Vayl stared at me until I met his eyes. “I could ask you where you get off saying such a thing, considering your profession,” he said, his tone so even I knew he was working to keep it that way. Which meant I’d better back down before he decided I needed a little hardening and I spent the next six weeks viewing corpses in all sorts of gruesome situations. “However, recognizing you have made the mistake of identifying with this woman, I will simply remind you to keep your mind on the job and save the souls you can.”
I turned away. Vayl was right. I couldn’t rescue them all. I looked over my shoulder, hating myself because I couldn’t cry— because it would smear my makeup. Boy was I ever into my part now. All I had to do was steal some kid’s cotton candy and I could easily pass for the biggest louse on earth.
“Jasmine, stop slouching,” ordered Vayl, taking out the remnants of his ire on my posture. “Pengfei does not slouch.”
“She should. Actually, she should slither. Then, the next time I see her, I can just stomp her head in.” With that grimly satisfying picture in my head I followed Pengfei’s steps back to the Winter Festival, down the same path Cole and I had taken only a couple of days before. What a contrast now. Crowded with bright-eyed, laughing families, lined with carefully painted booths and rides that looked like they’d been built by NASA and lit by the White House Christmas decorators, the Corpus Christi Winter Festival seemed like an idea plucked from the mind of Einstein.
We left the path just before we reached the Chinese Acrobats’ Arena. Pengfei’s route had taken her behind the multicolored building into the center of the acrobats’ camp. The place practically echoed since the show was on. We could hearooh s andaah s and occasional bursts of applause from where we stood, staring at the back of a small Winnebago.
“Nice propane tanks,” I said lamely.
“Yes,” Vayl agreed.
“I don’t get why her presence is heavier here. Nothing seems out of place to me. How about you?”
Vayl stooped and looked beneath the camper while I climbed to view the top of it. When we’d rejoined each other we both shook our heads. Nothing.
“Moving on?” I asked.
“I suppose so,” he said.
I went back into squint mode and followed Pengfei’s by now familiar trail. It led us directly to the arena. She’d bypassed the main entrance and followed one puffy red wall to the back of the building where a smaller purple structure attached to the main body. It allowed the acrobats quick access to the large open space within.
“She went in here,” I whispered. The crowd applauded as something impressive just happened. We stepped inside the entryway for a better view, but a black curtain had been drawn to hide the area in which we stood along with about two feet of the back wall. The house band switched from tension-building music to a dance-in-your-seat tune. I grabbed Vayl’s arm. “She’s in here.”
We peered through an opening in the curtain. “There,” said Vayl. “She is in the front row, wearing the white short-sleeved top with the turquoise pants, sitting next to Lung in the gold robes.” Vayl looked down at me. “How are you going to explain the change of clothes to Lung when you finally see him?”
“Won’t have to. He’ll already know somebody spilled a Cherry Coke on me.”
“So that is how you are planning to separate them?”
“Yup. I’ve got twenty bucks in my pocket says I can get one of the upstanding young men in this audience to do me just that favor before this show is over. Look.” I pointed to a set of stands to our right. “See that tall lanky college kid on the back row? The one drinking two beers at once? I’m thinking he’s the one.”
“Would you like me to do the talking?” he offered, perhaps thinking the two of them would bond immediately, being male and all. I thought he’d probably scare the hell out of the kid. Even with his powers banked, he still carried with him an I-could-easily-kick-your-ass air that kept most guys at a safe distance. But I didn’t say any of that.
“Nope. Let’s leave it to the money.” We began to move, but stopped as the entire perimeter of the floor rotated counterclockwise, circling our frat boy, along with the rest of the audience, a quarter of a turn to the left. A stream of acrobats ran past us and onto the performance floor, which had remained in place. The audience cheered and stamped their approval of this innovation. We exchanged impressed glances.
“Wonder who thought that up?” I said.
“Do you think they have their own resident Bergman?”
“If they have to steal from ours?” After a couple of failed attempts I got college boy’s attention, found out he adored pranks and money, and had myself a new partner.
I couldn’t see Pengfei or Lung since the audience had rotated. I stood on my tiptoes and jumped up and down to no avail. “How’s it going?” I demanded. “Is he there yet?”
“Jasmine, trust more than your eyes.”
Vayl was so calm that I stood absolutely still, opened up all my senses, and simply sponged it all up. It took about three minutes, but at last I could say, “She’s moving.”
“Are you certain?”
I nodded. “She’s leaving. There’s an exit directly opposite ours. She’s headed out that way.”
“Go get her.”
Turning, lunging out the door, I avoided another group of acrobats with an agility that, since the Sensitivity had risen in me, had become a rarity. As soon as I regained visual contact with Pengfei I put the medallion back over my head right along with the edgy feeling of discomfort.
The real Pengfei was pissed and practically trotting, but I still managed to catch up with her on the path headed back toward the marina and that pretty blue ferry to theConstance Malloy . I grabbed her arm and hustled her off the trail to an unlit clearing just west of the festival. That she allowed me to move her at all reflected the depth of shock she felt at seeing her own face mirrored back at her from what should have been a total stranger’s countenance.
She recovered quickly, yanking her arm out of my grasp. “That is my dress!” she spat, enraged as any woman would be at the unmitigated gall. I kind of understood what she was saying just by her expression, but Cole translated almost as soon as she spoke.
I backed up, making space for my equipment to do its work as I spread her fan in front of my mouth. “Yes it is,” I said, “and you know what? Your ass is flat!” I felt better already.
“Who are you?” she hissed.
I spoke in a slow, stately manner so any hesitation I might make while waiting for Cole’s translation would be misinterpreted as an aged woman taking the time she so richly deserved. “Do you not recognize me, Pengfei Yan? I am your great-great-grandmother!”
Shao, with his talk of ancestors and honoring Wu, had given me the idea. I wasn’t sure about contemporary Chinese, but the old ones like Pengfei had worshipped their ancestors. Given that Vayl still carried a ton of the 1700s around with him, I hoped Pengfei remembered where she came from just as clearly.
Mustering some matriarchal ire, I added, “I cannot believe you do not recognize your own ancestor. But perhaps it is no surprise when you have not venerated me lo these many centuries as you know you should have, you ungrateful whelp.” When I saw I’d struck a superstitious chord I closed the gap between us just long enough to give her face a slap. Her hand went to her cheek as I backpedaled, pressing my lips together to keep my delighted chortle strictly mental. “Now tell me why I should not visit great plagues of the most foul luck upon you for the next three thousand years?”
“I have devised a wonderful plan, Honored Grandmother,” Pengfei said eagerly. “It will transform China into the world’s most powerful nation, as you and I know it should be.” My gesture told her to quit pissing around and get to the details. She leaned toward me and whispered, “I am blowing up the Chinese acrobats.”