I had been so distracted by the men showing up, my escapade out on the ledge, and Dr. Nataraj’s death—I had failed to make the most obvious connection.

“It’s too huge a risk, Zhou.” Lingyi appeared physically ill, curled forward as if her stomach ached. “If something happened to you . . .”

Iris squeezed Lingyi’s shoulder, her narrowed eyes still focused on me.

Lingyi had been an older sister to me for almost five years now, making sure I had somewhere safe to sleep every night, that I wasn’t starving. She did this with everyone in our group—looked after us—even Victor, who I suspected was still secretly in love with her. I know she had been with Arun every day after Dr. Nataraj’s death, helping with the necessary paperwork, making certain he was eating, that his kitchen was stocked with food.

Since her own family escaped to China, she had made us her family. Her responsibility.

I went to Lingyi and extended an open palm; after a long hesitation, she slipped her hand into mine, and I clasped it. “I want to do this,” I said. Because there was nobody else, and Jin needed to be stopped. “But I need you to have faith in me. I need you to back me.”

Her gaze swept over the others in the suite. Arun’s expression was grim, but he nodded once. Vic was assessing me, more serious than I’d ever seen him. “I think Zhou can pull it off.”

Lingyi stared into her tumbler of rum and Coke, already empty. I knew then how stressed she was—she rarely drank. “All right,” she said. “If you’re sure, Zhou, of course I’ll back you completely.”

“I’ll start a rumor that the guy they’re looking for has gone abroad,” Victor said. “Keep an even lower profile for the next few months, Zhou.”

Lingyi nodded. “It’ll give me time to lay the groundwork for your you identity. And it’ll take that long to receive your custom suit.”

A you identity and my own suit. It represented everything I despised: greed, excess, selfishness, and complacency—a culture embodied and enabled by Jin Corp. I was going to become what I wanted to destroy. “Sounds good,” I said.

Iris slipped off the armrest and came to stand in front of me. Other than Lingyi, she rarely acknowledged anyone in the group so directly. Alarmed, I had no idea what to expect. “Eat,” she said.

I laughed. She didn’t have to tell me twice. Never in my life had I had enough money to buy whatever I wanted to eat, and however much I wanted, whenever I felt like it. “Okay . . . ,” I replied.

She reached over and squeezed my bicep hard enough to make me wince. But I didn’t.

“Pack on some muscle,” she said. “It’ll help.”