Blood Ties Page 18

  Cole kept staring, but Jake spoke up almost apologetically. “No, ma’am,” he said quietly. “We’ll just be on our way. A pleasure meeting you,” Jake added and tipped his hat. He looked over at Cole who hadn’t taken his eyes off the giant woman. “Say goodbye, Cole.”

  “Unh-hunh.… G’bye.” Cole didn’t move, so Jake gently grabbed his shoulder, and as he looked up at Helga again, he caught her face softening a bit as she looked down at Cole. With her face partially turned, Jake couldn’t be certain, but he swore he caught her winking at his partner. He eased Cole back around the crates, and they headed back towards Chung’s.

  “Jake?” Cole said quietly.

  “Yeah?”

  “That was the most intimidating woman I ever laid eyes on.” Cole blew out a long breath, and Jake realized he’d been holding it. “And the sexiest,” Cole added slowly.

  Jake could only shake his head and grin. He’d never pegged Cole for having that sort of appetite, but he had to admit, there was something both frightening and alluring about the woman.

  “So, uhh … you wanna go back and talk to her?” Jake laid even odds that Cole would do just that.

  Cole thought about it for a few seconds, and Jake saw the battle raging between intimidated and aroused.

  “I don’t think so,” Cole said finally, “I think I’d feel awfully fragile in her arms.… You know? Like a ragdoll.”

  “Yeah.” Jake considered the notion of Helga picking Cole up and wrapping her massive arms around him in a hug that would probably crush his spine. “I can see that,” They both laughed.

  Chapter Eighteen – Master Chung

  “We met all sorts of people in our line of work … good and bad alike. Chung, though … he was something else. I count myself lucky for just knowing him.”

  ~ Jake Lasater

  The sun threatened to sink behind the Pacific, and rosy-gold light poured through the cracks and windows of the stable behind Qi’s Emporium. Jake and Cole diligently brushed down their mounts, once again in the comfort of their normal clothes.

  “I swear, I ain’t never seen a woman like that before,” Cole said as he ran a brush over Koto’s neck.

  “You got that right. And ol’ Norton back there called it. Helga could give Lumpy here a run for his money in any pullin’ contest.” Jake held a handful of sweet feet under Lumpy’s massive head as the bull chewed noisily.

  “Maybe you should introduce them,” Cole added, chuckling.

  “Introduce who?” Chung asked, surprising them both as he silently entered the stable. Jake’s hand made it halfway to his Peacekeeper before realizing who it was.

  “You sure are light on your feet, Chung,” Jake said, smiling.

  “I did not mean to startle you.” The old man smiled apologetically and gave a sincere bow.

  “I suspect you say that a lot,” Cole added.

  “Perhaps,” he said almost coyly. “Did your meeting with Emperor Norton go well?”

  “I suppose. We know more than we did before we got there, but not by much. And we got a few more unanswered questions in the bargain. He filled in the missing letters, and we were right. It’s a language from Europe somewhere.”

  “But he could not translate,” Chung said flatly.

  “Nope.”

  “Well,” Chung sighed, “a step forward is always motion.”

  “True enough,” Jake concurred. “Can I ask you a question, Chung?” He let Lumpy take the last handful of sweet feed and stepped out of the stall.

  “Of course.”

  Jake stared closely at Chung’s face to see what he could read in the old man’s answer, expecting it to be evasive and probably no answer at all. “Do you think Norton is crazy?”

  Chung locked eyes with Jake, and the trace of a smile flickered across his lips. “Yes.”

  Jake waited for some sort of qualification, but the silence drew out. He shook his head and concern crossed his features. “Now that worries me,” he finally said.

  “What?” Cole asked. “Everybody thinks he’s crazy, Jake. That boy back there called us Captains Lasater and McJunkins, of all things, and figures we’re some sort of secret agents.”

  “That ain’t what I mean, Cole.” Jake looked at Chung, still trying to read the man, but all he got was a silent stare decorated with a wry, mysterious grin. “That’s the first one-word answer I’ve gotten from Chung, and he knows it.”

  Chung looked at Cole with a knowing glint in his eyes. “So, you introduced yourselves to the Emperor, did you?” The emphasis on the word didn’t get by Jake’s ear.

  “No,” Cole replied. “He recognized us straight away and called us both by name. I figured you told him who we were in that message you sent, right up until—”

  “I only wrote that two men would be coming, one with a distinct accoutrement over his eye and the other of a darker skin color. That and they would need his assistance. I leave names out of such communications to prevent people like Ming—and others—from being aware of details they do not need.”

  “But … I don’t get it?” Cole said, scratching the back of his neck, trying to figure it out. “He knew our names. And what about that folder?”

  “Exactly, Cole,” Jake said a bit ominously. “How much does he really know?” Jake turned to the old man. “Any ideas, Chung?”

  “I am sure anything I might offer would be speculation at best … nothing I could prove. And I am not one to speculate about such things.” Chung clearly wasn’t going to elaborate, and Jake had little doubt the old man had a hell of a lot more story to tell. “But that is not why I am here,” Chung continued, smoothly changing the subject. “We’ll be serving dinner shortly, and Lady Dănești should be joining us soon thereafter.”

  “She’s not having dinner with us?” Cole asked.

  “No. The Lady prefers to dine alone. In time you will probably find she has many … quirks, but such are the whims of nobility. I will see you upstairs, gentlemen. I have something I must attend to.” Chung turned and walked out of the stable as silently as he’d come in.

  “Cole,” Jake said quietly.

  “Yeah?”

  “You ever get the feeling you don’t know even half of what the hell’s going on?”

  “Most of the time, amigo.” Cole slapped Jake on the back and walked past him out of the barn. “I first noticed it about the same time I started riding with you.” As he stepped through the doors, he spoke over his shoulder loud enough for Jake to hear, “I don’t think it’s a coincidence.”

  “Me either,” Jake mumbled. He turned to the tail end of the Brahma. “You have any idea what’s going on?” Lumpy shook his bridle, but both ends of the bull stayed silent. A light breeze drifted through the boards of the barn, whispering to Jake, but that wasn’t much of an answer either. Realizing he’d addressed the ass end of a bull, he began to wonder if Norton’s insanity might be catching. He shook his head and walked out of the stable, headed for the meeting room and supper.

  Jake reached the top floor and stood before the door of the lounge. A dozen different, appetizing smells greeted him. Each of them made his mouth water. He opened the door to a simple table setting in the middle, just as it had been the night before. However, a long table with an amazing assortment of different foods ran along the far wall, and the only thing he recognized was rice.

  Qi and Skeeter had already filled their own plates and were busy chatting at the far corner of the table. Jake heard Skeeter mention Von Klattersnap, the mad scientist who had been her mentor before Jake ran the villain off and took the girl in.

  Cole put what looked like dumplings and chicken feet on his plate while Chung talked beside him quietly. The old woman who had served them tea that morning poked her head through the door at the back of the room and, spotting Jake, came out. She gave him a wide smile as she approached.

  “I get you drink?” she asked in heavily accented English, bowing at the waist.

  “I don’t suppose y’all would happen to have an
y sarsaparilla?” Jake asked.

  “Oh!” she exclaimed, nodding her head with understanding. “Yes, we have.” She bowed again. “I get for you.”

  “Thank you.…” Jake paused. “I didn’t get your name.”

  The elderly woman smiled and blushed slightly. “My name Da-Xia.”

  “Thank you, Da-Xia. I’m much obliged.”

  She smiled, bowed again, and left the room with quick, short steps. As Jake turned back to the table, he spotted Chung smiling at him. Jake didn’t know what had the old man smiling, but he smiled back and sat down at the table, figuring he’d get to the food after he’d washed the taste of stable out of his throat.

  Chung put together a heaping plate as he kept talking to Cole. Jake spent the next few minutes pondering the day he’d had … about the Emperor and Miguel and even Helga. Everything he’d seen and heard made convincing evidence that the little man everyone called Emperor Norton was, as Cole put it, “crazier than a shithouse rat.” But Jake couldn’t shake the feeling that there was a lot more to the little crackpot than just ravings and pointless gadgets. He still hadn’t read the file, but he would before he turned in for the night.

  Da-Xia finally came through the door and stepped up to Jake, who stood as she approached. She set a dark brown bottle on the table before him and bowed again. “Sarsparira,” she said. Beads of water covered the bottle, and Jake realized it was ice cold.

  “Sheh-sheh-ni,” Jake offered a bit awkwardly with an accent far worse than her English. The phrase was one of the few Qi had taught him during their brief time together. It meant “thank you.”Jake wanted to do his best to honor the woman and show her he truly appreciated her efforts. She giggled and covered her mouth. She bowed again and walked back the way she had come. Once again, Jake caught Chung smiling at him, and the old man excused himself from Cole and walked over to where Jake sat. Chung set the plate down in front of Jake and took a seat next to him.

  Surprised that the plate was for him, Jake bowed his head. “Thank you, Chung. You didn’t have to do that.”

  “It is my pleasure, Jake. I grow increasingly convinced that my granddaughter is right about you. You have a warm, decent heart.”

  “Hell, Chung, you barely know me.” Jake felt himself blushing a little, not accustomed to compliments. “But thank you kindly.”

  “I believe I do know you. You treat everyone as equals, are slow to judge, and seem to have a peaceful disposition.”

  “I wouldn’t exactly say peaceful,” Jake said and sighed. “I’ve killed more people than I care to think about.”

  “Yet it bothers you. And I suspect that each and every one of them either had it coming or left you no choice.”

  “Well,” Jake said slowly, “there’s probably some gray area in there, I suppose. I’m pretty damn far from being a saint. If my mamma was right, I am surely going to hell.”

  “There are all kinds of men, and I’ve met my fair share in this life.” Chung stared off into space for a moment, and Jake knew the look. He’d worn it plenty of times as he considered every fight he’d had, every man and the one woman he’d killed. “You concern yourself with others and you have a sense of honor that most men lack. Why is that?”

  “The war, I suppose,” Jake said a bit wearily. “Hell, if that war taught me one thing—and it taught me a lot more than that—it taught me that life is hard enough for those of us livin’ it without us making it harder for each other.” Jake stared off into a similar pool of memory, remembering dead faces … and pain. “I reckon when I come across folks interested in making life hard for others, it just …” His voice trailed off.

  “What?” Chung asked.

  “Begs for a reckoning,” Jake added with steel in his voice.

  “I think I understand,” Chung replied.

  “You know, when they had me laid out in that Army tent, and that doctor had just hacked off what little remained of my arm and legs … well, me and God had a little talk.” Jake took a pull from the sarsaparilla and let its chill ease down his throat, washing away the stable just as he’d hoped. He set the bottle back down next to the plate and looked deep into the old man’s eyes. “Me and God came to an understanding. He gave me my legs and hand back, and I made a promise to do what’s right, no matter what it cost me, and no matter what the orders.”

  “It’s amazing what pain like that can do to a person, isn’t it,” Chung said, looking at the golden, clawed hand that rested on the table in front of him.

  “Yessir. It surely is.”

  Da-Xia walked back into the room with a small bowl and set it in front of Chung. Jake recognized it as egg drop soup, something else Qi had shared with him.

  Chung spotted Jake’s questioning glance and smiled like a little boy. “Egg drop reminds me of a time and place very far from here … and people long gone. Besides, at my age, I don’t require much.”

  As Chung gleefully worked on his soup, Jake got to thinking about what his next move would be. If he took the job of escorting the Lady’s package, he’d have to worry about whatever Ming could throw at him. And they wouldn’t have asked Jake to just escort a package to the shipyards unless they knew someone else was gunning for it. Assuming he made it out of Chinatown, the best and fastest option would be any transport other than the Jezebel headed back to Denver. Tyler had said they hadn’t found anything, but Szilágyi had been on the Jezebel for a reason. That made going back on the zeppelin a less-than-appealing notion. The thought of humping it across Nevada and Utah made his guts ache, and crossing the Free Territories was a frying pan-to-fire option. The Free Territories were in the middle of an open war with the Republic of Texas—and Cromwell. An hellacious amount of territory lay between San Fran and Denver, and most of it had less-than-friendly folks. “Chung, can you do me a favor?”

  “If it is within my power,” he replied. “What do you need?”

  “Can you have someone find out what transports are leaving San Fran for Denver, or at least some place in Colorado? Anything in the next two days would be best.”

  “I’ll see to it,” the old man said and went back to his soup, smiling to himself like a happy child.

  Everyone finally settled down at the table, Jake and Chung next to each other while Cole sat with Qi and Skeeter. Cole’s eyes were riveted on the conversation as the two tinkers talked their trade. Cole had always been fascinated by the work Skeeter did. It’s why he spent as much time as he did helping her.

  Jake and Chung talked about the past, about friends come and gone, of the hard decisions they’d made and the regrets they suffered in the aftermath. And over the course of dinner, they built a friendship that truly surprised Jake. Chung had to be three times Jake’s age, but they’d chewed a lot of the same dirt over the years.

  When everyone finished—Skeeter and Cole returning to the banquet table three times each—Da-Xia came in and cleared the plates. They all shared more small talk as she brought out tea and two plates of petits fours that Chung admitted were a favorite. Everyone delighted at the variety, some filled with fruit and some with creams of every color and flavor. Each one contained a delicate surprise, and by the time they were done, few of the small, brightly iced cakes were left. As Jake poured himself his fifth cup of tea, someone knocked on the door. Chung and Qi stood immediately. Jake, Cole, and Skeeter followed suit just as the door opened.

  Jake got lost in the magnificent woman that walked in.

  She was petit and slim, with an angular face that seemed just the healthy side of gaunt. She wore an emerald dress of shimmering silk that caught the light of the room and glistened like morning dew on leaves. The sleeves went slightly past her wrists, and the collar came up to beneath her chin in a narrow wrap of ribbon and lace. Black lace flared out at wrist and throat, looking like blossoms sprouting around the woman’s delicate face and hands. A black corset worn over the dress shaped an impossibly narrow waistline and exquisite hourglass figure. A full bustle with a short train of emerald and lace flowed out
behind her. She wore darkened, oval spectacles with a copper frame. They fit close to her eyes, with brass flanges that hugged her eyebrows and cheeks. A green top hat perched askew and tilted slightly forward on her head accentuated the outfit, the dainty chapeau decorated with black lace tied in a wide bow that draped behind her.

  She had bone white hair, done in long, tight curls that looked like ropes pulled tight into a knot at the back of her head. As white as a dove’s wing, Jake thought. Something inside him sparked at the sight of her. He’d never seen a woman so beautiful, and for several seconds the only thing he heard was his own pounding heart.

  Chapter Nineteen – Memories of a Ghost Hunter

  “Jake isn’t the only one with a strange past.”

  ~ Cole McJunkins

  The Lady Dănești stepped straight up to Jake and gave a slight nod of her head, holding out her hand. Chung stepped forward as Jake took her hand, raised it to his lips, and gently kissed her knuckles. Her cool, pale skin smelled of lilies. He could see the faint cornflower blue outline of veins on the back of her hand, and the sight of it thrilled him.

  “Lady Corina Dănești,” Chung said formally, “allow me to present to you Mister Jake Lasater. Jake, this is the Lady Dănești.”

  “It is truly an honor,” Jake said, releasing her hand. She nodded to him again, and he caught himself watching her hand drift gracefully down to her side. Jake heard a rustle behind him and had to force himself to turn away. Skeeter came around the table, but Cole stood where he was, his eyes locked on the Lady. He had a strange look on his face, as if his eyes weren’t focused on her, but on something beyond.

  “And this is Skeeter,” Chung added as the slim girl approached. “Skeeter, this is Lady Dănești.”

  “Milady,” Skeeter said and curtsied more formally than Jake would have thought possible for the young rabble-rouser. The Lady again nodded her head.