Negatives

The old building's second floor was much more spacious than the warehouse. Welded-shut iron doors lined both sides of the corridor, and two rows of fluorescent tubes hung overhead, providing enough light to show even the traces of dust gathered in the corners.

After climbing through the window, Jin'en went no farther. He pressed against the wall at the corridor's corner and extended Spatial Perception at its finest resolution.

There were three living signatures on the second floor. One was rummaging through things in the room at the end of the corridor; the other two stood guard by the stairs.

The two on the first floor had not moved. They were still in their original positions.

The door to the room at the end of the corridor stood half open, with light spilling through the gap.

Jin'en crept along the wall, keeping his footsteps quiet. Halfway there, he heard a drawer being pulled open inside, followed by something falling to the floor and papers scattering everywhere.

He turned sideways and glanced through the gap in the door.

There was only one person inside, crouching with his back to the door as he picked things up. A kraft-paper file envelope and several photographs lay scattered at his feet.

Two unopened cardboard boxes sat on the desk, their sealing tape cut halfway through.

Jin'en did not rush inside.

He leaned back against the wall and focused his attention on the two guards by the stairs.

Neither spoke. Occasionally, clothing rustled. One of them paced a few steps down the corridor, then retreated.

The room at the end of the corridor had no windows, only a single door.

The person rummaging through things was still crouched on the floor, unaware of anyone at the doorway.

Jin'en conjured the black rod, its shaft resting against his palm, its dark shimmer subdued.

He slipped sideways into the room, closed in behind the man in two steps, and touched the rod's tip to the back of his neck.

The crouching man froze.

"Let go. Don't touch anything."

The man put the photograph in his hand back on the floor and slowly raised both hands.

Jin'en did not let him turn around. Keeping the rod's tip against the back of his neck, he used his other hand to pick up the file envelope and photographs scattered across the floor.

There were seven or eight photographs. He turned them over to inspect their backs. Most bore codenames and coordinate annotations. Two had "Scarlet Mallow" written on the back, and another had "Mandrake."

The file envelope also contained a stack of negatives in a clear plastic sleeve.

Jin'en drew out the negatives and held them up to the fluorescent light. They were a sequence of candid shots of Broken Rainbow in a Bridge District alley, one after another, recording everything from her turning into the alley to her crouching to tie her shoelaces. They were from the same batch as the photographs scattered across the desk.

"Are these all the negatives?"

"That's all. Old Zheng told me to keep the negatives and photographs separate. The photographs go in the file envelope, and the negatives get their own plastic sleeves. He said the negatives were worth more than the photographs. If the photographs get lost, we can make more prints. If the negatives are gone, they're gone for good."

Jin'en tucked the negatives inside his coat, together with the file envelope.

"Where's Old Zheng tonight?"

"I don't know... He stopped by this afternoon, dropped the stuff off, and left.

"He said he wouldn't be here tonight. Told us to sort everything out and move the cardboard boxes to the first floor before the vehicle comes tomorrow morning."

"And after you move them downstairs?"

"The vehicle takes them away."

"Did you note down the license plate?"

"No. I just move things. I don't handle the vehicle."

Jin'en had finished his questions.

He withdrew the rod's tip. The man still did not dare turn around and remained crouching.

"Stand up. Go to the stairs."

The man's legs were a little weak when he stood, and he had to brace himself against the edge of the desk to steady himself.

Jin'en made him walk ahead while following half a step behind, pressing the rod's tip against his back again.

The corridor was quiet. The two men at the stairs turned at the sound of footsteps.

Seeing one of their own in front with a stranger following behind, one reached behind his waist.

"Don't move." Jin'en thrust the rod's tip forward. A dark shimmer spilled from its shaft and spread along the corridor floor.

An arc-shaped ridge bulged up from the concrete floor at the stairs, right in front of the two men's feet, blocking off the corridor.

"Tell them to back up. To the turn in the stairs."

The man in front obeyed.

The two men by the stairs retreated two steps, pressing their backs against the wall at the turn.

Jin'en did not approach. He stayed in the middle of the corridor, pointing the rod's tip at them.

"All three of you, downstairs. Take the side door. Once you're outside, go two streets east. Don't look back."

Nobody moved.

Jin'en lowered the rod's tip an inch, and the ridge in the floor pushed forward another half foot.

The three men went downstairs.

Standing at the end of the second-floor corridor, Jin'en heard the iron side door open and close. Only when their footsteps had faded did he withdraw his perception.

The two downstairs had not chased after them. They remained on the first floor.

Jin'en did not climb back out through the window.

He walked a few steps farther down the corridor and found the fire escape beside the second iron door around the corner.

The door opened directly outside the rear wall. There were no lights in the alley.

By the time he climbed out, someone was already crouching at the foot of the wall, waiting.

Broken Rainbow leaned beside the foot of the fire escape ladder, her blade across her knees. She stood when she saw him emerge.

"The two downstairs didn't move," she said, her tone flat, as though reporting accounts. "The three who left through the side door went east. They didn't circle back."

"You were even counting?"

"I was crouching outside for almost ten minutes." Broken Rainbow put her blade away with a crisp movement.

"You said to count to thirty. Thirty passed, and there was still nothing at the window, so I climbed in."

"And then?"

"Once I got inside, those two on the first floor were standing in the corridor. They didn't go upstairs.

"I listened at the turn in the stairs for a while. There wasn't any fighting on the second floor, so I knew you were fine."

She paused. "You spent a little too long alone up there."

"The negatives were on the second floor." Jin'en drew the plastic sleeve from inside his coat and waved it in front of her.

"Old Zheng kept the negatives separately in the second-floor room and the photographs in the file envelope. Lost photographs can be printed again. Lost negatives are gone for good."

Broken Rainbow did not take the negatives. She glanced at them, then withdrew her hand. "How many of the photographs were of me?"

"The ones of you crouching in the alley, tying your shoelaces."

"Close-range shots. Taken lying on the ground." Broken Rainbow turned sideways and headed toward the alley entrance. "Old Zheng wasn't there. The two on the first floor didn't chase anyone outside, which means their orders were to guard the stuff, not pursue people. The vehicle won't come tonight."

"How do you know?"

"If the vehicle were still coming, Old Zheng wouldn't have left the negatives unattended on the second floor.

"Leaving the negatives upstairs means he wasn't coming to collect them himself tonight."

Broken Rainbow reached the alley entrance, tilted her head to glance out at the street, then stepped back. "Did you get the list?"

"The negatives are the source for the list. The codenames and coordinates on the backs of the photographs are the list." Jin'en took out the file envelope and pulled out the photographs.

Broken Rainbow leaned closer to examine the writing on the backs. The corner of her mouth moved.

"Scarlet Mallow." She read out the annotation beside her own codename. "Old Zheng's got me figured out pretty thoroughly. He even recorded which alley I took on which day."

"He wasn't investigating you for your sake."

"I know." Broken Rainbow turned the photograph over and looked at the candid shot of herself.

"He wanted to see how tightly you were tied to me."

Neither said anything more.

When they made their way out of the alley, there were few people on the street. Everything was quiet by the old building's side door. The three men really had gone east.

Once inside the car, Jin'en spread everything from the file envelope across the front passenger seat and checked it all.

There were nine photographs in total: three of Daffodil, four of Broken Rainbow, and two of Porsette.

Each had a date and location written on the back, without numerical coordinates. But Old Zheng's annotations included location descriptions such as "Bridge District," "near the mansion," and "outside the library," for cross-referencing with the coordinate records.

There were four rolls of negatives in total, wrapped in clear plastic sleeves with small labels attached.

One roll's label read "Scarlet Mallow-mansion perimeter-undeveloped." Two others were Daffodil's. The remaining roll's label had no name, only a date.

"The date." Jin'en held the roll without a label up to the dashboard light. "This roll is of me."

"You're sure?"

"Old Zheng said he'd only just started my file and hadn't found anything yet. If this roll were of Daffodil or Porsette, he would have written a name. He didn't write anything, which means he took these pictures on impulse and hadn't had time to file them yet."

Broken Rainbow took the roll and held it close to the light. The images were negatives, and the figure was blurry, but the outline was recognizable, at the corner of Halfwidth Street in the Bridge District.

Jin'en recognized the angle. It had been taken when he walked out of the alley a few days earlier.

"He's watching you." Broken Rainbow put the negatives back. "This roll needs to be disposed of."

"We can't keep the negatives. The photographs need to be dealt with too."

Broken Rainbow put the photographs and negatives back into the file envelope. "Are you planning to hand this back?"

"No. I'll show it to Daffodil tonight. We need to deal with her material thoroughly first, then take it to Mother."

As the car turned onto the gravel road halfway up the mountain, Broken Rainbow suddenly spoke.

"Brother."

"Mm."

"Old Zheng didn't show up tonight because he knew you'd come. He left the negatives on the second floor and the photographs on the first so you'd only be able to get one or the other." Broken Rainbow rested her blade across her knees and tapped its sheath with a finger. "You got the negatives without losing the photographs. He lost both."

"So he didn't come tonight."

"He didn't dare." Broken Rainbow turned to look at Jin'en.

"While Old Zheng was looking into me, he was also asking a cigarette seller about you.

"That cigarette seller doesn't just sell cigarettes. He takes in all the bits and pieces of information around that part of the Bridge District.

"Old Zheng knew you'd go to the old building, so he put the stuff in separate places, hoping to save whichever part he could. In the end, you got both."

Jin'en did not respond. He parked the car in the hidden compartment in the backyard.

After getting out, he did not take the side corridor, instead going around to the gravel path behind the mountain.

Broken Rainbow followed him, and they stopped behind the large rock.

"We need to go see Daffodil tonight," Jin'en said.

"She went east to investigate the white van. She might not be in the Bridge District tonight."

"She left a contact point at the shoe repair stall. Leave a note there, and the old man will pass it on."

Jin'en took out the file envelope, drew out a photograph of Daffodil, and wrote a line on the back before handing it to Broken Rainbow. "Put this in the shoe repair stall's collection box. Once she sees the photograph, she'll know we have the negatives."