by Bob Gansler
#3 - APR 00	MISDIRECTION

The night passed quickly for Leiko and Shang-Chi. Their walk took them all around London, from the Tower to the Palace, from Parliament to Trafalgar Square. They paused among the giant lions that stood in silent watch at the base of Nelson's Column. The sun had not yet risen so the pavilion was empty of its typical avian population as well as the countless tourists that eagerly fed the birds.

"I'm so glad to be back, Shang," Leiko said as she buried her head in his chest. She had managed to keep her feelings of loneliness in check over the past long months, but now they came rushing to the fore of her consciousness.

"As am I," Shang-Chi whispered. "As am I." He ran his fingers through her hair. "Now can you tell me what this mission was that you could not even divulge the slightest bit to me?"

Leiko looked up into his eyes. "Clive needed someone outside of 'The Organisation' to infiltrate a suspected growing menace. They're called Mys-Tech, there's six of them, and all of them are older than your father, over a thousand years old."

"Assuming that my father is not the Egyptian Pharaoh Seti I that he sometimes claims," Shang-Chi thought. He rubbed his thumb on Leiko's cheek. "And they seek conquest, one would presume."

"Actually, they're trying to get out of a deal with a demon, if you can believe that," Leiko responded. When she said it herself, it seemed incredible. However, the things that she saw with her own eyes had convinced her that it was true.

"Does Clive require further participation of Freelance Restorations," Shang-Chi inquired.

"No," Leiko answered. "He'll have his own agents deal with it."

"Good," Shang-Chi nodded, "since we have other business. My father cheated the reaper once again. Fu Manchu lives."

"Bloody hell!" Leiko gritted her teeth. "Wasn't Clive going to tell me anything? Smith dead, Black Jack missing, Fu Manchu alive." Gone now were any thoughts of a simple living, if such a term applied to cloak and dagger work, if Fu Manchu was crafting his schemes. She knew Shang-Chi would be drawn into them, either incidentally but more likely deliberately.

"Clive might not have known," Shang-Chi offered.

"He's in the bloody intelligence service. He's supposed to know," Leiko countered. "How did you find out?"

"Fah Lo Suee told me."

"Fah Lo Suee told you?! She's under him, running MI-6. What she knows, Clive's supposed to know," Leiko exclaimed.

The statement elicited a chuckle from Shang-Chi. "I do not see my sister as being under anyone. I'm sure she operates MI-6 as her own personal domain."

"Whatever," Leiko sighed. She looked at her watch. The hours had passed quickly. "It's really late, Shang. We should be getting home. There's a tube station nearby."

Taking her hand in his, Shang-Chi began to walk, in the opposite direction of the tube station, though he knew where it lay. "We began this path on our feet, let's complete in a similar fashion."

"All right." She knew better than to argue with him about things when he waxed philosophic. While her body ached to sleep in her own bed once again, she did not want to do anything to shatter the joy of their reunion.

Others, however, had definite plans to disrupt their reunion. There were six of them hidden behind the pillars of the nearby British Museum. All of them were dressed in neatly tailored suits. The veneer of civilisation hid the barbarity within. While these men pretended to be agents of MI-6, they were in truth agents of Fu Manchu, members of the Si Fan, the Order of the Golden Dawn.

"Now we act," one whispered. At the command, the others slipped out from behind the pillars and began to close in on Shang-Chi and Leiko.

Though the men moved almost noiselessly, the movement nevertheless caught the attention of Shang-Chi. "Leiko, men are coming towards us," he whispered. He cursed himself for not detecting them earlier. He surmised they must have been following Leiko and him for some time now.

"How many?" Leiko whispered back.

"I can't tell without turning back and looking," Shang-Chi replied. "Let us allow them to come closer before revealing that we have already discovered them." He waited with no trace of anxiety for a few more pulse-pounding seconds before nudging Leiko.

They turned, bodies ready for battle, towards the encroaching would-be assassins. Shang-Chi instantly counted their number, six of them within visual range, although he knew others could be hidden within the shadows.

"Death to Shang-Chi!" one of the Si Fan exclaimed as he rushed in with a drawn dagger. Shang-Chi leaned forward and to the side, allowing the assassin's lunge to pass him by. He delivered a swift chop to the back of the man's neck as he passed by.

Another Si Fan, armed with nunchuks, engaged Leiko. Her eyes focused on the man, and not on the weapons. Her sessions with Shang-Chi had taught her not to be distracted by the rapid motion of the nunchuks. It was the wielder who was the danger. The Si Fan seemed more eager to impress Leiko with his skill. He spun the sticks all over his body. There was no awe in Leiko's mind. She recognized the pattern the Si Fan was using, and she timed her strike to coincide with the time when the assassin could not parry. Her opened hand strike to the solar plexus sent the Si Fan staggering.

Two more Si Fan attacked Shang-Chi now. They came in flying leaps from either side of him. Their timing was imprecise, Shang-Chi could tell. He let the first attacker strike him, although Shang-Chi rolled with the impact to almost completely negate the impact. Seeing his partner score a hit, the second loosened in mid-air. Shang-Chi's instantaneous recovery and extended leg surprised the second attacker and sent him crashing to the ground.

Shang-Chi turned his attention to the first attacker. The Si Fan could tell that his initial attack was not as effective as he had first thought. He resumed a fighting stance and advanced upon Shang-Chi. Shang-Chi waited for the man to attack him. The Si Fan did not disappoint, as he spun around again and again, kicking at Shang-Chi.

The Master of Kung Fu retreated before the attack, dodging and parrying the man's feet. He recognized the outward style, it was the one that his sister enforced upon the agents of MI-6, yet there was something beneath it. Now frustrated, the assassin launched another series of attacks, this time coming at Shang-Chi with clawed hands.

"Ah," Shang-Chi thought. Now he recognized the aspect that was lurking behind Fah Lo Suee's style. The man was undoubtedly Si Fan, and that meant he was truly working for Fu Manchu. Shang-Chi knew that some Si Fan had served under Fah Lo Suee when she had stood against Fu Manchu on her own, but none had followed her when she took control of MI-6.

Shang-Chi thought about revealing to the Si Fan that his true nature was discovered, but he knew that it was folly to trade words when blows were being exchanged. He commenced an attack of his own, winding up for a wide roundhouse kick. The Si Fan stepped away from the arc, and was momentarily pleased with himself. Then he saw Shang-Chi continue the arc and connect with his comrade that Shang-Chi had previously struck to the ground. The already injured Si Fan crumpled.

Leiko had already dispatched the nunchuk-wielding Si Fan and turned her attention to the next Si Fan. This one carried a wide scimitar that he tossed from hand to hand.

"How did he carry that beneath his clothes?" Leiko wondered but then resumed her focus. She still had a pistol strapped to the inside of her jacket. "No, I'm not going to do an Indiana Jones number on him." She beckoned the swordsman to come closer with small hand motions.

The swordsman advanced upon her, slicing through the air with his blade. She pretended to stumble which caused the swordsman to bear down on her. She rolled to the side as the blade came crashing down towards her. A well-placed kick to the swordsman's knee caused it to buckle. Leiko's other leg lashed out and kicked the sword from his hand. She sprang to her feet and kayoed him with a tiger strike to the chin.

Another Si Fan came at Shang-Chi. This one tossed razor-edged stars at him. Shang-Chi did not watch the stars, he only watched the way the Si Fan threw them. He could tell which ones would fly off the mark and which ones he had to deflect with the bracelets about his wrists.

With consummate skill, Shang-Chi avoided every one of the stars, much to the surprise of the Si Fan. The last one, Shang-Chi actually caught between his index finger and thumb. With a quick flick of the wrist, he sent it flying back at the Si Fan. The assassin managed lean out of the way, but that was what Shang-Chi intended. Before the Si Fan could react, Shang-Chi was already on top of him. A single blow to the chest leveled the Si Fan.

The last Si Fan standing saw that there was no hope of him killing both Shang-Chi and Leiko. He turned to run, but he stopped in his tracks when he saw Fah Lo Suee standing there in front of him, her hypnotic green eyes fixed sternly upon him.

"You have betrayed me," Fah Lo Suee announced. "You have betrayed MI-6." Her hands were hidden inside of her long dark jacket.

The Si Fan's hand went to the dagger strapped to his vest. Before his hand could withdraw the blade, there was the crack of a gunshot and he slumped to the ground. A bullet had drilled its way through his head.

A leather-clad middle-aged woman, her raven-black hair marked with a long white streak on either side, stepped out of the shadows. In her hand was a smoking pistol.

Leiko looked over towards the woman. It had been some time, but she still recognized her. "Dark Angel! You're still working for Fah Lo Suee."

The woman walked over to Fah's side. "I haven't been called the 'Dark Angel' for some time. Another uses that name now. I simply use the identity Sir Denis gave me - Mia Lessing."

Shang-Chi joined Leiko and they walked over towards Fah Lo Suee. "These MI-6 agents belong to our father," Shang-Chi addressed his sister.

"These men were MI-6?" Leiko stared at Fah. "Your men?"

"Yes. My little brother had been keeping a low profile as of late," Fah replied. "The Si Fan did not know where he was. I let it slip inside of MI-6 that Leiko Wu could be found at Saint James Park tonight, and that she would undoubtedly reunite with Shang-Chi. That was all that was needed to flush out the infiltrators that Fu Manchu had put inside of my organisation."

"Only Clive knew I was going to be there," Leiko said angrily.

Fah Lo Suee chuckled. "Do you really think that Clive Reston can keep secrets from me?"

"Can you be certain that these men were the full extent of the infiltration?" Shang-Chi asked.

"Quite certain."

The stern look of Fah Lo Suee worried Shang-Chi. "Was it necessary to kill that last one?"

"It will serve as an inducement for the others to talk," Fah replied. She motioned to Mia, and the former KGB agent began rounding up the downed Si Fan. "Go home little brother, and enjoy your reunion."

Leiko was going to say something more, but Shang-Chi tugged at her shoulder. "Let us return home, Leiko. We have been apart for much time. There is much to rediscover between us."

How long had it been since he first studied here? How many decades? It was well over a century now. Those that had taught him were long dead. Those who had been taught by him were long dead, save for the High Lama, Thugben Sung. It gratified him that the aged leader of this monastery of evil was still completely devoted to the cause of Fu Manchu. The monks had performed quite admirably, working with his cloned son Xan-Chi, in bringing about his resurrection. The monks treated him with the utmost respect, a respect flavored with fear. They had been taught the teachings of Fu Manchu, the nefarious physical and scientific expertise with which he was gifted. It was a day unparalleled in the monks' memory when Fu Manchu was returned to the mortal realm.

Already, the shadow of Fu Manchu was beginning to reach out. Outside of the walls of the monastery, the old names and appellations were being whispered - the Devil Doctor, the Phantom of Fear, the Emissary of Evil, the Insidious, the Demon of Destruction, the Master of Malignancy, the Prophet of Corruption, the Dealer in Darkness. To the monks of Rache Churan, he was the simply the revered Fu Manchu.

News had already reached him that his agents within MI-6 had failed to report this night. Undoubtedly they had been discovered. He was forced to admit that his daughter was a certainly a formidable foe as the director of MI-6. She might prove to be even more of a threat than even Sir Denis Nayland Smith had been in the position.

"Smith had the trappings of civility and moral righteousness," Fu Manchu mused. "Fah Lo Suee harbors an intense hatred for me, her father." He once had high hopes for his daughter, but even early on she had displayed a rebellious and independent streak. He had similar hopes for his son Shang-Chi, but the "Rising and Advancing of Spirit" had taken Shang-Chi from his father's control. Still there was one of his blood who was faithful to all that Fu Manchu revered.

On a table replete with tubes and monitoring devices worked Xan-Chi, the double of Shang-Chi. The clone had shown much more of a willingness to follow in the many paths that his 'father' had blazed. While Shang-Chi limited himself to the pursuit of physical and spiritual perfection, Xan-Chi had learned the secrets of science and magick that Fu Manchu had revealed over the years.

Fu Manchu looked Xan-Chi, and he was filled with paternal pride. "Well done, my true son. One day, I shall take my rightful place atop the world, and I shall be glad to have you at my side."

Returning now to his ornate throne which adorned his quarters, Fu Manchu resumed his scheming. The world had changed much since he first began operated publicly. Britain was no longer the world power that it once was. The Empire upon which the sun never set was now a thing of the past. The China that he sought to return to its old ways was no longer alive either. That China had been replaced by the repressive regime of Communism, and it opposed his efforts as well.

"Britain and China," Fu Manchu mused. "They have stymied my efforts for far too long. They both must suffer." An idea started to germinate in his head. "Perhaps I can turn their venom against each other," he thought, and Fu Manchu began to laugh.

NEXT ISSUE : Clive is up to dirty tricks. Fah Lo Suee is up to dirtier tricks. Fu Manchu is up to the dirtiest trick. How's Shang-Chi supposed to stay clean?

KUNG FU WRITING

The appellations for Fu Manchu were taken from the back pages of the 1960's Pyramid Books reprints of the original Sax Rohmer novels.

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