“It does. It makes you a murderer. If you kill Raymond, you’ll be a baby killer too.”

“I don’t care. I hate them.”

“I hate them too. If there’s anything more despicable than a woman who sleeps with the enemy, it’s a woman who has a child with him.”

“Such a woman is worse than the enemy himself. The enemy is standing up for his country. While the woman has betrayed hers,” said Tak-Wing, eyes blazing with fervour.

“We have no country,” Cheung said.

“And because we have none, our women are not our own either,” said Tak-Wing.

“What horror are we speaking of, my son?”

“A horror deeper than the deepest hole. A shame heavier than the heaviest rock.”

“I’m sick with hatred and shame.”

“Me too, Father.”

“I hear that the torments that the Kempeitai lay on Chinese prisoners in the basement of the Supreme Court are such that the prisoners no longer want to live.”

“We are not in that basement, but we are being tortured in the same way.”

“Give me those pills,” Cheung said. “I will poison the Kempeitai if you will poison Emily and Raymond.”

The two once good, kind men looked at each other.

“Pact,” said Tak-Wing.

“Pact,” said his father.

“Those pills are forty years old, and were designed to give pleasure, not to kill. Maybe we should make sure that they work.”

“They’ll work. They killed your grandfather.”

“Old Mah is the world’s worst pharmacist. Just because one batch was deadly doesn’t mean this batch is.”

“Should we try them out on someone?”

“Yes. Let’s try them out on someone.”

CHAPTER 47Typhoon ShelterLET’S GO HOME

June 30, 1997

Ophelia stares at the fish tank, dazed. A wise old fish with long whiskers stares back, while above it, smaller fish dart back and forth, confused as to why the ocean has shrunk so small.