Page 56 of Shadowing You

“You’ll need to if I’m going to have an intelligent discussion⁠—”

“Tsui’s at a conference in Osaka.”

“Oh.” Ethan was getting it now. “I’ll say I have an appointment⁠—”

“And they’ll be flustered because Tsui isn’t there. Whoever’s at the desk will call somebody up the chain to deal with you.”

“Any idea who?”

“Mei Lin,” Michael asked, “any guesses?”

“If he’s still there, then Dr. Wang, or whoever the deputy director is.”

“It won’t matter who they call,” Ethan said. “None of them will be Tsui, and I’ll be very offended.”

“Of course you will. You came all the way from the United States. You had an appointment. You want an explanation. You’ll say all these things, loudly. You’ll have a translator—same guy who’s getting the uniform. He’ll slow everything down and make the whole thing more entertaining for the people watching. If Wang or whoever they send to mollify you tries to get you to go with him to an office, refuse. Stay in the lobby, where you can cause maximum distraction. The longer it takes, the better. The more eyes on you, the fewer on Mei Lin. Hopefully, that’ll include anybody watching the cameras.”

“Okay.” Ethan drew the word out, turning to Mei Lin. “How much time do you think you’ll need?”

“That depends. How do I get through the doors? There is badge access in every department.”

“I’m working on⁠—”

“Oh, I know. The break room.” She straightened, her eyes bright. “The staff break room is in the basement. People often leave their badges rather than take them home. I will steal one.”

“I love that.” Michael sounded like he meant it. “That’s perfect, and it doesn’t require us to try to clone one, which doesn’t always work. Great idea.”

She was going to break into one room, steal a badge, then break into another room? This was getting ridiculous.

The fear and frustration that had been simmering rose to a boil. This wasn’t going to work, and neither of them seemed to care.

Easy for Michael. Wasn’t his wife he was sending into danger.

And Mei Lin… How easily she would put their future on the line, again.

Ethan pushed to his feet. “You’re both very excited for Mei Lin to risk her life.”

Her smile faded. “To get the evidence and be done with this.”

“It’s too high a price.” He hadn’t meant to yell. Or maybe he had.

“Ethan.” Michael’s tone held warning, as if he had a right to tell Ethan what he could or couldn’t say.

“We’re not doing this. You need to hire someone to do her part.”

“We’ve been over this,” Michael said. “Nobody else would know what to look for. Nobody else knows that storage area like Mei Lin does. Unless you want to hang around for days or weeks⁠—”

“No. We’re leaving. We’ll get a flight tonight. Once we’re safe, you’ll have all the time in the world to hire someone.”

“If anybody’s willing to do it,” Michael said. “In that town, with Lu Feng and the influence he has…”

“It would be too risky,” Mei Lin said.

“That’s too risky?” He was yelling, and he didn’t care. “But your walking back into that place isn’t?” Ethan needed to calm himself down. “You could run into someone you know. Your friend, the one who worked in pathology…” He struggled to remember her name.

“Ying.”

“What are you going to do if you see her?”