Nen (32 page)

Back in the cramped kitchen of Fortune Chinese Restaurant, the scrawny man wobbled past oily stainless steel shelves and tables that had not been cleaned for years, crates of garlics, potatoes and condiments commonly used in Chinese cooking were littered all over the place and a stack of small rusty cages that shouldn’t be a common sight in a kitchen was almost blocking his way.

As he swaggered past the rusty cages, a beastly shriek made him froze. It came from one of those cages and it sounded like an animal. The scrawny man bent down and took a closer look. There was a golden-hair monkey in one of the cages. And it produced the same high pitched shriek again when the man stared into its squinty eyes. The man also noticed that in the other cages below the one that this snub-nose monkey was kept, there were other animals. One of the cages contained a live turtle, waiting to be slaughtered and turned into broiled soup. Another housed a couple of rabbits and right at the bottom, there was a python that seemed to be dead in a filthy cage caked with snake skins.

Straining his eyes, the man scanned the dark kitchen suspiciously, as if he was looking for someone or something. He paused for a moment before fishing out a strange looking object from his back pocket. It was strange looking because although it resembled a surgical scalpel used by surgeons or dentists, it was as transparent as a shard of glass. The scrawny man held the scalpel with his left hand and using his left thumb, he pressed a button on the scalpel handle. Almost instantaneously, the weird looking knife started to emit spots of luminescence green lights that seemed to glide along the sharp blade of the scalpel. He lifted his eyes from the scalpel and contemplated the snub-nose monkey before him.

They were behind me! Closing in!
The scrawny man crashed out of the back door into one of New York City’s most grimy alleyways. Hopping away from a cloud of steam that rose from the sewers under his feet, he saw one end of the alleyway opened up to a busy street. The other end was a cul-de-sac dumped with garbage. Instinctively, the shuddering man darted toward the busy street.
Yes, I could shake them off. I’ve done it before and I’ll do it again!
His lips quirked up to a slight grin as optimistic thoughts descended upon him again. As he picked up his pace, three beefy men in black suits barged out of the back door. One of them shouted at him in a strange language. Sounded like Korean or Chinese or a combination of both. The scrawny man raced forward, ignoring the three men at his heels.

When he was about twenty feet away from one of the street lamps that lined the busy boulevard ahead, his rekindled confidence to escape from the pursuit pulverized instantly when two huge men wearing black Armani suits rounded the corner and stood in front of him. They had blocked his only way out of the dark alley!

He skidded to a halt and looked around desperately. There were some doors on his left, back doors to some antique shops and convenience stores which were closed at that hour. Frantically, he tried to yank open some of those doors as the men in black closed in. His luck was out this time.

A strong hand grabbed him by his collars and threw him to the ground.

“Search him.” one of the black suited men asked in British-accent English.

Another stepped forward to frisk him.

“It’s not on him!” The frisker punched the defenseless man in his face and howled, ““Where is it?”

The man wiped the blood from his nose and smiled coldly at his assailants, baring his new set of broken teeth.

“Tell me where it is and I can spare your life.” One of the men asked, taking off his sunglasses and inserting it into the front pocket of his sleek Armani blazer.

“You’ll never find it.” Before anyone could stop him, the scrawny man crunched his jaws and swallowed a pill hidden under his tongue. His eyes rolled white and his mouth frothed. His entire body started to jerk violently for a few seconds. Then his lifeless body slumped to the ground...

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