"Did you know that the tech company she started shortly after you got married is now listed in the Dow Index and is worth about $20 billion?"

"What?" An Ma's eyes nearly bugged out.

"Yu Yan had always been clever about money. She lost her inheritance but recovered most of it by the time her ex-boyfriend had his second child. He went bankrupt by the way and she destroyed him by lending him some money in exchange for being a guinea pig in an experiment. He fell for it and she fried his brains with drugs. He lost his job, his wife, his sons, and he's now in an asylum covered in drool like an idiot."

"Well at least she had her revenge," An Ning said.

"You think so?" Ceres smiled.

"What do you mean Yu Yan is a soul jumper? How does one even know how to do it?" Richard asked, looking a little pale.

"You should know."

"What...what do you mean?" Richard stammered, his eyes round with fear as he stared at Ceres.

"You were reading a book about it, weren't you? I saw a copy of it somewhere."

"Stop teasing the boy," An Ma cut in, frowning at Ceres. "You're just being facetious because you think you know everything. I would have known if Yu Yan owned a business or not. After all, I was married to her. And I'm telling you, she almost didn't leave the house. She was even afraid to drive."

"You keep forgetting about her knowing and using magic. She didn't necessarily have to run the business, you know. There's someone running it for her but she's the brain behind all of it. Not a lot of people know, of course, but we've been spying on her for a long time so there are things we do know. Besides, Yu Yan has mastered the dark arts, she had to for her to achieve some success. I don't even think I'm at the same level," Ceres confessed.

"So, what good are you to us then?" An Ma asked rudely.

"Dad!" An Ning cried, embara.s.sed.

Just then, Enxuo entered and said something to Ceres.

"Lunch is ready. Come on, let's eat. I'm famished."

She didn't wait for them to follow her but took Enxuo's hand and pulled him with her to the dining hall. An Ma looked on grimly as the two of them walked hand in hand while conversing in quiet tones. When they reached the sumptuous table, An Ma pulled Ceres away, leading her to a chair and sitting down beside her. Enxuo he completely ignored.

The meal was eaten in silence. Richard picked at his food like his thoughts were miles away. An Ning would oca.s.sionally glance at him but thinking he was worried about what Yu Yan would do next, she let him be. An Ma was also in a bad mood especially when Ceres silently offered Enxuo several dishes that he obviously liked. An Ma's face became grimmer, his frown deeper. Ceres ate silently beside him as if she, too, was infected by the mood.

They were half-way finished when Matt arrived with Sam, who looked like he slept in his clothes. Sarai made another plate for them and they sat down and quietly served themselves, clearly uncomfortable with the silence. An Ning suddenly remembered the man, Gara, and threw Matt an inquisitive glance.

"He's sleeping in the conference room," Matt answered rather absent-mindedly.

Sam, the newest addition to the group, was furtively staring at Ceres like she was seeing an apparition. Ceres had taken off her jacket and had let her long hair lose on her shoulders. The sight of her body in the tight jeans and red s.h.i.+rt, the long lovely strands of black hair that framed her beautiful face, was devastating in its utter elegance.

Sam could envision towers and turrets, knights and kings, rabbits and Alice surrounding this beauty. She blinked and her eyes met Ceres', who smiled and transferred her gaze to Richard, who still looked unnaturally pale, still picking at his food, his eyes glancing at An Ning covetously...it was all unreal somehow.

An Ning stood up and went to privately speak to Matt, who looked suddenly unhappy. He nodded his head and An Ning went back to her chair.

"You don't have to worry about s.p.a.ce, An Ning," An Ma said. "Your mother and I are taking the suite below this. I had it all prepared before we left."

"That wasn't exactly what I had in mind but good to know," An Ning said, noticing for the first time his emphasis on the words 'your mother and I'. She glanced at Enxuo and smothered a laugh.

"I was wondering if Sam could stay here us well, An Ning?" Matt asked tentatively. "She and I are working together on that thing you just mentioned."

"Why don't you just rent a room together somewhere?" Richard protested, sounding really annoyed. "An Ning needs peace and quiet. All these people running around like they have nothing to do is bad for her and the baby."

"I don't mind," soothed An Ning. She noticed Sam blus.h.i.+ng uncontrollably at Richard's suggestion of him and Matt sharing a room together.

"Well, I do mind," Richard was really p.i.s.sed. "You need downtime from all this heavy stuff. Have peace and quiet until the baby is born."

"Take the apartment below ours," An Ma suggested. "I had it emptied in case we needed more s.p.a.ce."

"You kicked out the tenants?" An Ning was aghast.

"I own the entire building. It's not like we need the money," he shrugged indifferently.

"The keys are with the building administrator," he added, throwing a glance at Matt. "The apartment is similar to this one so it's quite big."

"Thank...thank you, Sir," Matt stuttered.

An Ma nodded and poured himself a cup of coffee. The room again fell quiet. Matt was quietly content, thinking about his new digs. Sam wanted to leave but didn't quite know how to maneuver it. The tension was becoming more smothering as the minutes pa.s.sed. Finally, Matt finished his dessert and stood up. He told An Ning he was going back so the two young people left and closed the door behind them.

"What's our next move then?" An Ning finally broke the silence.

"Find the women," Ceres answered. "That should be first in the agenda. Yu Yan will continue to hold them over my head until I find them and free them from her control."

"You think she's controlling them?" asked An Ning.

"I think so. This situation is very unusual, you know. Amazons are free thinkers. They don't stick together just because of some ideal or gain. Your grandmother demanded absolute loyalty based on trust. This is not the case here. I can't see the Amazons following Yu Yan because they trust her. Not after she ordered them to kill their comrades. Besides, she's not one of them. She's basically a stranger so why follow her?"

"Any idea how she took them away?" asked An Ma. "20,000 women can't have just vanished like that."

"This happened in the village, right? So let's retrace their steps and start from there. Perhaps somebody saw or remembered something," Richard suggested.

"Enxuo did just that with the help of some friends of his. When they went to Saravia to investigate, they discovered that the village was empty. It had already been abandoned and n.o.body knew where the women went. They searched for several days but found only one clue, a writing on a piece of wood that said 'island'."

"They were taken away by boat then," An Ning said.

"Yes, but to where?"

The two men and Ceres argued back and forth. An Ma was incredulous. What kind of boat could take 20,000 women in just one go? People would have seen them boarding the boat and the news would have been all over the place. The three of them argued and expounded on the idea, not noticing An Ning who fell into a thoughtful silence.

She stood up and went to the kitchen, opening the fridge and taking out her favorite iced tea. Since her pregnancy, her appet.i.te had freefall from simple hunger to intense gluttony. The tea suddenly reminded her of Moira's delicious, moist cake so she went to the bedroom, put on a light jacket and went out.

The three people still arguing in the living room watched her walk to the door. They stopped as she turned around and told them where she was going.

"Do you want me to go with you?" Richard stood up, as if ready to follow after her.

"No, no. You stay put. I won't be long," An Ning told him and shut the door. She heard their argument resumed and shook her head, smiling.

Moira greeted her somewhat nervously. An Ning suddenly remembered what happened the other night. How to explain the strange phenomena of a so-called monster attacking them. An Ning decided to be honest.

"It was really and truly a drone," An Ning said, antic.i.p.ating Moira's question. "Not a monster but a drone. Somebody obviously dislikes me enough to send me a very expensive one to either hurt or frighten me."

"Do you have any idea who sent it?" Moira was touchingly worried about her. "It was really scary, An Ning. That thing looked so real."

"I have an idea who it might be but I'm not sure just yet," An Ning said. "I'm sorry for scaring you like that."

"No, No. You were so brave and so courageous. An Ning, you were terrific." Moira's eyes were s.h.i.+ning with admiration.

"I was scared stiff. But I didn't want to die so I had no choice but do something. What if it had harmed the baby? Don't worry, the police are already looking into it," she said, again antic.i.p.ating Moira's question.

"Poor Du Lu was really shocked, you know."

"Oh?" An Ning was somewhat surprise. "What about?"

"He wanted to sort of change your opinion of him after what happened with that girl but he was really shook up. I mean, you should have seen him afterwards. He wanted to be a movie star and be a hero but the reality was too much for him," Moira said, somewhat scornfully. "I stayed the whole night ma.s.saging his ego. It was bizarre."

"What does it matter what I think of him? I don't even know him."

Moira burst into a delightful peal of laughter.

"Poor Du Lu. He was all this and that. How many awards he's won. How the fans loved him. It got so boring I told him my tooth ache and I needed to see a dentist."

An Ning laughed.

"Is he really that ridiculous?"

"Apparently. Speaking of the devil," Moira said sotto voce as the door opened and Du Lu walked in.

Du Lu stopped in his tracks when he saw An Ning.

"I thought you'll be at home still resting. Does Richard know you're here?"

"I'm only like five feet away from the penthouse, you know," An Ning said dryly.

"Hmnn...What's that you're having?"

"Chocolate cake."

"You're eating the whole thing?" Du Lu was shocked. "Is that even good for the baby?"

"Do you want some?" An Ning offered.

"I don't really like sweets...what the heck! Give me a slice then," Du Lu was eyeing the cake somewhat greedily.

"Do you want some as well, Moira? Why don't you join us? Can you give me another gla.s.s of this tea? Thanks. What about you, Du Lu?"

Du Lu ordered unsweetened tea. Moira sliced the cake and the three of them sat around a table and enjoyed the treat. An Ning was starting to relax, listening to Moira and Du Lu bicker back and forth.

"What's a famous person like you doing in the neighborhood?" An Ning asked. "Aren't you supposed to be out somewhere shooting something?"

"Your partner asked me to mind the store so I'm doing just that. Besides, I just finished doing a TV commercial so I'm in between jobs at the moment."

"I thought you were shooting that movie about a ghost boy? Wasn't that all over the papers? They said that's gonna be your first horror movie, right?"

"Yup, didn't want to do it but was sort of forced into doing it. I don't particularly like horror movies."

He started talking about the conflict that suddenly arose between the movie's producer and the director concerning the project. As can be expected, it was mostly trivial concern made into a mountain by excitable people in the entertainment business. In other words, the director wanted to rewrite the story because he thinks it sucks while the producer wanted to cast his nephew, a complete neophyte, in the role of the ghost.

An Ning's attention started to drift away.

"So, why aren't you out there somewhere shooting it?" Moira asked.

"We didn't get the permission to shoot it in the location we wanted. We were a.s.sured the government already okayed it but it seemed they changed their minds at the last minute."

"Where's this location at?" Moira said.

The bell rang and Richard came in. Du Lu was still telling his story. Moira scooted out of her chair when she saw Richard.

"You were gone a long time. I started to get worried," he told An Ning. "An Ning?"

An Ning was looking blankly at him. Then she smiled.

"We were enjoying the cake. Du Lu didn't want me to eat all of it so I offered him some."

Du Lu sputtered in protest. An Ning laughed while Moira looked amused.

"Where are you going?" Richard asked, surprised when An Ning stood up and walked to the door.

"I need to talk to Matt about something. I think I know where that thing we were talking about with Mom is. I figured it out just now."

She walked out. Richard was stunned then chased after her, talking to his phone. Moira and Du Lu watched them curiously from inside the store.