Quiller Bamboo

by Adam Hall

  ‘You’re an unusual man,’ Trotter said.

  ‘They broke the mold.’

  ‘I would of course be tempted to accept your offer, Mr. Locke; but there’s no telephone here, and that would mean risking exposure in the street. And you’ll give me the information I need in any case, and the name of the mysterious “element.” They’ve made great advances in the field of psychiatric drugs, and unless you’re willing to speak of your own volition, Dr. Chen will induce your full cooperation. When I have what I need, he will ease your passage to the hereafter. There is of course no question of pain, except my own.’ The reflection of the lamps behind me made a spark in each of his dark intelligent eyes; there was nothing I could see in them, no hostility, no enmity, perhaps if anything a hint, yes, of pain, reluctance. ‘What do you say? Will you speak freely?’ , We’d come down to the wire rather fast and the sweat glands were reacting and I could feel the old familiar heat of adrenaline in the blood.

  ‘I can’t,’ I said, ‘without London’s okay. I really mean that. Neither of us is joking, is he? There’s so much in the balance. All I need is a telephone.’

  He turned away for a moment, had his back to me, and the muscles pulled tight and I was set to go, already in the zone where all the mind has got to do is say yes and stand back and let it happen, the targets selected and different now because he’d got his back to me, a chudan mae keage to the coccyx to paralyze the legs and a heel-palm to the occipital area to produce concussion and deaden the optic nerve, but it still wasn’t the answer: the organism had simply noted the chance when the opponent had turned his back, that was all, it had had enough training, God knows, to do things without being told.

  Go for him.

  No.

  It’s you or him and he’s exposed, he’s— I think we can get London in if I work on him.

  Kill him for God’s sake before he kills you— Shuddup.

  It’s his life or— Bloody well shuddup.

  Turning back, Trotter was turning back.

  ‘You’ll really have to listen to me,’ I said. ‘I can’t offer you more than the mission, and it’d work, you’d get him through to Beijing.’

  He didn’t answer for a moment. His face had changed in some way, his eyes, his expression, because of whatever he’d been thinking about, I suppose, while he’d stood there with his back to me. There was a softness about him, and it worried me.

  In a moment— ‘My dear fellow, you still don’t understand. I appreciate your thinking, but there’s nothing you can offer me. It’s for the taking.” And then— ‘Are you a Catholic, by any chance?’

  Said no.

  With hesitation— ‘I thought you might, perhaps, be willing to give me … absolution.’

  It was a moment before I got it. Absolution for taking my life.

  ‘What the fuck are you talking about, I’m not a priest.’ Shocked him, did me good. ‘And if I were a priest I’d damn you to hell.’

  Do you know what a rattlesnake does when it injects its venom? It’s partly of course to paralyze the prey, to kill it, but it’s partly to digest its body. I mean it’s to start the process of assimilation, to soften and prepare the tissues. I suppose other snakes do it too, cobras, for that matter, but I happen to know rattlers, lived with them for a bit. But isn’t that awful, don’t you think, for something to start digesting you before you’re even dead? It gives me the bloody creeps.

  ‘I understand your feelings, of course,’ his voice very quiet.

  ‘You bloody well don’t.’

  There’d been fright in his eyes, I’d noticed, when I’d talked about damning him to hell. He took his faith seriously, perhaps I could work on that. I didn’t like him now, forget the compassion bit, this bastard had started digesting me.

  He didn’t say anything more, looked at the Chinese and gave a little nod, and Chen started getting things ready, breaking a needle out of the packet and pressing it onto the syringe, and I didn’t like that, I was beginning to wonder why Trotter hadn’t made an honest approach, come to me earlier and put it on the table and tell me his ambition was the same as my own, instead of dodging me like a bloody espion and setting me up for an interrogation thing under the needle and then the final insult, what had he called it, easing your passage to the hereafter, bloody hypocrite, meant kill me, kill me like a dog and hadn’t got the guts to say so, but there was this thought above all - I was prepared to believe he wanted to get Xingyu Baibing into Beijing but for the first time I was beginning to question why.

  It wasn’t necessarily for the benefit of his beloved Chinese. He could be selling Dr. Xingyu Baibing down the river in some way, and I didn’t like that, Xingyu was mine, he was under my protection, he was the whole of the mission, Bamboo, and I didn’t trust this man anymore, this man Trotter, and he went down but he’d seen it coming and swung away, very fast for such a big man, took only half the weight of the strike and was still conscious, shouting the place down, and I didn’t have time to follow up with the killer because they were in here now, three of them, coming at the double with their guns out and I took the first one head on and heard the bone go, heard the bone go driving upward into the brain and he screamed very briefly and then it was cut off as he died, the second one coming but I wasn’t quite ready because the whole weight of my body had gone into the strike and the momentum was still trying to carry me forward and I needed to recover, wasn’t correctly set up— ‘Zhua zhit ta! Bie kai qiang!’

  Trotter, shouting again as the second man came at me and I did what I could, broke his arm but it didn’t stop his momentum, his gun went clattering across the floor but he wouldn’t have used it anyway, none of them could, Trotter wanted a live brain lying there under the needle and they knew that, he would have told them, instructed them, one of his hands trying to get a grip on my triceps and I smashed a hammerfist down but the target was too insensitive and he hung on and another man began locking my legs at the ankle and all I could do was try for an eye gouge and got it half right, got another scream but it didn’t mean anything useful, they were hanging on me like dogs on a fox, Trotter’s face somewhere above me, blood shining on it because I’d raked the skin open with the strike, his eyes frightened, because if he lost me now he’d lose the whole thing, tried one more strike, a strong hiji-uchi with enough force behind it to break whatever it hit, but it didn’t connect because I was on the floor now and Trotter was up there, huge, dripping with blood, while they wrapped something around my ankles and he lifted me by the shoulders and they took my feet and between them they laid me on the blankets, on the plinth where I’d been before, got in a quick tiger-claw and drew blood again but technically it was ineffective, simply an attempt to save face.

  They held me down, the three of them, Trotter and the two surviving Chinese, while Dr. Chen broke open the top of one of the little phials and wiped it with an alcohol swab, from habit I suppose, there wouldn’t be time for me to get any kind of infection, would there, the head throbbing a lot now because one of them had opened the wound under the bandage when we’d been milling about, I watched the Chinese, Dr. Chen, as he pushed some air into the phial and tilted it and began suction with the plunger, they’ve made great advances in the field of psychiatric drugs, I could believe that, Trotter was an intelligent man, would know what he was doing, the weight of his huge hands on my shoulders keeping me down, I’ve never had to deal with anyone so strong, blood on his black beard, his eyes watching the syringe, the plunger still drawing the stuff in, quite a lot of it, we were nearing the 5cc mark on the barrel, I hate these bloody things.

  One of the hit men was sniveling a bit because of the eye gouge I’d used on him, didn’t look pretty, mucus dripping from his nose, couldn’t wipe it away, had to keep both his hands on my legs, I tried a last essay, jerking my knees to connect with his face but it was no go, they’d been waiting for me to do something, didn’t trust me anymore, bloody shame, my eyes closing against the flickering light of the lamp over there, watch it, yes, God�
��s sake stay with it, yes indeed, one must remain conscious, mustn’t one, opened my eyes again and slowed the breathing, deepened it, sought prana, drew it into the lungs, felt better, a little better now, he was stopping at 5cc, pulled the needle out of the phial and tilted the syringe, pressed the air out and got another swab, asking one of them to pull my sleeve higher, wiped my arm and dropped the swab and brought the syringe into position and I said, ‘Trotter, you’d better listen to this.’

  Chen looked across at him but Trotter shook his head, keep going, I suppose it meant.

  ‘When I got him through Hong Kong and Chengdu and Gonggar,’ I said, ‘it was because he was wearing a mask. The “element”. I couldn’t have got him through without it. You won’t get him through to Beijing without it either.’

  ‘Zhan zhu.’

  Dr. Chen was holding the syringe like a dart, ready to stab, but he didn’t move now, watched Trotter.

  I said, ‘Listen, if this stuff is as good as you say it is, I’ll tell you where the mask is, but it won’t do you any good because you won’t know how to put it on his face. It requires skill and experience, takes nearly an hour, and you haven’t been trained, and I have. I’m the only one who can put that mask on, Trotter, so you’d better tell the good doctor, hadn’t you, to put that bloody thing away.’

  I suppose Trotter would have given it some thought but there wasn’t time because the doors of the temple blew open and the whole place shuddered and I saw the light of the explosion on his face before the air blast reached the lamps and blew them out and I twisted and rolled and dropped and got onto my feet and began running through the dark toward the patch of moonlight where the doors had been.

  ‘In there,’ I told Chong and he lobbed the next one into the Buddha room and the force came in a wave and I went down under the blast and hit something with my shoulder and spun away and got up again, a few seconds of darkness after the flash and then the moonlight came back, filtering through the smoke where the roof had blown out.

  Shot, whining close and bouncing against stone, someone had survived in there but the light was too tricky to let him do any more than shoot wild and 1 checked the vestibule on my left and didn’t find anything more than rubble, crossed through the line of fire at a run and called for Chong to look after things and he lobbed another one through the doorway and the building bellowed again and I squeezed my eyes shut against the flash and waited for them to accommodate and then took the room on the other side and found him there, Xingyu, another man with him and I went for a certain kill and called out to Chong again, where was the truck!

  Xingyu was conscious and on his feet and I found his flight bag and checked it for the insulin by the light of the flames that had broken out in the Buddha room and then got him through the rubble, another shot and I called out to Chong again but he didn’t answer, we needed another bomb in there, Xingyu felt heavy against me and I had to half-carry him, smoke in the lungs and the light deceptive, shadows everywhere as the fire took hold and began blazing.

  ‘Chong!’

  Crackling of timber and a beam came down with a crash and sparks flew, a billow of smoke rolling through the doorway and clouding gray in the moonlight, the eyes stinging as we reached the open and I saw the truck, ‘Chong!’ but no answer.

  I got Xingyu into the Dongfeng and checked for the radio and the map and started the engine and waited. ‘Chong, we’re going!' The whole place was roaring and I thought I saw Trotter, his huge body silhouetted against the flames as I hit the gear in and rolled the thing out of harm’s way, still no sign of Chong, but there was a sweep of bright light coming in from the highway and I got into motion again with the headlights off and took a dirt track where the smoke was rolling, used it for cover and kept going as more lights silvered the landscape and I saw a personnel carrier, red star on the cab, it must have been in the area and I suppose you can’t blow a temple up in the dark without attracting attention, Chong, where was Chong, we had to keep going before the military picked us up in their headlights, I think the first time I’d called out to him without getting an answer was just after the shot, the second one, so it could be that.

  Something bumping against me in the cab, Xingyu, and I pushed him upright.’ When did you last get insulin?’

  ‘Who are you?”

  He sounded lethargic, slurred, sat there lolling, so I reached over and got his seat belt round him and hit the door lock down, who are you, stressed out of his mind.

  The dirt track was coming to an end and I turned the lights on and kicked the dip switch and took the road to the right, away from the blazing temple, throttling up and shifting into top, the main town to the left, to the north, the river on the other side, Gonggar behind us in the west but forget Gonggar, find shelter, it was all we could do now, I’d been with Chong when he’d drawn the map, sitting in the truck while I was watching for Su-May.

  ‘Okay, this is where the foothills begin, so this is where they are, along this line here.”

  The caves.

  ‘Which one should we make for?’

  ‘Listen, we take our pick, a whole lot of them are going to be big enough to hide the truck, so we can set up our base facing the south, keep a watch on the road, this one here, the only way in and it ain’t that hot anyway, mostly rocks, but if they take the search parties that far it’s the road they’ll use.’

  We checked our radios and synchronized watches and he started peeling a fresh stick of gum and I said, ‘All right, this is what we’ll do if I can get them to pick me up. You’ll take over the truck and keep me in sight until you see where they’re taking me. If it’s in the town or where anyone else can get hurt, report on your radio to my DIP and he’ll bring in support. If it’s anywhere remote, where you can use your bombs, do it at your own discretion.’

  He thought for a moment. ‘Okay. Zero?’

  Eighteen hundred hours. ‘I’ll work around that. But you’re only a backup, Chong. If I can do anything on my own, I’d rather do it. A bomb is a blanket weapon and if Xingyu’s there I don’t want him endangered.’

  He dropped the Wrigley’s wrapper onto the floor. ‘Like to kind of modify that,’ his tone a little hurt, ‘I mean you can pick locks with those babies, you do it right.’

  ‘No offense.’

  We talked about where to bring the truck, covering a dozen assumed sites, urban and remote and in between. We talked about signaling if any were possible, access, egress, how to keep Xingyu protected, how to get him clear. And finally we talked about eventualities and their appropriate action. ‘If one of us can’t get away,’ I said, ‘he’s left behind, and the other one takes Xingyu.’

  ‘Gotcha.’

  He’d got out of the cab of the truck and buried himself among the equipment we were carrying back there, and began waiting it out.

  ‘Where are we going?’

  Xingyu. I looked across at him in the backwash from the headlights. He was crouched into his coat, his face drawn, his eyes dull, but he sounded interested in who I was, where we were going.

  ‘Dr. Xingyu, it’s a few minutes past six in the evening. When did you have you last shot of insulin?’

  ‘I cannot remember. Are we going to Beijing?’

  ‘Yes. To meet your wife.’ No particular reaction, perhaps a look of cynicism. ‘How much warning,’ I asked him, ‘do you get when you’re running low on insulin?’

  He turned his head to look at me. ‘A little while.’

  ‘What do you mean by a little while? Ten minutes or an hour or what?’

  ‘About half an hour.’

  ‘Then I want you to tell me as soon as you feel you’re ready for another shot.’ He didn’t say anything. ‘Do you understand?’

  ‘Yes.’

  ‘Are you hungry?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Thirsty?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘All right. Let me know if you need anything.’

  Chong had dumped a bag of provisions in the back of the truck when
he’d kept the rendezvous, and I’d asked him to include a first-aid kit. The mask was still in its cheap cardboard box wedged behind the seat, and I would have liked to use it, but we’d need fresh water, clean hands, and time, up to an hour. The risk of taking this man along a highway in a truck tonight without the mask on was appalling, but the risk of being stopped by the police or the military was worse, if I tried fitting the mask and failed to get it right: they’d detect it and rip it off his face, finito. The risk of pulling up anywhere to look for shelter was the worst of all, and the only chance we had was to get to the foothills and the caves and stay there until Pepperidge could work something out.

  The blaze was well behind us when I looked back, a bright ember against the horizon that left a trail of orange fire reflected along the river. Headlights were sweeping the area as the emergency teams moved in, and two vehicles, quite distinct, were behind us on the road out of the town. I noted them, because they could be military.

  I picked up the radio and switched it on.

  ‘Calling DIP, DIP, DIP.’

  ‘Hear you.’

  ‘Subject is in my care.’

  In a moment: ‘Very good.’

  Since we’d broken radio contact soon after noon today Pepperidge had been sitting in his hotel room trying to make himself believe that I’d somehow manage to stay alive, because he’d known I meant to get in their way and that’s something the directors in the field always hate and always try to keep you from doing: the risk is of course totally calculated but wickedly high. He hadn’t expected jam on it: I’d located and secured Xingyu Baibing.

  ‘I’m proceeding according to plan.’ It was all he needed:

  I’d told Chong to take him a copy of the map and it showed the caves. ‘We should be there in an hour.’

  Wo precise location at this point.’

  ‘No. I’ll send that.’ I watched the two sets of headlights in the mirror. The distant vehicle had pulled up on the one immediately behind me. ‘There’s a temple on fire southeast of the town and the emergency crews - and I assume the police and military - are already on the scene. There are several dead. One of them might be Chong.’