A Corpse in the Koryo

by James Church

  “That’s your problem, Inspector, not mine. You have a funny urge to judge me. Go ahead, but we both know you can’t. Pak was my friend. He told me to get away and leave him. It wasn’t the first time.”

  The pistol jerked up in my hand and I fired one shot near Kang’s head almost before I knew what I’d done. “Shut up.” I could taste the anger; it was all I could do to keep from taking aim and firing again. I wouldn’t miss the second time.

  Kang didn’t flinch. “Alright, you don’t believe a word I say. In that case, there’s not much to discuss.”

  “I’ve got most of this figured out, Kang. Only a few things I don’t understand.” I waited, but Kang was silent. “For openers, you set me up.”

  “Wrong,” he broke in, and then stopped himself from saying more.

  “Military Security was after you because you were poaching on their territory, smuggling cars. You tried to distract them by trailing me in front of them. You brought me up here to Manpo to meet Lena, threw me in her bed, and when that got you nothing, you dragged her down to Hyangsan to try again. That didn’t work, so you killed her.”

  It was so quiet in the room that it felt as if I were alone. Kang didn’t move; his breathing had become shallow and fast. “What are you talking about?”

  “I ran across Lena at Hyangsan.” I waited, but again Kang sat silently. “She said she was there for the tourists, but why all of a sudden would she go down there? Funny thing, you were there just before I arrived. Did you set it up, so I’d meet her again?”

  Kang ignored my question; he didn’t even seem to be listening anymore.

  “We sat on a hillside and talked for a few minutes. About her father. And Pikkusaari. Interesting fellow, is our friend Pikkusaari. That night I got a frantic visit from the local security man. There were sounds coming from one of the buildings at the temple. He went in to check. Then he panicked and came for me. I went up there. Lena was inside, lying in the mud. She had been beaten.” I paused because I could hardly speak with the picture in my mind. “She was still alive, but you couldn’t recognize her face. It was gone. It took her a few minutes to die.” I took a deep breath. “It was like watching an animal.”

  Kang’s body slumped. His voice was drained, dead. “You can’t believe I would do that. She was supposed to leave Hyangsan a few hours after I did. We were getting out of the country. I loved her. I wouldn’t kill her.”

  “She wasn’t going anywhere with you.” The anger was building in my throat, but I knew Kang could hear the doubt creeping in. I could hear it myself. “Were you ever with her at the Koryo?”

  “Go to hell, Inspector.”

  “Were you in that room in the Koryo on the eighth floor with her?”

  “What business is it of yours?”

  “A blue button in the closet of the room where the body was found. It was hers, wasn’t it?”

  “Congratulations, Inspector.” Kang applauded gently. “Does that help you fill in some details of your investigation?” He stopped clapping and rested his face in his hands. When he looked up, he was in control of himself, but finally I could read his eyes. “She liked the Koryo. She said that room reminded her of an old movie. I always had a vase of flowers there for her.” He stopped and looked at the crushed remains of the purple flowers on the floor. “We’re about to get company, Inspector. They’ll be circling back any minute, they always do. Have you any idea what is going on?”

  “You mean the army trucks in Pyongyang?”

  Kang’s laugh was short and bitter. “So the answer is no, you don’t know. You’ve been stumbling after that dead Finn the whole time.” He kicked at a table leg lying at his feet. “This is what’s about to happen. The furniture is being replaced. I mean all of it. The iron broom of history. Prisons emptied, old wrongs righted, intelligence operations gone awry dragged back into the sweet cleansing sunlight.” Kang laughed again, with less bitterness. “Sunlight is our new god, Inspector. Don’t you love the sun? All bad things happen in darkness, but only good can come of light.” With an effort, he turned to look back at the counter-top. I could see he was forcing himself to commit the whole scene to memory. “This took place in the light, Inspector. This, right here, all in the name of vanquishing evil. This is goodness in the flesh.” He gestured around the room, his hands fluttering like a bird with a wounded wing, wondering how to land.

  “Why do they want you so badly? It can’t be just car smuggling. I saw Kim gun down one of your men two days ago. He gave me some story about enemy agents, but what he meant was, he had license to kill your people. It’s something that happened a while ago, something you and Pak were involved in. Do you know what Pak had in his office? Files on Japanese. That’s it, isn’t it? This big decision on Japan, this all-hell-breaking-loose decision on Japan.”

  “Close, Inspector. Very close. But you’re off in one respect. Your grandfather would have realized it immediately.” Kang started to stand. My hand went to my pistol, and he settled back, though not in fear. “They could drag in anyone, actually. Anyone would do. But it would feel wrong somehow. They really think they can purge themselves of evil spirits, that they can be good and sound once the evil is chased down and destroyed. This is the day of reckoning. The leadership is looking for the magic key to the brilliant future. They think they have a chance to step across the river, watch a million ugly deeds from the past sweep off toward a deep, forgiving ocean. But those damned evil spirits are clinging to their trouser cuffs, muddy reminders of bad decisions, people who know the history and can’t forget, files that can never be burned because they aren’t on paper. They’re here.” Kang touched his chest.

  “And you, you are the evil spirit?”

  “Not only me. The whole department, and more. Even you, maybe. You are too much like your grandfather for them.”

  “They’re going after your whole department?”

  “We know too much, too much paper, too many orders stamped, signed, and dated about too many abductions.”

  “But that’s not what is motivating Kim.”

  “No, it’s something else. The man likes blood. He hates my people, and he wants to see them bleed. Military Security has been trying to sink its teeth into us for years. We operated outside their universe, in a reality they despise, and it drove them crazy that we were out of reach. We knew once they got an opening, they would exploit it for all they were worth to cut our throats.” Kang paused.

  “The man in the colonel’s uniform, in the wrecked car on the highway. It must have happened after I drove back into town.”

  “You almost saw it. The first car, the black one that you didn’t get on film, was Kim’s. Ours was not far behind. A few of my people were able to break out as soon as we realized what was happening, but I couldn’t get everyone to safety all at once. That’s why we started the car-smuggling operation, funds for the evacuation. There wasn’t time for much organization, so we improvised. We didn’t know Kim was using the highway, too, for his own smuggling ring. He was furious. You saw the results. It gave him extra incentive to go after my people when Military Security was given the order to roll up the Investigations Department. A handful of us are on the run. I should have been out days ago.”

  “But you’re still here.” I watched him sink down further against the wall. He’d almost given up; it was over and it didn’t matter anymore. “You were waiting for Lena to join you.” Nothing, he didn’t move a muscle, but in his stillness I could see I was right. “You were going to Lake Keitele.” I heard myself say it even before the thought had formed in my mind, because it was suddenly so clear. “And your daughter, that’s really why she was here, close to the border. Because you knew the day would come. You’ve been getting ready for years. Even now, someone’s waiting across the river for you. In a nice shiny black Mercedes. It’s Pikkusaari, isn’t it? And that other Finn, the corpse in the Koryo, he was part of your operation, too. That’s why they dumped the body in that particular room. They knew you used it sometimes. I
t was Kim’s way of playing with you, of telling you that he was closing in.”

  Kang shook his head. “No, not across the river. In Harbin.”

  I heard it click into place. Not organic, mechanical, just like Pak said. “Hyesan-Musan-Najin-Harbin. The train schedule, the one you took from me in the truck. That was your escape route, wasn’t it? Where were you going to meet Lena, in Najin?”

  “The clerk in Manpo was supposed to give me that schedule. Why he gave it to you, I’ll never know.”

  “That’s why they killed him. They were after you. How can you live with so much of other people’s blood on your boots?”

  Kang shifted his weight. It was more of an answer than I had expected.

  “So what made you think you could sacrifice me and Pak? Because you did sacrifice him. He had an Israeli pistol in his hand when he died, only it wasn’t his. The one he had was Czech, the same one in your shoulder holster right now.”

  For a moment I thought Kang wasn’t paying attention. His head was cocked slightly, like a dog listening for something on the wind, far away. He looked at the front door, then turned to me. “It seems you’re wrong about many things, Inspector. Pak was my friend.”

  “I heard you the first time.”

  “And you were so mad you couldn’t shoot straight. So I’ll say it again, and if you want to put a bullet in my heart, go ahead.” He opened his jacket. I could see he hadn’t unbuttoned the strap over Pak’s pistol. “My heart is in the usual place.” He paused. “Pak and I served together. Twenty-five years ago, a different time. We were in a squad run out of a little fishing port, at Sinpo. Remember in Manpo when I told you about those rumors my people had picked up on plans for a political settlement—and lots of money—if these old cases of abductions of Japanese were resolved?”

  “You’re wandering.”

  “You want to hear what I have to say, or do you want to pretend this is an interrogation? Pak and I were assigned to a routine agent operation in Japan. We did it all the time, almost with our eyes closed. Go in, insert an agent, get out. Only it didn’t stay routine. It went bad. One night, the beach where we landed was supposed to be deserted, but it wasn’t. Someone panicked, a little boy got hurt. We could see lights in the distance, police cars coming up the road. Pak argued with me to leave him behind, to cover our exit. I told him I wasn’t leaving anyone, not even the boy. ‘The boy needs a doctor.’ He said it over and over. I can still hear him. ‘Leave the boy.’ But there were five of us in that team. We’d trained together for years. I was in charge, and I made the decision. When we got back home, Pak resigned. He never blamed me. I saved his life, against his will. He always said it was his fault for giving me the choice. He raised the boy, his only son. On the list of cases the Japanese want resolved, the boy is number one. They don’t know he’s dead. As far as they’re concerned, he’s still a child.”

  “And when they have stories on him, the Japanese papers run a picture of a five-year-old kid, holding a cat.”

  A jeep pulled up in front of the shop. The doors slammed even before the squeal of the tires stopped. Kang moved closer. “Shoot me, quick, or they’ll say you were helping.”

  I turned and fired at the door. “Around back. Get out, now.”

  Kang didn’t hesitate. He moved over the broken chairs, passed his hand over the bloody book, and disappeared in the dark. There were two shots in quick succession. Then the jeep started and drove away.

  9

  “Jesus.” The Irishman closed his notebook. “They aren’t going to be happy to hear this. Kang shot by Military Security. What a mess.” He turned off the tape recorder and tucked it in his coat pocket. “Hell, and bloody hell.”

  “That’s it. Nobody’s happy these days.” I pushed my chair back. “I’m going tomorrow if I can get a reservation on the train. Unless it’s already tomorrow.”

  “I thought you had enough of trains.”

  “See you around sometime, Richie.”

  “Would that be an offer?”

  “Hardly. I’m not the type to defect. And you know I won’t work for you. I wouldn’t work for Kang. Why would I want to serve the queen.” I pulled an envelope out of my back pocket and threw it on the table. “A present.”

  “Isn’t this is a little awkward, Inspector? I’m supposed to pay you.”

  “It’s not money. It’s a copy of Kim’s passport. He travels under the name of Yun. And he’s been promoted.” The Irishman didn’t move; he was the type who would wait until I left to reach for the envelope. “Go on, take a look. A good photo, he’s not squinting. Easy to pick out of the crowd.”

  “Bad haircut?” He looked thoughtfully at me for a moment.

  “He’s yours, Richie. Your people can cold-pitch him. He’ll have to report it. If he doesn’t and they find out, he’s dead.”

  “What if they don’t find out?”

  “Don’t worry, they will.”

  “And if he does report it?”

  “No one will believe he turned you down. They’ll tear him to shreds trying to make sure.”

  The Irishman stood up. “Cheers, Inspector.” He walked over to the floor lamp, switched it off, and then turned to me. “Icy outside, I’ll bet. Watch your step.”

  My hotel was not far, but I took a few wrong turns, partly to see if I was being followed, partly just to walk in the night air. I figured the Irishman would sit in the dark awhile, sipping his tea, wondering what I hadn’t told him. It was his job, to listen for what people didn’t say. He must have heard loud and clear the word I never said—revenge. They’d probably look for Kim; maybe they’d find him, maybe they wouldn’t. Trying to track him would keep them busy enough so they’d miss what else I had left out. It wasn’t much.

  It was quiet until dawn, not peaceful, but the heavy silence that weighs on the hours, so that you crave the smallest sound besides your own breathing, crickets or even just the wind to show that the night is rolling unbroken, that it will end. When the sun finally came through the rear window, I peered outside. The dirt path from the back door went down a small slope to a slender, solitary birch tree. A man slumped against it, his legs across the path and his feet, bootless, on the grass beyond. He gazed toward the mist lifting from the hills, only his eyes never blinked. A breeze came up, making the tree’s top branches sway and the leaves dance with a sudden, nervous energy that scattered the light across the ground. I must have stared a long time, but not because I needed to be sure. From the moment the sun came through the window, I knew it would not be Kang.

  The girl’s book I left where it was, and the flowers, too. As I shut the front door behind me and turned toward the station, I thought I spotted a line of geese heading south. They were flying straight as an arrow, high in an autumn sky that was as blue as anything I’d ever seen.

  JANUARY 2003, PRAGUE