The Ninja and the Diplomat, page 13
part #2 of The Chinese Spymaster Series
“Ten or eleven are still in China, already distributed or pending distribution and use by one of several dissident groups within our borders.”
The senior commissar stared for a moment then shook his head as if to ward off evil spirits.
“Naturally, we have alerted the counter-terrorism and internal security units. In addition, our assets in the ASEAN countries already know of our wish to avoid surprises.”
“Should anything happen, there will be much rejoicing in some countries,” grumbled Cai.
“We should not mislead ourselves about our friends,” agreed Wang. “There will be more or less secret rejoicing in many states. We are an economic success; therefore we are envied. What I don’t understand are some of our own international actions. They appear designed to provoke our neighbors unnecessarily.”
“You are supposed to sit in for me in all the committees of which I am a member. Doesn’t the committee on international liaison bring these topics up?” demanded Cai.
“Nobody in that committee has done so recently and I do not feel ready to ask questions or table an item for discussion. I rely on Old Yu and our analysis department.”
Cai was well-aware of Wang’s reluctance to speak up at inappropriate moments but said impatiently, “Spymaster, you cannot tie yourself to one source for anything. Things change and no one is indispensable.”
Sufficiently chastised, Wang changed the subject and asked, “So who is going to take up the question of reunification with Taiwan?”
“You will figure it out in one of the committees you sit in on my behalf.” Cai stopped as a thought, a brainwave, came to him. “What if Yu’s cousin has been used to implicate Yu to remove him from China’s foreign policy team? That export license was not really necessary if the nuclear devices were going to stay in the country.” He looked intently at Wang then smiled and said, “Now I’m sounding like you.”
“I recognize that pattern of thought and agree that it is an unusual form of dialectical materialism,” Wang said slyly. “What you suggest is that the instigators behind Cousin Yu were primarily concerned about our deputy minister Yu’s ability to help manage China’s alliances and friendships and his passion for reunification. If that is the case, they have already succeeded. That would be my guess about the eventual outcome of this case.”
“Old Wang, I did not think you would give up so easily,” admonished the senior commissar. “We must talk about that again. Whoever planned this may have hoped but could not have counted on Yu not consulting his minister or the party cadre assigned to the MFA.”
“Indeed,” agreed the spymaster. “I am puzzled that our old friend did not consult anyone about the export license. His excuse must be that it seemed a trivial matter at the time. But he should have asked his cousin why the license was needed.”
“It was an easy and careless mistake, but for now, I think you were right about the nuclear devices being intended for use inside China. Should those instruments of destruction fall into certain hands, there will be untold damage. I remember an old case of yours in which one nuclear device was involved, in Afghanistan wasn’t it? Now we face the prospect of ten of them in China. You have given me something to keep my old brain spinning.”
As Wang rose to leave, he apologized, “I deeply regret that when I come to visit, I usually bring troublesome matters that cost you your sleep.”
“Nonsense,” protested Cai. “I sleep better when I have difficult matters to worry over.”
***
“How was your day, Old Spymaster,” teased Xiao Shu as they sat to a quiet dinner alone.
“I don’t know how I have managed all these years without you at the end of each day,” declared Wang affectionately. After a brief pause, he related the highlights of his visit with Cai.
As she listened, Xiao Shu began to frown. “Deputy minister Yu sounds like he is going to be in grave difficulties facing party discipline, and it is clear to me that China’s enemies have much to gain from his absence. But it is highly unlikely that the purpose of the arms deal for nuclear devices was to bring him down.”
When she and Wang had approached party elders, senior commissar Cai in particular, for guidance regarding their impending marriage, the response had been that they each wielded such influence within the party and the state that there would inevitably be jealousy aroused. Their major objective should be to avoid any hint that they would act together to further personal ambitions. She therefore asked,
“Do you want me to not do anything about this?”
“Don’t be silly,” he protested. “You should do whatever you think is right.”
“I don’t think that Yu’s inquisitors will give him such consideration.”
“That is all the more reason for you, for us, to speak and act wisely. It is not a secret that I think highly of him and that the MFA and the intelligence agency have worked well together on several projects. We will continue to make sure that what we say or do does not reflect badly on him. But it would be crazy for either of us to manufacture or overlook any hard evidence in this or any other case.
“I think the senior commissar’s advice means we should not use either of our influence on behalf of the other. We must work independently and, in cases where we are working towards the same goals, we should be especially careful not to appear to be conspiring towards a personal agenda.”
Contents
CHAPTER 15
Third Friday, in Manila
“That was a great restaurant,” exclaimed Hashim as they entered his rented bungalow. “The wide, flat noodles stir-fried with shrimp, chicken and bean-sprouts were fantastic. I think there was a light chili sauce with garlic and something slightly tart and sweet in the mix.”
“There was tamarind in it,” said Mariam. “I understand it is not universally used in Malaysia but is common. Some areas have used it to make their cuisine almost magical.”
“I was fascinated by the tofu toasted then stuffed with bean sprouts, sliced cucumbers, and peanut sauce,” declared Emilio. “I might be able to eat that every day.”
“Yeah right. Maybe for a week,” laughed Mariam. “The owners are Malaysian Muslims, but they have cooks who have created a fusion of Malay and Filipino dishes.”
“You should learn to cook, or get a maid who can cook halal food for you,” Emilio suggested.
“Or get a girlfriend,” recommended Mariam. “I know you’re not gay, regardless of what some people say,” she continued with emphasis. “I could make a couple of introductions. You know, cuddles and cooking…”
“Very tempting,” replied Hashim, “but I didn’t think you would approve of such an idea. Doesn’t it sound like exploitation to you?”
Mariam paused to think. “Since you put it like that, yes. But in a relationship, many things come naturally and political correctness just isn’t so important.”
Hashim looked at Emilio who shrugged. “Lucky man,” he commented under his breath.
Emilio felt obliged to try changing the subject. “Do we have a mission at hand?”
“You have very good antennae,” teased Hashim. “I hope I have not been too obvious.”
“I didn’t feel any vibes,” protested Mariam.
She looked at Emilio who gave nothing away until he remarked,
“It feels dangerous.”
“Have you been snooping around this house?” demanded Hashim.
“Well, it is hard to ignore those two large crates that were here for two weeks, if that’s what you mean, but I don’t think they were visible from anywhere outside the house. What happened to them, anyway?”
“The crates have gone to a hiding place. They contained eleven missile launchers, you know like the ones the Afghan freedom fighters had against the Russians. One of them will be used in a mission tonight. I am also considering the use of the nuclear device,” announced Hashim.
“A nuclear device?” echoed Emilio in a daze. “Is that safe?”
“It is only a small one and I do not intend to use it on a block of office buildings or hotels in Makati. I have in mind a target to send a signal. It is time for Philippine civil society to pay attention to Moros AND social justice.”
“Isn’t our mission associated with the Bangsamoro rebellion?”
Hashim paused to gather his thoughts yet again on this matter. Then he nodded as if to himself and started to explain,
“What holds back the rebel movement, as I see it, other than it being so fragmented, is the inconsistency within it. We know there are Muslims or Moros who are not rebels.”
Emilio nodded and pronounced with disgust, “They have joined the system and have become our true enemies. But this is not news. It has been so ever since the Americans arrived more than a hundred years ago and patronized us.”
Hashim nodded and continued, “Our leaders at that time thought the Americans would be on our side against the northerners. But they were solicitous of our welfare only because they hoped to bring us all into their ‘benevolent assimilation.’ They succeeded in creating this division among us.” This much had been rehashed among them and lamented with other rebels for years.
Here Hashim lifted his right hand and declared, as he had increasingly over the year, “You and Mariam are as much part of the rebel movement as the Muslim National Liberation Front. The rebel leaders continue to refuse to see this, that their cause would be much stronger if they made it about social justice. Many Muslim rebels around the world have come to understand this.”
“So why do they remain oriented around their religion?”
“Because the imams and the mullahs have the loudest voices and because they have been those that we have listened to for the longest time. They have taught the Bangsamoro to fear those who are not like us and to be afraid of losing our faith. The fear they have instilled in us is so deep that we have become afraid to change even one little bit of who we are. That way, they retain their hold over us and the rebel movement will never succeed.”
“Does this mean you are giving up on going around and trying to persuade the different bands? What is the alternative?” Questions gushed from Emilio as he struggled to grasp where Hashim’s reasoning would take him.
“In my opinion, the movement will succeed only if we include all those who seek justice, including many who are not Muslim and even those who currently go along with the national system. But that system is unjust and serves only a small class of Filipinos. Even now, the poor are our brothers and sisters. Therefore, I must make my voice a little louder than that of the imams and their followers.”
“The weapons you will use are in those two crates?”
“Yes,” confirmed Hashim simply. “Those are the weapons.”
“There is not enough to fight the entire system,” muttered Emilio.
“You are right, my good friend,” agreed Hashim. “But I think they will be sufficient to help me raise my voice.”
“What are these weapons and how do we use them?” inquired Emilio. “Did you go to Macau to get them?”
“Yes, I went to Macau to purchase them.”
“Do we have access to that kind of money?”
“The money came from somewhere, but to be honest, I am not sure who gave it to us. It took me a while to decide to go ahead with this whole idea.” Hashim looked Emilio in the eye and declared, “Honestly, I don’t know much more.”
Emilio grunted. “Great. How do we know we have not walked into some sort of a trap?”
“I don’t know, but this purchase of arms has taken almost a year from the time I first thought about it. I talked about it, just thinking out loud, in a small restaurant in northern Luzon. I had met others in the rebel movement and mentioned my idea about missile launchers versus helicopters, like the ones the freedom fighters in Afghanistan used against the Russians.” Emilio nodded to acknowledge he knew who Hashim had been with, other old friends from Tok Mat’s training class. “Nearly six months went by before I heard anything about it. I was completely surprised because the person who approached me was not anyone I knew.”
“You must be joking,” exclaimed Emilio.
“No. I think I vaguely recognized her, yes, a woman, as someone who was in the same restaurant where I had met with the others half a year previously. She was a waitress and light-skinned like Mariam, a mestizo I would guess. Maybe Japanese or part-Japanese. Anyway, she asked if I was still interested. I was stunned but she did not look like a government agent.”
Do we look like Chinese agents, wondered Emilio.
“So this woman told you to go to Macau and you went?” asked Mariam in disbelief.
“Well I told her, I might be interested without showing real interest. A couple of months later, I got a strange phone call from a man, a foreigner with an accent, asking if I was serious. He told me that if I was, he would arrange it but I had to go to Macau. I told him I didn’t even have the money to go to Macau, let alone enough to buy the weapons.” Hashim paused and saw that Emilio shared Mariam’s skepticism, so he pushed on.
“The caller simply laughed and told me to look outside my door. Then he hung up. I went outside and found a package with a wad of money, American dollars, and a round-trip ticket to Macau.”
Hashim looked at his friends. They stared back as if they had heard a ghost story. “Does that sound like the Philippine government at work to you?” he asked.
“Did you call him back?” demanded Emilio.
“Immediately, but there was no answer then or the next three times I dialed that number. I waited two weeks for the sky to fall or the government to knock on the door.”
“I read somewhere that either nothing is a miracle or your whole life is a miracle,” stated Mariam.
“What is that supposed to mean?” objected Emilio.
“I have no idea, but it sums up what I feel about the story so far,” countered Mariam.
“So those two crates contained eleven missile launchers. Do packages come with an odd number of stuff these days?” challenged Emilio.
“Emilio, give me a break. There are eleven missile launchers and one nuclear device. I thought we might use the nuclear device tonight and, at the same time, one of the missile launchers will be used to attack an army base near Cotabato.”
“Who is in Cotabato?”
“You remember the fight, the killing?”
“Yes.”
“The right hand man of the rebel I killed.”
“You always were a smooth talker,” complained Emilio.
“Oh, you’re not upset because I didn’t ask you to do this, are you?” teased Hashim. “Anyway, the three of us are going to detonate the nuclear device.”
“Whoa, whoa. Don’t you want to think this through?” demanded Emilio. “A nuclear device is a pretty big step. Our group has only gone around talking for the last few years. We have engaged in one on one fighting two or three times. And now, we are going to detonate a nuclear device? Do we know who will die, how many, how the government will react?”
Hashim looked at his friends with clear discomfort. “I know,” he said. “I am worried also. It will be like waving a red cloth in front of a bull. In the end, the government may not feel it has any option but to order martial law.”
After a long pause in the conversation, Mariam suggested, “Perhaps for tonight, we could just drive around and imagine what might happen instead of actually doing it.”
“I think we can do that,” agreed Hashim. “Simply visualizing it would give us an indication of what we should do.”
The moon was full that night but clouds loomed in the sky. If they stayed in the car, they wouldn’t be drenched.
“Are you sure there won’t be people on this ship?” asked Mariam.
“No, I’m not. But it is a foreign ship so there will not be Filipinos on board. I would feel a little better not killing our own people if we were actually going to use that device tonight. Also, this is a Friday night and most of the men on board should be out enjoying shore leave.”
“If you ask me, I don’t think killing a few foreigners is any better than killing a lot of Filipinos,” declared Emilio, shaking his head. Hashim gave him a somber look.
They drove into Subic Bay Naval Base and looked for a way to get close to the destroyer visiting from a foreign navy.
“This is where we would have to get out and make our way to the destroyer,” whispered Hashim.
“It is a long way to carry that nuclear device,” argued Emilio. “There would be guards all over the place, whether it’s Friday or Saturday or whenever.”
“I see one right there,” Hashim pointed out. “We would have to kill him.”
“Remember what Tok Mat made us promise! You have never talked of killing so casually before,” urged Emilio. “We would also have to make sure he isn’t on a radio routine, making a call every hour or few minutes.” As he spoke, they could see the guard stop and speak into a hidden microphone on his shoulder or lapel.
“This job is beyond us,” conceded Hashim. “The distances are too great, the guards too many, their radio routines too uncertain.”
“Not as easy as robbing a bank in the suburbs,” joked Mariam.
“Too many guards, possibly Filipino,” muttered Emilio. “I wouldn’t want the brothers to be on my conscience. This mission definitely is not our style.”
“There would be more guards on the ship too,” agreed Hashim. “They might be foreigners, but you’re right about the killing. It’s wrong.”
The rain clouds rumbled a low but tense warning and jagged lightning forked out of two or three enormous mounds of clouds before thunderclaps signaled the downpour.
The car sped away carefully from the ship. Soon, the naval base was behind them and Mariam took the route that would take them, in forty minutes, behind a stony outcrop to shield them from any radiation had they carried out the mission to detonate the nuclear device. Once they passed the little hill, they all breathed a sigh of relief.
“Imagine now a blinding light all over the sky and 8000 tons of steel exploding, vaporized, into the atmosphere,” suggested Hashim. “Wouldn’t that be an irresistible call for social justice?”
