Early morning, and there was a fishy smell drifting past his nose.
It shouldn’t have been fish being cooked — because it was too briny, too raw, with an ocean quality to it, and there were soft murmuring voices underneath.
Wei Lai opened his eyes. The sky hadn’t fully brightened yet; a grey-white light lay tucked against the edges of the earth like a folded cloth. In another hour or two, the sun would arrive, and the dry, stifling heat would return immediately.
He turned his head. Cen Jin was still asleep.
Wei Lai got up and followed the sound, puzzled, to the edge of the roof. Down in the courtyard, a pickup truck had parked — its bed lined with thick plastic sheeting, heaped with piles of fish and weighted down by several large blocks of ice.
The driver was sitting cross-legged on the hood, holding an iron plate, pinching flatbread and dipping it into some yellow bean paste to eat. Ke Ke Shu was standing beside him, talking about something, a — on his shoulder — a —
Swimming ring?
But why did it have row upon row of small white teeth all over it?
Wei Lai crouched down at the roof’s edge and let out a sharp whistle toward the courtyard below.
Ke Ke Shu looked up, and his eyes lit up when he saw him. He raised the thing high above his head with both hands: “Wei! Look! Look!”
What is it? Look at what?
Curiosity took hold of him. He pressed his hands against the roof, sprang up onto the railing in one smooth move, and then dropped down, using the railing for leverage to jump the rest of the way.
The truck driver’s mouth fell open. After a long moment: “Wow…”
Then he gave him a thumbs-up.
Wei Lai grinned and took a close look at the thing Ke Ke Shu was carrying. He reached out and touched it — and recoiled visibly.
What the — an actual jawbone with teeth. Hard bony ridges, sharp teeth in a molar pattern: pointed at the front, flat at the back. He ran a fingertip across the tips of the teeth and his skin came away bristling.
Ke Ke Shu was practically glowing with excitement: “I’ve been asking people to help me track this down… waited a long time. There was a shipment of seafood coming from Port Sudan, and someone brought it along. A shark jaw — the real thing!”
Fishermen at Port Sudan sometimes caught sharks and would cut out the jawbone along with the teeth intact, dry it, and take it home as a decorative piece.
Wei Lai took it and stuck his head inside to size it up. This shark must have been on the smaller side — the large ones had jaws big enough for a person to lie inside — but even this smaller one was more than sufficient to bisect him cleanly.
“What do you want this for?”
“I’m going to mount it on the front of my car — a shark jaw! Way cooler than one of those Mitsubishi shark-nose fronts.”
“Mount it on your car… the tuk-tuk?”
Ke Ke Shu was indignant: “The car I own at home! My four-wheel drive! You know about that!”
Wei Lai knew — but still —
You obviously know to buy a decent car for yourself. Then why did you pick us up in a three-wheeler?
The truck driver finished eating and unloaded a bit more seafood for the guesthouse, then drove off. Ke Ke Shu refused to let go of the shark jaw — well, the shark only had the jaw left; if he went and tried to hug a live one, we’d see how that went.
Wei Lai checked that no one else was around, then crouched down, dropping his voice along with it: “Any news from Milu?”
Time to get down to business.
Ke Ke Shu set the shark jaw leaning against the wall, and came over to face him, crouching too.
This was the safer way to talk: both parties crouching low, easier to conceal. Between the two of them, they could sweep a full three hundred and sixty degrees with their eyes, alert each other if anything stirred, and the sound of conversation naturally dropped downward and inward — far less likely to carry to unwanted ears.
“The negotiations being on open water is confirmed. You’ll need to head east, through the desert, to the coast. But the pirates won’t go anywhere near a busy port. From what I understand, they’ll specify a remote fishing village — from there, a speedboat picks you up, and once you’re on open water, you board the negotiation ship.”
“How do I get there?”
“If you don’t want to draw attention, take a long-distance bus — or drive a van or a pickup. Those kinds of vehicles are common on the desert routes.”
Wei Lai exhaled in relief.
Thank goodness he hadn’t said: “Wei! Just drive that tuk-tuk out there.”
“I can sort out the vehicle for you. Give me a list — whatever you might need: guns, binoculars, pharmaceuticals, first aid kit… I’ll have it ready for you by end of day. Though this trip of yours has seemed remarkably smooth — thousands of miles, and you’ve made it here without incident.”
Compared to some of the harrowing protection jobs he’d done before, this one had been eerily uneventful.
Money earned too easily could make your scalp prickle.
Wei Lai said: “Two possibilities.”
“First — the people threatening her really were just threatening her. She only needed to leave He’er Xinji and she’d be safe.”
He had thought it through: even if a truly formidable force wanted to make a move on her, they’d do it at most in He’er Xinji — they wouldn’t chase her across ten thousand miles. After all, writing an editorial, stepping on someone’s toes — that was a grievance, not a blood feud.
“Second — they’re serious. We changed our route and shook them off temporarily, which is why we’ve been safe so far. But the closer we get to the negotiation site, the more dangerous it will become — because the other side knows perfectly well that she’s going to meet the pirates, and they’ll be waiting for us at the destination.”
But if that were the case, another question arose: who would have sources on both the Saudi side and the pirate side simultaneously? What kind of person could pull that off?
That was not something your average nobody could manage.
Ke Ke Shu suddenly raised his chin and tilted his head to indicate something behind him.
Wei Lai turned to look. It was Cen Jin, one arm folded across her chest, holding the edge of her wrap closed, standing at the roof’s edge.
Wei Lai laughed.
He stood and walked toward the building, tilting his face up from below — the sun had risen a little now, and it was slightly blinding.
“Miss Cen — are you trying to come down?”
Cen Jin nodded.