Page 18 of The Girl with a Thousand Faces
Mercy stepped in front of her boss. “We are not thugs,” she said, as much to save face as to prevent Cobra Lily from starting a massacre. “The Snakeskins manage crime when your police force does not dare enter Kowloon. We run schools. We look after the elderly. We protect women. Even the girls who work in opium dens. Yes, there are drugs, but you have that, too, out here! As for the ghosts, we have long managed their infestation, without government support. The Walled City is our home, and you do not have the right to destroy it, when you have done nothing to help it!”
“Well-spoken,” Kit Ling said, turning toward Mercy. “And who are…”
Her words died away as their eyes locked. The councilwoman stood frozen, lips parted and eyes so wide the whites were visible. As if she’d seen a ghost.
Mercy stared back, feeling a strange buzz that ran from her belly to her fingertips. She would swear, on her life, that she’d never glimpsed this person before. Yet that did nothing to dispel the niggling feeling of familiarity.
“This is Mercy Chan,” Cobra Lily said, poise recovered, her gesture imperious.“A trusted aide, and best of my exorcists. It is with her work that we successfully contain the ghost problem in Kowloon.”
“I see.” Kit Ling’s nostrils flared. “Who gave you that scar?”
“Huh?” Mercy glanced down at the red scar that peeped out from the sleeve of her shirt, livid streaks running from wrist to shoulder and along the collarbone. “Nobody gave it to me.”
“Nonsense,” Kit Ling said flatly. “That’s not a birthmark, it’s a scar. How did you get it?”
“Not that it is any of your business, Miss Tsang,” Mercy said, stiffly, “but I have had this scar for as long as I can remember. A doctor told me it is probably from a lightning strike.”
Of all the things she had expected from today’s confrontation, being quizzed about her scar was not one of them.
“What is this rude questioning?” Cobra Lily said, almost swelling with indignation at being first insulted, then so rudely ignored. “We are here to—”
“I know why you are here, and I want to be sure your exorcist is a reliable person,” Kit Ling retorted, without even turning around. “What do you mean,as long as I can remember?”
Everyone in the room was staring at Mercy: the guards and enforcers in suspicious confusion; the staffers with nervous attention; Cobra Lily, with furious indignation at being left out. And Kit Ling, with a powerful, single-minded intensity, as if the whole world rested on the answer.
Mercy found herself saying, “I don’t remember my life before 1942. I arrived in Kowloon in the middle of the war, without family or memories.” She added, “That’s a little before your time, Miss Tsang, unless you are much older than you look.”
A muscle twitched in Kit Ling’s cheek. “A little, yes. I was born in 1945.”
“Then why does it matter? Am I offensive to look at?”
“No. But your face, and that scar, are extremely familiar to me. I could have sworn…” A strained pause. “Are you sure, completely sure, we have not met before?”
“Never that I remember,” Mercy said, coolly. “In another life, maybe.”
“In… another life.” A light tremor ran through the other woman. For a second, Mercy had a strong sense that the councilwoman was about to lunge forward and grab her.
But Kit Ling only put on a polite smile, as if their conversation had been entirely ordinary, and said mildly, “My mistake. You are quite right, I am tooyoung to remember the war years.” She angled her gray-suited form back toward Cobra Lily. “Please accept my apologies for my confusion, Ms. Wong. As I was saying… your whole entourage cannot come into the building. Perhaps I can suggest a compromise? You are welcome to come to my office, where we can speak in private.”
Mercy blinked furiously, still reeling from the strange confrontation that had been so hastily abandoned.
“Alone?” Cobra Lily’s eyebrows rose. “I don’t go placesalone.”
“This is an official government building.” Kit Ling spread her hands to include the air-conditioned luxury around them, in all its beige concrete glory. “You are safe here, as any citizen would be. Our concern is for our own safety, not yours.” She added, “And you won’t be alone. Ms. Chan may come with you.”
“Boss,” Mercy said, in low tones, “I don’t think—”
“I don’t pay you to think,” the triad queen snapped.
Mercy held her tongue diplomatically. Her boss was nettled and embarrassed by the whole encounter, which she understood, but she still didn’t appreciate having to bear the brunt of someone else’s loss of face.
“I’m glad we could come to a compromise.” Kit Ling inclined her head in another borderline disdainful bow. “Your assistants can wait in the lobby.”
Assistants? Don’t you mean “violent thugs”?Mercy thought, but she was old enough and wise enough not to say so out loud.
Kit Ling gestured and stepped aside, allowing Cobra Lily to walk ahead of her. The triad queen led the way, folder of documents tucked under one arm, though she could not have possibly known where they were going.
Mercy followed after them, a sinking feeling in her belly.
