Alex's first day of torture started with more torture. She had never instantly regretted her travel, but gasping for breath after leaving the airport and walking into what felt like a solid object—the object being mid-summer Hong Kong—was a very unique experience. She preferred winter visits to locations where words like 'tropical' were used to portray climate. The biggest deal of her career and she had already started to sweat. It wasn't encouraging.

It's a woman, Kubra had said. You're a woman. And then he'd given her a shit-eating look as if that sealed the deal. No, Alex knew how to talk to mules. If it wasn't her looks, it was the charm, the mystery, or the power: all of which she knew how and when to play. And she knew how to talk to men. There were always things they were willing to believe: that she was attracted to them, that she was less intelligent, that she was weaker. Her business was as much about the people as the numbers, and Alex was very good at it because she had no qualms about playing the game, as long as she came out on top.

She had never made a deal where her partner—as an independent signatory—was a woman. Even Kubra bought into that shit about women in a man's world, or otherwise she would be at home cracking that bottle of Casillero del Diablo and listening to Czech New Wave or some shit while Kubra sweated it out in a taxi. This woman—Piper—was a wild card, especially because Alex could uncover absolutely nil about her other than the fact that she was a daughter of a kingpin, a fact Kubra very cheerfully shared. Still, she wasn't about to fuck this one up.

She waved down a cab and rolled stickily onto the leather seats, shedding her blazer. The car dipped as the driver loaded her valise. In disjointed Cantonese she gave directions to an office building in Central District. Alex slumped against the window and took a breather.

The distinctive masts of the Bank of China Tower floated into view through the smog. The skyline was different but Hong Kong was just another free-wheeling capitalist playground. Just the way Alex liked it. The pre-deal adrenaline was flowing and air-conditioned cab was starting to feel downright chilly. A wave of muggy heat, a wave of cool air, and Alex was wheeling into one of the glass-curtained skyscrapers in Hong Kong's business district. She checked her phone and the business directory. 3603 appeared to be a company that manufactured medical devices. Unexpected, but not a half bad front for a Chinese triad.

She checked her make-up in the elevator and decided to shrug the blazer back on. Black was a good colour to hide sweat, and she would do the rest. The elevator dinged, and at the end of another hallway a middle-aged woman behind a desk gave Alex an expectant look.

"Alex Vause," she said.

The woman didn't look away. "Take a seat."

Alex sat down and looked around. She was not the only one waiting. Everything was painfully ordinary, clean, and subdued. A young man walked in wearing a suit and carrying a tray of breakfast orders. The secretary yawned and tapped on her keyboard.

Two voices were coming down a hallway shielded from Alex's view. One was masculine and demure. One was feminine and authoritative. They were speaking Cantonese too quickly for Alex to understand, but in another moment Alex saw that the woman behind the orders—oh, Alex knew what orders sounded like in any language—was blonde. Blonde and blue-eyed and young and small and dressed like a lawyer. She would have been the perfect mule in another life. But she had a presence in the room and a way of hooding her eyes that was either sultry or dismissive as she glanced around the waiting room and alighted on Alex.

"Alex Vause."

She had a perfect American accent. Television English, even. Was she talking to a mob boss's daughter or Miss America? Alex masked her confusion, smiled winningly, and stood.

"Piper?"

"Piper Chapman, for your purposes." The blonde reached out a hand and Alex shook it. "Come into my office."

Piper Chapman had a large, bright corner office. It was a little bare, and and little dusty. A Macbook was sitting on a massive desk besides a Starbucks drink that was piled high with whipped cream and what looked like chocolate chips and caramel swirl. Alex blinked. It was surreal.

The blonde closed the door, shut the blinds, and turned around. "I'm adopted."

"Uh, I," Alex smirked then tried to make it look contrite. "I didn't think I was being that obvious."

"You're not the obvious one. I am." The blonde shook out her hair and looked at the ceiling. "Sit down. I see you came straight from the airport. Would you like breakfast, a coffee?"

"A coffee would be great. Black, please."

The blonde opened the door again and stuck her head into the hallway. Alex took her little rolling suitcase and sat down. Piper moved to her massive leather office chair and looked silently at Alex, then at the young man that entered with Alex's coffee until he left.

"I'm a little offended Kubra didn't come himself."

"He's a busy man," Alex replied automatically, propping her glasses up on the top of her head.

"Too busy for business?" Piper raised an eyebrow. She looked thoroughly unimpressed. "Or is because he's a man, I'm a woman, and we're too different?"

"We could talk about being women in a man's world, if you need to," Alex offered with feigned earnestness.

Piper gave her a wry smile. "That would be very unnecessary."

"You could say," Alex added, holding flirtatious eye contact, "he doesn't get to talk to women that're on top too often."

The blonde laughed. "That's cute, but I'm not a mark. Don't flatter me. Let's not waste time."

"Let's not." Alex felt a tight, but genuine smile take over. She felt unbalanced, but not flustered. Sometimes games pretended not to be games, and those were the most fun. The thing about deals this high up the ladder was everyone had all the information before introductions were even made. It wasn't a deal she had to make so much as a performance she had to pull off. Social somersaults. Because logistics were easy, but people—they always clogged up the works.

Piper linked her fingers primly and leaned forward. "Last I heard most of your imports were coming from Mexico. Why the change of heart?"

"Gang wars. It's becoming too unreliable down there. The supply chain's in pieces-stolen shipments, dead contacts, meetings in fucking warehouses with guard details," Alex intoned. "A deal with one of them gets us in hot water with another. They're getting too territorial."

"I heard about the situation. Two years ago," the blonde relayed to her, straight-faced.

"Cutting our losses," Alex tilted one shoulder upwards. "We need security. You own the supply chain this side of the globe. Hell, at least a third of the opiates I see in the States come from you. But it's been bounced around a dozen middlemen who play pong with it in just as many cities before it even hits the streets. The money's rolling down the hill and I don't even know what's in the shit."

It was Piper's turn to shrug. "It's a tough market but I can play the long game. I'll still take an opportunity when I see one. Kubra speaks highly of you. You have a talent for importing, you need product, and I can get you that straight from the source."

Alex couldn't help herself. "So you were actually hoping I'd be the one to come today?"

"Is that the only thing you heard?"

Piper was glaring, but her eyes were dancing. Alex leaned back in her chair and tried not to look too smug.

"It's a sweet deal. Now what do you want?"

"You're going to show me how, where, and to whom you distribute. I want a clean show." The blonde's eyes narrowed and focused over Alex's shoulder, into a memory. "The last partner I had was a colossal fuck up. I was very disappointed."

"Well, is he still alive at least?"

The blonde took a sip of her drink and licked the foam from her upper lip. "You know, I was surprised you were a woman."

Alex hadn't really expected a straight answer, so she moved on quickly enough and not without some amusement. "We're really going to talk about this?"

"Men talk about women and we don't have an HR department."

So that's what she was curious about. Alex held the blonde's gaze and chortled. "Yeah, yeah, I strike fear into the hearts of men. Tall and breathes fire."

Piper eyed her thoughtfully. Alex stared back and thought maybe the blonde's curiosity in her could even be serious—and useful—but she wasn't about to play her cards this early. Chats weren't free.

"So, your distribution," Piper redirected finally.

"Transparency isn't exactly company policy, boss," Alex drawled, making sure to inflect the last syllable. "I don't sit around doing paperwork. How do you propose I show you how I do business?"

"I'm not your boss," Piper countered. "Just someone you want to impress. There's a shipment waiting for you, Alex, and I'm coming with it."

"You're going to babysit me?"

"That depends if you need it. I don't think you'll like my take on it." The delivery was a cross between flirting and threatening. Alex couldn't decide as Piper flashed her a thin smile. It was all business after that. Business as in being ushered out the door as Piper packed her things into a bright blue leather tote and threw on a pair of sunglasses like she was meeting someone for mid-morning mimosas. "5 AM tomorrow morning. We'll pick you up."

"Don't keep me waiting," Alex fired.

Piper stopped just before the main doors and smiled at Alex with stiff eyes. "You should take a tour of the Man Mo Temple in Sheung Wan. It's very relaxing this time of the year." With that, she rounded the corner and was out of sight.

There was no trace of Piper by the time Alex dragged her valise into lobby and out onto the street to hail another cab. On the way to Four Seasons, she considered looking up Piper's suggestion instead of braving an afternoon in the heat. Alex hadn't even brought the proper footwear.

She had a 5 AM car ride down to what was likely to be a warehouse full of heroin in the middle of fuck-knows to strut her shit, and she hadn't even eaten lunch today. All in a day's work. And Piper would be there. Probably with a prissy-ass Starbucks drink and that ball-crushing stare. She couldn't get a bead on the blonde at all. Piper had expressed interest without expressing need. Kept Alex on her toes without revealing anything too important. Only sometimes the woman's youth—and she was overwhelmingly young for what she was—broke through and Alex was tempted to say things that would work on anyone else. Alex would just have to get better.

Another contrast in temperatures later, Alex hit her hotel bed face down and groaned. Through the window the smog was starting to look opaque enough to touch. At least Piper was easy to look at, and Alex always shone under stress. Most of the time. She rolled over and looked around for her phone. First, she'd make Kubra sweat over the results of her meeting until she felt better. Then she'd hit the bar.

Alex hated dining alone, but drinking alone was just fine.