part as an act for the security man. A Muslim woman met her. Grace lowered her voice, taking a chance.
“Hello,” she said in Mandarin. “You are familiar with the northerner two doors down?”
The woman nodded. “A Mongolian. And not the only one!”
Grace nearly cried out with the confirmation.
“One of his friends owes me money,” Grace said.
The woman’s eyes hardened. “I would forgive the debt, cousin.”
“Do you see his friends often?”
Another slight nod. “Yes,” the resident said, in an even softer voice than Grace was using. Her voice brought chills up Grace’s arms.
“Do they live with him, these other men?”
“Down the lane,” the woman answered. “Two to a room.”
A choke point.
“How many?”
“Five, all told.”
That left three in good health. “The reason I ask,” Grace said, “is that I would rather not be seen by the one that owes me. He is not pleasant.”
“All rough men.”
“Yes,” Grace said. “Mongolians are rough.”
The woman did not contradict her. “In pairs,” she said. “Roommates. The leader lives by himself.”
“Leader?”
“They travel like a pack of dogs.”
“Yes.” Grace assembled the data, wondering how far to push it. “Two rooms,” she proposed.
The woman’s icy stare was difficult to read.
Grace sensed she’d overstayed her welcome. “You have been generous with me, dear lady.”
“Not at all,” the woman said.
Grace backed away. The woman stopped her.
“Again. My advice? Forgive the debt. Do not deal with these dogs. We-those of us in the lane-leave them to themselves.”
Grace nodded. “Peace be with you.”
“And you.”
The woman pushed the door shut.
The lane guard had lit a cigarette and sat himself down on a stool by a pair of potted plants and smoked. He’d been watching, but out of earshot.
Grace moved on, a moment later leaving the lane and entering onto a busy street. She walked a block before crossing and joining Knox on the scooter.
“Well?” Knox said.
“Drive,” she ordered. “I’ll tell you as we go.”
Knox pulled out into traffic and Grace wrapped her arms around him. She let go, jerked back and cried out softly.
“Knox! Knox!” Her left hand was smeared with his blood. She held it out to his side on display for him.
“I’ll be damned!” he said.
“You are bleeding.”
“I know that.”
“You did not tell me!” She shouted to be heard over the engine.
“Adrenaline,” he said, as if that explained anything.
“We go to your place at once.”
“We can’t,” he said. “Our visitors. Remember? In the lane? They know that location now. Eight-oh-eight is out. I cannot return. And we can’t go to your place either. You were compromised when we fought them. They followed you, possibly from the party, but you went back to your place.” She didn’t contradict him. “So they have your apartment. They have the guesthouse. They want us, or they wouldn’t have come after us like that. Neither of us is going home.”
She considered what he said for several long seconds. “I know a place,” she said. “We can go there and decide what to do later.”
“It can’t be a friend.”
“It’s a service apartment rental. But not with the best reputation.”
“But you know it, first hand?”
“I know it. I have stayed there.” She thought back to Lu Jian.
Service apartments, with kitchens and maid service, were used for long-term stays by traveling businessmen in lieu of more expensive hotel rooms.
“That could work,” he said.
“We must hurry,” she said, panic rising in her voice. “You are bleeding badly.”
He had her trigger now: the sight of blood. Everyone had one. His was abuse: the strong taking advantage of the weak. It left him sick.
“Honestly,” he said, leaning back to call out to her, “I didn’t even know it was there. I’m fine.”
“You are bleeding, John. Bleeding badly. Pull over. I will make a call. Then I drive.”
She’d called him by his given name for the first time. He smiled through an unexpected wince of pain as she held to him tightly while he pulled the scooter to the side of the road.
8:00 A.M.
JING AN TEMPLE
JING AN DISTRICT
SHANGHAI
Melschoi paid a sorry-looking vendor seven yuan for a bundle of incense, cursing the amount under his breath, and entered the dimly lit temple. The cross-legged, gold-leafed Buddha rose thirty feet high, surrounded at the knees by pomelo fruit and fresh flowers. The fragrant smoke hung heavily in the air, wrapping the idol’s shoulders like a scarf.
Melschoi was not there to worship, but because one of his two remaining uninjured men was assigned to survey Yang Construction’s security man, No Nuts Feng. His man had followed Feng into an alley behind Quintet and had watched as a woman and an American had pummeled both Feng and another man.
Melschoi’s spy had held back but had subsequently lost the two in traffic-in Melschoi’s mind a punishable offense. That left him Quintet, and the night watchman Melschoi had just followed to the temple.
There was probably a Chinese proverb about there being more than one way to skin a cat, but Melschoi didn’t want to hear it.
His Beijing boss was so well connected that he had ears in every keyhole. How long until he learned of the compounded mistakes Melschoi and his men were making? How long until he cut bait? And what then? A bone crusher sent for him in the night? Police? Arrest? Melschoi had no leverage over his Beijing employer-knew nothing but that the money was good and it kept coming.
Despite his agnosticism, Melschoi took a moment to pray for the opportunity and funds to return to his homeland and make things right for his family.
The subsequent talk with the night watchman came down to what everything in this city came down to: money. Melschoi offered five hundred yuan and the man was ready to give him his first-born.
The foreigner had had a lady visitor at the guesthouse that same night. The woman had waited for him and had engaged in typical bar conversation with the barmaid. The conversation had centered on jewelry because the guest owned a pearl shop in International Pearl City in Hongqiao.
Melschoi would have words with this woman. He would know all she knew about this American and what the man wanted with Lu Hao. She was all he had. She, not this gold idol, was to be his savior.
And everyone knew the fate of all saviors. They were sacrificed.
