Chapter 21: We Need A Dentist
The first purchase began before anyone left Hanchuan’s office.
Shichen stood at Hanchuan’s desk with the volcanic-region map open beside the plans for the unfinished hotel.
Zeyu had taken over the wall display, replacing architectural drawings with specifications for heavy transport vehicles. Jingwei used the disconnected office console to compile a list of warehouses whose inventories could be moved without attracting immediate attention.
Qinghe had claimed one end of the low table.
He removed the remaining breakfast wrappers, wiped away the last trace of Zeyu’s energy drink and spread Zhiyi’s medical-supply calculations across the cleared surface.
Zhiyi sat beside him with a third bottle of water.
Hanchuan had returned her notebook after she finished eating, but he had also set an alarm on her phone for ten that evening.
The alarm was labelled STOP WORKING.
It contained no ambiguity.
Assistant Lin waited outside the locked office until Jingwei permitted him to enter. He brought six secure tablets, printed property records and a stack of corporate authorization forms.
He stopped after crossing the threshold.
The maps covering Hanchuan’s desk, floor and walls hadn’t been present when he arrived for work.
But he was also smart enough not to ask questions when the answers were already provided. His expression remained professional as he turned away from what he shouldn’t be looking at.
"Place everything on the desk," Hanchuan said. "Then cancel the rest of my schedule."
"You have a board meeting at eleven."
"Cancel it."
"The directors have already arrived."
"Then send them home."
Assistant Lin set down the documents. "What reason should I give?"
"None."
"Yes, President Pei."
He turned toward the door.
"Lin."
Assistant Lin stopped.
"You’ll receive property acquisitions and supply orders from all five of us today. Separate every project. No contractor sees more than one component, and no employee receives the complete list."
Assistant Lin looked once at the maps. "Should the purchases be made through Pei Holdings?"
"Use new subsidiaries or shell corporations. Different directors, different banks and no visible ownership connection."
"How many subsidiaries?"
Hanchuan glanced toward Zhiyi.
She counted the currently identified acquisition categories. "At least twelve. That number may increase."
"Twelve to begin," Hanchuan said, passing on the information.
Assistant Lin didn’t ask why.
"I’ll have the registrations started immediately."
Jingwei locked the door behind him when he left.
Shichen slid the unfinished hotel plans across the desk. "The shell company can acquire the property this afternoon. Construction is already active, so bringing in additional workers won’t attract attention."
"We need a second underground site outside the same utility network," Zhiyi said.
"I’ve identified one."
He brought another plan onto the wall display.
The building had been designed as a government data archive beneath a low ridge west of the capital. Budget cuts had suspended construction after the primary structure was completed.
"It has two tunnel entrances, independent grid connections and enough depth to remain insulated during the heat," Shichen said. "The government still owns the land, but the construction contract can be acquired through one of Hanchuan’s subsidiaries."
"That creates records," Jingwei said.
"All purchases create records."
"I’ll arrange for the relevant records to become difficult to find."
Shichen glanced at him. "Don’t delete anything until the acquisition is legally complete."
"I know how property records work."
"You know how to make people disappear better than you know how property records work," Shichen replied, a slight smirk on his face.
"Records are easier," replied Jingwei with a matching smile.
Zeyu looked over his shoulder from the wall display. "Are the two of you going to argue over paperwork while I attempt to turn a truck into a ship?"
"It isn’t a ship," Zhiyi replied, not looking up.
"That is the first reasonable thing anyone has said about it."
"It needs to remain buoyant long enough to reach the flood towers. It doesn’t need to cross an ocean."
Zeyu enlarged the specifications of an all-terrain heavy-recovery vehicle.
"This chassis can support the internal weight, but it’s too wide for several roads on your route."
"We can widen the access roads before the heat."
"All of them?"
"Only the sections that prevent passage."
"That still requires surveys, machinery and construction crews."
Hanchuan signed the first property authorization. "Hire them."
Zeyu looked at him. "You know that unlimited money doesn’t increase the number of hours in a day."
"It increases the number of hours spent waiting for approval," countered Hanchuan.
"That," Zeyu conceded, "is true."
He moved two vehicle models beside one another.
"The recovery chassis gives us strength. A long-haul cab gives us serviceable parts and range. Neither will survive floodwater without a sealed lower body and independent propulsion."
"What about ice?" Qinghe asked.
"Tracked conversion or retractable drive units. I won’t know until we model the weight."
"The interior needs six permanent sleeping positions," Zhiyi said. "Rotational sleep schedules create unnecessary error during long travel."
Zeyu added it to his notes.
"A kitchen," Qinghe said.
"A medical area," Zhiyi added.
"Separate from the kitchen."
"Yes."
"Water storage?"
"Internal and external. If one tank is punctured, we can’t lose the full supply."
"Fuel?"
"The same."
Zeyu’s list continued expanding.
He pulled off his jacket, threw it across the sofa and rolled his sleeves above his forearms. The lazy man from the photographs disappeared as he began calculating weight distribution across the available chassis.
Shichen watched the specifications accumulate. "You’ll exceed the load capacity," he warned, pointing to one of the calculations.
"I haven’t selected the chassis."
"You’ve selected enough equipment to exceed all three options on the screen."
"Then I’ll build a stronger frame."
"In twenty-six days?"
"I’ll begin today if you stop standing there criticizing me," hissed Zeyu.
"I’m preventing you from producing an expensive vehicle that collapses under its own weight."
"Gee. Thanks. That almost sounded helpful."
"It was."
Their voices remained controlled, but the speed of the exchange increased as Zeyu transferred structural requirements to Shichen’s tablet.
Zhiyi watched them divide the problem without being instructed.
Shichen reduced weight.
Zeyu protected function.
Neither accepted the other’s first answer.
The vehicle became more possible each time they disagreed.
At the low table, Qinghe opened a list of medical suppliers attached to his hospital group. "What happened to pharmaceutical storage during the first heat?"
"Refrigeration failed," Zhiyi replied, giving him her undivided attention. "Hospitals used backup generators until they exhausted their fuel. Theft began before the formal evacuations."
"We’ll move temperature-sensitive medication into independent cold storage now."
"Separate locations," she reminded him.
"I wasn’t planning to put it all in one warehouse."
"Then that is sufficient."
Qinghe selected several items on the list. "Antibiotics, anesthetics, surgical equipment, fluids, blood-storage systems and long-term medication. We’ll need diagnostic equipment that can operate without a network connection."
"Dental equipment," Hanchuan said from the desk.
Qinghe looked at him.
Hanchuan continued signing forms. "We couldn’t find a dentist after the fourth year."
Zhiyi touched the back of one molar with her tongue.
The infection had lasted twenty-three days before Qinghe’s old medical textbook helped her determine how to drain it. Hanchuan had held a flashlight while she worked.
"Add dental equipment," Qinghe said.
He didn’t ask who had needed it.