The Stone Monkey

Chang Jiechi surveyed the men in the room: the Ghost himself, then two men from some Chinese minority—Uighurs or Kazahks. Like many older Han Chinese, Chang Jiechi thought of them by the word “barbarians.”
    The old man continued farther into the room, thinking: What a journey it had been to come here to this place that would be the site of his death. Thinking too about his son, Sam Chang, who, he hoped, was still unconscious from the tea Chang Jiechi had given him, generously laced with some of the old man’s morphine.
    “What is the only reason that a man would do something like you are about to do—something foolhardy and dangerous?”
    “For the sake of his children.”
    No father, of course, would willingly let a son go to his death. Chang Jiechi had decided as soon as Sam had returned from Chinatown last night that he himself would drug his son and come here in his stead. Sam had half a life span ahead of him here in the Beautiful Country. He had his sons to raise and now—miraculously—the daughter that Mei-Mei had always wanted. Here was freedom, here was peace, here was a chance for success. He would not let his son miss out on these things.
    As the drugged tea had taken effect and his son’s lids fell heavily and the cup dropped from his hand Mei-Mei had risen, alarmed. But Chang Jiechi had told her about the morphine and what he intended to do. She tried to stop him but she was a woman and she was his daughter-in-law; she acquiesced to his wishes. Chang Jiechi had taken the gun and some money and, embracing Mei-Mei and touching his son’s forehead one last time, left the apartment, with instructions not to wake William under any circumstances. He’d found a taxi and used the church van map to show the driver where he wished to go.
    Now he walked stiffly into the Ghost’s elegant apartment. The barbarian with the gun hovered close and Chang Jiechi understood that he would have to put the men at ease before he would have a chance to pull out his own pistol and put a bullet into the heart of the snakehead.
    “Do I know you?” the Ghost asked, eyeing him curiously.
    “Perhaps,” Chang Jiechi replied, making up something he believed was reasonable and would make the Ghost less suspicious. “I’m involved in the tongs here in Chinatown.”
    “Ah.” The Ghost sipped his tea.
    The barbarian remained nearby, looking suspiciously at the old man. The other young man, dark and brooding, sat down in the back of the apartment.
    As soon as the thug that was closest turned his attention away, Chang Jiechi would shoot the Ghost.
    “Sit down, old man,” the Ghost said.
    “Thank you. My feet aren’t well. Dampness and heat in my bones.”
    “And you know where the Changs are?”
    “Yes.”
    “How do I know I can trust you?”
    Chang Jiechi laughed. “Regarding trust, I think I have more to worry about than you do.”
    Please, he prayed to the spirit of his own father, a man gone from this earth for forty-six years and the primary god in Chang Jiechi’s pantheon, higher even than the Buddha: Father, make that man put his gun away and give me five seconds. Let me save my family. Give me the chance for one bullet—that’s all I ask. I’m only three meters away, I cannot miss.
    “How do you know the Changs?” the Ghost asked.
    “Through a relative in Fuzhou.”
    “You know I wish them harm. What reason do you have to betray them?”
    “I need the money for my son. He is not well. He needs doctors.”
    The Ghost shrugged and said to the barbarian, “Search him. Let me see any papers he has on him.”
    No! thought Chang Jiechi in alarm.
    The barbarian stepped forward, blocking his view—and aim—of the Ghost.
    Chang Jiechi held up a hand and stopped the barbarian. “Please. I am an old man. I deserve your respect. Don’t touch me. I will give you my papers myself.”
    The barbarian glanced back at the Ghost with a raised eyebrow. And when he did, Chang Jiechi drew the pistol from his pocket and, without hesitation, shot the barbarian in the side of the head. He dropped hard and lay motionless, sprawled on a footstool.
    But the Ghost reacted immediately and leapt behind a heavy couch as Chang Jiechi fired again. The bullet snapped through the leather but he had no idea whether or not he’d hit the snakehead. He turned toward the second barbarian in the back of the apartment but the man had alreadyraised his gun and was aiming it. Chang Jiechi heard a shot and felt a huge fist strike his