The Son In-law They Mocked Found The Lost Vault

Chapter 2 _The Thief Has A Name

Adrian's hands were bleeding before he reached the top of the wall.

The stone was old and rough, and it cut his palms like small knives. He did not feel it. He pulled himself over and dropped into the narrow lane on the other side. The cold night air hit his face.

Far ahead, a black shape ran along the rooftops.

"Adrian!" Helen's voice came from behind the wall. "Adrian, where are you going?"

He could not answer her. If he stopped for one second, the man would be gone, and so would the last piece of his grandfather's work. Two years of searching, and it had taken one hand in a black glove to snatch it away.

So he ran.

The Feng estate sat at the edge of the old city, and Adrian knew this part of town better than anyone alive. For two years he had walked every street, every market, every dark corner, looking for the jade. He knew which lanes were short and which were long. He knew which gates were never locked. The thief was fast, but he was running over roofs, and roofs go around things. Streets go through them.

Adrian turned left into the Tea Lane, a narrow path between two shops. He ran past sleeping cats and stacked boxes of old tea leaves. A dog barked at him. He jumped over a pile of broken chairs and pushed through a wooden door that was always open because its lock had been broken for ten years.

Now he was in the middle of the old market. Above him, the thief jumped from a tile roof to a metal roof. The sound rang out across the street like a bell.

"You are not so smart," Adrian whispered. "You forgot something."

The thief was heading for the end of the street, where the roofs stopped. There was only one way down, an old stone water tower with a ladder on its side. Every thief in the old city knew it. And Adrian knew a faster way to get there.

He ran. His lungs burned. His good shoes, the only pair he owned, slapped hard against the wet stone. At the corner of the fish market, he grabbed a rope hanging from a shop sign and swung himself up onto a low wall. Then another. Then he was running along the top of a row of old shops, just ten steps behind the masked man.

The thief heard him. He turned his head, and even in the dark, Adrian could see his eyes go wide.

"You are not supposed to be able to do that," the man said.

"My grandfather taught me the old city," Adrian said, breathing hard. "Give it back."

The man laughed, a short, dry sound. Then he ran faster.

They reached the water tower at the same time. The thief grabbed the ladder. Adrian grabbed the thief's coat. For a moment, both men hung in the air, the old iron ladder shaking under their weight.

"Let go!" the thief hissed.

"Never."

The thief pulled a hand free and swung his elbow. It hit Adrian hard in the ribs. Pain exploded through his chest. But Adrian held on with one hand and reached up with the other, and his fingers closed around the thing in the thief's fist.

The jade.

They pulled. They pulled again. Then a sharp sound cracked through the night air, like a branch breaking in winter.

The jade snapped in two.

Both men fell. Adrian hit the wet roof tiles on his back, and the air left his body. For a moment he saw only black spots. Then he looked at his hand.

He was holding half of the jade.

It was the smaller half, the part with the river and the two bends. The thief had the other half, the one with the mountains. And the door.

"No!" Adrian rolled over and tried to stand. His legs shook.

The thief was already on his feet, standing at the edge of the roof with the other half in his glove. Behind him, an old black car was waiting in the road below, its lights off.

"You are stronger than they said," the man told him. He did not sound afraid, only a little surprised. "That is good. It means Mr. Han will enjoy this more."

The name hit Adrian like a stone.

"Han," he said slowly. "The Han family."

"Of course. Who else would pay this much for a dead dynasty?"

Adrian's blood turned cold. He knew that name. Every antique dealer in the country knew it. The Han family was rich and powerful, and they were very friendly with the police. They had big offices and big smiles. And twelve years ago, when Professor Henry West said he had found the road to the lost Song vault, the Han family was the first to stand up in public and call him a liar.

Three months later, the old man was found at the bottom of a staircase. An accident, the police said.

"You," Adrian said. His voice came out strange, low and rough. "You killed him."

The thief was quiet for a moment. "I did not. I was a boy then. But I know who did." He tilted his head. "Your grandfather was a stubborn man. He would not give them what they wanted, not even at the end. We hoped you would be easier."

"I am not."

"I see that." The thief stepped back. "Do not follow me again, Mr. West. Next time, I will not be this polite."

He jumped. Adrian ran to the edge of the roof in time to see the man land on the roof of the black car like a cat. The door opened. The car shot forward and turned the corner. The sound of the engine faded into the night, and then it was gone.

Adrian stood alone on the roof, breathing hard.

Slowly, he opened his hand and looked at the half jade. In the moonlight, he could see the green lines again. The river curved twice and then stopped, cut off by the break. Without the other half, it showed nothing. It was only a road with no end.

His knees gave out. He sat down on the wet tiles and pressed his bleeding hand against his ribs.

Two years. They had said it themselves. Two years. Every market he visited, every old shopkeeper he asked, every night he sat by candlelight reading his grandfather's pages. Someone had been watching. Someone had waited for him to do all the hard work, and then they had stepped in at the very last moment to take it.

And the worst part was, it had almost worked.

"Not yet," he said to the empty night. "You do not have all of it yet."

He pushed himself up. That was when he saw something small and dark lying near the ladder, half hidden in a puddle. It was a phone. It must have fallen from the thief's coat when they fought.

Adrian picked it up. The screen was cracked, but it was still on. There was no lock. The thief had been in too much of a hurry to turn it on.

A message sat on the screen, from a contact named Boss. It had come in one minute ago.

Did you get both halves?

Adrian stared at it. Then, as he watched, a new message appeared right below it.

Forget the jade for now. The Feng girl is alone at the back gate. Take her. We will use her to make West talk.

Adrian's heart stopped.

He looked up at the dark roofs and the long way back across the old city. He had run for almost ten minutes. Ten minutes ago, he had left Helen standing alone at the gate, calling his name.

And somewhere in the dark, another car engine started.