<div class="floatright">(http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j88/zavaelduauram/xiaoxing_zpsbd0449ef.jpg)</div><br/>Wang Xiaoxing was a careful consumer of foreign news sources.  They could be trusted to be more accurate on the unpleasantness in the country, but their precision left something to be desired; she knew she was biased, but she didn't always trust others to recognize that-- and strange unknown scripts were something that most of the Party's own media distributors were unlikely to reprint.  She almost didn't see the full-page spread in the newspapers for that reason-- but what she did catch was the small internet buzz that cropped up around the same strange message appearing in so many places.  Was it a viral marketing campaign?  Was it someone playing a trick on the rest of the world?<br/><br/>Her curiosity was briefly piqued, so she decided to look at it.  Since her Moment, she'd become extremely good with codes and ciphers.  What was one more?  But then, to her shock and alarm, she found the iconographs weren't any more a code than her own native language.  It was a message, a call, a summoning...<br/><br/>And a sign that she was Not Alone.<br/><br/>She had obligations here, but she also had the burning need to know.  She'd always had the burning need to know.  Surely they would be okay if she let things be for a little while...<br/><br/>And so, with three false identities (complete with disguises that were definitely Not Her) and a not-inconsequential expenditure of her cash-on-hand, she left China for the brave new world, in a hotel on a little island she'd never heard of before last week.  The iconographs had guided her here to a large room.  She only had the vaguest sense of what she was getting into when she stepped inside, wearing the most beachy touristy things she could get her hands on-- hair pulled back in a ponytail, a pink halter top, white capri slacks, thong sandals, dangly plastic bracelets, and a pair of reflective sunglasses perched on her head.<br/><br/>For a bit, after she saw the snack spread, she wondered if she had accidentally stepped into the wrong room.  But there was someone else here in similarly downscale clothing, and so Xiaoxing drew her confidence back up and moved more boldly inside.