Foul Lady Fortune

During the events of the preceding chapters, Liza is stewing in a jail cell until Phoebe and Silas burst in to rescue her. They carry her off to Silas’s house until Orion and Rosalind arrive. When the two get there, they convince Liza to cooperate in helping them determine whether the Communists are involved in the poison terror plot. In exchange for Liza’s help, Orion will use his influence to clear the charges against her. Liza casually tells Orion that Rosalind killed Zilin. He’s now even more confused about his partner’s identity.

The next day, Celia is shopping in the local market near the photo shop. She recalls seeing copies of the Seagreen Press newspaper and wonders why it would be delivered to the area where she’s stationed. She checks with the local vendor and finds out that the papers were delivered by mistake and should have been sent to the warehouse. Celia realizes that this connects to the case her sister is investigating—and that the warehouse is the link. She tells Oliver that she must go to the city to warn Rosalind, and he agrees to help her.

The following morning, the office secretary, Haidi, contacts Orion privately to say that she has some information about his wife. She arranges to meet him at a hotel at noon. When he arrives, it becomes obvious that Haidi wants to seduce him. He fakes a nosebleed, and while she goes to fetch a towel, he rummages through her purse. He finds a picture of Rosalind that was taken several years earlier, yet she appears to be the same age. When Haidi returns, Orion makes an excuse and leaves quickly. Afterward, he calls Phoebe to have her look into the past connection between Liza and Rosalind. His sister happily agrees to help.

When Rosalind arrives home that evening, Orion is already there. He tells her about the meeting with Haidi and his ruse to get away. He suspects that Haidi was planted to get information from him but doesn’t know who put her up to it. He then dashes off to a meeting at spy headquarters, where he promises to get the couple assigned to a new handler.

Elsewhere, Phoebe arrives at Silas’s house and finds him listening to a phonograph recording from Priest. The voice is altered, so it’s difficult to tell if a man or woman is speaking. This is how the assassin communicates with Silas. He hopes to ferret out the person’s real identity at some point. Just then, he receives a phone call informing him that an anti-Japanese demonstration is taking place outside Seagreen. This might be a cover to allow someone to destroy evidence inside the building, so Silas and Phoebe immediately head over to investigate.

Silas and Phoebe arrive in front of Seagreen Press, where an angry mob is forming. They fear that somebody might set the building on fire, but police arrive to disperse the protesters. As the spies flee with everyone else, they stumble across six bodies, all people killed by the poisoner. Silas finds a vial of green liquid on the street and takes it with him.

A few days later, Seagreen reopens for business, and Rosalind has a meeting with Deoka. While in his office, she sees a crate and wonders why he’d be handling newspaper shipments personally. Later, she traces the address on the crate and learns that such items are being transported back and forth from a place called Warehouse 34. They all weigh exactly 13.59 pounds. From this information, Rosalind reaches a conclusion: “Seagreen Press was an intermediary for whatever was in those crates, and she was willing to bet it wasn’t just newspapers” (334).

In another part of the city, Silas and Phoebe have gone to Liza’s apartment to search it. They assume she’s elsewhere, dodging the police, but find her hiding in a closet. Phoebe convinces Liza to help infiltrate the local Communist headquarters to determine whether they’re behind the attack on Rosalind and Orion.

While Silas and Phoebe create a fireworks diversion outside the building, Liza walks in and searches an office. When she returns, she tells the other two spies that the Communists ordered the attack on Rosalind and Orion, but something made them terminate the pursuit of the two agents. Liza couldn’t discover if they ordered the hit on Dao Feng too. During her search, she finds the address where Oliver is currently stationed and passes it on to Phoebe.

Meanwhile, at her apartment, Rosalind is trying on the gown that she’s going to wear to a party that Seagreen is hosting at the end of the week. When Orion arrives home, the two talk about their families and the emotional losses they’ve both endured. They’re softening toward one another. Afterward, they decide to go out to investigate the address on Burkill Road where Seagreen’s crates are being shipped.

While riding on a tram to their destination, the two spies realize that they’re being followed. They exit the vehicle separately and give the person tailing them the slip. The Burkill Road address is a residence, and the Japanese man who answers the door is belligerent. He’s on the verge of shooting Orion when Rosalind dispatches him with a poisoned blow dart.

Seizing the opportunity to search the house, the two spies find a room filled with crates. As Rosalind tries to pry one open with her poisoned hair pin, she accidentally scratches herself with the tip. She can survive any injury except poison and knows she must get home quickly to take the antidote. The opened crate is filled with vials of green liquid. Orion says that Haidi had a similar vial in her purse when he met her at the hotel. The spies steal the shipping address from the crate and one of the vials just as soldiers arrive outside. They escape through a window and give the soldiers the slip. Once the danger has passed, Rosalind collapses.

Orion carries her back to her apartment and summons Lao Lao. The old woman says that she has an antidote to the poison and goes to fetch it. She counsels Orion to keep talking to Rosalind so that she remains conscious. As he rambles on about his past, Orion starts to talk about a future that doesn’t involve his family. He expresses a desire to share that future with his new spy partner. Just then, Lao Lao returns with the antidote, and Rosalind revives. She asks Orion to stay with her while she sleeps, and neither awakens until the following evening.

Silas and Phoebe arrive for a meeting with Rosalind and Orion. Silas has more information about weapons smugglers who are supplying all sides of the conflict: “Their base is out in Zhouzhuang, but somehow their people keep smuggling weapons of every kind into this city” (377). Silas produces the green vial that he recovered after the riot. It looks like the vial that Orion saw in Haidi’s purse and in the crate, so everyone concludes that Haidi must be the killer.

After Silas and Phoebe leave, Rosalind and Orion receive a message to meet their new handler the following evening. Their code name is High Tide. Orion tells Rosalind that he’d like to continue working with her after this assignment is over, and she responds playfully: “‘Attached to High Tide? […] Have you grown attached to me, Hong Liwen?’ ‘Yes.’ His reply came easily. It didn’t sound like he was teasing her in return. ‘I have’” (384). Rosalind silently admits to herself that she’s growing attached to Orion as well.