Red Phoenix

an English one that ran distance MBA programs in Hong Kong. They occupied half of the second floor with offices and some teaching areas. Most of the study I had done had been by correspondence, but I had occasionally met with other students doing the program or talked to staff in the meeting rooms.
    Just remember, John said into my ear, making me jump, the piece of paper is the least important thing about this. You have already gained the knowledge. Unless you are planning to resign as Lady Regent of the House of the North in the near future and take a job outside, the piece of paper is unnecessary.
    I smiled. That’s what he thought. The piece of paper would give me some closure; and I’d know for sure that the work I did was good enough.
    I smiled at the receptionist and she nodded. No words passed between us; she knew what I was there for. I sat down to wait, uncomfortable in my new suit and clutching the slim leather briefcase that John had presented to me that morning.
    Kitty Kwok would be thrilled: I finally had that suit. I wondered where she was. She had been released on bail and had promptly disappeared. John had suggested that she may have gone to Hell. It was where she belonged.
    I felt a flash of concern as I thought about April. She hadn’t reappeared. Her mother in Australia didn’t know where she was, but wasn’t at all worried. Apparently Andy said that April was fine, and that was enough for everybody. Andy was a Triad member too—April had told me that herself. He had been in on it from the start. I quietly wondered if he was a demon. I hadn’t seen him since I’d been able to pick demons, but I’d always had a bad feeling about him. And if Andy was a demon in league with Simon Wong, then April’s baby would be half demon too.
    I’d asked John about it and he’d said it was possible. Half demon, half Shen, the results would be similar. The child could be pure human, pure demon, or something in between.
    And there was absolutely nothing I could do about
    it.
    I snapped back when the door to the meeting room opened. The director, Jan, poked her head around the doorframe, smiled, and jerked her head to indicate that I could go in. I rose and approached the room, my stomach fluttering with a million worries.
    The three examiners sat around a low coffee table, surrounded by papers. Jan indicated an empty chair for me.
    Jan had my thesis in her hand and smiled at me. She was very tall and muscular, almost Amazonian, with short ginger hair, a wide kind smile and bright blue eyes that twinkled at me. She ran marathons in her spare time and could bore everybody to tears with tales of her two young children.
    I didn’t know the other two. One was a severe-looking Chinese woman with impeccable hair, wearing a very smart tailored suit, and the other was a kindly black-haired European man in his mid-sixties with a friendly smile and reassuring dark eyes behind his large glasses.
    I relaxed slightly. They didn’t seem so bad.
    ‘This is Miss Lo, Emma, and Mr Knight. They’ll be helping me do your viva today,’ Jan said, gesturing towards the other two inquisitors.
    I nodded to each of them without speaking. My throat was too dry.
    ‘I’ll go first,’ Jan said firmly, eyeing my papers appraisingly. My stomach flip-flopped. I immediately decided that I should have formatted the thesis better.
    ‘Emma,’ Jan said severely, ‘why on earth did you choose this topic? You’ve always said that you’re a nanny. How did you get involved in this?’
    The other two professors leaned forward, eager to hear the answer. But I was ready for them.
    ‘My employer is a martial arts instructor,’ I explained, trying my best to remain calm. ‘It was the easiest way to find a business that I could use as a model. He encouraged me, in fact,’ rubbing it in, ‘he says that I helped him make the whole place run much better.’
    Jan nodded, still studying the thesis. She glanced up at me without smiling. ‘What was the most obvious and pressing problem that you think they were experiencing when you started?’
    That was in the thesis. The real answer was ‘a recent attack by demons’, but I didn’t think that would go down too well. ‘Managing the finances,’ I said confidently. ‘The business owner, my employer, is an expert at martial arts, but when it comes to budgeting he is completely hopeless.’
    All three of them nodded in agreement. They had obviously read the paper right through.
    Miss Lo