Jason’s two suggestions are medium-to-long term for the team, but short term by the dragon’s standards. The first is to master the Stone Builders’ elemental technology, and somehow shuffle the egg under the earth. The second is to use the teleportation system at Safe Harbor.
“The former will take longer, but has the advantage that nearly nobody on the planet will realize it happened, much less have a counter for it,” Jason explains. “The latter will involve a few more people, but has the advantage that we know it works.”
This proposal meets with the dragon’s approval. There’s a phone number, a person’s name, and a series of code words and call-signs the team will use to coordinate future efforts.
The team is given leave to depart the artificial island, on the condition that they will not speak of this to anyone. Nobody has any problem with that.
Alex and Nono, upon hearing that the dragon really had no idea how they got in, high-five and hug each other in giddy excitement.
The team takes the rail system to Shanghai. They get off at the hidden metro station located under the city. They take an elevator up - an elevator which will only operate when everyone aboard has swiped a special badge.
The door opens to reveal a crew of four individuals. They’re wearing identical trench coats, carrying backpacks and suspiciously bulging suitcases, and covering their faces with surgical masks and sunglasses. As they see people in the elevator, a few of them reach for something in a pocket of the coats.
Emma snickers. Nono giggles. Jason just snorts. Even Alycia has to crack a smile.
Emma is the first out of the elevator, her characteristic swagger back in place. “Good luck, boys,” she remarks casually, and walks past them.
Alex is as good as their word. There is indeed a spa visit in Shanghai.
John can’t show up in public the way he looks now. The team gets him a hoodie and face mask, and he prowls around the city. Alex stays with him in solidarity. Jason, mindful of the fame his face would bring, wanders off similarly masked, promising to return shortly.
The women receive their massages, and now enjoy the steam sauna.
“My head still hurts,” Emma mutters.
“Your mouth is still working, it seems,” Alycia snipes back.
Nono is much more at ease. “We need something like this back at the… uhh, the club house? Some kinda hot springs. Steam sauna. Something. What do you think? Could you do it?”
Emma was winding up for a scathing counter-attack on Alycia, but the comfort of the place plus Nono’s vote of confidence defuses it. “Yeah. Sure. Leave it to me. Until we get a hot water heater installed.”
Alycia settles back. “I wonder if - our patron of the moment - if they think about those things…”
The unexpectedly emotional statement grabs the attention of the other two women. “What things?” Nono asks.
Alycia waves a hand in a vague gesture. “Household considerations. Caring for a child. Mundane matters. How life will be day to day. They’re as much building a home as we are.”
Emma asks an unexpected question. “Hey. Boss. Am I… do I… I mean… am I just your pet pyro at this point? Do I add value? Or… am…?”
She can’t finish asking “am I family”, but Alycia hears the question in the silence.
Her own confession is difficult. She feels the presence of her friends, helping her through the difficulty. Such honesty demands an equally honest reply.
“I think… that I am bad enough at knowing what ‘family’ is to say, I don’t know.”
She finds Emma’s eyes, and looks at the other woman with conviction. “I’m infamous around the world because of my father. You were simply shepherded through by a… shall we say, regionally infamous man, for a few years instead of a lifetime. You cannot match the breadth of my skills, yet you have your own unique gifts and skills. Your attitude is bad and your manner is brusque, and… and…”
She finally has to look away, but she can say it. “I’m glad you’re part of this. With us. All of us.”
She finds Nono beaming at her, and smiles uncertainly back. “You as well. You’re a singular curiosity to me. You want this life, as dark as it can be. But you have proven yourself, over and over. I’d be an unworthy smith not to work such potent metal into a masterpiece. But you are not just that. You have also been… a friend.”
Emma scoffs. “See, you say sappy stuff like this, and then we think you’re going soft, and nope, you’re tough as nails when the going gets tough. I think you’d die of shame if you ever let us down, so you’re keeping yourself going out of sheer spiteful willpower.”
Alycia looks down, and her smile changes. She has nothing to say back to that. But she is grateful - far too much for words - to hear that.
Caring is not a weakness. Friendship has not compromised my strength. In fact, it has augmented it.
John Black has, somewhat predictably, found a high place to squat and look out over the city of Shanghai in contemplative brooding.
Alex is sitting next to him, holding a bag. They pull a few wrapped items from it and extend them as offering.
“What’s this?” John asks quietly.
“Sheng jian bao,” Alex explains. “Pan fried dumplings. Extremely greasy and unhealthy. Take years off your lifespan. Let you wallow in your misery and tastes amazing at the same time.”
John takes up a handful of dumplings, and slowly feeds himself. Alex follows suit, nibbling carefully on the street dish.
“You gonna talk about what’s bothering you this time?” they finally ask.
“Just a painful reminder of what I’ve become,” John says quietly. “Guess I’m not as comfortable with my transition to robot-hood as I’ve tried to pretend. I really am just a machine with a backup ghost piloting it. And I can’t fully transform, so everyone can see what kind of freak I am. Leastwise until I get fixed up.”
He stares over at his teammate. “And I’m not looking forward to what kinda nonsense you’ll try to stick me with this time, or what kind of weird things you’ll say if you try and fix me yourself.”
Alex gently elbows him. “I’m not the only mechanic in town. You can visit Jason’s Garage, or do it yourself.”
“I can’t reach a lot of the modules on my torso,” John complains. “And I don’t trust that guy not to put some kinda nano-weirdness in my system. I got very specific ideas about what kinda tech is acceptable.”
Alex pops another dumpling into their mouth and chews thoughtfully. “Okay. Make you a deal. First, you teach me how to make hardened systems, hur hur make your own dirty joke here. No, seriously. Safe systems that’ll take an EMP hit, take a bomb going off, whatever. We’ll fix you up with stuff that’s up to your standards.”
John nods. “Sure. Why this now?”
Alex looks down. “Cause I messed with your systems and you got hurt cause I did. I don’t wanna do that again. I want to earn your trust.”
John hmms. “Fine. I’ll show you how I construct carbon-allotropic layers, make modules, all that stuff. We’ll build something that’s both safe and functional. Together. What’s the second part of the deal?”
“Second, we saw that ‘Robot Romance’ trilogy, right? We’re gonna watch ‘Neon Genesis Evangelion’ next.”
John’s eyebrows go up. “Why that?”
Alex hands over another dumpling, and folds their legs into a lotus squat. “Because… because there’s a couple characters in there, who each are totally afraid of rejection and being alone, and they meet, and interact, and it’s so friggin’ obvious that they’re both just, y’know, trying to negotiate that… and they mess it up, and it didn’t have to end that way…”
They perk up. “Also, just as a warning, the main character is the director’s self-insert and he wrote himself some romantic tension with a pair of 14-year-olds, one of whom is a clone of the main character’s mother in a weird relationship with his father, and that’s gross, jesus, and there’s a lot of weird Christian symbolism–”
“I’ve seen Evangelion,” John says with a quiet smile. “We can skip it.”
He turns, and takes a dumpling out of the bag for himself. “I hear ya. Okay? I’m really annoyingly difficult to get to know. I know. I’m… I’m trying. I’m weird about everything. But just… remember… uh, that when you’re trying to hack a system, that… you gotta know the system. Know how it works. You can’t just brute force your way in. Just a little effort… just… learn about it, know its rules, and you’ll succeed. Okay?”
Alex elbows him in the side with a big grin. “See? I knew you were a big softie.”
John rolls his eyes and looks away. But when one more dumpling comes his way, he snatches it up and chews on it anyway.
Jason is back by the time the spa treatment is done. He offers Alycia a small box, and she opens it curiously.
The gift is a locket, with a tiger and dragon facing each other with the simplified Taijitu or “Yin-Yang symbol” as a background.
She looks up at Jason, surprised.
He grins. “The tiger and the dragon met - but not as rivals. They combined their strengths. They brought order out of chaos, and peace fell across the land.”
Alycia stares at the locket, then looks up at Jason. “Do you mean you and I, or our group and our new patron, or…?”
Jason grins. “That you have to ask tells me this was a good gift. It can mean all that and more.”
She looks up, looks away, then impulsively leans in and locks a tight hug around his chest.
Jason is only a little surprised, but happily hugs back. And with a deft motion, he arranges things so that when Alycia pulls away, she’s wearing his gift.
She lifts the locket in both palms and stares at it for a few more seconds, then smiles. “Hey. I have another question. Why… the name you chose?”
Jason grows a little more serious, but he’s still smiling. “My dog’s with my brother. He has a good home. That’s where he belongs. But I read a thing online, about how if you look at a dog’s lifespan, we’re like fantasy elves or something to them. Whole generations of dogs could know the same person… and to them, our few years is a lifetime commitment of caring and companionship.”
“I made my peace with death. I’m resolved to live now. But it’s not completely my choice, is it? So what am I doing about the people I value now? That name is a reminder. Always care in the now. There’s no promise there’ll be a later.”
Alycia leans in to rest her head against his chest. “Yes. Value the time you have with those you care about. You could lose them faster than you know.”
She sighs. “I’m… scared. I’m scared I will lose all of you. And most of all I’m scared of the person I’d become if I lost you all.”
Jason flashes his best reassuring smile. “You went to the Quillverse and learned what at least two of us became without that family. So remember what you can lose… and then fight with all your might to make sure you don’t.”
It’s a three-hour nonstop flight from Shanghai to Hong Kong. Out the Chimeras’ viewports to the east, the team can see the island of Taiwan. Somewhere on that island, a dragon’s egg is waiting to be retrieved. And then–
Who knows. That’s a problem for another day.
Lee Yan is waiting, in her rumpled overcoat and flashing her quirky smile, at the Ritz-Carlton in Kowloon. She leads the way to the elevators, and the team emerges at the top into Ozone, the highest rooftop bar in the world.
Finally seated, the cop leans across the table and lowers her voice conspiratorially. “Don’t worry. I can afford drinks for you lot. I got a raise.”
Alycia looks at the others, then back at Lee Yan. “Then…?” she asks carefully.
“You folks came through. I got a very surprising call from a certain party who had positive things to say about you. Don’t ask how they knew I was involved. I assume you all conveniently forgot to mention me.”
“Nobody said anything,” Jason confirms. “But let’s just say that we find this phone call credible, and move on.”
Lee Yan continues with a big grin. “So drink up. This is an expat bar and when they see someone like me here, they’re automatically suspicious. But I flashed enough cash that I think we’ll get good customer service.”
The group spends a few minutes talking about ordinary things - the weather, sports, Hong Kong life, and so on. Lee Yan notably avoids any effort by anyone to talk about the mission, and Alycia and Jason subtly gesture for people to cut it out when anything remotely like the topic seems to come up.
Drinks are delivered. Jason holds up a cautioning hand before anyone drinks. He and John sample the rounds with their respective technological tools, then nod slightly - no contamination they can detect.
Jason gallantly offers Lee Yan her glass, passes other drinks around, and offers a toast: “To your promotion.” Glasses clink and people drink.
Nobody wants to get particularly drunk. Some people try a few drinks before switching to non-alcoholic options. John in particular has no problem keeping the alcohol coming.
Finally Lee Yan talks business.
“They want to know what happened. What you learned. I told them I’d try to find out. They gave me a bundle of cash and recommended Tell Camellia as a good place to take outsiders. That’s how I know that place has extra ears and is staffed with uh, special replacement employees for tonight. I threw a dart at a list of bars and hit this place. Unless they tailed me - good luck with that, I wasn’t born yesterday - I think you folks will be able to go home easy.”
Jason raises an eyebrow. “What about you? Won’t they be mad they don’t get the leverage they wanted?”
Lee Yan shakes her head and takes another drink. “Nah. My boss will cover me that far. The incident was called off so they’ll have to settle for that. That’s still a major victory as far as the higher-ups are concerned.”
She grows serious, and looks at Alycia and Jason in particular. “Whatever went down is nobody’s business. Not mine, not anyone’s. I think you both know that. I want you all to know that I know it too.”
Both of them nod, and the INTERPOL agent’s smile suddenly returns. “Great! After the haha, unusual circumstances surrounding my last meeting with you folks, I’d been looking forward to working together in a more collegial atmosphere.”
She tilts her head, and her smile becomes suddenly more emotional. “I’m glad I got this chance. I hope it won’t be the last.”