“I’ve heard all about that from Ashford. China has prevented the potential birth of three hundred million more people, more than the entire U.S. population.” She wanted to scream over the loud music. “I’m not against voluntary planned parenthood. I am not even against abortion, within limits. I am against infanticide, which is quite a different matter. Am I supposed to agree that under the ‘population control’ strategy it is the local government’s prerogative to kill Lulu?”

She rose and stepped to the window. The same buildings under construction, the same thousands of people in the main thoroughfare, the same market she had shown Lulu. The spice merchant exchanged animated comments with his wife, and while she pulled out straw baskets filled with herbs, he tied a bright blue tarp as an awning over open sacks of colorful spices.

Nola's cheek pressed against the cold glass. The image of a patch of pink with a butterfly print flashed in front of her eyes.

After a few minutes, Daniel asked, “Are you all right?”

She turned fully toward him.” Why are you here? You’ve told me that you don’t do anything just because it’s expected of you.”

“I’m assuming that you’d want to hear it from someone who can level with you.” His voice had the same rich quality she had noticed the first time she heard him speak.

She bit her lip. The hour at the Dying Rooms would be their shared experience forever. And his confession about Kate. Another song percolated in her. “Through Your Eyes I’m a Better Person.” She was beginning to see her old capable self through Daniel’s eyes.

“How would they want to involve me in quieting down the storm?” she asked.

“There’s a whole dog-and-pony show they will ask you to go through. Uniting Lulu with her mother, etcetera.” He rose and moved closer, but stopped three feet away. “I don’t believe they have the mother. For all I know, they’d produce any poor peasant woman who’ll make remorseful statements. Ditto for the baby. They’ll put her and the presumed mother on television.”

“But I do believe they’ve got Lulu,” Nola said. “Who else would kidnap her? And there are too many of her pictures circulating the globe. They can’t easily substitute her.”

“To much of the world, Chinese babies all look alike.”

“How gullible I was to think that all I had to do was run to the U.S. Embassy and have them save the day. The truth is that if Lulu is with her so-called mother, Ashford’s problems are over. He’s no longer under pressure to help me adopt this one particular baby. But he is under pressure from both governments to get me to play a friendship farce.” She chortled. “Friendship indeed. The Chinese and U.S. governments are in cahoots to destroy a seven-month-old baby.”