Despite Waller's refusal to help, Jackie had not given up. He had already resolved to try and find the Gathering's hideout on his own. But he couldn't just go back to the same place near Chinatown where Taylor and her team of Gathering members handed out followers. Not unless he wanted to get arrested again. He had to find another place with Gathering members, members who would not know him or call the cops on him.
So, the first thing he did when he got home was boot up his computer, let his fingers dance over the keyboard and searched the internet. It didn't take him long for him to find more spots around the city where the Gathering was passing out flyers. Social media was flooded with news about the mysterious group's recruitment efforts. He had to pause and wonder with a frown why the police had not gotten ahold of them yet. Perhaps there was something supernatural at play same as with the flyer that he was never able to decipher.
He marked down places in his notebook and looked them up on a digital map of the city.
"Let's go with . . . this one."
He checkmarked the place furthest from Chinatown. The further away, he thought, the less chance there'd be someone who'd recognize him.
"This is a good spot to check out after school tomorrow."
All was quiet in the room dimly lit by only a table lamp and the computer monitor next to it. The only sound made was the faint humming from the computer's internal fan, the clickity-clack of the keyboard when Jackie needed to type something, the scritch-scratch of his pen against paper as he jotted down notes, and his own self-mutterings. But then came an abrupt (and loud) burst of music (the classic orchestral theme of Batman) that sent a jolt to his heart that caused him to fall out of his chair.
"Jeez! That scared me!"
The source of the music was his phone. Someone was calling him.
Although he knew he shouldn't, Jackie had to make whoever was calling wait so he could recover from the near heart attack his own choice in ringtone caused. When he felt his heavily thumping heart had calmed down enough, he picked himself up and put the phone to his ear.
"Hello?"
A split second later, he pulled the phone away.
"JACKIE!" shrieked a shrill woman's voice. "THREE O'CLOCK! MY PLACE! TOMORROW! DON'T BE LATE!"
There was no mistaking who was calling. Jackie would recognize Granny Tsing's voice a mile away. It should be noted, by the way, the phone was not on speaker.
Before he could ask what she wanted with him, Granny Tsing hung up, and the room was quiet once more.
Jackie stared at the phone in dismay.
"Well, there goes my plans for tomorrow," he grumbled.
He hoped that Granny Tsing had news about Alice's whereabouts, that maybe the police had gotten a break in the case. But to his disappointment, he got no such news at the appointed time. Instead, when he got to the door of the old lady's second floor flat, he got a stack of flyers with pictures of his missing friend and instructions to spread them throughout the entire city. Printed in big, bold letters beneath the picture was a request to call Granny Tsing's direct cell phone number.
Jackie took one look at the flyers and then said, "Say, Granny Tsing?"
"Don't call me granny!" snapped the old lady. "What is it?"
"Did Arnold put you up to this?"
Not one to beat around the bush, Granny Tsing honestly, and bluntly, replied, "Yes. He doesn't want you to get arrested again, so he asked me to keep you busy."
And then she started grumbling in Cantonese.
"Useless man! I knew he was no good for Jessica. Can't even keep an eye on his own son!"
Jackie wasn't all that fluent in the native tongue of his mother (who, by the way, was the "Jessica" mentioned), but he understood the old lady well enough and frowned in dismay. He wanted to correct Granny Tsing by saying he was Arnold's "stepson" but held his tongue knowing that running his mouth would result in experiencing the infamous Demon Ear Twist.
"Anyway," Granny Tsing resumed speaking in English, "I figured while I was at it, I'd have you make yourself useful."
Jackie didn't respond. He had turned his gaze to the picture of Alice on the flyer and became glued to it.
Granny Tsing gave him a look up and down before letting out a deep, deep sigh. And then, with a softer face and gentler voice, she said, "Look, Jackie, I know how much Alice means to you. I want her back home just as badly as you do. But no one, and I mean no one, wants to see you get yourself into trouble. And that includes Alice. There are better, safer ways you can help. Perhaps someone, anyone, out there saw something that could lead us to her. These flyers could get them to talk."
Jackie wasn't so sure about that. But he couldn't exactly call passing out the flyers a waste of time either, even if this extra task did hamper him from pursuing the Gathering. If there was the smallest chance that someone would come forward with information, he had to take it. Perhaps the flyer might even compel one of the Gathering's members.
If not, then at least along the way, he could check out the places Gathering members could be at.
"One more thing," Granny Tsing said before he could go. "You stay in Chinatown. No need to go to other parts of the city. Your stepdad's got everywhere else covered."
**********
Jackie thought about bailing, but as he walked through the streets while handing out flyers to whoever he could, he had this chilling sense that he was being watched. His suspicions were confirmed when, with furtive glances right and left, he spotted store clerks looking straight at him. Even with customers right in front of them, the clerks never turned away. Not until he stepped in view of the next store.
They were under Granny Tsing's orders, no doubt, he thought irritably. It didn't surprise him. She was essentially the queen of Chinatown and had every merchant on the block under her control. Jackie wouldn't even be surprised if there were guards stationed at every exit point (which there actually were).
He considered bolting anyway, even with all those eyes on him, but he had a feeling that it wouldn't work out the way he hoped. Why did he feel that way? From spying with his little eye, the butcher, a tall, big-bellied man in a white apron standing outside his store looking like a football player ready to go for a tackle.
Fun fact: the butcher actually was a football player in high school and infamously known for his devastatingly powerful tackles. The walls of his store were covered with proof of his accomplishments in the sport. Jackie, as a regular of Chinatown, of course, knew that.
His only hope at that point was to hurry up and pass out all the flyers as fast as he could so that he could leave early. But Granny Tsing wasn't going to let that happen either and called him back to her place every time he was down to the last flyer to give him more to pass out. She had a seemingly endless supply of them. There was no need to wonder how she knew when to call. Part of her spies' job was probably to let her know.
"Excuse me, young man."
Jackie stopped and turned around. He was in the middle of his umpteenth trudge down a lane of open-door markets and their displays of colorful fruits and vegetables that glowed in the sunlight. Standing behind him was a man in a rather striking three-piece suit and Fedora hat.
The man appeared to be in his mid-to-late fifties and was Asian like Jackie. Grasped in the man's hand was an elegant cane with a T-shaped handle. Down the length of the cane, Jackie noticed a pentagon-shaped piece of silver that looked kind of like the crossguard of a Chinese-style sword, the elegant kind he'd seen in those dramas that Granny Tsing liked to watch on TV. Carved into the pentagon was the image of a tortoise with a snake curled around its shell.
Something about the carving gave Jackie a sense of Deja Vu. But before he could ponder why that is, the man spoke up again.
"Pardon me for disturbing you," he said, "but I was curious to know what you were doing." He took off his hat to reveal a head of black hair swept back and held by what was probably really good hair gel. He had that all-too-familiar English-As-A-Second-Language Accent that Jackie had come accustomed to thanks to the old folks of Chinatown.
"I'm passing out flyers," Jackie answered back, quickly realizing that was not what the man was actually asking about. He held a flyer out. "Here. The girl in the picture's my friend. She's missing. We're hoping someone might know something and help us find her."
The man looked at the flyer with a frown. His face was soft with sorrow and pity.
"Terrible business, this," he remarked. "Terrible, terrible business."
"Yeah," Jackie said softly with a nod. He looked away. "Yeah."
"May I have more?" requested the man. "I know a lot of people who would be happy to help find your friend."
Jackie was more than willing to oblige. He used his thumb nail to flip through some flyers and then handed random bunch over. After tucking the stack of flyers beneath his armpit, the man pinched the brim of his hat and tipped it down.
"I wish you much luck, Jackie Li," he said.
"Gee, thanks." Jackie watched the man depart, and then turned to move on, himself. But then he stopped and frowned. "Wait a sec, how do you know my . . . . name?"
He turned around to ask the man, but the man had already disappeared, as if he never existed.
**********
As Jackie moved on, the man with the Fedora hat stood, watching the young man's receding back with a stony, cold frown. He was invisible to all but himself, with people brushing past him at either direction without noticing.
Behind Jackie, a trash can moved. It scraped against the pavement by a couple of inches towards the road as if someone had bumped into it. Following that, a street sign abruptly shook back and forth. Now, nothing about that would be strange, except that they were touched by no one, and there was no strong enough wind.
"Terrible business you've gotten yourself into, Jackie Li. Terrible, terrible business indeed."
No comments:
Post a Comment