Red Phoenix

the interior of the lab. It wasn’t the shiny clean laboratory expected in the West; it was a large dirty room with peeling green paint and rusty window frames. It was full of aquariums. The aquariums didn’t have any water in them; they were full of snakes.
    ‘I have to go and talk to your dad, Simone,’ I said absently. ‘If you need anything, ask Monica.’
    I didn’t even knock on his office door. I went in and flopped into a chair opposite him.
    ‘You still have it in your hand,’ he said mildly.
    He was right. I threw the newspaper onto his desk.
    ‘She gave you my number in the first place,’ I said.
    He didn’t reply, but his eyes blazed.
    ‘She lured you away at that first charity thing, so he could have a go at me,’ I said.
    He remained silent and unmoving.
    ‘She kept ringing me after you made your pledge, John. She kept asking me to go to her house.’
    ‘Before then,’ he said. ‘She called you even before we went to Guangdong.’
    I remembered. ‘Yeah.’
    He remained motionless.
    ‘ How can you stay so calm ?’ I shouted. ‘She was working for him !’ I ran my hands through my hair. ‘She planted me here !’
    ‘I don’t think so, Emma,’ he said. ‘I really did ask her if she knew of a good English teacher. She gave yournumber to other people, didn’t she? She was rather proud of your ability. Every time I saw her, she took full credit for your talent as a teacher.’
    I leaned across the desk to speak intensely. ‘When did they first know who you were?’
    He leaned back and retied his hair. ‘Michelle let it slip, at a charity function. She complained to Kitty that I always wore black, despite her best efforts to make me wear other colours. I think that’s when they put it together. That was not long after we were married and I moved down here.’
    ‘So she knew who you were when she sent me here,’ I said. ‘She was a total bitch to me at that first concert. Then she turned all sunshine and butterflies, asking me to go and visit her.’
    ‘I like that, “sunshine and butterflies”. I must remember that,’ he said, amused. ‘One Two Two had just left the Mountain after learning there for two years.’
    ‘He knew you had to stay here to care for Simone after he’d killed Michelle, and took advantage of it,’ I said.
    ‘Then they saw how close we were becoming. They saw their chance to cultivate a spy. Too bad you had already joined me.’
    ‘Those labs were full of snakes.’
    ‘And birds. I wonder if they built the fire things there.’
    ‘Simone saw me as a snake, John. What if this has something to do with it?’ I sighed with despair. ‘I don’t know how you can keep me around, knowing what you do about me.’
    He shot to his feet and banged his hand on the table so hard that I jumped. ‘ Don’t you even think about leaving me !’ he roared. ‘ We need you !’ He sat down again, his voice still fierce. ‘I know everything there is to knowabout you. I have seen inside you. I have loved you. I have seen all of your body and all of your mind. I have seen you, shen, ching and chi. There is nothing I don’t know about you. You will grow with time, but you will never hurt any of us.’ He studied me intensely. ‘Trust yourself as much as I trust you, Emma. Look inside yourself.’ He smiled. ‘Study the nature of serpents, and do not be concerned.’
    ‘God, I hope you’re right,’ I said.
    ‘Do you want me to call the Lady? You want to throw yourself onto a demon’s sword again?’
    ‘No, I think I’d better move and take Simone and Michael to school.’
    He checked his watch. ‘You’d better go. If they’re late for school I’ll dock your pay.’
    ‘Try me,’ I said. ‘I’ll dock yours. I have more control of the finances anyway.’
    ‘Good,’ he said as I went out.
    Halfway down the hallway I froze. Oh my God. April. Kitty had arranged for April to have the baby at a clinic in Dongguan.
    I called April’s apartment in Discovery Bay, but the domestic helper didn’t know anything. April’s mobile had been disconnected. I didn’t know Andy’s number, and it wasn’t in the phone book.
    There was no way I could contact April or her family. There was nothing I could do.

CHAPTER THIRTY-EIGHT
    T hat Saturday the intercom on my desk popped and I pressed the button. ‘Emma, it’s me.’ Leo’s voice was thin and tinny. ‘I need you, I’m in a hand-to-hand on the third floor. Come and help out, please.’ ‘Okay, on my