LITMIR.BIZ

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Michael said softly. He sighed, then shrugged. ‘Okay, coercion. And PK.’

      ‘You have PK too?’ I said.

      ‘What’s PK?’ John said. ‘You’ve mentioned that before, Emma.’

      ‘Psychokinesis,’ I said. ‘The ability to move things with the mind.’

      ‘Oh, carrying,’ John said, understanding. ‘You have ordering and carrying, Michael? When did you learn this?’

      ‘A couple of weeks ago,’ Michael said.

      ‘Your father taught you?’

      Michael dropped his head and didn’t reply.

      ‘Na Zha, I think,’ I said.

      ‘Damn, I’m impressed,’ John said. ‘Well done, Michael.’

      Michael’s head shot up, his blond hair flopping with the movement. ‘You’re not upset?’

      ‘Every skill you gain is a skill that will give Emma and Simone an edge,’ John said. ‘We will start you on advanced work immediately. If you do not eventually find the Tao I will be extremely surprised.’ He leaned back, his voice full of satisfaction. ‘The Tiger is most definitely not having you back.’

      Michael grinned broadly. ‘Thanks, Lord Xuan.’

      I rose. ‘I’ll get Simone, see if she could sense it.’

      I didn’t need to. Simone came bursting through the door, with Leo close behind her. She skidded to a halt, cast around, saw the turtle, shouted ‘Nobody touch it!’, put her hands out towards it, palms facing away from her, and somehow made it explode into a million tiny pieces.

      Everybody disappeared in a cloud of dust. I coughed; my eyes were full of turtle fragments.

      ‘Gold!’ John said over the sound of everybody coughing.

      It was like an exhaust fan was suddenly switched on: Gold somehow vacuumed the fragments into himself. The dust cleared quickly.

      ‘Whoops, sorry,’ Simone said, her voice very small.

      ‘No, Simone, you did well,’ John said. ‘When did you know it was there?’

      ‘I thought something was strange,’ she said. ‘I could feel it. I was going to ask you to look for me. It was in my room, then it came in here, then it kind of went . . .’ She tilted her head. ‘Kablooie. What was it?’

      ‘If you had touched it, it would have taken you to the bad demon,’ I said. ‘But it needed to be turned on. The stone in my ring turned it on.’

      Simone nodded.

      ‘But you sensed it before it was turned on?’ I said.

      ‘Yep. I knew she’d left it there. I knew there was something strange going on.’ Her little shoulders sagged. ‘I thought Helen was my friend.’

      ‘I’m taking her out of school,’ John said. ‘Until we have dealt with this, it is no longer safe for her.’

      ‘NO!’ Everybody shouted it in unison, even Leo.

      ‘I want to go to school!’ Simone wailed.

      ‘We can handle it!’ I shouted.

      ‘She’ll be miserable at home!’ Leo said loudly.

      I looked at Leo. He shrugged and smiled slightly.

      I turned back to John. Everybody was glaring at him. I leaned over the desk and glared at him too.

      ‘You have been outvoted, Xuan Wu,’ I said firmly. ‘Give it up. She could sense the device. And she is staying in school.’

      ‘She won’t be safe,’ John growled.

      ‘Time for us to disappear,’ Leo said. ‘Come on, Simone, Michael.’

      ‘Don’t you want to stay and see the fireworks?’ I said, still glaring at John.

      ‘I’m staying,’ Simone said. ‘I’m staying in school.’ She ran around the desk and threw herself at her father. He pulled her into his lap. She turned to face him, her hands on his shoulders, and smiled into his eyes. ‘Please let me stay in school, Daddy.’ She smiled sweetly, wheedling. ‘Please?’

      John’s face was grim but his eyes sparkled with amusement.

      ‘You know you can’t say no to her,’ I said softly.

      Simone put her chin on his chest and smiled up into his eyes. ‘Please?’

      ‘Women!’ Leo growled. ‘Come on, Michael, let’s get out of here. You’d better take off too, Gold. When the Dark Lord surrenders to his women it’s not a pretty sight.’

      I didn’t look away but I heard the door close.

      ‘I’ll let you kiss Emma,’ Simone said slyly. ‘For as long as you like.’

      John glanced up at me and couldn’t hold his face any more. He chuckled.

      I dropped my head and shook it. ‘I didn’t teach her this, John, don’t blame me.’

      ‘Come and give Daddy a kiss, Emma, and then you and me are going to check through my room and see if Helen dropped anything else,’ Simone said. ‘And on Monday you have to tell Miss Atkinson to give me a different desk in the classroom, so I’m not so close to Helen.’

      I went around the desk. Simone pulled herself out of John’s lap and stood next to him, still holding his hand.

      John rose, grabbed me around the waist with his free hand, pulled me in and kissed me hard. I threw my arms around his neck and pressed myself into him.

      ‘Tell me when you’re finished ’cause I’m not looking,’ Simone said loudly.

      We smiled into each other’s mouth, but we didn’t stop. For a long time.

      Leo, Michael and I went to Sha Tin, where Helen’s family lived, on Monday. Leo parked in the car park of City One, a large estate of high-rise residential blocks, about fifty of them, all white-tiled and around twenty storeys. They were spread around a central market and shopping centre, but still very close together. Some of them had a view over the Shing Mun River. Each floor of the apartment blocks held about eight units.

      ‘Block thirty-three,’ I said as we walked out of the car park.

      The three of us attracted some attention as we made our way through the estate. A small Caucasian woman, an enormous black man and a blond half-Chinese were hardly the usual sort of people seen in an estate like this.

      The entrance to block thirty-three was standard: a large metal gate with a keypad beside it. I pressed the floor and flat numbers for the Leungs’ unit and moved back.

      ‘Wei?’

      Michael moved his head next to the intercom microphone. ‘Mgoi, Pak Gai. Hui mun.’

      The door buzzed.

      ‘She does order things from the supermarket,’ I said as Leo opened the gate and gestured for us to go in. ‘Well done, Michael.’

      ‘Gold helped me,’ Michael said.

      The security guard wasn’t asleep. He watched us curiously as we waited for the lift but didn’t challenge us. Understandable: Leo was huge. I smiled and waved to the guard and he smiled slightly in return, but still watched Leo.

      ‘I still think we should have brought weapons,’ Leo said as we stepped out of the lift into the lobby of the nineteenth floor.

      ‘The guard would be on the phone to the police right away.’ I gestured towards the apartment door. ‘Michael.’

      I opened the door for the stairwell and Leo and I stood inside, out of the line of sight of the apartment. Michael pressed the button

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