arm. Dizzy, he holds his breath, calling.
And then it comes.
Blood rushes in his ears, his heart thumps wildly. It’s not Ji Lin; it’s the other one. Drawing nearer and nearer with long strides. Shoulders tense, he watches the open ward door like a small animal. It’s a young man in a white uniform. Ren has never seen him before. Definitely not, because he’s someone that you’d remember. Ah. It’s you, Ren wants to say. His cat sense blazes up, an electric burst of relief, but his throat is so dry that nothing comes out.
“Ah Kor,” he says. Older Brother.
The young man’s eyebrows go up. Then he gives a rueful smile. “Awake, are you? She’ll be happy about that.”
Who is she? But Ren already knows. This is the other half of his girl in blue. The two of them a matched pair, like Yi and him. And Ren recalls that tall lean shape in the doorway of the pathology room, the one that he thought was Dr. Rawlings but wasn’t.
“You must be xin,” he says, excited.
Surprise, or is it a flicker of discomfort? “Yes, I’m Shin. Did Ji Lin tell you?”
Ren shakes his head hurriedly, “I’ve met the other ones. There’s you, and me, and her, and my brother, Yi. And my master, William Acton. That’s five of us.”
Shin looks as though he’s about to say something, but merely tousles Ren’s head. “I came by yesterday but you were sleeping. We’ll talk more when you feel better.”
Urgently, Ren says, “No, you must find her—she’s in danger!”
“Who?” But Shin already knows, his sharp eyes searching Ren’s face.
“She’s in the hospital. Someone’s hurting her!”
“Where is she?” On his feet now.
“Beyond that building. On the roof.” Ren points from the window to the spot that draws him like a tightening line. Is it his imagination, or can he feel a thin, soundless shriek? “Hurry! It will be too late!”
48
Batu Gajah
Monday, June 29th
Koh Beng marched me across the flat roof, the tip of a scalpel shoved into the soft spot under my jaw. I opened my mouth to scream, but even if I did, no one would see us all the way out here, facing the jungle trees. They’d just hear my shriek cut off as I fell off the roof. Instead I went limp as if I’d fainted.
Koh Beng bent over instinctively to grab me, and as he did so, I yanked viciously at his knees, pulling him off balance. He fell, cracking his shoulder on the cement. Slammed into me. Rolling. Elbow in my face as I struggled to get up. “Bitch!” he hissed, grabbing my hair, but I scratched and bit and then we were twisting, struggling. As he dragged me towards the edge, the roof door burst open behind us. Koh Beng’s head swiveled in surprise, but he’d no time to react before someone hit him in a low tackle. The breath was knocked from my body.
“Shin!” I screamed, but no sound came out. He fell on me as Koh Beng slashed wildly. I felt Shin gasp, jerk back as we rolled into the sickening emptiness at the edge of the roof. There was a dizzying instant when I saw the ground far below. Then my head smacked the gutter as we went over.
* * *
I must have hit my head hard enough to black out, for this time I fell into the world of the unconscious with a terrific bang. I knew exactly where I was, right down to the polished wood of the deserted ticket counter. The waiting room for the dead. There was a hushed expectation in the sunlight glinting off the train tracks.
“Yi,” I said.
He stood up. He’d been kneeling behind the counter, a child playing hide-and-seek, but he didn’t look happy to be found. In his sad stare, I could already find the answer to my question.
“Why didn’t you run away?” he said.
I should have, even at the risk of being stabbed. It was my curiosity, that foolish thirst for knowledge that had delayed me, wanting to hear the answers from Koh Beng. And now it was too late. “Am I dead?”
“Not yet.” Yi’s eyes squinted past me, as though he was looking at something far away. “But any moment now—you’re dangling off the roof.”
“Is Koh Beng going to kill me?” That would be like Pei Ling, shoved down the stairs. Or Y. K. Wong, crushed by a falling tile. Simple is best, Koh Beng had said in his frighteningly efficient way. “What about Shin?”
“He’s grabbed