“I can see that you are dismayed,” Shan-tung remarked. “And before you ask me one of your inane questions, Mr Cole, I will answer you. Yes. I am a criminal. More than that, I am what is known as Shan Chu, the Master of the Mountain. This means that I am the supreme leader of my own Triad. I cannot tell you how many people I have murdered to get to where I am today, but at a conservative guess I would say about twenty-five. I do know that I am wanted in exactly nine countries, including the United Kingdom and the United States – and I would have been arrested a long time ago if I hadn’t paid the right people a great deal of money to leave me alone.
“You are now wondering if you should be sitting at my table, eating my food. You are asking yourself why I should wish to help you in your struggle against the Old Ones. You are thinking, perhaps, that it would be more natural for me to be on their side. But you would be wrong.
“Until very recently, I controlled all crime in Hong Kong. I have, for example, heroin laboratories in Kowloon and the New Territories. I have illegal casinos and betting shops throughout the island. Immigrants from China were paying $5,000 a time for me to help them cross the border illegally. The arrival of the Old Ones has changed everything. They have no interest in profit. They do not want to do business. They want only to destroy everything around them – and that includes the Triads. They are as much my enemy as anyone’s, the only difference being that I have the means to fight back. And that is what I have been doing. There is a certain irony, don’t you think? I am undoubtedly a bad man. But a greater evil has come my way and now I am forced to do good.
“And so I have used all my resources within Hong Kong to set up a resistance. I have buildings. I have people. I have weapons… not that they are of much use against creatures that can form themselves out of flies. Above all, I have determination. I will not be defeated by the Old Ones. They can destroy the world. But they will not destroy me.”
“I’m surprised they didn’t ask you to work for them,” Richard said.
“As it happens, they did indeed ask me to serve them. The Nightrise Corporation approached me exactly a year ago. But the Master of the Mountain does not serve anyone. I mentioned twenty-five victims. The man who put that question to me would have been the twenty-fifth.”
“May I ask a question?” Matt asked.
“You have my permission,” Han Shan-tung replied. “But I should warn you that soon I have a question to put to you and I very much hope you will be able to provide me with the right answer.”
Matt didn’t like the sound of that, but he went on anyway. “How do you know about Scarlett?” he asked. “And why did you call her Lin Mo?”
“The White Lotus Society has always known about the Gatekeepers. You must remember that in our early days, almost two thousand years ago, we were to all intents and purposes a religious order. We still are. That means we are the keepers of many secrets… sacred texts and ancient beliefs. Even when we began to devote ourselves exclusively to crime, we stayed true to ourselves. The secrets were passed on from generation to generation. And I think we always knew that one day we would be called upon to return to our origins, to take up the sword once again.
“As to the second part of your question regarding Lin Mo, that I am not yet prepared to tell you. I need to be persuaded that I can trust you and that is still not the case.
“However, I can say that she was born in a place called Meizhou. We always knew that the Old Ones would return and look for her… that she was one of the Gatekeepers. We therefore arranged for her to be adopted and taken to the West. We wanted her to be as far away from here as possible. We hoped that she would be safe.”
“It didn’t work.”
Shan-tung shrugged. “We did everything we could to protect her. It was not our fault that the Old Ones found her. In fact, if anyone is to blame, it is her. Nonetheless, you are right. The Old Ones found her and brought her back.”
“You tried to get her out of Hong Kong,” Jamie said. He hadn’t eaten very much, absorbed in what he was being told.
“Scarlett was kept under guard from the moment she arrived,” Shan-tung explained. “With great difficulty, we managed to get a message to her. My most trusted agent in Hong Kong, a man called Lohan, contacted her and arranged for the shape-changer who had been guarding her to be killed. He took her to a safe place where we hoped to keep her hidden, but unfortunately – and again through no fault of our own – she was found again. As I mentioned to you, several of my people died. However, Lohan managed to move her to one of our warehouses and had planned to smuggle her out on a cruise liner. That was yesterday. The plan failed for reasons that are not yet clear. She is now their prisoner.”
“So what do we do now?” Jamie asked. “How do we get her back again?”
The Master of the Mountain poured himself a glass of water from a crystal jug and drank it.
“Jamie and I can go into Hong Kong,” Matt said. “We can find her…”
“If you go into Hong Kong, you will be doing exactly what they want you to do. They will be waiting for you and although they will not kill you – that is not part of their plan – they will keep you in so much pain that you will wish constantly for death.”
“We can’t just leave her.”
“You may have no choice.”
“No, Mr Shan-tung,” Matt said. “You don’t believe that. Otherwise, why would you have invited me here?” Matt looked him straight in the eyes. “You’re going to help us get into Hong Kong,” he said. “You’ve already told us. You’ve got people over there. You can smuggle us in. We can find Scarlett. And we can be out of there before the Old Ones know what’s happened.”
Han Shan-tung set his glass down. “I might help you,” he said. “But as I mentioned to you earlier, there is still a question you have to answer for me.”
“And what is that?”
“I am, by nature, a very careful man. I have told you that I have killed twenty-five times. What I should have added is that there have been as many attempts on my own life. You are here in my house on the recommendation of my friend, Mr Lee. I trust him. He has been useful to me in the past, and he definitely believes that you and the American boy are who you say you are.”
“Is that your question?”
“It is exactly that. How can I be sure that you are one of the Five?”
Matt thought for a moment. Then he pointed at the crystal jug. He didn’t even need to think about it any more. The jug was swept, instantly, off the table. It fell to the floor and smashed. Shan-tung blinked. It was his only reaction. But then he slowly smiled. “An amusing conjuring trick. But it is still not enough. I do not question your abilities. It is your identity I wish to know.”
“I’ll read your mind,” Jamie said. “You say you know everything about us. In ten seconds I can tell you even more about you.”
“I would recommend that you stay out of my mind,” Han Shan-tung said. He turned to Matt. “There is a test, a trial you might say, that will prove to me beyond any doubt that you are who you say you are. Only one of you needs to take part in it. But I should warn you though that to fail will cause you great pain and perhaps even death. What do you say?”
Matt shrugged. “We need your help,” he said. “We’ve flown a long way to get it. If there is no other way…”
“There isn’t.”
“Matt…” Richard muttered.
“Then let’s go ahead,” Matt said. “What test do you have in mind?”
Han Shan-tung got to his feet. “It is called the sword ladder,” he said. He gestured towards a door at the back of the room. “Please… will you come this way.”
THE SWORD LADDER
Matt stood up and followed Han Shan-tung. Richard and Jamie came behind. They went through the door into a long corridor, all polished wood but otherwise undecorated. There was a second door at the far end.
