Lee Weeks - Kiss & Die

‘All right, Lilly, you can go, but it won’t be the last we see of each other. I will be watching every move you make from now on.’

Lilly got up from her seat in her own time and she pushed the chair back noisily, it grated across the floor, and then as she walked past Mann she stopped in front of him. She smiled up at him. ‘Go ahead. I like being watched.’

Lilly left the hall and caught up with Tammy on the stairs.

‘Hey, what did you think of the talk?’ she shouted as the din of the girls hurrying on to their next class filled the stairwell.

‘Yeah…it was…’

‘Exactly – bullshit.’

‘Were you there?’

Lilly nodded.

‘What was it like? Did you see the girl get killed?’

Lilly shook her head. Tammy wasn’t sure whether she believed her or not.

‘Doesn’t it worry you, Lilly? Don’t you wonder if they might do that to you?’

Lilly shrugged. They stepped out of the way as other kids passed them. ‘It won’t happen to me. She must have done something bad. We are told the rules. She must have broken them. It serves her right. There’s a code. Anyway, it’s worth it. You’ll see. It will be your time soon.’

They were stood at the long window, overlooking the car park below. Tammy glanced down at Mann walking across to his old BMW. A part of her wished she could go with him, another knew she had a job to do and it would be worth it. Lilly followed her gaze.

‘He’s hot. It would be great to get him in bed.’ Lilly laughed at her expression. ‘Sure…I’ve had other policemen. In the evenings I see them in the bars. I can always spot them. They have this way of looking at everything. They don’t relax. But him…’ she watched Mann drive off, ‘…I see him out a lot, but never with a woman. He’s a loner.’

‘How did you know that about his father?’

Lilly was proud of herself. She had put Mann on the spot. ‘Everyone in the Mansions knows about him. He’s the bent gweilo cop. He takes bribes.’

Tammy had a hard job not showing what she felt. There was no way Mann took bribes. He was one of those cops that would cross the line when it meant bringing someone to justice but he would never cross it for his own gain.

Lilly laughed at the look on Tammy’s face. ‘What? What, does he mean something to you? Do you fancy him?’

Tammy shook her head in disgust.

‘He pretends to be a big moral man; really he’s as dirty as they come.’

They stared out at the last of Mann’s tail lights as he drove out of the car park.

Mann headed back to Headquarters. The Organized Crime and Triad Bureau was spread over two floors, he was on the upper level. He’d been in the bureau for four years on and off. The off was ten months banished to the hinterland of the New Territories because of his tendency to piss off anyone who mattered in the police hierarchy. But the truth was, they needed him. They didn’t want to but they did. No one was as devoted as Mann to catching Triads. No one hated the cancer in the Chinese society more than him. But then, no one else had his reasons.

He fed his card into the slot, took the escalators that were surrounded by so much glass they seemed to be outside, fed his card into another slot and then took the lift up to the twenty-third floor.

He negotiated the last security check, an enclosed glass turnstile affair that provided bombproof screens between the stairs and the department, and then he walked along the usual police corridors, the same anywhere in the world: abandoned file cabinets, fluorescent strip lights overhead and thin, stained carpets underfoot. A no frills environment, not softened with decoration, only the odd plant managed to survive on the ledge along the corridor.

The floor was laid out with offices around the outside, interview rooms, identity parade suite in the centre.

Ng and Shrimp were out of the office. Mann needed to clear his head. He picked up yesterday’s sandwich from his desk and took the elevator to the top floor, and then the fire escape up onto the roof. It’s where he always came to think. He needed head space now more than ever.

From below the sound of traffic was building. His eyes searched the horizon and spotted what he was looking for. He took a deep breath of smog-free air and smiled as he watched an eagle ride the air currents and circle over the buildings nearby. It flew by his window sometimes. It looked at him. It pitied him. It was free, ruler of the skies. Mann would have given anything to be able to jump on its back and fly away. He saw its mate on the horizon. They paired for life. He did not envy them that. He never wanted to feel the heavy burden of being in love, of caring too much, ever again.

He walked across the roof, past the massive tanks and noisy air conditioners that kept Headquarters’ heart beating and lungs breathing. He broke the sandwich in two and laid the pieces out on the parapet before turning his back to the sun and walking across to the dummy. He smiled when he saw it. Shrimp had obviously been using it. He had dressed it in a seventies Hawaiian shirt and Bermuda shorts. It made for a good target. Mann walked away from the dummy, took off his jacket and left it hanging over a pipe. Across his chest he had the sets of shuriken. His throwing stars. Each set contained ten. Each one of the ten was different from the others. Different in size and in design. They were weighted to wound, maim or kill. The smaller shuriken were perfect for disabling an opponent. They could be fired several at a time and do serious damage to several opponents at once. The bigger the set the more deadly until the ultimate – the death star. There was just the one. He carried it in its own pouch but he did not carry it routinely. He had designed it himself; it was a thing of beauty and of precision. But he could only fire it once. It had to find its target. It was silent, deadly and able to arc in the air so that it could curve around the side of a wall. It could cut a man’s head off.

Mann picked out the spikes from the sleeve on his arm, turned and ran towards the dummy; finding his mark he let fly the throwing spikes as he picked up pace. Three spikes embedded in its face, the other three across its chest. Mann turned at the sound of giant wings. The eagle kept one eye on him as it walked across the parapet. It picked up one half of the sandwich in its beak whilst grasping the other in its talons and it gave one last look at Mann before it dropped off the edge and turned and glided effortlessly away, the sun on the tips of its wings.

‘How big is that eagle’s wingspan?’ It was not a question. ‘Can I join you?’ Mia came to stand beside him. She knew where he’d be.

‘Sure.’ Mann picked up a discarded feather from the eagle’s tail. ‘It’s a black-eared kite eagle. Huge wingspan, weak legs, that’s why it spends most of the time soaring on the air currents. See the way it moves in the air? There’s no other bird like it for manoeuvrability. It’s all in the tail feathers, like a rudder but far more sophisticated. I could watch it for hours.’ He glanced across at her. ‘What is it, Mia? You didn’t come up here to talk about eagles.’

‘I know things are tough for you at the moment, Mann, but I have faith in you. I wanted to add something to what Sheng said. I know he’s not the best at putting stuff into words.’

‘That’s because he’s a twat.’

Mia shrugged and looked away for a minute. ‘Yeah, you’re probably right. But even so he has a point. You are the best one for the job. It was a terrible thing finding out about your father but you can turn it to good. You want to make a difference, Mann. You could play with fire. You could step over to the dark side for a while.’