Earth to Hell. Kylie Chan

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      ‘Thanks for looking after these students for me, my friend. Most appreciated.’

      Stop sounding like Ah Wu, he said, and went quiet.

      ‘Be interesting to see what he’s finding out about them,’ Edwards said. ‘I’ve always been fascinated by demons. Never knew they existed when I was back in the UK, but I must have run into a couple of them without realising.’

      ‘You think so?’ I said.

      ‘It follows. Demons are often in on the nasty stuff that goes on.’ He nodded towards the prostitutes, who cowered in their seats at the back of the bus as the students tried to explain to them that they were no longer slaves. ‘We were often called in to deal with this sort of thing.’

      ‘Ever run into any nasties that seemed more dangerous than your average felon?’ I said. ‘That gave even a group of trained fighters like yourselves a tough battle?’

      He thought for a moment. ‘Never had anybody that didn’t drop when we shot them, and demons would be unaffected by guns.’ He hesitated. ‘But some of them did seem tougher. We were given extensive training, and it’s like they were too.’ He shrugged. ‘Stronger, faster, smarter. A match for us. Could have been demons.’

      ‘But if you shot them, they fell down,’ I said. ‘Never had any explode into demon stuff?’

      ‘Never,’ he said. ‘Must go back to the UK and have a look one day.’

      ‘I’ll come with you,’ I said.

      He harrumphed again. ‘Neither of us have the goddamn time, ma’am. We’re both flat out keeping our people here safe from the Demon King and his little kiddies.’

      I sighed. ‘I know.’ I touched the stone. ‘How’s Simone doing?’

      ‘Let me see,’ the stone said. ‘She’s just arriving there now.’

      ‘Can you link me up, please?’

      Simone appeared as a small image in front of us, running downhill towards the demons from where the phoenix was standing guard at the entrance to her nest. She was wearing her school PE uniform — a pair of green shorts and house T-shirt — and carrying her father’s sword, Dark Heavens. The sword was completely without adornment on either the handle or the blade. It was slightly too big for her but it was her weapon of choice.

      As she closed on the demons, she lifted into the air, her tawny hair flying around her. She raised Dark Heavens horizontally above her head, and held her left hand up, her first two fingers pointing towards the demons, ready to use chi energy if necessary.

      She flew lightning-fast over the Snake Mother, somersaulted directly above it and sliced diagonally through its skinless body. It fell in two pieces, the snake part writhing across the ground, the human hands scrabbling at the gravel.

      Simone landed in a crouch, and I was breathless for a moment thinking she had hit the ground too hard. She spun and rose and launched shen energy at two nearby demons, blinding white blasts that destroyed them. The red warriors that had been fighting the demons stepped back in shock and raised their hands.

      About six of the fake stone elementals remained. Simone ran to the centre of the battle, concentrated for a split second, then rammed Dark Heavens into the ground. Her hair flew up, the gravel lifted from the ground around her and a shockwave spread outwards from the blade of the sword, creating a visible ripple in the stony ground. When the shockwave hit the warriors, it knocked them off their feet; but when it hit the demons, it completely shattered them. They fell to the ground in shards of stone.

      The shockwave stopped and the gravel that had been flying around Simone dropped to the ground. She pulled her sword free, and walked back up the slope to the phoenix. The red warriors rose and checked the area; the demons had all been destroyed.

      Simone shared a few short words with the phoenix, then they touched wing to hand, the flaming feathers doing her no damage. She nodded to the warriors, who saluted her, then she shot straight up into the air and disappeared towards the north, leaving behind a trail of vapour.

      I thank you, Madam General, the phoenix said into my head. You and the Princess have saved my babies. I am your servant.

      ‘Tell her she’s welcome,’ I said to the stone, and the image of the phoenix snapped off.

      ‘Never ceases to amaze me how such a sweet young lass can kick so much serious arse,’ Edwards said.

      One of the seniors called to us from the back of the bus. ‘A few of these girls don’t speak anything but Indonesian and Thai, and one is Vietnamese. We need your help, Masters.’

      Sit moved to the back of the bus where he talked to the girls in Putonghua. Nevertheless, they all understood him.

      ‘I envy the Immortals,’ Edwards said.

      ‘Then you’ll never join them,’ I said.

      He shook with a short, silent laugh. ‘I know.’

      ‘If you want to take the time to go and cultivate the Tao, it’s your choice,’ I said.

      He considered for a moment. ‘One day maybe. They all encourage me to go and cultivate the Tao on the Mountain, living on pine nuts and spring water, but I don’t think I’m ready for the Art of Navel Gazing. I’m just having too much damn fun here.’

      I nodded. ‘Just so you know. If you feel the time is right, then go. They will help you.’

      ‘Thanks, Emma,’ he said softly. He shifted to sit more upright. ‘Nearly there now. Let’s work out what to do with these poor girls.’

       CHAPTER 2

      The team who’d rescued the prostitutes gathered for a debriefing in the conference room on the ninth floor.

      ‘Four of them can’t go home; their families sold them into this and they won’t be wanted back,’ Sit said. ‘Of the seven who can go home, we found only three of their passports in the brothel, the other four passports are missing. We’ll have stones tap into the relevant immigration computers to extract their details and make duplicates for them. Something very interesting, ma’am — one of the girls appears to be half-dragon and completely unaware of her nature. One of our dragons recognised her.’

      ‘I’ll talk to her,’ I said. ‘Arrange for her and Amy to meet me in my office after this; and to bring along the four girls that can’t go home. But first let’s have a look at Mr Lee’s recording. I want to see this energy blast that injured the students.’

      Lee folded up from human to stone form and drifted to sit in the middle of the table. We waited for him to produce the recording of the standoff with the demons, but nothing happened. He returned to human form after a couple of minutes, obviously puzzled.

      ‘The recording’s not there,’ he said.

      ‘It’s not in your matrix?’ I said.

      He shook his head, bewildered. ‘That area of my structure is clear. Like СКАЧАТЬ