Wade's eyebrows shot up. “Do you know how much half an hour costs?” he asked Nola. He turned to the aide, “Take it.”

“‘Her,’ not ‘it,’ ” Nola said with indignation. “She’s a girl, not a turtle, and her personality shines through like a lantern.”

“I can certainly hear this personality,” Wade said. For the first time in years, the old port wine birthmark on his neck became visible. It had long ago been laser-treated.

Perspiration dripped down Nola's neck and temples. “We’ll have to leave her when we go to the embassy tonight, but the rest of the time I should be the one to calm her.”

Jean-Claude smacked his hands on his thighs. “This is unbelievable. Are you forgetting you have a job to do?”

“That’s enough!” Wade cut him off. He sent Nola a meaningful look, grabbed her elbow, and pulled her to the side.

“I’ve been going along with this lunacy. You can’t expect it—this—to get in the way of your work. We’re going to finish this shoot. Now.”

Just then, a mouse scrambled between her feet and made to the edge of the gutter. She let out a yelp, and the startled mouse stopped and raised its head.

Wade stomped his cowboy boot. A squeak was followed by the crackling of tiny bones. Something gooey spread under Wade's sole.

“Take the baby,” he ordered the young woman. His eyes shot darts of anger at Nola.

Nola's morning orange juice climbed up and turned to acid in her throat. She handed Lulu to the aide and walked back.

An assistant director sprayed her with insecticide to repel the multiplying flies. Decomposed vegetables filled the curb, and the stench lined Nola's nostrils. She stood still. Cold sweat trickled down her spine as she turned her gaze away from Wade and the Chinese valet cleaning his boot.

CHAPTER 6

CHAPTER 6

At the American Embassy foyer, Nola eyed the guest book made out of the pages of Town and Country magazine that featured the U.S. ambassador to China with his wife at their Beijing mansion. It was a PR coup, no doubt the product of the dual-fronts public-relations by the publicity section of the State Department supplemented by the PR firm Wade kept on a yearly retainer. It emphasized the significance of Nola's six-city tour in the context of U.S.-China relations.

The ambassador, Mr. Hartley Ashford, greeted Wade and kissed Nola's hand while his wife twitted next to him. In her thin voice, Margot Ashford read aloud from the guest book’s inside cover: “Goodwill Ambassador Nola Brings to the Middle Kingdom A Message of Friendship and Peace!”

Until now, Nola's press coverage had been only in the context of her entertainment work. Now, as she added her signature under her own photograph, she suppressed her thrill as she said, “How kind of you.”