‘More than one person has disappeared like this?’
‘Several hundred.’
I grimaced.
‘I know what you’re thinking, ma’am: there are millions of people travelling into Shenzhen, and many of them want to disappear to avoid being sent back to their villages or to avoid paying taxes back home. But there seems to be some sort of pattern to the disappearances, and we want to do some analysis on the data.’
‘How big’s the database, Gold?’
It was his turn to grimace. ‘Huge. Even the current year’s data is in the terabytes. Older data is kept separately. It’s a nightmare.’
‘You’ll have to go down to crunch that.’
‘Even with three stones linked up, it would take about a day completely offline. Possibly longer.’
‘Do you have a couple of friends who’d be willing to do this? I know how you stones hate being used as computers.’
‘Calcite — my friend who worked in the Bureau of Statistics — will help. We just need to find one more.’
‘Don’t look at me,’ the stone in my ring said. ‘I’m not leaving Emma alone after what happened last year.’
‘Oh, good point,’ Gold said. He went quiet for a moment, thoughtful, then stopped moving completely, not breathing or blinking.
‘Gold, stay alive,’ the stone said.
Gold came back with a start. ‘Oh, sorry.’
‘This has you more upset than usual,’ I said. ‘It’s not often you forget to live.’
‘This sounds like a threesome,’ the stone in my ring said.
Gold wiped one hand over his face. ‘Not a threesome. She’s my great-great-granddaughter.’
‘Five generations?’ my stone said.
Gold nodded.
‘And you worry about her? You’ve been human way too long,’ the stone said.
‘Her great-grandmother was one of my wives at the tea plantation,’ Gold said. ‘When the Celestial found out that I’d helped steal the tea, they only gave me five minutes to put my affairs in order before I was taken to the Celestial Plane. I never really had a chance to say goodbye to them and to make sure they were cared for. The demon servants took off, then the local warlord found out I’d gone. He kept my wives as his own, but when he found that one of them was pregnant he threw her out, leaving her with nothing.’
‘She did well to survive.’
‘She was forced to do things that I’m not proud to be responsible for. Now our descendant, Ah Fua, has disappeared.’
‘This is ridiculous. I bet she doesn’t even keep a tablet for you,’ the stone said. ‘Five generations is way past any accountability.’
‘Her mother does. She has an ancestral tablet for me at home, and one for my whole generation in the temple. Ah Fua doesn’t need to do it because her mother does everything, even sweeps the graves. They’re good, diligent children.’
‘Do they know?’
‘Of course not, Dad. Now, if we’ve finished with the interrogation, I’d like to find another stone who can help locate Ah Fua.’
‘I wonder if Zara would mind helping,’ I said. ‘She’s still in hiding in the armoury, it would keep her busy.’
Gold’s face lit up. ‘She says yes.’ He grinned broadly. ‘I’ll go arrange it.’
CHAPTER 10
Simone, Leo and I had dinner together that evening, just the three of us.
‘The appointment with the Archivist is tomorrow after school,’ I said to Simone. ‘Don’t forget. I’ll need you to take me.’
She gasped, her eyes wide. ‘Oh, no! I’ve arranged to take some of my friends out on the boat after school tomorrow!’
‘You never asked me,’ I said.
She stuck her chin out at me. ‘I don’t need to. It’s my boat.’
‘Point taken; but I’m your guardian and you’re not an adult. Therefore I am legally required to be aware of where you are at all times.’
‘I’m going on the boat after school tomorrow,’ she said, stubborn.
‘I think an adult should go along with you, just in case,’ I said.
‘You have to go see the Archivist, and Leo’s …’ Simone hesitated, obviously not wanting to hurt Leo’s feelings. She changed what she was going to say. ‘Leo’s no good on the water.’
Leo grimaced but didn’t say anything.
‘How about Michael then? All the girls will think he’s the coolest thing ever.’
‘I told them girls only; they wanted to bring some boys but I said no, just all girls is more fun,’ Simone said. ‘They’ll get really annoyed if I bring Michael. I don’t need anyone along, Emma, really. The demons will look after us.’
‘I’d like to go,’ Leo said.
Simone’s expression softened. ‘You sure?’
He nodded with a false smile. ‘Sounds like fun. I want to meet your friends.’
Simone shrugged. ‘Okay. We can have fun pretending we’re related.’
‘Sounds like a plan,’ Leo said, his smile becoming more genuine.
‘I still need to get to the Archivist. Can you drop me there and be back in time for your cruise?’ I said.
‘How far is it?’ Simone said.
‘I have no idea,’ I said. ‘I thought General Ma was going to tell you where it is.’
Simone unfocused, concentrating, then snapped back, obviously happier. ‘It’s fine, it’s just next to the Celestial Palace. He said you can take the stairs in Wan Chai and then someone can summon you a cloud to take you the rest of the way. I don’t need to take you.’
‘Can Ma do it?’
She concentrated again. ‘No, he’s busy. I’m asking around … what time is it tomorrow?’
‘Three.’
She nodded, still concentrating, then snapped back. ‘Your stone is supposed to have all of this info, Emma. It’s gone to sleep again, hasn’t it?’
The stone didn’t reply.
She shrugged. ‘Michael will wait for you at the Celestial Palace at about two forty-five and take you across on a cloud. Problem solved.’
It was quicker to walk the kilometre or so from the Academy to the Celestial Gateway than to drive. I walked along Hennessy Road, the air thick with the fumes of the passing traffic and burning my throat and eyes. At Southorn Playground — a concrete soccer pitch painted green, used by locals to sit and talk, and by young people to play basketball and soccer — I took an escalator up to the pedestrian overpass. The overpass straddled the busy streets of Wan Chai — Lockhart Road, Jaffe Road and then finally Gloucester Road, five lanes each way and packed with cars and red taxis. The overpass led into the mezzanine floor of Immigration Tower, which was full of Filipina domestic helpers suffering the tedious all-day wait for their work visas. Before I’d met John I’d often spent the whole day here myself, waiting for hours in the cockroach-infested halls rich with the ripe aroma of the over-used toilet facilities, being shuffled from counter to counter and interviewed by bored or aggressively irritated