by Peter May
‘Of course, your honour. Then I would like to apply for bail for my client in order to give us time to prepare a case.’
The INS lawyer was on her feet immediately. ‘We object, Your Honour. Given the special circumstances surrounding all the accused in these cases, we think it would be unsafe for the court to grant bail in any of them.’
The judge said, ‘Thank you, Miss Carter.’ He looked at Stern. ‘Mr. Stern?’
‘Judge, taking account of these…special circumstances…’ he put particular emphasis on the words, and smiled across at the INS bench, ‘…I’m proposing that the court attach special conditions to the terms of the bail granted to Miss Xiao Ling.’ He pronounced her name, ‘Shaolin’. ‘We have in court today the brother of the accused.’
Margaret was aware of Li shifting uncomfortably, and she saw Hrycyk glaring back at them from the front of the court.
Stern went on, ‘Mr. Li Yan is a senior law enforcement officer with the Chinese police and a special criminal justice liaison here in the United States, based at the Chinese Embassy in Washington. If the court is prepared to release the accused into his protective custody, then he will guarantee her reappearance in this court on the date your honour fixes for the hearing.’
Miss Carter was on her feet again. ‘If it please your honour, we don’t believe that this meets the special needs of the case, and that Miss Xiao Ling, along with all the other accused here today, should be held in quarantined custody until such time as the court determines a proper resolution.’
‘Judge, I hadn’t finished,’ Stern said.
The judge nodded. ‘Go ahead, Mr. Stern.’
‘Your honour, we also have in court today two senior members of the federal task force assembled to deal with the special circumstances alluded to. That is Dr. Margaret Campbell, Chief Medical Examiner of Harris County, and Felipe Mendez, emeritus professor of genetics at Baylor College of Medicine. They are prepared to approve a diet for Miss Xiao Ling that will guarantee her status as a noninfectious person during the period of her bail.’
‘Objection, your honour. We don’t believe that anyone can make that guarantee.’
Judge McKinley sighed, as if he were starting to lose interest. ‘Mr. Stern? Do you have this list?’
Stern looked to the back of the court and received a nod from Mendez. ‘We do, Your Honour.’
‘Let me see it.’ The judge held out his hand.
Mendez rose and made his way to the bench. Xiao Ling watched the proceedings from her table, bewildered in spite of a running commentary provided by the court translator. Stern said, ‘Your honour, this is Professor Mendez.’ Mendez handed the list to the court officer who stood up and handed it up to the judge.
The judge considered it for a very long couple of minutes. Then he looked down at Mendez. ‘This looks like a menu from a Chinese take-away, Professor,’ he said, to a sprinkling of laughter from around the court. ‘Making me damned hungry, too.’ He looked at his watch. ‘And we’re still a couple of hours away from lunch.’ More laughter. Then his smile quickly faded and he asked sharply, ‘Professor, how can you guarantee this diet is safe?’
Mendez said, ‘Your Honour, the list of foods you have there has been prepared overnight by the Department of Health after extensive interviews with the prisoners appearing before you today. All these foods have been safely consumed without activating the flu virus. They form the basis of the diet to which all the prisoners will be subject, both for their own safety and for the safety of the officers in whose custody they will be placed.’
Hrycyk leaned forward to whisper urgently in Miss Carter’s ear. She stood up quickly. ‘Judge, is the professor really saying he can guarantee that this diet is safe?’
McKinley looked at Mendez. ‘Well, professor? Are you?’
Mendez smiled easily. ‘I’d stake my reputation on it, your honour.’
McKinley raised an eyebrow and looked at Miss Carter. ‘Miss Carter?’
She glanced at Hrycyk, who was tight-lipped with anger. But all he could do was give a frustrated little shrug. She turned back to Judge McKinley. ‘Ummm…’
The judge said, ‘Miss Carter, if all you’re prepared to do is issue Buddhist chants, then I’m afraid I’m going to have to grant Mr. Stern his request.’ He glanced at his diary. ‘I’ll set the hearing for one week from today. Meantime, Miss Xiao Ling is released into the custody of her brother.’
Miss Carter said quickly, ‘Your honour, if you would be prepared to grant a recess in this case, that would give me time to prepare a proper rebuttal.’
McKinley swung an irritated look in her direction. ‘Miss Carter, you can rebut all you like at the hearing next week. I’ve made my decision.’ He banged his wooden hammer on its gavel. ‘Next!’
II
Li and Xiao Ling embraced in the entrance lobby outside the Hazel B. Kerper Courtroom. Her face was wet with tears. She was confused and emotional, but aware that somehow the court had released her into the custody of her brother. The sergeant took her gently by the arm and told them that she’d have to go back to the Holliday Unit first to change and pick up her things. He figured she’d be ready in about an hour. Stern had made a hasty departure, saying he had a case in Houston that afternoon, and that he would be in touch about preparing a brief for the hearing next week.
Hrycyk banged out of the court in a foul mood. He hissed at Margaret, ‘You people are putting the whole goddamned country at risk!’
Margaret shook her head calmly. ‘This country’s in far greater danger from people like you, Agent Hrycyk. You’re a dinosaur, did you know that? A relic from another age.’
‘Yeah, sure,’ he said sourly and moved off to engage in a whispered conference with Miss Carter.
Margaret turned to find Mendez standing looking at a flag mounted inside a glass case on the wall. It had green, white and red vertical stripes with the date 1824 crudely scrawled on the central white band. The bottom left of the band was defaced by a single bullet hole. ‘You know what this is, my dear?’ he said. ‘It’s the flag that was flying over the Alamo when John Wayne and Richard Widmark got killed.’
Margaret laughed. ‘Don’t you mean Davy Crockett and Jim Bowie?’
Mendez smiled and tugged at his white goatee. ‘I can only ever see the actors,’ he said. ‘Hollywood spoils history for us, don’t you think?’ He turned twinkling eyes on her.
Her smile faded. She said, ‘Felipe, you took a real risk in there. Putting your reputation on the line like that.’
He laughed out loud. ‘My dear, my reputation is already in tatters. I have absolutely nothing to lose.’
Li approached them and held out his hand to Mendez. ‘I don’t know how to thank you, Professor.’
‘Just take good care of her,’ Mendez said. ‘And make sure she sticks to that diet.’
Margaret had a sudden thought. ‘Shouldn’t we send a copy of the diet up to Fort Detrick for Steve Cardiff?’
Mendez said, ‘I’m way ahead of you, my dear. It’s already done.’
‘Dr. Campbell…Mr. Li…’ They turned at the sound of Agent Fuller’s voice. He was accompanied by Hrycyk and by a well-groomed Chinese man whom Margaret had seen hanging around outside the college when they first arrived. ‘I’d like to introduce you to Mr. Yi Fenghi. Mr. Yi works for Councilman Soong, an elected member of Houston City Council and the recognised spokesperson for the city’s Chinese community.’
Yi bowed stiffly and shook hands with them each in turn. He was a small man, no more that five-six or seven at the most. He had a clean-shaven, round face and dark hair brushed straight back from his forehead and fixed there with gel. He wore an Armani suit, a white silk shirt and a plain blue tie. ‘Pleasure to meet you, Dr. Campbell. Gentlemen.’ His English was correct but stilted.
‘What do you say we go take a seat over there?’ Fuller said, indicating a group of comfortable chairs by the window forming a square around a central table. And they moved away from the figures milling outs
ide the courtroom and arranged themselves around the square. The window looked out on to a car park at the back, within the horseshoe shape of the college.
Fuller said, ‘Apparently yesterday’s raids have created a fair amount of panic in Chinatown.’
Yi cut in. ‘Councilman Soong is very anxious that the community work with the police and the INS to sort out any problems that may exist. He has already been approached by many community leaders concerned that there has been no communication with the authorities over this new clampdown. So he has called a meeting for this afternoon and hopes that representatives from your agencies will also attend. For information and advice.’
‘I think we should go,’ Fuller said. ‘We’re going to need the community on our side when this thing really breaks. What do you think, Li?’
Li looked at Yi speculatively. He said, ‘I think if the messenger dresses in Armani suits and silk shirts, then his boss must be worth a few kwai.’
Yi was unruffled. ‘Councilman Soong is chairman of the Houston-Hong Kong Bank,’ he said. ‘He is a ve-ery rich man. He has heard a great deal about you, Detective Li. He would very much like to meet you.’
‘Would he?’
‘He is from Canton. He began life in America as an illegal immigrant himself. He was granted amnesty by President Bush after Tiananmen. So now he is a real American.’
‘The living embodiment of the American Dream,’ Li said, his voice heavy with sarcasm. Margaret glanced at him, curious about his attitude. Then he said, ‘Okay, let’s meet with Councilman Soong.’
Yi stood up, smiling. ‘At two o’clock this afternoon, then. At Minute Maid Park.’
‘A fucking baseball stadium?’ This from Hrycyk. He could not hide his incredulity.
Yi said, ‘Councilman Soong has a private suite at the stadium which he uses for confidential meetings.’ Yi grinned. ‘And Councilman Soong says, no soft soap, please. He likes to play hardball.’ He nodded and headed toward the door.
Margaret said to Li, ‘You didn’t like him much, did you?’
Li said, ‘He’s a type. You come across them all the time in my job. Low life off the street. A hundred-dollar haircut and an Armani suit doesn’t hide that.’
Hrycyk said, to no one in particular, ‘I don’t know how he can tell. They all look the same to me.’
Mendez ignored Hrycyk and said mischievously, ‘Ah, but don’t they say that it’s clothes that maketh the man?’
Li said, ‘They also say that a leopard never changes its spots.’
Margaret laughed. ‘Never exchange proverbs with a Chinese, Felipe,’ she said. ‘You’ll never win. They’ve got more of them than the rest of the world put together.’
III
There were storm clouds gathering in the sky. Great dark, rolling accumulations of rain filled with electricity and the promise of thunder. A hot wind had sprung up from the southwest and blew the dust of nearly six rainless weeks along the edges of the highway. Convicts in scuffed white prison outfits, trustees, raked the trash at the roadside, sweating freely in the hot humid midday.
The Holliday Unit was all the more oppressive, somehow, under the black sky. Margaret sat in the car park in Mendez’s Bronco, the engine running to power the air-con. He had told her to leave it for him at her office car park. Baylor was only five minutes away in the Texas Medical Center, and he would get the shuttle bus down to pick it up when he was finished there. He went off with Li, Hrycyk and Fuller to get a ride into Houston. Now Margaret sat waiting at the prison gate for Xiao Ling. She was going to take her to the Forensic Center on Old Spanish Trail, and Li would pick her up after the meeting at Minute Maid Park to take her to Washington.
Margaret was full of trepidation. Xiao Ling’s English was limited, and she was expecting to be picked up by Li. Margaret tapped the wheel impatiently, aware of the guard watching her from the tower. She had called up to him twenty minutes ago that she was there to collect Xiao Ling. But there was still no sign of activity. Then she saw the main door of H block opening, and Deputy Warden Macleod emerged with Li’s sister, dressed as she had been yesterday in her short blue dress and white high heels. It was a bizarre contrast to the prison uniform she had worn in court, a transformation from cowed illegal immigrant back to cheap prostitute. If clothes did not make the man, she thought, then they certainly made, or unmade, the woman.
She got out of the car and walked to the outer gate to meet them. As she did, the first heavy drops of rain started to fall from the sky. Margaret felt them big and cold on her bare arms and neck.
Deputy Warden Macleod said, ‘She’s all yours, doctor.’
Xiao Ling stood looking at her, and then glanced bewildered beyond her to the car park. ‘Li Yan?’ she asked.
Margaret shook her head. She pointed at Xiao Ling, then at herself. ‘You come with me.’
Xiao Ling appeared confused. Frightened even. She shook her head. ‘No.’
The deputy warden smiled. ‘Well, I’ll leave you good folks to it,’ she said, and she locked the gate behind her, and started back along the corridor, leaving Margaret feeling very alone out there in the rain with this stranger who was her lover’s sister.
She pointed to her wrist watch and made a circling motion with her finger, hoping to indicate passing time. ‘Li Yan. Houston. Later,’ she said.
Xiao Ling looked at her blankly. Margaret was starting to lose patience, getting wet standing there as the rain got heavier. She took the girl by the wrist and started leading her toward the Bronco. But Xiao Ling resisted. ‘No,’ she said again, pulling her wrist away.
Margaret snapped, ‘Well, have it your own fucking way. You can stay here in the rain if you want, but I’m going to Houston.’ And she ran, sheltering her head with her purse, toward the Bronco. Something in her tone must have communicated more than her words — or maybe it was the rain — for when she reached the driver’s door she turned to see Xiao Ling hurrying meekly after her. And then she regretted her anger and impatience, trying to remember just how frightened and disoriented the girl must be. But always getting in Margaret’s way was an image of Xinxin, the daughter from whom Xiao Ling had simply walked away. Her own child, a child that Margaret had grown to love. Whatever else Xiao Ling might have done in her life, whatever pain and indignity she might have suffered, Margaret found it almost impossible to forgive her that.
* * *
Billboards on stalks grew like weeds along either side of the freeway, increasing in density the closer they got to Houston. Fast food joints jostled for space, shoulder to shoulder, like so many immigrants — Chinese, Mexican, Italian — fighting for custom against such well-established American citizens as McDonald’s and Cracker Barrel. A battle between burgers and Beijing duck, French fries and fajitas. Margaret and Xiao Ling drove in a silence broken only by the windshield wipers, a distinct tension between them. Traffic flow on the interstate artery carrying them into the heart of the city was slowing down in the rain, like blood thick with cholesterol. Margaret was distracted by a car tailgating her, about two feet back from her rear fender. If she had to brake suddenly she knew its driver would have no time to slow down, especially in the wet. It would certainly plough into the back of her. She saw a gap on the inside lane, flicked on her turn signal, and swung into it, leaving space for the car behind to pass. But when she checked her mirror, she saw that it had followed her and was still occupying the same space on her tail.
‘For Christ’s sake!’ she muttered, drawing a look from Xiao Ling who immediately saw her preoccupation with the rear-view mirror and turned to look at the car behind. But she had no clear view of its driver through the rain-spattered rear windshield. Margaret indicated again and pulled out to the middle lane. The car behind followed. Margaret did not even have time to form an oath before Xiao Ling screamed, a shrill exhalation of fear that was almost deafening in the confined space.
Margaret looked at her. She was sitting rigid, staring straight ahead at nothing, all colour drained from her face.
Beyond her, something caught Margaret c’s eye and she jumped focus to see a green Lincoln travelling level with them in the inside lane, its driver grinning at them through his window, a mouthful of bad teeth in an unpleasant Chinese face.
‘Ma zhai,’ Xiao Ling whispered. She was clutching her seat, rigid with terror, afraid to look out of the side window.
‘What the hell’s ma zhai?’ Margaret said, and she had to make a fast steering correction to avoid crossing lanes. For a split second she almost lost control of the Bronco. ‘Jesus!’ Heart pounding, she glanced in the mirror and saw that the car behind had gone. And then almost immediately she was aware of it sitting level with them, at her side. A white Chevy. She flicked the passenger a quick glance. Another Chinese. But this one wasn’t smiling. He drew a finger from left to right across his throat. Now Margaret shared Xiao Ling’s fear. She clutched the wheel tightly. This was ridiculous. They were in the middle of a freeway driving at fifty miles an hour into the fourth largest city in America. What could these people possibly do to them? What did they want to do to them? And why? Xiao Ling seemed to know who they were, but Margaret wasn’t going to get any sense out of her. As long as they didn’t stop, she figured, they would be safe.
They covered the next mile flanked by the two cars, Xiao Ling whimpering in the passenger seat, frightened to look left or right. Finally, Margaret could stand it no longer. ‘What the hell do these people want?’ she shouted at no one in particular, and jammed on her brakes. She heard a squeal of tyres behind her, followed by the piercing blast of a horn. The Chevy and the Lincoln shot several car lengths ahead of them, and Margaret swung the Bronco violently across two lanes. More horns sounded as she squeezed into the exit lane, just in time to get on to the slip road that took them down on to the four-lane highway that ran parallel to the freeway.
Breathing hard, Margaret took them into the inside lane and slowed down to a sedate forty miles an hour. She checked both mirrors, and glanced over to the traffic speeding past on the 45. There was no sign, through the spray, of either of the cars whose presence had been so intimidating on the interstate. Margaret glanced over at Xiao Ling and saw that she had relaxed a little, and she let a tiny jet of air escape through her pursed lips in relief.