Chapter 14: A man visits an old friend
A man, pale of skin and blue of eyes, sat in the Shuimu Lianqing Lingnan Teahouse in the Tianhe District of Guangzhou. While waiting for his guest, he had been practicing his Cantonese on the staff. Based on the giggles, it was still execrable. He just hadn’t been borne into a tonal language, and hadn’t embedded himself in a unilingual setting long enough to force himself to adapt. Perhaps next year. Or next century.
Amusingly, American blues music was playing over the sound system, much more pleasant to his eardrums than many forms of traditional Chinese music, but certainly out of place among the delicate teapots and ancient ink-and-wash paintings. It was the kind of oddment of clashing cultures he’d come to expect in his travels in Asia, unexpected juxtapositions of modernity, tradition and cultures from around the globe. Certainly nothing to abhor.
A pot of pu-erh tea sat in front of him, the remains of a small plate of shāomài dumplings lying forlorn and empty beside it. He was considering whether to order some other type of dumplings when Joyla walked in, even later than usual.
“Kaa!” Joyla, svelte as ever, started hugging him before he’d quite managed to stand, but he did unfold from the chair and hug her back without spilling anything.
“Joyla, it’s been too long. I was so glad you reached out, and that I was near enough to Guangzhou to swing by.”
“Don’t tell me. I stopped wanting to know after the apotek.”
“Fine, but I think you’d enjoy the story. Very Gaimenesque.”
“No, thank you. Besides, I’m not sure this is pleasure.”
“I didn’t think so. It’s been years since you last got in touch for that, and if I’m not mistaken you have the look of a woman who has a new man in her bed or perhaps on the fire stairs or the car park. You’ve always been ethical that way.”
“One at a time. It’s easier to keep the lines from blurring, to remember to bring things to an end gracefully at the right time rather than sink the bonds too deeply.”
“I prefer to keep the bonds light and varied. But we’ve had that conversation. Why am I here instead of fading to sleep in Tokyo, my head pillowed on a woman’s thighs?”
“Are we quite secure from eavesdropping? Technical and otherwise? You’ve always been better at that sort of thing.”
“Yes, of course. Anyone listening in would be hard pressed to even place the Navajo they would be hearing, especially because we would be speaking it in reverse.”
“Good, because there are powerful players moving in unsettling ways. Some of the older ones, the inhuman ones. There are connections forming I don’t like.”
“Interesting. Your patron Zau is one of them I presume?”
“How did you know that?”
“I knew Opera Hong Kong was being created long before the first production was aired. Old friend. I hear things, including that your artistic direction was very well received. Rave reviews and talk of a movie adaptation of all things.”
“Yes, I’m pleased with that. Wait, did you have anything to do with me ending up there?”
“Not really. I was consulted because my friend guessed at our history, but the strings all led back to Zau or his people. I checked. Wanted to make sure you weren’t being brought in to feed the dragon. It didn’t seem as if that was the case, so I didn’t intervene.”
“You were looking out for me?” Joyla’s voice changed.
“More that you were pushed under my nose in conjunction with a very dangerous being. I had to take a look to ensure that you weren’t going to be snapped up.”
“Oh. Well, thank you for that, I suppose, but I’m not sure that what is going on makes me feel any better that I’m not intended as a course at the Pearl River Tower.”
“So what exactly is going on? Something naughty I presume?”
“A little more serious than naughty I think. You know that Zau’s daughter Qi died recently?”
“Yes, sadly. Brilliant woman. Her scales were gorgeous in the water, sunlight dappling from above. She was a treasure in the ocean and on the Earth. I mourned her passing, in my own way.”
“Her too?”
“Are you surprised? You know my tastes: highly intelligent, talented, beautiful and powerful women with more rather than less otherness about them. Women like you, like her. How could I resist at least the attempt?”
“I didn’t know. Are you all right?”
“I’ve mourned. I’ve moved on. As always. Enough. What is it that Qi’s death has triggered?”
“It’s not quite clear, but something. He’s been creating a cabal of dangerous and talented people around himself, more than usual as far as I can tell. There are hints of very large flows of money. A few people close to him look very nervous.”
“So a dragon is dangerous, surrounding itself with dangerous people and making people nervous. So far, this sounds like normal behavior. What’s the kicker?”
“My new friend does a rather specialized form of logistics. His entire firm appears to be devoted solely to servicing Zau at present. But the deliveries don’t make a lot of sense. He is putting pairs of mirrors inside the security boundaries of all of the coal and gas plants in China and other nearby countries.”
“Mirrors. Big mirrors?”
“No, small ones, hand sized.”
“Hmmm. Do you have any idea what they are for? Does he?”
“No. And based on what I know of Zau, this is not the only action he’s taking. Whatever it is, it’s just one prong of the assault.”
“Are all of the mirrors in place?”
“No, it’s a slow process. It will be months before it’s done. Whatever this is, it’s not occurring tomorrow.”
“Interesting, but this could be some elementary scrying spell. Zau is a business dragon, after all. It could just be industrial espionage.”
“Perhaps, but given the scale and how many humans depend on the electricity from those plants, do you really want to chance it?”
“Point. But you and I are bit players compared to Zau. I’m a dilettante and a seducer, you make frocks. If Zau is making a very big play, what could we do?”
“I don’t know, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s you.”
“I admire your confidence in me, but I’m a poor second to many other people and creatures I know, beings of power in the airways, creatures of finance, scribes of intricate weirdings and even one remarkable bellhop.”
“Exactly. Combined with that dilettante mind and your connections, you are more likely to be able to understand the plan and find a way to throw emory paper into the works.”
“And make an ancient, very wealthy water dragon angry at me? What exactly is in this for me?”
“Now you’re stalling. I know you as well as anyone does or perhaps can. You play the traveling seducer, but you are always about the large systemic changes, always looking for the order or disorder underlying the obvious, always separating what is warm-hearted from what is the greatest good for the greatest number.”
“Some of that is true. And some of what you say about my way of looking at the world and my connections within it are true too. But we don’t know enough. I’ll make some inquiries, very discretely. You return to Zau’s circle. See what else you can find out.”
“This isn’t a very cheery reunion, is it Kaa.”
“Not really. Hope was springing eternal, as it always does when I think of you, but I’m afraid this is an even bigger bucket of ice water than last time, and that one was real.”
“And very wet.”
“Very. So, Joyla we appear to have a counter-conspiracy. Would you like some dim sum to go with it?”
