"I'll come back," Hulan said. "But I doubt I'll be calling first. You are guests in my country and you must abide by our rules."
Sandy grimaced as he opened the outside door. "Until our next meeting, then."
Hulan held his gaze, nodded, then passed through the door to the courtyard. Aware that three sets of eyes were on her, she looked toward the Administration building and held up her arm to get her driver's attention. Waiting for him to pick her up, she once again took in the vast emptiness of the courtyard complex. Where were the signs of life? She expected to see people walking from building to building either on break or moving merchandise, people sitting together for a late lunch, even people sprawled out asleep for xiuxi. How did this company, administered as it was by what appeared to be just three foreign men and a handful of Chinese women, manage to control such a large population of workers? How had Knight ended up out here at all? Most important, what was going on in those other buildings and on the other side of the Assembly wall?
Once the car had turned back onto the expressway, Hulan pulled out her cell phone, punched in David's number, and waited several seconds for the line to connect. If it was 3:00 P.M. here, then it was midnight in Los Angeles. David would be up. She was sure of it.
7
WHEN THE PHONE RANG, DAVID KNEW IT HAD TO BE HULAN. It had been four days since they'd spoken, longer than any time since he'd left Beijing. "Where are you?" he asked. "I've been worried."
"I'm fine."
"I have so much to tell you," he said. She did too, but what he said next made her stories seem unimportant. "I'm coming, Hulan. I'll be in Beijing…" He paused to calculate the time and the dateline, and said, "Day after tomorrow."
"How? What for?"
"I have a job. I'm moving to Beijing."
She heard static on the line; then she asked with deliberation, "Is this the truth?"
He laughed. "Yes! Yes!"
"Oh, David. I can't believe it." Then she asked again, "How?"
He started four days back with Keith's horrible death and what that meant about the triads and the FBI surveillance. He confided in her his concerns about Keith and what he'd read in the paper. Then he told her about going back to his office the day after the funeral…
He'd picked up his voice-mail messages, including one from Keith's sister. "I'm sorry about yesterday," she said. "We're going home today, but
I'd like to talk to you about Keith when you have a chance." She left her home number in Russell, Kansas, then closed with, "I hope you'll call."
At the time he'd had no desire to hear more of her recriminations, so he'd written the number down and put it in his briefcase.
A few minutes later he'd walked down the hall to U.S. Attorney Madeleine Prentice's office. She was blonde, beautiful, smart, and politically astute. Rob Butler, the chief of the Criminal Division, was also there. David had known Rob since law school. They'd played tennis together for years. Like Madeleine, he was a brilliant lawyer. David needed to clear up one aspect of Keith's death before he made any other decisions and hoped now to confirm what Miles had told him after the funeral.
"What can you tell me about the Keith Baxter investigation?" he asked.
"There isn't one," Madeleine responded.
"It was in the paper yesterday," he said.
"Don't believe everything you read in the papers," Rob said. "Haven't you learned that yet?"
David ignored the barb. "He was accused of doing something in violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act."
"Bribery?" Madeleine asked.
"I assumed so, but I don't know."
"Well, it's not in our office," Madeleine said. "We haven't had a single Foreign Corrupt Practices case since the statute was written."
"Maybe his name has come up in another matter," Rob suggested.
"But we don't have any bribery cases right now," Madeleine said.
"What about in the Washington office?" David asked.
"Your friend lived in L.A., right? If he was up to something, don't you think Washington would tell us?"
David still didn't know what was bothering Keith, but if Miles said there was nothing to worry about, and Madeleine and Rob verified that, then he could move on-emotionally and perhaps professionally. Except…
"Can I ask something else? Do you think Keith could have been the target the other night and not me? I mean, the Rising Phoenix has had lots of other opportunities. So why now? Could there be some connection between Keith and the triads? He was doing work in China…"
Madeleine sighed. "David, you know what happened that night. Accept it, then put it behind you."
David looked at Rob, who said, "She's right."
David considered, then announced, "Miles Stout has asked me to set up an office in Beijing."
Without hesitation Madeleine asked, "How soon?"
"I'd leave in a couple of days."
"A week or two's notice would have been nice, but it wouldn't be the first time an assistant left on the spur of the moment," Madeleine said. Then eerily echoing Phil Collingsworth, she added, "When it's time, it's time."
David laughed and shook his head. "What's this? Here's your hat, what's your hurry?"
"Not at all, David," Madeleine said. "It's a practical move for you. More than that, I'd call it wise. You've finished the Rising Phoenix trials, so if you have to leave suddenly, this is a good time to do it. For the office, I mean," she amended. "Obviously we'll hate to see you go, but there are other things to consider. You've got people after you. We can surmise it's some last vestige of the Rising Phoenix. Can we prove it? Not yet. Is there any evidence that points directly to them so that we could get a wiretap and go roust some folks? No. So what you're looking at is uncertainty and having those Feebies following you around. You can't tell me you like that."
"I don't, but should I run away to China?"
"You're not running away," Madeleine said. "You're getting out of harm's way so the FBI can do its job and find those assholes."
"But China? The Rising Phoenix is a Chinese gang," David pointed out.
"Based in Los Angeles," Madeleine added as if David didn't know. "There may be a few hotheads still hanging around the city, but there can't be any left in Beijing."
David knew this was true. The gang members in China had been caught. Those who'd confessed had been treated leniently with hard labor in China 's hinterlands. Those who hadn't had been tried, sentenced, and executed.
"Even if they aren't all dead," Rob added, "the Chinese will be able to protect you in a way that we simply can't."
David hesitated. There was one more question he had to ask, but it wasn't an easy one to ask of friends. "This isn't some setup, is it? You aren't trying to get me into something I don't yet know about? We've been down that road before and-"
"David," Madeleine interrupted wearily, "just get out of here. Be safe…"
The taxi's windows were open, and hot hair blew across Hulan's face. She gazed out over the fields, thinking of the time she'd spent in the U.S. Attorney's Office with Madeleine Prentice and Rob Butler earlier this year, and of the life that David would be giving up to come here. "You love being a prosecutor," she said into the phone receiver.