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Hulan opened up more building plans, but no one could see their significance. There were also plot plans of the surrounding area, indicating that perhaps the company had once considered expanding the compound. But when Hulan showed David the spreadsheet, she noticed his involuntary intake of breath, then the way he swiftly recovered. On the left of the page were the names of the various action figures. Next to these names were numbers, whether in dollars or yuan Hulan couldn’t tell. She picked up one of the papers and stared at the names: Sam, Uta, Nick, Gaseous, Annabel, Notorious.
“Why is it these six Friends?” Hulan asked. “The ten characters were designed as a team. Where’s Cactus?” She quoted the print ads and the history she’d seen on the brag wall at the Knight compound. “‘Sam and Cactus are best buddies, doing right together.’ It was a master stroke of marketing, don’t you think? A child can’t have Sam without at least having Cactus.” Suddenly she yelped in triumph. “It’s the stupidest code I’ve ever seen, but so stupid I would have missed it if I didn’t know something about the toys.”
As soon as she said this, David immediately discerned the pattern. Sam, Uta, Nick, Gaseous, Annabel, Notorious. SUN GAN.
“This is so obvious it has to be a set up,” Hulan said. Then, seeing David’s hooded look, she asked, “Have you seen something like this before?”
David’s jaw tightened. Hulan was sure he wasn’t even aware of it. When he answered “No,” she knew he was lying.
“What about the papers Sun sent you?” she pressed.
David stared at her resolutely. The documents in his room bore a striking resemblance to these. They had the same typeface, layout, and the Knight letterhead. But he couldn’t tell Hulan any of that.
“Investigator Lo,” Hulan said without taking her eyes off David, “perhaps you’d like to wait outside. This could mean political trouble for all of us, and I don’t know if I’ll be able to protect you.”
Before Lo could respond, David sighed. “He doesn’t have to go anywhere.”
“David, this could be dangerous,” she insisted. “I look at the Knight factory and think that they’re making money by putting people’s health and safety in jeopardy, but is it against the law? In China the answer is not really. I look at these papers and figure that Sun is connected somehow. Obviously the Knights wouldn’t be able to operate out here without his help. But what do these papers even mean? As I said, Sun is a powerful man. More than that, he’s popular, very, very popular. Even I,” she said, “have admired him.”
“You don’t understand my concern,” David said with a rueful smile. “Governor Sun is my client. You trained as a lawyer, Hulan. You know what that means. The papers he sent me are now privileged information. Ethically I can’t turn them over to you or use them to damage him in any way, because he’s my client, as is the Tartan corporation.”
“You’re a prosecutor,” Hulan said after a long pause.
“I was a prosecutor. But even as a prosecutor I always respected the rights of the accused. Confidentiality is a cornerstone of our legal system.”
“But you’re in China…”
“I’m not saying that Governor Sun’s papers are anything like these, but if they were, would I be free to pursue him as though he was a criminal rather than a client?”
“Article 3 of the Provisional Regulations Regarding Lawyers says that in carrying out their activities, lawyers ‘shall take facts as the basis and the law as the criterion,’” she recited. “This means that lawyers should never fail to distinguish between right and wrong. They should expose contradictory facts and clarify erroneous errors. A lawyer also has the right to refuse to represent a client if he feels that the defendant has failed to reveal the entire truth.”
“What are you leaving out?”
“As a lawyer operating in China, you must safeguard state sovereignty…”
“No problem.”
“And the state’s economic interests,” Hulan continued. “At the same time, the rights and interests of foreign businessmen must be protected.”
“Just tell me, do I have to maintain confidentiality here or not?”
“I’m afraid so. The code says that confidentiality of private matters must be maintained. It goes along with protecting state secrets.”
“It seems to me there are a lot of contradictions in those rules.”
“This is China.”
“So what can and can I not do?”
“I didn’t train in our system, and I’ve never practiced law here,” Hulan said. “I don’t know all of the subtleties or how to play them.”
“You do have one thing in your favor,” Lo interrupted, although he didn’t fully understand David’s dilemma. “Lawyers have the right to make investigations and visits pertaining to the cases they’re handling.”
“In that case,” David said, “I’d like to go back to the hotel.”
A few minutes later, Suchee walked the trio to the car. With great solemnity she extended the papers to Hulan, who refused them. “Keep them here for now,” she said. “Your daughter knew how to keep them safe.” Then, “I promise you I’ll find out who killed her.”
As soon as the car disappeared down the dirt road, Suchee turned toward the shed to restore to their hiding place the papers that might have cost her daughter’s life.
