ll pull No Peak out of Shotar. I can overlook losing material things. If you harm the people I care about, however, that is a very different matter.” A fever was engulfing his brain. He felt as if the edges of his vision were closing in. All the most terrible possibilities he could imagine were crashing against a bulwark of consuming rage.
What he said next would have to be perfect. He could be neither defiant nor meek. If he was too aggressive, they would abandon their plans and kill their captives. If he sounded desperate, they would not fear him enough to commit to their end of the bargain. This damning calculation happened without conscious thought.
Hilo said, quietly, “You’re obviously thick-blooded, whoever you are, since you’re willing to do things even my worst enemies would not. I’ve led dangerous operations before, so let me tell you something: I’m not the one you have to worry about now. I’ll be as cooperative as a baby goat. Your own men, however… I know how dark men can be, how hard it can be to keep them in line. Safe, well-cared-for prisoners are your only leverage right now. If they’re mistreated in any way, none of you will get to enjoy the jade or money you’ve gone to the trouble of getting from me, because you’ll all die very badly.”
“You’re exactly as people say you are, Kaul Hilo,” said the amused voice of the man he was going to kill. “You could be burning in hell and have some arrogant thing to say to the devil. Just to be clear: If we see any police, your wife and sister will both die. If we see any reporters, they die. If we see any of your Fists or Fingers, they die. You may rule Kekon, but this is not Kekon.” The caller hung up.
CHAPTER
45
Very Bad People
Wen’s captors placed her in an empty room by herself and made her sit against the wall with her hands duct-taped together in front of her. They were in a house, but Wen had no idea where. When they’d thrown the hood over her head and pushed her into the car, she’d been hurled back in time to the garage in Port Massy and the agony of suffocating to death. She spent the interminable ride shaking and sweating with panic, certain she would choke or throw up, until at last one of the men noticed her hyperventilating and pulled the bag up so only her eyes were covered and at least she could feel the air on her face and not pass out.
Hours later, she was still seized by intermittent fits of trembling, and her heart would start racing as if it were trying to kill her before anyone else could. She pulled her knees close to her body and tried to take long, deep breaths, picturing herself in the garden back home, sitting by the pond amid blooming magnolia and honeysuckle. She told herself this was not like the situation she’d been through with the Crews. If it was, she would already be raped or dead. These men wanted something from her husband, otherwise they wouldn’t have put her on the phone with him for those two seconds. Hilo would move Heaven itself. He would bring down the full might of the clan to find her and get her out safely. In the meantime, she had to stay calm as he’d instructed, to think clearly and not surrender to blind terror.
