Book 0- Part 5- Qiaolian Shu
One Way or The Other
September 26, 2012
1.
The city of Beijing was quiet that night. Lots of skyscrapers brightened it up with thousands of windows. The China World Trade Centre; the highest building in the city, was towering upon the beautiful view. The clock was about to strike midnight when the door opened and a tall Chinese man carrying a suitcase entered the apartment. There were three other men in the room. One was sitting at the desk while two others were standing on both sides. They all were wearing black suits with white shirts and red ties. The room itself had almost no furniture. Apart from the desk and three chairs, there was also a wide bookshelf and nothing more.
“Mr. Chang,” the sitting man said. “You’re never late.”
The tall man came up, and put the suitcase on the desk.
“I want to do it quickly, Mr. Lung,” he said angrily. “I don’t want to repeat the same mistake like the last time” he added.
“You’re right, Mr. Chang. Open the suitcase,” the sitting man said.
It was the 84th floor. Five hundred yards away, on a rooftop, there was lying a black figure watching the men through the sight of a rifle. Next to her there was a black case and a small black backpack. The figure moved revealing its sex; female. The woman had slanted eyes and her long black hair covered her shoulders. She was wearing a dark uniform with numerous pockets both in her vest and her trousers. Her pale face was round and of extraordinary beauty.
“The target is in the range,” she whispered through the wireless headphone as she was observing Mr. Chang opening the suitcase.
“Has he got the statue?” the voice in the headphone asked.
The opened suitcase revealed a brown figure of a lion. Mr. Lung stood up and as he was approaching the suitcase, the voice in the headphone spoke again.
“C47! Do you see the statue?”
The woman moved back from the sight and whispered,
“Affirmative.”
“Shoot them all at once and retreat the statue!” The voice exclaimed.”Well... you know what to do.”
The woman looked back through the sight and aimed accurately. The cross in the sight was moving around Mr. Chang’s body, then stopped right at his head. Her finger slowly pressed the trigger causing the massive bullet go through the barrel and zoom towards the target. The projectile pierced through the office window and thrust into the skull of the tall man. The confused bodyguards immediately threw themselves towards Mr. Lung to cover him with their bodies.
“Get down boss!” one of them shouted as the other one was looking through the window to spot the shooter.
Mr. Lung ducked holding the statue tightly while the Asian woman tried to find a free spot to take him out.
“It won’t do.” The woman said pulling back her rifle.
She threw it aside and grabbed another one that was near her bag. It looked like a crossbow mixed with a modern Barrett rifle. She pressed some button near the trigger. As she did this, immediately some sharp silver spikes leapt from the bottom and she thrust the object down into the solid surface of the edge of the roof. Then she aimed this thing at the China World Trade Centre, trying to hit the window sill one level higher than the apartment. Her finger pressed the trigger. A long arrow flew out from the weapon dragging a rope behind. The arrow hit the sill so hard that it went through the wall and hatched itself on the other side. The woman took off a longitudinal metallic thing from the pocket of her trousers, grabbed it tightly on both sides of the rope and pushed herself off the roof.
The bodyguards were carefully seeking the shooter when suddenly, another hole appeared in the window followed by another and another. The surprised men pointed their gun at the window but they saw nothing.
“It’s coming from up there!” the bodyguard screamed as he looked and his colleague. The second man said nothing. He fell on his knees, and then on the floor. The bodyguard was looking at him for a few seconds watching the blood pouring out of his head.
“Don’t you just stand there,” the boss shouted terrified, “Take me out of here!”
The woman was sliding down towards the office, holding the slider with one hand and the pistol with the other. She was shooting towards the building. The last bodyguard couldn’t see her, because of the fact that she was wearing clothes in the colour of the background. He could only hear the high-pitched sound of the slider rushing along the steel rope. It was getting louder and louder. The woman let go of the slider about fifteen feet from the window. She was flying with the speed of 50 mph which enabled her reach the window. She made a front flip taking out the second pistol and zoomed inside. The bodyguard and Mr. Chang didn’t have any chance to hide or to do anything. As soon as she was able to spot the target, still being in the air, she aimed and shot several bullets one after another. The silencers installed on the barrels caused the bullets to wheeze through the air. One of the bullets hit Mr. Lung on the arm causing the statue to be dropped onto the ground. The enemies fell on the ground as C47 landed successfully on the carpet. She heard the statue breaking next to her. She quickly looked around to check whether there was anyone else to threaten the mission. There was no one. Only four bodies were lying around. The smell of the shots was hovering in the air. She looked down at the pieces of the statue, and saw some object lying among the statue debris. It looked like a large, metal, old-fashioned key. The woman put away her guns and slowly approached it. She crouched and grabbed the object realising that it must have been at least 500 years old. Then she noticed some kind of strange writing on the other side of the key.
“What may that be?” she asked herself when a male voice in her headphone spoke.
“C47, what’s the status?”
She stood up still looking at the picture and reported.
“Targets have been neutralised, but the statue has been destroyed”.
“What!” the voice exclaimed. “Our employer may not be satisfied with it,” he continued.
“Maybe it’s not a complete dead loss, there was some old key inside.”
As she was saying this, a humanlike shape rose behind her.
“It must be the key to the ...” the voice stopped for a split of second then shouted, “Oh no! How did they find me...”
The figure behind C47 turned out to be Mr. Chang. It had a huge hole in the forehead and his eyes were closed. The girl wasn’t aware of his presence, as she focused on what was happening on the other side of the headset.
“No...” the voice shrieked accompanied by the strange growling noises.
“What’s going on there?” the woman inquired. “D-Do you copy?”
“Lian...” the voiced wheezed. “... Take the key and...” It stopped.
“Chenglei, Chenglei...” she shouted to the headphone, as the undead man raised his eyelids revealing his red, scary eyes.
“Chenglei? Brother?”
He quickly hit her on the back with a strong elbow punch. She fell down a bit paralysed and stuttered. She needed a few seconds to come round and think clearly. But there was no time. Something had just happened in the headquarters, and something had just hit her. Not thinking much, the girl quickly turned her head and saw the man whom she had just shot.
“It’s impossible!”
“Impossible?” he enquired casually. “No. Unbelievable? Maybe.”
“B-But I shot you,” she said with a scared voice. “You have a hole in your forehead, you should be dead!”
“Dead? It takes much more than a bullet in my head.”
The woman quickly took out her pistols, aimed and fired. The bullets nested in the enemy’s chest. His body shook and pulled back every time each bullet hit it, but nothing else happened, he didn’t fall down, neither did he felt it. He raised his head and said slightly irritated.
“Can’t you understand. Bullets don’t hurt me.”
“What, are you”‘ she asked while hiding the guns in the holsters on her trousers.
“You don’t wanna know, give me the key back. It belongs to us,” the man said.
“Never!” she shouted throwing herself at the opponent. She performed a fast round kick aiming at his head, but he was faster. His hand quickly grabbed her shin and blocked the zooming leg. Not thinking about it, she jumped using her second leg, kind of like a reflex, and made another round kick from the other side. The man let go of the first leg and grabbed the second one, causing her to fall. She quickly stood up, made a few steps and rose into the air straightening her right leg while chambering the other one under her groin. Yet, again he was faster, and caught the kicking leg, then span around, releasing the woman. A bit disoriented, she flew towards the wall.
“Ah!” she screamed as she hit the wall, causing the paint to crack. Her black uniform got a little bit dirty and the handle of her backpack torn. Mr. Chang came up to her.
“Give us the key you inferior human!”
She raised her head wiping some blood from her forehead and shouted,
“So take it!”
She quickly pushed herself off the ground and started running towards the door. The man made a dash after her. She opened the door and jumped into the corridor. There was no one else. Not thinking where to run she rapidly turned left and zoomed towards the stairs.
“Fuck, he is still there,” she thought while looking back.
She rushed upstairs, still checking what the distance was between her and the strange creature.
“Damn, he’s faster!” her inner voice spoke again.
Not having enough options, she turned into the corridor two floors above and ran towards the window at the end. The man was getting closer and closer.
“This is a dead end!” he exclaimed. “There is nowhere to run.”
She realised that there was no exit apart from the huge window in front of her.
‘‘It’s no use kicking the doors or checking if they are open,” her mind raced.
As she was just about to be caught, she leapt onto an adhere wall putting one foot on the right side of the window and the other above it, and strongly leapt off it performing a wall flip. As she was upside down, just over the man, he grabbed her head with both hands as if he wanted to slow himself down using her as a brake, but he was rushing too fast. The window ahead of him would be the only thing that could stop him, or so he thought. The creature hit and broke the window pulling the woman behind him, and they both fell out through it. Several pieces of broken glass thrust into their bodies. It was an 84th floor. C47 finished the back flip still being held and pulled by her head. She gathered the entire remaining strength dwelling in her tired and hurt body. She quickly moved her leg towards the enemies back, kicking him as hard as she could. As a result he let go of her, and started to spin. Afterwards, she pulled a string attached to her backpack, and felt a strong jerk, pulling her up, as a large parachute boomed from the backpack.
“Who’s inferior now?” she said as the man’s spinning body was speeding down towards the pavement.
His body crashed into it breaking almost every single bone in his body and destroying the internal organs. The sound of the crash echoed in the air. There was no one on the ground to see it, only C47 who was slowly decreasing her height with the parachute. The woman slowly landed on the other side of the street. She detached the parachute and sat on the nearby bench.
“I hope it’s over now,” she moaned looking at her bruises.
Next she took out her little tablet and clicked a few buttons dialling a number. She could hear only the sound of waiting call in her headset.
“What’s happened down there,” she wondered.
Then she took out the key from one of her pockets and looked at it closely. Why the heck did this guy need it so bad. But then she realised the key must be very old. The statue that had been broken was at least thousand years old and that meant that the mysterious object had been put there a long time ago. It occurred to her that the key might have been even older than she had assumed and whatever it opened, it must be also very old. She took a glimpse at the Chang’s body lying not so far from her. The corpse of Mr. Chang moved. On seeing this, the Asian woman boomed.
“You must be fucking kiddin’.” she groaned, as his body raised and looked at her with his evil red eyes.
He set his arm and leg, then started to rush towards her. He didn’t have time to set his second arm, which was dangling behind him like a flag. She jumped up and tried to escape towards the nearby train station. The man ran after her. She reached the dimly-lit platform. There was nobody around apart from some homeless lying on a bench.
“Shit! I’m trapped,” she yelled to herself realising there was nowhere to run.
Chang grabbed her and threw her onto the empty track. She tried to protect herself but it was no use. He then jumped next to her with a thud.
“I won’t ask again. If you don’t want to give us the key, we will take it from you.”
She was lying on the track covered in her own blood. Out of the sudden, she heard some noise coming from the outside of the platform. She realised it was a train, so she reached her hand towards the rail and tried to push herself out of the track. The sound was getting louder and louder, and she didn’t have enough strength to pull herself up.
“What do you think you are doing?” the man asked ironically, while coming towards her.
She was too weak to answer or to catch a full breath. He grasped her hair and kicked her with his left leg. Then threw her further onto the railway.
“F-Fuck you!” she stuttered out splitting with her blood.
The three lights of the approaching train were visible in the small distance. The man sat on the exhausted woman and started to rummage for the key with one hand, as the other one was dangling numbly behind him. She tried to protect herself, but she was too weak. Another whistle spread around.
“Where did you hide it!” he wondered while the train was only seconds away.
She raised her arm, pressed some button with her index finger causing a key to emerge from her black cuff and shouted,
“Take it, asshole” she spit, and threw the key a few feet further onto the railway. Chang, not thinking much, immediately made a dart towards the front, while C47 laid flat along the track. Suddenly, the black bottom of the locomotive covered everything she saw. Chang grabbed the key and quickly laid down, too, to avoid being hit by the locomotive. Yet, his dangling arm stayed behind as the train came. The numb limb hooked against a hanging spike from the locomotive and the whole body was pulled behind the speeding machine. The woman closed her eyes. She could only hear the clatter of the metal wheels while the carriages were skidding a few inches above her. When it passed, she slowly raised her arms trying to stand up. She looked at the rails in front of her, and saw a few metre-long blood trace with guts all around.
“Well, well. You were actually invincible.”
She limbed along the rails and carefully looked around. Suddenly, she stopped and crouched above the smelly remains.
“There you are,” she murmured grabbing the key from between the cut fingers.
She hid the object in her pocket and headed for the platform. As she was trying to climb on a head-level platform edge, she heard a voice.
“Need a helping hand?”
She looked up and saw an elder man wearing white clothes reaching out his hand towards her.
“I’ll be alright,” came the answer as she was struggling with the wall.
“Will you?” Arthur asked.
“Eh,” she sighted reluctantly as she grabbed his hand and let herself be pulled up.
“Quite a nice performance you did there, Miss Shu.”
She immediately let go of his hand, looked at him suspiciously and said.
“How do you know my name? Who are you anyway?” She immediately took out her pistol and aimed at him.
“Believe me,” Arthur smiled, “I didn’t come here with bad intentions. There is no need to use weapons.”
She was looking at him as if she was slightly convinced but not fully. What was this white man doing in the middle of a night in the railway station? Was he observing her?
“Please Miss Shu, let’s sit and talk.”
She put away her weapon and replied wiping her blood off her lower lip.
“OK.”
They walked a few yards further to the bench.
“You know, Miss Shu,” Arthur said, as she was checking up her hurt leg. “I have never seen anyone to kill a demon this way.”
She lifted her head and asked in disbelieve.
“A demon?”
Arthur smiled a little bit.
“That is correct. Well, that used to be a human, before he was possessed by a demon. You know, I saw people casting spells on them, trapping them forever, shooting their eyes with holy water, but never ever have I seen anyone completely destroying their host.”
She was gazing and simultaneously listening to his every word.
“I’m really sorry about your brother, I couldn’t save him on time.”
Her jaw dropped as she froze in shock. A few minutes ago she had the last contact with her handler; her brother and now this man was talking about him as if he knew what happened.
“Who are you? How do you know all that? How do you know my name and my real name, how ...”
“Please, too many questions,” the old man interrupted. “I will answer each and every one of them, but one at a time. Alright?”
“I’m sorry,” she said calmly. “But you see, so many strange things happened to me tonight.”
“I understand your situation. After going through such things, like tonight, one seeks answers to their questions, so I won’t keep you in uncertainty anymore.”
“I’m all ears,” she said eagerly.
“My name is Arthur. I know all about demons because I fight them, and I know your name, because I have been observing your work for a long time.”
The woman was gaping at him, but she couldn’t say anything.
“I realise, this is strange for you, but it’s true.”
“W-Why me?” she stammered.
“I’m searching for the best people all over the world to join my special organisation that fights...” he pointed at the remains of Chang. “...those things.”
“I almost died here, and you want me to fight more those things?” She said angrily.
“Not only demons, many others,” Arthur replied calmly. “You’re the best hitman, or should I say hit woman in the world. I want you to join me, and find more answers to the questions you have.”
“What if I don’t have any questions?” she asked.
“Believe me, you do, you have just asked them.” he replied amusingly. “For instance, you still don’t know what happened to your brother, or what the key is for.”
“My brother! Is he alive? Tell me!”
“Yes, he’s alive. But he is not in China anymore. I will explain everything soon.
“I want to know!”
“Miss Shu, you’re not ready for this answer yet.”
“When will you tell me?” she inquired wiping remaining blood from her shoulder.
“Soon,” he put his hand in a pocket of his suit, “If you agree to join my group.”
He took out an envelope.
“Read carefully what is there and consider my proposition. In more than a week you will know all the answers.”
She took the envelope and opened it, while Arthur stood up and headed towards the near stairs. “How will I find you?” she shouted.
Arthur turned around.
“Everything what you need is in the envelope.”
She looked into it with amazement.
“What’s that?” she murmured to herself while taking out the papers from the paper container.
To her amazement, she found there a cheque for 20, 000$, plane tickets, as well as some other papers. “It was you...’ she shouted, but there was no one in sight. Her voice weakened. “Who hired me for this mission.”
It all hit her. It was him whose voice she had heard two days earlier. The same men who had given her this very mission. And he seemed to know so many things about her. But the most important question was, what happened to her brother back then. He was her handler, and all she heard from him was they found me. To know the answer about his whereabouts she had to follow the instructions from the mysterious envelop. There was no way she could refuse this proposal.