Lee Yan has taken a meandering path back home, stopping to see sights, chat with street vendors, and otherwise enjoy the multitude of sights and sounds Hong Kong has to offer.
Finally she sets key to lock and opens the door of her apartment. She flips on a light, doffs her coat, tosses it over the back of an old wooden chair, and heads to the kitchenette area.
At length she calls out to the apparently empty apartment. “Like I said, I wasn’t born yesterday.”
A outside-facing window is levered open, and Alycia slides through. She’s clad in all black, dressed for a mission.
Lee Yan turns and smiles. “I’m making milk tea. Want some?”
Alycia hesitates, then nods. “I… apologize for the intrusion. I have no excuse. I … I would like milk tea.”
The cop gestures at an empty seat. Alycia takes it, folds her hands, and waits silently.
The tea finishes, and Lee Yan pours two cups. She sets one in front of Alycia, and sits down with her back cushioned by her coat, cradling her cup in both hands.
“You want to know about your father, and my role in his organization,” she says.
Alycia nods silently.
“You don’t want anyone on your team knowing.”
Alycia shakes her head, still saying nothing.
“Because… because this is your thing and yours alone?” Lee Yan leans forward, curious. “I know who that young man is, despite him changing his face with those nanomachines of his. Scuttlebutt in my particular community is that you two had an arrangement, the particulars of which are none of my business, I know–”
“My father still haunts me,” Alycia says suddenly. “You said, ‘there’s life after Achilles Chin’. I’m trying to find that life. I’m useless for anything but operations like this, working in the dark. I can’t escape my upbringing. I have my pride and it’s only satisfied when I exercise my potential to its utmost. I’m using the skills he instilled in me. I’m using them for better purposes. But is that enough?”
“That’s what you’re asking yourself,” Lee Yan says softly. “So why visit me?”
Alycia is ready for this. The words come in a torrent. “You were in state security. Evidently - even if you hadn’t told me about your role in infiltrating my father’s organization, your training is evident. But you left. You’re doing this now. I thought your failure with Achilles Chin was your reason, but you don’t show any sense of shame when you interact with me. In fact - in fact, you’re hard to read. I see mixed microexpressions. It’s frustrating. So - so - I hoped - I thought, you’d have insight–”
“Drink your tea before it gets cold,” the older woman orders.
Alycia finds herself bringing her tea cup to her lips.
Lee Yan smiles. “I made the pivotal decision you want to make. I made the change. State security isn’t buried in my head the way your father is in yours. So I don’t know how helpful anything I say will be to you. Only that that willingness to change - the will to be something else - is all you need. Some things we never leave behind. So we pack them up, and carry them with us. But we pack in all the new stuff we pick up along the way too. Pretty soon, that old baggage is buried under a mountain of better memories.”
“The thing is, sometimes you pull those old bits out because they’re handy. You can find new uses for 'em. Your father left you a sword, you hammer it into a plowshare. Here’s a brick that smashed through windows. Now it’s a paperweight.”
Alycia considers this. “Mono no aware. A- a friend told me the idea. One fills in the breakage of an object in a way that honors the history of the thing. I said at the time I couldn’t accept that. I still find it hard.”
This conversation happened in “45.4 - Team Moves - Alycia and Aria” – Ed.
She looks up. “To me, scars are failures.”
Lee Yan smiles a quiet, gentle smile. “To me, the scars you carry aren’t your failure at all. They’re your father’s failures. If he’d succeeded - if he’d made you into what he wanted you to be, there’d be no scars. You’d just be in a very different shape, and we wouldn’t be having this conversation because we’d likely be enemies. As far as I’m concerned, every scar you bear in resisting his domination - in defending the you that comes to me with this question, the you that wants to save the world instead of rule it - is a mark of your victory.”
Alycia rubs her eyes before Lee Yan can see them tearing up. “Thank you for the tea,” she manages. “I’m grateful for your hospitality in spite of my rudeness.”
“Not at all.” Lee Yan waves the apology away. “You’re always welcome to visit. Just, y’know, call ahead next time, okay? I can’t bake anything sweet worth a damn but I’m the Hong Kong Queen of spaghetti.”
Alycia laughs, just a bit. “I would like to try your spaghetti some time. Until then…”
She rises, and moves to the window. Lee Yan clucks her tongue in disapproval. “That fire escape is a deathtrap. Be careful out there.”
“I will,” Alycia promises. And then she is gone.
The new base in the Antarctic - the “club house” - is shaping up.
Alycia and Jason have accelerated their research into the Stone Builders. The Golden Dragon’s mission for them has added new urgency to their formerly personal project. But it’s also just a nice reason for the two of them to take long walks together into the interior of the ancient city.
Finally - finally - the hot water and electrical problems are worked out. John has put the finishing touches on an end-to-end water treatment plant that turns ice into hot and cold running water throughout the complex. Showers, baths, laundry, even a steam sauna are all finally within reach. You can’t save the world when you’re miserable.
“We got a shopping list for new appliances,” Alex informs John. “When can ya make another run?”
“Who’s paying for all this, anyway?” the robot asks. “We coulda taken money from Big D, but nooo, we had to take a position. Like I get it, but then where’s this coming from?”
Alex shrugs winsomely. “A few billionaires made unwitting donations to a good cause.”
“That’s theft,” John insists.
“Technically, yes. But as a dedicated anti-capitalist, I see it as the ethical option.”
Emma, walking past, high-fives Alex on the way. Nono follows behind her.
“Where are you two going?” Alex asks curiously.
“Writer’s room!” Nono says in an excited tone.
Emma pales. “Don’t tell them. You said you wouldn’t tell them–”
Nono continues as though nothing had been said. “Emma asked how I do my planning for stuff, like what my version of her villain upbringing was. I said fan fiction! So we’re gonna write stories!”
Alex grins at Emma, and offers Nono a thumbs up. “I approve.”
Nono gets a suddenly scheming and unscrupulous look on her face, and leans close to Alex. “‘Robot Romance’. What a fascinating topic. I may have to explore it in future stories. I’ll keep you posted.”
Alex begins to freak out, but Nono runs off, dragging Emma by the hand.
Whatever he thinks of how he acquired them, Jason has to admit his nanobots have been useful. As a superhero, they were his sword and shield. As an intelligence agent, they’re a complete science lab.
For example, he was able to lace the glasses at Ozone with nanomachines when handing drinks around. He can get DNA data from his team any time, but the enigmatic Lee Yan, whom Alycia has an interest in? That’s a rarer find.
The nanobots have completed their DNA analysis, and turned in a result that Jason finds astonishing - and yet somehow not surprising, in a way.
Now he wrestles with a secret he initially wanted, and now realizes he may wish he could forget. What will happen when - not if - Alycia learns the truth? Lee Yan could have said something, but has chosen not to. It’s probably for the best, Jason thinks. Alycia’s very touchy about family. But she’s also a tenacious bulldog when it comes to a mystery. She cracked the Golden Dragon’s secrets in a day.
But now that he knows, what will her reaction be? Will she be incensed that he knew and said nothing? Will she resent his intrusion? Or will he just not tell her, and hope she doesn’t realize he knows? Does he carry around a secret he can never share?
Dealing with dragons was easier.