Chapter 19: The Serpent's Ledger

The first thing Siu-Bak noticed about the Bank of East Asia was the smell. It wasn't the smell of money—that was a clean, metallic scent, like polished brass and cold air—but the smell of old paper and floor wax, of thousands of feet passing over the same marble, leaving behind the ghosts of their errands. He stood in the lobby, the brass key a cold sliver against his thigh, and tried not to think...