The dinner was subdued; almost painful. On the one hand, I couldn’t wait for it to be over; on the other, I never wanted it to finish.
‘They’ve landed, ma’am,’ Zara said as my mother was serving ice-cream.
‘Do you mind?’ I asked my parents.
‘We want to see too,’ Amanda said. ‘There’s a chance Andrew and Mark are in there.’
‘It could get ugly,’ I said.
‘Give me a minute and I’ll send the boys to bed,’ Jennifer said, rising to escort Colin and David out.
‘I can stay, right?’ Simone said.
‘If Simone can stay, we can stay,’ Colin said.
‘You can stay,’ Amanda said. ‘David’s too little.’ She took David’s hand and guided him to the bedroom he was sharing with Colin. He had refused to spend the night in Andrew’s room.
‘Zara, can you show all of us?’ my father said.
Zara’s expression went blank and suddenly we were skydiving over Singapore. The house around us disappeared and a three-dimensional image from Gold’s viewpoint was projected into the air around us.
‘You’re seeing through Gold’s eyes,’ Zara said. ‘He’s been notified.’
‘Damn,’ my father said.
‘If it becomes difficult or unpleasant, let me know,’ Zara said. ‘I will disconnect you.’
‘Wow, this is just like Covert Ops,’ Colin said.
There was even sound with the transmission: the wind whistled past Gold’s ears as he, John and the two Generals with them flew down towards Singapore. The land was greener and more open than Hong Kong, with more one- and two-storey buildings, and wide roads bordered by lush grass verges dotted with trees.
‘It’s near Aljunied,’ Gold said. ‘Across the freeway from the housing estate, in Kallang.’
‘Figures,’ I said.
‘Why is that, Emma?’ Jennifer said.
‘That’s the red-light district. Aljunied is famous for prostitutes — and temples. There’s a mass of temples in that whole area. Kallang is the industrial estate nearby.’
‘Coming in. The Dark Lord is guiding us,’ Gold said.
They were dropping more than flying, arms spread. John was the lowest, leading the way in Celestial Form, his hair and black robes streaming out behind him. He slid from side to side, then stopped in midair and floated two hundred metres above the ground.
‘Zhu,’ he said, gesturing without looking back.
‘That’s Zhu Bei Niang, the Lady of the Shadow Sword,’ I said, explaining for my family. Zhu was wearing a black Mountain uniform with armour over the top and her Shadow sword, an unfocused shape of grey, was clipped to her back. Her black hair was tied in a simple ponytail. ‘The other guy is General Ma, John’s right hand.’ Ma’s robes and armour had a shifting pattern of flame on them, and his red hair was in a topknot and fell to his waist.
Zhu moved to float next to John, and pulled an ancient-looking, circular mirror out of her sword clip. She held it in front of her and swung it around.
‘That’s the Thunder Mirror,’ I said. ‘It sees the truth. It’ll show them if there are any demons groundside.’
‘It didn’t detect the copies?’ my father said.
‘It saw them as human as well,’ I said. ‘John suspects that the copies are East-West hybrids and that’s why they’re undetectable.’
‘Like young Tom,’ my father said.
‘Exactly.’
Zhu spoke. ‘Nothing, my Lord. I suggest landing on one of the high rises and checking closer to the ground.’
‘The one with the pool on the roof, on the corner nearest to the shophouses,’ John said, and leapt from a floating position to freefall again, the Generals and Gold following him.
‘Just the four of them?’ my father said.
‘Each General has a cohort of demon soldiers that they can summon,’ I said. ‘Until they’re sure, they’re keeping a low profile.’
John slowed, changed to vertical feet-first, and landed on a white high rise with a swimming pool on the roof. He strode to the edge and crouched, studying the shophouses across the road. Gold’s viewpoint followed him, shaky now that Gold was walking, and the view swept over the buildings below.
The shophouses lined the narrow street, pushing hard against each other, their identical pitched roofs making them look like Monopoly houses. Each shophouse was a different colour, but all were two storeys, with an open workshop on the ground floor and a small apartment on the first. Most of them were auto-mechanical workshops, with a couple of metal-fabrication businesses and a tyre retailer. Cars lined the street on both sides, parked under the tired-looking trees.
John stiffened and sniffed the air. Zhu pulled the mirror out again, scanning the shophouses.
‘I am relaying for Lady Emma’s family,’ Gold said softly.
‘Hi, Emma,’ Ma said behind Gold, sounding as if he was behind me.
John rose and went to the other side of the roof, and again crouched to study the shophouses across the road on the other side. On this side, it was the rear of the buildings on view; most of them had been extended with corrugated iron and tarpaulins, with piles of junk cluttering their concreted drives.
Zhu raised the mirror again and studied it. She went back to the other side of the building and turned the mirror.
‘I smell them,’ John said without moving. He raised one gloved hand towards the back of the shophouses. ‘Down there.’
Zhu quickly joined him and turned the mirror towards the shophouses. ‘I can’t see anything!’ she said, and shook it. ‘Batteries must be flat.’
‘She’s joking, isn’t she?’ Jennifer said.
‘Yes,’ I said.
‘How can they joke at a time like this?’
‘They’re Immortals, it’s what they do.’
John stood up and flexed his hands. ‘Change to plain human form and teleport down.’ He disappeared.
The scene shifted and Gold’s view was on the ground again. John had made himself short, round and middle-aged; Ma appeared as a teenager; and Zhu was an old woman. The ground crunched beneath their feet and the view shook again as they walked up to the back of the shophouses. John walked along the wall parallel to their backs, and stopped at one with three shipping containers side by side in its lot, a blue tarpaulin tied over them. The door of one of the containers hung open, and a young man leaned against it. He was wearing a stained pair of shorts, no shirt and a cheap pair of flip-flops, a cigarette hanging from his lip.
‘You don’t know which shop it was,’ John said loudly and irritably to Ma. ‘I knew I should have checked before we brought Mother.’
‘It’s all right, son,’ Zhu said soothingly in an old-woman voice. ‘We’ll find it.’
‘You, there!’ Ma shouted to the young man. ‘Where’s the Daihatsu shop?’
The young man stuck his thumb over his shoulder towards the next street.
‘Xie xie!’ Ma waved his thanks, and took Zhu’s arm as if she really was his grandmother, leading her away.
‘Very strange,’ John said as they walked away from the building.
My father saw me fidgeting with impatience. ‘You want to be with them, don’t you, Emma?’
‘More than anything,’ I said.
‘But you could get killed,’ my mother said.
I turned to speak to her. ‘Not with John there. Actually, that’s right — we only lost students when John wasn’t on the Mountain. Now that he’s back, it’s completely defended. You really would be safe there, I could guarantee it.’
‘We’ll think about it,’ my mother said without looking away from the shophouses.
‘Andrew wasn’t on the Mountain when he was killed,’ Colin said softly.
‘We’re not sure he’s dead, mate, he could still be alive,’ Amanda’s husband, Allan, said.
John, Gold and the Generals reached the end of the street. John turned to study the shophouses. ‘Gold.’
‘My Lord.’
‘I sense only that one demon at the door; the rest of the above-ground facility is deserted. But I can’t sense anything underground. I think this is an empty front.’
Zhu raised her mirror as if to tidy her hair. ‘I see nothing at all.’
‘Tell John it could be the same sort of trick that they used under Kowloon City Park,’ I said quickly. ‘They have Six’s technology with stones and could have made the tunnels invisible to the Inner Eye.’
John’s expression cleared. ‘That would explain it.’ He turned to Gold. ‘Can we raid this? What are the terms of the agreement that Emma made with the King?’
‘We can’t raid anything underground without the Demon King’s sanction,’ I explained to my family. ‘It’s his domain, and John has a treaty with him that basically means we have to stay out unless he lets us in.’
‘That’s ridiculous,’ my father said.
‘The bureaucracy gets worse,’ I said. ‘Mortals like me need permission from both the Demon King and the Jade Emperor to enter Hell. So far it’s only happened about four times in their entire history — and one of those was Simone, when she went down to get me out.’
‘And I didn’t have permission,’ Simone said with amusement. ‘But since I was six years old they waived the punishment. I think I’m still on probation from my suspended sentence.’
‘Checking the transcript, my Lord,’ Gold said.
‘Gold’s your lawyer for this stuff as well?’ Jennifer said.
‘He’s the House’s lawyer: he oversees both Celestial and Earthly legal matters,’ I said.
Gold spoke with my voice: ‘How badly do you want the Death Mother and Kitty taken down?’ He replied with the Demon King’s voice: ‘Badly enough to enlist your help.’ He returned to his own voice. ‘Checking rules of precedent … Confirmed. That statement can be interpreted as giving us sanction.’
‘Follow me,’ John said, and disappeared.
Gold reappeared next to John on the roof of the shophouse, just above the tarpaulin over the containers. They’d returned to Celestial Form. John held one hand out over the roof and a pool of swirling blackness a metre across appeared in it. The blackness disappeared and there was a perfect circular hole where it had been.
‘Yin,’ Greg said with awe.
‘So that’s the real thing,’ my father said. ‘How powerful is that stuff anyway?’
I didn’t reply.
‘Emma?’
‘Even if I did want to answer that question, I couldn’t. The information is classified and I can’t tell you.’
‘You can’t even tell your own parents?’
‘The short answer is: no,’ I said.
‘Wow, you really do sound like him,’ Greg said.
John had already gone in; Gold went through the hole and landed next to him. The entire row of shophouses, including the shipping containers in the yard, were one single structure housing a vast, empty internal space.
‘John was right,’ I said. ‘An empty front. I hope there’s something underneath and they’re not wasting their time.’
John raised one hand towards the guard demon, which was frozen where it stood, bound by one of them. He flicked his wrist and it turned into a demon bead, then flew through the air into his hand. He passed the bead to Gold, who shoved it into his head.
‘Whoa,’ my father said.
‘I think I’m going to be sick,’ my mother said quietly. ‘What did he just do?’
‘You know Gold’s a stone,’ I said. ‘His body is just a shell, and he can store stuff inside himself. He probably put it into his head because he’s wearing real clothes for a change. The babies must be tiring him out.’
‘If you want to have fun with a stone, call them “Tupperware”,’ Simone said. ‘Quality airtight storage.’
‘Sorry, Zara,’ my mother said.
‘Not a problem, ma’am,’ Zara said. ‘We have many offensive names for you fleshies as well.’
‘Zara!’ I said with shock.
John took long strides inside the structure, occasionally crouching to put his hands palm-down over the floor.
‘I need to spend some serious time down in the Grotto, Emma,’ he said softly. ‘This weakness thing has been going on for far too long.’ He stood up and looked around. ‘You’ve never seen me full strength, and you deserve that before you make the commitment.’
‘What’s he talking about?’ my mother said.
‘He may change when he’s combined and at full strength,’ I said. ‘I don’t want to commit myself to him until I know what I’m letting myself in for, oath or no oath.’
‘That makes sense,’ she said.
‘Found it,’ Zhu said, holding her mirror above the floor in one corner. ‘I can see something below here: seems to be demon guards.’
They went to the corner and stood looking at it for a moment.
‘Move back,’ John said, and yinned the floor, making another hole, this time two metres across.
They dropped through into another area just as large, with a three-metre ceiling. The walls and floor were covered in tan-coloured tiles stained with mould and dirt; the ceiling had bare neon tubes and filthy fans that circled unsteadily.
‘They’ve come out in a wet market,’ my father said with wonder.
‘Do they do it the same way in Singapore?’ my mother said. ‘That really looks like the butcher section in a Hong Kong wet market.’
Steel railings lined the side of the room at eye level, with large, vicious hooks holding the meat. The carcases were delivered to each stall in the morning, cut up at the stall, and the pieces hung up ready to be sliced to order for shoppers. Most people bought fresh meat first thing in the morning, so deterioration in the heat wasn’t an issue.
‘Look, they even have the lungs and liver hanging up near the front, just like they do in Hong Kong,’ my father said. ‘They must have come out in Central Market or somewhere, one of the big ones. Hardly any beef or goat, though. Why’s it all pork?’
‘There’s the trotters hanging up,’ my mother said, then shrieked and ran out of the room. My father followed her.
‘Stop the relay,’ John said.
The image of human arms dangling hands-down from the rails blinked out.
Zara rested her head in her hands. ‘I am so sorry. I thought you were right, and they were in a market.’
Jennifer and Amanda went out too; Allan, Colin and Greg quickly followed them.
‘What happened to everybody?’ Simone said.
‘They’ve gone off to be sick,’ I said.
‘That was all the people they copied?’ she said.
‘Yes.’
‘That could have been my cousins’ hands, or Clarissa’s hands.’
‘It could have, yes.’
‘Then why aren’t I being sick too? Why aren’t I affected like them?’ She ran her hand over her forehead, desperate. ‘What sort of creature am I?’
‘Look at me,’ I said, and reached to take her hand. ‘We’re different, Simone. Reptiles, and residents of the Celestial, both of us.’
‘I don’t want to be different.’
‘Within the House of the North, you’re not. With a bunch of ordinary humans, you are. It all depends on where you stand.’ I released her hand and ran my hands through my hair; some of it fell out, clinging to my fingertips. ‘There was a time when seeing something like that would have made me pass out from shock. Now look at me.’
Zara interrupted, speaking with Gold’s voice. ‘We have fought our way through a number of demon guards and located a nest with a Mother. We will update when we have a result.’
My parents returned, both looking drained. They sat on the couches.
‘So what’s happening now?’ my father said.
‘They found a demon, and they’re about to attack it,’ I said. ‘Gold will let us know when they know more.’
‘Do you still want to be there?’ my father said.
‘More than anything,’ I said. I turned to Zara. ‘Can you show just me?’
‘Can’t you just teleport there?’ my mother said.
‘Nobody here could manage the speed they travelled at,’ I said. ‘It’d take a few hours, and by the time I got there, they’d be done.’
‘I see.’
‘Gold says it is best you do not see this,’ Zara said.
‘It’s all right. I’ll tell my parents what’s happening.’
‘I want to see too,’ Simone said.
‘Gold says you really don’t.’
‘Tell Gold that’s an order,’ I said. ‘I want to know what’s going on!’
The image appeared in front of me again. They were at the other end of the underground facility, and the tiles had given way to plain concrete. John stood at the edge of the single nest hollow in the middle of the floor, with computer equipment flanking the walls around it. He was embracing a European woman, who was about the same height as me and clutching him as if she’d never let him go. Five eggs, each forty centimetres across, sat in the hollow, tiny demons twitching inside them.
‘I’m so glad you came,’ the woman said. ‘Hold me, don’t let me go. I can’t believe you’re here. Please get me out of this place.’
‘Holy shit,’ I said softly. The woman was me.
Simone grabbed my arm, wrenched it behind my back, and held me.
‘I’m the real Emma, Simone. Your father knows the difference,’ I said.
Simone hesitated for a moment, then released me. I worked the muscles of my arm.
‘Sorry,’ she said.
The copy of me pulled back to smile up at John. He smiled down at her, but his eyes were full of grief.
‘I think I’ve lost my memory,’ she said. ‘It’s all blurry after they took me under Kowloon City Park. Are you back for good? Can we go to the Mountain?’
‘I’m back for good,’ he said.
She turned in his arms and looked down at the eggs. ‘I think I had something to do with these, but I’m not sure. I remember dreaming about them.’ She looked back up at him. ‘Can we take them with us?’
‘We will do whatever you want,’ he said.
She buried her head in his chest. ‘God, I love you, Xuan Wu.’
He nuzzled her hair. ‘I love you too, Emma Donahoe.’
‘I will do it,’ Ma said. ‘Let me.’
‘No,’ John said.
‘Let’s go home,’ the copy of me said. ‘Is Simone okay? Simon Wong had her.’
‘Simone is fine, love. I’ll take you home now.’
She smiled up at him, then slid her hand around the back of his neck and pulled him down for a kiss. He closed his eyes and kissed her. She went limp in his arms and he gently lowered her to the floor. She changed form to a Snake Mother, the top half still human, and lay motionless with her eyes half-open and a smile on her face.
‘Do you want tea or coffee, Emma?’ my mother said. ‘I’m making a fresh pot.’
I wiped my eyes. ‘Tea, please.’
John studied the demon eggs, then pulled a dagger out of its sheath at his side, and crouched to slit one of them open.
‘No, Daddy, don’t kill them,’ Simone said.
‘What’s happening?’ my father said.
The liquid inside the egg spilled out, and along with it came a tiny hairless copy of Michael, only about thirty centimetres long. It blinked its sightless eyes and twitched, then its eyes glazed over and it stopped moving.
‘Oh, shit,’ Simone said.
John slit open the other four eggs in the clutch to reveal copies of Simone, me and my two demon servants.
‘I’m glad I returned when I did,’ John said quietly.
‘There’s a clutch of demon eggs that are copies of me, Michael and Simone,’ I told my parents.
My mother tapped my hand and pushed a mug of tea into it.
‘Thanks.’
John rose, wiped the dagger on his trouser pants, and put it away. ‘Now to find the Mother in charge of all of this.’ He looked around. ‘I’m glad Emma didn’t see that.’
‘Uh, my Lord … she did,’ Gold said.
John turned to look straight into Gold’s eyes. ‘What?’
‘Tell him I understand,’ I said. ‘It’s the way I would have wanted it.’
John shook out his shoulders. ‘I will be very happy when I have the real you in my arms.’ He raised one hand towards the computers. ‘Gold.’
‘Already in, my Lord,’ Gold said.
‘Well?’
‘Give me a moment; these disks are seriously fragmented and they don’t even have solid state drives. I am sick to death of backwards Earthly technology. Found it.’ All the lights on the computer equipment lit up and flashed at the same time as he worked the drives. ‘The research on this Mother is in these machines. This facility was mostly created for her; she’s the tenth Mother copy of Emma they’ve made. Each Mother has been better than the one before; this is the best so far, and it’s produced five eggs that they’re extremely proud of. These Emma copies only last a couple of years at the most; they were running out of genetic material to make them.’ His voice went softer. ‘Oh, no.’
‘What?’ John said.
Gold and John shared information telepathically, and John’s face filled with even more grief.
‘Tell me,’ I said.
‘I noticed the small wound on your side, Emma. I thought you’d collected it along the way and Edwin had stitched it up,’ John said.
‘I had that wound when they found me in Lan Kwai Fong …’ I began, and took a deep breath. ‘What did they take? … My right ovary.’
‘Your right ovary,’ Gold said at the same time.
‘Gold … the other genetic material they were using from me. Tell me it wasn’t …’ I took another deep breath and wiped my eyes. ‘Tell me it wasn’t the left one.’
‘It’s not the end of the world, Emma,’ my mother said.
‘It doesn’t say, ma’am. I suggest you have yourself checked out tomorrow.’
‘Emma, I want you to know that this makes no difference whatsoever to me,’ John said.
‘It makes an enormous difference to me,’ I said.
Gold continued searching the drives. ‘There was only one other Snake Mother that would spawn the copies for them: a Mother based on a Chinese woman, but she was killed by One Two Two — by mistake.’
‘April,’ I said.
‘They want to use members of your family, my Lady; apparently your genetic material is somehow superior for their experimentation. They are keeping a record of where your family members are. They want more female members of the family, and there are photographs of your mother and sisters. They also have details and photographs of the other European people — the demon boy and his father.’
‘If your family weren’t already going into hiding, Emma, I’d be suggesting it anyway,’ John said. ‘They will be safe with Greg present and no contact from us.’
‘The rest of the facility is nearby … there’s a …’ Gold broke into a barrage of Chinese curses, not bothering to translate it for me.
John raised his eyebrows at Gold. ‘It must be something serious to pull that sort of language out of a lump of rock.’
Gold took a step back, nearly treading on Zhu. ‘They have established themselves in a Buddhist temple nearby.’
John’s expression went rigid with anger. ‘Show me.’
They shared the information for a moment, and Ma swore as well.
‘Let’s go,’ John said.