6
Block 9, Singapore General Hospital
August 2, :00 p.m. SGT
Charlie Han had not expected to find the sister compelling.
From her polished hair and smooth skin to the elegance of her clothes, she looked very much the white, pampered American his men had tailed in Seattle. A lily-white orchid thriving in the fertile shade of the well-heeled yachting world.
Yet what he felt toward Nadia Brenner wasn’t disgust, but pity.
After he’d hammered the mystery around in his skull, understanding came. He recognized the unfiltered grief and horror in the girl’s expression—he’d seen it on his parents’ faces when they learned that Xiao—their daughter, his sister—had been arrested for treason.
He’d seen it on his own face that same night in the aluminum mirror at the boys’ dorm.
Charlie had killed more than a few people. Some he’d murdered with his bare hands, others with a knife, a few through the expedient and recently deployed method of defenestration—tossing someone out a window. He would carry their lives forever. But it appalled him to realize that if it came to killing Nadia Brenner, he would do so with some regret.
Having robbed her of her sister, he was oddly reluctant to rob her of her life.