Dragon Bones (Red Princess 3)

“So you finally admit that the group is dangerous!”

“Those people were dangerous because you provoked them!”

“What about the threat against Stuart?”

“What threat?”

“It was implied! First Brian, then Lily. Stuart’s next!”

“Stop!” When she didn’t, he grabbed her. “Stop! What are you talking about? What are you doing? Where are you going?”

She fought against his grip. “I’m going to the Public Security Bureau to get Captain Hom. He’s got to come back here and arrest these people.”

“By the time you get to Hom’s office, everyone in that cave will be gone.”

The truth of that sank in, and she stopped struggling. They were standing on a deserted road in a storm in the dark at the end of what had already been an emotionally grueling day. They still had a twenty-minute walk back into town. Maybe he could calm her down and get her to think clearly.

“You once trained as a lawyer. Try to look at this logically.” He attempted a smile. “Come on, let’s walk.” He took a couple of steps, and when she started walking beside him, he said, “We’ll take it one accusation at a time. First, the All-Patriotic Society—”

“It’s why I’m here. I know it! Zai didn’t send me here to protect me from the media or from internal MPS scrutiny. He sent me here to find Xiao Da.”

“Honey, if he’d known Xiao Da was here,” he reasoned evenly, “why didn’t he just have the man arrested?”

“What if he sent me here because he knew that foreigners were joining the group? It would be a huge embarrassment if the All-Patriotic Society spread abroad as the Falun Gong has.”

“That’s a valid point, but you have no evidence whatsoever that any of the foreigners here are members.”

“Stuart Miller—”

“Is clearly not a member.”

“He’s the next target—”

“I don’t think so. I think this Tang Wenting may want the followers to believe something about Miller. But I’m suspicious of that too. Was he talking about Stuart Miller for their benefit or ours? He let the meeting go on for a long time before he acknowledged us, even though he had to know we were there. He used that time to try to convince us—”

“That Miller’s the one stealing China’s heritage,” Hulan finished. “Still, one of the foreigners from Site 518 could be a member of the group.”

“I doubt it. They’re all academics. They’re too cerebral for that mumbo jumbo.”

“Since when? Americans are always getting caught up in that stuff. Madonna with Cabala. That kid who joined the Taliban. Every housewife who ever took a yoga class….”

“That’s simplistic and condescending. And besides, not everyone at the site is American.”

Hulan shrugged, and rain poured off her clothes.

David could be obdurate too, if that was what she wanted. “All right then, could the All-Patriotic Society be involved in either the thefts or the murders? Most crimes are motivated by greed, but those people back there say they don’t care for material things, and I never heard them advocate stealing. And I certainly didn’t hear anything to suggest that they were interested in killing people. Just the opposite. They talked about the sanctity of life.”

“The hidden voice talked about the sanctity of life—”

“Brian’s and Lily’s murders were ritualistic in nature,” David continued right over her. “They were branded. Didn’t you hear what they said? They don’t practice rituals.”

“Everything they did was a ritual—”

“That takes advantage of the gullible. Their only rituals had to do with ‘honoring the spirit within,’ or something along those lines. Besides, you just saw those people. Do they really seem like they’d get together to torture and brand someone? A good part of the residents of Bashan Village would have to be aiders and abettors.”

“This country is made up of aiders and abettors. The Cultural Revolution….” Hulan’s voice trailed off. When she next spoke it was with renewed indignation. “Time and

again human history has shown that fervent nationalism can lead to domestic instability, international conflicts, even war.”