Dragon Bones (Red Princess 3)

“He is political, yes,” Li said as he poured another round of drinks.

“Is he a Party member?”

The men jutted their chins. Who could know? Maybe.

“But he was educated abroad,” David went on.

“He shows one face to the outside world,” Li answered, “but his inner face is very outdated.”

David tried to read between the lines. Did Li mean that Ma was old-line politically, or did it have to do with social class?

“His manners are not classic Chinese—”

“Attorney Stark, Ma has his place. We have ours. Or didn’t you hear what he calls us?”

“Vultures—”

“A rude accusation in any language,” the man from Chongqing observed.

“And he makes others,” Li went on. “As you know, bribery and corruption are serious offenses in my country.”

“But you’ve given gifts,” David prodded carefully.

“I can tell from your Mandarin that you’ve been in our country for some time,” Li noted. “You are familiar with our customs, no? Is it not correct to bring a gift to your host?”

Absolutely. Cigarettes, Danish sugar cookies, VSOP cognac were all acceptable, even expected.

“Is Ma removing artifacts from here?”

But the men weren’t ready to go that far.

“Let me answer this way, Attorney Stark,” Li began. “We five are here every day. We sleep here. We have our meals here. Our work units pay us to sit and watch and wait. As you can see, this is exactly what we do.”

Indeed, this table at the mou

th of the cave offered a good view of the goings-on below.

“We are not archaeologists,” Li continued. “We are simple workers who were lucky to find good work units. Yes, we compete for which museum will get an object, but I think we’ve been fair with one another.” The others unanimously agreed. “We represent museums with different interests, so we cooperate.” He waved his hand knowingly. “This is not how it’s usually done, but if I let Hu have something today, he’ll let the Three Gorges Museum have something tomorrow.”

“Then Ma is—”

“A liar,” Li finished, then took another sip from his glass. The others could have countered this assessment, but they all nodded pensively.

“Who’s stealing the artifacts?”

“You ask the wrong question, Attorney Stark.”

“What’s the right one?”

“Focus on the ruyi. Who has it?”

“Stuart Miller?”

“If he had the ruyi, he wouldn’t be coming here.”

“Ma said the same thing.”

Li spat on the ground. “Even if Dr. Ma and I agree on this, you still need to think more broadly.”