Paolo Bacigalupi - The Windup Girl

Anderson sorts through the ngaw. Holds up one of his green-haired discoveries for Hock Seng. "Have you ever seen one of these before?"

Hock Seng glances up. "The Thai call them ngaw." He returns to his work, treadling through spreadsheets that will never add and red ink that will never be reported.

"I know what the Thai call them." Anderson gets up and crosses to the old man's desk. Hock Seng flinches as Anderson sets the ngaw beside his computer, eyeing the fruit as if it is a scorpion. Anderson says, "The farmers in the market could tell me the Thai name. Did you have them down in Malaya, too?"

"I-" Hock Seng starts to speak, then stops. He visibly fights for self-control, his face working through a flicker-flash of emotions. "I-" Again, he breaks off.

Anderson watches fear mold and re-mold Hock Seng's features. Less than one percent of the Malayan Chinese escaped the Incident. By any measure, Hock Seng is a lucky man, but Anderson pities him. A simple question, a piece of fruit, and the old man looks as if he's about to flee the factory.

Hock Seng stares at the ngaw, breath rasping. Finally he murmurs, "None in Malaya. Only Thais are clever with such things." And then he is working again, eyes fixed on his little computer screen, memories locked away.

Anderson waits to see if Hock Seng will reveal anything more but the old man doesn't raise his eyes again. The puzzle of the ngaw will have to wait.

Anderson returns to his own desk and starts sifting through the mail. Receipts and tax papers that Hock Seng has prepared sit at one corner of his desk, demanding attention. He begins working through the stack, adding his signature to Megodont Union paychecks and the SpringLife chop to waste disposal approvals. He tugs at his shirt, fanning himself against the increasing heat and humidity.

Eventually Hock Seng looks up. "Banyat was looking for you."

Anderson nods, distracted by the forms. "They found rust on the cutting press. The replacement improved reliability by five percent."

"Twenty-five percent, then?"

Anderson shrugs, flips more pages, adds his chop to an Environment Ministry carbon assessment. "That's what he says." He folds the document back into its envelope.

"Still not a profitable statistic. Your springs are all wind and no release. They keep joules the way the Somdet Chaopraya keeps the Child Queen."

Anderson makes a face of irritation but doesn't bother defending the erratic quality.

"Did Banyat also tell you about the nutrient tanks?" Hock Seng asks. "For the algae?"

"No. Just the rust. Why?"

"They have been contaminated. Some of the algae is not producing the…" Hock Seng hesitates. "The skim. It is not productive."

"He didn't mention it to me."

Another slight hesitation. Then, "I'm sure he tried."

"Did he say how bad it was?"

Hock Seng shrugs. "Just that the skim does not meet specifications."

Anderson scowls. "I'm firing him. I don't need a QA man who can't actually tell me the bad news."

"Perhaps you were not paying close attention."

Anderson has a number of words for people who try to raise a subject and then somehow fail, but he's interrupted by a scream from the megodont downstairs. The noise is loud enough to make the windows shake. Anderson pauses, listening for a follow-up cry.

"That's the Number Four power spindle," he says. "The mahout is incompetent."

Hock Seng doesn't look up from his typing. "They are Thai. They are all incompetent."

Anderson stifles a laugh at the yellow card's assessment. "Well, that one is worse." He goes back to his mail. "I want him replaced. Number Four spindle. Remember that."

Hock Seng's treadle loses its rhythm. "This is a difficult thing, I think. Even the Dung Lord must bow before the Megodont Union. Without the labor of the megodonts, one must resort to the joules of men. Not a powerful bargaining position."

"I don't care. I want that one out. We can't afford a stampede. Find some polite way to get rid of him." Anderson pulls over another stack of paychecks waiting for his signature.

Hock Seng tries again. "Khun, negotiating with the union is a complicated thing."

"That's why I have you. It's called delegating." Anderson continues flipping the papers.

"Yes, of course." Hock Seng regards him drily. "Thank you for your management instruction."

"You keep telling me I don't understand the culture here," Anderson says. "So take care of it. Get rid of that one. I don't care if you're polite or if everyone loses face, but find a way to axe him. It's dangerous to have someone like that in the power train."

Hock Seng's lips purse, but he doesn't protest any more. Anderson decides to assume that he will be obeyed. He flips through the pages of another permit letter from the Environment Ministry, grimacing. Only Thais would spend so much time making a bribe look like a service agreement. They're polite, even when they're shaking you down. Or when there's a problem with the algae tanks. Banyat…

Anderson shuffles through the forms on his desk. "Hock Seng?"

The old man doesn't look up. "I will take care of your mahout ," he says as he keeps typing. "It will be done, even if it costs you when they come to bargain again for bonuses."

"Nice to know, but that's not my question." Anderson taps his desk. "You said Banyat was complaining about the algae skim. Is he having problems with the new tanks? Or the old ones?"

"I… He was unclear."

"Didn't you tell me we had replacement equipment coming off the anchor pads last week? New tanks, new nutrient cultures?"

Hock Seng's typing falters for a moment. Anderson pretends puzzlement as he shuffles through his papers again, already knowing that the receipts and quarantine forms aren't present. "I should have a list here somewhere. I'm sure you told me it was arriving." He looks up. "The more I think I about it, the more I think I shouldn't be hearing about any contamination problems. Not if our new equipment actually cleared Customs and got installed."

Hock Seng doesn't answer. Presses on with his typing as though he hasn't heard.

"Hock Seng? Is there something you forgot to tell me?"

Hock Seng's eyes remain fixed on the gray glow of his monitor. Anderson waits. The rhythmic creak of the crank fans and the ratchet of Hock Seng's treadle fills the silence.

"There is no manifest," the old man says, finally. "The shipment is still in Customs."

"It was supposed to clear last week."

"There are delays."

"You told me there wouldn't be any problem," Anderson says. "You were certain. You told me you were expediting the Customs personally. I gave you extra cash to be sure of it."

"The Thai keep time in their own method. Perhaps it will be this afternoon. Perhaps tomorrow." Hock Seng makes a face that resembles a grin. "They are not like we Chinese. They are lazy."

"Did you actually pay the bribes? The Trade Ministry was supposed to get a cut, to pass on to their pet white shirt inspector."

"I paid them."

"Enough?"

Hock Seng looks up, eyes narrowed. "I paid."

"You didn't pay half and keep half for yourself?"

Hock Seng laughs nervously. "Of course I paid everything."

Anderson studies the yellow card a moment longer, trying to determine his honesty, then gives up and tosses down the papers. He isn't even sure why he cares, but it galls him that the old man thinks he can be fooled so easily. He glances again at the sack of ngaw. Perhaps Hock Seng senses just how secondary the factory is… He forces the thought away and presses the old man again. "Tomorrow then?"

Hock Seng inclines his head. "I think this is most likely."

"I'll look forward to it."

Hock Seng doesn't respond to the sarcasm. Anderson wonders if it even translates. The man speaks English with an extraordinary facility, but every so often they reach an impasse of language that seems more rooted in culture than vocabulary.