Bandwidth by Eliot Peper

Author:Eliot Peper [Peper, Eliot]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781503954427
Publisher: 47North
Published: 2018-05-01T04:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 28

Dag had been expecting a palace. It might be a confection of frosted glass or a sophisticated reimagining of traditional Chinese architecture, but surely the man who had transformed Taiwan from an awkward footnote into the jewel of the Pacific Rim would take offices commensurate with his station. However, when the car finally pulled off the two-lane country highway, gravel crunched beneath the tires as it parked in front of a modest single-story house backed up against a forested hill.

Stepping out of the car, Dag stretched and felt his neck crack. He had been traveling for too long, mind absorbed in his feed even as his body grew stiff from inactivity. Bracing fresh air sharpened his senses, and he surveyed the surrounding terrain. They were far from even the smallest of villages, and the house commanded a view over a wide swath of countryside. It might be humble, but perhaps Hsu preferred privacy to opulence. If that was the case, then the files in Dag’s possession were that much more valuable.

“Mr. Calhoun?” The voice from behind him was soft, with the odd inflection of a Mandarin speaker who’d learned English from a South African.

“That’s me.” Dag turned. A young man in a charcoal suit was walking across the gravel toward him. Not Hsu—Dag matched his face with the records—a staffer.

“I am Zhou Baihan, Mr. Hsu’s personal assistant.” He extended a hand, and they shook. “Welcome to Taiwan. I trust your journey wasn’t too unpleasant.”

“Far from it,” said Dag. “Smooth sailing.”

Baihan gave a tight-lipped smile. “Come in, come in. We need to make the most of the afternoon.”

Dag followed him up the steps and into the plain brick house. They removed their shoes in the narrow anteroom and proceeded into the living room. The furnishings were sparse—the only exception was an enormous tank that ran the entire length and height of one wall. Brightly colored fish of all shapes and sizes darted through live coral, seaweed oscillated languidly, and a cluster of pink sea anemones wiggled their tentacles. The tank was large enough that it gave Dag the impression of looking through a window into a tropical reef. As he stepped forward to peer through the glass, light scintillated off the scales of a school of a dozen tiny fish that changed direction as quickly as a distracted mind.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” asked Baihan. “It’s one of Mr. Hsu’s small indulgences. He says it reminds him of his youth. He was an enthusiastic diver.”

An eel slithered out from under a fan of purple coral with sinewy grace. In his feed, Dag cycled through pictures of Hsu, decades younger, seawater dripping from his hair as he pulled off a scuba mask. Another piece of the puzzle that was this man’s identity.

“I’ve never had the courage to try it,” said Dag.

Baihan laughed. “Me neither. It seems to me like tempting fate, pushing our bodies to explore places where we don’t belong. I like to keep my feet planted firmly on the ground.”

As Dag followed Baihan up a hallway, he tried to quell the anxiety taking root in his gut.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.