A bolt of lightning or a careening car can change a life in an instant. Shan’s life had taken a sharp pivot with six short words spoken on the street in Yangkar. The little demon is your daughter. He had remained mute as emotion stormed within him. He should say something to the girl, who now seemed frightened of him. He had to comfort Meng, who was still crying as he stared at her. He had to run into the hills and find somewhere to contemplate the impossible news. He looked across the street to see Kami skipping in circles around Amah Jiejie.

“She seems healthy,” he said instead.

Meng laughed through her tears.

“She has your eyes,” Shan suggested.

“She has your stubbornness,” Meng said, scrubbing at a cheek. She grabbed Shan’s hand and led him toward the square.

Thankfully she had not pushed the girl on him, and Shan just watched with a dazed smile as Kami played, first with Amah Jiejie then with some Tibetan children who appeared with a puppy.

Choden and Amah Jiejie had brought food and they had made an impromptu picnic while waiting for the helicopter to return with the soldiers. As they ate, Tan’s assistant recounted a very satisfying meeting with Metok’s widow, who had come to Lhadrung to confirm that the colonel’s office had none of her husband’s belongings and to see the jail where he had spent his last days. She had broken down into tears when seeing the cell, but eventually recovered enough to ask if Amah Jiejie might possibly accompany her sometime to her husband’s favorite shrine, a small remote chorten up in the mountains. Mrs. Lu had approached with a scowl then backed away in alarm after Choden leaned into her ear, no doubt telling her that Shan was sitting with the notorious, famous governor of the county.

“I should stay,” Shan had said to Meng when the helicopter had made its return known by buzzing the square.

“The one thing you must not do is stay,” Meng had replied. “Go with the colonel. He needs you. Kami and I will be here when you return tomorrow.”

“As will I,” Amah Jiejie had interjected, and explained that she would rejoin the colonel when the helicopter dropped Shan after their visit to the Five Claws. Choden, eavesdropping, protested that he had no accommodation for her, and was visibly shaken when she said she would sleep in the jail.

They circled high over the valley, giving Tan a full view of the hydro project before landing on the helipad at the back of the equipment yard. Director Ren nervously awaited Colonel Tan’s party, wearing a suit and tie. Shan and the colonel had listened on the station’s speakerphone when Amah Jiejie had called Ren. She had been most adamant about the colonel’s visit, saying it was overdue and that twenty-four hours had just unexpectedly opened on his schedule.