The Eleventh Tiger by David A McIntee Read Free Book Online Page A

care to do the cooking from now on, eh?’
    Ian looked tempted. ‘Well, I’m no cordon bleu, but I know how to fry an egg -’
    ‘Chesterton!’ a voice from a nearby table exclaimed.
    It was a man with the waxy face of a drinker, and the stained clothes of one whose drinking gets less accurate with every cup of wine. His face seemed to be caught in a battle between the expressions of a jackpot winner and a crash survivor. The whole populace of the restaurant looked at the travellers.
    ‘Yes,’ Ian said cautiously. ‘My name’s Chesterton.’
    ‘Chesterton,’ the half-drunk man said again.
    Vicki was astonished. ‘How did he know your name?’
    Ian could only shrug and look baffled as the drunkard put his massive knuckles on the table and pushed himself up from his stool. He came over, almost managing to walk in a straight line.
    ‘You must have more guts than we thought, to come in here with only an old man and a couple of your gwailo whores for company - or less brains than we thought.’
    ‘Look friend,’ Ian began tartly, ‘I don’t care what you think you’ve got against me, but if you don’t take back what -’
    His protest ended in a solid smack of drunken fist against speaking mouth.
     
    The old temple off the Baiyun road didn’t look nearly as spooky in the morning light. It was just a tumbledown old building, with grass for a floor, and plants and flowers covering the walls. Fei-Hung felt more than a little foolish.
    Perhaps he had been tricked by a shadow or the movement of trees in the wind?
    That’s what his father would say, anyway. He was sure of that. But he was also sure the wind didn’t make the sound he had heard, and neither did it cast a flashing light. There were certainly no lamps in the old ruin.
    ‘Where were you, exactly?’ his father asked.
    Fei-Hung pointed to an arch. ‘Through there.’
    Wong-sifu immediately made for the arch and, after a moment’s hesitation, Fei-Hung followed. He wasn’t sure whether he was expecting to see anything or not. The daylight had banished most of the fear, and even if there had been anything demonic, surely it would have returned to one of the hells by dawn.
    Fei-Hung stepped through the arch - and froze, a chill trickling down his spine. The gate that had appeared from nowhere was still there. ‘There it is.’
    Kei-Ying moved closer to it, but Fei-Hung stayed where he was for a moment. In the light he could see that it was more like a kind of wooden box - the size of two or three coffins stuck together - that had appeared in the gap in the wall.
    ‘You see, I told you!’
    His father gave him a withering look, which mellowed after a moment. ‘This box is new, but it’s nothing supernatural.’
    He pointed to some writing above the doors and on one of the panels. ‘This writing is in the European alphabet. It probably belongs to the compound on Xamian Island, or one of the companies in town.’
    ‘Then what’s it doing out here?’
    Kei-Ying stepped back, studying the box. ‘I don’t know. It’s out of the way, but they haven’t hidden it or covered it up. It could be abandoned, I suppose. Or some sort of small supply cabinet for columns nearing the city. I wonder how heavy it is; the noise you heard could have been some kind of steam-driven traction-engine that was carrying it.’
    Fei-Hung shook his head. ‘Nothing carried it,’ he insisted.
    ‘It appeared out of nothing. I saw it,’ he added emphatically.
    He knew it sounded insane, but he also knew he wasn’t given to flights of fancy, and he hoped his father knew this too.
    After a moment Kei-Ying nodded. ‘I believe you believe that’s what you saw.’ He turned back to the box and made to pat its side. Instantly, he drew his hand back. ‘What the -?’
     
    ‘Father?’ Fei-Hung was immediately on guard, though he wasn’t sure what he was guarding against.
    ‘It... tingles.’
    ‘Tingles?’
    Wong-sifu nodded.
    Gingerly, Fei-Hung put out a hand towards the