Wen had enough experience with teenage sons to know that young men often didn’t know their own feelings, even when they insisted they did. She could feel the gun shaking a little behind her head. “Then what are we waiting for?”
Two figures appeared on the pathway, walking quickly toward them. As they neared, Wen saw that it was Second Dog and the other barukan who’d left the car earlier. They were each carrying two metal cases, their arms tensed with Strength. They strode past Wen and Junior with barely a glance. Wen didn’t dare to turn, but she heard the trunk of the car opening behind her and the heavy thud of the suitcases being placed inside. “You’re the lucky one tonight, you cunt,” Junior said. The gun came away from her head. Wen’s heart began to beat again. “Keep walking.”
Wen took a step forward and then another. She kept walking, faster and faster when she realized that the barukan were not following. She was stumbling now, using the damp metal railing to pull herself along. At first, there was nothing ahead but fog, then shapes resolved out of the gloom. Two men. Another few steps, and she recognized her nephew, Cam, standing with Hami Tumashon.
With a choked cry, Wen ran toward them. Cam ran to her and caught her up, hugging her tight. “Aunt Wen, thank the gods,” he said, his voice catching. Hami threw his jacket over her bare shoulders, and the two of them led her, shaking with relief, to the other side of the bridge, where a car waited. Vin, one the clan’s First Fists, was behind the wheel, and as soon as they were all inside, he began to drive. Cam sat in the back with Wen, putting a hot thermos in her hands and warm blankets on her until her violent trembling abated. “We’ll be at the airstrip in twenty minutes,” Hami assured her.
Wen felt her wits slowly coming back together. “What about Shae?”
She saw the line of Hami’s jaw tighten. “They still have her,” he said. “They demanded money and jade for your release. They say they’ll release the Weather Man once we dismantle No Peak’s office and evacuate Shotar completely.”
“How much longer will that be?”
“A week,” Hami said, glancing over his shoulder at her. “It’ll hurt our business badly, to tear up everything we’ve done here in the past year, but it’s what we have to do for now to meet their demands. We’ve already begun making the arrangements to pull people out. After we get Kaul Shae-jen back, we’ll think of whether there’s some way to salvage the situation and strike back at those barukan dogs.”
A week. The words that Wen had overheard in the hallway earlier in the night came back to her. She hadn’t known what they were talking about. After tonight, we’ll have time. Wen lurched forward and grabbed Hami’s shoulder. “We can’t get onto the plane yet,” she cried. “We have to stop and phone Hilo.”
“Don’t worry, I had Fists watching the bridge,” Vin told her. “They’re phoning the Pillar now to let him know the handoff went smoothly and that you’re safe.”
Cam said, “Hopefully that means we’ll get the others back safely too.”
Wen shook her head vigorously. She’d gotten off too easily. Those men—Big Dog, Second Dog, even Junior—she’d seen their reckless hatred. They would’ve been pleased to send Hilo her violated corpse. Only some truly compelling reason would’ve motivated them to release her unharmed. They didn’t fear No Peak’s vengeance, so that wasn’t the reason. She hadn’t heard them crowing with anticipation over the money or jade.
No, delivering a hostage right away in exchange for ransom was a sign of cooperation. A misdirection, meant to lull the Pillar into withdrawing his people in the belief that the kidnappers were sincere in their demands. “I have to talk to Hilo myself,” Wen insisted, growing frantic. “We can’t believe them. We shouldn’t pull anyone out. We need everyone we have in this country searching for Shae, because they’re not going to give her back.”
_______
Shae had reviewed the possibility of escape and determined it to be minimal. Without any of her jade, she had no hope of overpowering her barukan captors, even if she wasn’t tied to a chair, gagged, and suffering from jade withdrawal. She’d been through jade withdrawal twice before in her life, and it had been unpleasant, but she’d been cared for or able to care for herself, not bound and starved by enemies. A relentless headache sat at the front of her skull, hammering into the backs of her eyeballs, and her face and neck were filmed with a layer of sweat that made her shiver with chills. For some reason, she found herself thinking of Yun Dorupon, a man she’d despised and who was long dead, but with whom she felt a sudden miserable kinship, because as Weather Man, he had once been captured by Shotarians, jade-stripped, and tortured.