Ghoulies Abroad by Julie Steimle (bts book recommendations txt) 📖

the bald man in yellow and orange. He then shook his head. “I can tell you what’s wrong. He’s got no imps.”

“What?” Andy stared.

Rick paled. “You mean…?”

Tom shrugged. “Only two types of beings have no imps. An imp himself, or a demon who can see imps.”

Chen drew in a breath.

“The malevolent force,” Eddie muttered.

Semour nodded.

They could see Daniel and James get ‘directions’ from the monk, and they pretended to be appreciative while they continued on in a rush to get there. They eventually hurried back and rejoined the group. Daniel said, “Ok, he’s the malevolent force.”

“We know,” Andy said.

Daniel stared at him. “How do you know?”

They thumbed to Tom who shrugged.

Daniel and James sighed, disappointed they had wasted their time.

“Ok…” Rick murmured, hoping the monk had not spotted them yet. This was bad. And he wasn’t sure what they ought to do.

“What do we do now? Were we drawn to China on false pretenses?” Andy asked, his lips a little pale.

Rick shook his head. “I don’t think so. I think the monk who had contacted me was sincere.”

“Perhaps our real contact was ambushed,” Eddie suggested meaningfully.

The other seven nodded. It was a real possibility.

“But what do we do about him?” Semour said, jerking his head toward the so-called monk. “We can’t just take out our swords and slay a demon in a public place. Besides, we still don’t know where we are going?”

“That’s not entirely true,” Rick murmured, thinking on it. “We have our hotel reservations, and I still have a way to contact the original monk who contacted me.”

“Unless he is also dead,” Semour suggested. It was a nasty thought, but real.

“We should at least find out where that monk who was supposed to meet us came from,” Andy remarked. He nodded to the others. “If he wasn’t a demon from the beginning, then we’d have to let those at the monastery know their fellow monk was killed.”

“Killed and replaced,” muttered Daniel. “A very common trope in the Monkey King legend.”

Chen peered at him, skeptical on how he knew that.

“What?” Daniel said, noticing. “I did research.”

“If that is common in the Monkey King story,” Rick murmured to himself. “Then I think it is safe to say that we’re going to encounter other similar troubles along the way.”

James moaned. “No… “

“Gads, I wish the movies had been accurate,” Eddie complained.

“Based off of…” Semour said. “Films always say based off of because filmmakers always assume they can do better than the novel.”

“But they always screw it up,” Eddie retorted with genuine grief.

Daniel and James shared looks. Then they gazed toward the monk who was now looking frustrated that he had not spotted his contacts yet.

“Does he even know whom he is waiting for?” Daniel asked.

Andy shook his head. “I doubt it. If Howie’s contact was legit, I’d say he only told his monk friend the bare facts, expecting us to come to him.”

“That sounds right,” Rick murmured. He glanced to Chen. “I think… Chen, Tom, and Abey should come with me. We approach the monk and pretend we are unaware of what he is. You other four should act all touristy and follow us at safe distance. If it is a demon, he probably want to take us to an isolated place to attack, so we need to be on our toes.”

“Bad idea,” Chen murmured gravely.

Rick nodded. “But we also need to take it to an isolated place to dispatch it, if not get information from it.”

“I’ve got a better plan,” Andy said, “We do what you said, but if the so-called monk tries to get us onto a bus or in a taxi, you guys pretend to stumble upon us and we can have a happy reunion where we can say stuff like ‘fancy meeting you here’ and all that. And Howie can invite you along because ‘the more the merrier’. Then we can take the monk to that isolated place and extract what we need from it.”

“Are you sure you can handle a demon?” Chen asked wryly.

All five men returned that stare at Chen, then they looked to Rick. “You need to explain to him who we are,” Andy said.

Rick nodded, agreeing. Apparent he had failed to explain who his friends were and why it was necessary they came on that trip. He had thought he had been clear enough. Or maybe, and Rick considered this, that perhaps he had not explained it to Chen at all and had only thought he had.

“Ok, let’s go,” Daniel said, tugging on James’s arm.

“Wait!” Semour seized his arm. “Our swords.”

“Restroom,” Eddie said, pointing the way.

They shared a look, nodding with a glance to Andy.

“I’ll get mine later,” Andy said. “I’ve got my crystal.”

Nodding back, they went their way.

“Ok,” Rick said, thinking over their plan again. “Let’s head that way first and wander a bit, pretending to be looking.”

“Hopefully the monk hasn’t already noticed us,” Chen said.

Tom frowned, still watching the monk in saffron. “I can’t tell… No imps.”

“Don’t worry,” Andy said. “We’re not helpless.”

Rick nodded. They were definitely not helpless. Each one of them had skills for their own defense which were formidable.

They meandered through the airport according to plan, nearing the doors until the monk rested eyes on them. Rick tried to pause with a look towards the monk that was not too obvious he acting. Then he walked toward him. Rick said in what Mandarin that he knew “Ni hao. Wo shi Rick Deacon. Ni shi seng ren ma?”

The monk smiled, nodding. “Shi de. Ni yao shenme?”

Rick cringed, wishing he knew how to ask if he was their contact. However, Chen, recognizing Rick’s difficulty quickly stepped up and rattled off the question with ease.

The monk, however stared at Chen. They could see goose pimples running up and down the monk’s arms. His eyes had gone wide on Chen. He then looked to Rick and said in thick Chinglish, “He is who?”

Andy shot Rick a look. Rick quickly replied, bemused, “A friend from school. Uh, wo de pengyou zai xuexiao. His Chinese is better than mine.”

The monk nodded but eyed Chen sharply. He said, “I bring you to monastery. But why so few come?”

Rick shrugged, saying, “Not everybody could come. Some might come later. Who knows?”

Sighing, the monk nodded, lowering the sign with the seven on it. He gestured for them to follow him.

They did.

The monk said as they walked through the enormous airport toward the exits, “I take you. We get taxi.”

“Will a taxi be big enough?” Andy asked, gesturing to the four of them, preparing for their early reunion.

Smirking at Andy, especially eyeing his red hair and freckles as if he thought they were the ugliest things he had ever seen, the monk said, “We get two taxi.”

Rick hung back. “No… I don’t think so. We can take the metro. It goes most places. And I’ve got yuan.”

The monk turned, peering back at him. “You have Chinese yuan?”

Rick nodded frankly. “Of course. My family has money in nearly every nation around the globe. And I know the Shanghai subway system. It will be a breeze.”

He could tell the monk was agitated by that knowledge rather than reassured, yet he masked it well enough for the inobservant. Andy peered at Rick, wondering at the change of plan though Tom and Chen seemed for it.

The monk nodded then led a hand toward the subway entrance. Eddie, James and the others traveled at a safe distance, tracking them.

Down into the metro area, the monk walked up to the end of the crowd at the one-trip ticket dispensing machines where he dug through his pockets to extract money. He seemed to be unfamiliar with his own pockets. Tom stepped behind him in the line and smirked at him. After a while, he handed him his own wallet.

“You dropped it,” Tom said.

The monk shot him an extremely dirty look. “You take it.”

Tom shook his head. “Nope. I picked it off the ground. It fell.”

But Rick had a feeling Tom had ordered the imps to shake the monk down for the wallet. He watched as the monk removed the money, the man visually counting it as if he were trying to figure out how much he had stolen himself. He hadn’t noticed that his id card was missing. That, Tom casually handed to Rick.

Rick could not read it of course, as it was all in Chinese characters, so Rick passed it to Chen, hoping he knew how to read Chinese—especially considering that Chen had been raised in the US and not in China. He might never have learned the characters.

Chen surreptitiously glanced at the card then handed it back to Rick. He nodded with a pretend smile.

After accessing the machine, with tickets for himself in hand, the monk watched as Rick purchased the others. Then he moved quickly, guiding them through the turnstiles and down the metro escalators into the belly of the subway system. He pointed to the signs and said, “We take two. We need to change to six.”

Rick nodded, knowing he meant line two and line six. He wondered, though, where the monk intended to lead them. It couldn’t be to a safe part of town. And for that matter, would just one demon alone attempt to attack them? It was possible he was taking them where there were more demons.

Andy rested a hand on Rick’s shoulder, reassuring him they were ok. Glancing at him, Rick could see Andy had confidence that their friends were not far away. It was mostly likely Andy could feel them near, as the Seven were uniquely connected.

They waited at the edge of the metro stop. The echo in the station felt a little surreal in his ears. Rick usually avoided the metro in New York City as he had one of those faces people recognized. However here he was just another foreigner. Once the metro pulled up, they got on. The metro car filled so fast, Rick and his friends were surprised especially as the seats were quickly occupied.

“Sit,” Rick said with a nod to the seats while taking one. “It will be a while. Shanghai is large.”

The monk remained standing, but peered at Rick curiously. “You is here before?”

Rick nodded. “Yes. Like I said, my family has a few companies we partner with in China. We’ve got a few in Shanghai and in Hangzhou, among other places”

“Never heard of Hangzhou,” Andy murmured, wondering why it came up. “Where is that?”

Rick gestured where he assumed was west. “About two hours or so from here on the freeway. Maybe an hour or so by speed train. I’ll need to visit there at the end of this trip.”

“Do you usually go by speed train or by the freeway?” Andy asked.

“We usually hire a driver to take us where we need to go,” Rick said. “It gives us more autonomy.”

The monk stared at him, almost hardly moving. His eyes were inspecting Rick, as if trying to get a read on him but could not yet figure him out. Rick noticed the monk stayed entirely away from Chen, and his eyes regarded Tom with severe suspicion as if he were angry at what Tom was. But he disregarded Andy entirely. It was as though, to him, Andy were a piece of luggage Rick was dragging along. Andy didn’t seem to mind, though. It allowed him space.

The trip took nearly an hour before they reached the connecting station. As they got off to switch metro lines, Rick spotted Daniel and James exiting the doors to their right. So did the monk. He stared, recognizing them.

Seeing that he was spotted, Daniel waved to their group, marching forward. “Howie!”

Rick moaned.

“Sorry,” Daniel apologized, “Rick.”

“You name not Rick?” The monk turned on Rick.

Rick shook his head, smirking and raising his hands to wave it off. “No. I am Rick. But that’s a nickname—like Howie once was.”

The monk looked confused.

“My full name is Howard Richard Deacon the Third,” Rick said. “It’s just easier to have people call me by a nickname.”

Daniel and James arrived with Semour