The Anarchist of Ophridia (Horsemen Origins Book 4)

Part 2

Ai Fen screamed at the soldiers and pleaded Lee's innocence. The soldiers surrounded Lee and grabbed his arms. Ai Fen lurched forward and tried to pry the men off of her husband. The officer leading the squad drew his pistol and fired at Ai Fen.

A red mist burst out of her chest, her face contorted in a mixture of surprise and fear. She collapsed, while Ju shrieked in terror.

"Shut that baby up!" The officer screamed.

"Ju! It's okay! We're just playing see?" Lee pleaded. Ju didn't believe Lee's lie and continued crying. "Ju please! It's okay sweetheart, please stop crying!"

"She's going to wake the whole neighborhood," the officer grumbled. He raised his pistol, shot Ju through her head and her doll flew out of her hands.

"NO!" Lee wailed. He lunged against the soldiers and dove for the officer, unleashing a river of curses and insults in Mandarin. The soldiers pulled Lee back and struck him down with their clubs.

"Chùsheng xai-jiao de xiang huo!" Lee cursed. He sobbed and wrestled against the soldiers so that he could hold his daughter one last time, but each time he escaped their grasp they struck him with one of their clubs. Lee became hysterical and broke the grip of the soldiers, but they struck him behind the knees where he fell and landed with Ju just outside of his reach. The soldiers grabbed his ankles and dragged him out of his house, while the officer kicked out the light that fed Lee's plants.

Lee watched the officer as he was being dragged away and chiseled every physical feature of his into memory. On the officer's face there were three lines next to his right eye, four next to his left. He had a ridge halfway up his nose, an antique scar from being broken in the past. There was also a faint scar on the left side of his chin and Lee saw the final mark. The name tag on his jacket said "Quan Sito." He looked around with an air of indifference, wiped his hands and continued his patrol while the Tingchia dragged Lee to the nearest station.

At the station the Tingchia struck Lee with their clubs and tied him to a chair. Lee never knew what happened inside of the police stations, only that once someone was dragged in, they were never seen again.

The soldiers threw ice water at Lee to get him to list off the names of other "conspirators" to feed to the Xiongbu.

"Only one way out miner, and that's to confess your crimes and co-conspirators. Besides, one of them ratted you out anyway. What's the point in defending traitors? Confess and we'll see to it you can get out of this alive," the guard said. Lee knew better. As long as the police held him, he wouldn't leave alive.

Lee held his head low and mumbled something under his breath.

"What's that?" the policeman snapped as he rose from his chair and held his club up.

Lee mumbled something again. The policeman waltzed up and brandished his club.

"What'd you say?" He asked.

"I'll give you names. Come closer," Lee whispered.

The policeman leaned down, his ear right next to Lee when Lee lunged forward and bit as hard as he could at the man's neck. The policeman howled in pain, while Lee felt his mouth fill with salty and grimy flesh before the iron blood flowed in. The policeman instinctively pulled away, the chunk of his flesh still in Lee's mouth. The policeman grabbed his neck in horror, but he was too late. His jugular had been severed.

The other policeman charged forward with their clubs. Lee jumped and kicked the policeman into the door, landed on his chair and shattered it into a thousand splinters. His hands were still bound behind his back but as the policeman came at him again, Lee spat the flesh into his face, and headbutted him which drove him to the ground.