White Tiger

come on.’
    ‘Maybe Aunty Emma can get you some toy ones,’ Amanda said.
    ‘Uh, no,’ I said. ‘I don’t really like the idea of kids playing with toy…’ My voice trailed off as I heard what I was saying ‘…weapons.’
    ‘Good,’ my mother said firmly. ‘We have you for two weeks, Emma. What are we going to do with you?’
    ‘Take her shopping to buy some clothes,’ Amanda said.
    ‘These clothes are perfectly fine,’ I huffed. I opened my beer and poured myself a glass. ‘I really missed this.’
    My father put a plate of greasy lamb and steak on the table in front of me. ‘You missed this too, didn’t you?’
    I hesitated, then took a steak from the plate. ‘Absolutely,’ I said with false enthusiasm.
    I piled a huge amount of salad on my plate as well and took a couple of slices of bread. After a year of near total vegetarianism in the Chen household, I knew that the red meat wouldn’t sit well with me.
    ‘So tell us all about it,’ Amanda said.
    I explained about Mr Chen, and described my life in Hong Kong. They were curious about Leo’s role, and I tried to play down the kidnapping angle; I explained that Mr Chen was just being careful. They seemed satisfied with my explanations and didn’t push it.
    ‘Where’d you buy your nice handbag?’ Amanda said.
    ‘Boulevard Haussmann,’ I said.
    ‘Sounds German.’
    Uh-oh. ‘French. It’s in Paris.’
    Amanda turned and caught my mother’s attention. ‘Hey, Mum, she’s been to Paris!’
    My mother came and sat with us. ‘Did you go to England?’
    Uh-oh even more. ‘Yes.’
    ‘And you visited Jennifer? She didn’t mention seeing you.’
    I didn’t say anything.
    My mother sighed with exasperation. ‘I don’t know what I’m going to do with you two. Is there a reason you don’t like each other? Did you have a fight or something a long time ago?’
    I shrugged. ‘Nope. Nothing much we can do about it, I suppose.’
    ‘You should have gone to see her when you were in England.’
    I smiled ruefully. ‘I know.’
    ‘Which airline did you fly on?’ Amanda said, changing the subject.
    Thank you, Amanda. ‘It was a private jet.’ Both of them stared at me, wide-eyed.
    ‘Let me get this straight,’ Amanda said. ‘You have been on a private jet to Paris with this rich man that you work for.’
    ‘And I just about walked my feet off taking Simone sightseeing. I was working, Amanda.’
    She looked away. ‘All that and you’re paid a fortune as well.’
    ‘And I miss you terribly.’ I embraced her and that made it all better.
    My father came and sat with us. ‘Show us the kung fu then.’
    ‘What would you like to see?’
    ‘Nunchucks!’ Mark shouted.
    I showed them some different styles of kung fu, bare-handed and with weapons. I demonstrated the chucks for the boys, and they were thrilled. I showed my mother some tai chi; some Yang and some Chen style. I pointed out the differences between Northern and Southern styles of kung fu but nobody seemed to be able to tell. Finally Alan passed me my short sword and I performed a low-level kata for them.
    ‘If you were attacked, Emma, could you really defend yourself?’ Alan asked as he put the weapons back into the bag for me.
    I nearly said ‘Humans or demons?’ but managed to stop myself in time. ‘Uh, yeah, I could defend myself.’
    ‘How many guys could you take down? Without a weapon?’
    I hesitated. ‘I have no idea.’
    ‘Rough guess,’ Amanda said.
    ‘Trained in martial arts or not?’
    ‘Not trained,’ Alan said. ‘Just ordinary muggers or something. If a couple of guys tried to mug you, could you stop them?’
    I thought about it. Untrained humans were about equivalent to level ten or twelve demons. ‘Yeah.’
    ‘How many before you’d be worried?’
    Last session before we left Hong Kong, I’d taken out nine level five demons barehanded. ‘If they weren’t armed, there’d probably have to be around six of them before I’d be worried.’
    ‘So you could take down six unarmed guys?’
    I shrugged. ‘Probably.’
    ‘What if they were trained? What if they were black belts in, say, karate?’
    ‘About the same, to tell the truth. The karate they teach in the West is mostly non-contact. Most practitioners aren’t that good when it comes to serious combat.’
    ‘What belt are you? Black belt, what dan?’
    That stopped me dead. ‘Uh, we don’t have that. You’re either good or you aren’t.’ I studied him carefully; his face was