In Between Dreams (8 page)

Bailey listened patiently to the plan, once again trying to discern any holes in planning. She was asking the appropriate questions at the appropriate times, but a piece of her mind had drifted to Rodney. Where did he go? Was her subconscious simply done with him? How many moments had she thought back on his words? This happened both in her life in Seattle and on these missions.

“Everyone got it?” Halene asked. “This is the last time we’re going to go over it.” She yawned. It was contagious, and everyone followed. Bailey asked the obvious question no one really liked to think about.

“I’m not really comfortable with Plan B. Sam, are you sure the new safe house is close enough to the train station to get Mei off the street quickly if this goes south? She will panic, and we’ll need to move her quickly,” Bailey said. She knew enough about the plan to know if things went wrong, they’d go wrong very quickly. She wanted to make sure they were all comfortable with the alternative scenario.

“I’m sure,” Sam said with a light smile. “It’s less than two blocks, and we’ll have back up.”

Daniel nodded. “I’ll be in the train car behind you, just in case you need a skilled gunman,” he said with a wink.

“You’re so cocky,” Bailey murmured.

Sam would be the lead in the scenario to move Mei. Bailey would be the distraction by wearing the same clothes as Mei under her loosely fitting dress. They all hoped some of the men would follow Bailey increasing the chances of splitting the pursuers into two groups, thus improving the odds of making it to the safe house. Bailey was skilled at diversions and moved like a cat.

Halene leaned back in her chair. “Go on, y’all. Time’s a wastin’,” she said with a head tilt and flick of her wrist.

“Let’s get in there,” Daniel said, and motioned to the bedroom door.

Sam walked over to the door, knocking timidly. “She’s not going to hear that,” Bailey offered.

“Just open the door, mate,” Daniel said.

Sam took a breath before sliding the door open. Mei sat up in bed. The trio walked in, and Bailey slid the door closed behind her, taking a solemn breath inward.

Sam looked back to check on Bailey. She nodded with a light, insincere grin. Mei’s mindset still wasn’t where they needed it to be. They needed to get Mei to be calm and confident about their plan.

Mei’s eyes widened as she looked at Bailey. Mei took Bailey’s hand and smiled reassuringly. She began to speak, and Sam translated. “You look worried. I am feeling much better now, I promise,” Mei said sincerely. She appeared to have settled down and was more reasonable than she had been over the last couple hours.

Bailey looked between Mei and Sam before responding. “I’m not worried about you, Mei. I know you’re going to be fine,” Bailey stated softly. Bailey was sure to act calm and confident. She wanted to ensure Mei their plan was going to work, and she needed to be as steady as possible.

Mei frowned. “She’s wondering why your eyes are so red, then?” Sam explained. Bailey feigned a laugh.

“Tell her I’m…” Bailey paused. Why was she so upset? Missing Rodney? Wanting to go home? “…tired and not quite used to the smog,” she finished her thought.

Sam looked down, swallowed before looking at Mei. He smiled as he translated Bailey’s words. “Why don’t you sleep?” Mei asked through Sam. Bailey found it ironic, hearing her advice reflected back in her direction.

Daniel cleared his throat. “Can I step in, B?”

He walked to Mei’s other side, extending his hand to hers. “You know we can’t stay here, Mei. Right? You
know
you can’t stay here.”

Mei teared up, breaking her calm mood. “They’ll catch me. I have no choice—I have to turn myself over to them.” Sam was trying unsuccessfully to speak over the top of Mei’s emotional cries. “Where will I go? What are you going to do? You know I can’t leave.”

Daniel put his index finger over her lips to calm her. “Listen to me, Mei. Listen,” he explained almost harshly. Luckily for Mei, the words seemed sweeter coming from Sam’s soft-spoken lips. “We have a plan. We need to you to get packed up tonight before we go to sleep. Sam and Halene spoke to your mother’s friend, who lives in Bali. She wants you to come live with her. Go to school. Have a new life.”

“Hui Zhong?” she said.

Daniel looked at Bailey and mouthed a very clear “What the fuck?” and Bailey stifled her own laughter. “That’s her friend’s name,” Sam explained in a hushed yell.

Bailey rubbed her lips together to keep from her very unfortunate but habitual nervous laughter. She would laugh when her dad would get mad at her for not cleaning her room. She would laugh after finding
out someone had died. Not because it was funny but because she didn’t know what else to do. She couldn’t hold it in.

Sam shot Bailey a glare before Daniel continued. “You need to get away from this city, from this country. We’re going to get you out.”

They waited while Mei looked at the ground and then at her hands. Bailey followed her gaze and saw Daniel holding Mei’s hand with both of his. It seemed like a much sweeter gesture and much out of character than she would expect from someone as cold and hardheaded as Daniel. Bailey looked up at Daniel’s face. He was looking back at her; the eye contact was intense. He never broke her gaze first. She would never understand that. Every other man she had ever known could never look her in the eye for longer than five seconds. (Not including her friend Jason. But Jason was basically a girlfriend.) Not Daniel though. “You really think this is what we need to do, Daniel?” Sam spoke for Mei.

Daniel nodded, and Bailey broke their eye contact to allow him to focus on Mei, “I know it is, Mei.”

Mei looked over at Bailey and tried to say her name: “Bayey?”

This wasn’t the first time Mei tried to speak in English, but it was by far the cutest.

Bailey put her free hand on the side of Mei’s face, stroking her hair and giving her a reassuring smile. “You’re going to do great. We’re going on a tourist excursion to Lijiang, and then we’ll get you on a train from there. I’ll be with you the whole way.”

“You’ll basically have an entourage,” Daniel said sarcastically. “I’ll be leaving soon to get ready for the trip. I’ll be around during the trip but not actually with you,” Daniel informed Mei.

Daniel stood up and gave her an encouraging look and a small nod. “It was an honor to meet you,” Daniel said with a real sincerity that impressed Bailey. Her opinion of Daniel centered around his skills and action-oriented execution during their missions. Every once in a while, he did surprisingly display a compassionate side.

Bailey knew if Plan A worked, Mei would not see Daniel again. He would be there close enough to help but not in the group. Mei needed to think he was not going so she would not be looking for him in the crowd, which could jeopardize things.

“But you really need to shower,” Daniel said with a wink. “I’m pretty sure the other guests can smell you.”

“I am not translating that,” Sam said definitively. Sam and Daniel exchanged a quick glare, and Sam turned to Mei and began speaking Mandarin.

Mei nodded and hugged Bailey and Daniel. Mei blurted out a couple sentences before running to the bathroom. Sam said a couple more words before she shut the door.

“What did you say to her?” Daniel asked in a harsh tone.

“Let’s give her some privacy,” Sam said, beckoning for the other two to follow him and completely ignoring Daniel’s question.

“I’m going to start getting her packed up,” Bailey explained.

Daniel looked toward Sam, and Bailey saw Daniel’s mental wheels turning.

“Yeah, I’ll help,” Daniel offered, still staring at Sam. “Why don’t you go talk to Hales? Fill her in?”

Bailey looked between the two men. Daniel was standing in front of her by the door, and Sam was standing behind her next to the bed. Daniel walked past Bailey and toward Sam and put his hand on his shoulder. Bailey turned and backed up for a moment. She couldn’t make out what either of them was saying; all she could hear were fast-paced mumbles.

Bailey inched her way closer to the two men as slowly as she could manage. She didn’t want them to see her out of their peripheral vision.

Finally, she was in earshot. “…face gave away more than your broken Mandarin. I don’t know what you think you’re doing, pally, but…” And she lost what he was saying for a moment, so she moved closer while she pretended to pick up clothes. “…our words.”

Bailey was filling her arms with Mei’s clothing and personal items, which were strewn across the room, while still listening intently. Bailey tried not to allow her face to look strained as she made sure her ear was pointed toward them.

Sam sucked in a breath. “Back off, Daniel. You don’t know anything. Halene is right outside, we can do this lat—”

“Shit,” Bailey swore under her breath when Sam stopped talking; she knew she’d been caught. Sam walked past Daniel and raised his eyebrow at Bailey. “H-hi,” she stuttered, and gave him a crooked smile.

“What’d you hear?” Sam asked in a calm voice as he crossed his arms.

“Answer him, Bales,” Daniel echoed.

“Nothing, well…sort of nothing. You kinda both seem like you’re up to something,” Bailey explained, and threw some items into Mei’s duffel bag that was sitting at her feet. “What are you two muttering about?
Hmm?
”

“I already told you.” Daniel shrugged. “You know what it’s about. You just don’t want to admit it.” Daniel looked back at Sam. “And you aren’t subtle enough.”

“Oh yes,” Sam croaked sarcastically. “Because everything about
you
screams subtly.”

Halene walked in, and Bailey plopped herself on the bed out of pure exhaustion from trying to understand these two men.

“You are all so tiring,” Bailey muttered. She lay back on the bed and put her arms over her eyes so no light could get in.

“What are y’all fightin’ about now?”

“What we always fight about, Hales,” Daniel told her with a snicker in his voice. Everything was a joke to him. It was getting tedious to the group with the tactical movement getting closer.

“It’s not a big deal, Haley. I promise,” Sam comforted.

Halene made a huffing noise. “We’re going to be together for a while; you can’t tug on this rope forever. She’s not a—”

Bailey tuned her out. She had recognized the phrase; she couldn’t think of where she had heard it, but she did know it.
“Tug on this rope.”
She repeated the phrase over and over again in her head.

It was going to drive her crazy. Where had she heard it? Tug on this rope. Tug on this rope. She repeated it in her head so many times the words began to sound strange in her head. Tuuuuuuuug on thiiiiiis rope. After she said it over and over again, it began to sound foreign.

She snapped herself out of it and sat up to face the group once again. As she did, she heard humming coming from the bathroom. The humming caught everyone’s attention. Daniel’s head snapped up. Sam looked at his feet as if he was trying to remember something. His face was concentrated. His eyes looked back and forth like he was trying
to decipher a code. Halene slid to the floor, trying to get closer to the music.

Everyone stopped, stopped bickering, stopped glaring, stopped everything and listened. Bailey recognized the song from one of her dad’s old records. She could almost remember the band’s name. Bailey’s breathing caught as she heard Mei’s beautiful voice echo throughout the hotel room. She didn’t know the words when they were sung in Mandarin, but she knew the song. It was an older song from the ’60s or ’70s. Mei’s voice was soft and airy as she sung. Her voice was echoing through the walls and off the floor and hitting the groups ears and almost humbling them.

They had been with her for two days and didn’t really know a thing about her. She was an enigma to them. She was in trouble but what she was really like? What was her history? Her humanity was obscured to them.

“I know this song,” Halene finally said. She was as shocked as everyone else in the room. Of all the music Mei would sing, it was an American song. It was a very popular American song everyone in the room knew. Halene, at twelve years old, even knew it.

Sam nodded. “It’s Fleetwood Mac,” he said with a half smile. “They have Fleetwood Mac in China?” Halene and Bailey chuckled a bit at his quasi-joke.

“What’s the song called?” Halene asked, still trying to place the song.

As soon as Halene asked, Bailey remembered the song’s title. The lyrics flooded into her brain, and she sang along to the song in her head nodding gently to the rhythm. She smiled at Halene.

“‘Dreams’!” Daniel and Bailey said at the same time. They all sat on the floor at the same time and continued to listen. There wasn’t a lot of room for them all to sit, so they were a bit cramped. Bailey was hugging her legs against her chest, and Halene sat with her legs crossed next to her. Sam mirrored Bailey’s posture in front of her, and Daniel sat closest to the bathroom, with his legs sprawled out in front of him, making less room for everyone else.

The music was spilling from the crack at the bottom of the bathroom door and filling their ears. The irony of the song name was not lost
on Bailey, but she ignored it and listened. She had never heard anyone with such a breathtaking voice, at least not in person.

Halene must have recognized the part of the song Mei was singing because she joined in.

“Now here I go again, I see the crystal vision.”
Her voice was sweet and innocent. She still held her accent as she sung, like a country singer.

Sam joined in without much pause.
“I keep my visions to myself, It’s only me who wants to wrap around your dreams and have you any dreams you’d like to sell?”

Sam’s voice was lower than Bailey expected. It had gruffness to it. It was rich, clear, very strong, and carried well. He had no qualms about singing. It was almost like he’d broken into song on a daily basis.

Bailey wasn’t exactly fond of her own voice. She was an alto who had always convinced herself she was a soprano. She tried in high school to have a voice like the other girls in her choir and eventually hurt her vocal chords. When she sang now, it was a talk-sing without any volume to it. She decided to join in with Mei, Sam, and Halene anyway. As she did, Daniel drummed on his jeans. It was his way to input his voice without actually singing.