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Charles began
to run.
He raced back
through the maze, knocking items and customers to the floor.
Tonglong called out, "To the front door, men! There is a
young round eye coming your way. Stop him!."
Charles reached
the front door without seeing a single soldier. He grinned
and rushed out of the doorway, directly into the arms of two
very large men. Soldiers.
Charles writhed
and twisted and kicked, but it was no use. He soon gave up.
Tonglong came out with his arms full of snake-venom
bottles. "Take him to the barracks," Tonglong said. "I will
go on ahead. As you can imagine, the last thing I want to do
is drop one of these on myself--or on you."
"Yes, sir!" the
soldiers said in unison.
Tonglong nodded to
them and walked away. Charles watched, dejected, as Tonglong
hurried along the riverbank, then turned away from the water
and headed up a narrow side street.
"Let's go," one of
the soldiers said, and both burly men began to drag Charles
in the same direction Tonglong had gone. Charles looked back
at the apothecary's entrance and saw people streaming out as
fast as their legs would carry them. They were obviously
worried about the soldiers, too.
Charles glanced
upstream, and his heart leaped. Fu and Malao were strolling
along the riverfront on wobbly legs, both intently focused
on consuming their dinners.
"Fu! Malao!"
Charles shouted. "Help!"
Fu and Malao
looked up and came running. Malao held a skewer of fish
balls in each hand, while Fu held the remains of a chicken
carcass. Fu roared and hurled the carcass at the head of the
soldier to Charles' right. The man ducked forward and
Charles lifted his knee, driving it hard into the soldier's
face.
The soldier howled
and straightened, and Fu rushed forward, slamming a meaty
fist into the man's Adam's apple. The man choked, and Fu hit
him again on the side of the neck with his forearm. The
soldier went down.
Malao stopped in
front of the second soldier and shrieked loudly. He whipped
the skewers forward with a quick snap of his wrists,
flinging fish balls into the man's face. The soldier closed
his eyes for a moment, and Malao dropped low, jamming the
pointed bamboo skewers into the man's thighs.
The soldier
screamed and his legs buckled, and Charles broke free. As
the man teetered, Charles threw an uppercut into his jaw.
The soldier's head rocked back and he toppled to the ground,
unconscious.
Charles looked
around for Tonglong. He wasn't there. He must not have heard
the ruckus.
"Let's get out of
here!" Malao said.
Charles nodded.
"Follow me." He took a step toward his sloop and heard a
shrill whistle behind him. It sounded like a large bird.
Fu released a
questioning growl. "Hok?"
Charles snapped
his head around. Hok was standing alone in the apothecary
doorway.
"Hok! Hok! Hok!"
Malao squealed in a hushed tone. He raced toward her.
"In here," Hok
said.
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