I slammed the folder shut and shot to my feet, letting the chair scrape loudly against the polished floor.

  "You think you're clever, don't you?" My teeth were pulled back into a snarl and I jabbed my finger toward Yin Chi's smug face. "This is exactly the kind of petty, underhanded scheming I'd expect from a bottom-feeding parasite like you."

  Yin Chi's eyebrows rose slightly, but his smile grew even wider. Behind him I could see the two enforcers shifting their weight as their hands drifted toward their weapons. I didn't care.

  "How dare you manipulate me with hidden clauses and legal trickery!" My voice rose with each word. "You prey on the desperate and the broken, twisting their desperation into profit. Well, I won't stand for it!"

  "Master Shen, please calm yourself…"

  "Calm?" I laughed bitterly. "You think you can steal from honest people and hide behind your contracts and your thugs, but you're wrong. Dead wrong. I'll take this all the way to the Emperor himself if I have to. Justice will be served, mark my words!"

  I swept toward the door, then spun back for one final declaration.

  "Heed my words. You won't get away with this, Yin Chi. People like you never do."

  The door slammed behind me with satisfying force. The receptionist's startled expression was the last thing I saw before storming past his desk and out of The Golden Current entirely.

  Three blocks away, I finally allowed the laugh that had been building up in my chest to bubble out.

  Was that too much? I might have overdone it a touch, but it was fun. Yin Chi would remember an angry, desperate young man ranting futilely about justice and imperial appeals. It was exactly what he would expect from an ill-educated slum dweller who was cornered and out of options. I was hiding in plain sight. The last thing he would anticipate was what was coming.

  Meiyu and I had put the odds of this scenario at around evens when we had analyzed the contracts. One month's grace period was the only real surprise as we had expected an immediate demand for full payment within the week allowed by the contract. Yin Chi clearly wanted me to suffer longer, to watch me scramble desperately for money I couldn't possibly raise.

  This changed my timeline, but not my goals. I was always intending to to destroy The Golden Current and Yin Chi along with it. Now I was going to have to take him down in four weeks. Of course, I could pull together four thousand silver fangs in that time through various means If I had to, but why waste effort on payment when vengeance had always been the plan?

  Much more satisfying to watch everything burn.

  First, though, I needed information. The kind found inside Yin Chi's vault, behind those reinforced doors and formation-protected locks.

  Tonight, The Golden Current would receive an uninvited visitor.

  With time to burn before nightfall, I wandered through the market district looking for a particular type of merchant. Tucked off to one side a stall run by an old woman caught my eye. There were rolls of parchment, bottles of ink, and various writing implements scattered across weathered planks. Perfect.

  "Sealing wax, a blank seal, and a bottle of high quality black ink," I told the vendor, counting out copper petals.

  The old woman wrapped my purchases in brown paper. "I hope your master appreciates the quality."

  "He's just got his own business. Wants to make a good impression." I didn't correct the woman's for thinking that I was a servant. My clothes were not those of someone who spent their days writing.

  Back home, I went up to my bedroom, sat on the bed and closed my eyes, letting my consciousness drift into the Silent Pagoda Archive. The familiar sensation brought me to where Meiyu was writing neat labels for the currently empty shards for the Dao insights.

  "The timeline's accelerated," I said without preamble. "One month."

  Meiyu finishing writing the label and put it down. "What have you done?"

  "It's not me. Yin Chi's called in the debt from the fishworks, but he's given us more time that we thought."

  Meiyu adjusted her spectacles. "Four weeks. Manageable, it means that we don't need to go to the scorched earth plan but we'll need to stick to the fundamentals."

  I nodded. "Agreed. We lose most of the sabotage but we can keep to the basic scheme. We'll destroy The Golden Current's reputation then twist the knife. Three prongs of attack, like we planned."

  "Go through it again to make sure we're on the same page."

  "First up the Lotus Veil. Yanzi's informants confirmed Zhang Jie, the number two at the Lotus Veil, meets up with Yin Chi regularly. If I can convince the Veil that Yin Chi is skimming or, frankly, betraying their interests in any way, they'll handle our problem for us." I paused. "I suspect they're bankrolling him. Remove that, and his operation collapses."

  Meiyu made a note. "Good. Public confidence next?"

  "Exactly. Merchants rely on moneylenders appearing stable and trustworthy. Rumors of financial trouble or instability will drive away new clients. Existing debtors might delay payments if they sense weakness."

  "And the third prong is to go after the money?"

  "Direct disruption. Yanzi's network identified The Golden Current's collection thugs. Not the public face, the ones who handle debts when polite requests fail. They work odd times, sometimes in the middle of the day, sometimes in the middle of the night, always away from public scrutiny. I'm going to make sure their collections become significantly less successful."

  Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

  Meiyu tapped her brush against her chin. "Cutting off cash flow while simultaneously damaging reputation and potentially losing criminal backing. The cumulative effect should do the trick."

  "Exactly. Yin Chi's built his power on the perception of invincibility. Crack that, and everything unravels." I stood up. "Four weeks to orchestrate his complete destruction."

  "And if he discovers your involvement?"

  I smiled grimly. "He won't. He'll remember an angry young man. The last thing he'd suspect is that I'm behind the systematic dismantlement of his entire operation. Anyway, I very much intend to pay Master Yin a little visit before bringing the curtain down on all this. By the end he'll know exactly what has happened and why."

  "The plan has a lot of moving parts but it's sound. Time is the real issue. When do we begin?"

  "Tonight."

  * * *

  Opening my eyes, I found myself back in my bedroom. The late afternoon light had shifted, casting longer shadows across the wooden floor. Time to prepare for tonight's reconnaissance.

  Footsteps echoed up from downstairs, followed by the rustle of packages. I went down to find Yanzi unwrapping vegetables and dried fish in the kitchen.

  "Hey Taros. Perfect timing," he said, looking up. "I was hoping to catch you before you disappeared again."

  "Really? Something come up from your network?"

  Yanzi set down a bundle of greens. "Two things actually. First, the Bonehull sailed at dawn. Word is they'll be gone a month and a half, maybe longer."

  Interesting. That removed Jin Duyi's immediate threat while I dealt with other matters. "And Shengli?"

  "Still healing from your beatdown, but he's going with them. The rumors say that Captain Lang's taking him to some kind of ki-enriched cave as part of this voyage. It's supposed to help him break through to the next stage."

  A cultivation retreat, then. Shengli would return stronger, but six weeks gave me considerable breathing room. One less complication while I dismantled The Golden Current.

  "Second bit of news is about Jiru."

  My attention sharpened. My embezzling dock supervisor had been grumpy, but suspiciously cooperative, since our conversation.

  "My kids have been watching like you asked. He's been selling things. Furniture, family heirlooms, anything worth decent coin. Always at different markets, never the same merchant twice." Yanzi's expression grew serious. "And he's had people round to look at his house. He's doing it on the quiet, but he's definitely trying to sell. One couple have been round a few times, I think they're going to close a deal soon. My money's on him preparing to run."

  Exactly what I had expected. Jiru knew I held evidence of his theft, and his cooperation had been nothing more than a delaying tactic while he liquidated assets, but the money he got from that wasn't the real prize. "Has he gone anywhere unusual, sneaking off to visit places that he doesn't normally go to?"

  Yanzi shook his head. "Not beyond the merchants. He only really goes out to work and then meets up with his brother once a week." I raised an eyebrow at that but Taros shook his head. "That's normal. He's been doing that for years, they share a bottle of rice wine in a quiet bar then go their separate ways."

  I frowned, Jiru couldn't have spent everything he had stolen over the years. It must be hidden away somewhere, but he hadn't gone to retrieve it yet. There was a chance that it was stashed in his house, but he struck me as someone who more careful than that. "So, how long before he bolts?"

  "Hard to say. Days, maybe a week if he's being careful about the house sale. But he's definitely going. And before you ask, I don't know where. He's not booked onto any of the caravans or boats."

  I considered the implications. I didn't care about Jiru leaving Qin's Fresh Catch. His operational knowledge and connections were entirely replaceable, and I was already quietly impressed by his number two. No, this was all about my getting my money back, well Qin Laoxu's money technically, but it was now owed to me, and I was going to get my due.

  "Double the surveillance. I want someone watching him and his wife. The instant it looks like he's making his final preparations. Anything like packing personal belongings, settling last accounts, whatever shouts out at you, send someone to find me immediately."

  "Day or night?"

  "Especially night. Men like Jiru prefer darkness for their little intrigues." I tossed him a silver coin. "Extra pay for whoever brings word first."

  Yanzi pocketed the fang with a grin. "Done and done."

  * * *

  The first bell tolled somewhere in the distance as I stood motionless in the shadows of a doorway across from The Golden Current. Honest folk had been asleep for hours, leaving the narrow street empty save for the occasional drunk stumbling home. Perfect conditions for what I had in mind.

  The building's facade looked innocuous enough in the moonlight, but I could sense the faint pulse of ki from the formation around the doors and windows. I had spotted the formations the first time I had been to The Golden Current but now they were activated. Yin Chi hadn't skimped on security.

  Having said that, those protective barriers would actually only require a minimal amount of ki and a modest amount of knowledge to breach. Unfortunately while I had an abundance of the latter, I had nowhere near enough of the former.

  But I wasn't disheartened. I knew about the security before I got here and I had a plan. Taking care not to be observed, I slipped to the entrance of tailor's shop next door and a few minutes with my lockpicks had me inside. Moving quickly but silently I made my way around bolts of fabric and cutting tables toward the rear staircase. The narrow steps creaked under my weight, but the sound stayed muffled within the building's walls.

  The loft space stretched across multiple buildings, separated only by thin partition walls that hadn't been designed to stop determined intruders like me. I had used this technique countless times in the past. Yes I know, I wasn't the most honest of people. When thinking about security most people forgot that rooftops and attic spaces often connected in ways that subverted the obvious entry points at the windows and doors.

  Crawling through dust and cobwebs, I found the partition separating the tailor's loft from The Golden Current's upper level. The wood was only tacked together and it was easy enough to pry open a gap wide enough for me to squeeze through.

  I dropped into Yin Chi's building, landing silently in what appeared to be storage space above the main offices. Another minute had me down in the reception area.

  The receptionist's meticulously clear desk held nothing of value. All of the useful information that was there during the day was gone. No ledgers, no client files, not even loose papers with names or amounts. Frustrating, but not unexpected. If Yin Chi was spending so much on the security for this building, it made sense that he would take information security seriously as well.

  Yin Chi's personal office proved equally barren. His polished desk contained only a quill and mundane inkwell, while his assistant's held branded paper, green tea and little else. A liquor cabinet dominated one wall, filled with expensive bottles that meant nothing to my current mission. Even the artwork adorning the walls appeared purely decorative.

  Clearly, anything of real value stayed locked in the vault.

  I approached the heavy door, running my fingers along the formation runes carved into its frame. The script was a sophisticated combination of wards against physical intrusion, and alarm triggers.

  I frowned. For my plan to work, I needed access to that vault.