Earth, As It Is
*****
New York
United States
Two Months Later
The eight weeks since Tai’s arrival and Ben’s mysterious call had gone by faster than she had anticipated. Saara’s visit had gone well. Liao had shown the planet Earth to the wide-eyed, excited Toralii, whose poor mood had seemingly evaporated once she had taken Saara out of the city. There, Saara was as bubbly as a child visiting Disneyland, and the smallest thing was something new and fresh for her: grass, cars, highways. It had been good to see Saara, and it was good to keep her promises, but eventually, she and James had returned to duty, leaving Liao alone. Initially, she feared that caring for her infant would overwhelm her, but Tai stepped in to help her better than she possibly could have hoped. He’d done something amazing, something that changed her current situation immeasurably.
He’d arranged for a nanny.
While she’d considered it, usually in the wee hours of the morning while trying to feed her screaming child, Liao opposed the idea with the kind of fiery, defensive, illogical arguments she struggled to justify even to herself. The unnamed baby was her responsibility, and if she could manage a two-hundred-thousand-tonne starship, she could manage a single infant. A child needed her mother for those early years, and despite the considerable effort it took, Liao valued being with her.
However, her resolve eventually wore down, and, exhausted and desperate, she gave in.
The nanny Tai hired, Jennifer Pycroft, was a thin African-American woman in her early twenties, and Liao was initially deeply suspicious of her. In Tai’s eyes, the tattered American economy meant finding a suitable person for the job was easy; for the simple position of part-time nanny, he’d received over two hundred applications from people with impressive resumes: scientists whose research grants had dried up, soldiers who could barely live on their benefits payments, teachers whose positions had been made redundant. She knew that, for many young adults, especially those in their teens who had never held a job, peddling their meagre skills in a brutal job market was a struggle.
While this meant that he and Liao had their pick of whom they wanted for the position, it also planted the seed of doubt in Liao’s mind. She didn’t want someone desperate, someone who badly needed money, to have access to her child. What if the person were a psychopath? A child abuser? What if he or she were desperate enough to kidnap her child for ransom?
But Jennifer, in their very first meeting, was shy and polite. Liao could tell that Jennifer very much wanted to make a good impression. She dressed well, smiled a lot, and when Tai finally hired her, Jennifer completely changed everything. Kind and considerate, infinitely patient, warm and loving, Jennifer had lit up when she saw the baby for the first time. Liao appreciated how carefully she cradled the child in her arms and how she babbled in adorable, loving baby talk. Because of Jennifer, Liao could now sleep through the night without being interrupted by crying. She could go out and do things without being shackled to her apartment. She felt as though her life was her own again.
Her rest, like all things, eventually ended… not with the urgent, despair-inducing wail of a hungry child, but with the gentle grace of the sun warming her face. Sliding out of bed, Liao brushed the sleep from her eyes and spent a moment doing the unthinkable, fixing her hair.
On board the Beijing, Liao had kept it short as a matter of practicality, but her own preference was to wear her hair long. While she did remain on the payroll of the Chinese military, she was effectively out of any actual, required work; nobody had come to check that she was maintaining the grooming standard or that her hair was an acceptable length, and Tai wouldn’t tell a soul, so she wore it as she pleased.
Satisfied that she was now presentable, Liao pulled open the internal door of her bedroom and stepped into the living area. The apartment was blissfully quiet, and Jennifer’s purse was resting on the small table by the door. Pushing open the spare bedroom door, Liao saw Jennifer bottle-feeding the baby as Tai casually looked outside through the blinds.
“Hey,” Liao kept her voice quiet, “she eating okay?”
“Like a dream, Miss Liao.” The baby gave a mindless gurgle. She seemed to respond well to Jennifer’s thick, smooth Louisianan accent. Jennifer gave a wide, eager smile, and Liao returned it in kind.
“Good.” She turned to Tai. “Hey, you up for some pizza from that place across the road?”
“Again? Sure, as long as you’re buying.”
“Well, you won’t be able to be much of a bodyguard if you don’t eat something.” Liao’s gaze fell on Jennifer. “You want anything?”
Jennifer’s interest was obvious, but she shook her head, keeping the bottle held snugly so the baby could drink. “No, thank you, miss. I can’t afford anything like that. Money’s real tight with my dad and my sisters at the moment. I brought a sandwich; that’ll do.”
Liao respected her discipline. “My shout,” she offered.
The young woman’s eyes lit up, but hesitation was visible there, too, an unwillingness to offend her employer even though Liao’s offer was made easily and genuinely. This simple job, Liao knew, was important to Jennifer.
But evidently her desire for pizza won out. “Pepperoni?”
Liao gave her a grin. “I’ll see what I can do.”
Pizza turned out to be just what Liao wanted. There was a street stand, just two blocks from their apartment, that served the most delicious pizza she had ever tasted, New York style. The man working the stand, a heavyset Caucasian man named Anthony, who seemed to be perpetually smiling, appeared to have a talent for names. Whenever she and Tai visited, he would greet them by name, asking if they wanted their usual.
Liao wanted to support local businesses as much as she could in these economically dark times. She had a lot of sympathy for Anthony, and it helped that he made an expensive but tasty treat.
“The usual, Melissa?” Anthony boomed in his deep, cheerful voice as he saw them approach, beaming to them as though greeting old friends.
“The usual for us both.” She found his smile infectious.
“Fifty bucks a slice, usual price.”
The American economy had suffered greatly in the financial collapse nearly a decade before. The United States had borrowed ever-increasing amounts to pay for foreign wars and bailouts of companies too sick to compete in an international market. They had then tried to inflate their way out of the debt. Their creditors had simply indexed the debt in Euros, and the United States had defaulted. Now the dollar was basically worthless. If it weren’t for the construction of the Pillars of the Earth bringing people back to work and creating a market for unskilled labour in the country, things would be much worse off.
“Three hundred, then.” Liao flicked through a wad of notes, careful to keep them close to her chest. A number of vagrants sat nearby, watching the proceedings with envious eyes, no doubt eyeing her cash and smelling the pizza. “Here.”
Anthony took the money and then looked at someone over Liao’s shoulder. “Hey, it’s James! Come back for the world’s best pizza, ’ey?”
Liao whirled around, her smile intensifying when she saw James. “James! I wasn’t expecting you back for…”
But James’s face was a grim mask, and he was wearing his uniform. Her smile disappeared just as quickly as it had arrived. “What’s wrong?” she asked.
He stepped up to her, leaning right up to her ear and whispering so only she could hear.
“Get your stuff. Get the baby. We’re leaving for the airport. A Broadsword is coming to take us into orbit later this evening.”
“To orbit?” Liao frowned. “What’s wrong? What’s happened?” she whispered back.
“The Kel-Voranians withdrew their embassy. The bastards just packed up and left without saying a word; a ship picked them up a few hours ago. Intelligence has us at high alert. Something’s going down, and we don’t know what it is. The Pillars are being prepared for combat, and the crews are being recalled from leave.”
Liao felt the familiar feeling of adrenaline pumping through her body, the rush that came with suddenly being at the very forefront of events taking place around her. No longer was she getting information through the nightly news or the papers; this was living in the middle of history being made.
“Why do they need me?”
“They don’t, but I put in a special request. I need a consultant I can trust. Given the threat against you, we’re taking the kid, too.”
She pulled her head back from James, suddenly feeling like her old self again. She’d be going back into space. Not aboard her ship, mind, but a ship. It was enough for her. “Let’s go,” she said. “I can be ready in an hour.”
Tai snatched up the pizza slices, and the three of them power walked back towards the apartment building.
“What’s happened?” Tai asked, reaching a hand into the paper packet, extracting a slice, and blowing on it urgently.
“I’m being recalled to the Tehran.” She gave him an apologetic smile. “Sorry.”
Tai looked genuinely saddened but nodded. “Damn. Well, I’ll take care of your affairs here. The apartment will be nice and clean when you get back.”
Liao grinned at him. “That’ll be a nice change.” Suddenly she stopped, rolling her eyes. “I forgot Jennifer’s, dammitt. I promised her.”
With Liao leading, the three jogged back to the pizza stand.
“Sorry,” she said breathlessly to Anthony, “three more pepperoni.”
“It’s fine,” he said, shaking his head, a broad smile on his face as he handed her the extras. “Always happy to sell more pizza.”
She hurriedly withdrew her purse and paid for three pepperoni slices, and then they started back again to her apartment. Hurrying down the street, Liao pointed down a cramped alley between two apartment blocks.
“Let’s cut through here. It’s a shortcut.”
James seemed sceptical, but she started down the narrow alley, and they followed.
“So,” James said to Tai, “you feel comfortable staying here while Liao and I go back to space? You should be used to the place by now.”
“Hah, you must be kidding, Captain.” He chuckled. “Living in this city, surrounded by Americans? I think I’ll go crazy by the time—”
A man, unshaven and unkempt, stepped into their path. He was lily-skinned and sickly, gaunt even, as though he spent his days inside. His hair was a tangled mop, his body cloaked in a worn brown overcoat. Liao glanced at his face. Their eyes met for a moment, and within his hazel gaze she saw… something, something deep and instinctive, primal, a subtle subconscious warning too powerful to ignore.
This wasn’t just another vagrant. They had passed dozens on the way through the city already, their presence almost invisible by now, but this man was different. This one was looking directly at them, not as a ploy to attract pity and sympathy, but with something darker. The desperation was no less or no more with this man than the others, but one difference was key. He was willing to do them harm.
She stopped walking just as the man reached into a deep pocket, withdrew a silver revolver, and holding it at his hip, levelled it at Liao.
“Your wallets and phones. Now.”
For a tense moment, the three of them, surprised and uncertain, stared at the man. His voice was quiet but charged with sincerity. Liao felt her pulse quicken, the same reaction she had in combat. However, this time she didn’t have two hundred thousand tonnes of warship surrounding her and a battery of missiles and guns.
“Now! You first, nigger!”
He looked like a drug addict, Liao thought, although he didn’t have the typical bloodshot eyes that addicts usually possessed. A drug addict with eye drops, apparently.
Liao held out her hands, palms upwards. “Look, you’re making a terrible mistake. I’m—”
“I don’t care who you fucking gooks are.” The man levelled his pistol at her, and Liao took a step backward.
“It’s okay.” James threw Liao a side glance, nodding approvingly, and slowly reached into his pocket. He withdrew his wallet, passing it over.
The man took it eagerly, shoving it into his back pocket. “Phone?”
“Don’t have one.”
The man looked as though he was going to argue, but instead he pointed his weapon at Tai.
“Fine, whatever. Now you, tough guy. Don’t try anything, or I’ll blow your fucking face off.”
Tai nodded acceptingly, his hand already in his pocket. “Fine, here you go. Just don’t do anything rash, and let me get my ID chip out. That’s of no value to you. How about I just hand you the cash instead?”
The man nodded in nervous agreement, glancing over his shoulder momentarily. For a second, Liao worried Tai was going to do something stupid, but his hand returned with his ID and the wallet was handed over. “I don’t have a phone either.”
“Fine, whatever. Now you, lady.”
“Okay,” said Liao. “Let me get my ID out first, too, okay?”
“Fine, fine, just fucking hurry it up.”
Fumbling, Liao reached into her pocket, reaching for her small purse. The man extended his empty hand.
“Keep quiet and give it to me real easy, no tricks,” he said, the hand holding the firearm trembling slightly. “Hurry up!”
It was gone. Liao tried all her pockets. “Dammit, I must have left it at Anthony’s when I went back to pay for the pizza.”
The man’s agitation suddenly grew. “You’re fucking shitting me. Bullshit. Bullshit!”
Liao held up her hands. “I’m not. I’m not. I just left it—”
“I’ll fucking end you, you lying bitch!”
Tai stepped forward, moving in front of her. “Everybody just calm down! We already gave you what we have. Now—”
“Who are you, a fucking cop? You’re a fucking cop! That’s why you didn’t want me to see your ID—because you’re a cop!”
“What? No! No. Nobody here’s a cop, okay? Nobody.”
“Look,” said Liao, “here. Here’s my phone. Take it and go.” She reached into her breast pocket, withdrawing the small black brick and holding it out. The strange man, relief crossing his face, snatched the device and jammed it into a pocket.
Then his eyes lit up, wide and panicked, looking at something behind her. On instinct, Liao turned. Someone was entering the gap between the two buildings. She recognised the rotund form of Anthony, his hand holding her purse.
“Hey, Melissa, ya forgot yer—”
Their assailant, now behind her, shouted something incomprehensible and fired, the loud gunshot echoing against the walls of the building. Anthony jerked, startled. Then he turned and ran.
James’s strong hands pushed Liao out of the way, and she saw that Tai now held a compact handgun. Tai aimed it quickly, pulling the trigger. The handgun’s loud roar almost drowned out the cry of their attacker, the round catching the surprised man in his upper arm.
Wounded, he howled, waving his pistol around like a lunatic. Tai fired again, the round knocking a chunk out of the brick wall. The mugger regained some semblance of wit. His pistol barked twice, a loud crack like a firework exploding near Liao’s head, and she felt James’s hands around her shoulders, pulling her to the pavement. Liao heard two more shots fired, recognising the loud retort of the man’s revolver as she raised her head in time to see the man, wounded and panicked, turning and running down the alley, stumbling occasionally, his footsteps beating a rapid retreat away from where James and Liao lay sprawled.
“You okay?” asked James.
Liao closed her eyes a moment, hands trembling slightly before she stilled them. “I’m fine,” she said, inhaling and opening her eyes, her ears ringing from the loud gunshots. She had fought alien warships. She had repelled Toralii boarders. She was a decorated war hero. However, despite the year she’d spent in space staring down death at every turn, a normal man with a gun had managed to rattle her. It was the striking normality of it all, something aside from aliens and space battles, something real and common. “Thanks for that.”
James laughed, leaning in and kissing her cheek from behind. “Don’t worry; I’ve got your back. You okay, Tai?”
He didn’t answer. Liao twisted her body, looking over her shoulder. “Tai?”
Tai lay on his back, his skin ghostly white, his body as limp as a doll. Two blooming red flowers crept over his chest, blood seeping onto the concrete below.
It took her a second to process what had happened, but the moment the reality of the situation hit her, she was moving. She broke away from James’s grasp, crawling over to Tai’s prone form. She fumbled inside Tai’s pocket, pulling out his phone with one hand and tossing it to James. “Call an ambulance!”
Liao lifted Tai’s head, cradling it as the Chinese man’s blood poured into her lap. She watched as James, ashen faced, flipped open Tai’s phone, tapped in 911, and held the device to his ear. Liao looked back down at her bodyguard and friend.
“Kang, Kang, can you hear me?”
He didn’t move. She propped up his head, pulling it into her lap, while her other hand searched for his injuries. “Don’t worry, okay? James is getting help. We’re getting help.” She gave a quiet, nervous laugh as she adjusted Tai’s head, eliciting a soft groan from the barely conscious man. “What kind of a bodyguard dies from a couple of little boo-boos like that, hey? Suck it up; you’ll be fine. You’re going to be fine.” She brushed a clump of Tai’s hair away from his face with a bloodied hand, her gaze turning up to James. “How long…?”
James asked the operator and then nodded to Liao. “Four minutes. They’re coming as fast as they can.” He spoke into the phone. “Yes, I’ll cover the cost.”
“Fuck!” Liao pressed her hands to Tai’s ghastly wounds, pushing her fingers to his blood-soaked shirt, trying to stem the blood loss. “Kang, you hear that, yeah? Four minutes. You’ve gotta take care of my apartment when I’m out, you know, so you’ve got a lot more work to do. And after that… after that, I’m going to get my ship back, and I’m going to need… I’m going to need people I can trust. You can work with Cheung. We’ll get you a nice cushy position on that boat, okay?”
Tai’s blood continued to spill unabated onto the pavement. Liao’s hands were soaked up to her elbows, but she kept her hands pressed against the entry wounds.
“But you listen to me, Kang,” she continued. “If you die, I swear to God I’ll have you thrown off my boat. You hear me? If you die, you’re getting the boot, and don’t you dare think I won’t… Don’t you dare even think that for a second… because I will. I will. I will.”
She kept her hands there, failing to hold Tai’s lifeblood within his body, pressing on his wounds even after the ambulance arrived. She rode with them, keeping the pressure on her friend’s injuries all the way through the journey to the shock trauma ward, releasing it only after the doctors had pronounced Tai’s time of death.
6:56 p.m., Thursday, August 18, 2039.
8:30pm
James and Liao took a driverless cab back to her apartment, the ride taken mostly in silence aside from asking each other if they were fine over and over like a broken record. She’d had time, at least, to wash her hands before making her statement to the police, two tired-looking officers who dutifully took down her details but reminded her that the likelihood of finding the person who had killed Tai—and making a conviction stick—was low. So many crimes of this nature occurred every day that the local law enforcement, its funding slashed to almost nothing, had little hope of catching someone who wasn’t arrested at the scene.
She felt strangely empty, just as she had after Velsharn was destroyed by her ship’s missiles. Sadness, self-pity, resentment: none of these things would bring back Kang Tai, his body occupying a tiny block in the district hospital’s morgue.
Anger was there, too. Yes, Tai was her bodyguard, but why did he do that? The man who accosted them was only looking for money, and he’d escaped with most of it anyway. Yes, he had fired at Anthony, but perhaps he could have still been reasoned with. Maybe there could have been a way to end the encounter without bloodshed, but he’d chosen to act, and now her friend was dead. He was a good man, a useful person. To intervene was a stupid, risky decision, and Tai should have known better.
Or so she told herself silently, over and over.
The autonomous vehicle pulled up outside Liao’s apartment, and a robotic voice read out the cost. James swiped his card over the pay receiver, and with an electronic chime, the doors unlocked.
“Thank you for riding Flexicar New York, your safe, prompt service.”
Safe. Liao did not feel particularly safe in this city, and she scanned the area with cautious eyes before stepping out of the vehicle. James held the door open so the car wouldn’t leave.
“Don’t worry about packing; we don’t have time. Just grab the baby and some essentials.” He paused a moment. “Are you okay?” James asked, reaching out with his other hand and gently touching her hip. It was almost exactly where her scar was.
Liao nodded, inhaling gently. “I will be. It’s okay.” She looked up at the towering, concrete pillar. “Jennifer will be freaking out if she’s still here.”
James shook his head. “She would have gone home by now; it’s late.”
The idea of her child being alone in the apartment for hours suddenly invigorated her. Without saying anything, she stepped purposefully towards the heavy steel door of the apartment complex, swiping her key and pulling the door open. Her immediate destination was the elevator; a swift jab of her finger at the button summoned it to her, the wait intolerable.
After what seemed like the longest ride in the history of the universe, Liao stepped out onto their floor. She broke into a run, swiping her card over the door’s sensor and pushing it open. Immediately, the sound of a wailing baby reached her ears, and her heart stopped.
“Hello?!”
Jennifer stepped out from the kitchen, cradling the screaming infant, distress on her face. “Miss Liao! Oh, thank God. What happened? Where did you go?”
Liao leaned against a wall, suddenly realising that she had been holding her breath. “We were mugged,” she said simply. “Tai was shot.”
The young woman’s eyes went wide. “Is he okay?”
Liao ran her hand through her hair. “Sorry, I would have called earlier, but he took my phone, and we left Tai’s phone in the ambulance. We didn’t have your number.”
Jennifer bounced the baby gently, trying to get her to calm down. “Ambulance?”
“He’s dead. Sorry. We did everything we could, but…”
Jennifer stopped, freezing completely in place. “I… oh my God!”
“I know. I’m sorry. He just lost too much blood.”
“What? What happened?”
“We got to Anthony’s place and got the food, but I forgot yours. I went back to get it, and on the way back, this guy just walked out of nowhere and pulled a pistol on us. I guess the guy saw us the first time and had enough time to see we had cash. Anthony chased after us to return my wallet, and it startled the mugger. There was a firefight. The man was wounded, but he got Tai. Then he ran off.”
“I… oh God. Sorry, sorry. I tried calling your phone over and over… I guess that’s why you didn’t pick up.” She hesitated. “I… ran out of credit, so I used your landline to call my dad, Miss Liao, just to let him know where I was. He was seriously freaked out. I’m sorry. I’ll pay you for the cost, somehow—”
Liao had totally forgotten about the landline. She momentarily cursed herself for her stupidity. “No, it’s fine. Don’t worry about it. Look, Jennifer, something else has happened, too. I’m being recalled.”
Jennifer’s face fell, her expression one of shock and devastation. “Wh-what?”
“There’s something big going down. I needed to be at the airport about fifteen minutes ago.” Liao moved as she spoke, stepping into her bedroom, yanking down the biggest suitcase she had and throwing it open on the bed. Jennifer followed her as Liao threw random items of clothing haphazardly into the case.
“Miss Liao, I’m… I’m sorry about Tai.”
“It’s okay. He was doing his job.” Liao felt her voice tighten as she tried to keep herself calm, throwing in her dress uniform’s shoes alongside her boots, not caring if the latter got scratched. “And he’s gone. We can’t do anything to change that. I’m sorry about it, too, especially with all this happening.”
Jennifer’s tone was thick with emotion, as though it were she who had pulled the trigger. “I’m sorry, Miss Liao. I’m really, really sorry. I’ll pray for him tonight.”
“I know. It’s okay.” Liao took a breath, yanking out and upending her underwear drawer into the case. “He was a good man, and he died doing his duty. His family will be proud.” She studied the young woman’s dark face, frowning slightly. “Is everything okay?”
“No… well, yes, are…” Jennifer hesitated, her voice cracking. “Are you thinking of replacing him as your bodyguard when you go back into space?”
“James will probably find someone for me on the ship,” Liao admitted, “and Commodore Vong will probably insist upon it. The military tends to be somewhat callous when it comes to replacing us. Unfortunately, we’re interchangeable cogs in a giant machine.” She met Jennifer’s gaze for a moment and then shook her head and looked away. “Bastards will probably dock his Friday pay because he’s dead.”
“And you’re taking the baby with you?”
“Yeah.”
Jennifer hesitated, and Liao heard her shuffle ever so slightly. “I… see.” Her voice trembled slightly as she spoke. “And… when will you be back?”
“I don’t know,” Liao answered, moving into their bathroom en suite and gathering anything that looked important, vitamin pills, deodorant, her favourite comb. “I’m just going to leave most of this stuff here. I don’t have time to pack it. The apartment’s paid up for the next month. Take whatever you want.”
Jennifer followed Liao as she walked, gently bouncing the baby. “And you’re leaving right now?”
“Yeah.” Liao threw the armful of assorted stuff into the case.
“Can I come with you?”
Liao stopped, blinking in confusion. “Honestly, I could use your help, but there’s a lot of protocol to go through before I can just bring a civilian on board a military ship. Trust me; Summer’s paperwork was crazy.” She laughed. “Besides, believe me; it’s not exactly a pleasant life up there.”
Jennifer’s voice suddenly became pleading. “I don’t care if it’s not comfortable, Miss Liao. I really need this job. Even if it’s part time, it’s all that’s keeping my sister in school. My family needs it. There are five of us, and I’m the only one who brings in any income. I know Mister Tai was the one who hired me, and I know I messed up, but I’ve worked so hard for you—”
“What? No, you’ve been a gem. You haven’t messed up. That’s not why this is happening.” Liao struggled to comprehend, confused. Her packing was forgotten momentarily. “Why did you say you messed up?”
“It’s just… if I hadn’t asked for anything while ya’ll were out, then you wouldn’t have gone back for my slices, and none of this would have happened.” Jennifer’s voice cracked again, and Liao could see her emotions starting to get the better of her. “I’m so sorry. I am. I’m sorry. Just, please…”
She processed Jennifer’s words for a moment, and then understanding dawned. “It’s not your fault. Hey, easy, it’s not your fault… I offered to shout you, remember? You’re not responsible for what happened.”
“But…”
Liao stepped closer, reaching out and touching Jennifer’s cheek. “Look, they pay me no matter what I’m doing, so my going away isn’t going to change a single thing. And, you know what? I kind of like this place. I want it to be here when I get back.” She smiled warmly. “How about being a full-time house sitter?”
Jennifer’s relief was palpable, written all over the young woman’s face. She gave a loud, relieved laugh and took several deep breaths. “Oh, thank God. Really? Really?! Really-really-really?!”
Liao removed her hand and closed the suitcase, nodding. “Sure.” She paused, reaching out for the baby.
Jennifer handed her over without complaint, and Liao could see her hands were trembling with relief. “Thank you, Miss Liao, thank you, thank you.”
Liao immediately thought of Velsharn and how, upon seeing its destruction, she had blamed herself. However, the truth was that, while she had turned her ship over to Ben’s control, and the residual guilt sometimes plagued her, she was not the one who killed all those Toralii. Ben was.
“One thing I’ve learnt… is that when something bad happens, a million other things could have happened, for better or for worse, but you can’t spend your life worrying about what could have been and what tiny, minute thing you could have done differently. What’s done is done. When there are agents of death in the world, the blood they shed is entirely on their hands. Tai’s death is no more your fault than mine or his own or anyone else’s.”
Jennifer looked up at her, still struggling to keep herself from crying. “Okay.”
“And if Tai hadn’t taken the job in the first place, none of this would have happened, either. He knew what he was getting into.”
“I know.”
Liao nodded and then fished in her pocket for her set of keys, handing them over. “One more thing.”
“Yes, Miss Liao?”
She smiled. “Help me carry the suitcase down to the car.”