Flower Net (Red Princess 1)
“I’ve been there.”
Beth stared at him intently, then turned, walked a few steps away, and watched as an old man poled his boat along the canal. “I thought, a drink. Maybe, you know…”
“Beth, please…”
Beth straightened her shoulders, then turned back to face him. “If I’m going to help you, I need to know what I’m getting into.”
Quickly they told her as much about what they knew as he felt she could grasp. When they reached the end, Beth said, “But if half of what you say is true, they’ll be looking for you.”
“That’s what I’m counting on,” David said. “They’re thinking we’re going to try to hide, and we are. But we’re going to hide in plain sight.”
While he outlined his strategy, Beth regarded Hulan. The Chinese woman met this scrutiny evenly. At the end of his description, Beth thought for a moment, then said, “Okay, but let’s do it quick before I lose my nerve.”
Again Hulan shucked off her coat, looked at David one last time for reassurance, then the two women set off. David would wait here for fifteen minutes, then make his way down one of the alleys to where it met the main thoroughfare. If all went well, Hulan would arrive a few minutes later in Beth’s car, and they would drive straight to the airport. David scrunched down on his haunches as he had seen so many Chinese men do and looked out at the canal. The same old man David had seen on his morning runs was loading baskets onto his boat. Watching this man going about his everyday business calmed David.
The two women had a long walk back to the hotel. By the time they passed through the side entrance, Hulan was shivering from the cold and from the fear she felt when she saw the two plainclothes policemen who watched the comings and goings of guests. But they must have been instructed to look for a Caucasian man or they were duped by seeing Hulan with a Caucasian woman, for they paid no attention to the women but kept stamping their feet to keep warm and puffing on their cigarettes.
As soon as they got inside Beth’s room, the American sighed. “I think I held my breath the whole way,” she said, trying for a light conversational tone that came out more as a quaver. Beth giggled nervously, then opened the closet and pulled out an Armani pantsuit of fine gray wool and a silk blouse. Unself-consciously, Hulan stripped down to her underwear and slipped on Beth’s outfit. It was a little big in the hips, but otherwise it fit perfectly. To complete the ensemble, Beth added a velvet trimmed headband and a pair of Bally flats. In just five minutes, Hulan had changed from a Beijinger to a wealthy overseas Chinese.
Beth gathered together a few other clothes and stuffed them into a plastic shopping bag from the Kempinski Department Store across the way. She picked her red coat up off the bed and handed it to Hulan. “Here, take my coat, too.”
“You’ve done enough,” Hulan declined politely.
“If you don’t mind my saying so, this isn’t a time to show your Chinese manners. Just take it.”
A few minutes later, when they walked back out the side entrance, the two policemen again ignored them. Beth raised her hand and her driver pulled the Town Car up to the steps. As the two women slipped into the backseat, Beth gave instructions. A couple of minutes later the driver stopped at the designated meeting place. David was nowhere in sight.
Hulan knew the best thing to do was to circle around and hope that he showed up shortly. Instead, she envisioned the worst: David was injured or dead. This thought propelled her against all reason out of the car. “If I’m not back in five minutes,” she told Beth, “don’t wait! Go back to your hotel and forget this ever happened.” Beth, whose skin had taken on a pale green tint, nodded. Hulan turned away and hurried down the alley, which led to the canal. David hadn’t moved from his spot on the bank.
“David, are you all right?” she asked, her voice tremulous.
He turned to face her. He seemed unconcerned that he had missed their rendezvous. “What do you see, Hulan?”
“David, we have to get moving!”
r /> “Just tell me. What do you see?”
Hulan looked around. “A gray sky. Some houses. A couple of shops. A canal.” She tried to appease him with these simple answers, but the danger of their situation got the better of her. “Come on! This isn’t the time to take in the sights! We’ve got to go!”
He ignored her commands, saying, “The canal. Where does it go?”
“I don’t know. I suppose it connects with others, maybe it pours into the Grand Canal or the port at Tianjin.”
“And you still don’t see it?”
“No, David, I don’t,” she said in frustration.
“Every morning I’ve come out here to run. Every morning I’ve watched that man load baskets onto his boat. Do you see him over there?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t mention him.”
“David!”
He creaked to a standing position, shook out his legs, and crossed to her. He turned again to face the canal, put one arm over her shoulder, and with the other pointed. “A boat, a man, a basket, a canal. It’s how they moved Henglai to Tianjin without being seen. They hid him in plain sight.”
It was an important discovery, but Hulan was too scared to care. She grabbed David and their parcels and led the way to the car. The driver didn’t question anything but drove straight out the toll road to the airport. When David and Hulan got out, Beth said, “Good luck.” Then she closed the door and the Town Car pulled away.