A Drop of Chinese Blood

by James Church

  “Maybe if we work together, we can help each other out,” I said, feeling my way along. “We both seem to be running out of time, and we might actually be in the same sinking boat. There’s no reason not to cooperate.” Actually, that was not quite true. There was one reason of undeniable weight—I didn’t have approval to cooperate with the Mongolian police. Beijing wouldn’t like my getting into its liaison shorts, creating a working relationship with a foreign service on the spot without proper say-so. The explanation that there hadn’t been time to fill in all the forms would cut no ice.

  On the other hand, Beijing hadn’t done much in the way of briefing me about what I was getting into, much less how I was supposed to wriggle out if something went amiss, “amiss” being a fair description of the current situation. Something was amiss, otherwise I wouldn’t be sitting here. As a matter of fact, if I lingered on the thought, it was hard not to come to the conclusion that someone in my own ministry had set me up.

  I took a deep breath. Lack of sleep, spending too much time with my uncle, something was getting to me. No one was trying to set me up … not today, anyway. I exhaled slowly and tried to look sincere. “I’m looking for a friend.” This was one of those times when I was going to have to roll the dice in the dark. “Maybe you know him.”

  “Not likely.” The man gave me a puzzled look. “But what the hell, you can never tell. Try me.”

  If my uncle was right, and I had to admit it was starting to look like he often was, Beijing obviously wanted that missing state seal back in South Korean hands very soon. Everyone was in a hurry; no one would tell me why. Ding said Beijing wanted the operation over in forty-eight hours. The Mongolians felt pressed by a special security window that seemed poised to open any moment.

  The woman in the bar—a Kazakh who apparently drank early and often—wanted to locate her mother, for reasons that didn’t interest me. What mattered was that she also knew, or said she knew, where the state seal was, both the seal and my predecessor. What did someone from Kazakhstan care about either one? At first glance, I’d dismiss her as a crank, but then, why were the South Koreas following her around? Unless, of course, they thought she had the seal, or knew where it was.

  That’s when it hit between my eyes. The Mongolians had been monitoring the meeting of that Kazakh foursome in the Irish bar. Even if it was just a tape, by now they would have transcribed my conversation with the woman, and they’d know I was looking for a seal, even if they didn’t know what sort or why. Yet none of that had come up so far in the little dance this man and I were doing. He was holding back that card, except in a curious way he’d turned it over for me to see. He was the one who had let me know they were watching the Kazakhs. He was enjoying himself, stringing this out. In his own way, the little bastard was as double-jointed as Tuya.

  “I don’t know what my friend looks like anymore,” I said. “Haven’t seen him in a long time. We were boyhood chums, you might say, went through school together, and then lost touch a few years later. Maybe a phone call once in a while. He travels.”

  “Sure, friends across the years, that sort of thing. What makes you think he’s here?”

  “This I also don’t know, actually.” It helps to touch ground truth now and then in these sorts of sessions. “Someone told me they’d heard he was in Mongolia.” Overdoing the truth isn’t a good idea, but coming close twice couldn’t hurt. “Naturally, as soon as I heard that, I decided to come and see.”

  “That happens a lot; missing Chinese turn up in Mongolia, and their friends pour over the border to restore old ties. People think we’re a backwater, but we’re not. We’re very modern. In fact, we’re thinking of starting a Web page, www.visitmongolia/findfriends. Only one problem. I think it should be dot org, but Bazar says it should be dot com. You still think it should be dot com, Bazar?”

  “I’m thinking, boss.”

  “This is part of our new ethos. Kicking around ideas instead of people. Not as much gets done, but no one’s nose gets out of joint. You may have noticed Bazar’s nose is broken in two places; that happened under the old regime.”

  Tuya put down her pen. “I’m skipping that part about Bazar’s nose.”

  “Tuya, believe me, if you don’t want to stick Bazar’s nose in this, we leave it out.” The man stood up and pushed the chair to one side. “Why don’t you admit it?” He parked his face close to mine.

  “Sure,” I said. “Admit what?”

  “That you’re here as a security advance for your premier.”

  This was news to me. It shouldn’t have been. When someone at that level traveled, even if it was nowhere near our area, we were supposed to do a special check and report any rumors about threats. I never heard anything about the premier traveling, but it wouldn’t enhance my stature to admit that. “Is it a crime, to advance for a VIP?”

  He smiled, probably the way a Mongolian wolf smiles at a lamb. “We’re supposed to have liaison agreements. Here we are, busy trying to prepare things to guarantee an uneventful visit for your man, and you are for some reason out on the street exciting the North Koreans. It’s like you put a stick in a beehive and stir it around. Already you have more security people in town than we have on our entire force. A lot of them are posing as journalists, but they don’t seem to know which end of the pencil to hold. I have a whole stack of reports about someone’s lady agent walking around in a lace dress that no one knows how to describe without getting into trouble.”

  Tuya blushed.

  “We’re trying to find out whose she is. The North Koreans ran the other way when they saw her; that’s how we first knew they were around.”

  “Yup.” I gave my best imitation of laughter. “Like bees, buzzing.” What was he talking about?

  “You have some game with them?”

  “Me? Not me, someone else maybe. I just wanted to make sure they were in the open. I don’t wear lace, so I have to take another approach.”

  “Well, don’t. We put them on little leashes once we mark them, and I don’t want them jumping around. You take care of the North Koreans on your soil, we’ll do it on ours, all right with you?”

  “Sure, that’s the way we like it.”

  “Good, then get the hell out of here. You are lying through your teeth, and if it weren’t antidemocratic, I’d knock them out myself. I could hold you as a potential threat to the Chinese premier and his party, but then if it turned out you were actually here to protect him like you say, I would hear about it until—” He stopped. “Uh, what seal?”

  “I never know what you’re going to say next.”

  “Never is a long time. What seal are you looking for?”

  “You won’t believe this.”

  “Don’t tell me, you don’t know.”

  I shrugged. “I think the North Koreans know, and that’s why they’re buzzing around. They know what it is, but they don’t know where. They want to make sure I don’t find out before they do.”

  “A lot of trouble for a lousy chop, or am I wrong?”

  “It’s complicated.”

  “I’ll bet.”

  “It’s forged.”

  “Tsk, tsk. We can’t have that. Someone using it to sign your checks?”

  “Not mine. Seoul’s.”

  “Ahhh.” He sat down. “So, what is this to you?”

  “That’s what I don’t know.”

  “But you’re here looking for it. Not by yourself, either. You have your uncle in tow.”

  “He’s harmless.”

  “Inspector O? Harmless.” He laughed. Bazar’s laugh came bouncing in from the hall. Tuya looked up to give me a ravishing smile. With everyone so jolly, I figured I should join in. The man stopped laughing long enough to say, “He’s harmless, and the next camel you see will be on roller skates.” This brought howls of laughter from the hallway.

  They were having such a good time that I hated to break things up. “The fact is, he didn’t want to come here,” I said.

  “In that
case, why is there a meeting of the clan?” The man indicated to Tuya that she should stop tickling me with her smile and start taking notes again.

  “What clan?”

  “There you go. Dumb as sheep dip. You really don’t know, do you? The beauty queen Fang and her wingman. They showed up a week ago. He’s vanished, gave us the slip, which has caused a lot of nasty messages to come down on my head from on high.”

  “I feel your pain.”

  “Thank you. Now here we are, with your caravan due to arrive bearing gifts. Don’t say it, don’t tell me this is all news to you.”

  “I’m not saying anything.” Madame Fang had come with someone in tow? And now she was out having dinner with my uncle, all under the watchful eye of Mongolian security? “I have a suggestion. It’s the only thing that is going to work.”

  “You’re going to slit your throat.”

  “No. Better than that. You’re going to help me, and I’m going to help you.”

  The man turned to Tuya and indicated that notes were unnecessary at this point. She put down her pen and hoisted one leg behind her neck. “I’ve got to loosen up a little,” she explained. “My joints get stiff sitting in this chair all day long.”

  If she hadn’t been gorgeous, the effect would have been less charming. As it was, I figured I could come home to that four nights out of five.

  “Soothing words I don’t need,” the man said, ignoring Tuya’s posture. “Other than soothing words, what have you got in mind? It can’t be anything long-term. I have maybe thirty-six hours to keep this pot from boiling over.”

  “If you’re not going to tell me what’s on your stove or why, there’s a limit to what I can do for you sitting here.” Ding’s operation was keyed to the premier’s visit. That at least was now clear.

  “You expect me to let you walk out the door, is that it?”

  “If Tuya is assigned to tail me, you won’t hear any objection.”

  Tuya’s other leg joined the first behind her neck. “OK,” said the man, “but it looks like she may have to walk on her hands. Tuya, you want the job?”

  “Some other time,” she said. “Bazar needs the fresh air more than I do.”

  “All right,” the man said to me. “Let’s say you walk out the door, Bazar follows as inconspicuously as possible ten meters behind. How does this help me?”

  Tuya lowered herself off the chair on her hands and rolled out of the room. I must have blanched, because the man gave me a reassuring pat on the shoulder.

  “Tremendous asset for the force, once we figured out how to deploy it,” he said. “You should look into the option.”

  I took a deep breath. It rattled me, somehow, seeing Tuya do that. “Over drinks sometime, you can explain it all to me.”

  “Well, there is a certain shock value involved.” He looked into the hall, watching Tuya roll away before returning to the subject at hand. “You still haven’t answered my question—how does your walking out of here help me?”

  “I know some things you don’t.”

  “That’s been my point all along.”

  “I can’t tell you anything right now, but what I know can turn down the heat on that pot you’re worried about.”

  “So it won’t cause any trouble to the visit by your prime minister?”

  I may have grinned slightly.

  He frowned. “And how can I help you?”

  My uncle might have figured all of this out without ever leaving his workshop. I had to run into a bull of a Mongolian policeman and get fed saltwater by a beautiful woman who wasn’t particular about where she put her arms. But I’d learned over the years that it didn’t matter in my line of work; whatever got you where you needed to be was all right. I had almost all of the pieces. They weren’t what you’d call little. They were big, bigger than the sort of thing that normally showed up on my desk. I knew how to deal with people. Countries and continents I left for someone else, or I had until now. The Chinese premier was showing up in a day or so, but for some reason he needed to know that two pesky details—a phony seal and a renegade intelligence officer—had been taken care of. That’s what no one in China had bothered to tell me. I still didn’t know why, but why could wait. At least I was sure I knew what, some of what, maybe most of what. That’s what this Mongolian cop had laid out on the table for me. I decided he wouldn’t appreciate a hug, so I just smiled.

  “How can you help me? You already did.”

  Chapter Five

  “You tried to blow him up?”

  “Yeah, tried is the operative word.”

  “A problem?”

  “The bastard doesn’t care fuck about safety.”

  I indicated puzzlement, which he only sensed since he couldn’t see my face. I was standing behind him, and it was very dark. We were in some sort of combination toolshed and classroom on the outskirts of town.

  After I left the police station, around two in the morning, I made a couple of moves to lose Bazar as quickly as I could. I felt bad about doing that, but I had picked up someone else on my tail, and this second tail was doing a better job. It’s hard to get anything done with two different services right behind you. One of them had to get lost, and I nominated Bazar. Once I’d shaken him, I kept moving in widening circles. I couldn’t spot whoever it was that stuck with me; each time I put myself in position to get a look behind, he disappeared. I knew he was there, though. I had the feeling it was a singleton, not a tag team.

  After nearly an hour of hide-and-seek, we were in a grassy area that seemed deserted. The closest ger was half a kilometer away. A couple of cows walked up to me. They stopped a few meters away and gave me their undivided attention. If I’d been trying to hide, having two cows staring at me would have been a dead giveaway, but luckily I wanted to make sure whoever was trailing behind got a good fix on my location in the darkness. There were no more streetlights and barely any moon. A moment later I spotted what looked like a partially collapsed shed beside a large pile of stones. I moved in the opposite direction for about twenty meters. Three or four logs lying against each other appeared out of the darkness. I pretended to stumble on them, cursed loudly, then got as low as I could and doubled back into the broken doorway of the shed. The cows lost interest. The shed had a broken blackboard and five or six chairs tumbled about on the remains of a concrete floor. There was a row of hooks on one wall with various tools, a bit and harness, and five or six leather straps hanging from them.

  Five minutes passed before I heard someone moving across the grass. The sound stopped, the cows grunted, and then a human head poked into the shed. I brought one of the chairs down on it. The chair broke, but not before it did its job.

  Luckily, the owner of the head was stunned but not unconscious. It was one of the North Koreans I had spotted in the square earlier that night. After tying him to the what looked like the sturdiest of the remaining chairs with the leather straps, I brought him to with a couple of hard slaps on the face. As he looked up, I stepped behind him. I asked him a few easy questions to get things rolling. That’s when he said the bastard didn’t care about safety, which I found puzzling.

  “What, you don’t believe me?” He started straining against the straps, but they were tight.

  “How doesn’t he care about safety? You’re saying he’s reckless?”

  “Yeah, that’s it. Reckless. The bomb was rigged to the seat belt. When the metal fitting clicked into the buckle, it was set to go boom. It was foolproof, a prizewinning concept; not a single failure yet. We’ve never tried doing anything with the air bags, too many complications.”

  “But this time? No boom? Faulty engineering with the seat belt design?”

  “Nothing wrong with the engineering, nothing wrong with the components. It was human failure. The son of a bitch doesn’t drive with his seat belt buckled.”

  “Why not just kidnap him? That can’t be so difficult.”

  “Says you. We tried. First, we tried to invite him back, you know, the rat-takes-
the-cheese sort of thing. No luck. Then we tried to screw with his GPS, sort of misdirect him into our hands.”

  “Very imaginative.”

  “Yeah, but nothing doing. He didn’t turn it on. So next we thought about snatching him. Our planning people looked at it. Everything in a grab-and-run scenario is premised on sea exfiltration. Everything—transport, logistics, timing.”

  “So?”

  “So, you may have noticed, there is no sea near this shit-can country. No one could come up with a workaround fast enough. Finally, a few days ago, the order came to send him to the moon.”

  “That’s code?”

  “A figure of speech. My wife says I overuse it. Just means use a pistol, nothing fancy. It’s sort of embarrassing, lowest-common-denominator type of work.”

  “For fun, try to guess what I’m about to ask.”

  “That’s easy. What’s the next move?”

  “Very good. What’s the next move?”

  “We had the airport covered, and he showed up in pictures carrying the baggage of the lady with the hips. What she wanted with him I don’t know, but they checked into that hotel with the swank gers on the edge of town. They had a car, so we figured it would be easy. Like I told you, nothing worked. Finally, we got the order to lay off, just watch him, which we did, until we lost track of him about a week ago. So the next move is to figure out where he is before anyone else does, and then we finish the job.”

  “You said there was a woman with him. What if she was in the car when it blew up?”

  He shrugged his shoulders as well as he could. “Tough on the hips, I guess.”

  “The Chinese want him big-time, you realize that?”

  “Tell me about it. Luckily, they don’t have any better idea where he is than we do. They’re tripping over themselves.” He paused. “No offense. It’s just my observation, honor among thieves and so forth. I’m guessing you’re Chinese; you speak Korean like a Chinese, no offense.” He paused again. He was talking fast, trying to keep me occupied. That was good. It meant he had zeroed in on the idea that his situation wasn’t ideal. “I think your people have sent at least two special teams out here to find him, plus an army of beaters. One of the disadvantages of having so many people, I suppose.”