Ying nodded. “You won't be sorry.”
Hok didn't reply. She just continued rowing the skiff in the darkness.
Ying stifled a grin and began to scan the shoreline. He was now on the road to riches, and Hok was chauf-feuring him there. He'd have to find a way to get rid of her before they got too close to the treasure, of course, but he was confident that he would think of something. There had to be a hundred different ways a powerful dragon like himself could clip the wings of a crane, if necessary.
Tonglong unsheathed his straight sword and stormed into HukJee's office two days later. A pair of bodyguards stood on either side of the doorway, but they didn't attack. They took one look at Tonglong's extraordinarily long ponytail and shimmering sword, and they dropped to their knees, kowtowing.
Tonglong sent them away with a wave of his hand and turned to HukJee. “Where is he?”
HukJee pushed his enormous self away from the dinner table and smiled, his mouth full of food. “Where is who?” he mumbled. “And warm greetings to you, too, by the way. You'll have to teach me that trick with the sword. Those bodyguards never kowtow like that to me.”
Tonglong frowned. “Now is not the time for jokes. I am looking for Ying, the kid with the carved face. I understand he was here recently.”
“Ah, yes,” HukJee said, interlocking his fat fingers. “The teenager with the eagle's name and the dragon's appearance. Interesting young man, that one. He offered me three long qiangs for a short one, plus some clothes and a bit of my breakfast. Quite a character.”
“Those aren't the sort of details I'm looking for,” Tonglong said. “Tell me where I can find him.”
HukJee shrugged. A mountain of flesh rippled across his upper back. “I don't know. I never ask these things. It's bad for business.”
“I'm making it your business,” Tonglong said. “Give me your best guess.”
“I really have no idea.”
Tonglong took a step toward HukJee, considering whether he should slice him into bacon or short ribs, when Tonglong's mother drifted into the room through the open front door.
“There is no sssign of them on the docks,” An-Gangseh hissed to Tonglong from behind her black hood. “I do not think they are here.”
“Of course they aren't here, AnGangseh,” HukJee said. “You will only find my employees. Shame on you for not sending word that you and your son were stopping by for a chat. I would have tidied up a bit.” He burped.
AnGangseh looked at Tonglong. “Did you get any information out of this disgusting excuse for a human being?”
“No,” Tonglong replied.
A smile slid up the side of AnGangseh's face. “Let me try.” She turned to HukJee. “Do you remember the first time we met at the Jinan Fight Club?”
“How could I ever forget,” HukJee said, taking a gigantic bite out of a lamb shank. “You were a vision of loveliness.”
“You were with your nephew, correct?” AnGangseh asked.
“Yes,” HukJee mumbled. “Why do you mention him?”
“Because I thought I sssaw him outside a moment ago. I would like him to deliver a message for me.”
AnGangseh removed her hood and walked over to an open window. She poked her head outside.
Tonglong watched as his mother waved a hulking dockworker over, inviting him inside the office with a wink. The man hurried so quickly, he tripped twice over his own gigantic feet before stumbling through the door.
AnGangseh closed the door behind the big man and asked, “Do you remember me?”
“Do I ever!” HukJee's nephew replied.
AnGangseh offered him a smile. “Lovely. Won't you please do me the favor of closing the window shutters?”
HukJee's nephew promptly obeyed.
“I don't like the looks of this,” HukJee said to his nephew. “Perhaps you should leave.”
“Or perhaps you should come ssstand a little closer to me, Big Boy,” AnGangseh said in a soft voice. She beckoned to HukJee's nephew with a wiggling fore finger, and he ambled toward her like an eager puppy.
Tonglong kept his eyes on his mother's finger. As HukJee's nephew lumbered close, AnGangseh drove the long nail at the end of her wiggling forefinger into the side of the big man's neck.
HukJee's nephew dropped to the floor in con vulsions, his neck instantly swelling several times its normal size.
HukJee gasped.
Within moments, HukJee's nephew stopped convulsing, his oxygen-depleted brain no longer sending signals to his oversized muscles, or anywhere else.
AnGangseh glared at HukJee. “Has your nephew delivered my message?”
HukJee wiped a tear from his eye. “Yes,” he said through clenched teeth.