38
From the hidden dimension where shadows fly, two pair of eyes track my desperate leap. “No!” yell Master Som and Master Lau. But I ignore. I caused this mess. Must fix it too.
I never tried a jump like this.
Neither distance nor direction – I’m going five floors above.
The Dao is the nothing. In me, infinity it will be. My body stretches, muscle fibers burn. Trying to reach, I re-enter. Too early! Fuck! The void, I fall. Hit. Fall. My body bounces from one side to the other, spinning down toward my death. My juices flow against gravity, I bump a shoulder, thigh, head…arm! I grab something. The metal railing. My weight almost yanks my wrist from the arm. But I grip. Wasn’t for that, I’d be gone.
Think fast…I try to use the other arm, the broken one, but the pain…The rail snaps. Drops an inch, then holds. That was close. Slow, slow, I tell myself. I pull myself a few inches up, using the elbow against the concrete wall for some extra friction. Then CRACK, the railing snaps again and I almost fall three stories down. Beyond my knuckles, a hiver watches me. One stomp on my fingers and I’m done. Need another place to hold. There isn’t one. It’s me and him. His head tilts slowly, like a confused robotic dog, and he moves back into the shadows behind.
Up, quick! My heart pounds in my mouth. I can’t breathe. Need time to recover, but there isn’t any. My hand starts to fail. Underneath, dozens of little yellow lights point in my direction. They freeze. No attack, no charge, no command. The rail yanks me another three feet down and I yell. Feet hit something solid. I push myself, jump, roll on the floor, over the broken arm. The pain almost makes me faint. No time for that. Keep going, Yinyin. Guard up again.
Nobody. I rush up the stairs, glad to feel the floor under my feet. Beyond the last door, a voice begs, “Help!” I limp through it.
Still, nobody there. Just a long empty and poorly-lit hallway. She shouts, and I follow in my semi-colon limp. A step, a drag. A step, a drag. “I’m coming, Mrs. Lee!” But how about Jason? Fuck…those men in the dark! What if one of them was him? Focus, Yinyin. Nothing to do about that now. I turn the corner.
Mrs. Lee.
We make eye contact. “Help!” she screams again. However, this round, her face is calm. Placid. Even a bit cynical, I’d say. Her orbs glow yellow. The syringe! That’s what she was trying to tell me. They injected her with cyberbugs too! How come they control her, but not me? “Wait! Mrs. Lee, don’t do it!” A big whiteboard comes flying from her hands. I dodge, she turns around and rushes toward the large double doors under the auditorium sign. Regardless of what I am going to find on the other side, I chase her. I have no choice.
She’s there. Steady, between two men in tactical suits and shades hiding the eyes I can color in my mind. They speak as one: “Time to surrender, Claudia.” Behind them, an obscure slope of empty seats stretching all the way to the bottom where an empty, dark stage awaits.
It takes a moment to process. Ten seconds, max. I crouch, but he raises his guard before I can jump. Change plans, think of the other guy. He raises his guard, too. The pain throbs. Who cares anymore. I go after one of them, swing the bad knee up then back to propel the fist. Superman punch, they call it. Wham! My offbeat knuckles bop him square in the face, send the guy into the shadows of the empty theater. I turn, get hit, a forehead retreats from my face. Mrs. Lee?! Did she head-butt me? Warm blood streams around my eyebrows, nose and into my mouth. What the fuck!? Did she just break my nose too? My heel steps behind her leg and I strike her with my shoulder.52 She trips. She falls. An ugly landing between the fixed auditorium seats, but she’ll survive.
I limp back. I’m not fighting her. Just not. Although, I may have to? Her head emerges again. Expressionless, like before. She jumps on the back of the seats and bounces between them as if they were a paved road, then tackles me again.
Her steps are precise. Like an experienced mountaineer’s. Her kicks, balanced like a master of Tai Chi. I block what I can, avoid some. Damn, if she could see herself fighting right now. Speed, form, power. I’m so proud. Focus, I warn myself, that’s part of the trap. She gets too close, leaves me no option. I throw an elbow that stops an inch from crashing her face. Can’t do it. Can’t do it. Can’t do it. Can’t do it. Can’t do it. I thrust kick her toward another soldier instead. They entangle and avalanche down. Leg gets worse. Situation sinks deeper too, as more soldiers and nurses and patients walk into the space. No sign of the doctor. “Are you that much of a chicken, Dr. Lambrechts?” I yell into the nothingness where he hides.
Someone smacks me in the back. I face-plant. Argh! I can taste the varnish on the floor. The side of my face goes numb, my broken arm is yanked back. I screech. Two of them hold me by the armpits now. Their fingers deep in my flesh, their angles pulling my elbow into a lock. I attempt to resist, to leap, but there’s no qi. Instead, I eat a punch in the gut. So hard I throw up. Then another. And in the face.
So much blood.
I spit my red pride back. It’s just pain, I tell myself, just like the little Phoenix did, and take a deep breath. In vain, I try to pull myself free. To go where? I can’t even run anymore. “This is pointless,” Mrs. Lee mocks me.
“Tell your boss I’m going after him,” I say, and the thugs beating me respond as one: “You can tell me yourself.” They kick me a few times and the main stage lights up. Clang! Empty at first. But, soon the sound of steps comes looming. Mute ones, squeaky ones. Unrushed, the silhouettes of three men reveal themselves. They carry something. Another person. The first three walk into the light and I recognize the first two. Crusher and Buffalo again, with a third familiar one I can’t really remember. All in black. Boots. Shades. Guns. Dragging a body by the elbows, a carcass of a man. Blue scrubs, a doctor. His face is down, but my stomach is already turning. They throw the poor man on the floor and he grunts, faintly. He’s alive? Their automatic guns take aim, straight at his back. One squeeze and he’ll be gone.
In the background, a smooth song starts playing. Sounds familiar. Yes, bossa-nova, just like the soundtrack of my first date with…
“Jason!”
They pull his hair to reveal his deformed face. Living, but barely. Open your eyes, Jason! Let me see your eyes! More squeaks get closer from behind them. “Time for you to join us, honey,” the hivers and Mrs. Lee say at once.
“Fuck you!”
The squeaky steps arrive. Next to Jason, as he walks into the light, I see the tip of the sneakers, jeans, a half-tucked shirt, an arm hanging on a sling….
“I am gonna kill you, Dr. Lamb…”
But it wasn’t him. He arches his body back in a cackle.
Simon?!
I swallow my empty mouth, breathe in collapse. What is happening? What is he doing there?
“Hello, dear,” Simon says, his friendliest smile on. “I guess you’ve met my colleagues? This is Curtis, who you know as Crusher. This is Antoine. Who I believe you call Buffalo. And this—”
“Wait…” The air bubbles under my throat. “Did they take you too?” Simon explodes into a burst of violent laughter. “Taken? I am the one who takes, baby.” He points at me and himself again, “I mean, we are.”
He’s not making any sense, and I tell him that. The thugs let me go. We?! I remember that man inside of me. Inside my body, my mind. I feel dirty, violated. Simon sniggers. “So…since the beginning…you and your boss were…” I say, too weak to continue.
“The old man? Nah. Too much of a pussy, that one. Wanted to sit next to God, never be God himself. If it was up to him, he’d be screwing the Virgin Mary to father a new Messiah. Myself? Let’s just say I’m more…ambitious.”
With a thud, the projection washes the screen behind the stage. A video, noisy, shaky, corrupted. An opening in the woods, a fight—first person view, like a video game, but taken in the real world. I remember that, China!
“Isn’t it cute? Your first kiss…what was his name again? Sean, right?”
On the big screen, my stolen memory displays the face of the asshole staring at me, pushing his weight over my body, his smirk growing sideways, as if it was happening again. His poise and his penis grow against my crotch. Then he kisses me and in a second, his body whirls, and the boy falls flat on the ground. Shit! I look at the third guy, and the screen. Years apart but…They chortle—Sean and Simon.
“What you want?” I yell.
“Me? I just want to show you I’m on your side.” Simon clicks his tongue twice and a hiver walks up next to him and hands him a shotgun. Simon nods. “Go on,” he says, and the guy hands the weapon to Sean.
“Wh…what are you doing, Simon?”
“What’s the problem? You don’t think he should have a gun?” There is a pause, theatrical and cynical, before he clicks his tongue twice again. The man lifts the barrel. No! I tighten my fist into a hammer, ready to try one last attack. My qi is still low, but it may do. I try. Nothing. No leap. Simon cracks another loud laughter and Sean points the gun at his own chin and BANG! Shoots his fucking brains out.
There is blood, and parts, everywhere. My breath is cut so short I feel dizzy. Yet, I find a way to scream. To the headless body. To Simon, who now watches me in calm joy. He’s sprinkled in blood. So is the face of the young doctor struggling to stay alive. “Oh my god!” Jason shouts in shock.
“Shoosh. Not your turn yet,” reprimands Simon. Then he turns at me. “New bots. Faster to install, full control. Pretty neat, right?”
“Simon, stop! There is something wrong with your head…These things may be….”
He turns back to me. “Poor little girl. Did that make your head hurt too?”
On cue, I feel it. The eyelid falling, nose dripping, the squeeze. Oh no. Not now. Not now. Not now. Not now! The stinging comes, poking its venom in every living nerve of my body. The squeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeze. I’m on my knees now, pushing my eyeball in as if it was about to pop out. Inside my head, I hear his voice mocking my agony: “Breathe, Yinyin.” Did that really happen?
I do. I breathe. Simon, please, this isn’t you!
Then the pain stops. My body still shakes, the world still waves in confusion. Simon? I throw up again, more on reflex this time. Nothing else to spill out. Above Simon’s head, the projection now shows a pack of video game monkeys quietly observing from the screen. They are so stoic, so Zen, it’s eerie. Simon nods at them, gives me a gentle smile. “My kids….Aren’t they wonderful? I didn’t know they would grow up so smart. But once I realized that, we made a deal: I had the consciousness they needed; they had the power I wanted. So we decided…to unite the family and help each other!”
Inside the projected image, more multicolored monkeys join and as Simon cherished the moment, Jason yelled at me: “Run, Claudia! This guy is cr…” But before he finishes, Buffalo kicks him in the face, points his gun at him again.
Simon bounces his sight between the two of us and blinks his eyes rapidly. “You lovebirds are so cute when you’re nervous.” My head hurts again, no warning, no sign. Straight to the peak. “Stop it,” I beg! I am blind, deaf, but somehow his voice still manages to break in. “How about a deal?” He says, “You show me this space and time-bending thing, and I make the pain go away. Forever. Oh, and I let your sweetheart live too! Such a bargain, isn’t it?”
I try to stand, search for a wall, a heavy object. A hand presses my shoulder down. Simon continues: “Oh, yes, that’s just pain. How about I make you be remembered as the greatest fighter who ever lived too? The woman who changed martial arts…Wasn’t that your big promise to the gods?”
My hair gets pulled back, and with my only eye I watch him point a hand to the ceiling as if writing his words in the skies. “Tigress, the queen of all fighters. Sounds good, huh? They will make movies about you! Yeah, I can make them make one. A full trilogy! Either that or the pain. You chose.”
The stingers shoot through my eyes and head again, deep into my skull. My entire body shakes and I spit a yell of remorse and agony before all strength thaws away, and I fall on my face.
52. One of the fun parts of writing this book was the experience of geeking out on so many subjects I love. One in particular presented itself as both a challenge and a pleasure. A self-imposed puzzle of sorts. All the names of the chapters represent some sort of Tai Chi concept, and most of them are moves. Sometimes the name of the chapter had a natural match with the move, in a literal sense. Sometimes what the move does in a fight matched the emotional stage of the story. When none of those checked, I tried to include it in a significant moment of the fight. Here for example, Yinyin does the Partying of the horse’s main, which is one of the most iconic moves in Tai Chi, to get her friend to fall, without hurting her too much. Mission accomplished, for now.