Alden started his morning by making a quick check of the contents of Li Tao’s personal effects. There honestly wasn’t much there of immediately obvious interest. A number of jade trinkets that might have been some sort of lucky charms, quite a lot of clothing and travel necessities, a small framed portrait of what Alden assumed to be the emperor of Han… But he did find a very ornate opium pipe, along with a fair amount of the drug itself. As a tincturer, Alden had a very good nose for opium. After all, laudanum was one of the best selling tinctures of all, and Alden took pride in crafting some of the finest medical and recreational laudanums available at a price point suitable for working class customers. But this opium was very poor quality, completely at odds with the fineness of the pipe. Frowning as he dug around in the smoking bag, he eventually found a thin, flimsy paper matchbook. “An unprotected matchbook just tossed in the bag with the dried opium… Not a cautious soul, this Li Tao…” The matchbook still had half the matches left in it, but it was badly scratched and faded. The cheap print on the front read ‘The Sunshine Club’, which didn’t mean anything to Alden. He’d never heard of a ‘Sunshine Club’. It certainly wasn’t a social club… With a shrug he packed away the late Li Tao’s worldly possessions. He could investigate them more thoroughly at a later date. After all, he had other matters he needed to take care of today. Making his way through the streets of London, Alden soon found himself at the little pawn shop run by the elderly Han gentleman. The man was sitting on a stool in a corner of the shop, drawing a beautiful monochromatic landscape seemingly from memory. The few dozen smooth, simple brushstrokes somehow seemed to convey the majesty of the mountainous vista better than just about any oil painting Alden had ever seen. “Beautiful piece.” He remarked. “I’m guessing the motif is quite familiar to you?” “I grew up in these mountains.” The man replied. “This is the view from the window of the room I shared with my older brother. I often paint the views I remember from my youth. Over there on the wall you can find a picture of the terraced rice farm owned by my family.” “Is your brother still in Han?” “He is. He remains in the same home, together with his wife and their respective lovers. Along with their children and grandchildren, of course.” “Sounds like a rather full house.” “Indeed. My brother is the firstborn son, and so he had a duty to carry on the family name, but he finds no joy in the company of women. To his great fortune, he was able to find a wife who finds no joy in the company of men, and my family is wealthy enough that they could both afford to keep lovers and only share a bed when fulfilling their duty to the family.” “And what of you? Why are you here, on the other side of the world?” “I was very fond of my sisters. Seeing them hurt always broke my heart.” Alden considered this for a moment, pondering everything he had learned of Han in the past few days. “Foot breakers?” “Indeed. I watched my sisters suffer for the fortunes of my family, one by one. When the time for my youngest sister came, I could no longer allow it. We escaped in the dead of night. This was before the time of airships, so we cut through the wilderness and eventually managed to make our way to a port town. We stowed away aboard a Portuguese spice trading ship and left Han for good.” “And ended up in London?” “I did, in time. My sister fell in love with a Hispanian merchant, and before long they were wed. I still visit them and their family every year for the summer solstice. But as for myself, I wandered around much of the European mainland before finally making my way to England.” “Do you have any contact still with your family in Han?” “Very little. I have an aunt there who aided me and my sister in our escape, and she still writes me letters a few times a year. But she is almost a hundred years old, so I doubt we will be exchanging letters for much longer.” Alden nodded solemnly. He hadn’t really come here to hear the man’s life story, but he couldn’t deny that it was a rather compelling tale. “The name’s Alden Stowe, by the way. I don’t think I ever caught yours.” “Wu Bo. It is written on the counter.” Alden looked at the two incomprehensible Han characters painted on the counter. “I’ll take your word for it.” Wu Bo barked out a laugh and put away his brush. “Since you are here, should I assume you wish to know more about Li Tao?” “In a sense. Li Tao is dead.” “Joyful news.” “I’m glad you’re happy, but personally I would rather have preferred if he answered some questions before his passing.” “So why come here?” “I was wondering if you knew of other Han loyalists living in the city.” “Some. They come to me for patriotic calligraphy. ‘For the emperor’, ‘all under heaven’, ‘honour in duty’. That sort of nonsense.” “And I suspect that you wouldn’t be terribly conflicted about selling these people out?” “Not particularly. With one or two exceptions, I find them to be very unpleasant people.” “Wonderful. I was hoping that you could provide descriptions of each of them. Name, portrait, whatever information you might have. I will send some people over to collect them. If someone tells you Alden sent them, you will know they’re working for me.” “I suppose I could work on that. As long as you are ready to pay me for my time, of course.” Alden put two ten-pound coins on the counter. ”Consider yourself on retainer for the time being. I’m not sure how much you feel your services are worth, but once you feel you’ve done twenty pounds worth of work, just send word to my tinctury on Ratcatcher Street and I’ll consider renewing our arrangement.” The man nodded as he scooped up the two coins. “I will provide descriptions and work with your agents. Good hunting, Alden Stowe.” “Thank you, Wu Bo. Until next time.” Wu Bo gave him a small bow, and Alden turned to leave. It was time to go find his ‘agents’. Alden quickly dipped back to his apartment to pick up one of the bags from Li Tao’s place, then he headed over to the sprawl of cramped little alleyways that concealed The Place. The two children on guard greeted him as politely as could be expected from Rascals. One of them was a boy he vaguely remembered seeing in the crowd when he met with Hakim, but the other guard was Em. “On guard duty again, Em? Did you piss someone off or something?” Em shrugged their shoulders noncommittally. “Hakim likes having me out here where there’s not a lot of people to bite.” “Wise man. I’m looking for Mei Jing again. Is she in?” “I dunno. I’d love to find out, but it’s Anton’s turn to be bribed.” Alden nodded and tossed a sixpence to the older boy. “Here you go. Go find out if Mei Jing is around. I’ll stand guard with Em.” “Right you are, Old Boy. Be back in a trice.” As the boy rushed off, Alden took up position next to Em. The peculiar young child tossed him a questioning glance. “You’re coming to see Mei Jing a lot.” “She’s good at finding things out, and I’ve been needing a lot of things found out.” “I can find things out too, you know.” “I’m sure you can, Em.” “I’m serious, old man. I knows things, I do.” Deciding to humour the child, Alden tried to think of something to ask them. ”All right then, what do you know about the Sunshine Club?” Em grew quiet, and remained so for a surprising length of time. When Alden looked over, he realized the child’s posture had grown very rigid. After altogether too long, Em finally spoke. “Don’t know nothing about the Sunshine Club.” Alden noted the stiffness in their tone. “Of course you don’t.” He said kindly. “I’m sure the things you don’t know about the Sunshine Club are pretty bad, too.” “Really bad.” “Well, it’s a good thing you don’t know them, then.” “Yeah…” “And I’m sure you don’t know where it is, either.” “I definitely don’t know that it’s beneath the herb shop on Whalebone Street.” “I see. That’s good to not know. Thank you, Em.” Em nodded, but didn’t say anything. Before long, the older boy came running back. “Mei Jing is out, but she’s supposed to be back soon. And Li Hua wants to talk to you.” “The Barker’s record keeper?” “Record keeper, accountant and second.” “That’s a lot of jobs for one person.” “Li Hua takes her work very seriously.” “I guess I’d better go see her, then. Records room?” “Records room.” Feeling more than a little curious, Alden made his way to the records room. When he was accountant, the records room was an absolute mess. Account books, volumes of the Roll and various other records and notes had been strewn across the room any old how, and finding anything in particular always involved some amount of digging around. Alden had rather liked that state of affairs, because it meant no-one ever bothered to check anything unless it was really important. But now, the records room was neat, tidy and organized. Or, well, as neat and tidy as it could be, since everything here was scribbled down on whatever bit of paper the Rascals could get their hands on and then inexpertly bound together into crude books. But the organization was easy to see and understand. Different types of records were stored away on different, clearly marked shelves, organized in a strictly chronological order. In a room like this, even cross-referencing would be fairly easy. And seated at the desk, bent over a sheaf of unevenly sized papers, was Li Hua. She was currently in the process of evening out the papers as best as she could without damaging any of the writing and shaping them together into yet another crude book. Alden cleared his throat to get her attention. “I heard you wanted to see me?” Li Hua stood up and turned to face him, a serious look on her face. “I have been looking through the accounts from your tenure as accountant. It took me over five minutes to locate even a single error.” “That’s pretty quick. You might have a knack for that sort of thing.” “Your methods of mismanaging the books are extremely subtle and devious. Even after working on them for over an hour, finding more errors never got any easier.” “As gratifying as that is to hear, I’m sure you didn’t call me here to praise my skills at fraudulent accountancy.” “In a way I did. I want you to teach me.” “You want me to teach you crooked book-keeping?” “I do.” “Why? Financial troubles?” “In a sense. I personally have no great need for additional money. I have long since secured a part-time apprenticeship with the head of the east-Asian section of the Royal Library. One that will become a full-time apprenticeship once I’m too old to run with the Rascals, and then in time a full position as library assistant.” “Then why?” “My younger sister wishes to be a doctor.” “Oh, I see. And unlike becoming a librarian, that’s not something that can be arranged simply by securing an apprenticeship.” “Precisely. Seeing my younger sister through a full medical education will require far greater funds than I can reasonably acquire.” “So you want me to teach you how to snaffle from the coffers?” Li Hua frowned. “I would rather not, if there was a better alternative available to me. I prefer to abide by rules over breaking them. But Hakim has, on several occasions, indicated that he would not reprimand snaffling if it was done in a sufficiently subtle and artful manner. I cannot imagine why that is, but I also cannot ignore the opportunity.” “So you want my help?” “Please.” Alden hesitated. He had a lot of work to do, now more than ever, and teaching a straight-laced girl like Li Hua how to cook the books might take a lot of effort. But on the other hand, he was very sympathetic to her plight. After all, he had financed his own education in a large parts by snaffling from the Rascals’ coffers… “Fine. When you find yourself free in the evenings, drop by my tinctury on Ratcatcher Street. I won’t necessarily always have time to help you, but if I’m free, I’ll give you some pointers.” Li Hua bowed deeply. “Thank you, Alden Stowe. I am very grateful for your kindness.” Alden shrugged a little awkwardly. “Once a Rascal, always a Rascal. I’m just giving a helping hand to the younger generation, that’s all. Tell you what, while I’m waiting for Mei Jing, let me show you a few basic techniques…” Before long, Mei Jing arrived at The Place, and Alden took her aside to one of the many little ramshackle side rooms the Rascals had built into the long-abandoned warehouse over the years. The first thing he did was to hand her the bag he had taken from Li Tao’s house. “Here, this is for you and the girls.” Mei Jing gave him an odd look as she started digging through the little paper-wrapped packages. As she realized what she’d just been given, her eyes grew wide. “These are things the girls have sold.” “All the ones Li Tao purchased on his last trip to the pawn shops. It’s up to the girls and yourself if you want to keep them or sell them again. Just don’t sell anything to the same shop you sold it to the first time. That would probably attract some unwanted attention.” “Is this pay for new job?” “I do have another job for you girls, but I’ll pay for that in coin. This is a gift.” “This is too much for gift! Some of these are very valuable.” Alden shrugged. “I’m not exactly hurting for money right now. Besides, I’m sure you girls will get more out of these than just about anyone else, either as keepsakes or trade goods. After all, who else has as much experience pawning off Han treasures as you girls?” “What if Li Tao notice they all sold again?” “No risk of that. He decided he’d rather burn down his house and die than allow himself to be captured.” Mei Jing frowned as she kept sorting through the dozens of little packages, carefully examining each item before putting it away again. “If he rather die than be captured, he must have secrets more important to him than living.” “That is exactly what I thought, yes.” “So you no find out what you want to know?” “I certainly didn’t find out as much as I wanted to, but I definitely found out more than he wanted me to. And I’m hoping to find out more still. That’s why I need you and the girls to help me.” “How we can help?” “Do you know Wu Bo?” “Yes. He draw very pretty pictures. Also nice to girls who run away.” “Well, he’s working for me now. If you or any of the girls go to his shop and say ‘Alden sent me’, he will give you some information about Han loyalists. I need you to find out more about these people. Where they live, what they do for a living, if they meet with people in strange places. That sort of thing.” “What is ‘loyalist’, please?” “In this case, people who think very highly of the emperor of Han.” Mei Jing practically sneered. “We will help.” “Just be careful, all right?” Alden cautioned. “I don’t want any of the girls to get in trouble or get hurt.” “We will be careful.” “Good. I’m placing you in charge of this operation.” “In charge?” For the second time that day, Alden handed over two ten-pound coins. “Anyone who does any information gathering gets paid. If they found out anything important, you give them a bonus and tell me. If you run out of money, tell me and I’ll make sure you girls keep getting paid.” Mei Jing stared wide-eyed at the coins in her hand. “This… This so much money! I could just take it and run!” “You could, but I don’t think you will. I trust you, Mei Jing.” Mei Jing looked away, but Alden could still make out the light blush rising on her features. She didn’t speak again until the blush had faded, and even then her voice was a little thick. “We will find the bad men. I promise.” “I know you will, Mei Jing. Good hunting.” Alden got up to leave, but Mei Jing reached out and grabbed his sleeve. Alden looked back in surprise. “Is something wrong?” Mei Jing picked up one of the little packages and held it out to Alden. “I sell this when I come to London. Now I give to you.” Alden took the little package and opened it up, finding a beautiful golden hairpin sporting a large lotus flower made with petals of shimmering pink silk around a sculpted golden centre. It was honestly a stunningly beautiful piece, and Alden actually felt a little flustered. “I… Thank you, Mei Jing, but I’m sure you need this more than I do. You don’t have to…” But Mei Jing interrupted him. “It is a gift. Take it. Maybe one day you have wife, or daughter, and you give it to them. Or you just keep it to look at.” Alden opened his mouth to argue further, but Mei Jing looked quite determined. In the end, he simply smiled and re-wrapped the package carefully, putting it in his inner jacket pocket. “Thank you, Mei Jing. I’ll treasure it.” “Good. You also be careful, Alden Stowe. I want you safe.” Alden smiled wryly. “That feels like a pretty tall order these days, but I promise I’ll do my best.” As Alden walked back to his shop, he considered everything he had learned. Sure, his only suspect had turned into a quite literal dead end, but there were more avenues to explore. The combustion poison, the sunshine club, the Han loyalists… Like a spider, he had started spinning a web around this whole gruesome affair, and he was eager to see what kind of flies that web might catch…