Red Phoenix

Valley?’
    ‘Bright Mansions? About twenty-five floors, eight flats to a floor, quite large for that area. Why?’
    ‘What about the building in Wan Chai? How big is that?’
    ‘About the same, my Lady,’ Gold said. ‘Twenty-six floors. But most of the lower floors are vacant right now, with the economic downturn.’
    ‘The one in North Point?’
    ‘That one’s quite small, only fifteen floors, two flats to a floor. It’s very old,’ John said. ‘I may demolish it eventually, but it’s not worth it right now.’
    There had to be some logistical reason why this wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try. ‘People in Hong Kong usually only rent a place for a year at a time, they like the flexibility,’ I said. ‘And most of the building in Wan Chai is already vacant. How about we move the Mountain down here?’
    Gold picked it up right away. ‘The students can stay in Happy Valley and go to the Wan Chai building for training. It shouldn’t take much to fix up the Hennessy Road building for training—it’s already offices, I’ll just have to remove some partitions. I could move the administration down here too. And the Bright Mansions apartments in Happy Valley would be perfect as student residences. It won’t cost us anything except the loss of income from the rent, and frankly, my Lord, the way the economy is right now, it won’t be much.’
    ‘What about language?’ John said.
    ‘Language?’ I said.
    ‘Yes, that will be a problem,’ Gold said. ‘Let me think about it.’
    ‘On the Celestial Plane, language is irrelevant. Allcan communicate. That will not apply on the Earthly, and could result in problems,’ John said.
    ‘No, I can fix it,’ Gold said. ‘Leave it with me. I’m very good with Celestial Harmony, I should be able to work something out.’
    ‘Is the building in Wan Chai zoned for that sort of thing? We don’t want to draw the government’s attention.’ John smiled at me. ‘Have the ICAC breaking down the door.’
    ‘Give it a rest,’ I said and grinned back.
    ‘Not an issue,’ Gold said. ‘If it isn’t, I’ll just go into the government system and fix the zoning.’
    ‘You’re a hacker ?’ I said.
    ‘One of the best,’ Gold said proudly. ‘Don’t do it often, but when I do, I do a damn good job.’
    I glared at John. ‘You said you weren’t involved in anything illegal, that you would never risk Simone’s happiness.’
    ‘And I meant it. I am a creature of my word. I have not committed a single illegal act since I was Raised. The enthusiasm of my Retainers, however,’ he gestured towards Gold, ‘is another matter entirely.’
    Gold ignored us. ‘I can’t think of any other reason why this shouldn’t happen as Lady Emma has suggested. It’s a brilliant plan.’
    ‘Emma, you really are astounding,’ John said. ‘It’s a perfect solution. If the Turtle can’t go to the Mountain, then the Mountain can come to the Turtle.’
    I laughed, but Gold was obviously horrified and made weird choking noises.
    ‘Go and start the arrangements,’ John said to Gold. ‘Tell the Tiger we’ll have those Disciples out of his fur in no time. Come back when you’ve started the process and we’ll commence the rebuilding. It’ll be much easier without any staff or students present, just a skeleton crew of guards. Oh. Emma.’
    ‘My Lord.’ Gold disappeared. ‘What, John?’
    ‘I can finally have you teaching. You and Leo. We are fearfully short of junior Masters. You and Leo will be perfect. He can start them on hand-to-hand and weapons, and you can start them on energy work. The senior Masters are wasted teaching the basic stuff. This is excellent.’
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous. I’ve been learning less than a year myself, and I have to look after Simone.’
    ‘No, after Simone goes to school, you’ll have plenty of time, and by September this year you’ll be as good as any junior Master on the Mountain.’ John leapt up, obviously excited.
    ‘Wait a second!’ I shouted. ‘You didn’t even bother to ask me! Who the hell do you think you are?’
    John stopped halfway to the door and didn’t move.
    ‘Well?’
    He spoke softly without turning towards me. ‘For thousands of years others have been obeying my orders without question. I have precedence over nearly everybody in Creation. I’ve developed a bad habit of expecting to be obeyed.’ He dropped his head and shook it, still turned away. ‘I am so sorry, love.’
    ‘You have precedence