Hu had become much more talkative now that he was out of the rice camp. He had a story now, and he had his job back. When Shan met him at Glory Camp he had said he had nothing to report about Lau. But Prosecutor Xu had kept him behind the wire, to think about things.

"You found a way to get out of Glory Camp," Shan observed. "Not really a place for a man like you."

Hu nodded energetically. "It was getting unbearable. Like an insane asylum with the patients taking over."

"What do you mean?"

"It was those men, the crazy ones who disrupted the camp."

"Disrupted?" Shan asked.

"One of the damned fools without thumbs. Or not him, really- he just translated."

Shan looked from Kaju to Hu in confusion.

"The senile old Xibo could make that man without thumbs understand him. Anyway, at three o'clock one morning they were all found sitting in a circle on the floor, the whole barracks, with the thumbless one and the Xibo sitting in front of them, chanting the political slogans they had been taught that day. When their officer stormed in and demanded an explanation, the old Xibo explained through the other. He said he was unfamiliar with the particular path to enlightenment being taught at the camp but that it was important to strive for perfection in its practice, since enlightenment must be the goal. Everyone in the barracks was different after that, obedient and polite, smiling like fools all the time. The officer was furious but the prisoners were doing nothing wrong. The guards kept the Xibo separated from the others after that, let him wander around alone. Mostly he sat at the bed of some Mongol boy who couldn't walk."

Shan sighed. He remembered the waterkeeper sitting alone at the flagpole. Maybe at least it might improve the chances for rescuing the waterkeeper, if the old man were able to freely move about the camp. He had vowed to himself that as soon as he knew all the boys were safe, he would return to Glory Camp and find a way out for the old Tibetan. Shan saw that Kaju was staring at the teacher with a puzzled expression.

"You mean there is a lama at the camp?" Kaju asked.

Hu laughed. "Not a damned lama. Just a crazy Xibo."

Kaju leaned forward and seemed about to correct the man, then shrugged and looked into his hands.

"What did you mean," Shan asked Hu, "that Ko was offering Lau rehabilitation?"

"People misunderstand Ko. He has the best of intentions. Comrade Director Ko was saying in his way that she was being forgiven for all the unauthorized teaching, for the misappropriations. Take the retirement flat, I told her. They'll have elevators there. Television."

"What kind of misappropriations?" Shan asked. Kaju still leaned against the window, gazing uncertainly at the Han teacher.

"Using Ministry of Education cars without permission. She took Ministry paper and pencils out of the school. Food from the school kitchen. Not to mention teaching unapproved curriculum or encouraging religious practices."

"Chairman Mao," Shan declared stiffly, "taught us to be vigilant. He warned us about religion."

"Exactly!" Hu agreed, and turned with a victorious smile toward Kaju.

"A good citizen like you would try to stop it, to do what you could," Shan suggested.

Hu nodded gravely. "I tried to warn her first. I've been teaching thirty-five years now. I went to university in Urumqi. It's not how things are done, I told her. She was never trained for teaching. What she did, it was never done that way."

Shan looked at the machine in the man's hand. "There're new ways now," he observed. There were crates at Glory Camp, he remembered, with the same logo. Crates he had seen with the dead American. And also crates with Osman, at Karachuk. Had Osman stolen from the knobs? No. It wasn't the knobs who were passing out machines, it was the Brigade. The Brigade was using the knobs' inventory, even though everyone insisted Ko and Bao never cooperated.

Hu followed Shan's gaze. "From Director Ko! Part of the new incentive scheme. We're not going to just punish bad actors, we are going to reward good behavior."

Kaju had one of the machines too, sitting unopened in its plastic bag on the window sill. He picked it up. "The orphans," the Tibetan said. "All the orphans who return to class, who enroll in our new program, will get a disc player. They-" He was interrupted by a loud buzz from the public address system in the hall.

Hu rose from his desk abruptly. "My class is starting," he announced, and pulled a cap with a snap-down visor from a drawer. "Political history." He pulled the cap low around his head and looked at Shan and Kaju as if about to ask them to leave.

"We'll just be a few moments," Shan said in a reassuring tone. "The investigation."

The man nodded soberly and scurried out of the room.

Kaju Drogme looked at Shan, then at the machine in his hands. He shrugged. "These children," the Tibetan said in a confused tone. "They hardly know what radios are. Maybe they've seen tape players, in town. Maybe even if they got to a city, some day, some year, they could buy a disc to play."

"If they had any money," Shan added.

Kaju gave a weak smile, as if thanking Shan for understanding a bad joke. "I have friends in Chengdu," he said, still gazing at the disc player. "Maybe they could send some old discs." He shrugged again and looked at Shan. "You were there that day at the garage. When the Tibetan warned about the boys."

"Why is Ko doing this with the orphans? What is the rush?"

"Not orphans," Kaju said. "There was a memorandum. We are to call them Emerging Members."

"Members of what?"

Kaju hesitated. "The memorandum didn't say. School. Society. Socialism." He shrugged once more. The movement seemed be one of his defining characteristics. "What he's doing is rewarding everyone, pursuant to new Brigade policy. Ko didn't decide it on his own. It came from Urumqi. But he wants this county to lead in the initiative." The Tibetan looked up with a self-conscious grin. "If I get all the children back within two weeks, he's going to give me a special apartment. One of those reserved for Brigade managers. And access to the motor pool. And a title, Director of Economic Assimilation."

"Economic?"

Kaju nodded. "He says that's why assimilation failed, because it was always made political. People don't understand that economics bring people together far more effectively. Use common cultural themes to build common economic interests to bind them together. That's how Director Ko defines my job. Ko said the Brigade itself is the best example. A company owned by Hans, Kazakhs, Uighurs, Kirghiz, Tadjiks, Xibo, Hui, probably ten other cultural groups. But everyone works together successfully. No one refers to Han shareholders versus Kazakh shareholders, just shareholders." Kaju looked back at his machine. "The disc players are not the right reward, that's all. He wants so much to help them, to bring them into the new society. His enthusiasm gets misunderstood sometimes. I will speak with him. Maybe new saddles. Maybe even foals from the Brigade herd." Kaju paused and nodded. "Foals would be perfect."

"Maybe not," Shan said. "I thought horses have been declared reactionary. They're all being arrested by the knobs."

The Tibetan's face clouded, and he shrugged again. "You just don't understand Ko. He wants to do the right thing. A few days ago he started a new children's health program, all on his own."