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glasses. He felt like he did after running a long-distance race that he hadn’t properly trained for. All of his energy was gone, siphoned out of him. As he rubbed his eyes, Ryan felt the gentle touch of Aunt Grace’s hand on his head.
    She said, “Are you okay, sweetheart?”
    His face felt scorched, but he nodded. “Yeah. I don’t know what happened. I was looking at a man over there,” he said, pointing away from them. “He was one of the lion dancers.”
    “What man?” Alex asked.
    “The one with the weird eyes,” Ryan said as he put his glasses back on. He raised a hand over his forehead like a shield and looked to where the man had stood. There was no sign of him – or the costume.
    He’d disappeared.

Chapter 7

    Enter the Dragon
    Hong Mei slipped into the employee washroom at the Hong Kong airport and ducked into a stall. She removed the phony glasses from her face and pulled off the long wig. Holding it up before her, she thought it looked only a little shorter than her own hair used to be.
    As she unbuttoned the passport clerk disguise, Hong Mei noticed again how perfectly it fit. She removed her own trousers and red turtleneck from the backpack Madam Ching had given her and pulled the clothes on. Then she reached back in and removed a black nylon jacket. She put it on and zipped it up. This, too, was the correct size.
    She picked up the uniform, hairpiece and glasses and stuffed them into a plastic bag before unlocking the door and walking out of the stall. She moved quickly toward the garbage can and pushed the plastic bag into it. Then she unzipped the left pocket of her jacket and took out her new watch. The design on its round, white face was of a dragon and phoenix facing each other. Black Chinese characters representing the hours formed a circle running around the border. In the centre, between the two creatures’ bodies, was a small rectangle. Inside this were red flashing numbers. The display beat like a pulse: 51:27:17
    Fifty-one hours, twenty-seven minutes, and seventeen seconds. When Madam Ching had given Hong Mei the timepiece, the woman had said it acted like a timer, counting down the hours, minutes and seconds left until the Year of the Golden Dragon began.
    There was just a little over two days before New Year’s Eve.
    For what seemed the umpteenth time, Hong Mei began to run through a mental checklist:

    • Get a close look at the boys. (Done. They looked just like they did in the photographs given to her by Madam Ching.)
    • Follow the Wongs and wait for Ryan and Alex to be alone.
    • Convince them that their jade pendants really belong to Black Dragon and that because of what it says in an ancient scroll, they have to return to Beijing with me to give all of our jade to Madam Ching. Black Dragon will know his jade is being returned and will come to receive it. We will be able to capture him so that the world sees that Chinese dragons actually exist.

    Right. How ridiculous. Those two boys were never going to believe her. They would probably think she was crazy, or worse, part of a kidnapping ring or something. They were probably much smarter than she was.
    Beep! Beep! Beep!
    The alarm sounded on her watch – a signal that the Wongs’ luggage was being sent out. It was time to go to where the family would be waiting.
    A woman was standing just outside the staff toilet. “Follow me,” she said to Hong Mei. She unlocked a door upon which was marked No Entry and held it open for her, pointing toward one of the dozens of baggage carousels. “They are over there,” she said.
    Hong Mei spotted the Wong family, but she did not move. Her heart sped up when the woman nudged her forward and the door closed behind her.
    She slipped her hand into her pocket. Gripping her jade, she walked slowly toward the luggage area.
    Hong Mei saw Ryan, Alex and the foreign woman, their aunt. The younger boy and his aunt were talking while the older boy stared away from them at something. He stood