Insider X (9 page)

14

NA READ THE note again to make sure her eyes weren’t playing tricks on her.

Welcome, Na.  How do you like your place?

That was what it said.  She took the note off the bottle.  No text was on the other side:  nothing that said “ha ha, funny joke”.  Instead it was blank.

What sort of silliness—poor joke—was this?

She looked around. 
As if?!
   Her kitchen?  Right.  (-.-)  What type of dummy did they take her for?!

She opened a cabinet.  Inside were some plain bowls, cups, and serving trays.  She closed the cabinet.  On the counter was an earthen tea set with bamboo handles.  It was resting on a polished block of teak.  It looked like something you’d find in Renhe Spring at one of those crazy expensive stores.

My place?  Okay, she could play this game.  She opened drawers.  Looked at all
her stuff.
  There was cutlery, fancy chopsticks, openers, and other things, some of which she’d never seen before.  Oh this is nice. 
Mine!  Mine, mine, mine!

She opened more cupboards.  Inside was more of her stuff!  Boxes of noodles, spices, and different types of tea.

I have good taste.

She got bored and went to the living room.  On a side table was
a TV remote.  There was a flat screen TV mounted on the wall.  Was this her TV too?

She turned it on.  The screen blinked and a menu came on.
 
It was in English.  Hmm? 

Several items were listed:
Cinema, Elite Store, Gym, Housekeeping, Laundry Service, Map, Pool, Restaurants, Room Service, Schedule, Spa,
and
Games.

She clicked on ‘Restaurants’.  It pulled up another menu, which showed photos of various restaurants and the hours they were open.  Their names were unusual and unique:
BB House, Salsaville, Chun Chun, Sand Bar, 3Squared, Bistro, Blue Diner,
and a few others.  She clicked on
Sand Bar
.  A video came on that showed a themed restaurant that looked like a tropical beach.  There were diners, all young people, sitting in groups.

She clicked on other items, navigating through the menu.  She tried Pool, Gym and Spa.  More videos began to play of happy people enjoying those places.  They were swimming, working out, or having massages.  Everyone was young in the videos; no one looked older than twenty-five.  All those places had addresses that started with a color (either Yellow, Blue or Green) and then a letter and a number.  She clicked on ‘Map’ and it pulled up what looked like a grid of a small city.  Buildings were shown, a park, a lake…

Wait!  That was the view outside her balcony!  The map had colored sections.  Four colors were shown: red, yellow, blue and green.  The grid had letters on the top and numbers on the side.  Almost like the board game Battleship she had played one time on her phone.  Ah ha!  She could find the places now.  The ‘Pool’ (Yellow L9) was in the yellow zone, and she could use the grid to find where L and 9 intersected.  Same went for the other addresses.  The spa, gym, all of them could be found using the grid on the map.

She clicked ‘Schedule’.

The time was shown at the top.  It was 15:42:21.  Which was… she did the math: 3:42 PM.  She checked her watch.  Her watch showed the same exact time; it was just seconds off, in fact.  It wasn’t one minute slow like it had been when she started work at 3 AM this morning when bossman said she was late.

Beneath the time and date was the following schedule:

Roll call: 02:30:00

Duty: 03:00:00 – 15:00:00

Play: 15:01:00 – 20:30:00

Roll call: 20:35:00

Quarters: 20:35:00 – 02:30:00

Hmm?

She set down the remote and left the TV on.  She walked back into the bedroom to finish inventorying.  To see what she had, and see what she didn’t have.  She hadn’t seen her iPhone, laptop, or several other things.  She pulled open drawers on the dresser.  More clothes.  New clothes.  Were these hers too?

She pulled out a white shirt.  It looked like a shirt for a uniform.

There was a gong sound, low and muted.  It startled her.  She looked around and noticed by her bed there was now a flashing red light on some sort of console.  The soft gong sounded again.  Was that a phone?  There didn’t appear to be a headset, but there was a speaker and some buttons.

She pressed the button on the console.

“Hello?” Na said.

“Oh!” a voice said; a female voice.  “You are there.  You’re early.  Wait there, I’ll be right up.”  The line clicked dead.

15

MINUTES AFTER THE call came a knock on the door.  Na went to the peephole.  Through it she could see a girl distorted by the fisheye lens.  The girl was alone.

Na opened the door.  Standing in the corridor was a girl about Na’s age, which was to say twenty or so.  She had a short bob for a haircut that was very stylish.  She was dressed in a matching outfit: a pleated blue and white skirt and a white tunic with blue piping around the collar.  She wasn’t tall, but the open-toe strappy shoes she had on gave her another three inches of height.

“Hello, Na.  My name is Huiliang.”  The girl spoke in Na’s native language; a local Chengdu-Chongqing dialect.  The girl bowed her head slightly.  She had a crimson colored shopping bag in her hand.

Na stepped aside.  This was so weird, Na thought.  “Welcome, Huiliang.  Please, come in.”

Huiliang stepped inside.  Na closed the door behind her.  The two of them walked into the living room.

Huiliang offered the bag to Na.  “For you.”

Na looked at it with a quizzical expression.

Huiliang smiled.  “A housewarming gift.  Don’t worry, it’s not a clock.”

Na took the bag.  “Thank you… Huiliang.”  She went to set it down next to the couch.

“Oh please… open it now,” Huiliang said.

“Now?”

Huiliang nodded.  “Mm hmm.”

Na went on the couch and Huiliang joined her.  Na looked in the bag.  There were three items inside: a loaf of bread, a bottle of wine, and a small box with a gift bow.  Na pulled out the loaf of bread first.

“May you never go hungry,” Huiliang said.

“Looks yummy.”  Na set it on her lap.  She pulled out the wine.

“May your life be sweet,” Huiliang said.  “I find being drunk helps with that.”  She giggled.

Na pulled out the last item, the red gift box with the gold bow.

“Very pretty,” Na said.  She took the lid off that held the bow.  Inside the box was a container of gourmet sea salt.

“And, of course, you must have spice in your life,” Huiliang said.

“Thank you, Huiliang.  I don’t know what to say,” Na said.  “I’ve never received such nice gifts.”

“You’re very welcome,” Huiliang said.  “So tell me, how do you like your place?”

“This… this is really mine?” Na said.

Huiliang nodded.  “Mm hmm.”

“Not a joke?” Na said.

“Nope!” Huiliang said and laughed.  “Isn’t it something?”

Na wanted to shake her head and pinch herself.  “I’m not sure I understand?”

“Don’t worry,” Huiliang said, “you will.”

“And my clothes?” Na said.  “Who brought them here?  Was it you?”

Huiliang shook her head.  “No, I just put some of your clothes away and folded them.  They usually just dump them all.  But I didn’t want it to be all messy for you when you arrived.”

“Some things I couldn’t find,” Na said.  “Like my iPhone and laptop.”

Huiliang bowed her head.  “Yes, they would have taken those.  No phones or laptops allowed.  But don’t worry, you won’t need them here.”

“You said ‘they’?” Na said.

Huiliang nodded.  “You probably have lots of questions.  I did too.  But don’t worry, I’m here to help you.  First: let’s get you ready.”

“Ready for what?” Na said.

“Your party, silly,” Huiliang said.  “Everyone gets one when they first arrive.  Come.  Let’s put something pretty on.  I liked some of your outfits.  Too bad we’re not the same size.  I tried your shoes on too.  No luck, though.  You have bigger feet.”

“They’re not that big.”

“So sorry… didn’t mean it that way.  I have tiny feet.  See!”  Huiliang lifted a foot.  Her cute nails were painted red.

“Nice pedicure,” Na said.

“You like?  We’ll get you one too.”  Huiliang stood and walked towards the bedroom.  “You’re one of the first to get a place here,” Huiliang said.  “They just finished this building.  They’re moving me in next week.  I asked if I could be on this floor, but no luck.  I’ll be downstairs, one floor away.  But we’ll be close.  We’ll be neighbors.”

Na followed her into the bedroom.  Huiliang was already at the closet.  It was still open.  Na hadn’t closed it.  Huiliang pulled out the pink outfit Na had worn yesterday.  “Ah!  Wear this!”

“Maybe something less…” Na said, searching for a word, “showy.  That’s for special occasions.”

“But today is special,” Huiliang said.  “You were selected for Big Blue.  It’s a big honor.”

“Big Blue?” Na said.

Huiliang giggled.  “I know, silly name.  But it is a big honor.  For you, particularly.  I understand you came from one of the dens.  Not many come from that route.  Most come straight from the universities.  That was how they recruited me.”  Huiliang put the pink outfit back and pulled out another outfit.  “Okay.  Wear this.  You have many good outfits.  How did you afford all this working at a den?”

“A den?” Na said.

“Not familiar with that term?” Huiliang said.

Na shook her head.  “But I guess you’re talking about where I was working.  Doing shotgun specials, posting on blogs...”

Huiliang’s face cringed.

“What?” Na said.  “Did I say something wrong?”

“We’re not supposed to talk about what we do,” Huiliang whispered.  “It is one of the rules.  But you didn’t know.  So I’m sure it will be okay.  Just be careful… don’t say again.”

Na looked around; they were the only ones in the room.  “Can they hear what we are saying now?” Na whispered.

Huiliang nodded slightly, as if to answer ‘yes’.  Huiliang went into the closet and pulled out some shoes.  “Oh!  I love these!” Huiliang said in a louder, chipper voice.  “They’ll work perfectly with that outfit.”

Na took the shoes.  “Okay.  Give me a few moments.  I’ll get ready.”

Huiliang nodded and walked from the room.  She shut the door behind her.  Na glanced at the dress.  It was one of her more formal ones.  She would need to change her bra, if she was going to wear this.  And put some makeup on.

But she thought about what Huiliang had just let her know.  They could hear.  She looked around the room, and wondered if they could see her too? 

She decided not to take any chances.  She went and drew the blackout blinds on the windows and turned off the light.  It plunged the room into near darkness.  Satisfied that it was too dark for any hidden cameras to see anything other than shadows, she began to undress.

As she removed her socks, she thought of the memory stick she was carrying that was tucked in her underwear.  What should she do with it?  Carrying it was risky and dangerous, particularly if she got searched.  She needed to hide it.  But where?  She looked around in the dark.  Her eyes had adjusted some.  She looked at the shoes and socks she’d just taken off.

She bit her lip.  Not a great hiding place, but it would have to do.  She picked the socks and shoes up and put them in the closet.  As she put them on a shelf, she discretely slipped the stick from the hem of her underwear and tucked it under the sole insert of one of the shoes.  She then stuffed her socks in the shoes and shut the closet door.

“SO, ARE YOU excited?” Huiliang said, as the elevator went down.

“I am,” Na said, doing her best to keep the same upbeat tone.

“I’ll give you a tour first,” Huiliang said.  “We have time before your party.”  She looked at Na.  “You look very beautiful, Na.  I wish I had hair like yours.”

“Thank you,” Na said.  “You look very beautiful too.”

Huiliang smiled shyly, as if embarrassed.  “Thank you, Na, but I wasn’t fishing.”

The elevator continued down.  Na fingered the magnetic keycard that Huiliang had just given her.  It had been in her room in a white envelope.

“That card works for everything,” Huiliang said.  “Always carry it.  Don’t lose it.  It works as money too.”

“What do you mean?” Na said.  “I can buy things with this?”

“Of course,” Huiliang said.

The elevator door opened on the first floor.

“After you,” Huiliang said.

“We’re not going to the ground floor?” Na said, getting off.

“Our cards don’t work for that one,” Huiliang said.  “No worries, though, this is the way we need to go.  Come.  I want to show you as much as I can before the party.”  Huiliang went down the corridor quickly, and Na had to hustle to keep up.