The Interior (Red Princess 2)

“I am Hulan.”

“People call me Peanut,” the girl said. “They call me that because I am small like a peanut.” She was small, but Hulan thought it was the girl’s peanut shape combined with her goofy facial expression that had earned her the nickname. “You’d better hurry. Lights go off in twenty minutes. If you want to use the bathroom, you should go now. It’s down the hall on the left. You won’t miss it.”

Hulan followed the directions, passing room upon room of women and girls—some barely teenagers. By and large there was little conversation. Chinese people had always lived in crowded conditions. With so many generations living in a few rooms, Hulan’s compatriots had learned how to be alone in a crowded space. Most of the women were already in their beds, their backs turned to the doors, trying to sleep or already asleep. Others lay on their backs, staring at the ceiling or the bunk above them. A few sat on the concrete floor talking, while others changed from their pink uniforms into extra-large T-shirts for sleeping. She passed one room where a girl no more than twelve sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor crying. She was obviously too young to be away from home, and yet Hulan had also been on her own in this very county at that age.

Peanut had been right about finding the bathroom. The smell led Hulan straight to it and she was shocked by what she saw. This was an American company, so she’d expected to find American-style facilities. Instead this was almost as bad as a public latrine. There were stalls but no doors. There were toilets but no seats, and the floor was slippery and wet. The big vats of water that lined the opposite wall told Hulan that this place had no running water. Hulan dipped a pail into the water and went to a toilet. Looking around, Hulan asked a woman where the toilet paper was stored. “In the company store,” the woman responded gruffly, turning her head away. “You can buy it tomorrow before breakfast or during lunch.” Without looking Hulan’s way, she tore some paper off her roll and said, “Here, you can have this.”

When Hulan was done, she poured the water into the back of the tank, flushed, and took the empty pail back to the water vats. She then went to the sink—a long trough with several spigots but again no running water.

“We have water for one hour in the morning and from eight to nine in the evening,” the woman said.

“Is the water safe for drinking?”

“Even in my home village we boiled our drinking water, but the Americans won’t let us have braziers or any other cooking utensils.” Then she added dryly, “You can buy bottled water in the store tomorrow.”

When Hulan got back to her room, she slipped off her shoes, lay down on the bed, and waited. At five minutes to ten she got up again. Just as she was about to leave, Peanut whispered, “You have to stay here. Lights out in a few minutes. You can’t get caught outside the room.”

Hulan put a hand on her stomach. “I think the bus made me sick. I have to use the toilet again.”

“Just come back as soon as you can.”

Hulan threaded her way not toward the bathroom but toward the exit. A few feet before she reached it, the lights went out and the hall was pitched into utter blackness. Hulan groped her way forward, found the door handle, and pushed her way outside. The moon glowed through the thick, humid air. She edged around the side of the building, pulled out her phone, dialed the number for the Shanxi Grand Hotel, and asked for David’s room.

“Hello?” His greeting sounded worried.

“I’m okay,” she reassured him.

“Where are you? You said you’d be back here for dinner.”

“I couldn’t get away. This place…It’s worse than I thought.” She flexed her wounded hand and winced at the pain.

“I’ll have Investigator Lo come and get you.”

“No!” Hulan glanced around but still didn’t see anyone. She lowered her voice. “I can’t leave now. They have us locked in the compound.”

“I don’t like this. I know I sound like some dumb male, and I’ll admit it, maybe that’s part of it. But Jesus, I wish you weren’t in there.”

She cut him off. “Have you met the Knights yet? What are they like?”

He sighed. “They didn’t show. They had bad weather in Tokyo. A typhoon, I think. Anyway, we’ll have to try and cram everything in tomorrow.”

“Then how did you spend your day?”

“I came back to the hotel and went for a run down along that creek they call a river. The rest of the day I was either on the phone or on the Internet. What else? Governor Sun just sent over a carton of papers, along with his signed waiver.”

“So what are they?”

“I’m not sure,” he said. “Financials of some sort. I’ll look more closely before I meet with him.” He hesitated. “But you know we shouldn’t talk about them anyway. He’s a client.”

He was right, but Hulan wasn’t so sure she liked it. Still, he had his professional ethics and she had hers, which made answering his next question much easier.

“Hulan, how do you think it will look if you’re caught in there?”

“It’s going to be bad if I find something.”

“But you’re not going to find anything.”

“We’ve already covered this,” Hulan sighed. “This place isn’t what you think.”