Flags of Sin (7 page)

He
turned off the screen and slapped his hands together.

“That’s
it. I’ll see you all in a couple of weeks.”

The
class jumped from their chairs as if their seats were suddenly hot, and filed
out.

And
Acton sat on the edge of his desk wondering about his upcoming trip.

And
whether or not China was about to get ‘Actoned’.

Yu’s Brother’s Residence, Beijing, China

January 13, 1875

Li Mei stirred, the world slowly coming back into focus. She found herself
lying on a bed, a blanket covering her, Yu sitting nearby.

“Good,
you’re awake.”

Mei sat
up and pushed herself toward the wall the bed sat against, and leaned on the cool
plaster. She looked about. It was a simple home. A humble home. A poor home. It
was nothing like what she had become accustomed to.

But it
reminded her painfully of where she had grown up.

Her
parents had been poor, extremely poor. But they had given birth to a daughter,
which in itself was a great disappointment to her father she was sure, as she
could only help so much on the farm, but thankfully she had had many brothers
to take care of that. As she grew up, it quickly became clear she would be
remarkably beautiful. Her teeth were perfect, her eyes clear, her hair healthy
and straight, and with brothers to do the hard work, her skin remained unblemished
with scars.

And she
had a mother who wasn’t at all disappointed with having finally had a daughter.
Someone she could dote on and have help her with the household chores.

It was
while performing one of those chores, fetching something in the local market,
what, she could no longer remember, when she was spotted by one of the
Emperor’s consorts. It took less than an hour, and she had been selected as a palace
servant. Her parents were paid, her father overjoyed to receive the money, her
mother, ever the dutiful wife, not objecting, but as Mei, barely ten at the
time, looked out the rear of the carriage, she saw her mother crying, and her
father with a long, sad face.

And she
had never seen them again.

Perhaps
that is where I need to go.

She
looked at Yu.

“What
news?”

Yu
smiled. “Jun has gone to see if he can find Su Ming, and any others. So far
nothing.”

“How
long has he been gone?”

“He left
immediately after you passed out, and the sun has now set.”

Mei’s
eyebrows shot up.

“That
long?”

Yu
nodded.

“And the
Little Emperor?”

“He is
fine. My brother’s mother-in-law is taking care of him in the next room.”

Mei
sighed and closed her eyes, still exhausted. A commotion at the door sent her
heart into her throat and Yu jumping for the entranceway. Mei grabbed the
blanket, sinking slowly under it as her heart slammed into her ribcage. She
felt herself blacking out again as her eyes slowly rolled up into her head.

The
little one!

The
thought of her precious charge in danger forced her back to reality. She threw
off the covers and jumped out of the bed, steadying herself with a hand on the
closest wall, then quietly approached the door, peering through the crack Yu
had left. She heard harsh whispers, and she could see Yu’s back, but none of
the others. Yu glanced over her shoulder, causing Mei to duck away from the
door.

Mei held
her ear to the crack.

“—suspects
nothing—gave the neighborhood—location—any minute—”

Her eyes
burned with tears, her heart broke, and a pit formed in her stomach as she
finally found the answer to the question that had been gnawing at her all day.

Yu was
the traitor. Yu, her friend, her confidante for most of her life at the palace,
was their betrayer. The revelation left her numb, and the question that gnawed
at her even more so.

Did she
act alone?

What
about Jun?
The two of them had gone in the opposite
direction, chased by the Empress’ guards, yet had managed to escape. And
appeared to be the only ones who had managed such a feat. And she found it hard
to believe that they would let both Yu
and
Jun go, if Jun were not in on
it from the beginning.

Regardless,
if he wasn’t in on it from the beginning, he must be now.

She
peeked through the crack and saw Yu move toward the entrance, and out of sight.

This was
her chance.

She
opened the door, thankful its old hinges didn’t creak, and tiptoed deeper into
the house, peering into the next room where she had been told the little one
was being cared for.

She
sighed.

Inside.

There
was the baby, lying on a bed, completely unattended. She stepped into the room,
tightened his swaddling blanket in the hopes it would keep him quiet, then
lifted him gently. Returning to the door, she stuck her head out, and, seeing
she was still alone, crept deeper into the house in search of another exit.

The
house was small, poor, cramped, and at the moment, appeared empty, save those
gathered at the entrance. She stepped into another room that appeared to be the
kitchen, and nearly gasped. Staring at her from the far corner was an impossibly
old man, sitting on a stool, pipe in hand, a cloud of smoke enveloping his
head, circling into a fog of sweet tobacco that seemed to fill the upper half
of the room.

She
looked at him, her eyes, filled with fear, beseeching him for a way out, and to
not betray her to the others. She dared not speak, lest she be heard, or worse,
disturb the baby and guarantee she would be heard.

The old
man stared at her, then pulled the long pipe from his mouth, twisting it around
and jabbing at the far wall. Mei looked and saw a door. She smiled at him and
bowed. He nodded, returning the pipe to his mouth, never saying a word.

Mei
opened the door and stepped into an alley, gently closing the door behind her.
She looked both ways, trying to decide which way to go, when she heard a yell
from inside.

“She’s
gone!”

Mei
bolted in the direction she happened to be facing, her sandaled feet making
little noise as she rushed forward, toward what, she did not know, she only
knew she needed to get out of sight, to turn some corner that would lead her
somewhere else, rather than to a dead end.

She
heard a shout behind her, a voice she recognized as Yu’s, but still muffled. It
didn’t sound as if she was outside yet.

Mei didn’t
look back.

An alley
opened to her right, and she ducked into it. Staring down the dark passage and seeing
the street torches at the end, she nodded to herself, and continued to run, a
little slower this time, this particular alley not benefiting from the light
the moon was providing.

Someone
coughed to her left and she yelped.

The baby
woke.

Mei
stuck her finger in the baby’s mouth, and felt him immediately begin to suck on
it. She came to a stop at the mouth of the alley, looking onto the nearly
deserted street. She knew she had to get out of the area, out of the city in
fact. She had no one here she could trust. Her life had been at the palace; she
knew no one beyond its gates.

Except
her parents.

She
barely remembered the name of the village where they lived, and certainly had
no idea how to get there. But even if she knew, she had no money to travel
with, and nothing to sell or trade in exchange.

Shouts
behind her sent her into the street, turning to her left and continuing her
zigzag pattern away from her betrayers, and deeper into the unknown labyrinth
that was Beijing.

“Mei!”

She
froze.

Her
blood rushed, her ears pounded, and she turned toward the voice she recognized
only too well.

It was
Jun.

Hidden
in an alleyway to her left, he was waving to her.

“Come
here,” he whispered.

She
shook her head, but her feet wouldn’t move. Either to obey his call, or to flee
it.

He waved
at her again, and when she didn’t move, he darted from the alley and was
immediately at her side, taking her arm, and directing her into the darkness
from where he had just came.

“We’ve
been betrayed,” he whispered.

What?

She
didn’t reply, confused.

“Thank
God you escaped. When did you realize it?”

Mei
shook her head, backing away. “No, you were with her. You’re working for her.”

Jun held
up his hands, shaking his head. “No, Mei, I didn’t realize Yu had betrayed us
all until I returned a few minutes ago and saw her cousin talking to the local
magistrate. I went to the back of the house, to see if I could get you and the
baby out, but saw you already leaving. I’m just grateful I was able to find
you.”

Mei held
the baby protectively, tight against her chest, unsure of whether or not to
believe him. She looked into his eyes. They flickered from the flame of a torch
nearby, but to her, they appeared earnest. Honest. Concerned.

She
nodded.

“What do
we do now?” she asked.

“We need
to get out of the city. Clearly we can’t trust anyone here.”

“Where?”

He shook
his head. “I don’t know. Let’s just get out of here as quickly as possible.”

“We
could go to my parents’ farm.”

“Where
is it?”

“Shaoshan,
in Hunan Province.”

Jun frowned.
“That will take weeks—months—if we can’t find transportation.” A yell erupted
from the alley she had just come. Jun’s expression revealed what she already
knew.

It was Yu.

“We must
get out of here. Now.”

Mei
nodded, and they began to hurry down the street, and away from their betrayers.

And
despite the horror of that day, Mei found herself thinking of her mother and
father.

Then
something hit her causing her to stop in her tracks.

“What’s
wrong?”

She
looked at Jun.

“I don’t
even know if my parents are alive.”

National Stadium, Beijing, China

One week ago

Inspector Li Meng scratched behind his ear then massaged the back of
his neck. It had been a frustrating week, and he knew from the horror he was now
facing, it would be an even more frustrating week to come. They had two new
victims, killed in exactly the same way as the first two.

But that
was the problem.

Were
they the first two?

He had
used every contact his thirty years on the force had provided him, and no one
was willing to talk. But from the hasty hang-ups, and the abrupt denials, he
knew something was going on. If he was a betting man, which of course he was,
he would bet everything he had that there were other killings, and it was being
covered up.

Ping
slid another scorpion off her kabob with her teeth, the bamboo skewer she held
sporting another three. He heard the crunch as she chewed. His stomach rumbled.
She held the stick out.

“Want
some?”

“You
heard that?”

“The
dead heard that, sir.”

Li
frowned and patted his stomach. “I missed lunch.”

“I told
you to eat when you had the chance. Instead you decided to make phone calls.”
Ping pulled off another of the fried snacks.

“
Important
phone calls.”

“That
told us nothing,” she mumbled in mid-chew.

“Actually,
I think they told us a lot, without telling us anything.”

Ping
stopped chewing. “Huh?”

“As I
said to you earlier, it’s my opinion that there are other murders happening.”

“Well
that’s obvious. What I want to know is how long they think they can cover this
up? The thing about tourists is that somebody is always expecting them to come
back home. When they don’t show up…” She shrugged her shoulders and grabbed the
last of her snack off the skewer.

“People
start to ask questions,” finished Li. And that was what puzzled him. He could
understand why they would keep this from the press. The last thing the
government wanted was to have panic amongst the foreign tourists—they stood to
lose billions of yuans in revenue. But what did they hope to gain? Eventually
it would have to come out.

Ping
walked over to a nearby garbage can and tossed her skewer inside, then wiped
her mouth with the back of her hand. “Maybe they hope we’ll solve it before
they have to tell anyone?”

Li
nodded. “That’s my guess as well. But how do they expect us to solve it?”

“With
hard, honest police work, of course.”

Li
jumped as did Ping.

“Sir,
I’m getting old. If you keep sneaking up on me like that, Ping will be looking
for a new partner.”

Superintendent
Hong laughed.

“A good
shock to the heart is healthy for you. Think of it as a workout squeezed into a
tiny space of time. Your heart beat harder than a moment before, therefore I
have just made you exercise!” He laughed hard at his own joke.

Li and
Ping chuckled politely.

“So,
what have we got?”

“Same as
last week. Looks like the same or similar weapon. Two foreign tourists, husband
and wife. We’re looking for the casings now.”

“Any
other clues?”

“Nothing
yet. Just like last week, I don’t expect to find anything. They probably policed
their brass, and left no fingerprints or fiber evidence.”

“But we
do have the shooter on camera.”

Li
nodded. “Yes, we do, but we can’t see their face, and we lost them once they
got on a bus.”

Ping
pulled out her notebook. “All we know is that they are most likely male, one
hundred-forty-five centimeters tall, approximately fifty-five to sixty-five
kilograms.”