SEAL Team 666: A Novel

On the whiteboard, he drew two characters side by side that looked almost the same, but the one on the right had more flowing script.

He pointed to the character on the left. “This character is chi. Now, most characters are comprised of two internal parts. The radical, which helps define it. This is usually found on the left side. In this case it’s the bug radical, which is typically used for insects, reptiles, dragons, etcetera. The other part of the character is the phonetic and helps us know how it’s pronounced.”

He pointed to the character on the right. “This character is pronounced the same way as the first. We can tell this by comparing the phonetic portion of the character. But as you can see, the radicals are different.”

Walker realized as Laws said it that he was able to discern the difference. Up until that point, it all looked like squiggles. But the more Laws explained, the more it began to make sense.

“This is the ghost radical. Note these two strokes that look like legs and this square with a cross in the middle to represent the large demon’s head. The last part is a curl, which represents a demon tail.” He added the character for dragon after this version of chi. “At first I mistook it for the other radical. Between my tired eyes and the sheer difficulty of reading all these characters, I read the phonetic of the character and assumed it meant hornless dragon.” He shook his head. “Never assume. It’s exceedingly common in Chinese to see character pairs. Long

is no different. But the character chi with the ghost radical only pairs with the character mei, which refers to ‘mountain’ or ‘forest demons.’” He faced them for impact. “When I say it only pairs with mei, what I mean is that in all of my dictionaries and on Internet searches, I couldn’t find any instance of the chi with the ghost radical pairing with any other. We’re talking about it not appearing in more than fifty thousand combinations. Not once.”

“I think I’m starting to understand.” Holmes nodded. “Continue.”

“This goes all the way back to the Hanshu dynasty in 111 CE when chi

first appeared with a ghost radical. In every instance it had to do with something bad. Something evil.”

“If those characters never appeared together, then how can they be together in the text? What does that mean?” Yaya asked.

Laws pointed at him and grinned. “And that was my question once I finally figured out the etymology of the words.”

Ruiz turned to Walker and mouthed etymology. Walker grinned, but he was starting to get into what Laws was telling them.

Laws circled chi long several times with the red marker. “One of the exceptions to the pairing rule has to do with a name.”

“So you searched for Chi Long,” Walker said.

“Yep! I searched for Chi Long, using the same ghost radical. I found a single occurrence when researching the San Guo Shi Dai,

or Three Kingdoms period of China. This time was around 220 to 280 CE. There’s not a lot of real history that’s been saved, except the writings of Chen Shou. Romance of the Three Kingdoms was a novel written by Luo Guanzhong in the fourteenth century. It’s provided much of the textual fabric for sinologists. The occurrence of Chi Long appeared in an associated text when referring to a great warrior that belonged to Sun Quan, emperor of the Kingdom of Wu, during the Three Kingdoms period.”

He produced a colored picture, which he passed around. On what appeared to be a background of parchment paper was a Chinese warrior in flowing robes wearing ancient, dragon-influenced armor. His face and hands had been eaten away, leaving only bone, muscle, and sinew. If anything looked like a demon, this did.

“This was one of Emperor Sun’s greatest warriors. It was said that he was shot with over a thousand arrows and lived.”

“That would indicate an invulnerability to weapons,” Ruiz said, serious for the first time.

“What happened to him?” Yaya asked.

Laws shrugged and sat down. “I don’t know. He could have faded into history. He could have died drinking ancient Chinese beer. He could still be alive today as a demon. All I know is that the text I saw referred to Chi Long as a person, usually in the possessive, so clearly there’s something or someone alive who is using the name Chi Long with the ghost radical.”

“So we have the possibility of encountering an eighteen-hundred-year-old Chinese demon who’s evidently been creating an army of chimera creatures.” Holmes sat back. “That about right?”

“That sums it up,” Laws agreed.

“Well, then,” Holmes said, standing. “We’d better figure out how we’re going to beat this thing if we ever encounter it.” Then he grabbed his coffee and the file and left the room.

“I’ll get right on it,” Laws muttered. “Right after I find that volume of Chinese Mythological Demons for Dummies I misplaced.”

Walker watched as Laws closed his eyes and fell fast asleep.

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