The sun was inching over the horizon, glinting off a new strand of razor wire, when they arrived at the 404th People’s Construction Brigade. Zhu had insisted Shan ride in his car so Shan could sleep in the back seat during the hours-long drive to Lhadrung as one of the soldiers followed in Shan’s own car. The resourceful young lieutenant, who had been watching Shan and seen him taken by Huan, had brought friends from the city barracks. He now insisted that Shan stay quiet as they reached the prison gate. The guard waved Zhu through, then Shan’s car, driven now by a sleepy army clerk they had roused from sleep in the Lhadrung barracks.

The prisoners were moving in and out of the washrooms and beginning to line up at the mess hall door for their morning meal of porridge. The clerk from Lhadrung disappeared into the administration building and minutes later the building erupted with senior guards and administrative officers who hurried toward the inner barracks compound. Colonel Tan was notorious for his unannounced audits, and this morning not even the clerk from the town garrison had known there was to be a surprise prisoner census until Zhu and Shan had awakened him. The camp officers had not argued when Zhu explained the procedure, though they seemed surprised that he knew the compound well enough to tell them that a small utility shed behind the mess hall would be used by the audit team. No one seemed to recognize Shan, who wore Zhu’s army trench coat and a cap pulled low over his head. Zhu had quickly accepted that Shan could not antagonize the guards for fear of losing his upcoming family visit. The lieutenant also reminded Shan that Public Security often had its own informers among the prison staff.

The inmates were directed to step inside the front door of the unused storage shed one at a time for a corroboration of their names and registration numbers against Tan’s central records, then leave through the small chamber at the rear that had its own door to the compound outside. Shan had once been locked in the chamber for several days with only water when he been discovered sneaking food to a prisoner too sick to rise out of his bed. The clerk was efficient in processing the prisoners, tolerating Zhu’s impromptu questions for the inmates as Shan listened from the shadows of the back room. He struggled to keep focused on the dialogue, for he was being nagged by the nightmare that haunted his sleep in the car. Deputy Director was going to take over Yangkar. It would be the end of everything he held precious in the town.