"Let's get him into my office." Simms told Strenlich and Broderick. Kermit hadn't regained consciousness after the ceiling had collapsed. "Put him on the sofa." She was worried, very worried. There was no way to get an ambulance to the station house with the streets flooded. The best she could do was make sure that he was comfortable and hoped for the best.
Meanwhile, there was a missing prisoner. Javier Navarro was nowhere to be found in the building. The idiot had managed to escape into the storm. Karen was certain that they'd find him dead rather than alive. She didn't think anyone could survive out in that storm on foot.
According to the radio, the winds were reaching 65 MPH with gusts close to 75. It was mild compared to how strong those winds were closer to the coast, but it was still strong enough to tear the roof off a building and blow heavy debris around like leaves. The rain and the storm surge on the river were causing heavy flooding. It was not hospitable weather for humans, and as much as the man was detestable, he was still human. Even the Frenchmen that had come to take him back to France agreed that their prey was likely dead. Unless he found shelter nearby.
Except for Kermit, the injuries caused by the ceiling falling were minimal. It wasn't heavy except for the ductwork. Which unfortunately was what had struck Kermit.
Strenlich returned from the Captain's office and began to direct the clean-up effort. "Alright, we need this separated and moved out of the way." He barked. "I want the metal supports piled over there." He pointed to the corridor to the interrogation rooms. "Pile it as narrowly as you can we don't want to block access." He looked around as he waited for his detectives to complete the task. "Okay, the only things down there are an elevator that we will not be using and the supply closet. So pile the ductwork down there and the tile needs to go over there." He began to help move the large sections of the ventilation duct.
Karen went to where the metal was separated from the tile and duct. She knelt to look at the pieces that had joined to the walls. It seemed strange to her that the ceiling dropped at all but even more so that it had all dropped at the same time. Nothing was hanging above waiting to fall later. It hadn't fallen in pieces. It fell as one contiguous mass. She frowned deeply. "How is this even possible?" She asked. The bolts were sheered off. Every last one of them.
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
"I think it's slowing down," Peter said, as he leaned against the window sill. "With any luck, it will have spent its energy by tomorrow." Then would come the clean up. He hoped that those he looked in on were weathering the storm alright. He would have to check on them when it was safe to go outside again. Then he could deal with Yulong Yeoh.
"Yes," Caine said simply.
"You know more about fighting guys like Yeoh than I ever will. What do we do?" Peter asked. The man had made it plain that he was going to expect the book when the storm was over. That didn't give them much time.
"We… give him what he wants."
"What? Pop! Have you lost your mind?" There was no way they could give that man what he wanted any more than they could have given it to the Sing Wah.
Caine smiled slowly. "No." He laughed a little. "I will enlist those in Shamballa that I trust and we will lure him with the book. He will be brought to justice."
"How do you know who you can trust? You haven't been part of them for all that long and if that evil the prophesy spoke of has already spread, we could be making it worse. Besides, he told Leanne we had to give the book to Hu Li. She's too frightened for her family to betray Yeoh. I don't think we could win her over even if we promised to beat it out of him where they are."
"She is afraid of him, yes. As is Leanne." He looked up from the herbs he was grinding. "The question is… are you?"
Peter gave it thought. "You know me, Pop." He said. "I'm not afraid of much and even if I am, it won't slow me down. What I am worried about is what he'll do to Leanne."
Caine nodded. "All the more reason to deliver him to the ruling council in Shamballa."
"Is the librarian on that council?" Peter asked. "You know, the guy that wants Leanne dead because she shares DNA with her grandfather. Is he going to be able to convince them to hurt her too?"
"He is not," Caine said. "I do not know what he can convince them to do."
"Then that is not the way we're going to go," Peter said firmly. "I will not put her in harm's way. Especially not when together they are supposedly unstoppable."
"You know they are not," Caine said.
"What I know is that they were more than willing to make you fight the dark warrior all by yourself a few years back. I know that one of them wants my fiancé dead. I know that there is a prophecy about a great evil spreading through Shamballa and Lo Si thinks I'm the one that has to put it to an end so chances are it's already infested the place like cockroaches and I don't have a big enough can of Raid to handle that."
"If it is time for that prophecy to come to fruition, then we will face it together and we will put Shamballa right. If it is not time, then we have time to prepare for that fight." Caine said.
"And in the meantime we just what… throw Leanne to the wolves? I can't do that."
"I do not ask you to throw her to the wolves," Caine said sharply.
" Yes, you are," Peter said firmly. "Or more to the point, you're discounting the danger that she is in if we give Shamballa its head."
"Do you not think we may make it safer for her by removing her grandfather from the equation?"
Peter shook his head in frustration. "This had better be a damned good plan, Father. Because if we fail that evil won't be in the abstract anymore. It will be larger than life and twice as ugly while it's taking out everyone we have ever cared about."
Caine covered up the mortar and pestle with a cloth. He went into his bedroom briefly and came back with his copy of the book of Shamballa. "That is why I must go now."
"No. It's why we must go." Peter said moving to stand beside his father. "If it's going to be us that finishes it, then it's going to be us all the way."
Caine nodded and opened the book.
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
Leanne handed Lo Si another cup of peach-leaf tea. "You're color is improving." She said. She wasn't certain if that was because of the tea or the medical treatment he had been getting. In the end, it didn't matter. As far as she could tell he was getting better. That was the important thing. "Now that I have faith that you will be with us long enough to attend our wedding, I have a favor to ask," Leanne said.
Lo Si smiled warmly. "What is it you need of me?"
"I would like you to walk me down the aisle." She said. "Please" She added.
"I would be honored." He said. "You are certain Peter will not mind?" During their brief interaction the night before, he had picked up on the tension with Peter. He thought he knew the reason, and he supposed he could not blame him.
"Peter loves you," Leanne said. "He's just… something has been bringing all the anger and pain from his time in the orphanage to the forefront. Unfortunately, he has realized that you are the one that sent him there. So there will be tension until he has a chance to talk to you about it. However, I have already told him that I wish you to walk me down the aisle. He has no objection."
"It was the only way I knew to keep him safe from Tan." Lo Si said.
"The wrong decision for the right reasons," Leanne said. "We are not to know the damage our decisions cause until after we have made them. Peter knows this."
"He could not be sent to another temple." Lo Si said. "He would have been found easily."
"I don't doubt you. I know it was an act of love for both Peter and his father." She said "But neither do I doubt Peter that it was a nightmare for him. I just wanted you to understand why he is tense right now. That's all. There are just too many uncomfortable revelations in his life right now."
"Because of his mother's return." Lo Si said.
"And the fact that she left him and his father because my grandfather ordered it." She said.
Both of The Ancient's eyebrows went up. "This I did not know." He said. "Perhaps I should not have let Kwai Chang Caine know of her continued existence."
Leanne shook her head "I think she would have returned anyway." Leanne said. "Caine didn't find her. Blaisdell did. She denied she was Peter's mom right up to the moment she turned up at our Kwoon. I think my grandfather wanted her here to throw Peter off his game."
Lo Si frowned. "Tell me what she has said about Yulong Yeoh." He said gently.
Leanne told him the story that she had told Peter and his father, about him healing her cancer, and threatening to reverse the process if she did not leave. Her grandfather took the credit for how he had manipulated everything in Peter's life from Tan to the orphanage, everything that caused him pain.
"I asked her once who was actually in her grave. She told me to ask my grandfather."
Lo Si nodded. "It would have to have been a powerful illusion to make another look like her. It is possible he could do this. Did she say how he reversed her illness?"
"No." She said. "Not that I know of anyway. Kwai Chang did not say when he relayed the story."
Lo Si nodded gravely. "I will need to speak with Laura when I am finally allowed out of here. Kwai Chang Caine did not see another soul within you, nor any taint to your aura. He may have been using the souls he has stolen for another purpose."
"Healing?" She asked, not sure that she followed his logic.
"True healing cannot be undone. A person can become ill again of course if they continue to do what made them sick. But you cannot cure someone then wave a hand and have it be undone."
"But something that pauses the illness can?" She asked.
Lo Si nodded.
Wukong frowned "So anyone he has healed in this way becomes his slave." He said.
Lo Si nodded again. "Depending on how desperate they are when that healing is threatened."
"Not everyone is willing to say screw you, I'd rather die," Leanne said. "Laura Navarro is definitely not one of those people. She's one of the most selfish people I have ever met."
"She was not always so. When I knew her she was a loving, generous woman. A very good match for Kwai Chang Caine."
" My grandfather changed that, I suppose. He is demanding his book. He's threatened to kill Peter and me if we don't hand it over to Hu Li."
"That is not her true name," Wukong said. He hated that his friend was enslaved to the Evil One.
"She introduced herself to me by that name. I don't mean it to be disrespectful." Although the girl had given her nothing to respect, Wukong clearly felt otherwise. So did Peter.
He nodded. "The Evil One renamed her after her clan and finds it amusing. She only serves him because he has her people hidden where she cannot find them."
"Peter has offered to help her. She has refused to allow it. I guess I understand the reason why now."
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
Karen closed the door to her office and settled down on the floor beside the sofa where Kermit lay. "I wish you would wake up." She said quietly. It had been two hours since he'd been knocked out. "I'm worried. The ceiling shouldn't have fallen. The bolts were sheered off. Every last one of them. What causes that to happen? I can't help but think that there is something… unnatural that caused it. Some sort of attack." She laughed a little self-consciously.
"I even tried to call Peter to ask him what he thought about it but either his cell tower or mine is down. Javier Navarro escaped in the confusion. Chances are he's dead. I'm not looking forward to the fallout from that. I've never had a prisoner escape on my watch. It galls."
She brushed his hair away from his face. "So you see, I need you to wake up and tell me I'm being too emotional and my logic has gone out the window. I need you here with me." The longer he remained unconscious the more she worried that he wasn't going to wake up at all. It wasn't right. It wasn't fair. They were the worst kept secret in the precinct and even now she kept her office door closed and locked. Even now as it was evident that she could lose him forever.
She lay her head down on the sofa beside him, and closed her eyes, praying for the first time since she'd left home for the police academy 20 years ago.
(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)(0)
Peter followed his father through the halls of the temple at Shamballa. He hoped this wasn't a bad plan. If anyone other than his father had come up with this plan Peter would have laughed in their face. But no, Kwai Chang Caine had come up with the plan of going somewhere that was supposed to be fast approaching evil critical mass to ask for help taking down a rogue Shamballa master. Therefore it must be the right plan at the right time… right?
Yeah… no. It was not a great plan. It was a suicidal plan. It was the kind of plan that Peter himself would have come up with when he was on the police force. No really, we go to the tong to get help taking down a member of the tong, and we'll just assume that the guy's buddies are pissed at him and they'll forget all about how they really want to kill you. Yeah, he'd have come up with that plan. Come to think of it he had come up with that plan. Paul had pinned his ears back because of that plan. But hey, it worked, didn't it? Okay, so it hadn't been the perfect plan, and yeah he had a couple of scars where he'd been shot, but the bad guy was behind bars and the tong hadn't actually killed him, so it had worked. In retrospect that had been a terrible plan.
So his father had come up with the plan, and here they were walking into what might very well be the lion's den, depending on whether it was Peter and his father or Peter and some not yet conceived son that was supposed to rid Shamballa of its prophesied evil. Still, sometimes even the worst plans in the world worked… after a fashion.
"Wait here," Caine said as he came to a stop outside massive double doors.
"No," Peter said. "We do this together."
"I must seek an audience with the council," Caine said. " I will not be long." He opened the doors and disappeared behind them.
Peter paced.
The doors opened once more. Two men in white robes motioned for Peter to enter the room. He bowed to them slightly, left fist into his right palm, and went inside.
"It is good to see you again, Master Caine." The elder said to Peter. "We are pleased that you have followed in your father's footsteps."
"Thank you," Peter said, politely. Was this someone they had to worry about? Was he merely being paranoid? Was he putting too much faith in the prophecy? When did he become THAT guy?
"Your father said there was something important you needed to speak with us about."
Peter drew in a deep breath. "Yes. Yulong Yeoh." He said.
"He is a dangerous man." The elder said. "And I understand you are going to marry his granddaughter."
"Yes. I am." Peter said firmly. "Her grandfather is responsible for the disappearance of the sentient monkeys and foxes in Kunlun Shan. According to Master Lo Si, there were dozens of dead monkeys in Yulong Yeoh's home in Kunlun Shan. He has enslaved the foxes. I know there is a theory that his elixir of immortality carries stolen souls within it but my father has found no proof of that."
"I have examined the aura and chi of such an immortal," Caine said.
"Li Na Yeoh." The elder said. "The one who is to marry your son. Are you certain you were not influenced by your son's affection for her?"
Peter bristled.
"The opposite is true," Caine said. "I was more critical because of his affection." Not that he had anticipated finding any indication of evil in the woman. "I saw nothing dark in her aura, there was no sign that another soul has ever resided within her."
The elder nodded thoughtfully. "Master Yuan thinks otherwise."
"Master Yuan has never met her," Peter said. This was going just as he had anticipated. They were going to focus on Leanne because of who she was related to, not who she was. "And should refrain from tarnishing someone's reputation before he has his facts straight. Especially where life and death are concerned."
The elder raised an eyebrow. Peter was certain that some were intimidated by such a look. He wasn't one of them.
"Who has said that there is a life or death consideration where the girl is concerned?" The elder asked.
"It has been implied by him to myself and Master Lo Si." Caine said. "As well as that Master Yulong Yeoh should be removed from the cycle of rebirth."
"Is that why you have come to us? To gain help removing this man from his journey?"
"No," Caine said.
"We come asking help in bringing him to justice. The murder and enslavement of sentient … of People. Let's call them what they are, they are people, and no matter what they look like or what stories call them, they are people. He's guilty of mass murder and slavery and we believe that he's looking for a way to do this in the mortal realms as well." Peter said. "I don't want him dead. I don't want revenge for the things he has done to me or Li Na. I just want him brought to justice before he has the chance to cause any more harm."
The elder nodded. "We need to confer. Please feel free to make yourself at home here in Shamballa while you wait."
Peter bowed slightly and turned to leave the chamber, followed by his father.