Chương 33: Chapter 32 — Kidnapped (1)

The car journey itself was just under an hour. Throughout the route, Lin Che sat slumped against the door with his eyes closed and his breathing in the rhythm of sleep. He counted the turns: left out of the clan gate put them heading west onto a long while of straight driving, which he could only assume was a motorway or main road of sorts. A couple rights in succession then curbed them north, before driving down something bumpy — were they off road now?

There was a final left as the car reduced its speed before stopping completely. Lin Che had a general idea of where he was, assuming he could overlay the timings and speed with his mental image of the map of the city. He wasn't too sure of exactly how long it took them, as he was counting using his heart rate, which had considerably increased in rate upon realising he was being kidnapped. The driver's door opened and closed. Footsteps made their way around the vehicle, and the back door on his side opened.

Lin Che let his weight go with it, doing nothing to arrest the fall, and was caught by hands which felt solid with a light thread of Qi wisping through them. He went completely floppy — head lolling and arms hanging, further selling the image of the dead-weight of an unconscious person as he was carried into the compound. Through his eyelids, he could sense the darkness change into a harsh white upon entering. He was set down in a chair and his wrists were secured behind him.

Someone splashed water on his face, and Lin Che immediately started gasping for breath as he opened his eyes.

"Wakey, wakey," said the man across from him. Lin Che quickly took stock of his surroundings. It was a warehouse with crates along one wall and the smell of some industrial cleaning product clung to the air.

There were four others in the building: a woman looking to be in her forties who seemed to carry substantial cultivation, a younger man perhaps in his early thirties positioned to his right with somewhat hesitant breathing, the man seated across from Lin Che holding a now-empty bucket between his massive forearms, and, of course, the driver who remained by the door. Lin Che looked at the man across the table.

"Where—where am I?" he asked, his breath haggard. The man across the table was called Jiang Pei, though Lin Che didn't know this yet and wouldn't learn it tonight. He had the face of someone who had been in this line of business for far too long and was just going through the motions of work — the same kind of face he'd had at the office. Except this, of course, was not office work.

His Qi signature was that of a practitioner at least two levels above Lin Che's current stage, which put him roughly on-par with Shen Yue, who could neutralise him in an instant. That is to say, he was far too strong to run away from.

"You are Lin Che," he said.

"Married to Shen Yue and currently working at Hu Baolin's pharmacy. Recently completed the Liuhe Breathing Method and the Hollow Bell Purification Art, and possess a technique similar to Swallow Returns to the Nest. Cultivation stage: post-first breakthrough." He paused.

"All of this without formal introduction to any sect or family that could have legally provided these techniques."

"My wife—" said Lin Che.

"Is not authorised to distribute sect cultivation methods to unsanctioned individuals, regardless of marital status." Jiang Pei's voice did not change.

"The techniques you're using are the property of the Shen family archive. The question is how you accessed them." Lin Che said nothing.

"We'll come back to that," said Jiang Pei.

"First—" He nodded to the driver, who moved a veil covering the opening of one of the warehouse boxes, revealing a figure kept inside. Lin Che looked at the mannequin. It looked the same as the one that had killed him before, with the approximate proportions of a human figure crossbred with a zombie and puppet. It stood stiff, inactive, until the elder lady in the back of the room clicked her fingers and it whirred back to life.

Qi pulsed from the mannequin, much fainter than it had been when he'd been attacked in the streets with Shen Yue, which meant that it had been weakened somehow.

"We need to see you control it," said Jiang Pei.

"I can't control it," he replied.

"Demonstrate."

"I'm telling you; I don't have that ability. I've never had that ability and I don't know how it works." Jiang Pei looked at him for a moment. Then he nodded once, again to the woman in the back. She extended two fingers. The mannequin moved towards Lin Che.

It was significantly slower than before — in another context, this might have been almost manageable. Unfortunately for Lin Che, he was bound to a chair and had no way of fighting back. The first impact took him across the shoulder and rocked the chair sideways. The binding held him in it, and since he couldn't move his arms, the only thing between him and what the mannequin was doing to him was the Hollow Bell and the structural improvements brought to him by the body refinement he'd experienced recently.

He took the hits and breathed through them, keeping the Hollow Bell running. This wasn't helping with the immediate physical reality, but was at least keeping his internal environment stable. Lin Che tried not to make sounds that would give the satisfaction of knowing how hard the hits were landing. The young man to the right looked away briefly after the third impact. The mannequin tore at his arm and Lin Che felt an intense pain as ball was torn out of socket and his glenohumeral ligaments were ripped.

His shoulder immediately froze up in stiffness, before he lost all sensation to the left arm. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it's taken without the author's consent. Report it. The woman clicked her fingers and the mannequin stopped. The room was quiet for a moment, save for Lin Che's breathing, which still remained controlled despite his injuries.

"You're not controlling it," said Jiang Pei.

"I told you—" said Lin Che.

"You're letting it hit you to create that impression."

"I'm tied to a chair."

"His Qi hasn't made any attempt to interface with the construct. The weakening of it is consistent with storage degradation, not suppression from the practitioner," said the young man to his right, after doing some analysis he felt obliged to report. His name was Chen Wei and he was twenty-six years old. This was the fourth such operation he had been a part of, but this was the first one where he'd had serious reservations before it started. Jiang Pei looked at him. Chen Wei kept on going.

"The mannequin construct has a specific Qi interaction profile when it's being controlled externally. There's a resonance pattern that I'm not reading; instead I see standard storage decay." He paused.

"He may not be the construct handler." The room was very quiet.

"He still has the techniques," said Jiang Pei.

"Yes, he has sect techniques without authorisation, but that's a separate charge from construct handling. They could be unrelated." Jiang Pei was still looking at Lin Che.

"How did you access the cultivation methods?" he said to Lin Che, leaning in closer until their noses nearly touched.

"And don't lie — we can detect those." Lin Che thought about what to say.

"I obtained them with permission from a Shen family member," he said, carefully. Chen Wei, who had been watching Lin Che's face and was analysing any shifts in his Qi signature, sighed and looked at Jiang Pei. Jiang Pei's hands gripped Lin Che's shoulder and squeezed tightly.

"That's a lie." Lin Che held his breath, for opening his mouth would have let out a scream. He thought about it for a moment, and realised he truly hadn't been telling the truth. Yes, he received the techniques with Shen Yue's permission, but he'd also obtained the Swallow Returns to the Nest without her knowledge. He should have rephrased it: saying that he got the Liuhe and Hollow Bell with permission, but it was far too late now.

"The methods," said Jiang Pei.

"How." Lin Che said nothing. Chen Wei opened his mouth.

"He could still be innocent of the main charge," he said, quieter this time. The woman against the wall looked at him, as did the driver. Jiang Pei turned to face Chen Wei, and suddenly all eyes were on him for a long, uncomfortable moment.

"He lied," said Jiang Pei.

"Which means he lied about the permission, which means he accessed sect records without authorisation." He turned back to Lin Che.

"The construct handling could be related, but sect record access is enough." He sat back slightly.

"We can establish the rest through other means." Chen Wei didn't say anything else; instead he looked down at the floor and wondered how he had come to such a wrong conclusion. The woman moved away from the wall and produced two vials from her jacket sealed with wax — the kind that Lin Che had learnt to identify back at the pharmacy. She set them on the table between them, matter-of-fact.

"These are more efficient than using the construct," said Jiang Pei.

"And far less ambiguous in their results." He picked up the vials.

"The first will loosen your Qi a little, preventing any deliberate withholding. It's uncomfortable, but not permanent. The second—" A pause.

"The second is an option of last resort. It's a very imprecise process because of just how effective it can be."

"You'd rather not," gulped Lin Che.

"We'd rather you tell us what we need to know."

Across the city, Shen Yue's phone rang. She was at the kitchen table with the consultation brief she'd been meaning to finish since Monday and her third cup of tea of the night. She was aware that Lin Che had been out longer than expected and had not texted, but could see on her phone that he was at the Shen Clan and had been for the past few hours, assumedly with Yang Zichen. She picked up the phone.

"Yue-er." Elder Fang's voice was composed and precise.

"I'm calling with good news. The spy situation has been resolved." Shen Yue closed her laptop screen.

"How?"

"We've identified the individual, and the evidence is overwhelmingly clear." She paused for a second, figuring out how to phrase the next few sentences.

"The theory, as you know, has always been that the mannequin activity in your district was directed at you specifically — that someone in close proximity to you placed them, for purposes we're still establishing. But now that we've found the source, we must be getting closer." Her voice warmed now.

"You're safe, Yue-er. I wanted you to hear it from me." Shen Yue was quiet for a moment.

"Thank you," she said.

"Elder Fang. Truly, thank you""Get some rest," said Elder Fang, and ended the call. Shen Yue sat with the phone in her hand and reopened her laptop. Something was sitting incorrectly in what she'd just heard, but she just wasn't sure what. She was still trying to figure out why she felt this way when the phone rang again. She answered immediately. It was Elder Mao.

"Yue-er." His voice was wrong — nowhere near as careful as it tended to be.

"Listen to me very carefully. The clan believes Lin Che is the spy. Elder Fang's faction have what they consider to be evidence of unsanctioned cultivation and they've—" A breath.

"He'd been taken for questioning. I've only just found out."

"Where," said Shen Yue, already standing up and getting her coat.

"I'm sending you the location. But Yue-er… if they've had him for any length of time—""Where is he, Elder Mao?

"I'm sending it now, but listen. Don't go alone. Take someone with you — I'd come myself, but it would become a political incident inside the clan, and you need someone who can—""I understand." Shen Yue was already out of the house.

"Thank you." She ended the call and looked at the location that came through a couple of seconds later.

The pharmacy was dark when she arrived, having closed hours prior. She rang the bell for the house above the shop and the intercom clicked.

"It's half past eleven," greeted Hu Baolin.

"I know what time it is," said Shen Yue.

"Your employee has been kidnapped." Silence.

"Come up," said Hu Baolin, as the door buzzed open. By the time Shen Yue reached the top of the stairs, Hu Baolin was dressed ready to leave the house for a fight.

"How long?" he asked.

"I don't know exactly. A couple of hours at most."

"Who?"

"Elder Fang's people. They think he's a spy." Hu Baolin looked at her, nodded once, and went to the back of the flat. Shen Yue heard the sounds of things falling over, until he returned with a canvas bag over his shoulder.

"Location?" he asked.

"Follow me." At the door, Hu Baolin pressed a hidden button and produced a small ceramic jar from under a floorboard, which he held out to Shen Yue.

"For whatever they've given him. If they've used any compounds, this should be a good counteragent. He takes it as soon as we get him out." She took the jar.

"Anything else I should know?" asked Hu Baolin.

"Cover your face so this doesn't affect your business." Hu Baolin reached into his canvas bag and pulled out a fox mask.

"Right," he said.

"Let's go."