He had extra-thick lenses in his glasses and had strangely protruding eyes. Those orbs measured her as he sat behind his desk. He didn’t smile or blink, but watched, perhaps weighing her worth and trustworthiness, with her life in the balance.Shun Li tried to appear confident and ooze sincerity. It was difficult to do. She had her elbows locked, arms straight and in parallel alignment with her legs. She also had her chin up and stared at a distant, unseen point.The Police Minister’s inner chamber was vast. It contained expensive furniture and had huge pictures of Xiao with the Chairman or a smiling Xiao as he held a polar bear cub, no doubt given him by the Leader of Greater China. In another enlarged photo, Xiao watched a parade of East Lightning personnel marching through Tiananmen Square.The Police Minister could break her with a word, sentencing her to death. He was the Chairman’s closest ally and hated by many. The people and most in the military blamed him for the wrongful death of Foreign Minister Deng and Marshal Kao of the Ruling Committee.
