White Tiger

into applause, even Mr Chen.
    ‘Stop it, you guys,’ I wailed. ‘You’re embarrassing me.’
    ‘Well done, Emma,’ Mr Chen said.
    I put my hands out in preparation. ‘I want to try a bigger one. I want to see some serious damage.’
    ‘No,’ Mr Chen said quickly. ‘At this stage it would not be a good idea. You will still lose about one in five. Start small, and when you have the skill mastered, try larger amounts.’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    ‘Not any more,’ he said.
    ‘What the hell is going on?’ Leo said. ‘What do you mean, “not any more”?’
    ‘Finish here, then return to my office and we’ll discuss it. I have paperwork I need to attend to first. Emma and Simone, practise the skill for another thirty minutes or so, until you’re tired. Leo, Gold, guard them. When you’re finished, drop Simone with Ah Yat and come to my office. Understood?’
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    ‘Good.’ He went back to the house.
    ‘I want another go,’ Simone said. She generated a small ball of chi and lined it up. ‘Out of the way, Emma.’
    ‘Yes, ma’am.’
    Gold tapped on Mr Chen’s office door when we returned. Mr Chen opened it himself.
    ‘Just Emma first,’ he said. ‘The rest of you, wait outside, and when Jade comes ask her to wait too.’
    I went in with Mr Chen and sat across the desk from him. Mr Chen’s desk was immaculate.
    ‘Who tidied up for you?’
    ‘Ah Yat,’ he said with a wry grin. ‘She’s the only one apart from you who knows how to put things in order.’ ‘That’s ironic.’
    ‘Yes, I’ll lose her soon. She’s nearly there,’ he said. ‘Now that Jade and Gold are back, I want to arrange the guardianship for you. I want to do it immediately, so that all the staff know you’ll be the one to take over when I’m gone.’
    ‘So that’s what it was all about,’ I said. ‘But why “Lady Emma”?’
    ‘As Simone’s guardian, you will have precedence over all my staff. They will become yours.’
    ‘Wait a second—they’ll all be working for me? You said they’d be working with me, not for me.’ I inhaled sharply. ‘What about Leo ?’
    ‘Leo is a sworn Retainer. Him too.’
    I ran my hands through my hair. ‘No. No way. It can’t work like that.’
    ‘As Simone’s guardian, you will have precedence. There is nothing you can do about it.’
    ‘What will Leo do when we tell him?’ I whispered.
    ‘That may be hard. I may have to order him to accept you.’
    ‘No. Don’t order him to do anything, please, John. He’s my friend. As far as I’m concerned, we’ll be working together.’
    He shrugged it off. ‘There is one other thing.’ He leaned forward and studied me over his hands. ‘It’s about you.’
    ‘What about me?’
    He relaxed back and rubbed his hands over his face. He took his hair out and retied it, even though it didn’t need it. He threw himself forward again, and clasped his hands on the desk. He looked at his hands.
    ‘Just ask me, John.’
    ‘All right. Here goes.’ He studied my face. ‘You have picked up the martial arts training very quickly, Emma. Particularly the energy work. You are exceptionally talented.’ He hesitated, watching me. ‘It’s as if you knew it all before.’
    ‘I feel the same way sometimes. It’s strange, it feels as if I’m remembering rather than learning. Do you know why?’
    ‘Sometimes, when I am near you, you seem to be more than you appear.’ He looked into my eyes. ‘It’s very small, and very fleeting, and may not even be there at all. Is there something you’re not telling me about yourself, Emma Donahoe?’
    I gasped with astonishment. ‘You think I’m a Shen?’
    ‘There are Shen in Australia. Very old, very powerful. I’ve never met a single one.’ He gazed at me. ‘Well?’
    ‘You know what?’ I looked down at my hands. ‘I wish I was. I wish I was an Immortal and I had all the time in the world to wait for you.’ I looked back up at him. ‘But I’m not. As far as I know, I’m just an ordinary human.’
    ‘Will you let me look inside you and see if there’s something about you that you don’t even know yourself? It is possible; sometimes we lose our memoriesand our identities and become lost. Look at me.’ He spread his hands over the desk. ‘Half of me is missing, and nobody knows where it has gone. Will you let me look inside you?’
    ‘Sure. It would be great if you found something. If I was an Immortal, then I could wait for you to come back. There would be hope for