Dim Sum Asylum(78)

“Gaines did all the talking, remember?” Trent’s eyes went stormy, flaring blue around his lenses. “Nothing in that room. Just Gaines. You don’t ever talk about your family. That was something Yamada told me right off the bat.”

“Small favors, then. Shit, I really hope he doesn’t kill Nobu.” I didn’t feel right about the whole damned thing. I’d never met Yukiko, and until today hadn’t even put a name to any of the cousins’ faces. I’d purposely kept myself out of the Takahashi and their family dynamics, because I knew once I’d stuck my nose in, it would be impossible to get it back out. Now I was giving a shit about Nobu, and that would only lead to trouble. “I don’t want to care about these people. And fuck me if I’m not starting to.”

“Answer me this. Why does your grandfather want you to take over the family?” The rain was thickening, something I hadn’t thought possible, and Trent slowed the sedan to avoid a trash bin caught up in a stream of water pouring down the hill toward us. “Other than apparently you’re the only grandchild from the woman he loves. He’s got other children, right? Sons and daughters?”

“The Takahashi mon… clan sigil… is a dragonfly.” I waited for Trent to connect the dots, something he did quickly, and I heard a slight ah from his side of the car. “The old man is traditional. Maybe too traditional. In his eyes, I’m a sign from the Seven Gods.”

“Well, to be fair, those wings on your back are pretty incredible.” It was a tease, ill-advised and ill-timed, but he made me laugh anyway. “Talk to me about what we’re going into. And what are we going to do when we get there?”

“I stashed as much spell-breaking components as I could in the trunk, but a lot of it takes time. We don’t know jack shit about the place, so I brought along a sightseer, but if the guy can animate dead stone, I’m pretty sure he’ll ward against far-seeing.” Our options were limited. The house looked like Takahashi picked up an Edo-era fortress and plopped it down in the hills. Tall stone walls and sweeping tile rooflines set far inside of a bristling perimeter. There weren’t large trees up against the outer stone ring, but several stood inside, blocking aerial imagery, so I couldn’t tell what was where behind the estate’s walls. “Grandfather gave me access codes, but we can’t say for certain that they’ve not been changed.”

“Any good news in there?”

“He gave me the schematics for the estate, but that’s not going to do us much good. I can guess they’re being kept outside—maybe—Jie said it was dark, maybe they were placed in a teahouse or a shed instead of in the house. This is all a shot in the dark.” I glanced through the data Takahashi had sent to my phone. “There’s a lower escape tunnel on the far side of the hill, but access to that is going to be sketchy. He says it’s keyed to open from the inside out, but there’s a casting he can use to crack that.”

“Which he gave to you?” The hopeful note in Trent’s voice was one I hated to shoot down, but there was no avoiding it.

“Nope, the spell’s tied to his blood signature. And to Yukiko’s. They’re the only two people who can open that lower portal.” I contemplated the spell for a moment. “Probably can’t force it, even if I’m theirs. I hate to waste any more time.”

“Any more word from Takahashi?” Trent asked, frowning when I shook my head. Even with our lights and siren flashing, it was slow going. There simply wasn’t anywhere cars could go in what little clear street we had open to us. “And just so you know, our ETA is about ten minutes. I can try to ice our way in, overload the circuits. I’ve done that before.”

“Might work on the lower tunnel.” Contemplating entry was always difficult. Even if we had the SWAT team with us, it could turn out to be a disaster. We would need to finesse our way in. It was the only chance we’d have to surprise whoever held Jie and my grandmother. “Just get us there and we’ll figure a way in. Hell, we don’t even know what we’re facing when we get there. I can’t get any intel on any channel.”

“Well, we’re going in blind with no backup but each other,” Trent remarked with a grin. “Gaines definitely was right. It’s a Hell of a roller-coaster ride of fuckery being your partner, but the sex is damn good.”

“Yeah, let’s just hope that it doesn’t become a ‘was,’” I cautioned. “Because with as powerful as this guy is, we could get our asses handed back to us in such little pieces, we’re going to have to pay someone to sit down for us.”




IT WAS odd being out of Chinatown. I didn’t realize how entrenched I was in the district until I left it. I’d made other forays out, but when I thought back to when I’d done more than a few hours at another station, it’d been almost two years since I’d spent any time actually outside of my home turf.

The lack of tall, looming buildings threw me. I’d been immersed in brick, glass, and asphalt for so long it took me a moment to realize the sound I couldn’t identify was actually silence. The city had hills. And trees. And minivans. It was a slice of suburbia I’d forgotten all about, one I’d lived a lifetime ago. It was all there. From the neatly trimmed lawns with tricycles left in the middle of the driveway to the occasional trash can left too long at the curb, warranting a snippy remark or three from the one old lady on the block who watched everyone’s comings and goings through her living room window. All of it was there.