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Chapter 1
The kung fu master, Michael Chan, had been training in Chinese martial arts for over twenty-five years, and now here he was arriving in the port of Madagascar, a most unlikely place to hold a competition of mixed martial arts. Everyone had told him that kung fu would stand no chance against the competition, who were coming from all over the world, but the kung fu master paid no heed to their worries, for he had faith and belief in his own abilities, and didn’t need anyone else telling him whether his martial arts techniques were up to scratch or not.
Nobody had seen the hard work and hours of training every day, over decades, that he had committed to his training. He had not only trained for just two or three hours per day, as some of these modern day kung fu masters had, but for the last twenty years he had put in a minimum of eight hours of training every day, which meant that he had tens of thousands of hours of training and kung fu practice under his belt, and although he was regarded as a master of kung fu, he could actually be considered a grandmaster of the art, except that he was still relatively young in years, therefore he did not wish to attract unnecessary attention to himself by publicly referring to himself as a grandmaster, as that would seem rather arrogant in the eyes of others. The kung fu master didn’t particularly care what others in the world thought or spoke about him in general, but he did care about his overall reputation in the martial arts community. He did have a certain amount of honor to uphold, not just for himself, but also for his dead master, and also for the few students that he had agreed to teach in the last few years.
Michael Chan, half Chinese and half American, was in his mid-forties, although he looked ten years younger than his actual age. This youthfulness was mainly due to a life of almost zero stress, healthy eating, and a happy positive disposition. He understood the human body deeply, and its connection with the mind. He knew that the body followed the mind, and that if one had a healthy mind, then naturally they would most likely have a healthy body too. Chan did not believe in laziness or procrastination, and this was one of the main reasons why he had developed himself into the amazing kung fu master that he was today.
Stepping off the old rickety wooden boat and onto the pier, Chan looked around and marveled at the beauty of this harbor town, and the natural surroundings that caressed the eyes. Although Chan was here for a serious fighting competition, he would not block his mind from noticing the subtle beauty of what the natural world had to offer. It was one of his little delights in life, just watching and breathing in the wonderful nature that was abundantly and freely available to all humans around planet Earth. Chan’s master had helped to instill in him this quality of observing nature, and learning to appreciate every little thing, from the clouds rolling lazily across the sky on a summer’s day, to a little bug making its way across a fallen leaf.
Michael Chan knew that balance was important in one’s life, and that cultivating the energies of both yin and yang was very important, if one wished to become powerful in the ways of chi energy. One of Chan’s hidden strengths was that he was very adept at chi energy techniques when used in fighting. Actually, he was a master of chi energy, but this he was careful to keep to himself, so as not to make other people jealous or even fearful, especially his competitors in the ring. If they knew how powerful his chi energy was, they would never in a million years agree to fight him. That is why Michael Chan made sure to keep this a secret, even from his own students. Only his now dead master had known the true extent of his powers, and his dead master had also acknowledged, while still alive, that Michael Chan’s chi energy levels had greatly surpassed those of his own master. Michael Chan was in fact a very deadly weapon, just waiting to be unleashed when the time called for it.
The fighting tournament wasn’t until tomorrow, so Chan had some time to settle into this new place and familiarize himself with the local surroundings. It would also give him time to check out the competition and who he would be up against in the ring. During this short and first time visit to Madagascar, Chan also hoped to find some time to enjoy the natural beauty of this mysterious island.
Chapter 2
Chan hadn’t made any arrangements yet on which hotel to stay at, so when a pretty young woman approached and told him there was a car waiting for him, he felt it rude to decline, and so he followed her to her car that was in the parking lot directly opposite the pier. She was a tall woman with a lithe body, long toned legs, with smooth dark skin, and he sensed from only a few seconds of looking her up and down that she was most likely an accomplished fighter in her own right, and not to be messed with. As she led him to the car, he walked a few paces behind to study her movements. She was obviously a very confident woman, with excellent posture, wearing a short black dress that revealed most of her thighs, and walking on black high-heel shoes that were more suitable for a nightclub. Nevertheless, he had no complaints, and decided to just go with the flow and enjoy whatever adventures may unfold in the next few days on the island of Madagascar.
Chan was taken aback when the woman led them towards a sleek black Mercedes Benz. Opening the trunk, she took his travel bags, threw them in and pressed the trunk shut with a resounding click. Then she walked around and very politely opened the front passenger door for him, and so Chan willingly got inside the luxurious automobile. The interior was plush and had that ‘new car’ aroma. The woman got in the driver’s seat, buckled up, and proceeded to expertly steer the Mercedes out of the parking lot and up along the winding roads climbing the steep hillside that gave the Madagascan harbor its unique charm.
The woman driving the car didn’t make any small talk on the journey, and it seemed as though her mind was preoccupied with something else, something more important and pressing perhaps. Chan decided it best not to pry and question her, and so he decided to respect the silence that she had obviously opted for. Enjoying the comfortable ride, Chan tried to keep his eyes on the road ahead and on the view outside, rather than on the more interesting view beside him that was the woman’s long thick toned legs. It was not often that he found himself in the company of such a beautiful female, and even though he had years of mind training as a kung fu master, he still had to struggle a little to contain the primal thoughts and feelings that were beginning to stir inside himself.
It wasn’t until they had left the harbor behind and began making their way up the winding roads, through lush foliage and tree canopies, that this mysterious and highly attractive woman finally broke the silence, and introduced herself as Lara, the personal assistant of a wealthy and affluent businessman who owned a property on the island, and who from time to time had dealings with certain people in high positions in Madagascar. She was careful not to mention any names, and it was clear that the man to whom she was referring to, and for whom she worked, was seriously rich, and was also most likely, seriously dangerous, if one were to get on the wrong side of him. Lara spoke in a professional tone and it was obvious she had respect for her employer. She revealed the bare minimum to Chan, but Chan was very skilled at reading between the lines, and so had pieced together certain things that she had omitted in her speech, but had given away in her tone.
Chan was somewhat a master of psychology, and was able to read people by their facial expressions, and the tone and inflection of the words that they spoke. He had learned this skill from his master, who had told him that by listening and observing, rather than talking, one could discover and learn. His master had taught him that you cannot learn anything while talking, but you can learn a lot while listening. Chan was by no means a quiet man, but he had learned when to keep his mouth shut so that he could read other people more easily when certain situations called for it. This woman was hard to read, but he could clearly see that she was slightly disturbed or distressed about something or other. They had only just met, and so he had no intention of invading her personal world with questions that were none of his business. Chan forced himself to remain dispassionately interested in what Lara was saying, while inside he wanted to ask her all sorts of personal and private things that would have surely got him kicked out of the car.
Chapter 3
After about twenty minutes of driving and polite conversation, they arrived at an ultra-modern house perched right on the edge of a steep cliff, overlooking the harbor far below. The house was made of glass and steel, but at the same time it managed to blend in with the natural surroundings of the thick trees and exotic over-sized plants that seemed to be engulfing the house. As he exited the luxury car, closing the door behind him, he marveled at the ingenuity of the architecture, as the majority of the weight of the house seemed to be precariously supported by a few steel posts that must have been drilled deep into the rock of the cliff-face. Chan knew this must have cost a pretty penny, not just to build, but to import the building materials too. He was now certain that the owner of this property was at least a multi-millionaire, perhaps even a billionaire, but the question was, why had Chan been invited, and indeed even escorted, here? Chan let the questions in his mind dissipate for the moment, and he continued to act like water and just flow with whatever would unfold in the coming minutes and hours ahead.
During the whole drive through the winding cliff roads, Lara, the mysterious woman sitting next to him, had not revealed anything personal about herself or her life here on the island of Madagascar. Chan didn’t detect any coldness from her, but it was more a professional coolness, and maybe she just wasn’t in the mood for light-hearted chit chat. Chan knew that your intuition can only get you so far with women, and the rest is pure guesswork. He never once pretended to himself that he fully understood the minds of females, and although that could be a little frustrating at times, a part of him enjoyed the challenge and opportunity that women presented him with whenever he came into contact with them, both normally and on a romantic level.
Yes, even though Chan was a high-level kung fu master, it didn’t mean that he was some kind of monk or priest, and he did not deny himself the pleasures of the female species, for to deny them would be to deny the very underlying nature of the primitive male yang energy. He understood, through his own training during his younger years, that to deprive oneself of the natural pleasures of life, such as romantic relationships with women, could cause one’s energy to become stifled, and even blocked.
Sexual repression was not a good thing in Chan’s eyes, and although controlling and redirecting sexual energy did have its benefits with regards to the strict monastic life of a monk or priest, or even a nun, he had come to learn that it was perfectly okay to allow one’s natural sexual instincts and desires to flow freely. A certain level of control was necessary of course, and too much of anything could be a bad thing, but Chan had come to learn of the wisdom of following the middle path, which is the path that Buddha had taught during the last years of his time on Earth. Some other kung fu masters may frown or look down upon his romantic escapades with women, but Chan cared little of other people’s opinions when it came to his personal relations with the female species, and made sure that he took care of his own happiness and fulfilment, in the ways that he found best.
As the woman led Chan over the beige gravel pathway towards the house, it seemed as though the house was empty. There were no signs of any house maids or security guards, which spoke of the confidence of the owner, but there were a multitude of security cameras following their every movement, using motion detection technology. Lara strode up to the thick glass front door with a casualness as if she owned the place. She fingered some numbers onto a password-protected entry panel, which in turn caused a green light to blip, and there was an audible click as the glass door unlocked itself and swung open a few inches. Impressive technology, Chan thought, as the woman swung the heavy glass-panel door wide open and gestured for Chan to come inside, which he did, and she closed the door behind them, its automatic locking mechanism securing the home once again from possible intruders.
Now they were alone together. The woman slipped her high heeled shoes off her feet and padded over the stone floor to the kitchen area, where she proceeded to make them both a hot cup of coffee. Chan instantly detected a change in her energy, and he could tell that Lara was finally beginning to relax, and she even let a little smile show in her face as she handed Chan the cup of freshly brewed coffee.
They sat together in the lounge, on a large white leather sofa that overlooked the ocean and harbor far below. The view through the glass walls was quite magnificent, and Chan was more than happy to find himself in this luxury home enjoying a delicious coffee with this beautiful woman. He had found himself in some strange situations in the past, but this was quite surreal, and he felt like he should pinch himself just to make sure he wasn’t dreaming.
Lara had revealed to Chan that she knew who he really was, that her boss had been researching him, and that she knew Chan was one of the top chi energy masters in the whole world, perhaps even the greatest living chi master. When he heard this, Chan did not deny it, and he could see that Lara enjoyed being in the company of a true and powerful master of chi energy. She had revealed that it was her boss who had invited Chan to the island to fight in the upcoming tournament, and that her boss had a particularly high interest in Chan’s capabilities with chi energy. She had also revealed that her boss owned and funded a secret human bio-energy research center on the island, and that he wished to find a way to duplicate or replicate this chi energy, weaponize it, and sell it packaged as a weapon of war to the highest bidders.
Her boss had told her that there were billions of dollars waiting for the person who could invent machines with the power to harness and control chi energy at high levels. The research center was still in its elementary stage of development regarding chi energy, and they had already tested various chi energy practitioners who claimed to have supernatural abilities. But it had turned out that they were rather average, and didn’t really possess any chi energy skills worthy of further investigation and research. Then he had discovered Chan, who was rumored to be the most powerful chi energy master on the planet. Lara’s boss needed Chan to come to the island of Madagascar, and so had arranged this little international fighting tournament to lure Chan here. Lara went on to warn Chan that her boss intended to capture and incarcerate Chan at the research facility and carry out tests on him against his will, and she had revealed to Chan that he would likely be murdered as soon as they had completed their tests and experiments on him, after he no longer held any value to them.
Chan was shocked to hear all of this, although it was not entirely unexpected. Over the years, various people, including top-level scientists, had attempted to seek him out, and exploit his chi energy abilities in the name of science. However, Chan knew better, and had always managed to extricate himself from situations before they had a chance to turn ugly, usually disappearing for a few weeks or months until things calmed down again.
On hearing all of this, Chan thanked Lara for warning him of what was to come. He reassured her that it would never come to that, and that if any problems did arise during his time here in Madagascar, that he would be perfectly capable of taking care of himself. To release the tension in the room, Chan even laughed and joked about how preposterous the whole situation was, and this allowed Lara to relax once again, and their conversation turned to more light-hearted matters.
Chapter 4
They had sat together drinking coffee for the last thirty minutes, chatting about various things, and Lara was beginning to open up and share her real personality with Chan. She obviously felt safe and comfortable in his presence, her body language suggesting as much, and they continued to build a strong rapport as the conversation developed. They were soon laughing and joking with each other as if they had known each other for years. The strict cold façade that she had projected, when they had first met down in the harbor this morning had completely dissolved, and she had revealed herself to be a truly interesting woman in many ways.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Lara leaned over and kissed Chan fully on the lips. Chan was pleasantly surprised at the sudden gesture, and he returned the kiss just as passionately. A moment later, the woman was dragging Chan down the corridor and into her boss’s bedroom where a very grand king-size bed sat in the middle of the luxurious room. They both fell onto the bed, ripping each other’s clothes off until they were both completely naked, hungry to satisfy that burning desire inside themselves. They made love to each other with urgency and passion, and it was not long before they had both climaxed and were lying on the huge bed in each other’s arms, breathing heavily, a film of sweat covering their bodies from the frantic and intense lovemaking, despite the coolness of the air-conditioned room.
Chan lay there naked, with this equally naked and beautiful creature in his arms. He felt a great rush of happiness spread over himself, as he marveled at the intense and wonderful pleasure that the simplest of things could bring to a person’s life. But his pleasure was to be short-lived, because only a few seconds later, there was the piercing sound of gunfire spraying through the house, and shattering the glass walls and windows around them. Lara had been as equally startled and shocked as Chan had been at the sudden intrusion of their intimate moment together. Not only were they both shocked, but anger and adrenalin also rushed through their veins.
Lara was ultra-quick to react, grabbing her Gucci bag from the bedside table and pulling out a Glock 9mm. At that precise moment, Chan couldn’t help but think of how sexy she looked, squatting down beside the bed, totally naked, holding a 9mm pistol very professionally in her hands. Even though bullets were flying, Chan was a little more modest, and managed to grab his underwear and trousers from the bed, before diving for cover next to Lara and pulling on his clothes. Chan didn’t have a weapon, but then again, he was a chi master, and didn’t really need one.
Somehow, the billionaire boss had discovered that his assistant Lara had betrayed him and had shared his business secrets with Chan. There were most likely secret hidden listening devices in the house, and so feeling betrayed, he had instructed his hired thugs to go and kill them both, no matter the cost. The boss was not a man to cross or to make angry, and now Chan and Lara were paying the price for making him lose face.
However, Lara knew of a secret trapdoor in the closet of the master bedroom that gave way to a tunnel leading down under the house, running horizontally forty meters across, and up again into a four-car garage by the side of the property that housed her boss’s fleet of luxury sports cars. Lara knew that this was probably their only chance of getting out of there alive, considering that she and Chan were easily outnumbered by the gun-toting thugs. Lara was a great aim with a gun, training at the local gun range two times per week to keep her shooting skills sharp and up to scratch, but she decided that she wasn’t willing to risk losing her life today just to show off her expertise with the cool metal weapon she now held in her palm. She knew that her boss now wanted her dead, and she had known the risks when she had taken this position, for it was common knowledge that her boss had a reputation as a dangerous man, but he paid extremely well, which is why she had overlooked his reputation and taken the position as his personal assistant anyway, against the warnings of those people in her life that cared about her.
So now here she was, fleeing from the automatic and unceasing gunfire that ripped through the entire house, shredding it to pieces. Thick glass of all shapes and sizes littered the floor, and she was careful in picking her way across the bedroom floor as she grabbed Chan by the arm and dragged him with her into the spacious bedroom closet a few meters away. Luckily, the closet had walls of thin steel that provided them temporary relief from the deafening shower of bullets that streaked through the house. She pulled up the secret trapdoor in the floor, but before leaping down through the hole, she grabbed a pair of her boss’s sports shoes for Chan, and a matching pair of lady’s sports shoes for herself, which she had kept here and sometimes used when playing the occasional game of tennis with her boss. They both quickly slipped their shoes on, then without further hesitation, half stepped and half leaped down the through the trapdoor into the hole below, pulling the trapdoor shut behind them.
Lara led the way, sprinting through the narrow tunnel that was gently lit with soft lighting along the ceiling. Even though Chan and Lara were running for their lives, Chan couldn’t help but admire the wonderful scene playing out in front of him that was this stunning woman running totally naked wearing nothing but a pair of sports shoes, and packing a 9mm gun in one hand. It was times like this that Chan considered himself extremely fortunate, and he knew he would later replay this scene in his mind a thousand times over. This woman whom he had met just a few hours earlier was obviously not a shy woman, and that was something that got Chan’s blood pulsing and his heart racing. He may have been a chi energy master, but he was also a man, with animalistic thoughts and tendencies that he would not deny, and just like any normal human being, he would not repress his sexual feelings and desires.
They sprinted together through the secret tunnel, that eventually led up a short flight of steps and through another secret trapdoor that when opened allowed them access into the billionaire’s garage. Upon pulling himself out of the trapdoor in the ground, Chan had to stop for a second to take in the spectacular sight in front of his eyes. There in the garage sat four extremely beautiful sports cars that looked brand new, gleaming and shining under the fluorescent ceiling lights that lighted up the whole garage interior. There was a yellow Lamborghini Aventador, a red Ferrari F40, a blue Bugatti Veyron, and a black Porsche Panamera.
All were equally stunning, and Chan was momentarily transfixed by the incredible cars, despite the barrage of gunfire in the background over at the house, from which they had just escaped. Still totally naked, Lara grabbed a car key from the selection of keys on a wall rack, clicked the key button and the yellow Lamborghini’s headlights flashed twice, signaling that it had just been unlocked. Nice choice thought Chan. Lara pulled open the car door, placed her gun down next to her seat, and ignited the engine of the beast that they were now both sitting inside. There was a great roar from the twelve-cylinder engine that echoed inside the garage like ravenous thunder across a stormy sky. Chan pulled his door shut and buckled up. Then the garage door began sliding up, as it was designed with special technology to open automatically upon the ignition of any of the cars in the garage. Chan thought that was so cool. When the garage door was halfway up, Lara began revving the engine like crazy, preparing the beast for what was to come.
Chan really felt like he was a co-star in an action movie right now, with an exotic and beautiful naked chick by his side, sitting inside an equally exotic Lamborghini, with bullets flying everywhere.
The hired thugs shooting up the house must have heard the roar of the Lamborghini’s engine, because as the garage door was sliding up and open, he could see four or five men clad in black suits a good distance away, firing wildly in their general direction. They were obviously not highly trained professionals, for their bullets had so far not struck the immaculate yellow luxury sports car.
Just as the garage doors opened high enough, Lara, in all her naked splendor, stomped her sports shoe hard on the gas, and the Lamborghini roared to life, accelerating from a stand still at a frightening speed towards the black suits with guns just ahead of them. Wide-eyed and dumbfounded, the guys in the suits managed to process the scene that was unfolding before them just in time so that they could dive out of the way of the oncoming yellow thundering beast that threatened to send them flying into another dimension. All of the hired thugs miraculously managed to jump clear of the Lamborghini as it sped past them, and as Lara approached the first corner at the top of the hill, she hit the brakes hard, and proceeded to power through the corner like a true professional racer. A couple of the guys in suits behind them ran for their vehicles, but it was already over, and they would have no chance in hell of catching up with a Lamborghini piloted by an obviously highly skilled driver, albeit a naked female one.
As they continued to round the corners of the winding roads that snaked down the hillside towards the harbor, Lara let out a burst of laughter and a shout of victory, and with a wide smile across her face, she expertly maneuvered the luxury yellow sports car through the treacherous never-ending corners and bends that were beginning to make Chan feel a little dizzy. Chan again found himself entranced by the amazing confidence and dexterity of the extraordinary woman sitting beside him.
As Lara effortlessly drove the Lamborghini through the last of the tight corners, and out onto the open road that circled the entire island, Chan looked out at the harbor as they passed it by at supersonic speeds. He smiled at the faces of the people meandering around at the harbor entrance and surrounding market area, where local fishermen, old folks, and the odd tourist here and there, stared wide-eyed, in a state of temporary shock, as the shiny yellow beast of a car powered through the streets at close to two hundred kilometers per hour. Exhilaration and adrenalin were pumping through both Chan’s and Lara’s veins, and at that moment they both felt more alive and excited than ever before.
Lara did not care for one second that she was totally naked driving the exotic Lamborghini, and for some strange reason, Chan really admired that, however, five minutes later, they pulled up at a little shack at the side of the road, just off the beach, that was selling beach wear and tourist trinkets. Lara instructed Chan to quickly purchase something with which to cover her naked body, so Chan had come back with a red sarong, which Lara welcomingly wrapped around her body, then they continued their journey along the coast.
After driving at high speed along the ocean road, following the coastline for another half an hour, they finally arrived at their destination. Lara pulled over on the side of the road near what looked like an old wooden shack, and she announced to Chan that this was her secret place, her hideaway, that only she and a couple of her closest friends knew about, and that they would be safe here from the reaches of the crazy billionaire who had threatened their lives and wanted them dead. She parked the sports car inside a wide but low bamboo hut that served as a garage of sorts, so that it would be hidden from view from anyone passing by on the main road a few meters away. Lara clearly had money, but she had cleverly designed the place to look like a poor fisherman’s shack, which would never draw attention or arouse suspicion. It fitted in perfectly with the surrounding environment, and so they would indeed be safe here and be able to relax without the worry of being hounded again by more gun-toting crazy thugs in black suits.
It was early afternoon, and the sun was still high in the azure sky. Chan and Lara relaxed in the cool shade on the old wooden terrace of their hut that overlooked the tropical beach, after having just devoured a simple but delicious picnic lunch of bread, cheese, and a bottle of red wine. They lay together, entwined in each other’s arms, like young lovers, staring out at the great expanse of ocean that stretched away from the coastline of Madagascar.
Chan was a romantic at heart, and he couldn’t have imagined anywhere else he would rather be in the world, or indeed anyone he would rather be with than the woman that lay in his arms right now. She was perfect, and he felt as though he never wanted to be apart from her. In fact, she was the woman of his dreams, and he had waited his whole life to meet a woman like this. In fact, Lara was also thinking similar thoughts, and she found that she felt so comfortable in the company of Chan, more so than any other man she had been with in her entire life.
With these sweet romantic thoughts in both their minds, and with the gentle sounds of the waves lapping at the shore, Chan and Lara drifted off together into a deep, welcoming and much needed sleep.