‘I want to tell you before,’ she said. ‘But it too dangerous.’
Their voices seemed tiny, lost in the rafters of this dark place, whispering among the ghosts of history, the imperial concubines who had once known it as home.
‘From the beginning,’ Margaret encouraged her gently.
Lili took a deep, trembling breath. ‘They came the first time maybe six, seven months ago.’
‘Who are “they”?’
‘I don’t know. Men. Men in suits, men with cars and money. They take me to fancy restaurant and say they can make me big winner. And I make big money.’ She looked at Margaret, with a pleading in her eyes for understanding. ‘But I no wanna make big money. Only be good as my sister.’ And her eyes dipped towards the floor. ‘But, she sick. Can’t run no more. Medical costs ve-err expensive.’ She looked at Margaret, appealing her innocence. ‘I no greedy girl, lady I only say yes for my sister. So I can pay for her. Everything.’
Margaret crouched down beside her and squeezed her arm. ‘I believe you, Lili. I’m on your side.’
‘I say no drug. They say no drug. Minor — physical — adjustment. That is what they say.’ She had trouble saying it herself in English. ‘Minor — physical — adjustment. That is all.’ She clutched Margaret’s hand. ‘They tell me it is safe. There are others. And they tell me some names. I know them, because they are big names. All winning. They tell me I can be big name, too. I am good, but I can be better.’
‘Who were the other names?’
‘Xing Da. He big hero of me. And Sui Mingshan. They say there are others, but they no tell me. But I know in time. Because from little winners they are all become big winners. Again, and again. So I know, or I can guess.’
‘When you agreed to these…minor physical adjustments, what happened then?’
Lili shook her head miserably. ‘I don’t know, lady. They take some blood from me, and then a week later, maybe ten days, they come and take me to apartment downtown. They put me in a room and I sit and wait for lo-ong time. Then man come in. Foreign man.’
‘White hair? Beard?’
Lili looked at Margaret with astonishment, and then perhaps a little fear. ‘How you know this?’
‘He’s been hurting athletes all his life. He’s a bad man, Lili. We’re going to get him.’ Margaret paused. ‘What did he do to you?’
Lili shrugged. ‘He give me jab.’ She patted the top of her left arm. ‘That’s all.’
‘An injection?’
Lili nodded. ‘Then he say someone else explain, and he leave.’
‘Explain what?’
‘How it work.’ She corrected herself. ‘How I make it work.’
They heard a dull thud from out in the courtyard, and they both froze in the tiny circle of light that marked the boundary of their world. It sounded to Margaret like snow falling from a roof, but she couldn’t be sure. She leaned over and extinguished the oil lamp, and they were plunged into total darkness. Lili clutched her arm.
‘What is it?’ she whispered.
‘Shhh.’ Margaret had put her finger to her lips before she realised the futility of the gesture. Lili could not see her in the dark. They waited for several minutes, listening intently. But there was no further sound. Slowly, Margaret eased herself up into a standing position. One of her knees cracked and it sounded absurdly loud in the absolute still. The black which had smothered her eyes like a mask had turned to grey, and she realised that from somewhere there was a little moonlight seeping into the pavilion. Pillars and statues began to take the faintest shape in the deepest gloom, and she made her way carefully to the door. Lili followed, a tiny cold hand clutching at her coat in case she lost her. Margaret eased the door open a crack and peered out into the dazzling moonlight. Finally, the snow had stopped. The courtyard was empty. She saw the footprints she and Lili’s brother had left in the snow, tracking across the courtyard to the pavilion, and then stopping where they had stepped up on to the veranda. And then his footsteps again when Margaret had gone inside, and he had wandered back down into the square. They headed off towards the south-west corner, and into the deep shadow cast by the long, low building that bounded the south side.
‘Can you see Solo,’ Lili whispered.
‘Solo?’ Margaret glanced at her, confused.
‘My brother. Is his nickname.’
‘No, he’s not there. But I can see his footsteps heading across the courtyard. He must be sheltering in the gallery over there. I can’t see him, though.’
‘I’m scared,’ Lili whispered.
‘Me, too,’ Margaret said. ‘Let’s go find him.’ And as the words left her mouth, darkness fell across the courtyard as the sky closed up above them and shut out the moon. ‘Shit!’ she muttered. ‘Get the lamp, Lili.’
Lili scuttled across the flagstones to retrieve the oil lamp. ‘I light it?’
‘It would help if we could see where we were going. We’ll find your brother and go straight to the police.’
‘No police!’ Lili said, alarmed.
‘Section Chief Li will not let anyone harm you. You have my promise on that,’ Margaret whispered. But she saw the doubt in Lili’s face as the girl lit the lamp and they both blinked in its sudden brightness. And then a sharp cramp made Margaret gasp.
‘What’s wrong?’ Lili said urgently.
Margaret put a hand to her belly and found herself breathing rapidly. ‘Nothing.’ she said quickly. And she took the lamp. ‘Come on, let’s go.’ She forced herself to straighten up and pull the door wider so that they could slip out on to the terrace.
The lamp did not cast its light very far across the courtyard, and its brightness made everything else beyond its range seem even darker. Lili held Margaret’s arm with both hands, and they made their way across the snow, following the footprints which led towards the far side. Suddenly Margaret stopped, and fear touched her like cold hands on hot skin. Two more sets of footprints converged on Solo’s, coming from the left. They must have come up behind him, soundless as ghosts in the snow. There had been a scuffle. Margaret felt Lili’s grip tighten on her arm, and she swung around to her right, and by the light of the lamp they saw Solo lying in the snow, face up, a wide grin across his throat where it had been cut from ear to ear. He was covered in blood which had gouted in great loops across the snow, deep vivid red against the white, as his heart had pumped desperately to compensate for the sudden fall in pressure, only to hasten the blood loss from his severed jugular. Death had been swift and silent.
Lili screamed then, a shrill, feral scream that split the night air, and the shadows of men came at them out of the darkness. Margaret saw a face, pale and tense, caught for a fleeting moment in the light of the lamp as she swung it hard at the leading figure. It appeared to explode against him, oil igniting as it splashed over him through broken glass. In a matter of seconds his whole upper body was alight, his hair, his face. He howled in agony, spiralling away across the courtyard.
By the light of the flames engulfing him, Margaret saw two other men, frozen for a moment in horror as they saw their friend on fire. All thoughts of the women vanished as they dived towards him then, knocking him over to roll him in the snow, desperately trying to extinguish the flames and stop his screams. Margaret grabbed Lili’s hand. ‘Run!’ she hissed, and the two women set off in fear and panic, sprinting across the flagstones in the long gallery and out into the snow of a narrow street that ran north and south. Margaret’s instinct was to head back for the Donghua gate where Solo had led her into the Forbidden City only half an hour before. She pulled on Lili’s arm and they turned south and ran, slithering down the street, alleyways leading off to their right at regular intervals into obscured courtyards. The sky to the south was orange, low clouds reflecting the floodlights in Tiananmen Square. The roofs of palaces and pavilions curled their dark shapes in silhouette against it.