Beyond the compound of modular units that comprised the administrative center of the huge project was the equipment yard. The fence had been completed around the equipment and in one corner, two more walls of wire had been added to create a square perhaps two hundred feet on each side. Inside the wired-off corner, canvas tarps had been spread overhead and cots placed underneath, creating what looked like temporary living quarters for a few dozen men, some of whom were lying on the cots while others played cards or walked along the perimeter of the wire. They were all Tibetans.

“New rules,” came a voice over his shoulder. “Gotta’ sign in at the office if you need any laborers and register each name and identity card number.” A sturdy, square-shouldered Chinese man was at his side, casting an appraising eye over the Tibetans. He wore a red safety helmet, which Shan took to be the sign of a foreman. “Took me almost an hour just to get six ditch diggers this morning,” the man groused. “Deputy Director Jiao tells us in all his speeches that we’re on the urgent business of the Chairman, then he puts more damned obstacles in the way.”

“Only the Tibetans?” Shan asked.

“Right. Suddenly Jiao doesn’t trust them. Too much talk about the blue god and such. He says all the troubles we’re having can’t be coincidence. But the Tibetans are the hardest workers we got and trying to bring in others from the east could take weeks.”

“More troubles?” Shan asked. “I just got back,” he added, trying to cover his curiosity.

“Yesterday the brakes on a truck failed and it drove right into the lake at the end of the valley. Into Gekho’s belly, one of the Tibetans said. Today a bulldozer broke down with dirt inside the engine. Could be a bad gasket, could be someone put dirt in the fuel tank. Either way, it’ll take days to strip the engine and get it running again. And more of those Tibetan prayers materializing out of the sky. They just drift down out of the clouds. That spooks people the most. Anyway, Deputy Director Jiao ordered the fence erected and ordered most of the Tibetan laborers to stay inside it when not assigned to work crews. For their own good, he told them. They’ll take meals in the mess hall with the rest of us but are kept under watch by one of us foremen until the real guards arrive. He called Public Security in Lhasa.”

Shan tried to push the worry from his voice. “He can’t just arrest people,” he said.