Consciousness came back slowly.  Things hurt that shouldn't.  She had been meditating, at peace, ready to do the day, then... then what?  Then hurt.  Then the heat of her own breath, against her face, closer than it should be-- and arms and legs bound, tightly.<br/><br/>A variety of curses ran through her mind, but threaded through them was the distinct tang of fear.  She'd been taken.  Who?  How?  Had she done something to tip them off?  How did they know?  Who else had they taken?  Was she going to die?<br/><br/>And then, by measures, the conversation came to awareness, and her attitude increasingly turned.  And, despite everything she'd been told on how to behave if she was caught, Xiaoxing found something uncharacteristic welling up inside her.<br/><br/>Whatever was keeping her from seeing hadn't bound her mouth.  She couldn't move, but she could speak, and anything they inflicted on her now to shut her up would give her a good gauge of how things were likely to go down.<br/><br/>"Are you happy with what you do?" Xiaoxing asked the other voices in the car, muffled as she was, trying to find a way to at least sit up straight in the confines of their transportation.