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and intelligence. As well as being stupid, Yi was indiscreet, dropping the names of his uncle’s cronies whenever it looked as though Jiu might be about to assign some unwanted task to him. Worse, Jiu suspected him of drug or alcohol abuse, or maybe he just had an uncontrollable urge to play mahjong late into the night.
    For whatever reason, the young man seemed to have trouble keeping normal working hours. He strolled into the office whenever the mood moved him, to the annoyance of Jiu’s loyal staff, and to the amusement of his detractors.
    Jiu would have little trouble believing Yi had somehow caused this latest problem. Maybe he had lost control of his mouth yet again. They had known about the plan since noon the day before, plenty of time for Yi to find a willing ear to brag to.
    Senior Agent Jiu Kaiyu wanted answers. He knew if they returned to the office without Chan, he might as well start working on a new skill-set. Ever since that baboon Ho had planted his nephew in the division, Jiu had suffered the sharp barb of Ho’s growing disapproval. Allowing a Western journalist who happened to be a relative of Tan Lim to disappear into the Peoples’ Republic carrying with him secrets of an extremely damaging nature would surely incur the old man’s wrath. Jiu could not afford a screw-up of this magnitude.
    When it was clear Chan had escaped and was no longer in the airport, Jiu motioned for Ng-zhi and Yi to give up the search. He did not allow his disappointment to show on his face. He would not give Yi the satisfaction of reading his thoughts.
    Jiu had only one hope of keeping his job — to find the Chan boy and his unknown companion before it became necessary for his superior to allocate blame.

NINE
     
    As her evening flight from Shanghai approached Nanning, Fa-líng was surprised at the absence of light on the ground below. It appeared as though the region was in the midst of a major power shutdown. Then she remembered that much of China relied on coal as its main source of energy. Naturally, using such an irreplaceable fuel the Chinese would not squander electricity by stringing lights all over the countryside.
    The outskirts of Nanning lay in a state of darkness as the bus made its way from the airport toward the city proper. Fa-líng propped her journal on her knee and scribbled furiously, trying to capture the essence of this journey into the past. She knew once she got into the light she would have trouble reading her own handwriting.
    There were not many vehicles on the roads. Even bicycles were few and far between after sunset. As they neared the city core, Fa-líng noticed an increasing number of families out walking, enjoying the relative coolness of the night.
    Suddenly she felt uncomfortably warm. She was not accustomed to the tropical climate of Guangxi Zhuang, with its palm trees and close proximity to Vietnam. Nanning is at a latitudinal parallel with Cancun, Mexico, a fact that was underlined by the intensity of the heat. Fa-ling tried to open the bus window, but it was stuck.
    At the Golden Lion Hotel, the couples were instructed to settle themselves quickly in their rooms and then meet Cynthia, their guide, in the lobby. From there they would be whisked into one of the hotel’s boardrooms, where they would spend the next hour filling out adoption forms.
    This left Fa-líng free to do her own thing: wander around the hotel, grab a light dinner, or maybe go for a swim. She could hardly wait to say goodnight to her companions.
    Once in her room she immediately stripped and treated herself to a shower. The air was hot. In order to conserve energy, the hotels had devised a system of limited power consumption. The lights and air conditioning were activated by the guest’s passkey, which had to be inserted into a slot on the wall near the door when the guest was in the room.
    When the guest removed the magnetic passkey from the opening and left the room, all of the amenities would immediately shut