A Drop of Chinese Blood (34 page)

I needed to get to the office pronto, as Tuya would say. I couldn’t roll there like her and didn’t want to chance using my bike. My best alternative was a car, which, of course, I no longer had. There were usually taxis waiting in front of the New Sunspot, a curry restaurant about ten minutes away. I avoided curry, so none of the staff was liable to recognize me. However, most of the taxi drivers had done jobs for MSS at one time or another, meaning the odds were at least a few of them would know my face. I had to hope I could spot a new driver and slip into his cab unnoticed by the others.

Luckily, it was near dinnertime; most of the drivers were either in the restaurant or napping in their cabs. One of them was reading a newspaper. I jumped in the back.

“Extra money if you get me to the pharmacy before it closes.”

He looked in the mirror as he started the engine. “Depends,” he said.

I retrieved the two hundred yuan that I keep in my wallet for an emergency. “Here,” I said. “This is yours if you don’t get stopped for speeding or going through a red light, and you’d better do both.”

We pulled away from the curb, tires squealing. Everyone in the restaurant must have run to the window to see what was going on, but I was already hunched down in the seat.

“That’s good,” I said. “I’ll put in another fifty if you don’t get into an accident.”

The driver grinned into the mirror. “You’re a regular cash machine. What’s your hurry? And which pharmacy are you so hot to get to?”

“There’s a place not far off Renmin Road, on Juzi Street. Know it?”

“Sure, I drive a cab, don’t I? There’s a pill joint closer if it’s such an emergency.”

“No, the place I’m going has bear parts in the back. I need some for tonight, if you know what I mean. Let’s move it, we’re practically standing still.”

The driver accelerated. “Oh, that’s the happy game. I hear starfish do the trick. You ever tried them?” The cab cut between two buses and lurched around a corner. “Me, I stay away from that stuff.” He grinned again, this time to himself. “Don’t need it.”

“Good for you. Take the next left and cut through the alley.”

“You want to drive?”

“No, I just want to get my bear parts, and you want your two hundred yuan.”

“You said two fifty.”

“Sure, but you still might crash this thing. Next right. About fifty meters, then pull over.” I threw the money into the front seat before we stopped rolling and jumped out. “Have a good night.” I slammed the door and took off down the street.

The driver stuck his head out the window. “Make way, man in a hurry!”

I ducked into the pharmacy, waited until I saw the cab pass by, and then went back out to the street. The office was a block away. Since no one would be expecting that I’d show up, I wasn’t worried about running into extra security around our building. It was going to spoil the element of surprise if I went in the front door, though. Whoever was at the front desk could identify me as I stood in front of the camera. Going through the Bank of China might work, assuming I could get in. It was past business hours, but there was a night janitor. I rang the night bell and waited. Nothing. I tried three long rings.

The janitor appeared, lifted the grate, and unlocked the door. “Yeah?”

“Buzzer on our door is out. I need to go through.”

“Funny, you’re the only one tonight with that problem.” She stood aside and let me pass. “I heard you had taken a trip.”

“Oh?”

“None of my business.” She locked the door and pulled down the grate. “You want me to turn on the lights so you can find your way to the back?”

“Thanks. Let’s just keep things as they are.”

She nodded. “Did I see you?”

“No.”

“That’s what I figured. Sometimes people ring the bell and then run off. I’ve got offices to clean. Don’t trip on the threshold on your way out.” She picked up a pail and a mop and padded away.

No one was around when I slipped into the MSS building from the old front entrance. The door opened to a dark hallway that wasn’t much used, went past the Level 1 steel door to the file vault, and led to my office. I stepped in, turned on the light, and shut the door. Even before I sat down, the phone rang.

3

I let it ring. After the fourth one, it stopped for about ten seconds, and then piped up again. My plan had been, after collecting my thoughts, to call Beijing and tell them I was back. Obviously, this wasn’t going to work. Someone hanging around the office would hear the phone and come in to answer it if it kept ringing. I took a chance and lifted the receiver.

“I thought your uncle was going to send me a report, or is he still duck hunting?” When she was angry, and, worse, made a point of sounding angry, there was a thick layer of Yunnan in the woman’s voice that wasn’t appealing.

“Ah, Miss Du, what a surprise.” I spoke softly. “I’m in a meeting. Let me call you back later.”

“Don’t whisper at me, buster. My cousin’s bulldozer will be there at dawn if there’s no report from you by midnight tonight. I’m through with this runaround. Clear?”

“Perfectly. Don’t worry, we’re making great progress. It’s all about—”

She hung up, saving me the trouble of having to invent what I meant by progress.

I looked at the clock behind my desk. It was still slow. The junction box with all the wires needed a special tool to open it, so I pulled the whole thing, clock and all, down from the wall and put it in the bottom drawer of my desk. I dialed the special emergency number to MSS Headquarters.

Just as a voice on the other end of the line answered with perfect duty officer protocol, “Go ahead,” there was a soft knock on my door.

I hung up. “It’s open.” I placed both hands on the desk. That way there wouldn’t be any questions about my intentions if this wasn’t a friendly visit.

In walked the older man with the brush haircut. “Figured you’d be back,” he said. “Mind if I sit?”

I motioned with my head toward a chair. Too soon to move my hands. “Is the Penguin joining us? Or Miss Bao? I’ll have the table moved in for her.”

“Don’t bother, I’m by myself. It’s just us, for now. My name’s Wu. We skipped the introductions last time we met. That was around two in the morning, and you were in a bad mood. I guess this is better.” He took out a pack of cigarettes. “You smoke?”

“Not lately.”

He put the cigarettes away. “We friends yet?”

“Why, you going to shoot me?”

He laughed. “No. You might want to do that yourself later, but not before we have a conversation.”

“I didn’t defect, if that’s what you want to know.”

“I can see that. Let’s not jump ahead, all right?”

“You mind if I make a phone call before we get started?”

“Sure, be my guest.” He looked at the bolt holes and wires on the wall where the clock had been. “We have all night.”

“So there is no misunderstanding, I’m going to pick up the phone and dial home.” My uncle answered on the third ring.

“Uncle, Miss Du called me a few minutes ago. If you don’t get something down on paper for her about the investigation, her cousin is going to be at the house with his bulldozer at sunrise. She means business. I think she hates men.”

“Can I turn on a light yet? It’s damned dark in here.”

“Go ahead. I’m at the office. It doesn’t matter anymore who knows we’re home.”

“You doing all right?”

“Fine.”

“Don’t forget what I said about the high ground.”

“Write a page, even a half page for Miss Du, would you? You have her phone number; it’s on my desk in the library. Call and tell her that a report will be waiting when she arrives tomorrow morning. I’ll be back late.” I looked at the old man, who nodded slightly. “See you when I see you.” I hung up.

“Miss Du? Tough as they come. You have business with her?”

“Nothing productive. You want to hear the story?”

“Depends on where it fits. Let’s start at ground zero. I warned you about Ping Man-ho, remember? You do any research?”

“I’ve been busy, you might say.” Also, the person who said he’d keep his ears open about Ping now had a bullet in his head.

“I also warned you about your uncle, didn’t I? What happened in Mongolia?”

“Plenty, most of it confusing. Whose idea was it to send me there in the first place?”

The old man pointed a finger skyward. “Up top.”

“How does Fang Mei-lin fit in this?”

“Excuse me, this is my interrogation. If you want to ask questions, get your own.”

“Sure, why not? If people aren’t giving me fuzzed-up orders, they’re grilling me. I’ve about had it. On top of which, my deputy was killed by a gang that has its sights on moving into my sector.”

“Who killed Wong?”

“Huh?”

“Wong was working for us. He was getting us close to Mike. Who killed him?”

Click. Li, my trusted deputy, was working for Mike, so Wong was ordered by MSS to kill Li. One loose end tied up, but I didn’t especially like it. “What makes you think Wong is dead?”

“Something we found in a warehouse in Tumen we’ve been checking now and then.”

“Tumen is my territory. Did you bother to let me know, or was that too much trouble? What if we were both watching the same warehouse?”

“Were we?”

“I don’t know. Were we? What did you find that made you so sure Wong was dead?”

“Blood, his blood, on the floor. We keep samples from all our officers, just in case. Sounds grim, but there you go. It came in handy on this one, and this isn’t the first time.”

“People bleed sometimes.”

“Especially if they’re shot. It was a small-caliber weapon, something like a woman carries. Nice and dainty.”

“Yeah, well, maybe it was a woman with one ear.”

“No games on this one. Beijing is not pleased with the turn of events. Incidentally…” Wu yawned. “The body showed up at a North Korean port a day ago. Kind of strange for a corpse to buy a railway ticket. You know who killed him or don’t you?”

“I don’t.”

Wu’s eyes narrowed, and he stared at me for a long minute. Then he pulled a gun out of his pocket and put it on a small table beside the chair. “This is the gun. It had been fired once. No prints, which always impresses me. It was made in the U.S. You recognize it?”

“Nope. I don’t hang out much around people who favor pearl handles.”

“You have your weapon nearby?” He didn’t tense up, which told me he already knew the answer.

“It’s in the desk drawer, unless someone has been in here already and took it. You want me to look? Maybe you should frisk me, too, just in case.”

“Don’t bother.” He reached in another pocket and came out with what looked like my pistol. “Here it is. I was in this afternoon poking around.”

“Find anything else of interest?”

“The sign-out sheet for an agent’s file.”

“We had that conversation already. I was looking at Handout’s file because I was going to take over control from Fu Bin. You know who Fu Bin is?”

“Never heard of him.”

“You don’t deal with the Third Bureau?”

He made a face. “I wash my hands afterward if I do.”

“Fu Bin was from the Third Bureau, doing what here for four years I have no idea. Or at least, I didn’t at the time. After getting knocked out once or twice, a few things became clearer.”

“That’s good. Clarity has advantages on occasion. Sometimes things are better left vague.”

“So where do I fit? In the clarity bin?”

“You were supposed to bring Lu Xin home.”

“Too bad no one bothered to tell me.”

“Yeah, well, no one told me either, and I was supposed to be in charge of cleaning up after this operation.”

“Which operation is that?”

“Leave that in the vague bin. I don’t think you killed Lu. Did you?”

“For the record or just among friends?”

“Up to you.”

“I didn’t kill him. I’m not sure who did. My uncle said there were a hundred arrows in the air from people trying to get him, meaning it didn’t really matter which one hit home.”

“Your uncle said that? Very pithy. Maybe I’ll use it.”

“For all I knew, I was sent to Mongolia to recover someone’s state seal. I wasn’t told whose, and I wasn’t told why.”

“So, did you recover it?”

“Has the premier been to Ulan Bator yet?”

“And back.”

“No problems?”

“If you didn’t get the seal, just say so.”

“OK, I didn’t get the seal. You know a character named Ding?”

He nodded.

“Give him a raise. Maybe he can get his teeth fixed. Otherwise, he gets a failing grade. He wasn’t that helpful.”

“He wasn’t supposed to be.” There was an odd pause after that. “He gave you an envelope, that’s what he does.”

“What about the yak?”

“We don’t have any animals on the payroll.”

“The funny, dirty little man. The Mongolians called him a yak—something that is different than what it appears to be. He earns his money passing messages, too?”

“Oh, him. Yeah, sometimes. He’s also good with a knife when he needs to be.”

“I think I may owe him for a map.”

“You can pay next time you’re there.”

I left that alone. “Anyone we missed?”

“Did Lu Xin know where the seal was?”

“Maybe. He indicated to my uncle he did. I don’t know if the North Korean doctor at the clinic where Lu was hiding also knew. The doctor’s a smart man. You should look into having a talk with him.”

“It was that damned Kazakh woman, wasn’t it?”

“I couldn’t say. According to the Mongolians, she collects weak-willed men. I need to keep my distance.”

“How long did the Mongolians hold you?”

“Don’t tell me that Bazar works for you.”

He shook his head.

“Please, don’t let it be Tuya.”

“Who?”

“No one, just a tea lady.” If Tuya worked for MSS, I would never forgive myself.

“How about answering a question for a change? How long did the Mongolians hold you?”

“Not long. They put me out for a while. One light touch and I was gone. It’s a pretty good move, doesn’t leave any aftereffects. Maybe we can ask them to teach it to us.”

“Sure, why not? What did they want to know?”

“About sea lions.”

The man took off his tie and draped it over the back of the chair. “Sea lions, huh?”