It was past midnight before Chang and Astrid found themselves alone. He mixed two drinks for them while Astrid smoked out on the balcony. The weather was still cooler than usual, with a slight breeze coming in off the ocean. The city glittered beneath Astrid, looking almost pretty, in its own dirty, neon kind of way.

Chang had been silent since the meeting had ended. Something was wrong, Astrid was sure. She just knew it. She could feel it in her gut. She kept waiting for him to talk to her, for everything to become clear again, but the longer it went on the more afraid of the truth she became.

"Are we okay?" she asked when he stepped out on the balcony, ice clinking in the glasses he carried. He stood next to her, leaning on the balcony wall, putting their glasses down on top of it. He smelled familiar to her, now, and Astrid breathed deeply, taking in that heady mix of his cologne and the ocean breeze.

"In what sense?"

"With Hong Kong," Astrid said, "is everything okay now?" Chang took a slow breath, and didn't immediately answer. He drained half of his glass.

"Yeah, baby," he told her, finally, "everything's fine." He put a hand on her cheek, turning her face to his. The moonlight lit her beautifully, even with the cuts and bruises. Astrid was about to open her mouth to ask if he was sure, thinking about what Balalaika had said. Something was up with him, she could tell. But Chang kissed her, stopping her from speaking.

They had sex that night, slowly, carefully, Chang doing the work while trying not to hurt Astrid. It was nothing like the times they'd fucked in the past, but the difference wasn't a bad thing. There was almost a quiet desperation in the way he touched her, Astrid thought later. He spent a lot of time roaming over her body, like he was memorising every inch. But maybe she was imagining things that hadn't been there, knowing what she knew now.

Chang woke before Astrid, as he usually did. She was getting dressed when he re-entered the room, fully dressed himself in his usual suit and tie, sunglasses and all, carrying a briefcase.

"What's that?" She asked, and Chang stood stiffly, not smiling at her.

"It's for you," he told her. He put the case down on the bed without ceremony, and Astrid stared at him for a moment, trying to catch his eye, to make him look at her, which was impossible when his eyes were concealed behind those glasses. Finally, she turned to the case and clicked it open.

"What is this?"

The briefcase was filled with cash, large bills, and Astrid knew without looking they'd be non-sequential and well laundered. It had to be close to $100,000... no, it would be $100,000 exactly, she was sure. On top was an American passport, and a folder with other documents. Astrid picked up the passport and opened it.

Her own face stared back at her, next to the name Alys Woodhouse, aged 25, her age, but with a different birth date.

"Bai?" He walked away from her, over to the bar, pouring himself a drink, even though it was early. Her heart was in her throat, beating hard. This didn't feel real. She picked up the folder and looked inside. There was a birth certificate, a high school diploma, and even a driver's license. A plane ticket. "Bai?" she repeated, her voice growing louder, "what the fuck is this?"

"It's for you," he answered her, finally, looking at her from behind his sunglasses. "For you to get out of here."

"Out of where?"

"Out of Roanapur. Out of the country. You can't stay here."

"The fuck I can't," Astrid told him, standing up, "Bai, what are you... you want me to leave?"

"No," Chang shook his head, "I don't want you to leave-"

"Then what-"

"I need you to leave." Astrid stared at him. "You're not safe here. What happened before could happen again, and I can't have that. I promised you that I would keep you safe. This is me keeping that promise."

"Did Balalaika get to you?" Astrid ran a hand through her hair, trying to process what was happening. "It this because I'm a 'point of weakness', for you? Because of what Hong Kong said?"

"This isn't coming from Balalaika," Chang said, dodging the question, "it's coming from me. Leave Roanapur, Astrid. Make a fresh start, somewhere else. You can have a real life. A better life." Astrid stared in stunned silence for a while.

A real life. This was her life. This was who she was. No amount of money and fake qualifications would change that.

"When did you decide to do this?" she asked, realisation dawning on her. Even Chang couldn't get a passport, documents, and money together overnight. Suddenly the last two weeks, how he had behaved last night, and the night before that, took on a different light. "How long have you known you were going to try and send me away?"

He didn't answer.

"No," she said, finally, her voice rising again, emotional, and Chang removed his sunglasses, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Astrid-"

"No. I'm not going anywhere. I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving the city, and I'm not leaving you. No."

"Astrid, don't be difficult, not now, not about this," Chang pleaded. "You need to leave."

"You don't decide what I do," Astrid told him, standing before him with her feet planted, her hands balled into fists, "you don't just tell me to leave." Chang sighed.

"I'm telling you now. Trust me, Astrid, this is for the best." He put his sunglasses back on.

"This is as much my city as it is yours!"

Chang's dark glasses glinted as he looked at her, his expression hard.

"This is my city," he said, turning his back on her. "Get out."

Astrid sat on the hard floor of her small apartment, numb.

The briefcase from Chang was on her bed, closed. Several hours had passed, and the room was dark. Light from the streetlights outside streamed in through the metal blinds, the shadows looking like bars all around her room. An open bottle of whiskey was on the floor next to her, Astrid's hand clamped around the neck.

She raised it to her lips and drank.

The case kept drawing her eye, the most vivid thing in the room. $100,000. What she wouldn't have done for that kind of money only a few weeks ago. The jobs she would have taken, the shit she would have put up with.

She didn't want it like this, though.

Astrid tried to imagine taking the briefcase, packing up her few possessions, and leaving Roanapur. The plane ticket to the States was for tomorrow night. For the first time in almost a decade she would be back in the U.S., as Alys Woodhouse.

Thinking about it made her feel detached from her body, like an outsider watching a pretence of a girl. The thought of going back made her chest constrict. The girl who had been born an American, who might have lived her whole life out in Chicago, was dead. Anything other than blue open skies and the sea, other than complete freedom, felt like a cage.

She thought about the people she had killed. First as a soldier, then for money. She'd killed to move up in the world, to get paid. There was no going back. She hadn't even looked behind before she slit her first marks throat. She didn't want to look behind now.

Chang's actions felt like a betrayal. The man who had given her this briefcase wasn't one she recognised. He was cold, as distant from her as if he were on another planet. For the last two years of her life, Chang had always been there to save her. Now what he thought would save her was killing her inside. He didn't know what she needed.

No one was going to come get her out of this, this time. So, what was she going to do?

Astrid sat on the floor all night, drinking slowly, thinking. She thought about Chang, everything she had learned about and from him, and about the Triad, in the last two years. Everything she had learned while living at HQ the last two weeks. She thought about the city, it's heartbeat as familiar to her as her own, it's streets like the back of her hand. She thought back to her military training, running tactics and scenarios in her head. The sun rose slowly. By the time her room was bathed in golden light, filtered through the blinds, she had a plan.

She would have to move quickly. The plane ticket Chang had given her was for that night, and if she wasn't on the flight he would know, she was sure. She couldn't be where he could find her when he found out. Astrid got up, feeling steady and calm despite the whiskey she had imbibed. She had made up her mind. She changed clothes, packed a small bag, strapped her Beretta to her thigh, filling her jacket pockets with ammo and money, not all the money Chang had given her, but enough, a couple of stacks. The rest she hid under the loose floorboard she used, still in the briefcase, with the rest of her meagre savings, suddenly much supplemented. Astrid left the passport and documents in the briefcase. She didn't want to use them, half felt like setting fire to the lot, and if things went badly it was unlikely that she would be in any position to be using a passport, but there was always a chance. Finally, she shoved any would be essentials that weren't in her small bag under the floorboard, on top of the briefcase. Things like the TV and her now broken CD player she could leave, but most of her clothes had to be hidden. The goal was to make it look like she had left.

Astrid locked up and went with Chang's money to the best gun shop in Roanapur.

She was betting everything on what she knew about the man whose bed she had shared on and off for two years. If she was right, her plan should work. If it had all been a lie, she'd likely not live out the next 72 hours.