Undercover - In China - Book 7

Part 35 - A Foreign Devil

We must have visited every rice wine bar in the city looking for someone who could help us find Denny. Kongming spoke to a soldier who prodded a man sleeping with his head on the table. He was a skinny young man with deep set eyes in a broad face and a beard that looked false, like a large stiff brush. He grumbled blearily as he lifted his head and began arguing with Kongming.

 Licia told us his name was Wang Bang Wah and he had arrested a foreign devil about three months ago. 'He claims the devil promised him a lot of money to guide us to him and defend us from bandits. But Kongming doesn't trust him because I told him Denny doesn't speak Mandarin.'

While Licia was talking, Wang Bang Wah exposed a mouthful of large, crooked teeth in what might have been a grin and jumped unsteadily to his feet. One of his friends gave him a mug of wine as he extracted an armoured vest from the box he had been sitting on. He slipped his dirty hands into a set of knuckle daggers and started juggling a set of knives. He dropped those, narrowly missing his feet, and twirled two sticks connected with a short length of chain. He pulled out a spiked battle club from the box along with a sword, a short-handled dagger axe and a cross-bow complete with a quiver of arrows. He hung them about his body and struck a dramatic pose. 

 Licia giggle as she told us, 'Of course, he says, all this is not essential. He can kill with a little finger.' Wang Bang swallowed some wine and before pirouetting clumsily, to show off his dragon-scale armour. By this time everyone in the room was laughing.

'He said he is taking us to the advance guard supply depot,' Licia told us as Wang Bang tucked a grapnel hook into his harness, picked up a round shield and stuck a ridiculous basket-work helmet on his head. 

 He took one step forward and, very slowly, fell over. His friends hooted and cheered. 

 Kongming gestured for us to leave. 'That guy's an idiot,' Licia whispered as we slipped out through the door. 'One of the other drunks told Kongming the foreign devil , or white ghost, is with the advance guard supply corps and Yin Jia already told us they were heading for Jiangling.'

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 We wandered through the crowded streets while Kongming looked for someone who could get us out of the city. We almost walked into a group of soldiers systematically searching through the crowd. We ducked into a small market square looking for a way of escape but all the exits were blocked by soldiers and they were obviously looking for someone. 

 We pushed into the crowd around a quartet of musicians. One blew into something that looked like a flower vase with holes. Another bowed a two stringed instrument, which resembled a skinny viola with a tiny drum for a sound box, and a third player bashed randomly at a variety of wooden blocks. The last member of the quartet was playing a souna, like Dr Zhang's squeaky relative of the soprano saxophone.

Kongming asked the souna player if he could borrow his instrument. Licia rummaged in her satchel, put on a pair of reindeer horns and handed Miguel and me red noses left over from the Christmas party. Kongming borrowed a red nose and the antlers from Licia and broke into a lively version of Old MacDonald had a Farm. 

 The musicians enthusiastically joined in while Licia provided a Mandarin translation and Miguel and I added animal sound effects and some creative break dancing. Within minutes all the children within ear-shot had joined in. Quack, quack, moo, moo and honk, honk sound much the same in any language.

I nervously watched the approaching guards. Licia looked like a typical Chinese and Miguel looked vaguely Asian, except for his curly hair, but I looked unlike any person ever seen in China. Some of the children were already staring at my blue eyes as if I were some kind of exotic monkey. A girl, who could have been Licia's twin sister, reached out to touch my freckled face. I gave her my drop-dead glare through slitted eyes.