Kylie Chan - Red Phoenix

Just remember, John said into my ear, making me jump, the piece of paper is the least important thing about this. You have already gained the knowledge. Unless you are planning to resign as Lady Regent of the House of the North in the near future and take a job outside, the piece of paper is unnecessary.

I smiled. That’s what he thought. The piece of paper would give me some closure; and I’d know for sure that the work I did was good enough.

I smiled at the receptionist and she nodded. No words passed between us; she knew what I was there for. I sat down to wait, uncomfortable in my new suit and clutching the slim leather briefcase that John had presented to me that morning.

Kitty Kwok would be thrilled: I finally had that suit. I wondered where she was. She had been released on bail and had promptly disappeared. John had suggested that she may have gone to Hell. It was where she belonged.

I felt a flash of concern as I thought about April. She hadn’t reappeared. Her mother in Australia didn’t know where she was, but wasn’t at all worried. Apparently Andy said that April was fine, and that was enough for everybody. Andy was a Triad member too—April had told me that herself. He had been in on it from the start. I quietly wondered if he was a demon. I hadn’t seen him since I’d been able to pick demons, but I’d always had a bad feeling about him. And if Andy was a demon in league with Simon Wong, then April’s baby would be half demon too.

I’d asked John about it and he’d said it was possible. Half demon, half Shen, the results would be similar. The child could be pure human, pure demon, or something in between.

And there was absolutely nothing I could do about

it.

I snapped back when the door to the meeting room opened. The director, Jan, poked her head around the doorframe, smiled, and jerked her head to indicate that I could go in. I rose and approached the room, my stomach fluttering with a million worries.

The three examiners sat around a low coffee table, surrounded by papers. Jan indicated an empty chair for me.

Jan had my thesis in her hand and smiled at me. She was very tall and muscular, almost Amazonian, with short ginger hair, a wide kind smile and bright blue eyes that twinkled at me. She ran marathons in her spare time and could bore everybody to tears with tales of her two young children.

I didn’t know the other two. One was a severe-looking Chinese woman with impeccable hair, wearing a very smart tailored suit, and the other was a kindly black-haired European man in his mid-sixties with a friendly smile and reassuring dark eyes behind his large glasses.

I relaxed slightly. They didn’t seem so bad.

‘This is Miss Lo, Emma, and Mr Knight. They’ll be helping me do your viva today,’ Jan said, gesturing towards the other two inquisitors.

I nodded to each of them without speaking. My throat was too dry.

‘I’ll go first,’ Jan said firmly, eyeing my papers appraisingly. My stomach flip-flopped. I immediately decided that I should have formatted the thesis better.

‘Emma,’ Jan said severely, ‘why on earth did you choose this topic? You’ve always said that you’re a nanny. How did you get involved in this?’

The other two professors leaned forward, eager to hear the answer. But I was ready for them.

‘My employer is a martial arts instructor,’ I explained, trying my best to remain calm. ‘It was the easiest way to find a business that I could use as a model. He encouraged me, in fact,’ rubbing it in, ‘he says that I helped him make the whole place run much better.’

Jan nodded, still studying the thesis. She glanced up at me without smiling. ‘What was the most obvious and pressing problem that you think they were experiencing when you started?’

That was in the thesis. The real answer was ‘a recent attack by demons’, but I didn’t think that would go down too well. ‘Managing the finances,’ I said confidently. ‘The business owner, my employer, is an expert at martial arts, but when it comes to budgeting he is completely hopeless.’

All three of them nodded in agreement. They had obviously read the paper right through.

Miss Lo took over. Right, two questions each, I could handle this. ‘Are you sure that you’ve budgeted for everything here? What if some unexpected expenses turn up? How will you handle that?’

‘Unexpected expenses always turn up,’ I said. ‘The essence here wasn’t managing for the expected, it was managing for the unexpected. So I had to put that in. Do you want me to go into detail about budgeting for the unexpected?’

Miss Lo shook her head. ‘I think that’s enough of an answer for me.’ She nodded towards the third professor, Mr Knight. I sighed inwardly with relief.

I turned to Mr Knight and was shocked right down to the soles of my feet. He was at least a level fifty demon. Huge. As big as a Snake Mother. I’d been so nervous that I’d completely missed him.

Holy shit, what was he doing here, and what had happened to the real professor? I hoped the real professor wasn’t found in a Kowloon City dumpster in a million pieces, the same way that pizza delivery guy was.

The demon smiled kindly at me, exactly like a sympathetic university professor helping a talented student along. ‘Tell me, Miss Donahoe, on page thirty-five of the thesis you mention “demon staff”. Is this a particular term used in martial arts?’

I looked blankly at him, then smiled. No way, he wasn’t getting away with that. ‘I’m sorry, Mr Knight? Isn’t it?’ He nodded confirmation. ‘I really don’t know what you’re talking about. Is there a typo in there? Because I don’t remember putting anything in the thesis about “demon staff”. And the term doesn’t mean anything in martial arts, as far as I know. But I really don’t know much about it.’

The other two professors flipped to the page he’d mentioned and scanned it. Jan shook her head. ‘Not here, Jim. You sure you have the same paper we have?’

The demon passed his copy to me. ‘Look, Miss Donahoe, right in the middle of the page.’

I scanned down. It was my writing until about the third paragraph. Then there was a message for me.

I have offended One Two Two. I am desperate. Help. I am willing to pledge. I have information. Nod if you are willing to protect me. I will raise my hand in oath that I will not attack. I will meet you downstairs. Please take me to the Dark Lord, I am willing to pledge to both of you.

I glanced up from my thesis. ‘This is a copy. Where is the original…’ I hesitated, ‘Mr Knight?’ I carefully chose the inflection so that the real question would be obvious to him.

‘The original is quite safe and unharmed,’ the demon said. ‘Nearby. I can get it for you later, if you like.’

I breathed a sigh of relief. ‘Thanks. Just making sure.’ I nodded. I was willing to take the risk for the information.

He raised his hand in confirmation. I hoped it meant that he had sworn to lay off me.

Both Jan and the Chinese professor looked in bewilderment at their papers. The demon shrugged. It was up to me to gloss this over. Think quickly, Emma.

‘I think you have the wrong version of the paper, Mr Knight. The page numbers don’t seem to be right in this one, and the words “demon staff” are actually a typo; it should be “demonstrate”.’

I handed the paper back to him and he eyed it appraisingly. He flipped it so that he could see the front page. ‘Oh, you’re quite right, Miss Donahoe, I have an earlier draft that you handed in. The original is in my office; quite unaware of how this happened—I seem to be having periods of memory loss lately, don’t know what’s wrong with me. So sorry.’ He smiled broadly at Jan. ‘I don’t have any other problems with it.’