The Long Night Box Set

by Kevin Partner

  Annabel stepped onto the bridge and tried desperately not to look down. Her fear of heights added another dimension of terror as she kept her gaze on the solid ground at the other end.

  The guard averted his eyes as she stepped onto Chinese soil—it was almost as if he wanted to be able to claim that he'd never seen her. But that was the way in China; it was better not to know. Or so her mother had told her.

  They left the guards behind to resume their watching of the border and climbed the steep road to find a military vehicle—a Chinese version of the Humvee—waiting at the top. A half dozen soldiers stood beside it, weapons drawn, and as they approached, the rear door opened, and a figure climbed out.

  He was wearing a long black coat that covered a dark suit. A black fedora sat on his head and small circular spectacles perched on the bridge of his nose.

  "Ah, Doctor Lee," he called. "Sergeant Gurung, there is no further need for our guest to be restrained."

  The bandit leader turned and drew his kukri. Without looking at her, he cut her bonds so she was able to pull the gag down and draw a lungful of dry evening air. "What the hell is going on?"

  "I am sorry that subterfuge was necessary, but our mission is of the utmost importance and we could not be sure you would come willingly. Here, please come inside, you must be very cold."

  The man in black gestured to the open back doors of the military vehicle. She was beginning to shiver, but, despite its many disadvantages, the approach of menopause did at least mean she had an internal furnace she could rely on. Her BonesWare could, of course, adjust for it, but her BonesWare had been surgically, and secretly, removed. You don't keep a traitor in your midst once he's been revealed, after all.

  Still, she was glad to be out of the wind, even though it felt as though she'd climbed into a prison cell—all black and gray metal, with hard seats and bars separating her from the military personnel clambering into the front.

  "I am called Fang Fen, under-minister in the Department of Science," the little man said as he sat on the opposite bench. The floor vibrated as the engine was started up and the vehicle lurched away. "Again, I must apologize for the uncivilized way in which you were brought here. I trust that Gurung and his men were gentle."

  Annabel grunted. "Yes, they bound and gagged me as gently as possible, I'm sure. What am I doing here?"

  "Ah, the famously direct Annabel Lee," Fang said. "Your reputation for intolerance is legendary."

  Annabel didn't respond immediately. The terror was still there, and she could feel her heart banging against her ribs, but she could also sense the rage building inside her. Good. She'd found that anger made a good cloak to smother fear. Focus on the red mist, she thought as she discarded everything outside this little moving cell and the scarlet dot that was growing in her mind.

  "So, what am I doing here?"

  The little man in black gave a nervous shrug, took off his hat and fiddled with it. "I am afraid I cannot give you much information. I can only say that it is a matter of global importance. My government wishes to make you an offer that I think you will find intriguing."

  "You could have simply invited me," she snapped.

  "There could be no risk of the authorities knowing that you were here," he said.

  "Then abducting me from a monastery on the Chinese border probably wasn't the smartest idea!"

  Fen gave a little smile. "They might suspect, but they would not know for certain that you are in China. These mountains, after all, are haunted by rebels and bandits. We are circulating a fake ransom demand to throw any more determined investigators off the scent. And you will only be with us for a few days at most.

  "What we have to offer is, in short, the fulfillment of your lifelong dream to eliminate disease. Millions of lives will be saved. Surely that is of interest to you?"

  Her face darkened, and she noticed with satisfaction that he shrank away from her as she spoke. "You mistake me, Mr. Fang, because I couldn't care less if every man, woman and child on this miserable planet dropped dead tonight."

  "But your life's work?" he stammered.

  "And how was I rewarded? After all the sacrifices I made to build a system to diagnose and cure diseases. I've lost friends, family and any semblance of normality in pursuit of my noble dream. And yet I am dying, Mr. Fang. Physician heal thyself? Pah!" she spat onto the floor. "Do what you like with me, I no longer give a damn."

  She awoke the next day in a comfortable bedroom wondering, for an instant, whether the previous night's adventure had been a dream. But she was in no monastery. The walls were made of whitewashed concrete and there was no window to the outside, just a massive photo frame showing animated views of rural China.

  As she came around, she pieced together the events of the previous night. She'd fallen asleep in the back of the truck, awaking when the soporific rumble changed to the gentler vibration of a well-made road. The dark outside was punctuated by spotlights pointed at a tall gate in a razor-wire fence. So she was being taken to a military base. She'd been too exhausted to care as they led her along the corridors to the room she would sleep in. Her conversation with Fen had only succeeded in opening the door onto her black soul. A door she'd been trying desperately to secure during her month with the monks. They, at least, had recognized the darkness that dwelt inside her and they'd almost succeeded in teaching her the techniques needed to keep it at bay. And then last night had happened and she was back at square one.

  There was a gentle tap on the door. She was about to answer it when it opened. So, courtesy was skin-deep around here. Good to know.

  A young woman came in, head bowed and bearing a tray.

  "I bring you breakfast, honored guest," she said as she moved smoothly to the bed before laying the tray across Annabel's lap.

  "Thank you," Annabel responded. "What is your name?"

  The girl flushed and looked to the floor. "That is unimportant, honored guest." She backed away and left the room as quickly as she could manage.

  Annabel devoured the pancakes quickly. She'd wanted to ask the girl how they'd known she was awake, but if she wouldn't even give her name, she was unlikely to offer other, more difficult, answers. It seemed certain that her room was being monitored, perhaps using audio sensors but, just as likely, via video feed. But she needed a shower and was prepared to gamble that the famously prudish Chinese would not place a camera in there, so she stripped in the bathroom and soaked the sleep away.

  She found her own clothes lying on the bed when she returned. Not the tatty, sweat-infused jeans and linen shirt she'd been abducted in, but the spare clothes she'd brought with her to the monastery. Whoever the traitor was, he or she had been thorough.

  She'd barely pulled on a pair of chinos when, after another soft tap, the door opened to reveal a woman wearing a lab coat over military dress.

  "I am sorry to disturb you," she said. "My name is Xun Ju, lead scientist in the Humanometrics Laboratory of the People's Science Department."

  "Surely, this is a military base?"

  The woman nodded. She was of late middle age with a petite figure and graying hair that was cut short. "It was the nearest facility to the border and we wished you not to have to travel further than was necessary, so we came to you."

  "I'm honored."

  "You should be," Xun responded, missing the sarcasm in Lee's reply. "Some of our country's foremost scientists and planners are here to meet you. Now, please will you follow me?"

  Annabel took a final swig of the weak but refreshing tea and followed the woman out of the room into a sparse corridor. She got the impression she had been given a guest suite and wondered, for a moment, whether the great and the good who'd come to meet her were being housed in such luxury.

  It was an oval room with a circular table around which sat a dozen or so men and women. Two wore full military uniforms, their peaked caps placed in front of them, but most of the others wore business dress, with one or two sporting lab coats, as if they'd just that moment been
conducting experiments. She knew a carefully curated impression when she saw it—she'd been guilty of similar artifice more than once.

  Xun gestured to a seat at the far end opposite the door, and sat herself in the vacant chair next to it.

  One of the officers stood up and cleared his throat. "On behalf of the People's Republic of China, I welcome you to this classified meeting," he said with an air of pomposity that would have been amusing in other circumstances. "We regret that our identities must remain cloaked, but you may refer to us by these numbers."

  In front of each of them was a card with a number on it beginning, predictably enough, at 1 in front of the officer, round to 12. Though Lee had to focus to keep up with their spoken Mandarin, the numbers were easy enough to recognize and it was certainly a simple system.

  "I would like to invite Scientist Wu to speak," he said, gesturing at the white coated figure sitting behind the number of that name.

  "Thank you, General … Yi," the woman said, glancing at the Chinese numeral in front of the officer before standing up and turning to Annabel. "Doctor Lee, welcome to your ancestral home. I'm afraid I must begin by saying that this meeting is a secret one and that if you were to reveal anything of it to an unauthorized person, you and your family and friends would be in peril of their lives."

  Annabel stared silently at Wu. The stupid woman didn't realize that she had no family she cared about, and her friends were few and disposable. But let her think her threats hit their target. She nodded. "Understood."

  Wu was a tall woman in, Lee estimated, her mid-forties. She had a pleasant face marred by a birthmark on her neck that spread under her ear. Annabel found herself wondering why she'd never had it removed.

  "Thank you. We are great admirers of your work in health and technology and have taken pride in your achievements."

  She couldn't help herself. "Pride?"

  The woman smiled. "You are a Lee, one of us."

  "I'm half English."

  "Which makes your achievements all the more admirable."

  There was a ripple of laughter around the table.

  "But we are here to discuss matters of extreme importance. You will know that we have reverse-engineered your BonesWare technology so that the Chinese people can enjoy its benefits without being slaves to the medical insurance industry of the United States."

  Annabel felt the anger build again. "Presumably, they're now slaves to the government, or are you going to try to persuade me that you don't harvest their data?"

  "Oh, we monitor it, certainly. And we've been doing the same for the BonesWare devices in all major nations."

  "You've what?"

  Again, Wu smiled. "Yes. It took some years to crack the encryption, but anything that is transmitted can be intercepted and, eventually, decoded."

  "And what has this got to do with me?"

  General Yi got up. "I have read your biography, Doctor, and in it you state that your driving passion is to bring healthcare to all, regardless of their means or where they live. Now I ask you: have you succeeded in this?"

  "To an extent."

  "Is it not true that the pharmaceutical companies have taken over effective control? And it is they who decide which diseases your miracle invention will detect and treat? Profitable diseases, we might say."

  Annabel ground her teeth. It seemed they knew everything. She nodded curtly.

  "And is it not also true that your device failed to detect the condition from which you now suffer?"

  "How did you know that?"

  The general smiled serenely. "We have our sources. The Lee Corporation is no longer controlled by one person, as you well know."

  She slumped in her chair. "Get to the point, will you? What do you want from me?"

  The general sat down and steepled his fingers. "We have told you that we can read the data from the BonesWare devices. We have the same aim as you, we wish to ensure that everyone has access to the full benefits, but to do that we must … upgrade the firmware."

  "You want to hijack BonesWare? No chance—that system is locked down solid for exactly that reason. It would strike fear into the heart of government if they knew the Chinese controlled Bones—you could blackmail the entire country. One flick of a switch and everyone with an implant would have a heart attack."

  Now the general's smile had become crocodilian. "But we would not do that, Doctor. What would be the point? We would, however, use our leverage to influence the US government so that the benefits of BonesWare are enjoyed more equitably."

  Annabel's mind whirled as she tried to get to grips with the enormity of this plan. It amounted to holding a gun to the head of Washington D.C. and every other government around the world. It would be the beginning of the Chinese Hegemony.

  "We believe that you can open up access for our engineers," the general said, as Lee sat silently absorbing the implications. "We would prefer to have your willing cooperation."

  The implied threat hung in the air. Even though it didn't cause Lee any discomfort, it was best to have them think it did. She didn't want to appear to have turned from savior to monster, after all.

  "You will return to New York and will appoint our nominee to a new project team you will form. You will work with him to open the trapdoor and, once we have prepared it, you will insert the payload and a wonderful new world of opportunity for all will emerge."

  Welcome to Planet China.

  Chapter 1

  53 days after the Long Night

  Paulie rubbed her shoulder as she sat up and then swung her legs over the side of the bed. She wondered whether the mattresses in police cells were deliberately designed to deny the prisoner sleep and make them more pliable. A conspiracy theory? Maybe, but she decided she hadn't been nearly paranoid enough lately. Perhaps it was time to start.

  It had been only yesterday when she'd returned to Arbroath having been reunited with her daughter. The military threat, it seemed, had been averted, but the way that had been achieved had left her suspicious of the town savior, “Pastor Smith”—an identity she knew to be fake.

  The deepest and most painful wound, however, had been inflicted by her own deputies. These were people she'd have trusted with her life and yet, when it came down to it, they had sided with the false priest. Even Jon Graf, her mentor and the best friend she thought she had.

  The bars rattled to the rhythmic snoring of the man in the next cell. No, she hadn't been abandoned by them all. Marvin Tucker, the deputy she'd had the most doubts about, had proven to be truer than any of them. He made an extra loud snorting sound and then she could hear him rolling back and forth before finally giving up on any more sleep.

  "These darned cots don't get no more comfortable," he grumbled.

  "Morning, Marvin," Paulie replied. "Sleep well?"

  She heard the slap of his feet on the floor. "I did not, Sheriff. Now, if you'll pardon me, I'm gonna be makin' a little noise."

  Paulie tried not to listen to Tucker as he relieved himself but was forced to stuff her fingers in her ears to block the sound until she was sure he must have finished.

  "Having second thoughts about sticking up for me last night?" she said when she heard him settle back onto the bed.

  "Second, third and fourth," Tucker said. "But it was still the right thing to do, though I don't really understand why you got so het up about the pastor after he saw off that rabble."

  Paulie lay back on her bed and tried to make out the tiled white ceiling in the growing morning light. "You deserve to know, Marvin, but I still can't tell you. We'll see what happens today. Maybe he'll come visit us."

  In fact, her first visitor was Jon Graf. He brought a steaming bowl of oatmeal and a face full of shame. Paulie didn't say a word as she took the bowl and laid it to one side.

  "You should eat," Graf said softly. "No sense starving yourself."

  Paulie considered ignoring him but couldn't hold the words back. "How could you? You of all people? The one man I thought I could trust!"
/>   "Charmin'" Marvin said from the other cell.

  "Oh, give it a rest," Paulie snapped. "Turned out I was wrong about you both."

  Graf pulled up a stool which he placed some feet from her before sitting down.

  "Where's my daughter?" Paulie asked.

  "She's safe in my quarters," he responded. "Her and the dog."

  Paulie felt her stomach tightening as she yearned to see and hold Luna again. "How did she react to her mother being hauled away like a common criminal?"

  Graf looked down at the floor. "She was mighty upset. I don't reckon she slept more than a couple of hours last night. Neither did I."

  "Guilty conscience?" Paulie hissed. "Anyway, who's looking after her now?"

  "Nicky."

  "Nicky who?"

  Graf shrugged and resumed his examination of the floor. "Friedman. She and I, we've, well we've …"

  "Seriously?" Paulie said, swinging round as a wolf whistle emerged from Tucker's cell. "She's half your age!"

  "Go get 'em, tiger," Marvin called, laughing.

  The haunted look in Graf's eyes as he looked up at her was almost enough to make her relent. "We make each other happy. Who knows what the future holds?"

  "So, you were siding with her as much as Smith, is that it?"

  Again, the shrug. "Maybe. But the town needs stability, Paulie."

  "The town's got the mayor."

  "Folk won't follow her, not like they follow Smith. And if we'd tried to take him away in front of a crowd who'd just seen him send those militia thugs away, we'd have been torn to shreds."

  Paulie settled back down again as she forced her breathing to slow. This was not a time for a hot head. "What sort of a police force shies away from doing what's right just because it isn't popular with the people?"

  "The kind that stays alive," Graf said. "Look, I understand why you're mad, and I don't expect you to forgive me …"

  "Good!"