Kylie Chan - Blue Dragon

‘And you’re my staff too, technically, Emma,’ John said. He grinned broadly. ‘I thought you and Louise were very close.’

‘Oh my God, you are such a guy sometimes,’ I said. ‘Louise and I were friends .’ I leaned over the desk and looked him right in the eye. ‘Is the Turtle female? It’s yin.’

He avoided the question and gestured towards Gold, his grin not shifting. ‘Kitty Kwok investigation.’

‘I do not understand the animal preoccupation with gender,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘It’s more of a nuisance than anything else. And Gold, I am extremely disappointed that you would become involved with one of these…’ It hesitated, then said with emphasis, ‘ Fleshies .’

Gold’s eyes widened.

‘Ignore it,’ John said. ‘It is being offensive because it craves attention.’

‘Yeah, it’s a troll,’ I said.

Gold’s mouth flopped open. John grinned broadly. The stone made a weird squeaking sound, like someone rubbing glass with a damp cloth, but didn’t say anything.

Gold shook himself out of it. ‘The police are bewildered by the nature of the laboratories producing the hybrids. Police in Europe, Australia and the US are investigating the other business interests, but at this stage it’s just the kindergartens that seem to be involved in the underworld activity. Tautech, the biotech company, hasn’t been doing anything that they can nail it on. Only the kindergartens have been used to generate funds and launder money for One Two Two’s network.’

‘So they won’t stop the biotech labs,’ I said.

‘No,’ John said. ‘And it appears that the Demon King is letting it go too.’

‘Damn,’ I said. ‘What about the thefts from the stone circles in Europe? Have they put that together?’

‘No,’ Gold said, his face rigid. ‘But every single stone Shen, both Eastern and Western, is out for demon blood on this.’

‘The Grandmother of All the Rocks herself has put a price on One Two Two’s head,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘That demon will pay.’

‘Do you think Wong has more stone elementals than those he threw at us the other night?’ I said.

‘Hard to tell, my Lady,’ Gold said.

‘He probably threw everything he had at us,’ John said. ‘That was his big final thrust. And he failed.’

‘One thing I forgot to mention,’ Gold said. ‘The police are keeping this very quiet—if it gets out there will be mass panic.’

‘What?’ I said.

‘They found large refrigerators full of blood and tissue samples,’ Gold said. ‘In the kindergartens.’

‘Oh my God,’ I whispered. ‘She was harvesting from the kids .’

‘I cannot conceive of the sort of creature that would carry out such atrocities,’ John said.

‘You sure she’s not a demon?’ I said.

‘Only a human would be capable of something like this, Emma,’ John said. ‘Demons do not possess that sort of depth.’

‘Wouldn’t the kids go home and tell their parents or the domestic helpers?’ I said.

‘Not if they’ve had their memories wiped,’ John said grimly. ‘Quite common for children to come home from kindergarten with a small wound, plastered over, treated with disinfectant, and say that they fell in the playground. The staff apologise and claim that it is a minor scrape. Perfectly normal.’

‘You’re right,’ I whispered. ‘I cannot believe this.’ I had a sudden horrible thought. ‘You knew Kitty well, John. Did Simone ever go to the kindergarten here on the Peak?’

‘Yes, for a while,’ John said. ‘Leo posted himself inside, guarding. I had to make a special arrangement with Kitty, but provided I paid her extra she would let me do anything. Simone didn’t like the regimentation and Leo was a nervous wreck, so after two weeks I gave up and took her out. That was about six months before you arrived.’

‘So Leo was guarding her,’ I said. ‘She never sustained any minor injuries. They never took a sample off her.’

John’s face said it all.

I put my head in my hands. ‘No.’ I looked back up at John. ‘Did she remember?’

‘No,’ he said, his face rigid. His eyes unfocused. ‘Your parents are outside the door. They’ve gone into the kitchen.’

‘Anything else?’ I said.

‘We need to discuss the new Disciples,’ Gold said.

‘Let me go and say good morning and I’ll be right back.’

‘I can handle it. Go with your parents,’ John said.

‘No. I need to know what’s happening. Don’t do anything without me.’ I rose to leave.

‘You know?’ Gold said.

I stopped dead, halfway out of my chair. I sat back down. They saw my face.

‘Sorry, my Lord,’ Gold said.

‘For a creature with no mouth, Gold, you have an extremely big one,’ John said, then he sighed and his shoulders sagged. ‘While you were out with your parents yesterday, I had a visit from the Lady. She confirmed what I already knew.’

‘What?’

‘Two more.’

‘The Dark Lord is rather like a rechargeable battery,’ Gold said.

‘Winding down,’ I said. ‘Won’t hold the charge.’

Neither of them said anything.

‘I’ll get the school calendar and we’ll work something out,’ I said.

‘Not now,’ John said. ‘We need to discuss the new Disciples, and you need to spend time with your parents. We’ll organise something later.’

‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But I need to be involved in every single meeting from now on.’

‘Especially the ones with the Generals,’ John said.

‘Oh, damn .’

‘Can’t avoid them any longer, my Lady,’ Gold said with grim humour. ‘You don’t have any excuses left. Your thesis is finished, you attained your degree. Time to start taking part in the running of the Northern Heavens.’

I ran my hands through my hair. ‘ Damn !’

‘Go and have something to eat,’ John said. ‘Then come back and we’ll talk about the Disciples. We won’t get very far without you anyway.’

I threw myself out of my chair and left the office without saying a word. Halfway down the hallway I stopped still. Then I turned and went back into the office without knocking.

John and Gold watched silently as I sat down.

They waited for me. I didn’t say anything.

Eventually Gold said, ‘You too?’

I nodded.

‘Do you remember how many times they took samples from you?’ John said.

‘I worked at her kindergarten for about a year. I must have used two boxes of Band-Aids,’ I said. ‘At the time I never remembered using a single one of them. I wasn’t even worried about not remembering using them.’

‘Sore arms?’ John said.

I nodded. ‘I went to the doctor for iron tablets because I was slightly anaemic. I wondered why he looked at my arms so strangely, but he didn’t say anything. Probably thought I was an addict.’ I ran my hands through my hair again. ‘I had needle tracks ! I saw them! But I just didn’t worry about it. That bitch messed with my head!’

‘You noticed very few of the unusual things here for the first few months you worked full-time,’ John said. ‘While you were here part-time you didn’t seem to notice anything. You had an astonishing lack of curiosity.’

‘I never even saw your sword on the wall. It took me months to notice Dark Heavens in its clips, and even then only when Simone pointed it out to me,’ I said. ‘Oh God . How much did I miss when I was working at the kindergarten?’

‘The samples are in the hands of the police now,’ Gold said.

‘It’s too late to be concerned,’ John said. ‘Go and talk to your parents.’

‘What if they used me the other way around?’ I said. ‘Put the demon stuff into me, instead of just taking the samples out?’