“I reckon I must look like a dragonfly.” She giggled nervously as she adjusted her goggles.
“You do,” Daniel replied bluntly and pointed to the back seat of the airplane. “Now get in.”
He helped her into the cabin, sat down in the pilot’s seat, and gave the orders for the engine to be started. The Avro coughed into life, bumping precariously along the airfield until finally with a mighty roar it soared into the sky.
“A-ah-ah!” Ada squealed excitedly.
Daniel made a turn and flew over the city, spotted with the shadows of the clouds. Its rivers stretched like rolls of exposed camera film glittering in the sun and its buildings like a set of multi-colored domino pieces that has been scattered over the ground by a fractious child.
As was his custom, Daniel flew over Nina’s house, but this time he imagined he was dropping an invisible bomb that would destroy her past with all its bad memories.
“Don’t worry darling,” he whispered. “I’ll arrange everything. You’ll never need to worry again.”
When they reached Suzhou, a city of humpback bridges and weeping willows, Daniel took Ada for a boat ride along the narrow canals that had been built the previous millennium.
The swarthy young boatman rowed slowly but deftly, each stroke of his oar creating small eddies in their wake.
The steps of the whitewashed homes ran down from the doors to the water’s edge where carved, age-darkened boats were moored next to the banks. Children’s voices and women’s laughter wafted down from the open windows.
Weak with excitement, Ada was sitting in the prow near Daniel, his wrapped gifts at her feet—a silk robe, a hand mirror, and an embroidered fan which they had bought in a little shop on their way.
“This city is two and a half thousand years old,” Daniel mused. “The same age as Confucius. Once Suzhou was the capital of the state of Wu, praised for its silk and beautiful women.”
“Like her?” Ada smiled, glancing at a fat woman rinsing linen in the canal. “What sort of woman do you go for?”
He motioned towards Ada’s reflection in the water, “I’m into this type. You know there is a piece of poetry:
“I know what you’re implying,” Ada said, frowning, “but you’re not going to leave your wife and business because of me. You’ve got too much to lose.”
“One day you’ll understand that this can all be easily exchanged for—”
“Would you even exchange it for your airplane?”
“If you want, I can give it to you,” he said after a pause. “Did you never want to learn how to fly in your childhood? Let’s make that dream come true.”
The idea was so ridiculous that Ada just shrugged. “Oh, stop it! You’re making fun of me.”
“I’ll make a gift deed out in your favor—now. The only thing I’m asking is for you to await my return. I’ll be going on a business trip soon, and it will last for a few months.”
Ada blinked in confusion. “You’re either one heck of a liar or you’re completely mad.”
“I’ve gone completely mad and I’m very happy about it.”
Ada was sure that he’d been joking until they went to a Chinese official and she received a document testifying that she was now the proud owner of an Avro 504.
Daniel persuaded Ada that it would be better to leave the airplane in Suzhou to keep their adventure a secret from Edna, and they hired a car to return to Shanghai.
“Mr. Bernard, I can’t handle it,” Ada said. “You keep doing good things for me, and I don’t even know how I can pay you back.”
Daniel smiled. “Don’t worry about that.”
They entered the city and drove along the Babbling Well Road, but as they went around the race track, the traffic ground to a halt because a crowd of students was blocking the Nanking Road. Drivers honked, rickshaw boys swore, but the young people didn’t pay them the slightest attention, shouting their political slogans in one voice.
“What do they want?” Ada asked Daniel.
“Equality, justice, and the abolition of laws that worsen the living conditions for the poor,” he said.
Daniel paid the driver and got out of the car.
“Let’s go, Ada, or we’ll be stuck here for a long time.”
She followed him between the honking cars, holding the package with her gifts tight to her chest.
As they reached the police station, the crowd became denser.
“Make way!” Daniel snarled at the Chinese—students, monks, clerks, and coolies—but no one listened.
A puny young man gave a rousing speech standing atop a column covered with advertising. The crowd applauded him wildly.
By the time Daniel and Ada had reached the opposite side of the street, a fist fight had broken out near the gates of the police station. The students began to throw stones; someone was knocked down and kicked by the crowd.
Looking back, Daniel saw an officer in a pith helmet.
“This is your last warning!” the policeman shouted pointing at the line of Sikhs armed with rifles. “If you don’t stop, I won’t be responsible for the consequences!”
What’s the point yelling? Daniel thought. They don’t understand English anyway.
He grabbed Ada’s hand. “Let’s get the hell out of here.”
It was then that the first volley exploded.
Startled, the crowd let forth an animal howl and scattered in all directions, smashing anything in its path.
“They’ll crush us!” Daniel shouted, choking, as he was pressed flat against the wall.
He and Ada ran into a narrow doorway and found themselves in a small restaurant full of Chinese dressed in long blue robes. The steam was rising above their bowls, and an old ceiling fan was spinning with a quiet swishing sound.
A servant, as big as a wild boar, moved towards Daniel and Ada. “You are not allowed in here!”
He was about to kick them outside when a torrent of terrified people poured in through the door. Daniel noticed a disheveled white woman among them. She slid to the floor, holding her head in her blood-stained hands.
“Edna!” he yelled.
Forgetting about her gifts, Ada rushed to her. “Mrs. Bernard! What’s happened to you?”
They dragged Edna into the kitchen.
“Give me a towel,” Daniel snapped at the stunned cook. “Can’t you see—she’s bleeding!”
The cook threw him a damp cloth.
“What the hell are you doing here?” said Daniel angrily as he wiped a deep cut on Edna’s forehead.
She looked at him, her eyes wild, her lips trembling, her bangs matted with blood.
“News is my job,” she said.
“We need to get her out of here,” Ada whispered. “What if the Chinese find out that she’s Captain Wyer’s daughter?”
They took Edna by her arms and carried her through the back door into a yard that was littered with garbage. Having wandered through a rat run of back alleys, they finally turned onto a nice-looking empty street.
The bright sun shone through the treetops. Police whistles and car horns could be heard nearby.
Daniel had never been on this street on foot, and only when he saw the familiar white house did he realize that they had arrived at Nina’s.
Edna suddenly lost consciousness.
“She’s dead!” Ada screamed.
“Be quiet, for God’s sake,” Daniel snapped at her.