Free In the Orient by Art Collins Page B

Monkey Clone in less than ten hours. Heeding the Monkey Clone’s warning, Wu Feng’s offer to accompany them back to Lantau Peak the next day was respectfully declined. As much as the three teens would have liked the Grandmaster’s help, they knew they couldn’t risk invoking the Monkey Clone’s ire before they struck.
    By the time they all returned to the Vauxhall, the plan to rescue Jockabeb and Robert Liu, if he was still alive, had been just about finalized.
    However, as they would find out soon enough, successfully preparing a plan doesn’t necessarily ensure its successful execution.
The Old Alchemist’s Deadly Gifts
    Ming Wei had worked his magic by the time he heard the knock on his front door a few minutes before five o’clock in the morning. When he opened the door and invited his four guests inside, two throwing darts, two arrowheads, and an old wide-capped metal flask had been neatly laid out on top of a wooden table.
    “Have you arrows for crossbow?” the old man asked.
    Handing over the two arrows she was holding, Willow said, “Here they are Mr. Ming.”
    “Moment please,” Ming replied as he disappeared with the arrows and two arrowheads into a back room.
    While Ming was gone, May practiced with the two flying darts. The thin red cloth that was attached to the back end of each flying dart appeared to be on fire as the deadly projectile flew through air. May’s aim was good, hitting the knothole nine out of ten times.
    When May’s tenth throw landed the flying dart in the center of its target, Archibald clapped and asked, “You sure you can do that when it’s an eye and not a knothole you’re trying to hit?”
    “Dead sure,” she answered with a serious look on her face. When she walked over to the wall and pried the flying dart out of the knothole, she repeated, “Dead sure,” but this time with steely resolve.
    There was a large smile on Ming’s wrinkled face when he returned holding Willow’s two arrows. Whenhe handed them back to their owner, he said, “New tips fit good.”
    Then looking at May and Willow, Ming warned, “You two aim good, Monkey Clone die. You aim bad, you die.”
    Reaching down and lifting the old metal flask in his hand, Ming shook it and then handed it to Archibald, saying, “If Monkey Clone see you not have elixir, Monkey Clone kill your brother right away, then kill rest of you.”
    Archibald had heard the liquid sloshing around inside the flask when Ming shook it, so he thought his reasoning was sound when he asked, “But once we give the Monkey Clone this elixir, we’re as good as dead anyway, right?”
    Smiling, Ming replied, “Who say elixir inside?”
    “Well, if the elixir isn’t in there, what is?” Willow asked.
    “Ming drink much tea while working,” the old alchemist answered with his grin growing larger. “Ming not want to waste precious time, and flask sitting close by.”
    Then Ming pointed his boney, crooked finger at Willow and May, saying, “No elixir here. Just tactic to buy time so you can use what I make tonight. Now, time you go get rest.”
    In parting, the old alchemist bowed. The famous philosopher of ancient China was once again quoted when Ming said, “Lao Tse also say, ‘Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.’ Now you go and help things flow right way.”
    After thanking Ming for all his help, Wu Feng and his three young companions quickly returned to the Vauxhall. Traffic was light on the way back to Victoria Peak. The sun wouldn’t rise until a little after six, so it was still dark when the car came to a stop a block away from Jade Place. Fortunately, Mrs. Chen, Ah-lam, and Kuang Jianguo were all still asleep when May silently opened the front door.
    Minutes later, all three of the midnight bandits were back in their beds. They’d previously decided to take the ten o’clock morning ferry to Lantau Island, so while three hours of sleep wasn’t much, it was certainly better than