The Ninja and the Diplomat, page 19
part #2 of The Chinese Spymaster Series
“What should we do with the devices when we get to them? Remove them and return them to the Army?”
“I prefer the alternative that Chen, our new recruit, suggested at one of our meetings,” recommended Wang. “Find out how to disarm the devices and leave a tracking device in them. Perhaps there is a technical wizard in the defense industry or some engineering institute we can borrow until we get our own.”
“I’ll check with the army immediately,” affirmed Ma.
“Could we send Chen and Wong to accompany the ninja on his mission?” asked Gong, adding to the discussion.
“That has possibilities. Are they fully informed of what the analysis department has found out or guessed at to date?” responded Wang. “Everybody should give some thought to how surveillance should be maintained on the dissident groups we identify.”
“I’ll have Chen consult his former police colleagues in counter-terrorism,” added Ma without hesitation.
“That’s brilliant, Spymaster,” declared Wang, thus conferring his blessing on the man acting in his place. “We will see you all shortly but first, another delicate task for you. See if there is a way to have the Yakuza detained for as long as possible in Seoul by our assets there. He should also have no access to any means of communication.”
Contents
CHAPTER 21
The fourth Friday, Saturday and Sunday
No net to catch every fish.
Chinese saying: No strategy can take into account every contingency.
Ma and Gong had found the army’s technical wizard within hours of receiving Wang’s call from Seoul. They summoned Chen and Wong and together sat in on the meeting when the army man had been hauled out of bed to brief the agency but were soon lost in the rapid-fire details he delivered. Fortunately, Chen obviously understood everything the man said or implied when he did not complete his sentences. He was a talkative engineer in his early fifties who clearly relished his job and enjoyed improvising when the required solutions did not fall within the scope of the technical specifications of the original design.
“So it is possible to disarm the devices by removing the detonator in a way that will not be clear to the current owners of the devices?” asked Gong, determined to get to the heart of the matter.
As the engineer started his explanations again, Chen interrupted, “With respect, Uncle, the short answer is yes, and the detonators can be replaced with signaling devices that would enable counter-terrorism to track the devices.”
Since the technical expert outranked the policeman and was two decades older, Chen’s choice of an honorific family title pleased him and he readily forgave the interruption of the hasty young man. As an unintended but ineluctable consequence of the one child policy, he and his wife, like most of his generation and those succeeding, consisted of only children; hence his family included no aunts or uncles, no cousins, and no nieces or nephews. The Chinese family had lost an immeasurable dimension of comfort.
The wizard elaborated, “Yes, we can use the same casing as the detonators to hold the signaling devices, provided care is taken in re-seating some of the connections.”
“How quickly can we get ten of these transmitters?” asked Ma who understood Wang’s message about detaining the Yakuza in Seoul without access to communications. The South Korean assets reported they were not confident they could manage to do that for more than two days, even if they succeeded in slipping a narcotic into the Yakuza’s drip feed.
“Give me a few hours,” replied the technical expert who lost no time in exercising his clout within army logistics.
“Who should go with the ninja?” Gong asked. It was a rhetorical question as Chen clearly had to be the technician.
“I hope Chen and the ninja are ready for this whirlwind exercise,” interjected Ma. “Let’s alert the transportation department. Gong, could you prepare Wong to accompany them and coordinate with the ground support?”
***
When the three arrived back from Seoul, Wang asked Li to attend to the ninja’s needs.
After showing him his room for the evening, Li asked,
“If you have some time, perhaps we could spar for a while? It would be my honor.”
The ninja welcomed this break from the chain of events that had shaken him to his core. I couldn’t let him die, but I know he will curse me forever.
They met Wong on the way and the ninja called out to him, “Come. Watch.”
So Wong huddled in a corner of the sparring room, sometimes used for group exercises by six or eight agents, as Li and the ninja began slowly, warming up as it were. They circled each other, easily blocked each other’s initial kicks and jabs, before exploding furiously, like strings of fire-crackers, setting off punches, somersaults, leg sweeps, probes and digs. Wong could hardly believe what he was watching; he had a personal ring-side seat to a face-off between two masters of the craft. Mentally, he determined that he would have to double the hours he spent each day on physical training.
One protagonist would connect with a hard punch and the other would receive the blow only to absorb it by moving in its direction while lashing out a counter-punch to the outstretched arm or a kick into the opponent’s middle. A kick would be deflected while a counter-kick was launched. A leg sweep might end with both springing up and away from each other.
No opponent he had ever faced had pressed Li as he was now. He let his mind empty and dissociated his thoughts from his action. If his body did not know how to react, he could not expect his mind to catch up. It was not a time for analysis or reflection. He was conscious of only one thing; that he would not knowingly deal a mortal blow against the ninja and he hoped the ninja entertained the same thought.
“Ah, you are the brother I never knew,” declared the ninja as he rolled away from an intense exchange of kicks and sweeps. They stood and bowed to each other. “I am at peace now that we have found each other.”
Li understood in the same manner as he often found a move that was effective in a fight without being able to articulate why.
***
The mission left the next morning, Saturday, with Wong accompanying Chen and the ninja. Ma had given the ninja the lead on this operation, breaking many rules of operational protocols and etiquette. But speed was of the essence and the ninja knew where the devices were. They had paused briefly to receive from the analysis department a simple chart showing the most expeditious route to reach the devices in the shortest amount of time.
Wang conferred briefly with Owyang and Ma. “The transportation optimization model used by the analysis department makes the assumption that our objective is to reach as many of the eleven sites as quickly as possible,” stated Owyang. “We have assumed that we will be too late to reach the device at the eleventh site that is outside China.”
No one could think of a better plan than to disarm as many of the devices as possible.
A large map on a wall with the locations of the nuclear devices in the briefing room showed that the Yakuza had selected locations combining dissident activity and importance to China as a whole. Except for the one location outside China, the devices were in strategic cities that slashed a crescent from Hong Kong through Guangzhou, Chengdu and a couple other cities northwest to Urumqi. He had chosen dissidents located where the damage inflicted would be maximized. Did the recipients of his generosity know that many of their own would fall? Were they aware that they had become suicide bombers?
Both Wang and Ma told the team in the field that they had to reach and deactivate at least four devices a day.
“According to army experts, each of these devices could destroy everything within a half-mile radius. That is as much, if not more, damage than was wreaked in New York City that fateful September day if detonated among the skyscrapers or transport hubs or power stations of Hong Kong, Guangdong, Chengdu or any of the cities where they are.”
Gong assured them that the transportation teams had been alerted and would wait at their appointed posts for as long as it took and would ferry the team to its next destination. They worked feverishly throughout Saturday, planning the assault against their next target as they raced from one location to the other. They managed to replace five of the trigger mechanisms with tracking devices by midnight.
The first device had been with pro-democracy dissidents (neophytes in the struggle against the Chinese state) in glittering Hong Kong, disproportionately important in international eyes. Despite the humid summer weather, they had made their way into a garage in the Mid-levels, a prestigious residential area. The owner was hurrying to a golf game and missed the three men in casual, tourist wear. They looked stocky with their bullet-proof vests under their clothes.
“Did you or they discuss their target?” asked Chen as they strode quickly away with the arming device. The ninja chuckled,
“They thought first race course! My boss suggested either International Commerce Center, tallest building, or the second tallest one since it is possible also to destroy subway station at same time.”
Two short hops by a fast military helicopter brought them to working class neighborhoods at different ends of Guangzhou where clusters of ethnic dissidents lived in China’s third largest city, a key hub for its commercial activities. They had changed into working class clothes, worn and torn, and the ninja led them to warehouses where the devices had been hidden. They encountered mild curiosity from passers-by but Wong demonstrated his command of Cantonese and impressive ability to mimic the wildly different variations of that language.
“Very impressive,” said Chen to Wong. “I know we are in different parts of Guangdong but that sounded like two different languages.”
“Those from Shunde speak a form of Cantonese that those from Taishan might not recognize even though both are suburbs of Guangzhou,” said Wong. “At different times, I had to infiltrate gangs that were made up of men from each of these areas. They hated each other probably more than they hated the police.”
“Good targets here?” Chen asked the ninja.
“Many,” he grunted. “Thirty power stations. Five nuclear. Good choices.”
It was late in the afternoon when the team streaked by jet to the fourth and fifth devices stashed by similar groups of dissidents in sprawling Chengdu in the huge province of Sichuan. This province was larger than Alaska, more populous than France, and had been the base from which some ancient imperial dynasties began their drive to conquer the rest of China.
The ninja reported with a sour face that one dissident group was determined to attack the New Century Global Center, the largest building in the world in terms of floor-space. It included shopping areas and a water park.
“Many civilians, children, will die.”
The other group wanted to attack Tianfu.
“Hi tech zone,” he commented.
So far, the Yakuza was still asleep, but the South Korean assets reported that they dared not risk tampering with hospital procedures again. On Sunday, the agency was alerted to the fact that the Yakuza was awake and had demanded the ability to communicate with his associates. Quiet whispers by their South Korean assets in the hospital might delay that for four or six hours, perhaps more. The field operations team had snatched four hours of rest in barracks in Chengdu on Saturday night as neither Chen nor the ninja thought the delicacy of their tasks would allow them to work without that break, in addition to the hour or so they were able to steal from their routines while charging from one destination to another. They travelled swiftly and resolutely.
A small jet hurtled with them to Chongqing where two more devices in locations known to minority dissidents were deactivated. They had been intended for the two largest luxury hotels. One of four cities under direct control of the central government and the largest metropolitan area in China with over thirty million inhabitants, Chongqing had served as the capital of China during WW2, as it was somewhat protected from Japanese air-raids by the surrounding mountains and hills. It was now a critical urban and industrial center.
The third device, similarly disarmed that day, had been in Xian, a city of great symbolic significance as an ancient capital of China and the beginning of the Silk Road to the West. It was also where party leaders had focused on building infrastructure for economic development for this traditionally poor area. The dissidents, reported the ninja, were torn between targeting a major cultural monument like the tomb of the First Emperor or the airport that handled over thirty million passengers a year. Around midnight that day, Gong relayed to the team the message that the Yakuza had prevailed on the South Koreans to allow him to communicate freely with his associates. These communications would be monitored, naturally, but the agency had no illusions about the ability of their nemesis to get the appropriate message out to his chosen accomplices. The ninth and tenth devices were in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang and the heartland of Uyghur dissent.
“I am tired of wearing these vests,” complained Chen. “They are hot and cumbersome, and they only protect your chest.”
“You need more discipline,” grunted the ninja as Wong nodded and raised an eyebrow at Chen. The policeman threw up his hands with a sheepish look.
In the early hours of Monday morning, before the summer sun in Central Asia unleashed its harsh rays, the team found and disabled one more of the devices. A local policeman in a fast car raced them to their tenth and final destination, a deserted part of a small town near a large power plant outside the capital. From a distance, they saw no activity. “Let us give this a pass and warn our local team to watch over this group for a while,” suggested Chen.
“But there is no sign of any danger,” protested the ninja. “If we wait, we can be sure that the Yakuza will reach them. Call headquarters. Ask if there is any news regarding this group of dissidents.”
“Good idea,” agreed Chen who telephoned the agency immediately. “Okay, they have no news. Is that a go or not?”
“I will go,” said the ninja.
“I need to disarm the device,” stated Chen.
“I have watched you nine times and I am sure I can do it. Same way I learned your gongfu, watching videos.” He grinned mirthlessly.
“Removing the trigger mechanism is easy,” Chen explained. “You need to be careful about getting the signaling device lodged properly in place.”
“I understand,” responded the ninja leaving Chen with the feeling that he might have done it before. Then the brave man with intense dark eyes announced, “If I don’t return in twenty minutes, leave this place immediately. As I recall, this group is one of the most dedicated ones.”
The ninja approached the hiding place of the tenth nuclear device with his customary caution. After he had picked the lock and entered the dark and apparently deserted house, he waited until his eyes adjusted to the gloom. He saw no one but was alerted by a click indicating that the door through which he had entered was now locked. He felt an object swinging towards his head and easily blocked it, wrenching the arm of his assailant. Then he heard a soft ‘plop’ and a searing pain tore through his right groin. Two shadows emerged from behind the crates in the room and he immediately engaged with them, though he felt blood oozing from his thigh. He had the satisfaction of knocking both men across the room before the mist in his head became blacker than the darkness in the room.
Mother, I have done such bad things I do not think I will see you again. Once, someone told me about grace and forgiveness. But I did not have time to listen to more and learn. She was someone I met on an assignment from Father in the Philippines. She told me that she had been rescued from her father and put in an orphanage where she received love and compassion. I wish I could see her again. I wish you could meet her.
The light left those intense dark eyes and they glazed over.
“We cannot just leave him behind,” declared Chen, twenty-five minutes after the ninja had left them. Wong shook his head in disagreement.
“We must assume he is dead and there is nothing we can do. I have fought our ninja and if the group in that house has taken him down, they will take us down also. We do not have a choice.”
“Then we must contact headquarters,” declared Chen as he started dialing his phone. “They must send police and soldiers to clean out this nest of vipers immediately.”
In the unforgiving glare of the morning sun, the two men slouched their way to their rendezvous with the transportation team. Chen called Gong to report that the ninja was down and probably dead. Ma requested the police headquarters to heighten the alert of the local counter-terrorism and police units in the area. They should proceed to arrest any of the dissidents they could round up. Then he walked over to deliver the news to Li.
He found the former sparring mate of the spymaster working with a group of new recruits. Li's face told Ma that he guessed the reason for his visit. The martial arts instructor reported, “The ninja gave me a package just before he left.”
Ma, Gong, Owyang, Wang and Li gathered in Ma’s office to see what the ninja had left. It was the trigger mechanism for the device sent to the Philippines. Li cleared his throat and explained,
“He told me that some months ago he had been sent to the Philippines to confirm the connection made with Hashim. He met the Yakuza’s agent there and discovered she was Japanese. Years ago, her mother died and her father brought her up himself. Some villagers noticed when he started to abuse her and insisted that she be taken to the orphanage. He refused but the people at the orphanage were very persuasive. They did not throw him into prison as they could have, but convinced him that he could come visit his daughter any time so he finally agreed that she could go into that place.
“The ninja told me that she spoke of the people who looked after her with much affection, describing it as a place clearly very different from his own experience of the orphanage in which he had grown up. It must have moved him to decide, even then, that the nuclear device would not leave for the Philippines with its arming mechanism intact. Perhaps he had feelings also for that agent of the Yakuza.”
