The Paper Menagerie and Other Stories

A man called Robert kills his escort, Mona, or “Jasmine.” He removes the camera in her eye and leaves a note by her head. Mona’s mother, Sarah Ding, hires a Chinatown-based private investigator, Ruth Law, to find the killer.

Robert, the Watcher, moves from place to place while he unencrypts the eye camera and downloads its contents onto a computer. The Watcher learns that his video shows an official in the Chinese Transport Ministry. He relates how a robber named Dagger explained Chinese politics to him, then posts the video of the official online as a demonstration. He isolates more videos with more men. He also tells of an escort he loved, named Tara, who had first told him about the eye camera implants. He had killed her: “He misses Tara, like missing a mirror you’ve broken” (157).

Ruth, whose emotions are mechanically regulated, gets ready for her new job by having all her cyborg parts replaced, updated, and recharged.

She starts to investigate, learning quickly that the note left by the killer is a quote from a Chinese soap opera. She also realizes that Mona is a certain high-class escort, not the kind Chinese gangs would use.

Ruth visits Jasmine’s place and encounters a neighbor who happens to have installed a technology called EchoSense, which can see how people move using Wi-Fi. She buys the router from him and hires a man named Daniel to locate the router’s logs.

That night, Ruth turns off her Regulator and has nightmares about her daughter. A criminal hiding from the authorities had taken her daughter, Jessica, hostage. Ruth had turned off her Regulator, not trusting it at a critical moment, and failed to take out the criminal. Jessica died. Now, Ruth needs the Regulator to keep her from paralyzing grief at losing her daughter and the subsequent breakup of her marriage.

Daniel shows Ruth an animation he made from the Wi-Fi echoes, which gives her details of the meeting and a description of the client. Ruth calls her ex-husband, Captain Scott Brennan, at the police department and asks for a favor. As she uses Scott’s NCIC access to research the case, Scott comes in and asks her if she has seen the news. The headline is “Scandal Unseats Chinese Transport Minister.” She recognizes Jasmine’s apartment in the accompanying photo. Scott advises Ruth to back off the case.

Ruth realizes, looking at the pictures, that they from the victim’s viewpoint. Pictures of Mona confirm that she had a camera in her eye. Ruth calls her friend Gail at a medical devices company to ask for help. While Gail is gathering information, Ruth locates an escort, Carrie, whom she thinks might be the next target. Gail calls back and tells her about the hidden cameras; they can only access the videos by surgery.

Ruth arranges to meet Carrie. She explains about the killings, and Carrie confirms she has a new client later that evening. Ruth hides while he arrives, and he meets the description she got from the EchoSense tech.

There is a scuffle; at one point, Ruth thinks she has captured her man, but he somehow deactivates her Regulator. When she gets up with her gun, the man is holding Carrie hostage. Ruth can’t help thinking of her daughter’s similar situation, but she can’t get a clear shot. With her Regulator off, she also isn’t thinking clearly: “She is naked and alone, as she has always known she is, as we all are” (176). She shoots into Carrie’s thigh, and the bullet passes through into the killer’s knee.