White Tiger

think you are, you are completely crazy!’
    Mr Chen glared up at Leo, irritated. ‘I must be in Hong Kong later today. I have no choice.’
    ‘You’ll undo all the good work the Lady Kwan did for you!’
    ‘I’ll probably need to see Mercy about a month earlier.’
    ‘Wait a minute.’ I pointed at Mr Chen. ‘You’re going to fiddle with the weather?’ Both of them looked at me.
    ‘Don’t point at a Chinese, Emma, it’s very bad luck,’ Leo said.
    ‘Don’t be ridiculous, Leo,’ Mr Chen said. ‘I am far too big for any fung shui to affect me. I am water. I am shui.’
    I dropped my hand and glared at Mr Chen. ‘You’re going to use all that energy that Ms Kwan gave you to move a stupid typhoon? Leo’s right—it had better be damned important if you’re going to waste your energy like that.’
    ‘I have a meeting with the Jade Emperor,’ Mr Chen said grimly.
    Leo sat down, stricken.
    ‘The Jade Emperor,’ I said softly. ‘The Jade Emperor is so…’ I searched for the word ‘…so awesome, they don’t even have statues of him in the temples.’
    ‘Believe me,’ Mr Chen said, ‘I would much prefer to divert to Taipei and wait. But the appointment is for this evening at seven and I must be there. The Celestial has come down to the Earthly Plane, to Hong Kong, to see me. It is the first time he’s done this in hundreds of years.’
    ‘So what are you going to do?’ I said.
    ‘Move the typhoon, make it hit land about two hundred kilometres from Macau, and make it hit in the next thirty minutes.’
    ‘You can do that?’
    ‘I’ll need to change my form, but yes.’ Leo hissed with frustration.
    ‘Move the chairs, Leo, give me room,’ Mr Chen said. He rose and kicked off his shoes, then pulled his hair from its ponytail and shook it out. ‘Emma, sit with Simone in the back. If she wakes, keep her quiet. I’ll need to concentrate. Make sure she doesn’t come in here. Understood?’
    ‘Don’t worry, I’ll make sure she doesn’t come in.’
    He smiled. ‘I am more impressed with you every day.’
    I felt a rush of professional pride at the compliment. Yep, that’s all it was: purely professional.
    Mr Chen sat cross-legged on the floor of the cabin. Leo moved the chairs along their rails, then leaned against the side of the plane. Mr Chen closed his eyes, concentrating, and Leo nodded for me to go out.
    Simone had slept through all of Leo’s yelling; she was completely worn out. I knelt on the carpet next to her bunk.
    The plane rocked slightly, then shuddered. A brilliant white glow lit up the main cabin and shone through the galley. It was as if somebody had turned the lights up very bright.
    Simone shot upright and scrambled to the end of the bunk. She hopped out before I could stop her and ran to the door of the galley. The light formed a halo around her and her hair floated with static.
    I quickly went to her and held her to stop her from going in. She didn’t attempt to move; she stood at the door of the galley, frozen, watching her father. Her breath quickened when she saw him.
    It had to be him, but he was huge and dark and unrecognisable. He still sat cross-legged on the floor of the plane, but had grown so large that his head nearly brushed the ceiling. His long hair floated around his square, ugly face. The glow came from him; it was all around him. He held one hand in front of his chest and the other in his lap. His eyes were closed, concentrating. Any doubts I had held before completely vanished. What sat in the middle of the cabin was definitely a god.
    I gently pulled Simone back into the bunk room and sat her on the bed.
    ‘Is that his True Form?’ I whispered.
    ‘No,’ she whispered back, her voice trembling. Her little face screwed up with fear. ‘That’s his Celestial Form, for when he’s doing his special things. He’s not supposed to do that.’
    ‘Lie down and go back to sleep,’ I said. ‘He’s just stopping the big wind outside so that we can go home.’
    She threw her little arms around my neck and clutched me. I pulled her into my lap.
    ‘He’s so scary,’ she whispered.
    ‘It’s just your dad.’
    ‘He’s scary.’
    I sat with her for about twenty minutes as the plane shuddered and rocked. She buried her face in my chest and wouldn’t move.
    Then the light blinked out and I heard something hit the floor with a sickening thump. I quickly rose, still holding Simone, and went to the door.
    Mr Chen lay on the floor in his normal