Christina chewed on her lip. “You don’t think so?” Tian said. Christina shook her head.
“No, I think you’re right. And I think you need to ask your brother about it.”
Tian’s mouth set. “But why us and White Bone?” she said, clearly deflecting. “What’s special about us?”
“I don’t think we are special.” Something had occurred to Adeline, as she sorted through her memories. “Anggor Neo said he saw girls with other symptoms—skin deformities, eye deformities. That’s not White Bone.” She was thinking practically now. “The White Bone magic makes the girls beautiful. Ours they used to kill. Maybe other magic just wasn’t useful.”
“I could believe that,” Christina said. “But it doesn’t answer the question of how they did it. Maybe we have a traitor. But White Bone’s been out of the country for years.”
“I’m sure Three Steel has connections in Malaysia.” Tian didn’t seem sure. “But anyway, we need to focus. We kill their tattooist, we hit that house, and maybe Three Steel won’t be able to use our magicanyway.” Tian threaded her fingers together and stretched them. Her palms were still bruised, as was the rest of her, but she was energized like she hadn’t been since she’d tried to cut Fan Ge’s eye open. “Iron Eye will be at the Hangar tomorrow night. And we should check out the other addresses on that list, see if we can use any of them, too. I feel like we could scare Three Steel off. I actually think we could. And it’s all—” She turned to Adeline suddenly. “You’re a miracle.”
Adeline thought of the Marias. Thought of seeing her own reflection in their simmering pupils shift as they realized who she was and what she’d done. She wondered what they had told people since, if they’d told anyone at all, and if anyone would believe them at all.I almost died, but Adeline saved me. She had fire. Can you believe that? Adeline.Whispers through the St. Mary’s corridors, building and feeding on her mysterious absence.Can you believe? Adeline? Adeline?
“I didn’t do it for you.”
Something flickered across Tian’s expression. Hurt, maybe; maybe regret, her own fear. For a long time Adeline wouldn’t have known what to do in Red Butterfly if not for Tian. Now she realized she didn’t feel afraid at all.
The phone rang, and Tian rushed to get it. She held it out for them. The voice announced itself as Hwee Min, calling from a payphone.
“Does anyone have favors to call in with Nine Horse?”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOURTHE HANGAR AND THE SUMMIT
The Summit was a dressy place, Christina said.Do with that what you will.Adeline was thus trying to curl her fine hair, without avail and to her endless frustration. She didn’t know why she kept trying, knowing her hair couldn’t hold a curl. But they were going so far away, to a hotel where people got up to secrets and where the only man to be worried about would be shortly dead, and so she thought that tonight of all nights would be the one to make curls happen.
Unhelpfully, she was still thinking of the conversation earlier that day. She had seen Genevieve that morning for the first time since she ran off. She’d only gone to Jenny’s for clothes, but Genevieve had invited her out for lunch.
They’d sat at some expensive French café, surrounded by expat wives and tai tais chatting breezily about their children’s preschools, their husbands’ cricket games, the latest fashions and bakeries. Adeline had felt separated from them with an intensity over and above her usual. It was the sudden and final understanding that this was not a life she would ever be capable of aspiring to. It was liberation, in part, and also grief, and something thornier she didn’t have words for yet.
“There’s still the money for you, when you want to use it,”Genevieve said. “And the offer to find you a place is always open.”
Genevieve was keeping some of her mother’s funds funneled to Red Butterfly. The rest was held in a trust. Adeline didn’t even know what she’d do with the money. Everything she wanted money couldn’t buy. “Did you know Chew Luen Fah is in bed with Three Steel?” she asked instead.
“It’s an open secret; the Chews always have been. Your mother was worried when you became friends with his daughter. You’re not in trouble with Three Steel, are you?”
Genevieve Hwang, her mother’s confidante. For the first time Adeline had felt only disparagement—did Genevieve think Adeline would tell her everything, too? So Adeline had lied and said there was nothing going on.Troubletonight seemed like the wrong word, at least. Christina and Tian didn’t seem daunted. The tattooist was going to be unguarded and easy to find. Adeline had the sense of going to a party, and was dressing like it.
Now the sound of a car pulling up told her she was out of time. Her hair would have to do, left long and mostly straight over her bare shoulders.
Christina was downstairs in a sleeveless green cheongsam, on the sofa next to Tian, who was merely wearing a nicer shirt. They both looked up when Adeline came down the stairs. Perhaps the red jumpsuit was a bit much. It was meant for discos, not assassination attempts, but Adeline had loved it on the mannequin and it did make her feel like she could kill someone—the halter neck, the open cleavage, the way the top half clung to her like skin. If all went to plan the Steel tattooist would never see her, anyway. It was worth it for the way Tian was staring.
“Is that the car?” she asked.
Christina looked between Tian and Adeline, and sighed. “Yes, that’s Charles. Leave me the front seat!” she shouted.
There was a thump and quiet arguing as Adeline headed along to the battered Toyota parked outside, where Charles Pereira, their volunteer driver for the night, was smoking out the window. He peered at her as she approached.
“Christina?”
“Coming.”
Charles was some kind of Eurasian and pretty, with the kind of full lips and slender jaw even a girl could envy. He had permed hair over his ears and a hippie mustache, sat in his driver’s seat in well-worn bell-bottoms. “What’s your name then?”
“Adeline.”
“Who you trying to kill, in that getup?” Charles grinned. “You like any particular radio station?”
“Not really.”
