‘How did you …?’
He smiled.
‘Never mind,’ I said, sliding into the booth across from him. ‘It doesn’t matter.’ Nope, all that mattered was that I was right, right, right! I allowed myself two full seconds to enjoy the sensation. I was so going to tell Bart I told you so. I took a breath to refocus. Me and my mentor’s mentor had a lot of things to work out.
We looked one another over. Him, with his signature peace and love smile. Me, hoping I looked sceptical and hard to win over. Neither one of us said anything for a moment. I certainly wasn’t going to go first. I was playing it cool. I was— ‘Please Choden. Tell me it wasn’t all a lie. You liked me, right?’ I slapped my hand over my mouth. Dammit!
Choden reached across the table and gently gripped my wrist to bring my hand down from my lips.
‘I believe I owe you an apology.’
‘You certainly do.’ I noticed my bottom lip was quivering. I bit it hard before mumbling, ‘Murky brown karma hurts, doesn’t it?’
Choden’s thin eyebrows raised slightly in question, but then he let them drop. ‘These have been difficult times.’
‘You’re telling me,’ I said, not really sure what he meant by that at all, but agreeing wholeheartedly with the sentiment.
‘My invitation to meet was perhaps not very clear?’ he asked, once again raising his brows.
‘Not clear at all.’
‘I am sorry. I thought it best to be cautious.’ He tapped the table lightly with two fingers. ‘I have been coming to this restaurant for many nights,’ he said. ‘I have grown rather fond of their barbequed rice.’
‘Really?’ I asked, straightening. ‘Many nights?’
‘Of course,’ he said. Happy tingles ran all over my body. ‘I knew it! I knew it wasn’t over. I knew Ryder meant it when she said—’
‘Slow down, Child.’
Something in his voice made me stop more than the hand he had suddenly placed on my arm.
‘Choden?’
‘I am here because I would like to apologise on behalf of myself and my daughter, and I would like to,’ he paused briefly, ‘offer you something of a warning.’
Cold dread gripped my belly. I didn’t need an apology. What I needed was hope. What I needed was to be part of something bigger. What I needed was for people to stop abandoning me. And a warning? Was he going to tell me to give up my freelance crime-fighting work? It wasn’t bad enough that they were dumping me? Now, they didn’t want me as competition either? No. No way.
‘Does this place have pie?’ I asked suddenly.
‘It does,’ he replied. ‘Would you like some pie?’
‘I would,’ I said, nodding tightly. I would order every item on the menu to stop Choden from saying what I suspected he was going to say next.
Choden got up and walked over to the counter as I madly blinked tears away. I was going to have to look into having my overactive tear ducts removed. They were really getting to be a problem.
Minutes later, he came back to the table with a plate of apple pie and vanilla ice-cream with a side of eggrolls. He did know me so well.
‘Please, eat,’ he said, gently placing the plates in front of me.
I dug in, but I was finding it difficult to taste the food. It was time to take control of this situation. I pointed my fork at Choden and said, ‘Just so you know, we’re not breaking up.’
He smiled.
‘You said I was in. There are no take-backs in crime fighting. In fact, we’ve been getting behind on my training. Maybe we should start tomorrow. I hate those knuckle push-ups, but—’
He again placed a hand on mine. ‘We haven’t been fair to you.’ I was about to speak again, but he stopped me with a gentle shake of his head. ‘When we said you were to be Ryder’s apprentice, we both meant it.’ He looked away briefly. ‘The situation has changed, I’m afraid.’
‘Choden, no,’ I whispered. The cold was back. ‘I—’
‘I know this is painful for you to hear, but it is necessary,’ he said, looking at me with such warm eyes. ‘I know you have been patrolling the streets.’
‘Yes, I have! I wanted to show Ryder, show you—’
He cut me off with a smile. ‘I know. I admire your determination. It is quite fierce.’
‘I don’t understand what is going on right now,’ I said, leaning back against the hard plastic fabric of the booth. ‘I don’t understand any of this. What changed?’
‘Indira—’
‘Indira, what?’ Heat flared to my cheeks. ‘She wants nothing to do with me? Now that my father’s threat has been neutralised, I am no longer needed? Of course, I think that’s rather short-sighted seeing as, you know, my father is probably cooking up some new evil plan,’ I said, voice picking up both speed and intensity, ‘and I could be useful once again in that capacity, and in many other capacities, like, oh, I don’t know, facing down the next army of techno rage-robot-zombies that come to town, but you two are the experts … so you know, whatever.’
Choden’s eyes twinkled sadly. How he could pull that off was just another one of his mysteries. ‘Once again, I am sorry, Child.’
I stared at him a moment, before I raised a finger off my lap towards his face. ‘No. No. You know what you two are?’
He raised his eyebrows.
‘Hope peddlers.’
The somewhat sad smile returned to his face, making my eyes well with tears. I wiped at them harshly with the back of my hands. ‘I am not some stray puppy, you know, that you give kibble and a doggie bed to, and then just dump in the park to fend for itself with the muggers and drug dealers because you’re all like, It’s not working out. It’s not fair. It’s too late. I’m already hooked on the smack!’
He again gave me his bemused confused look. Most of his looks had a little bemused mixed in. ‘Bremy, I would like to offer you an explanation.’
‘Oh, would you now,’ I said, nodding. ‘What are you dealing now, shady peddler?’
‘First,’ he said, smiling, ‘perhaps you would like to finish your pie?’
‘No way. I know that’s code for Calm down Bremy, and I will not calm down!’
‘Your ice-cream is melting.’
I looked down at my pie. It was getting a little mucky. No sense wasting all those good calories. I picked up a spoon. ‘Okay, but then we’re going to talk about what’s really going on here because none of this is making sense.’ He truly was the master.
A few moments later, Choden asked, ‘Is it good?’
I opened my mouth to speak, but only pastry flakes came out, so I just nodded.
‘Good. Child, in our time together, we talked a great deal about your relationship with your father.’
I let my spoon clatter to my plate.
He held up his hands in submission, but I knew he was going to keep going. ‘I have been thinking a great deal about the man he is, and what motivates him. Have you had any contact with him since the night at the prison?’
I picked up half an egg roll. ‘Nope,’ I said, poking the tail end of it into my mouth.
‘None whatsoever?’
‘Sometimes I think he might be having me followed,’ I mumbled with a shrug. I squirted some plum sauce in after all the egg roll in order to grease the wheels of the lump it had made.
Choden nodded. ‘I was honoured when you choose to share with me the story of your mother’s death.’
I froze for a moment then forced myself to look up to meet his eye. ‘Why are you bringing that up?’
‘I am afraid there is no delicate way to say this,’ Choden said. ‘Your father takes perceived disloyalty quite badly.’
‘Yeah, like murderously badly.’
‘And yet,’ he paused again, ‘he has let you go.’
Everything stopped for a moment. I studied Choden’s eyes. ‘What are you saying? You think my father’s going to hurt me? Kill me? Because he’s had plenty of opportunities. He—’
Choden sighed. ‘I don’t think he has anything so straightforward planned.’
My stomach clenched painfully. ‘Then what?’
‘I couldn’t begin to guess.’ He folded his hands on the placemat. ‘Any more than I could have imagined what he did to your mother.’
My eyes darted around the table as ugly, cold fear seeped into my bones. My father had designed a biological weapon and orchestrated a situation where my mother could take it so she would kill herself as he watched. And he had done it all simply because she had questioned him. I had done a lot more than that. And yet, he had just let me go. I knew exactly what Choden was getting at. I wanted to argue with everything he had said, but I just couldn’t. In fact, I was starting to get really angry with myself for not seeing it sooner. My father hadn’t let me go at all. He would never let me go. He was planning something, and I had stupidly just gone on with my life as though the man who had sired me wasn’t out to obliterate my existence.
‘What I have to say next may come as a shock,’ Choden said, ‘but I would like you to consider it carefully.’
I nodded.
‘Have you ever been to Nepal?’