Ghoulies Abroad, Julie Steimle [libby ebook reader .TXT] 📗

can handle it,” Rick added with hope.

Reaching out a mildly damp hand from holding his frosty smoothie glass, Sun Wukong said, “Deal.”

Rick took his hand, shaking it.

Chen shook his head, chuckling.

“Days off  to do whatever you two need to do can be written into Chen’s schedule,” Rick said. “We can tell everyone you were hired on as a consultant and quality control supervisor.”

Not letting go of Rick’s hand, Sun Wukong said again, “Deal.”

A ripple of something strange seemed to go through Rick. He could somehow tell he had made an even stronger contract with Sun Wukong than just a legal one. And it felt a little weird, having an ancient elf-being on the payroll.

Sun Wukong let go.

“So… what are you going to put on your tax forms? That the Monkey King works for you?” Tom snickered.

 Lifting his eyebrows, Rick exchanged a look with Sun Wukong. Sun Wukong smiled and replied, “Don’t you worry about it.”

 

Michael called that evening to let Rick know he and the rest of the Seven were safely on their way back to the United States. They did have a small hiccup at the airport—nothing to concern himself about, though.

<< …Just make sure you make it home safely, >> Michael said. << The government is keeping their eyes out for Tom, and I think also the ‘Bai Nian’ who had slipped through their fingers, if you know what I mean. >>

Rick stiffened, peeking once to Chen who was watching TV with the other two—it was one of the latest superhero movies which streamed beautifully on the wide screen with Chinese subtitles—realizing that Chen might have problems when all his legal work went through anyway.

“Gotcha.” And yet, as he watched them, his mind went to Sun Wukong who was sitting a bit like a monkey on the edge of his seat, giggling. “But I think our monkey friend will take care of any problems on this end.”

Michael exhaled in his phone. << Yeah… >>

They soon finished the call.

When Rick went to bed that night, his mind continued to go over his plans for departure from China and what he had to catch up on when he got home. He had to make sure all his friends received their class notes and that all things that had to be covered would be taken care of. He had to make sure Chen’s belongings got shipped to him or stored away. Chen didn’t have much, so Rick was counting on shipping it all. And he also had to get his computer back from Semour. It was still in the rice-filled suitcase. But first he had to get him and Tom back to Shanghai and on his airplane.

 

Chen and Sun Wukong saw Rick and Tom off at the train station. It was a quick goodbye full of hearty thanks from the both of them. As Rick walked into the main station with his train ticket, Sun Wukong said, “Thank you for acting so promptly—especially for taking an old monkey seriously.”

Rick smirked at him.

“You may have singlehandedly saved China, you know. If not the world.” Then Sun Wukong bowed to him as a monk would.

Flushing, Rick stared. He was wondering if the Monkey King was only being facetious.

But Tom tugged on Rick’s arm and Chen and Sun Wukong walked back toward the bus station. It was time to go home.

Tom snuck onto the train, as usual.

Rick slept most of the way to Shanghai, hardly bothered the entire trip.

When they both arrived in the station, Rick and Tom hurried to the airport where Rick carried nothing more than one carry-on and was driven to the hangar for the private planes where his was waiting.

Police were also there.

Tom wasn’t.

Or rather, Tom was—but he was semi-invisible, lying on top of the roof of the plane entirely out of their line of sight.

Rick had to stand aside while the police searched the aircraft, scouring it for both Tom and Bai Nian Chen. As they did this, Rick was properly annoyed.

“Are you done yet?” Rick asked after they had searched all the cargo holds, including the overhead compartments.

Peevish, the police had nowhere else to search. They had no other choice but to give Rick the green light to go. They hardly noticed Tom watching them semi-transparent from the plane rooftop as the airplane taxied out onto the runway. And when Tom sank through the roof and into a seat next to Rick’s, they reported back in frustration that there was no sign of either the Bai Nian or Tom Brown.

 

Kind of an Epilogue

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Twenty-Three

 

 

A week after his trip to China when he finally got his computer back from Semour, all spanking new, Rick receieved a weird email from his old friend A MonkK. He read it while he was working on his Everything Werewolf blog.

 

A 1,000 Hellos 2 my favorite Werewolf.

I just want U 2 know that the training w/ my protégé Billy Chen has been going spankingly well. It has taken him a bit 2 master it, but he has finally gotten down mastering disguise rather beautifully. He still struggles with human faces, but he is starting 2 understand the mechanics of it.

That aside, I want 2 report on the goings on of my homeland. It actually got N2 the news about the dead birds, & people R starting 2 pay more attention 2 air pollution N that city. N fact, air pollution has started 2 become more of a hot topic since my dear friend Fei has been out & about. It makes me happy 2 see him so busy, though he has visited me w/ a lot of complaints since his release.

I hope all is well w/ Ur friends.

My best regards

A MonkK

 

It was the nicest kooky email Rick had ever gotten.

Setting that email aside, Rick went back to his blog, typing in the last few bits.

 

…so, to sum up. What I have learned from my China journey was that all was not well in ‘Cathay’, the Monkey King is real, tigers really hate wolves, and the CIA will stoop to working with demons and the Chinese mob to reach their agenda. That last thing was the most disappointing as I know a guy in the CIA. Two actually. And they are both decent men. But as a wolf speaking to the SRA, I think you might want to be careful about who you recruit. They might in fact be working with the ‘enemy’—and I wouldn’t be surprised if one of them turned on a fellow ‘hunter’ if they ever made a deal with the Unseelie Court.

 

Rick saved the writing then checked for spelling and grammatical errors. It was one thing he didn’t like about blogs. It was really easy for a typo to slip by. And bad grammar was still embarrassing.

Then he clicked on Post.

The very next second, Tom popped through the roof, nearly landing on Rick’s lap. Falling backward, his seat tipping over with a bang, Rick looked around for his roommate who was thankfully not there. “Tom!”

Hugging Rick with a pat on his head, Tom then hopped off his lap with a Peter-pan pose and said, “I have a favor to ask.”

Groaning, Rick climbed up off the floor, glad he was alone. Then again, Tom had most likely made sure he was. “What is it?”

“I need you to fund another expedition dealing with naughty demons.” Tom said briskly, sitting on the edge of Rick’s desk.

Surprised and intrigued, Rick peered at Tom sideways. “Ok… Why?”

Shrugging, Tom replied in a would-be-casual voice, “Oh… just that I did a little investigating into the whole CIA-Unseelie Court debacle/scandal/ alliance/whatever thing, and I found out they are messing around in more places than China… and I am not too happy about it.”

Rick stared. “And what does the CIA think about your meddling?”

Tom grinned. It was even a little too manic for him. “This is a job with the FBI.”

Rick’s eyes went wider.

“Because right now the CIA is under internal investigation. I don’t think you are the only person who is blogging about this. Someone—say… Michael probably—leaked to the SRA what the CIA was up to in China and boy….”

This time Rick’s mouth opened. “That bad, huh? And how did you find out about this?”

Laughing, Tom said, “Oh, I was approached. They even had me debriefed—in a non-offensive way of course.”

Rolling his eyes, Rick stared at the ceiling. “And…?”

“Never you mind,” Tom waved it off. “Let’s just say I still have my job. And… they want me to organize a few other stings rattling the unholy alliance between crooked members of the Company and the Unseelie Court.”

But that gave Rick a scary feeling, one which made his flesh crawl. He said, “Do you really think the Unseelie Court is messing around more among humans?”

Tom nodded gravely. “Or at least some demons are doing things in their name. When Halloween comes around again and old Maeve comes to pick me up for that night ride, I’m gonna pry her for answers.”

Halloween was a long way away. It was February for pity’s sake.

“But in the meantime,” Tom said, “The FBI gave me a few leads they want me to check out. But…” Tom chuckled more, “They want some help from the Seven when handling them.”

Rick raised his eyebrows.

“And as much as they know that I know them, they are not so sure the Holy Seven would be as quick to jump at a request from me, if you know what I mean,” Tom said.

Not as quick? Rick doubted that. But as they were all college students with pressing schedules, Tom did not have the same resources as Rick did in getting things safely and quietly arranged. For things to work, speed and subtlety was necessary. And subtlety was not exactly Tom’s forte.

And the idea intrigued Rick.

“Ok,” Rick said. “I’ll help you out. When do we start?”

Tom grinned widely.

 

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Publication Date: 05-21-2018

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