Our Violent Ends

Benedikt is furious that Roma is working with Juliette after she supposedly killed Marshall. A young White Flower offers condolences over Marshall’s death, and Benedikt wonders why he can’t mourn and move on. Then, he hears something odd. Benedikt finds Dimitri playing poker with European men allied with the White Flowers. Benedikt doesn’t trust Dimitri.

Tyler oversees the vaccine creation, keeping the slacking scientists on task. A scientist points out two White Flowers peering in through a window. Tyler chases them, shooting each in the head as they run away. Rosalind is there, yelling at him. She was already watching the White Flowers and making sure they didn’t get important information, and Tyler shot them even though they were retreating. Tyler doesn’t feel regret, and Rosalind accuses him of enjoying killing. He grabs Rosalind by the throat, saying he protects the gang, but Rosalind laughs at him, clawing at his wrists until they bleed. He tells her not to be self-righteous, and she counters that it isn’t righteousness, it’s goodness—and that Tyler doesn’t have any (125). She leaves, and Tyler thinks that goodness is pointless. As his father taught him, he will push for Scarlet victory, no matter the cost.

Weeks pass, and Juliette and Roma fall into a pattern, trailing foreigners for information. The vaccine fliers have appeared across the International Settlement, though Juliette and Roma haven’t met anyone who has gone to the address the fliers advertise. Some have heard Tyler say that the Scarlets are close to a breakthrough—information that surprises Roma and that Juliette refutes. A French merchant comments that Shanghai trusts Tyler more than Juliette and that she “[was] not born for this like [her cousin] was, after all” (129). Juliette is furious, but Roma tells her to let it go. The merchant taunts her for listening to White Flowers.

Juliette tells Roma that it is true: The Scarlets are close to a vaccine. She reveals her plan to distribute it to everyone for free and Tyler’s plan to sell it for a profit. She tells Roma he doesn’t have much time and should try to steal the vaccine information quickly, but she secretly hopes he won’t report back to the White Flowers. Roma doesn’t respond to this, instead commenting that they need to go to the vaccine facility in Kunshan.

Marshall spies on Roma and Juliette from the rooftop. He thinks about Benedikt, who brought him into the White Flowers. Lost in his memories, he doesn’t hear a Scarlet approach. The Scarlet recognizes Marshall, and Marshall is forced to kill him.

Juliette and Roma meet at the train station, where a French White Flower ally glares at Juliette and Roma, but they decide not to pursue him. In Chapter 33, it is revealed that this man is Pierre Moreau. They board the train and spend a brief, friendly moment guessing the languages of the train announcements, but the moment passes quickly.

They concoct a plan in case they encounter the blackmailer. Juliette wants to kill him, but Roma argues that if they do that, they can’t find the monsters. Juliette, though, points out that this time is different—the blackmailer is controlling the monsters more than Paul Dexter was. Suddenly, she sees Moreau throw a glass of liquid into his own face. Juliette screams “Fire!” to get everyone to run, just as Moreau transforms into the monster. Juliette slams the compartment door shut behind Roma, trapping herself and half the compartment with the erupting tide of bugs.

Roma, stuck between train cars, slams on the door, but Juliette has lashed it shut. Bugs skitter all over her, but the vaccine Paul Dexter gave her still works. She forces herself to watch as the other passengers begin tearing out their own throats. Even though he has been determined to kill her, Roma panics at the thought of Juliette dying.

Juliette shoots the monster repeatedly, but it gets away through a broken window before she can kill it. As the train whizzes away, she sees it transform back into Moreau. Roma finally gets the compartment door open and embraces Juliette in relief when he finds her alive. Just as quickly, he grows angry that she gambled with her life; she didn’t know the old vaccine would work on the new monster. He’s furious with himself for not detaining Moreau earlier and possibly getting answers. He snipes at Juliette, saying that she shouldn’t risk her life on luck. She counters that he doesn’t care about her life, and he agrees, saying he hates her. Then he kisses her. They kiss furiously for a moment until Roma pulls away. He’s angry with Juliette and with himself for still loving her.

In Kunshan, Roma and Juliette spend hours speaking to the police, to Juliette’s fury. She will never manage to summon Scarlets in time to find the monster. They don’t discuss the kiss. Juliette is mad at herself for kissing Roma back—the whole reason she pushed him away by faking Marshall’s death was to keep him safe. Juliette theorizes that Moreau was sent to scare them, not kill them, and Roma says that despite the deaths on the train, this is a good development. Now that they know that one of the monsters is a White Flower, they can track his identity. Juliette doesn’t fight, even though this means all the upcoming information is under Roma’s control; when they fight, they lose control and reveal the versions of themselves that still love one another.

The address from the flier is a wonton shop. The man who owns it reveals he is not making the vaccine; he is auctioning off the last vial from Paul Dexter’s collection. Juliette and Roma buy it—they have Dexter’s notes, so maybe they will learn more than when they last analyzed a vaccine. The owner tries to sell them a second vial in another city, but they only need one. 

The last train to Shanghai is canceled, stranding Roma and Juliette in Kunshan overnight. They resign themselves to staying the night when suddenly, Roma pulls Juliette to the ground. No shots ring out, but Juliette trusts Roma’s instinct that there was a shooter. They are searching for a place to stay when they sense they are being followed. Only one place is illuminated: a brothel. Some of the sex workers flirt with and grope Roma on their way to a room, so Roma pretends Juliette is his wife, much to Juliette’s dismay. They retire to separate rooms.

Kathleen decides to wait tables for a shift at the burlesque club where Rosalind dances. A waitress gossips that Rosalind is off to see “her foreigner,” which shocks Kathleen, who hasn’t heard the rumors that Rosalind has been spotted with a man. (In Chapter 35, that man is revealed as Dimitri Voronin.) Kathleen reflects on how close she and Rosalind used to be and how far apart they have grown.

Roma can’t sleep. Juliette is only one thin wall away, and he can’t stop wondering why she kissed him back and pushed him through the train compartment door, saving him but risking herself. He wonders if he can still love her, even as she kills people for whom he cares. They both sleep with a hand reaching out for the wall that separates them.

Juliette wakes from unsettled dreams to find an intruder in her room, stealing the vaccine. Juliette and Roma chase him but don’t catch him. Roma accuses her of having the vaccine stolen so she can have it for herself. She is offended, and Roma apologizes. They remember the second vial and decide to retrieve it.

Roma and Juliette drive to Zhouzhuang, which reminds Juliette of a storybook. She saves a string of pearls that falls out of an old woman’s laundry, and when the old woman thanks her emphatically, Juliette enjoys briefly feeling like a normal girl. She is feeling distracted and sentimental. Roma says that the 800-year-old city feels safe and eternal, but Juliette comments that nothing is forever.

They spot militiamen who are staring at the Nationalist symbol. One of them accuses “the Russian” of painting it, and Juliette weaponizes her identity to stop his aggression. He calls her the “Lady of Shanghai” and says that soon, the Nationalists will take down the gangs and who she is won’t matter, not. Roma and Juliette arrive at Mr. Huai’s home and steal the vaccine.