– If there is nothing more, we must ask you to leave.

– What if we kill every fucking one of you? Even the fish – even that fucking monkey!

Bee points at the tiny primate and it scrunches up its face and runs up the curtain to sit on the long wooden pole above them.

– We have taken your questions.

– Peter, I was really beginning to think you were just the strong silent type, how about you give us back Dora’s cousin.

– We can’t.

– Is she in a snuff movie?

Raymond raises his hand to silence his younger partner again.

– No. You don’t know who we are. This is all conjecture…

– Ah, but we do, Raymond. We know everything. While you assume we are just working-class Scottish radges who are not only ignorant but also stupid as fuck – as is always so readily assumed of our kind – we actually happen to be as thorough in our business endeavours as any other organised syndicate!

Bee runs her fingers over her fox ears.

The ram stamps his cane on the floor twice. They all straighten up and get back to the task at hand. Bee begins to talk quietly and calmly, with no expression at all.

– You, Raymond, are thirty-three years old. A Gemini. Your mother still lives in Macau where you grew up – it’s the most densely populated place in the world!

The older man pales.

He indicates to his partner not to raise his gun.

– Your mother, Chen, is very sweet. I met her a few weeks ago. I was only in China briefly – for business.

Bee nods.

– What business?

– Well, first I went to Zhuxian Park. I visited the temple and the caves. Then over to Nanping Zhen for some lunch. I had delicious street food – jiaozi, bing tanghulu… I found the donkey-meat sandwich particularly delicious!

Bee pats her ears as if to tell the women in the corner to cover the monkey’s ears and the tiny primate looks down at her with furious little eyes.

– Who are you working for really, Bee?

– I met your mother after that. She made me white tea. It has a very delicate flavour.

– It does.

– You should get her an apartment lower down the building, Raymond. Fourteenth-floor D – it’s a lot of stairs to climb. Also, your mother does not have a bathroom as nice as this, does she? Or a decent couch? I might send her a postcard. She has such a pretty address – Rua De nam Keng 444, EDF Flower City-Lei Fung, 25-AND-M Taipa.

– I know my home address.

– Did you know the landline has been cut?

– No, it hasn’t.

– Ah, but it has, Raymond. She can’t phone out right now.

The man is visibly beginning to panic and the ammonic, metallic scent of sweat and fear begins to permeate the room. Bee nods her fox head gravely.

– My husband came with me on the trip.

Rab nods.

– What did you do there? Raymond asks.

– 租一个白人外国人, 相当交易!