I try to grasp what he’s saying. No more Walled City. No more Longwai. No more chances to find Mei Yee. “But… what about the Brotherhood? It’s Longwai’s city… He’s not going to just roll over without a fight.”
“The ordinance has been kept very secret. Only a few officials know about it, so word doesn’t get back to Longwai. They want to take him by surprise. But even if they arrest Longwai and the other Brotherhood members, the Security Branch has to have evidence to hold them. Right now they don’t even know who to arrest. The Brotherhood keeps a pretty tight hold on its list of members.”
“So how do you know about the ordinance?” I ask.
“It’s no secret to the Security Branch that I’m camped out in Hak Nam. They know that the New Year’s eviction is going to put me in a tight spot. And they know I have connections in the Walled City. They approached me a few weeks ago and offered me a deaclass="underline" a complete pardon in exchange for a single piece of evidence.”
“What’s that?”
“Longwai keeps his records the old-fashioned way. Names. Bank account numbers. Deals. He writes all of it down in a book. His ledger. It will be the Branch’s biggest piece of evidence against the Brotherhood. Something they can use to put the gang under for good. Longwai and his men have been arrested a few times, whenever they travel outside Hak Nam, but the Branch has never been able to hold them. Their eyewitnesses always bail; they’re too scared to testify. Afraid of what Longwai will do to them and their families if the courts can’t hold them.”
Afraid. They should be. All I can think of is the drug lord’s shiny hook scar, how the dragon on his sleeve shimmered when he laughed about a man being stabbed. “Why don’t they just send a policeman to get the book?”
“They can’t. Not yet. They have no legal jurisdiction in Hak Nam. If they sent an undercover cop to grab it, it would become illegally acquired evidence. Useless in court. And if they wait until they take the city back, they’re afraid Longwai will see them coming and destroy it.
“I’m the loophole. If I get the ledger for the Security Branch, it stands as legitimate evidence. The Brotherhood has no chance of getting out on bail. I have to steal the ledger and hand it over to the Branch by New Year’s.”
Steal the drug lord’s ledger? Just the suggestion shoots fear through my aching spine. No wonder they’re offering Dai complete freedom. The job’s impossible. “And if you don’t?”
“Longwai and his thugs walk. And I end up in jail.” He gnaws his lip. His foot bounces against the floor, the way it did in Longwai’s brothel. “Or worse.”
“So that’s why you’re sitting during my runs? You wanted a way into the brothel because that’s where he keeps the book…” I trail off.
He nods. “I’m sorry I wasn’t completely honest with you. I thought… I thought I could do it alone. They made me swear under oath not to tell anyone. If word gets out, if Longwai finds out about the raid, then it’s pretty much over.”
I should be angry. Furious. Dai put me in even worse danger than I realized. Failing a drug run is nothing compared with this. But the wrath, the fury I expect, doesn’t come. I know, if I were Dai, I’d do the same thing. I guess, in a way, I have. I made him sit so I could try to find my sister.
“How long until New Year’s?” It should be soon; the air’s been cool long enough. This time every year City Beyond dresses in red and sets the sky on fire. Paper dragons dance through the streets. Lucky children — the not-vagrants — run around in new shoes, waving bright red envelopes of cash. Throw firecrackers on the ground to scare away the Nian: thief of children.
“Nine days.” He spits the number out like a burning coal.
“Those were the lines in your apartment…” I realize.
“But you — you’re not in the Walled City now.”
“No, I’m not.”
Those three words tell me how much he’s risked, bringing me here. His freedom. His life for mine. It’s a strange, warm thought. My whole life I’ve always been the protector — the one rescuing people. I did it alone.
“I don’t think the Branch will arrest me now,” he explains, seeing the look on my face. “They want the ledger too badly.”
“But it was still a risk.”
Dai shrugs. The movement looks funny under his dress shirt. Stiff. Uncomfortable. “I–I couldn’t let you die…”
“Yes, you could have.” I glance back at the blood bag. It seems emptier, the top frothing with beet-red bubbles. Life pouring back into me. “Most people would’ve walked by the alley. But you didn’t. You saved me.”
The look on his face. It’s as if I just stabbed him or something.
“Thank you,” I add.
He holds my words for a minute. Tasting them. The longer they sit the less wounded his face looks.
“You’re welcome,” he says finally, before changing the subject. “Your turn. I gave you my answers. How about yours?”
Suddenly I’m exhausted, heavy in the bed. As if Dai’s whole story just landed on my chest. Pushing. Weighing.
“It’s not such a long story, really,” I begin. But then I start talking. I tell him everything. About the rice farm and how hard my father’s fists hit. About my sister and that night with the Reapers. I relive every moment through my words: leaping onto the bike and following their van. Cutting my hair, becoming a boy. Looking, looking, always looking for my sister. Fighting tooth and nail. By myself.
My story’s longer than I thought. Even Dai looks tired by the end.
“You think your sister’s in Longwai’s brothel?”
“I’ve looked everywhere else,” I tell him. “What do you think will happen to the girls there? After the New Year?”
“Depends. If I get the ledger and the Branch arrests the Brotherhood, then they should go free.”
“And if you don’t?”
“The Branch might get a hold of Longwai for a time, but he’ll find a way to wriggle free, like he has in the past. And without the ledger’s membership lists, the Branch won’t be able to net the entire Brotherhood. There will be men left to… redistribute the Brotherhood’s assets. Get the girls out and start the brothel somewhere else.” Dai’s face looks paler. As if the blood going into my veins is getting sucked from his own arm. “Your sister. What’s her name?”
“Mei Yee.” This is the first time in years I’ve said her name out loud. “Her name is Mei Yee.”
Dai’s hand moves over the bed, finds mine. Finger to finger. He’s careful not to touch the tape or the tube or the needle. There’s a strength to the way he cups my hand. His skin is startling and warm. Human.
“We don’t have to do this alone, Jin Ling. I’ll help you find your sister. If she’s there, we’ll get her out.”
This is what it must feel like to have a brother. I think of all the times I used to wish for one. When my back ached over rows and rows of uncut rice. When my father’s words all slurred into one and his knuckles split into me. When the Reapers came and there was no one strong enough to stop them.
I stopped wishing for that long ago. When the last of my mother’s pregnancies ended in blood and I realized if she brought a boy into the world, I’d have to protect him, too.
But now Dai is holding my hand and I don’t have to be the strong one. I don’t have to be alone anymore. I squeeze his fingers in mine. The needle bulges in my veins, tugs against the tape. Stinging hurt.
“And I’ll help you get the book,” I promise. “Before the New Year.”
Nine days fall over Dai’s face. His hand flinches back. “You need to rest. Dr. Kwan says you need to stay in bed for at least two weeks. And nothing strenuous for about a month after that.”
What he doesn’t say out loud — what’s written all across his expression — is that I’m going to be here for a while. I want to fight it, but right now even breathing hurts.