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Seventeen

"Detective?" It was the hesitant voice of Sergeant Ma. "At last! I've been trying to reach you, but the communications system—"

"—is not working properly. I noticed." Chen closed the taxi window to shut out the roar of the traffic as they shot along Shaopeng.

"Detective, something's happening at Tang's place."

With a distinct sense of déjà vu, Chen said, "What?"

"We don't really know." Ma sounded both bemused and afraid. "No Ro Shi says he's never seen anything like it."

"All right," Chen informed him wearily. "I'm on my way."

He hung up, saying to the demon, "Something's happening at Tang's. We might have a problem, by the way—I didn't mention it before. A demon-hunter from Beijing's appeared on the scene. Name of No Ro Shi."

"No Ro Shi?" Zhu Irzh's head whipped round. "No Ro Shi's here?"

"Apparently so."

"What an unexpected pleasure," the demon said. The tip of his dark tongue snaked out, flickering momentarily over his lower lip. "I haven't seen him for a while."

"You had a run-in with him?" Chen asked. The demon shot him an oblique glance.

"You could say that."

Chen rubbed a distracted hand across his forehead. "That might complicate matters. He's a heavy character."

"I'm not afraid of No Ro Shi," the demon said, bridling.

"I didn't suggest that you were. We need to decide how to handle him, though."

The demon gave a fluid shrug. "My task is still the same: to find Pearl and take her back to Hell. If No Ro Shi gets in my way, too bad for him."

"Look," Chen said firmly. "Let me make one thing clear. No Ro Shi's off limits. If you do anything to him, we'll have every authority in Beijing on our backs and it'll be far more trouble than it's worth—for you, not me. People will be prepared to pull strings in Hell on No Ro Shi's behalf."

"He has protection," the demon said in disgust. "So I've heard. But if some accident should befall him. . ."

"Make sure it doesn't," Chen said. He tapped on the glass screen that separated them from the driver and motioned to the stream of traffic ahead. "The Garden District. And quickly."

 

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Framed