Yan smiled faintly and looked at Herman while Herman translated. His smile widened a little as he listened. Then he spoke very fast to Herman.
'Says you must be on something. Says his lawyer's going to show up inside of an hour and he's going to walk. Says the streets are crowded with people got busted on worse than what you got.
Says you're an asshole.'
'What's the Chinese word for asshole?' I said.
Herman smiled.
'Loose translation,' he said.
'He from Port City?'
'Says he's not from anywhere. Just drifting.'
'He a Death Dragon?' I said.
'Says no.'
'Who sent him to kill me?' I said.
Herman spoke for a while. The kid said a word. Herman spoke again. The kid shrugged.
'Nobody,' Herman said.
'He have an ID on him?'
'No.'
'How long has he been here?'
'He's not sure. He came when he was small.'
'And he still doesn't speak English?'
Herman spoke. Yan spoke. Herman spoke. Yan almost smiled.
He looked at me and said something.
'Says nobody he knows speaks English. Says you're the first white person he ever talked to.'
'Who better?' I said.
Herman looked straight at Yan as he spoke to me.
'He may know a few English words. He may know enough to follow our conversation. But it's no advantage to him to let you know. He's got no family, or if he does it works all the time, and has no control over him. He may be lying about his age. He may be fourteen for all we know. He's alone in a foreign land where no one understands his language. What he's got is the gang. If he's who we think he is, it's probably the Death Dragons in Port City.
The gang is who and what he is. He finks to you and he hasn't even got that any more.'
I nodded.
'Plus they'll kill him,' I said.
Yan looked at me silently. It wasn't a pose. He was like a feral child. His silence was visceral. Nearly inert, he was beyond threatening, or bribing, or scaring.
'Un huh,' Herman said.
'What kind of life is that?' I said.
'It's the life he's got, Spenser. Don't get all gooey about it.
You'd walked into your place he'd have put half a dozen.45caliber slugs in your face. And liked it.'
I nodded again.
'Any feeling is better than no feeling,' I said.
Yan and I looked at each other. Between us was an immeasurable ocean of silence.
'Yan,' I said, slowly, as if he could understand me, 'I know, and you know, and you know I know that Lonnie Wu sent you and the other kid to clip me. I resent it. I am going to find out why Lonnie sent you, and I'm going to take him down for it, and you are probably going to go too.'
Yan had no reaction. I nodded at Herman. Herman translated.
Yan had no reaction. The door to the interrogation room opened and a uniformed cop stuck his head in.
'Lawyer's here to get him,' the cop said.
Herman looked at me.
'Want me to leave you two alone for a few minutes?' Herman said.
'While I stall the lawyer?'
I studied the kid in front of me for a moment. His wrists were slimmer than Susan's. He couldn't have weighed more than 130.
'No.'
Herman shrugged. He pointed a finger at Yan, then at the cop.
