The Dragon of New York
1
Danny Lei looked at the old shop. His face, his whole demeanor, was perfectly still as he stood on the sidewalk. It was a trait trained into him by his teacher.
The place had been sealed with wood after the death of his father. His mother had passed shortly before that. His Uncle Nick had looked around, but had found nothing for his trouble.
Danny had moved to Texas when his father's friend had adopted him.
After all this time, Danny was ready to move into the old place and see what happened.
More than ready.
Danny crossed the street, key in hand. He unlocked the webbed door and let himself inside. The dust stayed where it was as he walked across the room without leaving footprints. He placed his bag behind the counter as he surveyed the room.
This is where his father had died. The police tape was still on the floor where his body had laid.
Danny turned stiffly to inspect the rest of the place.
Danny settled in, cleaning the years of dust away with his usual calm. He knew Uncle Nick had kept the place like this in case some clue would ever turn up as to why his father had been killed. He had grown up, learning what he could from his mentor, then others, until finally he had met the wandering fighter known as the One.
Danny knew that his presence would have to be some kind of impetus to hopefully draw out his father's killer.
Otherwise, his effort was doomed from the start.
A knock on his glass door drew him to the front of the building. He was not surprised to see Sam Colt standing on the sidewalk. He opened the door to let her in.
"Gray called to let me know you were hanging out," said the beat cop. "So I decided to drop in, and see what's up."
"I am getting ready to reopen the shop," said Danny, locking the door. "Would you like some tea, or soda?"
"Do you want to talk about it?," asked Sam, waiting for him to lead the way to the back. "A cold case almost never gets solved."
"Nothing to talk about," said Danny. "I am just a businessman trying to succeed in my first venture."
He glided to living quarters he was fixing up with the rest of the place.
"Pull the other one, buddy," said Sam.
Danny poured water in the tea kettle and put it on the stove. He had taken care of the utilities before doing anything else. He set the water to boil, placing two clean cups on the counter next to the sink.
"I thought you and Gray were glued at the hip," Sam said. She leaned against the doorframe, watching his movements.
He struck her as a rock, immovable and unrelenting.
"Uncle Nick was my guardian," said Danny. "I think I can take care of myself now."
The flash of green in his dark eyes came and went.
"Excuse me," Danny said. "Someone is entering the shop."
He stepped around her and glided to the front of the building. Three men waited for him. One held a vase that had been sitting on a pedestal for the last ten years.
"We're from the neighborhood protection agency," said the one holding the vase. "We insure your shop against accidents and such."
"Really?," said Danny. "I already have insurance."
"That's too bad," the spokesman said, dropping the vase. "So it'll insure against things like that?"
"No," said Danny. "It insures against this."
Suddenly Danny was across the room before anyone could move. Green flames lit up his eyes for a brief second as his open hand came around. A crack like a door slamming sounded. The spokesman spun in the air once before dropping to the ground.
"You see, I have all the insurance I need," said Danny placidly. "That will be twenty-five dollars for the vase."
The other two men looked at each other. None of their other marks had slapped one of them silly before. One paid the money while the other helped their fallen comrade out of the door.
"You could have just pressed charges," Sam said, hands in her jacket pockets. "That was a clear case of extortion."
"Hopefully they have learned a lesson," said Danny. "But if it will make you feel better, you can take the broken ceramic away and have it printed. Then you can start making a legal case if you want."
"What about you?," Sam asked.
"I am going to finish setting up," said Danny, retrieving his broom and dustpan. "Then I am going to look around, learn the neighborhood again."
"If you need any help," said Sam, holding out a bag for the pieces. "Let me know."
"I can take care of myself," Danny said, stiff as ever, dumping the pieces in the bag. "Let me know what the print check comes back with. It might be interesting."
"Sure."
Sam closed the bag, writing on the outside with a pen. She walked out of the door, glancing left and right as she turned and headed to her car.
Danny went back to the kitchen as the water began to boil in the kettle. He poured out some water and placed a tea bag in the cup to steep.
It would be interesting to see what the prints came back with. He wondered if the extortionists had tried to pressure his father. Had they killed him when he wouldn't pay?
Danny pushed the speculation aside as he drank his tea. He still had to finish cleaning the place up to use as his cover.
When the night came, he would have a look at the police files himself. Maybe a suspect would be listed, even if there was no evidence. The police often learned things they couldn't act on.
That wouldn't stop him.
2
Danny showered off the dirt after he finished work for the day. He dressed in the two-tone green costume he wore as the Dragon Mage. He painted his face green. A window let him bounce out and to the roof of the shop.
He paused to listen. Sounds drifted to him, telling him of life in the neighborhood. He listened, quietly looking around.
It was a consequence of the training he had undertaken. The One referred to it being one with the world, using chi to enhance his senses. The sensory input was the only thing that he could use without thought.
The rest required effort.
It would be years before he reached the type of mastery the One displayed like a fish in a river. What he had would do until he grew into the rest.
He was patient enough to walk that path in the years ahead. Now he had things to do.
Danny flexed his legs, then leaped to the face of the building next to his. He bounced, pushing himself upwards to the taller structure's roof. He vaulted the edge of the cornice and moved across to the other side.
The city had a precinct on the edge of Chinatown. That was his destination at the moment. Crossing the rooftops with his speed only took minutes. He dropped on the police station silently.
Now all he needed were the records he sought.
Danny gained access to the precinct by popping open the grill on a fifth floor window, and slipping inside the room. He had picked an empty room for ease of movement. He jimmied the grill so that it would look normal.
He listened to the building, slipping from room to room easily. He worked his way through the busy place until he reached his destination, the records room at the bottom of the building. He opened the cabinets and went through the files of his father's murder.
There was precious little in the case file. There were no witnesses, no suspects, and the method was a knife in the heart in a professional manner. Danny's father had some bruising on his arms, probably from blocking the attack on his person.
Danny put the file back. He made his way back to the room where he had entered. He climbed back out of the window and slammed the grill back in place over his exit. He flipped back up to the roof.
Danny made his way home, thinking about what he had read. He didn't have a place to start, much like his Uncle Nick and the police. The only thing he decided was that a fighter better than his father.
Danny wondered if that man was still around.
3
Danny installed a small bulletin board in his office area the next day. He wrote armed assassin, and martial artist on a card and pinned it to the board.
It was a small start, but he felt justified in his assumptions due to the reports he had read.
How could he expand on his knowledge was the question?
Danny put the problem aside. He had work to do around his shop for the grand opening. His neighbors kept to themselves. He had not seen any, except when he walked to the corner store for some milk and eggs. None looked at him as far as he could tell.
They were probably waiting on him to approach them.
He hoped so anyway.
Danny took one last look around the shop as he opened the door for customers for the first time. He noted the appearance of the local extortionists across the street as the locks clicked back. Others were gathering to them in a mob.
Danny went to wait behind his counter. He had a baton close at hand on a small shelf under the register. The hard wood would extend his reach another two feet when the fight started.
He would have to be careful not to strike too hard.
It was too easy to direct more force than necessary through the wood into a soft target.
Danny waited as the gang gathered their forces to teach him a lesson on why he should not refuse to pay.
Maybe they would learn something in return.
Danny walked from behind his counter as the man he had slapped entered the store. The group filed in behind him, the last man locking the bolt on the door.
"Now about that insurance," said the leader, grinning for a moment until he started wondering why the man in green simply looked at him like an annoyance.
He never saw Danny's feet leave the floor, but felt a sledgehammer hit his chest. He flew backwards, pinning his friends against the front windows, until an open hand hit the unmarked side of his face and sent him flying into a display stand.
The White Tigers tried to recover, rush their attacker and overwhelm him. Danny had them trapped against the door, and was smashing them relentlessly with his open hand and baton. The last man struggled to unlock the front door as one of his comrades flew through a window into the street. He got out of the store, looking back at the chaos.
The store would be wrecked, but the Tiger knew most of his comrades were going to the hospital as that green eyed thing broke bones with simple grabs, blocked and counterattacked before the blow swung halfway, slapped a man silly with invisible hands.
The fight spilled out on the street, the Tigers that could move limping away from the destruction.
Danny looked around, kicking a Tiger in the head. The gang had broken from the fight, leaving their wounded behind. The fighter shoved the bodies out of his wrecked shop with not so gentle kicks.
Danny surveyed the damage calmly as he replaced the baton under the counter. He would have to order new pottery and supplies to sell. Most of his merchandise had blood on it, making it unsuitable to sale.
Danny dialed 911 and reported a fight outside his shop. He told the operator to send medical attention before he hung up the phone. The police would clean up the sidewalk for him as he worked to reopen his business.
Danny went and started a kettle of water to boil. He needed some tea to think.
Danny watched as the police arrived to help clear the streets. Some of the Tigers had made it off the streets minutes ahead of the men in blue. He sipped his tea quietly as he thought about his next move.
The records he had uncovered marked a man with a proficiency with his hands and a knife the size of a dagger. There were a number of men like that, especially here in this city.
He needed a way to narrow the field.
Meat wagons were full when they rolled away from the scene. Danny filed a report, stating his wrecked shop came from the supposed fight between the Tigers and their imaginary enemies. No one came forward to contradict him.
Sam Colt, and her partner Cubby Waite, arrived after things were settled and Danny had gone back to cleaning up the wreckage of his shop in his methodical way.
"Clearance sale?," she said, hands in her pockets.
"Unfortunately not," said Danny. "I will have to send a bill to the White Tigers for the loss."
"Cubby, this is Danny," Sam said. "Danny, this is Cubby. You want to tell me how many bones you broke over some tea?"
Danny led the partners to the back. At least his kitchen had survived the assault by the gang members. He placed a kettle on to boil water for tea.
"I thought you worked south of here," said Danny, as he got two more cups from his cupboard.
"We heard the squawk and decided to come down and look for ourselves," said Sam. "Looks like a riot happened."
"I have never seen so many sore heads," said Cubby. "What are you going to do about the front of the store? It's a wreck."
"It won't take too much to clean up," said Danny. "A few hours of work at most. Hopefully a lesson has been taught so I will not be bothered again."
"I don't know about that, Danny," said the female cop. She looked around casually as she sat at the kitchen table. "A guy I know at the OCB said they front for a Tong. A heavy hitter might show up to talk to you."
"I would be flattered if one did," said Danny, looking out his rear window. "Then we could talk about the current situation in this part of town."
"I would pay to see that," said Sam.
"I am sure," said Danny, picking the kettle up just before it whistled. He poured the water out in the cups, dropping tea bags in to steep.
"Do you want police protection?," Cubby asked. "Maybe we can build a case against these yahoos and take them off the streets."
"I don't need any protection," said Danny. "I am sure that the incident that just happened could lead to other crimes if you could get a warrant to look through their belongings."
"OCB is probably doing that now," said Sam. "The fingerprint you gave me is being run against unsolved crimes as we speak. That might be some kind of leverage against Mickey Chen."
"A habitual offender?," asked Danny.
"Record as long as my arm," said Cubby, reaching for sugar to put in his cup of tea.
Danny sipped at his tea as he considered how he could apply what he had been told. This Mickey Chen might trigger someone higher in the food chain to come to the shop. Maybe it was an entrance into the Tong behind the White Tigers.
Secret societies frowned on outsiders telling them how they should conduct their business.
Sam Colt was another matter to consider. She had that disagreeable look that said she was taking notice, and stubbornly taking hold of any thread she could to grab anyone she could place in jail.
A filly not to trifle with is what his Uncle Nick would say.
The worst part is she would keep digging until someone came after her instead of Danny. He had no doubts on her ability with a hand gun, but her skill was limited against someone who had the proper training.
He was stumped for the means to exclude her from his search.
"What can you tell me about this Tong?," Danny asked.
"The Golden Claw Tong is supposedly the backer for the White Tigers," said Sam. "They have the usual illegal trade with the Triads back home. Drugs, weapons, counterfeit money, and white slavery. They have had some conflicts with Benny Ko in the past. Benny runs his own operations under the guise of a legitimate import/export outfit. Benny and Li Jiang, the guy who runs the Claws, have been at each other for a number of years. So far they haven't declared war on each other."
"Where does Li Jiang live?," asked Danny. "I may want to talk to him."
"No one knows where he lives," said Cubby. "Rumor is the Dragon Kanji restaurant is where he conducts his business. It is supposed to be an open fort."
"Dragon Kanji?," said Danny. "I have seen it."
"Benny Ko works out of the Eastern Shipping Company, if you want to talk to him," said Sam.
"I may want to talk to both of them," Danny said. "But now I have to call the glass company and replace my windows."
"Anything you learn, pass along," said Sam. "The organized crime guys have been after these guys for years."
"Not able to establish probable cause?," asked Danny.
"Right, and the minor leaguers we take down are too scared to turn," said Sam.
"I imagine," said Danny.
"We have to get back to work," Cubby said. "We're already way out of our beat."
"I understand," said Danny. "I have to get back to work myself."
The police officers finished their tea, and left quietly. Danny started making arrangements for his ruined shop. Everything would be back in shape the next day. Then he could reopen on time the day after.
Danny started cleaning until the crews arrived to finish cleaning up, and replacing the windows with panes off their truck. The job might be done faster than Danny had thought at first. He pitched in and the work was done before the sun had descended on the city.
4
Danny went to dinner after paying the workers for their time. He walked down the street, listening to the conversations going on around him. He scooped out some useful nuggets as he went.
One was the fear that the other gangs that roamed the neighborhood would try to muscle in where the White Tigers were having a problem with the new merchant. A second was that some recalled Victor Lei, and his stiff-necked resistance to the Tigers, and his murder in his closed shop. Uncle Nick had made an impression on them, but they were too scared to talk to him.
They were wondering when a hatchet man would try to kill him like the older Lei.
Danny nodded to himself in silent agreement. He wondered when a professional would try to make a move. Then he might have a tie to the killer he wanted to find.
Danny stepped in the Dragon Kanji restaurant, surveying the scene. Guards were clustered around a stairwell leading off the main floor of the dining room. Obviously they were supposed to delay the arrival of invaders to the head man's office.
Danny waited to be seated, watching the diners eat, listening to the hundred discussions, filtering through what seemed innocent, taking in information that seemed incriminating.
The hostess seated Danny at a table after a long wait. He picked the seat that would give him the best view of the room as he waited for the waitress. He liked the room itself.
It was open, with tall ceilings. Lighting was provided by small lamps on the decorated walls. A dragon and kanji were merged in one image.
The waitress tried to be friendly with Danny as she took his order, but his regular, placid face was a cool mask of indifference. She went away huffily to turn his order in.
Danny didn't care about the food, or the waitress.
His concentration was on the words leaking to him from the office upstairs. Li Jiang was calmly berating someone for letting one man embarrass him. There was the sound of cracking.
Danny thought that someone had a bone broken.
His food arrived moments later. He nodded to the waitress, as he looked his dinner over. He sniffed the soup, and gingerly tasted the duck and noodles. He waited for the woman to clear out before he picked at his dish.
Several more bones snapped upstairs as he ate, reasonably sure the food had not been poisoned. He idly wondered if it would be better if he went upstairs and talked the crime boss into letting his subordinate live.
Danny decided that the White Tiger would have to fend for himself until someone noticed him enough to tell Li Jiang he was enjoying the servings he had received.
On the other hand, Danny would rather finish his dinner before dealing with a potential menace in the neighborhood. He had no doubt violence would break out with the least provocation. He would like to avoid that with so many people around to get hurt.
Danny picked through his food, as he listened. Li Jiang told his guards to clear the debris out of the room and dump it. He called someone on his phone. The side that Danny heard suggested he was hiring someone dependable to clear the deck of his annoyances. The phone hung up with a vehement slam.
Danny finished his meal leisurely before going to the register and paying for it. He had heard the name Ghost Tiger in Chinese on the phone. That was a clue if Li Jiang had used the same man years ago.
Danny paused by the door, studying the bodyguards on the stairs. They regarded him with disdain until he walked up to them.
"I would like to speak to Li Jiang, please," Danny said.
"No visitors, chump," said the bigger man. "Get out of here."
Danny nodded.
"Tell him I expect a check for the damages his employees did to my shop by tomorrow," said Danny. "Or he won't like what I do to his place of business."
"What did you just say, runt?" asked the guard, reaching under his jacket.
The other man also went for the firearm he was carrying in a holster on his waistband.
Neither saw the backs of Danny's hands landing against their faces before they flew on either side of the stairwell. Danny grabbed their pistols as he went upstairs, crushing them with a little effort and small expenditure of the chi at his command. The lumps of metal dropped heavily against the floor as he reached the second floor landing.
The two guards here already had their weapons out as Danny suddenly appeared in front of them. He slid forward, disabling them with two simple hand moves before they could pull the triggers on their guns. He crushed those pistols too before knocking on the door to the inner office.
"I said no visitors," the surly voice said through the hard wood.
Danny knocked on the door once. The hinges snapped, letting the door cascade inside to the floor.
"My name is Danny Lei," said Danny. "I would like to talk to you about the money you owe me for damages."
Li Jiang was a compact man, wearing black cotton jacket and trousers. Gray black hair was trimmed close to his skull. Hazel eyes glared at the intruder in his office from deep sockets.
"Excuse me?," Li said as he put a ledger aside, and stood up.
"I understand that you are the brain of the Tigers gang," said Danny Lei. "I wish for reimbursement from the damage they inflicted on my shop this morning. I will be glad to submit an itemized bill."
"I understand you are new to the neighborhood," said Li. "That is no excuse to be rude. In any case, I am not responsible for anything a gang may do."
"I see," said Danny, advancing toward the desk. "So you don't feel that you should hold your assistants in check."
"Youth will express itself in a way it feels is warranted," Li said, slicing the air with the edge of his hand. "I am not accountable for that."
Danny kicked the desk, channeling a fragment of his chi into the heavy wood. The piece of furniture hopped on its own accord
and crashed through the office wall. It descended across the restaurant's ground floor before impaling itself on a column next to
the entrance.
"That is my expression of what is warranted," said Danny.
"Whom do you think you are?," Li asked, falling into a fighting stance. "Do you know how much that will cost to repair?"
"About the same as my shop," said Danny calmly, arms at his side. "It will be worse if I have to come back here."
"What makes you think you are leaving?," Li demanded.
The Tong leader stabbed at Danny with his hand, fingers extended like a knife blade. The younger man stepped back out of the way. The fingertips fell short by an inch. The pressure from the blow dimpled his shirt slightly.
Li stepped forward, arms stabbing forward one after the other like pistons. Danny slid back before the storm of blows, hands still at his sides. His expression was the surface of a calm lake, or clear sky.
Li paused in his assault. His breathing was slow and steady as he considered his next tactic.
He went for Danny's legs with a sweep to knock the younger man down to the floor. His foot swept through empty air as the shop owner hopped over the maneuver. He swept his leg back in a roundhouse to Danny's head. The move was snake-quick, but the Dragon Mage seemed to push himself over the move with a flick of his hand, somersaulting easily over the mob boss.
Li turned, sliding across the floor on one foot, while attacking with the other. His phantom opponent disappeared through the new hole in his office wall.
Li Jiang watched his opponent walk to the front door of his restaurant and leave. He breathed his anger away as he went to the door of his office. He would have to clear the dining room, and notify his brothers of this upstart.
He was ready to go to war if that was what this newcomer wanted.
Li shook his head at his sleeping guards, not surprised that they had been laid out by the intruder. It had been a long time since he had met someone with the skill displayed by the shop owner.
Li raised his hands at the entrance to the dining room, trying to smile reassuringly.
"I am sorry," he began, casting about for a suitable explanation. "A water leak has caused the floor in my office to collapse. If you will go to the register, I will issue rain checks for your dinners. I am sorry for the inconvenience."
Li waited for the diners to file out, whispering for one of the waitresses to lock up behind the customers as they left. He knew that no one would press on the lie.
That would be tantamount to asking for a visit to their homes and businesses by the Tigers, or representatives from the tong.
Li waited for the last of his customers to leave before returning to his office. He had arrangements to make.
Luckily the phone had crashed to the floor instead of following the desk through the wall.
5
Danny walked back to his shop. He wondered what steps Li would take now that he had been affronted by one of his supposed victims.
Would he ask for a sanction from a hatchet man?
Danny decided to check out the place that the other godfather worked from. He would use his other face for that.
Danny entered his shop, going to his living quarters. He changed into the green on green costume and face paint he wore as the Dragon Mage. He pulled on his weapon belts as he headed for the roof. He crossed the neighborhood's roofs with his usual mechanical grace.
Danny paused across the street from the import/export office. A warehouse extended from the back of the place. A chain link fence surrounded the loading area of the site. The company's sign had been screwed into the brick front of the office, the letters in Chinese kanji and English letters.
Danny used the front of the building across from the Eastern Shipping Company as a slide to the ground. He paused in a pool of shadows before sprinting across the street, bouncing over the fence by kicking the wall of the office. He dropped to the asphalt on the other side, shoulder rolling under a security camera.
Dan moved to a small door beside the large sliding truck doors. That would allow him entrance with the proper coaxing.
Danny grabbed the door knob. He yanked it forward, then pushed it back just as fast. His effort unseated the bolt for a second, breaking the mechanism. He pushed the steel barrier in, hoping that the damage would go unnoticed by any casual inspection. Danny stepped inside the warehouse, closing the door behind him.
The interior of the warehouse was packed with boxes from all over the world. Overhead lights were off. The crescent moon glimmered dimly through sky lights.
Danny saw the connecting door to the office, and headed for it. He avoided the cameras he saw mounted to the walls.
Danny stood next to the office door, a shadow among other shadows. He knew that he and the man in the office were the only ones in the building. His hearing told him that much.
The man in the office was checking on someone and where they were right now. He seemed irate that the subject was moving across the city, seemingly without a purpose. The phone slammed against its cradle with one last order of find her in the air.
Danny waited as the man worked for a few more hours. When the office light snapped off, Danny had already slid behind a stack of crates. An elderly Chinese sailed out of the office, white hair little clouds above his ears. He went directly to the front door and left after turning on the alarm system. Danny quickly went to the alarm panel and cut the system back off, using the numbers the old man had punched in.
Danny went back to the office. He searched it quietly for any clues. A set of records revealed that Mr. Ko's company earned twice as much as it reasonably should. It didn't take an accountant to see that.
The question then became what was making the extra dollars for the Eastern Shipping Company?
Danny left the office. He decided to take a look at some of the properties on sight. Quick slices from one of his short swords popped the top on any crate he wanted to look at. Empty spaces next to knick knacks and souvenirs showed that other things had been shipped through Customs successfully.
Danny shook his head as he placed the lid back on the boxes. He made a note of the crates' shipping numbers. He would give that to Sam. That would put her on the customs inspector that hadn't properly checked the contents of the crate.
She might be able to flip the man against Ko. That would give the smuggler something to think about other than his business.
Danny retraced his route to get to the exit. Getting out was just as easy as getting in for him. He headed back to his shop. Pushing Li Jiang might have angered the man enough to burn the place down.
Danny used the rooftops to get to his place. Sometimes he had stopped to let some know that he was watching them, to stop them in the middle of whatever crime he came across. The emergency rooms nearby would be kept busy by his idea of preventive action.
Danny stepped inside his shop. He left a message on Sam's answering machine before cleaning up, and sacking out on the mat he used for a bed upstairs. His instinct would sound an alarm if his place was invaded while he was asleep. Still he kept one of his swords at hand so he wouldn't fumble for it if he needed it.
He wondered what the sun would bring in the morning as he relaxed into the light trance he called sleep.
6
Danny watched the sun rise from his roof. He had decided to keep the shop closed for the day. He didn't want to look fearful in front of the neighborhood who would be watching things like a hawk, but it couldn't be helped.
Danny leaped across the rooftops, moving out of Chinatown. New York was a city of connecting roofs which were a road for someone like Danny. Only the skyscrapers that dotted Manhattan made him vary his routine efforts enough to appear cautious.
He landed on the roof across the street from Sam Colt's small apartment. He waited, still as a park statue. The police woman walked out of her place and turned toward the police statue. She scanned the street, looking for something as she walked.
Maybe she felt his presence, but couldn't see him. He had seen others do that when they were being followed. Someone concentrating on them seemed to warn them.
Danny drifted along behind her. He was pleased that no one seemed to be following her. He didn't doubt that Ko, or Li Jiang, would take her hostage if they thought that would do any good. Maybe kill her if they thought it was warning enough.
A bunch of bad guys would go down in the attempt.
Sam's reflexes were lightning fast, and she was as deadly with a Colt as any old west gunfighter. Her shooting had placed her in third place behind Croyd Layton, and Cully Morrigan. She could bull's eye a moving target almost as fast as she could pull the trigger.
Still numbers would take the day, no matter how good Sam was.
Sam made it to her precinct. She went inside to start her day. Her shadow waited outside for her reappearance. She reappeared an hour later, Cubby Waite in tow. The stout man had a cup of coffee and a donut in his hand as they started walking. Moments later they were in a blue and white heading across town.
Danny followed, the early morning traffic helping him to keep the police car in sight.
Sam and Cubby met an arrest team at the import company. They gently walked in with a pack of drug dogs leading the way. Minutes later, men were being lined up against the outer wall.
It looked like Benny Ko hadn't had a chance to empty all of the crates and move the contraband as quickly as he should have.
It was a costly mistake for the smuggler depending on how much he had been caught with.
One of the men swung on Sam, trying to get out of the trap and run for it. A knee between the legs stopped that move. She swung the butt of her pistol against his head to make sure he stayed down. Two more went for it while the cops were distracted. One stopped on his own because Sam shot the other in his leg.
Danny nodded to himself. The police had things well in hand. He would be able to open his shop after all. He wondered if Li Jiang could open his restaurant later in the day.
Maybe he should drop by and get some chow mein, or fried duck.
Danny crossed town lightly, thinking about his next move. Ko might make bail. There was no telling what he would do when he did. Maybe he could direct some of that on the tong leader.
Maybe a confrontation between the lords of China town would reveal skeletons in the closet. Maybe one of them would lead Danny to his father's killer. It would take some careful squeezing, but maybe it would be worth it.
Danny dropped into his sitting room through the skylight in the roof. He took a moment to feel the building before hanging up his jacket and going downstairs. No one had been there after he left for his morning outing as far as he could tell.
The business phone rang as Danny watched the crowd go by on the street. The shop was open, but so far he had sold only a replica of a Japanese tengu to a tourist. Three bucks for three hours was a slow day.
Danny supposed the locals were giving him a wide berth after the last day or so.
Danny picked the receiver up, listening to the cacophony on the other end before saying "Lei Curios."
"We caught a major deal going down thanks to you, Danny," said Sam Colt. "You should have seen the look on Uncle Benny's face when I threw him in a cell. He was ready to spit nails."
"My pleasure," said Danny. "Watch out for yourself. Mr. Ko will probably be vengeful over this."
"I doubt it," said Sam. "He's not going to risk anything before his arraignment. At this point, he is going to lawyer up and try to motion the evidence out of existence. He might want your identity so he can find out who ratted on him."
"A man has the right to face his accuser," said Danny.
"Unless he votes for a speedy trial," said Sam. "I have plenty of time to think of a convincing lie about not knowing the identity of the tipster. See ya."
7
Danny put up a sign to say he would be out for lunch. He walked to Li Jiang's restaurant. He automatically listened to the loose talk as he went by. Benny Ko's arrest had already started making the rounds.
Some wondered who would try to fill his shoes and stand up to Jiang's Tigers.
Danny paused at the doors of the Dragon Kanji restaurant. Tong and gang members filled the foyer. They milled about as they waited for the gangster to join them. Some spotted the newcomer standing at the door. They came to the door, angrily waving him on.
Danny waited quietly for several seconds before walking away from the door. He went to an alley two buildings down. He bounced up the walls easily, flipping over the rampart of the building closest to the restaurant. He glided across the roofs until he stood above Jiang's office.
Danny listened, his hearing penetrating the cement roof. He frowned as conversation stopped below him. Li Jiang had stopped in the middle of a sentence.
Danny frowned.
Somehow they had known he was on the roof. Someone had told them about his hearing.
He felt the building as well as he could. It seemed clear of detection devices.
It should have been impossible for him to have given himself away.
Danny felt a pressure wave cutting the air toward him. He turned, slicing across with his arm. His arm deflected another arm barely. He retaliated with a kick, trying to push this strange intruder outside of his personal space.
"Li Jiang says you are Victor Lei's offspring," said the stranger, falling into the neutral stance that Danny held. "He didn't say you had been trained by the One."
"He didn't know," said Danny, examining his enemy with clear eyes. "The One didn't say he had trained others before me."
"He probably thinks I am dead," said the hatchet man. "I am afraid that I can't leave alive any of his other students knowing that I am alive."
"I won't be as easy to kill as my father," said Danny.
"That remains to be seen," said the hatchet man. "I will make this as painless as possible."
The older man attacked, vibrating the air as he passed. He beat upon Danny's defense with invisible hands. A loud crack sent the Dragon Mage over the edge of the roof.
Danny rolled in the air, kicking the nearby wall to slow his descent to the street. He bounced against the brick, flipped, bounced again, shoulder rolled along the floor of the concrete canyon. He snapped to his feet, hating to be on the defensive.
He knew that his assassin was kicking at him, using the same style of descent he had. He ducked, counterpunching at the blur his instinct said was in front of him. A hand caught the blow, using it as a pivot to spin to a silent landing a few feet away.
The air crackled as a cloud of refuse became deadly bullets with a touch of the hatchet man's fingers. Danny spun away from the attack. The back of his hand slapped against a brick in the alley wall with a show of green fire. The mortar came apart as the brick struck at the assassin. The hatchet man shattered the projectile with a finger.
Danny leaped forward, trying to overwhelm the other man. His chi danced on the surface of his fists as he tried to pierce the assassin's defenses. Flames danced in both men's eyes as their arms pushed the air into wild currents. The assassin blocked a glowing fist with an open hand. Danny rebounded into a car, shattering the passenger window, crumpling the door with his body.
"More of a challenge than you father but not that much more," said the hatchet man. "Another twenty years and I might even work up a sweat. I regret not giving you the time to mature that much."
Danny tried to pull himself together, stumbling away from his foe. He thought that maybe two of his ribs had broken after hitting the car. He needed to retreat and regroup so that he could work up a strategy.
Brute force was useless, and to continue would result in his death.
The hatchet man walked forward, stride as mechanical as Danny's own. His face was a mask for the metallic green eyes staring passively at the younger man.
"Shall we finish this?," he said.
Danny backed up. He flexed his hands as his chi excited the air. He had dreamed of finding his father's murderer, and breaking him with his control he had learned. He had never thought that the killer would be better than him.
He had never thought he would be the one fighting for his life.
Danny leaped on top of the damaged car as green lightning slashed the air in front of a pressure wave. The car rocked as the wave leaped after Danny, who had bounced to a store sign. The invisible killer followed as the student ran up the wall to the roof of the building.
Danny started across the roofs, looking for an opportunity to turn the tables. The hatchet man moved with him, trying to corral his target and destroy him. Pieces of debris became improvised javelins as the two fought across the city.
Danny came up with a desperate plan as he jumped over a clothes line that had become a buzz saw in the hands of his opponent. He needed to buy enough time to try another approach without the assassin suspecting he was alive, or at the least following him to ground.
He wove back and forth as the rope sliced into the concrete roof with the near misses. Shards ripped at the soldier of victory as he worked his way to the edge of the building facing the street. He waited for the right moment, letting his chi coalesce around his fist as he sidestepped the whirling whip.
The assassin stabbed with the rope, using it as an elongated spear. Danny swung his fist, hoping he had gauged things right. The green chi shredded the end of the cord. Threads became fiery shrapnel. The hatchet man ducked under the lethal spray, rolling to avoid an offensive move that should have followed the burning cloud.
Only Danny was gone.
The shredded rope had given him a second to make his escape off the roof. The assassin knew that a second was his prey needed with the type of training they had underwent.
The assassin laughed as he turned to retrace his steps back to Chinatown. Why chase his foe when the man would return to face him again.
Then he could carry out the contract he had taken.
It had been a long time since he had faced a foe of quality. He had lost all interest in the hunt before this, but now it was revived at facing another student of the One.
8
Sam Colt opened the door to her apartment, pistol in hand. She paused when she saw Danny pulling a small roll of tape around his right arm. Little cuts dotted his upper body from the shredded rope where he had ripped it up with his chi.
"You look like you ran into a meat grinder," said Sam.
"I ran into someone faster than me," said Danny. "Someone with the same training as I have."
"The guys in the gang units will love to hear that," said Sam, placing her pistol in a concealed holster at the small of her back.
"He doesn't belong to the gang," said Danny. "Li Jiang called him in to deal with me. I got the impression he was an assassin."
"So what do we do about it?," asked Sam. "Call in Gray, and some of his friends ?"
"Not yet," said Danny, inspecting the rest of the cuts on his chest. "I hope to talk to my teacher. Hopefully he will be able to show me how to jump up my own training so that I can stand toe to toe with this guy."
"Do you think he can do that?," asked Sam. "Is this guy really that fast?"
"Phenomenally," said Danny. He grabbed his shirt off the back of a wooden chair.
"Hold on," said Sam. "You can have one of mine. I got some men's shirts around here."
Danny rolled the torn shirt up for future repair. He took the flannel shirt offered him, and put it on. He rolled the sleeves back over his muscular arms.
"Where do we look for this teacher of yours?," Sam asked.
Danny rented a car to drive. He only had a basic idea where his teacher would be at the moment. The man moved around without direction. Fortunately he walked wherever he went.
That cut down on the search radius once he had a starting point for his search.
"How did you find this guy the first time?," Sam asked.
She had refused to be left out of whatever came next. So she had got her pistols, a baseball cap and a jacket and hitched with him. She was too dangerous to be left alone. She might try to do something that would get her killed, so Danny let her tag along with him.
"It's hard to explain," said Danny. "When I began my training, there were legends that said a man could train himself to do the impossible. I dismissed it as a fable to encourage beginners to fully master whatever art they had chosen."
"Something changed your mind," said Sam, looking at the passing sky line.
"The One appeared during a class," said Danny. "He said he wanted to watch our practice out of respect for Master Tsui. Master Tsui invited him to show us what he had mastered. That demonstration changed my outlook, cooled my thirst for revenge."
"What happened?," asked Sam.
"He caught a fired clip of bullets," said Danny. "And made them disappear."
Danny drove through the night, pausing occasionally for gas and food. The rental car hummed quietly along.
Sam slept off and on as they drove west out of the state. She read the local newspapers as they worked their way toward Iowa. An article about a mysterious man saving lives in a fire caught her attention. She pointed it out to Danny. He nodded as he pointed his car on the way to the Quad Cities.
Danny headed west from Moline, thinking that his teacher would continue to head west in a straight line. He hoped that the man would stick to the local highway, and not cross the country.
A little bit of luck was what he needed right now.
Danny kept an eye on the sides of the road as he drove. He saw the man walking mechanically on the shoulder. A duffel bag hung over his shoulder as he turned metallic green eyes on the slowing car.
"Hello, Daniel," the man said, clear voice cutting the air.
"Hello, Master," said Danny. "I need to talk to you."
Sam Colt sat in the seat facing the front door of the roadside diner they had found at the next exit off the highway. She didn't say anything about the way they moved, the metallic green eyes that seemed to catch the light from the overhead chandelier, the blankness of their faces.
They could almost be related the ways they resembled each other.
The three ate silently, sizing each other up quietly.
Danny's teacher wore old, but well maintained, shirt and pants, a fedora he had put in the seat next to him on top of his bag. Red hair, grayed in long patches on the side of his head, was swept back from his forehead in a casual gesture.
The waitress cleared the table, allowing to pause over their drinks so that they could finally talk.
"What brings you out this way, Daniel?," said the master. "I had heard you were in Texas with your guardian."
"I have begun looking into my father's death," Danny said. "I encountered another of your students. He confessed to slaying my father for a man named Li Jiang, but forced me to retreat."
"I do not see how I can help you," said the master. "This student of mine seems to have progressed in his training beyond what you have. I cannot fight a duel for you."
"I was hoping that you had a method I could use to speed up my reactions," Danny said. "Otherwise I won't be able to match his moves."
The master sipped his water quietly in thought.
Danny wore his green on green fighting suit. He had asked Sam to take the rental back and to wait until he returned to the city before doing anything. He knew she wouldn't directly confront Li Jiang, but doubted she would leave the matter completely alone.
Hopefully she wouldn't kill anyone.
The One approached, wearing a red tunic and yellow breeches. He had wrapped his wrists with red cloth. A small necklace charm glinted in the early morning light.
"I want you to attack me," said the master. "That way I can judge your progress since you left."
Danny nodded. They had picked an empty warehouse on the river so they wouldn't have to worry about others. Danny's feet slipped over the dusty floor silently. His open hand sliced the air with a loud snap. The master redirected the lightning blow with a simple push of his hand.
"A little faster," said the One.
Danny's next blow seemed to disappear before it crossed the intervening space. His hand split the space to the left of the master's head. Danny tried to follow through and take his teacher by surprise with his other hand. A hand pushed him into the ground. He rolled to avoid a hard impact.
"A little faster," said the One.
Danny spent the next few weeks working, relearning basic steps in his training. The nights were spent in meditation as he tried to control and extend his mastery of his chi. He had always had a rudimentary control at best.
His dragon punch was the single most powerful thing he had created since he had graduated from his apprenticeship.
It was nothing compared to the One's mastery.
After another long day of work, Danny sat down in the circle of candles he had arranged to help him think. He closed his eyes, reaching for the calm state inside his mind. He slowly relaxed, his mind playing memories on the back of his eyelids.
Things drifted to him. His father telling him stories about the Owlhoot and other heroes over dinner, meeting his Uncle Nick after he had retired, his father lying on the floor of his shop. He had stood at the open grave, his adopted uncle at his side.
Anger walked with those memories.
It was an old surge that he suppressed while he was walking among others, as well as other emotions that would interfere with his ability.
That led to the blank mask the students of this art wore for their faces.
He had thought he had pushed that anger away. He realized finally that it was hanging on like a lover that couldn't understand the affair was over.
Danny and the One faced off in the warehouse again. They wore the same expression as they pushed the air around them with invisible blows. The younger man had improved his speed with his retraining.
He didn't know if he was faster than the other student. He didn't know if he had gained any appreciable edge. He did know that he couldn't train forever, or be scared to face his enemy again.
It was time for him to get back on the horse, as Uncle Nick said.
The two fighters met, arms blocking off attacks as they tried to force each other off balance. The One suddenly vanished in front of Danny. The younger man staggered for a second before readjusting and blocking a blow to his face.
"I think that is enough," the One said. "You are as ready as you can be. I wish you luck in your pursuit."
Danny nodded.
In the morning he would take a flight back to Manhattan. Then he would exorcize his ghosts once and for all. Now he would meditate and try to plan for the confrontation ahead. He was as ready as he could be.
When Danny had finished packing, he went to say his farewells. The One had already departed on his travels.
9
Danny settled in his boarded up storefront. Someone had burned his store out while he was gone. He would fix that after he dealt with his enemies.
One thing at a time.
He still wasn't sure if he wanted to settle permanently in Chinatown. That was something else he would have to think about when his current situation was resolved. He was of two minds about the city.
Danny decided that he would have to announce his presence after watching the neighborhood for a few days. He had made sure not to tell Sam he was back in town. He wanted her to stay out the mess he was going to stir up.
Danny picked one of the Tigers at random. He followed the gangster from the rooftops, war paint masking his placid features. He held a small metal ball in his hand as he waited patiently for the right moment.
The Tiger grabbed an old man trying to load a fruit stand in front of his store. He was shaking his index finger in the man's face. Suddenly a crack told him his hand was broken by some invisible force. He dropped the merchant with the sudden pain. The old man shoved the injured extortionist away with both hands.
The Tiger raised his good arm, hand clenched in a fist. He was sure his intended victim had broken his hand somehow. That hand snapped before he could bring it down.
The Tiger ran away, hands in his armpits. Hopefully he had learned a lesson. Danny followed behind him, another steel ball in his hand. He knew the word would go out while the Tiger was in the hospital getting casts for his hands. Eventually it would spread back to Li Jiang, and then his hatchet man.
Danny bounded across his aerial highway, looking for other Tigers that might assist their wounded friend. He had all the time in the world to pursue his vendetta now that he was dropping his pretense of normality.
Danny continued to terrorize the Tigers with his invisible attacks. He had listened from across the street as one called Li Jiang from a cell phone. Soon the hatchet man would return to stop him.
Li Jiang would not back down from one man when he could have that man killed.
Danny hoped he was ready for the challenge. Retraining may have helped him, but he was not sure. Matching his skills against the One's was like comparing a Model T to the newest formula one car on the track.
He just had no way of gauging his ability until he started fighting. By then that would be too late. He couldn't hope to use another trick to escape as he had in their first meeting.
Standing on the roof across from the Dragon Kanji restaurant, Danny listened. The notes of everyday life formed music in his mind as he waited. Sooner or later the hatchet man would appear to his challenge. Danny could hear the pale thread that marked the assassin's movements toward him.
"I told Li Jiang you would return to face me again," the hatchet man said. "He didn't believe me."
"Our business will be concluded one way or the other," said Danny. "I have waited a long time to meet and defeat you."
"Shall we?," said the assassin, letting his suit jacket fall to the roof. Green flames lit in his eyes.
"Let's," said Danny, matching fires of chi energy erupting in his own eyes.
The two fighters circled each other, gliding gracefully in place. Gravel on the roof danced from unseen vibrations as their auras clashed silently.
The sky over Chinatown thundered as green lightning flew overhead. People on the street looked up, trying to find the disturbance with searching eyes.
Danny concentrated as his chi sliced the air with every move of his arms and legs. He decided to fight as defensively as he was allowed so that he could try to gauge his opponent's skills. He knew his tactic was unsound. The hatchet man was slowly pushing him out of position with each block and counter. He could feel that, even as he tried to place an impenetrable shield in front of him.
Danny summoned his dragon fist, lunging with it in the hopes of blasting his enemy away. The hatchet man caught the blow in his open hand. The energy from the punch reflected from the opposing chi. The rooftop cracked, spitting gravel and burning tar as the two fighters were thrown away from each other.
"Impressive," said the Hatchet Man. "You continue to surprise. It's been many years since I have had to fight this hard."
His trained placidity let a smile slip through.
"Let's see how good you really are," he said, dark hair fluttering in an unseen breeze.
He raised his open hand, then sliced the air diagonally. A ribbon of agitation reached for Danny. The Dragon Mage brought his hand up to stab the strange attack with an index finger. The conflicting chi wrapped around the younger man. He was spun by the twisting ribbon, feet leaving the roof top. He went with it, using the spin to generate velocity to turn into a human tornado.
The hatchet man braced himself for the expected blows.
The funnel that was Danny Lei's spinning form crashed against the assassin's defenses at high speed. The hatchet man slid backwards, using the rain of blows to propel himself in front of the miniature tornado. He braced his foot at the edge of the roof. One cabled hand caught a wrist as the hatchet man turned. All of Danny's momentum instantly ceased as he was thrown over the edge of the roof at bullet speed.
Danny rotated to get his feet under him. For all of his abilities, flight was not one of them. He was trapped while he was in the air.
Danny sensed projectiles in the air heading toward him. He twisted, hands flickering as he fell. The metal balls he carried suddenly appeared in front of the thrown gravel. The weapons compressed against each other, flattening into small discs and tiny pieces of stone. They fell slowly toward the street.
Danny lightly touched down on the roof of a car. He bounced to the street, missing a car rolling pass in a hurry. Bystanders hurried out of the way. Tigers, injured and whole, stood in the door of the Dragon Kanji.
The hatchet man appeared on the street, using the face of the building as a running path. His dark suit fluttered around the rips caused by the fight so far. One slap of his hand on his jacket knocked most of the loose dirt off as he walked forward.
Li Jiang pushed his way to the front of the crowd of street gangsters. Fury clouded his features as the private fight was suddenly a block party for the neighborhood around his restaurant. This fight had to be ended quickly in his favor if he wanted his rivals to keep fearing him.
He grabbed a pistol from one of his henchmen. He would put an end to this. He took aim and fired as fast as he could pull the trigger.
Danny twisted slightly. His sword flicked out in a short slash. Sliced bullets dribbled to the ground in halves as he completed the move.
Not as good as catching them, but the move averted any blow.
"Stay out of this, Li," said the assassin pleasantly. A stab with his index finger sent a piece of gravel into the Tong leader's hand. The empty pistol clattered to the ground as the crime boss clutched the bloody wound blossoming on his hand.
Danny waited as his foe picked up a metal waste basket on the nearby sidewalk. Short gestures turned the small basket into a bar of compressed steel. The hatchet man gave his weapon a couple of swings to check the balance. He nodded in satisfaction.
"Whenever you are ready," the assassin said, holding the bar at his side.
Danny started with a careful lunge. His sword was knocked aside as he thought it would be. He tried to slice on the recovery. The bar guided his aim into the air. Small sparks accompanied the blows as the fighters drew in deep breaths for the next round of blows.
The two masters made the air vibrate as their spirits clashed with each exchange of blows. Pieces of the street broke off the top of the asphalt and danced around them. Misses from the vanishing hands destroyed anything caught in the way of the lightning weapons. Spectators paused to watch, unaware of what could happen if the spinning whirlwind happened to leave the street for an instant.
Danny turned, knocking the assassin's club to one side. He brought his own weapon around in a complete circle. The bar moved to stop the swing. The blade sliced through the compacted metal with a sharp whine. Both men were thrown down from the blow. Danny slid back against a battered Olds. The assassin touched the curb and bounced to his feet. He warily approached the downed foe to finish the job.
The assassin raised one foot to smash his enemy's skull into a spray of shattered bone. He knew Danny had been knocked out by the backlash they had both suffered. He could hear it.
The hatchet man brought his foot down. He registered a change in his victim, but he was already committed to the killing blow. His foot hit the asphalt. Pieces of the street scattered as the impact drove into the street to form a bowl.
Danny had moved at the last second, vanishing in a green blur. His sword flickered in the light. Green flame sliced along the hatchet man's leg, spraying blood in a small cloud. He slid to a stop as the hatchet man fell over.
Danny recoiled from the landing, kicking low to send the hatchet man into a hydrant. Water sprayed from the damaged metal, running on the street in a small river. The hatchet man pulled himself into a sitting position, dark suit sopping wet from the artificial rain.
"A very good trick," he said. "I fell for it like an amateur. What now?"
"I would dearly love to kill you while you are relatively helpless," said Danny, wiping the blood off the blade with a cloth. "I would love to treat you the same as you did my father. Instead I am going to let you live, knowing you will never be as good as I am."
Danny turned, sheathing his sword.
The hatchet man pulled the top of the hydrant off with a quick gesture of his hand. He balanced it in his palm. He threw it point first at Danny's back. It cracked the air in flight like a bullet.
Danny whirled, reacting to the pressure of the air moving across the body of the makeshift projectile. His dragon fist burned the air as he swung it in a lightning blow. His knuckles smashed in the bubble shape as it reversed its flight.
He'll knock it aside, Danny thought.
The crushed metal cap hit the hatchet man's chest. It dug in, smashing through the rib cage, a lung, and then sliced through the hydrant behind him. The small geyser turned into a column before settling back down. The assassin collapsed to one side from the deadly blow.
"Chih Dou Wong is beholden to no one," said the assassin with a small smile, blood leaking from the corner of his mouth, covering the front of his shirt.
Danny waited quietly for the man to die. No medic in the world could replace a lung fast enough to stop that from happening. He didn't have to wait long.
Danny turned to the watching crowd. Revenge wasn't nearly as wonderful when it was accomplished as when he wanted it. The people looked at him in fear. All of them, not just the Li Jiang and his Tigers.
Danny looked around once, and then leaped upward. He vanished over a rooftop after using the Dragon Kanji's sign as a vault horse.
epilogue
Danny, dressed in jeans, T-shirt, and jacket, looked around the wreckage of his shop one last time. The fire had destroyed everything. He didn't really care. His goal had been finally met.
It was the end of a dream.
He picked up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. He needed time to consider what he was going to do with the rest of his life. He decided to travel for a while, walk the roads until he decided what he wanted to do.
Maybe he could catch up with the One, wherever he was going to be.
Danny started walking, the residents who knew him fled inside their homes and businesses. The battle in the street had attracted the attention of the police for the moment. Li Jiang had put his operations on hold while the heat was on.
Danny knew that wouldn't last long. He had half a mind to stay just to finish breaking the Chinese gangster.
A police car rolled to a stop beside the fighter as he walked down the street. He glanced over, recognizing the driver with a drawn brow.
"Need a lift?," Sam Colt asked, after rolling down the window.
"I think I can get to where I am going on my own," Danny said. "Thank you for the offer."
"Where are you going?," Sam asked.
"I don't know yet," said Danny. "I have a lot of thinking to do. If you need me, call Uncle Nick. I'll let him know where I am so I can be reached."
"Good luck, Danny," Sam said.
The police car pulled away as Danny started walking again.