The Stone Monkey

one-color money. Li pocketed the cash and looked over a paper she’d been writing on. His spoken English was good—thanks to American movies and the Follow Me program on Radio Beijing—but his reading skills were terrible (which hardly seemed fair considering that English only had 25 or so letters while the Chinese language had 40,000). After some stumbling, he recognizedthe Ghost’s real name, Kwan Ang, in English, and made out some other writing. He folded this up and slipped it into his pocket then scattered the rest of the sheets on the ground outside the open driver’s side door, so it would look as if the wind had blown them away.
    Another car was approaching—a black sedan that smelled to Li like a government vehicle. Crouching, he made his way back to the road. Hidden once more in the bushes, he glanced out into the turbulent sea, observing now that Hongse seemed to be struggling in the choppy ocean just as much as the drowning man. He felt a pang that such a beautiful woman was in danger. But that wasn’t really his concern; finding the Ghost and simply staying alive were his priorities now.
    •   •   •
    The effort of swimming against the battering surf to reach the drowning immigrant had nearly exhausted Amelia Sachs and she found she had to kick furiously to keep them both above water. Her knee and hip joints protested in pain. The immigrant himself wasn’t any help at all. He was of medium build and trim—without much fat for buoyancy. He kicked his feet lethargically and his left arm was useless—thanks to a gunshot wound in his chest.
    Gasping, spitting out the vile salt water that kept spilling into her mouth and nose, she fought her way toward shore. The water stung her eyes and blurred her vision but she could see on the sand near the breaking surf two medics with a stretcher and a large green oxygen tank, motioning broadly for her to swim toward them.
    Thanks, boys . . . . I’m trying.
    She steered toward them as best she could but the undertow was fierce. She glanced back at the rock the immigranthad been clinging to and saw that, despite her massive efforts, they’d swum only about ten feet.
    Kick harder. Harder!
    Reciting to herself one of her personal mantras: When you move they can’t getcha . . . .
    Another eight or nine feet. But Sachs finally had to stop and catch her breath, watching in dismay as the undertow tugged them back out to sea.
    Come on, get out of here . . . .
    The listless immigrant, now nearly unconscious, kept pulling her down. Sachs kicked harder. A cramp seized her calf and she cried out and sank fast. The murky gray water, filled with seaweed and sand, swallowed her up. One hand holding the immigrant’s shirt, the other pounding on her own calf to break the cramp, she struggled to hold her breath for as long as she could.
    Oh, Lincoln! she thought. Going down . . . Farther into the gray linen water.
    Then: Jesus! What’s this?
    A barracuda, a shark, a black eel . . . shot out of the foggy water and grabbed her around the chest. She instinctively reached for the switchblade she kept in her back pocket but her arm was pinned to her body by the terrible fish. It tugged her upward and a few seconds later she was on the surface, sucking sweet air into her stinging lungs.
    She looked down. The fish turned out to be a man’s arm encased in a black wetsuit.
    The Suffolk County Rescue diver spit a regulator from a pony bottle of compressed air out of his mouth and said, “It’s okay, miss, I got you. It’s okay.”
    A second diver was gripping the immigrant, keeping his lolling head out of the water.
    “Cramp,” Sachs gasped. “Can’t move my leg. Hurts.”
    He reached underwater with one hand, straightened her leg and then pressed her toes toward her body, stretching out the muscles of her calf. After a moment the pain went away. She nodded.
    “Don’t kick. Just relax. I’ll take you in.” He began to tow her and she leaned her head back, concentrated on breathing. His powerful legs, aided by the flippers, moved them rapidly toward shore. He said, “That was gutsy, going out. Most people would’ve just watched him die.”
    They swam through the chill water for what seemed like forever. Finally Sachs felt pebbles under her feet. She staggered onto the shore and took the blanket one of the medics offered her. After catching her breath she walked over to the immigrant, who was lying on the stretcher, an oxygen mask over his