Meng Suyin's response arrived in four days, which meant she had written it the same day she received my letter.
I recognized the speed as its own message. She had been waiting, or something close to it — not for my specific letter, but for confirmation of what she had apparently already suspected was coming.
Her letter was longer than her previous correspondence. Where her first note to me had been terse and precise, this one was detailed in a way that told me she had decided the situation warranted thoroughness over caution. She began with a single sentence that answered the question I had not asked directly: *He is moving on the river access rights in the northern territories. The specific mechanism is a joint development agreement he has been building toward for three years. If the agreement is registered, it supersedes the existing land claims.*
I read that sentence three times.
