In the Orient by Art Collins

nothing.
    Alone and safely nestled behind locked doors, Archibald pulled the soft duvet up to his chin and closed his eyes. At that very moment, his brother was just waking up from a brief, restless sleep. His head slumped forward, Jockabeb was still in the grasp of the devious Monkey Clone, and he was anything but safe.
    Magic elixer flask

CHAPTER 3
PAST AND PRESENT COLLIDE

    It was a sultry Sunday morning in Hong Kong. According to the weather forecast, the temperature and humidity was expected to raise the heat index to well over one hundred degrees Fahrenheit by noontime. Worse yet, there wasn’t a trace of wind in the forecast.
    Archibald deviated from his normal routine when he arrived in the kitchen that morning, asking Kuang Jianquo for an English breakfast. A short time later, while listlessly dipping his toast into the runny egg yolk in front of him, he looked first at Willow and then at May before asking, “You really think we can pull this off?”
    “You mean taking that crazy monkey’s eyes out before he strangles your brother?” Willow replied somewhat indelicately.
    “Yeah, that,” he answered.
    “Well, I don’t intend to miss,” May quickly interjected in a voice that was as hard and steady as the Rock of Gibraltar. Then she glanced over at Willow, saying, “And I don’t think my friend from New York intends to miss her mark either.”
    May rapidly finished her breakfast and then excused herself for some last minute preparations. She first placed Ming’s lethal flying darts into one of the two side pockets of her backpack, and then the old metal flask in the other. After she put a pair of new batteries in her flashlight, she put it in the backpack’s main compartment next to a first aid kit. Finally, she filled two one-liter plastic bottles with very cold water. As she stowed the bottles, she was fairly certain that every drop of water would be consumed before the day was through.
    When their air-conditioned taxi dropped the rescue trio in front of the crowded ferry station at a quarter to ten, the heat index had already broken through ninety-five. The moment Archibald opened the taxi door, the heat and humidity hit him like a blast furnace.
    The ferry station had no air-conditioning, so there was little relief from the heat when the three teenagers—all wearing walking shorts, T-shirts, baseball caps, andtennis shoes—walked inside. Now sweating profusely, Archibald pulled Willow aside while May went to the counter to purchase the tickets. Once again he asked if she was sure that one of the two arrows in her hand would be able to take out the Monkey Clone’s eye.
    “Don’t worry,” Willow answered reassuringly. “My aim was dead-on when I took out the Ratweil, and it will be just as good when I hold up my half of the bargain by hitting one of the Monkey Clone’s eyes.”
    “By the way, have you and May decided which eye you’ll each be aiming for?” Archibald pressed, wanting to make sure that there was no confusion on that critical aspect of the plan.
    “Of course,” Willow confirmed, raising her eyebrow as if she couldn’t believe he’d just asked that question. “May has the right eye, and I have the left eye. We talked about that earlier this morning while we were waiting for you to come down to breakfast.”
    “Okay, just checking,” Archibald replied somewhat defensively. When he saw that the incredulous look hadn’t left Willow’s face, he threw up his hands, saying, “Hey, I know I’m being a pain, but this is my brother we’re talking about.”
    May arrived a minute later waving three round-trip tickets and two one-way tickets in the air. Her positive attitude wasn’t lost on either Archibald or Willow when she said, “Just so we don’t have to wait in line to buy Jockabeb’s and Robert’s return ticket at the Lantau Island ferry building.”
    Archibald couldn’t help but again revisit the crucial task of simultaneously burying the flying dart and arrow into