Page 58 of Five

“We suspect poison,” Chen says.

Of course we do. “What kind of poison?” I ask, looking down at the glass of whiskey one of the attendants put on my armrest, my paranoia beginning to get the best of me.

Chen notices and shakes his head. Which means in no uncertain terms, Do. Not. Drink. That.

I nod, and resist the urge to glance up towards the galley where the flight attendant is fixing something to eat.

Well, this is going to be a very long flight to Hong Kong if we can’t eat or drink the entire time.

“We won’t know until the toxicology comes back,” Chen says. “It’s going up the chain of command at our most trusted medical facility, but we don’t have an estimate yet.”

“OK,” I say, running a hand through my hair. “Did anyone call my mother?”

Chen shakes his head. “We thought you should do it.”

Of course they did.

“But I would advise calling your father privately first.”

Of course he would.

“Did anyone check on my family?”

“We have people in place. There’s no movement.”

“And Rory?”

“That…”—Chen stops, like he’s choosing his words carefully— “will require further discussion.”

“What do you mean?” I ask. “We put this plan in place so she’d be safe. You fucking told me that if I got her to walk away, she’d be safe. So just what the fuck does further fucking discussion mean?”

“Calm down, Five,” Chen says, patting the air with his hand. “That plan is still on track. But today—just a few hours ago, in fact—there was a development.”

“Define. Development.” I growl out the words.

“She was invited to a…” He shrugs. “A party. Or something. Tomorrow night.” He averts his eyes. Clearly he doesn’t trust this flight attendant. But I’m not sure how seriously I should take that suspicion, since he doesn’t trust anyone. “We can talk about it when we land.”

“We won’t land for another twelve hours,” I say, getting more pissed off by the second.

“She’s fine. You did everything right, Five. You got her the hell away from you and everything is fine.”

“I want to go see her, Chen. Before Hong Kong.”

“Out of the question,” he says. This time he’s pantomiming a stop gesture with his hand. “If you want to keep her safe you will stay as far away from Princeton University as you can. Hong Kong is the definition of that place. And besides,” he adds, softening his tone, “they’re expecting you. You have known for a long time that this moment would come. You must show up and do your job.”

My job. “Fuck my job, Chen. I don’t care about my job. I care about my people.”

“We are your people. Say anything you want to me, but listen to me, Five. When you get off this plane you will not say anything to anyone other than, ‘Thank you for your condolences.’ Do you understand? This is a very precarious situation and keeping Rory safe depends on you taking power. You do not take power by abdicating it the first chance you get.”

I sit back in my seat and sigh. Because he’s right. My power comes from the Triads. From my grandfather. The only way to keep Rory out of this is to become the man I was always meant to be.

That’s the whole reason I walked out last summer, right? That’s the whole reason I put this plan together in the first place, right? I need to trust Rory to keep herself safe until I can stabilize my position.

“She’s smart,” Chen says.

“I know that,” I say, still annoyed. “She got into Princeton. Everyone knows she’s smart.”

“And she’s tough too,” Chen adds.