Some people were alive but might as well have been dead; others contributed more dead than they ever had alive. Doctor Bu Cunzai was clearly one of the latter.
No one remembered Doctor Bu's real name anymore. From the moment he accepted Doctor Gao's treatment, he was destined to become someone who did not exist.
Pinned to the floor, Doctor Bu's eyes seemed to turn into the jaws of a savage beast, filled with fangs, ready to swallow Doctor Gao whole. But as the drug gradually took effect, his memories burst like bubbles. The world in his eyes became a jigsaw puzzle dropped from a great height, shattered into pieces.
"Doctor Gao... you..."
Rope wound around Doctor Bu's body. Doctor Gao wrapped Bu Cunzai in a black bag and dragged him toward the door.
Bone Wax helped too. Together, they dragged Bu Cunzai into the elevator, watching the floor numbers change as they calculated when the garbage truck would arrive to collect the trash.
"Is he dead?"
"Not yet."
"Do we have enough time?"
"The garbage truck from Pig Village makes a circuit of the residential district and leaves after collecting all the trash. That takes about fifteen minutes, or twenty if there's a lot."
Racing against the clock, the two reached the ground floor, stuffed Doctor Bu into a garbage bin, and slipped around to the other side of the flower bed.
The garbage truck approached, moving slowly through the night. Two strong, dim-witted young men from Pig Village climbed out and worked together to tilt the bin against the back of the truck. As the conveyor mechanism started up, the bin rose, dumping all its contents into the truck's compartment.
One of the young men from Pig Village twitched his nostrils and sniffed a few times.
"I smell