Chapter 12: The Equipment Cage

The Winter Gala rehearsal ran three hours late.

By five o'clock the whole swim team was in the stands of the Old Natatorium, bored and hungry.

Three hundred seats had been set out along the pool, with a stage at the shallow end and a banner over the lane ropes.

Cen Mingyu stood on the stage in a suit, holding a cordless microphone and a stack of cue cards.

The team had voted him master of ceremonies on Thursday, because he had a trustworthy face.

"Next item, the professor's flexibility demonstration," he read, in his warm voice. "Which I hear has been cut to three minutes. Mystery!"

The professor, in the front row, looked startled.

Tang looked at Fu.

Fu was sitting at the end of the row with the green notebook on his knee, watching Cen with polite, empty eyes.

"What's that about?" said Tang, under his breath.

"Scheduling," said Fu.

"You're lying."

"Probably," said Fu.

Luo Bin leaned over from the row behind, hooking his arms over the seat back.

"Doc Fu, settle a bet. Does Tang snore?"

"Bin," said Tang.

"It's a legitimate question. You've shared a bed for a month. People want data."

Fu turned his head and looked at Luo Bin for a moment.

He answered in his flat, medical voice, loud enough for a row and a half to hear.

"He sleeps on his left side until about three. Then he turns over and talks, mostly about relay splits."

"He doesn't snore. He's warm everywhere, and he steals the duvet."

The silence in the stands was total.

The other roommate dropped his phone.

Tang's ears went red, and he stared hard at the lane ropes.

"Thank you," said Luo Bin, with enormous satisfaction. "That's very helpful. That moves the odds."

"Bin, I will drown you," said Tang.

"Not in front of a medical professional," said Luo Bin.

The rehearsal broke up at six.

The captain sent Tang and Fu down to the basement to fetch the spare starting blocks for the exhibition relay.

"Equipment cage," he said, rattling a key ring. "Second door on the left. Don't let the door shut, it only opens from outside."

They found the cage at the end of a concrete corridor.

It was a room of steel shelves, lane-rope reels and stacked kickboards, lit by one bare bulb.

They found the blocks, and carried them to the door.

The door swung shut behind them on its own spring.

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