Page 111 of The Girl with a Thousand Faces
Eventually, Cobra Lily and Mercy Chan both leave, looking suitably anxious. As they should be, if they knew even half of what you hope to do.
You start the ball rolling.
It’s going to be a busy day,andnight.
Under cover of darkness, you infiltrate Cobra Lily’s flat. That involves breaking in, but this is easy to do. You have infiltrated Japanese ships, and this is far easier. One of her enforcers is in the opium den, a not uncommon occurrence. It’s easy enough to drown him on the premises, in one of the bathing rooms, and take his skin.
Afterward, you walk into triad headquarters, go up to visit Cobra Lily, and give her the same treatment. She puts up a fight, with that sword of hers, but not for long. Her sword does nothing other than prize you out of the man’s skin, and you cheerfully drown her in her own toilet.
Things are easy after that. Put out a few feelers, ask a few questions. Discover that Mercy has gone to visit an old friend or contact. You send some enforcers to frighten her, keep her off-balance. If they capture her, then fine. If not, it doesn’t matter, not yet.
As it happens, they don’t come back, but you don’t really care. All paths lead back to you, whether that’s through the opium den or to the triad directly. Set spies on them, keep tabs.
Those spies alert you when Mercy and her strange friend finally decide to head for the opium den, and you—at last—make your move.
Mercy is captured, of course. You’re prepared in every sense. Her friend escapes, but you don’t care about that. The person who matters is here.
You go to confront your killer.
She is defiant, this one. So bold for someone who is so wrong. Her bemused suffering is pleasing to witness, and when she realizes her time has come, it’s hard not to laugh at the expression of fear on her face.
The woman who used to be Chen Mei Chi lunges away, trying frantically to crawl toward the door. You don’t let her get far.
Catch her.
Hold her.
Drag her to the water barrel, and keep her head beneath the surface. Waterburns up her nose, then down into her lungs, like a cold wet fire, and then there is nothing left of her but empty skin.
For a long moment, you contemplate the body left behind. Once, you dreamed of reclaiming your skin, but that prospect holds little allure for you now. Not when you can choose to be an endless succession of young, fresh-faced bodies instead.
No. She wanted your body so damn much, she can have it, for all you care.
Disdainfully, you slam your old body fully into the barrel, still part-filled with water, and tamp down the lid.Thatbrings you satisfaction. A gourd would be safer, but this is a far more poetic justice. Besides, you don’t want her to stay in there forever, not really.
Let her see what it feels like, to be trapped in confined environments. Let her escape in a few months’ or years’ time, and see what destruction you’ve wrought. Let her know and remember, and be too fucking late to do anything about it.
“She dead, then?” the vanguard says, glancing over his shoulder.
You smile. “For now.” Point at the barrel. “Help me carry that, please. We’re going to the basement.”
When her ghost is locked away, you climb to the roof of Cobra Lily’s headquarters building and lie atop the concrete, staring at the tempestuous sky.
It’s very strange, but you’re so calm, and so flat. You thought you’d feel… something? Anything, really. Seeing Mercy had an effect on you. Why hasn’t vengeance done the same?
A tiny voice whispers that maybe what you sought from Mercy was never vengeance in the first place. You push it away, flushed with sudden anger, and sit up. Of course you wanted vengeance. Of course you wanted her suffering. That was the point of it all.
Wasn’t it?
Yet the anguish in your soul has not dissipated. Not a drop of it. You feel the same now as you did a year ago, or thirty years ago, or even at the moment of death: betrayed, adrift, furious, unfulfilled. It doesn’t make sense; this is everything you’ve worked for.
Why can’t youfeelsomething? Aren’t ghosts supposed to disperse, or calm down, once their objectives have been achieved?
Ah, but maybe that’s the problem. You haven’t done everything you set out to do, yet. There is the city to wreak chaos and havoc on, after all.
Get to your feet, and contemplate the situation.
At present, Kit Ling’s body has been found, and reported. That’s good. A police raid will likely take place, very soon. With Cobra Lily’s skin, you have prepared a trap for that raid; the gates of Kowloon will be barred shut once enough of them are inside, and your triad enforcers will tear into them.
