My cousin hinted, “There are some very interesting places for men and women in this city we could visit.” But though impressed by his worldly knowledge, I thought myself above such things. I know now that it was the wrong time of my life to adopt such a puritanical attitude. As is often said, you only live once. But there are greater regrets in my life than an evening in Bangkok wasted on soul-searching.

  ***

  “There is a call for you from Yu Shandong,” announced Yu’s secretary. “It was transferred from the main switchboard.”

  The deputy minister thought hard for a moment before he recognized the name and took the call, “Hello, Mr. Yu. What can I do for you?”

  “It is an export matter,” explained his cousin. “Do you have a telex number?”

  “Yes, of course,” affirmed Yu. Brilliant of his cousin, he thought, to use a technology so old fashioned as to escape routine monitoring by security or intelligence agencies. Only banks, trading companies, and embassies normally had such machines. Cousin Yu must have access to one of those. After they exchanged the necessary numbers and answer-back codes, the minister’s cousin declared,

  “Thank you very much. I hope we will meet again soon.”

  “Yes, indeed. It has been too long.”

  In that manner, Yu was sent information regarding a request for an export license for a Taiwanese company to ship goods of Chinese manufacture through Hong Kong. This appealed to the sense of mission Yu had inherited from his father to work towards the reunification of Taiwan and China. As territory conquered by Japan, China might have expected the return of Taiwan after the war, except for the inconvenient fact that the Nationalists chose to retreat to that island and maintain the flag of all of China there behind the aegis of the U.S. Seventh Fleet. Thus were born two Chinas, the Republic of China and the People’s Republic of China, and a world of hurt.

  ***

  Decades ago, in the course of his studies at the grand ecole in France, Yu became very familiar with the candid and self-serving assessments of how European and American powers had carved up the world in the centuries leading up to the world wars and the intricate dance of “decolonization” to conflicting tunes in the period after. These discussions were unlikely to have been sanctioned by the Quai D’Orsay, but the students who eventually dispersed to a multitude of positions of increasing power had been frank with each other.

  ***

  In the body of the telex was the phone number of the cousin. That evening Yu sent an innocuous text message that served to transfer his phone number to a prepaid cell phone. The ambassador had let his father maintain the line of communication with Older Uncle, occasionally wondering what he would do when the Hero of the Revolution passed away. Mother had adamantly forbidden him to search his father’s files after the funeral. Now, at last, he had obtained a contact for his cousin.

  It would ring with urgency within a week.

  ***

  A few days prior, Cousin Yu had received a different kind of phone call. It was from the Japanese customer who had sent much business his way over the past year. He never felt easy or safe when he spoke with this mysterious man he knew only as the Yakuza or Mr. Y.

  “You have delivered the stinger missiles and the nuclear devices, I trust,” stated a neutral voice that held menace as dark thunder clouds on a still summer day held torrential rain.

  “They are on their way to Macau, as agreed,” replied Cousin Yu, barely managing to keep the stutter from his voice.

  “Good. You will be well rewarded, in the usual manner.” There was a feline and predatory quality to the voice, as if the lions were commending the Christians on their good behavior before making a meal of them. “You and your trading net-work have been most reliable.”

  “We aim to please,” Cousin Yu risked a joke.

  “Naturally.”

  ***

  Yu, the deputy minister of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, gave no further thought to his dreams or even to his cousin as he turned his attention to ever more paperwork and red-tape. He did wish for greater clarity from the nation’s leaders on the tensions in the Eastern Ocean where the Air Force had surprised everyone with its announcement that it considered strictly Chinese airspace that which had long been shared with Japan and Korea.

  There were tensions also building up as the Navy developed barren rocks in the South Sea. He knew that they were motivated by the attempt to thwart claims to economic zones by various nations. Who, he wondered, had coached the Navy on the UN Law of the Sea principle that such zones could only be claimed and disputed by islands with human habitation.

  Above all, Yu wished he had greater clarity about plans for the Reunification. It might have happened in the 1980s but the Americans feared the adverse consequences to their reputation as defenders of democracy and value as allies. During the 1990s, accelerating economic growth had distracted the Chinese although it started then to govern Hong Kong. Perhaps, when the British offered to manage Hong Kong for the Chinese after 1997, the Chinese should have agreed on condition that they also took on Taiwan. Deng Xiaoping could have made such an impish riposte to Margaret Thatcher’s preposterous offer. She would have been out of her mind to accept, but who knows?

  He gave no thought at all to the recent discussion at the CPS about the security of Chinese manufactured arms.

  Contents

  CHAPTER 7

  On Tuesday night, as the Macau-Beijing police videoconference announced the ‘game-changer’ in a national security crisis, an assistant quartermaster in Beijing lifted his parcels out of a small truck and handed a red envelope to the driver in the hope that it would buy him discretion.

  “You have already paid me,” protested the driver as he inspected the envelope.

  “Please consider it a small token of my gratitude for all the extras you have provided.” The driver, who was also the owner of a small but well-regarded restaurant, smiled and waved with a shrug as he drove off. He was well aware that he had incurred some sort of obligation to this special customer. His customer actually patronized several such modest restaurants that served outstanding food or special dishes in order to keep his patronage discreet. Such multiplicity of patronage was for the same reason that he forbade his wife to wear the jewelry he bought her. A man in his position could not afford to be seen spending money ostentatiously.

  The assistant quartermaster carried the small but heavy parcels of food to his apartment building. He had avoided public transportation so no one would smell the appetizing meats and spices of the specially prepared meals. His wife’s parents were visiting for the night and, apart from his own cravings for the good things from China’s tables, he had to make a good impression.

  The parents had been opposed to the marriage. Indeed, our hero had difficulty wooing the daughter. Both families were from a town further north and had known each other as the children grew up. But while he was sturdy and plain, she was pretty and voluptuous, with curves rarely seen on a Chinese woman. A distant ancestor from Korea or Russia might have made a gift to the family gene pool.

  “My parents want to find a rising party official or an established businessman,” she told him.

  “But our families have been friends all our lives,” he countered. “I promise you will lack for nothing when we are married.”

  “What would we live on when you are in the army?”

  “Don’t worry. It will be hard for the first year or two, but I have big plans. You will soon have everything you want.” With such talk, he had seduced her and so obtained parental blessings provided the fetus was aborted. There would be no child until a more “convenient” moment in their lives.

  The family remained skeptical about his prospects in the army. But he knew better and chose a career in the supplies department. Even before he had joined the army, he had heard of the opportunities in there. He learned the ropes and treaded with care, enduring not so subtle criticism from his in-laws. From his wife, he received many sighs, the occasional whine, and grudging sex.

  Life improved in the past two years after he earned the trust of his superiors and gained access to more of the army’s vast inventories. He knew, however, that he could not afford to display his growing accumulation of wealth.

  You cannot wear this jewelry except when you visit your parents, and even then, not outside your ancestral home.

  What about when my mother visits or when both my parents come?

  You must carry what you want to wear in your purse. Take a taxi to the big shopping mall and find another taxi in a different section. Take that to a hotel in the center of the city. From there, take another taxi to the other side of Beijing where you can put on all your finery. But remember, three different taxis.

  Why must our lives be so complicated?

  You know why. People who know us will become jealous of our good fortune, and jealous people spread malicious rumors.

  “What goodies do you have for us tonight?”

  He smiled broadly at the thought of the coming meal. “Your father likes those spring rolls with spicy beef and bamboo shoots, and your mother wanted Shanghai noodles with minced pork, also spicy.”

  “Do we have any roast pork?”

  “The best. The cook had some wild boar roasted as well on a spit over a wood fire. We also have pork shredded and cooked with black mushrooms, wine, ginger, and garlic.”

  “Papa will be impressed.”

  “As an extra special treat, I managed to obtain some real shark’s fin soup with chunks of the fins not shreds, cooked with scallops, sea cucumber, and the chef’s magic spices.”

  While the women bustled to lay out the dinner, the men had a quiet smoke on the small balcony. When they were done, the quartermaster took his father-in-law into the guest bedroom and gravely presented him with a red envelope similar to the one he had given the restaurateur-driver but containing substantially more. It was, in fact, all the cash the young man could lay his hands on and was intended to silence his wife’s importunate parents. He would be going that very evening to replenish his hoard so he made this gesture with a swagger.

  “My son,” declared the older man, finally admitting him into the family. “I am astonished beyond words.”

  “Nothing to it,” beamed the younger man. “Consider it a small token of how much I love your daughter.”

  Dinner was quietly festive and tense with jubilation.

  “Will the young people watch TV with us tonight?” wondered the mother with a mischievous smile.

  “Oh, you won’t want to miss this,” pronounced the clueless father. “In the new series based on the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, we are halfway through the ninety-five episodes. The old series only had eighty-four.” His wife put her hand gently and affectionately on his as she rolled her eyes.

  “I am afraid I have a small work-related errand that must be attended to. I shall be back within a couple of hours,” explained the young husband.

  “I will be waiting,” affirmed his wife, her eyes gleaming with the promise of bliss.

  The quartermaster took a bus to a subway station in a densely populated part of the city nearby. The subways were less crowded as it was after the main dinner hour. He got out in the central business district and took three buses heading east then south then north, sometimes crossing the road to reach them. Then he boarded another subway line. The hapless woman from the military police assigned to keeping an eye on him was completely bamboozled and lost him during one of the bus changes.

  He finally took a taxi to a genteel residence in eastern Beijing where he was welcomed by the man he knew chiefly as the Taiwanese, who had recently become his best paying customer.

  “No trouble finding your way here, I trust.”

  “Not at all,” he assured his host. “I just wondered why we are meeting here instead of the usual shopping center.”

  “It is advisable to vary our routine,” explained the man from Taiwan. “I apologize, however, for making you come to me. A family matter presses for my time this evening but I did not want to delay giving you what is due.”

  “That is much appreciated.”

  “My pleasure. The usual routine?” indicated the man from Taiwan with his palm open, offering a cheap cell phone.

  They exchanged these disposable phones with prepaid time to maintain contact with each other. The used phones were given their ritual dismemberment and placed in several small paper bags that would be separately deposited in trash cans in large downtown shopping centers. New numbers were memorized for the phones the host had obtained and then the visitor left.

  His return journey was as careful and as artlessly circuitous. He was stirred and distracted by his expectations for the rest of the evening, not noticing the men who came out of the shadows near his apartment building until one of them bumped him into an alley.

  There were three of them, each armed with a knife or a sturdy metal chain. Before he could cry out, one of them flicked a chain that cracked his larynx. The man who had done that had only wanted to hurt his face or chest but it turned out to be a fatal blow. As he choked with pain, two of the men stepped closer to pummel his arms and face. They stepped away when it was clear he would soon choke to death. One of them checked the pockets of their victim and found the envelope from the Taiwanese. They took it and stepped away with distaste from the foul ammoniac smells that now steamed from the victim’s pants.

  A light shone out from a window high above the alley. With insouciance bred of practice and of the certain knowledge that it would be a rare apartment dweller who would be sufficiently gossipy or civic-minded to get involved with what clearly appeared to be a troublesome matter, one of the men rifled quickly through their victim’s pockets for a final check. He took all the cash he found and scattered everything else, including two cell phones. Then he removed the victim’s watch and wedding band. When that was done, the men walked away briskly and separated.

  ***

  The next afternoon, the head of army logistics stepped into Commissar Wang’s office that he still maintained at the sprawling but discreet headquarters of the intelligence agency. “Spymaster, thank you for seeing me.”

  “Of course, General Deng. It sounded urgent and you did not take long to get here. Would you like some tea?”

  Deng, who had served with Wang for over three years on the CPS, barked a short laugh. “You are one of the few Chinese who drink more tea than the English. I mean the English TV shows that I watch, and I imagine you do too, use tea as a prop or the universal cure-all.”

  “Isn’t it?”

  “I have never thought so and expect I will need more than tea to get through this. You remember the discussion at the last CPS meeting?”

  “It was only two days ago, General.”

  “Yes. We spoke about the problem of keeping army inventories secure. I made some rash statements when I actually suspected there is reason to be concerned. Perhaps I should have hinted at my suspicions.” He paused and shook his head. “The man I suspected most, an assistant quartermaster, has been found dead, murdered last night. The police report suggests a routine mugging and robbery. But with the information my staff has gathered on him and his crimes, I believe that one of his customers has turned on him.

  “The military police have been keeping watch over him for months, but last night, he gave them the slip. It turns out they would have done better to maintain surveillance around his apartment building. That was where his body was found anyway. They never discovered where he had gone. My informal contacts at the police tell me that suspicion about him swirls at higher levels.”

  “What evidence do you have?”

  “At first, there were rumors about the extravagant jewelry his wife has been seen wearing. It is said she took the trouble not to wear it in their home or neighborhood but did so when out in a distant part of Beijing, usually accompanied by her parents or more usually by her mother. One could dismiss all this as spiteful gossip.

  “But then the evidence of theft of army supplies accumulated and the military police were preparing to file for his arrest.”

  “What is he suspected of stealing?”

  “A few crates of automatic rifles at first. Then, over time, several dozen, maybe a few hundred, crates of rifles and ammunition. More recently, we have discovered a dozen handheld missile launchers missing.”

  “Missile launchers? Would they be in crates that have markings like these?” Wang stood up briskly and rifled urgently through his inbox. He retrieved the sheet of paper he had brought back from his interview with Kim and handed it to Deng.

  “Yes! Where did you get this?”

  “Sit, General, and have some tea.” Deng eyed him suspiciously as if confronting a witch doctor with a basket of scorpions.

  “I don’t know if this is all tied with your findings, but your suspect sounds like he could be the man the intelligence agency believes provided the supplies in an arms deal we have monitored. The thing we need to know, Old Deng, is whether you have noticed the disappearance of tactical nuclear devices as well?” The general was speechless for a time. Then he sat.

  “I think I will have that tea.”

  “Would you like something stronger?”

  “I didn’t think you indulged.”

  “For medicinal purposes only,” the spymaster grinned.

  Wang poured the general a generous tumbler half full, inquiring solicitously, “More? Or would you like some water with this?”

  “What do you recommend?” replied Deng cautiously. Wang laughed and poured himself the same amount, adding water to both their drinks.

  “This is where the music in the background deepens to indicate a situation of a dire or desperate nature,” muttered Deng.

  “If only this were a movie,” countered Wang.

  “How I wish.”

  “Does the army know what kind of nuclear devices have been stolen?” asked the spymaster.

 

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