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

now. Me or you?”

Rick shrugged, not really caring as he looked back toward the cars. “Probably me. It’s displaced hatred.”

And sure enough, that spy spat out several choice words towards Rick next.

“Shut up,” one of his fellow spies finally snapped.

That other one paled, though with livid fury. Yet he quit shouting.

One of the other spies called out to Andy, “If anyone finds out you befriended a werewolf—”

“You mean like the UN?” Andy dryly asked.

That spy stared. In his eyes, a thousand questions were asked though none spoken out loud.

Andy shook his head and pulled out his wallet, extracting his ID. He showed it to that spy. “We are officially sanctioned by the UN, and independently by other nations, to deal with all supernatural activity that we believe has gotten out of hand.”

“Can I see that?” the monk asked, approaching him.

Andy beckoned him over. “It works on the Chinese police ID machines. We are authorized to be here.”

Examining the card, but not allowed to take it as Andy refused to let it into the monk’s hands (just in case he wasn’t actually a friend), the monk peered at it. “Having this is a bit like having an RIFD chip,” the monk murmured.

Semour nodded, lifting a hand. “I examined them already and took off the transponders.”

The monk raised his eyebrows.

“They can only track wherever they are hooked into a scanning machine now,” Semour said. “We generally don’t use them unless seriously necessary.”

“Like now?” the monk asked, raising an eyebrow.

Andy huffed irritably. “The spy was getting cocky.”

The others of the Seven exchanged looks.

“And they needed to know we have not only the right, but permission from this government to be here,” Andy said, “And to interfere in their business.”

They looked over at the collection of US spies. All of them appeared like they had just been doused in freezing water. Those agents now knew who Andy and the rest of the Seven were… and a second spy wet himself.

 

 

Cleaning House

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Fifteen

 

 

Semour had gone through the collection of cell phones they had taken from the Chinese thugs they had captured and scrolled down the list of their contacts. He found a number of commonalities, which Chen and the monk read over to decide which phone number was the one they needed to call to get in contact with the boss. Daniel called it detective work. Tom called it phoning home.

They settled on three phone numbers. Chen made the calls.

<< Wei? Xihuan hongbeidian. Nin yao shenme? >>

Chen rattled something off in Mandarin, having a brief conversation with the owner of the number. His face went pale midway through and he hastily ended the call. When he hung up, he said, “It was a bakery—or so they said at first. But uh, halfway through, the conversation got weird. Like a code. So that’s why I quit the call.”

“A code?” Eddie frowned, murmuring. He put away the sword he had been sharpening.

Chen nodded, meeting Tom’s eyes the most. “Yeah. They were using baking terms… but it didn’t quite make sense.”

“They were probably talking about drugs,” Tom remarked, thinking.

Nodding, Chen said, “That’s what I guessed.” 

“How did you know what to say?” Semour asked suspiciously.

Rick and Tom shared a look as Chen said, “I read that thug’s past when I pushed him off of me. That’s how I know about most of these phone numbers. It took a bit to recall what the bakery really was. The store is a drug-selling front.”

Tom nodded, ticking that one off the list. “Not the boss, though.”

Tiredly, Chen shook his head. “No.”

He then dialed the next one.

The next one got him a serious voice, almost gravelly sounding with a rumble to it. Chen reacted with a jerk back from the phone as apparently the person on the other end cursed at him for doing something the owner of the phone shouldn’t. For a second Chen appeared unable to speak. But then he said in his own voice rather than the mock voice of the thug, “Wo men lai duoqu ni.”

And he hung up.

Tom straightened up. So did Rick.

Andy met Chen’s gaze. “The boss?”

“I think so.” Chen nodded.

“What did you tell him?” Daniel asked.

Looking to him, Chen replied, “We are coming for you.”

Silence filled that space for several seconds.

“Are you kidding me?” Rick huffed in exasperation, tossing his hands.

Chen shook his head.

“Why?” Rick said with an overwhelming desire to strangle Chen. This was going to make things more difficult, and their group really did not need more complications.

Steadily meeting his gaze, Chen replied, “Because we are. And he needs to be afraid.”

The monk nodded in approval. However, the others shared looks.

Rick shook his head, stepping back near Andy. “No… Chen…”

“He did right,” the monk said this time, stepping forward.

They all looked to him.

“That crime boss needs to know that dealing with demons and the CIA—though I am being redundant—is extremely dangerous for his health.” The monk exuded an aura of ancient power as he said those words. It gave them all the feeling that he could have dealt with these thugs quite easily on his own if he had wanted.

Which prompted Rick to say, “Why did you drag us into this?”

A great deal of understanding passed between the monk to Rick in the wake of that question. That is, the monk understood Rick perfectly and nodded like one who had all the eternities to ponder this question. Yet the monk replied in real time, “Because a thousand lessons must be learned here—and you, with yours friends of the Seven, are the teachers. The Seven is not yet well known in these parts. The previous Holy Sevens have mostly stuck to the West. But the Holy Seven’s duty is to the world—especially now that the protectors of the East are long gone…” his eyes drifted to Chen, “…from the East.”

Chen stepped back with shivers. He looked around to the others.

Rick peered harder at the monk. “So you are saying there really used to be an equivalent to the Holy Seven in the East?”

The monk nodded, sighing. “Once. Long ago.”

Those in the Seven exchanged looks with peeks to Chen.

“The world is wide, and often hard to travel,” the monk said. “There were many special groups chosen to hold back the supernatural realm. The Holy Seven were originally for Egypt, and at the founding there had been eight. They were known as Magi of Light.”

Those in the Seven snuck looks again. Shivers were crawling up the skin on their arms and the back of their necks.

Rick stared. Only those who personally knew the Holy Seven knew the detail about their original number. And the fact that this generation’s Seven had eight was apparently a confirming sign that they were definitely chosen for the End of Days. But he had never heard the phrase Magi of Light.

“But with the world becoming smaller again—”

“Again?” Eddie rose to his feet.

“Well, there was an enormous flood,” the monk explained matter-of-factly, “that wiped out the previous global civilization. Humans then were rather advanced.”

“Advanced?” Chen puzzled with utter disbelief. “The cavemen?”

The monk rolled his eyes toward him, moaning. “For pity’s… Ugh. Where do you think all those megaliths and global pyramids came from? The Egyptians? They only had copper tools. The megaliths were beyond their capacity. And what about the Vimanas? You can read about them in the Ramayana. Their flying vehicles?”

Daniel was about to say ‘myth’ but caught himself, thinking on it. Realizing he had experienced enough unexplainable phenomenon to never just dismiss anything as a myth, he chuckled to himself. He knew he had a Eurocentric upbringing, especially regarding myths, history, and science. And he was fully aware that ancient history was infamous for being erased. He thought of the burning of the library of Alexandria. Even the burning of Nikola Tesla’s lab came to mind. He knew valuable information was lost all the time. What if what they knew about early civilizations was indeed entirely incorrect?

They stared at the monk.

Nodding, the monk said, “Every world civilization has a story about a large flood. I survived it by floating in a hollowed-out gourd, as did many of my kind.”

Chen drew in a breath, almost breathing out the question.

“And what is your kind?” Andy asked it, of the same mind.

The monk smiled at him, genuinely amused. “That answer will have to wait. But let it suffice that I am a guardian who had to learn the hard way to take my duty seriously.”

James laughed, sheathing his sword. “Sounds like an elf to me…”

Bristling, Chen shot him a dirty look.

But Rick peeked thoughtfully to the monk who had immediately preoccupied himself with gathering up the dead demons—perhaps checking to see if they were really dead or just faking it. He had noticed that a few were missing. They had probably snuck off the second the Seven’s backs were turned.

“So…where to, fearless leader?” Daniel finally asked, looking to Andy first then laughing as he then turned his eyes to Rick who had arranged their China journey. “We have a mob boss to deal with, the CIA to extract from this country, and a horde of demons lying in wait.”

Andy looked to Rick also, as it really was his trip.

But Rick looked to the monk. “How about it? Are we here for the demons, the CIA, the mob, or all of them? Because I don’t know if it is even the Seven’s jurisdiction to mess with politics in another country.”

The monk nodded at that, sighing. “No… human affairs are not my business unless they are threatening the natural environment—which they are. But I will deal with that on my own. I do need you, though, to deal with them at least a little in regard to their demon corroboration.”

“And you cannot deal with that on your own?” Eddie asked, eying the monk severely.

With an almost impish look in his weary eyes, the monk shook his head. “Not in the way I used to.”

That said a lot. All of the Seven nodded, understanding the significance of that brief sentence. They all felt the same way. They could not deal with enemies in the way that they used to… at least the way they used to when they were on that other world. They had been in the middle of a medieval level war in that other world. Magic was openly used in the other world, Rick also understood. In their own world, here, magic was ‘myth’. And no one could just openly walk around with a sword and hack apart their enemy.

“Here’s what I say,” Semour piped up. “We deliver the thugs back to their boss. I think we can dig up an address with Tom’s help. And from there we can handle him.”

“And what about the demons?” Andy asked, listening intently to Semour who truly was the senior of the group.

“We deal with them next,” Semour said with a solemn nod.

“And the CIA?”

This time Semour smirked, nodding to Tom. “That’s up to him.”

Tom nodded back, grinning crookedly. “Thanks!”

“Alright,” Andy said, turning to the others knights of the Seven with a dry glance to Tom. “Do you agree? I’m for it.”

“Agreed,” the Seven said.

Chen and Rick said nothing, exchanging looks. Tom was grinning, though. They had a plan.

Since they only had the stolen huali and Rick had let the air out