snarky_panda (snarky_panda) wrote in mulanficspace, @ 2007-06-18 00:04:00 |
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Current mood: | accomplished |
Current music: | Sweet Honey in the Rock - In the Upper Room |
Entry tags: | au, mulan/shang, prey |
Prey, Chapter Seven
Title: Prey
Summary: Alternate universe suspense story set in the 20th century, specifically the early 1980’s. The memory sections take place in the 1960’s, during China’s Cultural Revolution.
Disclaimer: Everything from the Disney movie belongs to Disney.
Link here for Chapter One.
Chapter Seven
“Mulan, he wasn’t blackmailing you.” Shang tried to keep his voice gentle as he answered her report of her conversation with Officer Lee before his arrival, but she could hear his frustration seeping through. “He was just playing hard ball…it’s what the police do when they know you’re not being truthful, or withholding information. It’s to motivate people…”
“By intimidating them.”
“Yes, but…” he trailed off and sighed in exasperation. “I don’t know how to make you understand, to convince you that things are different here…”
“Does Officer Lee know where I’m really from?” she asked suddenly.
“Not unless you told him.”
“I didn’t…”
He reached out and took her hand. “Neither did I. And I won’t. But, Mulan, why is it that you didn’t mention the key to a safe deposit box before? And did you really find nothing there?”
When she didn’t answer right away, he sighed.
“I’ll take that as my answer. So now you’re lying to the police.”
Shang reached up and began to rub his temples, appearing weary.
“Look, I have to get back to work soon. Mulan, please…please don’t do anything stupid. If you have those papers you should give them to the police. What purpose could holding onto them serve?”
“I wouldn’t hold onto them if I had them, and I certainly wouldn’t use them to blackmail Mr. Luo. If you think for a moment that I would want anything to do with him, you’re wrong. I’d send those files to the newspapers, so that the police wouldn’t be able to just make them…or me…disappear. Because they’d have to contend with several newspapers knowing the facts, too.”
His hands dropped and Shang gaped at her slack-jawed for several minutes. Mulan found herself squirming nervously under the intensity of his gaze.
“Mulan,” he spoke up finally. He seemed to be having difficulty mustering his voice. “You do have them. Listen to me…if you send them to the newspapers, the investigation will become public. Do you have any idea what that will do to the case? It will give Mr. Luo and his associates warning, and a chance to destroy or otherwise get rid of any evidence that might implicate them. That would include you. And the police wouldn’t be able to do a thing…”
Mulan’s entire frame had stiffened. “You seem to know an awful lot about it,” she interrupted him. “Are you sure there isn’t something you’re not telling me?”
“I’m not hiding anything from you. I promise.”
She sighed now.
“May I…I mean, would you mind if I looked at those papers?” he asked gently.
“No,” she muttered after a minute, deciding that it couldn’t hurt to show him at this point. “I’ll get them for you. Although, I don’t understand why you would even want to have anything to do with them. I know I don’t.”
She moved off to the bedroom to retrieve her bag from the closet, then made sure to lock it back up after she retrieved ten of the eleven envelopes and the copy she’d set aside for the police. One copy would remain with her, for leverage, and the last envelope she would mail to Aunt Qiu-yue as she’d planned.
“Here.” She returned to him in the living room and handed over the stack of envelopes.
“These are all the copies you made?”
“Yes.”
The gaze he fixed on her now was suspicious.
“What, you don’t believe me?”
He rifled through the envelopes, taking note of the newspapers that they were addressed to. “Well, it seems you covered all of the newspapers in the area.”
“Fei-pu did. I’m not so clever.”
“Of course you are. Anyway, I don’t think Fei-pu had the right idea. He’s as untrusting as you are apparently.”
He set the ten envelopes aside and turned to the unpacked copy that she’d originally designated for the police.
“They’re keeping a second set of books,” he murmured thoughtfully as he perused the cover letter. “But there’s no proof here of anything else. The police are trying to build a much larger case against that company. Still, at least this is a start. Mulan, you have to give these to the police.”
“I’ll give them the papers. And then I’m leaving town.”
“You can’t!” he exclaimed.
“Why not?”
“They’ll need you to testify when the case goes to court.”
“No way.” She spoke slowly, emphasizing both words. “I am not testifying in court. I’m as good as dead if I do.”
“They’re going to follow you anyway.”
“Or you will. You do seem to know a lot about this. About what the police are doing.”
“Mulan, I finally found you again. I don’t want you to leave.”
She blinked rapidly, fighting back the tears that threatened to well up in her eyes. Her strength and resolve was dissolving quickly at the tone of his voice and the concerned, loving expression in his eyes.
He reached out and took her hands in his, lifting each one and kissing them in turn. “I have to go. But I’ll be home at around six. We’ll talk more about it then, alright?”
“Alright,” she answered dejectedly.
“Please. Promise me you won’t do anything with those papers before then, alright? Please?”
“I promise. I’ll leave it on the desk in your office.”
*******
Mulan honored Shang’s request and left the envelopes on his desk in the study. In the mean time, she pondered an alternative plan in the event that she found herself in even worse trouble. Fei-pu’s idea was the right one, she was sure of that; he didn’t trust merely sending it to the police either. She only wished that he’d been able to mail the papers out before he died. Then she wouldn’t be the one involved in this.
But there was nothing to be done about that now. Right now she needed to be prepared with another plan, as her aunt had trained her for all of these years. She would need a completely new identity once more. Unfortunately she wouldn’t pass as a blonde or red-head, so changing her hair color, even wearing a wig, wasn’t an option. It would just appear fake. Somehow, though, she sensed that she ought to change her appearance.
She moved to the bedroom and gazed at herself in the full-length mirror on the closet door, studying her own features and figure, wondering how she might be able to morph her appearance somehow. Opening the closet door, she retrieved her bag and unzipped it, rummaging for her Oakland A’s cap and placing it on her head.
It wouldn’t be enough to camouflage her from the people who were watching her so carefully, she decided as she experimented with pulling the bill down over her face. They would recognize her figure and build, her clothing, her bag. Frowning at herself in the mirror, she attempted to figure out what else she could change. She removed the cap and reached up to fiddle with her hair, pulling it back into a ponytail and replacing the hat. Then she reached back and grasped the ponytail, tucking it up into her cap. It still looked like her, but from faraway perhaps she would appear more boyish.
“What if I change my gender?” she mused out loud suddenly. “They wouldn’t pay any attention to a boy if they were looking for me.”
The idea was crazy and she prayed that it wouldn’t come to that, but it was something to consider if she was in extremis.
Mulan stuffed the hat back into her bag and locked it, then tossed it into the closet. Then she grabbed her jacket and left the house with just her money and passport. Officer Lee’s car was gone, much to her relief, but she assumed that someone who worked with him had taken over the surveillance.
Shang wasn’t home yet when she returned with two shopping bags, but as she reached the bedroom with them she heard the front door open.
“Mulan?”
“Just a minute!” she called out, frantically unpacking the shopping bags. She’d bought a new pair of boys’ jeans, tee-shirts and a sweatshirt, along with a new duffle bag and a large bandage that she planned to wrap around her torso. Everything that would make her appear boyish. Quickly stuffing it all into her old bag, she shut the closet door and hurried to greet him as he crossed the threshold of the bedroom door.
“Hi.” She gulped, attempting to catch her breath.
He embraced her and kissed her tenderly.
“Did you go out?”
“For a little while. I got home a few minutes before you.”
“What about the papers?”
Her body stiffened against his and her expression tightened defensively. “They’re still on the desk in your office. I promised you I wouldn’t do anything with them before you came home. I keep my promises.”
“I…I didn’t mean to imply that you…I’m sorry. You just seem frazzled. Is everything alright? Did anything happen while you were out?”
“No. I’m fine.”
There was deep concern in his eyes as he stared at her for a long time before finally speaking. “I don’t know what you’re up to, Mulan,” he sighed resignedly. “But…you’re defensive, you’re jittery. I guess you still don’t completely trust me. And I don’t know how else to convince you that I’m on your side, no matter what.”
Later that night, as they lay together in bed and gazed at one another, Mulan intimated with a breaking heart that she would not be staying with him.
“Shang,” she began tentatively. “I’m glad that we met again and I do want to be with you, more than anything. If I do go away…it will be because I have to, not because I don’t want to be with you. Please believe that.”
“Mulan. I wish I could make you see, really see, that running will just make things worse.”
“It will only be if I have to. But I’ll give the papers to your friend tomorrow.”
Without another word he pulled her against him and kissed her long and deep before letting his hands rove over her body, caressing and arousing her. They both knew that she would have to leave and this was their way of saying goodbye. Tomorrow, very likely, she would leave San Francisco, no longer Chen Mulan or Magnolia Lee, but as Michael Lee.