Tonglong watched as Hok neared HaMo's ancient wooden barge. The barge was perhaps thirty paces long and ten paces wide, and the rear section contained what appeared to be a small house complete with a roof. Light spilled out from several windows.
The barge floated low in the water and was anchored at its bow. It pointed nose-first, upstream. Hok pulled alongside the barge on Tonglong's side of the river. Tonglong could see everything.
A man hurried out of the barge's small house and leaned over the vessel's low side rail, facing Hok. He helped her tie the skiff off, then hauled her aboard. The man pushed Hok roughly into the little house, and Tonglong heard a door slam closed.
Tonglong signaled to his men. They would give HaMo a quarter of an hour to subdue Hok, and then they would make their move.
Ying hung on to the slippery rope with all his might, nothing but a hollow reed connecting him to the surface. He rode the river's current as best he could, wondering how Cheen and Sum, the eel twins he'd heard about at the bandit stronghold, ever managed to do this on a regular basis.
Hok's skiff stopped suddenly with a loud thump, and Ying knew that they had finally reached HaMo's barge. He held fast to the rope and waited, the current tugging at him, urging him downstream.
Above the surface, Ying could make out random banging noises. The skiff was being tied off to the barge. He saw the skiff rock slightly, then float noticeably higher in the water. Hok had boarded HaMo's vessel.
Ying counted to one hundred, then took a deep breath. He spat out the reed, dove beneath the barge, and swam across the current, surfacing on the other side of the large vessel. He reached up, grabbed hold of the barge's low railing, and silently pulled his shoulders and chest out of the water.
Ying looked across the deck. It was almost dark now, but he could see well enough to know that there was no one on it. Lights burned inside some sort of living quarters that looked just like a small house. Hok must be inside there.
Ying pulled himself the rest of the way out of the water onto the barge. He stifled a groan as his healing ribs strained. Once aboard, he lay down and untied his chain whip from his waist, folding it into his right fist. He wished he could have brought his new qiang with him, but it would have been rendered useless after being underwater.
Ying slid on his belly over to the living quarters. He flattened himself against the outer wall on the opposite side of the house from the skiff and listened. Inside, he heard talking.
Ying rose up cautiously and peeked inside a window. The round eye Charles was sitting inside a low bamboo cage at the back of a small room. Hok was sitting on the floor next to Charles with the scroll map in her hands. HaMo stood across the cluttered room, arguing with two Chinese men whose backs were to the front door.
There wasn't much room to maneuver in there, especially with HaMo, the Toad, as part of the equation.
He weighed as much as three normal men and was nearly as big around as HukJee. At least, Ying's eagle-style training would prove useful here. It was famous for its close-quarters effectiveness.
Ying sank back down and thought, HaMo plus two others against me and Hok. Not bad odds.
Ying eased his way around to the closed front door and stood. With thoughts of his best friend, Luk, running through his head, Ying kicked the door down with a mighty back-kick. Using the momentum he already had going in that direction, he spun around and leaped through the doorway with his arms spread wide. HaMo's eyes widened, and the two henchmen turned to face Ying.
Ying landed and unfurled his chain whip forward with a powerful punching motion. The sharp weighted end buried itself deep within the first henchman's sternum, and the man dropped like a stone.
Ying yanked his chain whip free and HaMo leaned forward, grabbing the second henchman. He pulled the man in front of himself like a human shield.
Ying tried to swing his chain whip, but there just wasn't enough room. He shrieked in frustration and saw the second henchman break loose from HaMo's grip. The man lunged toward a long counter and grabbed something, then spun around and pointed it at Ying.
It was a short qiang.
The ear-splitting shrill of an angry bird filled the room, and Ying saw a flash of white as Hok flew past him. She knocked the qiang from the second henchman's hand with a lightning-quick snap-kick, and attacked the man with a flurry of elbows and crane-beak fists to the head.
The qiang rattled to the floor and Ying made a move for it. However, HaMo unleashed a tremendous CROAK! that shook the entire boat, and he hopped on top of the qiang before Ying could pick it up.
Ying took a step back and was surprised to see HaMo glance out of a window as if he were looking for help. Perhaps he had a backup team somewhere and that tremendous croak was a signal.
Ying glanced over at Hok and saw that she was now standing over the second henchman. The man was out cold.