Hell to Heaven (29 page)

‘Your honoured name, sir?’ I said, and added silently to the stone,
This isn’t the principal himself trying us out, is it?

Nah, this is the receptionist, he’s been doing this forever
, the stone said.

‘I am Mr Leung, and I am pleased to make your acquaintance,’ the receptionist said. He brightened. ‘Ah, here comes Lord Hong now.’

A brilliant red dragon, his fins and tail the same colour as his crimson scales, flew in the door and landed lightly on his back legs just inside. As his feet touched down, he changed to a good-looking young Chinese man of about twenty-five with long red hair, wearing a pair of khaki chino shorts, an olive T-shirt and scruffy sandals. He saluted around us and spread his arms to welcome Simone. ‘About time you got here, missy. The Tiger’s sons seriously need taking down a peg or two by one of the weakling females that they all despise, and you are the perfect young woman to do it.’ He raised his hand to high-five her and she stared at him with wonder.

He changed his hand to a fist. ‘Fist bump? No?’ He held his hand out for her to shake it. ‘How about this?’

She shook his hand. ‘Sorry, I’m just a bit…’

‘Shell-shocked. I understand.’ He waved us towards the inner door. ‘Come on in, let’s see what we can do about the removal of shell-shock and the insertion of skills, knowledge and judgement.’ He turned to Sylvie and Precious. ‘You two troublemakers can leave us now. I’ll let you show Simone where the food is later. Does that suit?’

‘Sure, Hongie,’ Sylvie said, and she and Precious went out.

The principal ushered us into his spacious office. I stopped when I saw it. ‘You sure you’re a dragon and not a turtle Shen?’ I said.

He turned, confused. ‘No, I’m one hundred per cent dragon. Why do you ask?’

‘Oh, nothing,’ I said, and slithered up onto one of the visitors’ chairs next to a desk so messy it rivalled John’s. Files and open books littered the floor, and a stack of papers on a sideboard appeared precariously close to falling.

Simone pointed at the pile of papers. ‘Wouldn’t it just be easier to sort them out rather than holding them up by magic?’

‘They’re not being held up by magic,’ the principal said. ‘There’s no such thing as magic, that’s for the realm of fantasy books.’

‘Energy then,’ Simone said.

‘Would you say magic again if someone asked you what was holding them up? Someone other than me?’ the principal said.

‘Probably,’ Simone said, obviously wondering where this was going.

‘Then why did you back down?’ he said with enthusiasm. ‘If you want to use the word “magic”, who’s going to stop you?’

‘You?’ Simone said.

‘Never,’ he said with finality. ‘No need to fold up like that if people disagree with you! Stick to your guns, Simone.’

He glanced at the Tiger. ‘Tiger, I have been trying to arrange a parent–teacher meeting with you for about six weeks. At least three of your sons are borderline uncontrollable, and two of your daughters are—’ He bit off what he was about to say. ‘Of a similar nature. Discipline at school is ineffective if it’s not backed up at home. You need to do something about these kids!’

The Tiger put his hand on the table. ‘And I’ve been telling you for a hundred and fifty years now that I have nothing to do with the raising of my sons beyond making sure they’re fed and housed. If you want to discuss their behaviour, talk to their mothers.’

‘They need a strong father figure in their lives,’ the principal said with exasperation.

The Tiger leaned over the desk and glared at him. ‘I’m Emperor of a quarter of fucking Heaven, boyo. You don’t get much stronger than me.’

‘Do something about their behaviour or you’ll be getting them back.’

The Tiger hesitated for a moment, then said, ‘Okay.’

‘Oh! I nearly forgot,’ the principal said. ‘Do you mind if we invite Three One Five in to do some postgraduate honours work? He has an Earthly degree, and I’d really like to top that off with some Celestial polishing.’

‘Go right ahead,’ the Tiger said. He gestured towards Simone. ‘Please accept my beloved niece as a student in your institution. She is brave, smart and talented.’

‘I will be honoured to accept her, and will endeavour to do my best to instruct her in the ways of
the Celestial,’ the principal said. ‘Now.’ He smiled at Simone. ‘Year Ten on the Earthly, right? But no Shen-style training whatsoever?’

‘That’s right,’ Simone said, her voice small.

‘Not a problem. You join whichever classes you’re interested in. If you have to go off and fight demons or something that’s fine. Attend when you can, learn what you want. At the end of it I’ll have you back in here and throw you a few really pointless koan to prove that you’ve either learned wisdom or how to fake it really well.’ He spread his hands. ‘Any questions?’

‘School hours?’ I said.

‘Whatever Simone chooses. Classes are held between 11 am and 8 pm.’

‘That’s a late start,’ I said.

‘Mornings suck and should be banned,’ the principal said with feeling. ‘Particularly when you’ve been up gaming all night.’

Simone stared at him.

‘There’s a kitchen, there’s food; I can give you the tour. There are training rooms for combat in both energy and weapons. You can learn maths, languages, science, art, weapons, poisons, equestrian, summoning, dancing, alchemy, calligraphy and advanced demon-handling techniques. We have an extensive library of both fiction and non-fiction, but of course being a dragon I have banned all works by Anne McCaffrey. All you have to do is work out what you want to learn.’

‘Equestrian?’ Simone said. ‘You have horses here?’

‘You can bring your own if you want,’ he said.

‘Even if he’s half-demon?’

‘Especially if he’s half-demon; we can cater for his particular needs.’

‘The Red Phoenix said that you have evaluations to see what each student is capable of,’ Simone said.

‘Yes, it’s part of the orientation. We show you around, and use the evaluation to see exactly how scared of you we need to be.’

‘Can you tell me if I’m Immortal like my father?’

I looked at Simone. She’d never brought this topic up before.

‘No,’ the principal said. ‘The only way you can find out if you’re Immortal is by being examined by a very large Immortal, or getting killed. I think the first option is way preferable, but that’s just me.’ He grinned at us all. ‘Can I show you around now? I love showing off my little school! It’s so
cute
!’

They rose and I slid off my chair.

‘I hear you expanded the demon-training centre,’ the Tiger said as we went out.

‘We now do advanced demon-spotting as well as standard binding and controlling,’ the principal said. ‘As Lady Emma can attest, demon copies are showing up damn near everywhere and we need everybody able to identify them.’

‘After this I’m heading down to my own Academy to check the copies that Ronnie Wong has identified,’ I said. ‘Apparently three demon copies slipped straight through our testing process.’

The principal stopped. ‘That is very bad news.’ He brightened. ‘Can I borrow Ronnie off you for a couple of hours? He can teach the kids how to spot them.’

‘No,’ I said. ‘But I can give you his mobile number and you can ask him yourself. He’s a free agent; I don’t own him.’

‘Wonderful! I’ve been trying to contact him for a while now and he’s been carefully avoiding me. If I
have his mobile, I can make his life complete hell until he does what I ask.’

I stopped. ‘I’m not so sure I want to give you his number now. Let me talk to him first.’

The principal smiled broadly. ‘Go right ahead. I’d love to hear what he has to say.’

I looked around. ‘Where’s Simone?’

The principal concentrated for a moment. ‘Sylvie and Precious are showing her around.’ He shrugged. ‘Gee, I wanted to do that. I’ll have to catch up with them and drag them off her. I
like
showing people around.’ He disappeared.

Go back down, I’m fine. I’ll see you later
, Simone said into my head.

‘You sure?’ I said, and the Tiger relayed for me.

Yeah, this place is way cool! See you at dinner. Should I do poisons or showjumping?

‘Both,’ the Tiger said. ‘I’d like to see you give my kids a run for their money, and being able to clear any sort of poison from yourself or others is a valuable skill.’

Oh, okay
, Simone said.
Talk to you later. I have my phone so you can call me anytime—and they’re not banned here! How cool is that?

‘I’ll take you back down,’ the Tiger said to me. ‘Where do you want me to drop you?’

‘The Academy. Ronnie’s there with the copies.’

‘I want to see them too, if I may, ma’am,’ he said.

‘I think we need as many people as possible to see them,’ I said. ‘The fact that they made it past the Celestial Masters of Wudang is very disturbing indeed.’

T
he demon copies were being held in a cell at the far end of the armoury floor, as far from any sensitive areas as possible. They sat side by side on the bed holding each other, obviously terrified. One of them was Apple, my second-year energy student.

‘Apple’s not a demon; I had a class with her last week,’ I said.

Liu pulled me back out of earshot. ‘Apple killed one of the human IT guys with a blast of black energy. She has no recollection of doing it.’ He dropped his head and shook it. ‘I didn’t want them to know what they are, but if we’re going to have people identifying the demon copies, they have to be instructed on what to look for. That means demonstrating with the demon present. They keep saying that it’s a mistake.’

I turned away. ‘Those poor kids.’

He didn’t let go of my elbow. ‘Those poor kids just murdered three of our staff in cold blood. They’re demons, Emma. The real Apple, Jeremy and Tanaka are dead, and these things probably killed them.’

Ronnie Wong saw us and approached. ‘I’m teaching
as many as possible how to identify them. You’d better come take a look, ma’am.’

‘How hard are they to spot?’ I said as we drew nearer.

Apple saw me and jumped up to grab the bars. ‘Oh, thank God. Lady Emma, please tell everybody that I’m not a demon. You know me, I wouldn’t hurt anyone! Please let me out.’

‘Apple, please put your hand through the bars,’ Ronnie said.

Apple dropped her head, grimaced and put her hand through as asked.

‘Don’t hurt her!’ I said quickly.

‘I wouldn’t dream of it,’ Ronnie said.

He nodded to Liu, who touched Apple’s hand. It rippled the same way the demons had when Simone touched them in Paris all that time ago.

‘That’s the tell. Touch them with shen energy and they do that,’ Ronnie said.

‘It’s an illusion, ma’am, that’s not me at all,’ Apple said. She moved closer to me, obviously desperate. ‘It’s a trick! I’ve been framed. I’m not a demon, I’m Apple, from Chai Wan. You know me!’ Her voice changed to sobs. ‘Let me out, don’t kill me, I’m not a demon, let me
go
!’ She reached out to me, her hand waving through the bars, and I stepped back out of her reach. ‘Touch me, Emma, see I’m not a demon! Touch me!’ She waved her hand desperately at me. ‘Touch me!’ She screeched the words, higher and more frantic. ‘Touch me! Touch me!’

‘Back up, Emma, she may be able to shape shift,’ Ronnie said, as Apple’s hand grew longer towards me. ‘I think it would be very bad if she touched you.’

Apple roared with frustration, slammed her hand on the bars, and fell to sit next to the other two. ‘All you
have to do is touch me and you’ll see that I’m not a demon,’ she sobbed.

‘Is she telling the truth?’ I said.

Ronnie grimaced. ‘Yes, she’s telling the truth. She thinks she’s human. They all do.’

‘It’s a frame-up. You have to find out who did this to us,’ Apple said, weeping on the floor. ‘You
know
me, ma’am, you know I wouldn’t do anything like this. We have to find out who really killed Master Gold.’

Ronnie guided me back down the corridor, followed by Liu. The Tiger remained with the demons, studying them carefully.

‘But I had Apple in an energy class last week!’ I said. ‘She generated chi; I saw it. How could demons do that?’

‘It wasn’t chi, it was demon essence,’ Ronnie said. ‘Just like you can generate black chi that looks like demon essence, they can generate gold demon essence that looks like chi. Never seen anything like it; had me completely fooled at first, and stopped me from identifying them for a while.’

‘So even if they generate what looks like chi, they could still be demons,’ I said. ‘That was one of the ways we tested people before.’

‘We’re in lockdown,’ Liu said. ‘We’ve taught five or six of the most senior Masters to check for them, and we’re going through the floors one at a time. They have to be Immortals to wield shen on the Earthly, so the testing is taking some time. So far no other demons have turned up.’

‘These things are very advanced. Almost undetectable,’ Ronnie said. ‘I wouldn’t be surprised if whoever made them has only made a few.’ He turned to me. ‘But why reveal them now, and just to damage
your computer system? You’ll have it backed up again in a few days. Showing his hand for such a small price seems pointless.’

‘Gold found something that would give us a lead to where the Geek is making the fake elementals,’ I said.

‘Oh,’ he said, eyes wide. ‘And they shut it down and killed Gold. That gave them two weeks’ drop on you.’

Liu froze for a moment. ‘Found another one. Two more. They’re being brought down.’ He inhaled sharply. ‘Emma, your
secretary
was one of them.’

‘Yi Hao?’ I said, horrified. ‘No! She can’t be a copy, she’s a demon already. They’ve made a mistake!’

‘Where’s the other demon you brought back from One Two Two’s nest?’ Liu said.

‘Uh…’ I hesitated, trying to remember. ‘She’s been through a lot of jobs, trying to find the one that suited her best. She wanted to be close to me. As soon as something opened up, we were going to move her into my office.’

‘A trap was being laid all around you,’ Ronnie said. ‘I’m surprised they didn’t spring it.’