Book of Bravery

by James Burke

  Marx again jabbed Quintus with the baton, this time in the center of the chest. Lin stepped forward alarmed.

  ‘You will damage his organs!’ he yelled.

  ‘Don’t fret Lin, he can take it,’ Marx replied as he continued zapping Quintus. ‘In fact, it’ll do him a world of good and what’s more you’ll find him to be more compliant.’

  After half-a-minute of being shocked, Quintus was near senseless.

  Marx halted the torment and was again in his face.

  ‘Now let me tell you how you shall die,’ Marx said. ‘The beginning of the process is simple enough. In a minute you’re going to get an electrocardiogram and an abdominal X-ray. The X-ray is first, right Lin?’

  Lin nodded.

  ‘Then after a few other things, in five or six hours, you should be ready for the operating table. At that stage you’ll be injected with a paralyzing drug, so you’ll be alive when the dissection begins, and you’ll feel each and every scalpel slice as they carve their way to your liver,’ Marx said. ‘At some stage you will of course die as they all do.’

  Quintus tried ignoring both Marx and the residue of pain he felt. Instead he focused on maintaining the mindfulness needed if he was to take advantage of any opportunities to escape.

  Meanwhile, Marx continued talking.

  ‘Lin’s father, an old friend of mine, will be the recipient of your liver. I’m not sure if they are going to bother with your other spare parts but sometime later the same will happen to that sweet young thing you befriended in Reno and she will be killed on demand.’

  He paused and just stared at Quintus while savoring the moment.

  ‘Your wife is also here, so we may have to do something similar to her as well,’ Marx said. ‘After more than 2,000 years, this is how it ends for you. Everything you strove for, everything you went through, all for squat.’

  Marx then nodded at Lin who looked at Deng who in turn barked orders at two soldiers who pushed Quintus on the gurney out of the room.

  The soldiers took Quintus down a hallway towards an elevator that would take them higher up into the building proper. He focused on remembering where he was being moved from so he could retrace the journey and come back for Tina. That’s what he hoped for anyway. There was no other way to think. Unless he accepted that he only had a few hours to live.

  In the elevator with the soldiers, Quintus managed to watch the electronic numbers on the button panel climb from B 1 up to level 2 where the elevator stopped, and its doors opened. They exited, and Quintus was taken down a corridor which turned right towards the X-ray room where they were met by a yawning officer and an overweight radiology technician wearing a white gown.

  A Lifeline

  Kristen stared at her unpacked bag sitting on the single bed that was the main feature of the no-frills single room situated on the building’s fifth floor. She wasn’t sure if she should open it and get out of her slim jeans and t-shirt and into her nightwear for sleeping. The uncertainty of her situation and its resulting unease was debilitating.

  Upon hearing a soft-brushing noise behind her, she turned to see a folded piece of paper being slid under the door.

  ‘Hello?’ Kristen said to whoever was outside her door but there was no reply.

  She saw a shadow under the door move away. She presumed it was a Chinese staff member unable to understand English.

  She went and picked up the paper and unfolded it. It was not at all what she expected. What she saw left her speechless. She sat on the edge of the bed and gazed at it for several minutes.

  It was an ink drawing. Going by what she had seen in the boardroom in New York, she knew it was one of War’s. It was an illustration of a Roman centurion with his shield raised protecting a young girl who stood frightened behind him. The girl was dressed 1960s style and she was clutching a teddy bear. The soldier gave the impression he’d die before letting the girl meet any harm. He’d fight anything.

  It was of course a scene straight from her most recent dream.

  The spell was broken when somebody outside wrapped their knuckles softly on the door.

  ‘Who’s there?’ she asked.

  ‘Miss Kristen, it’s me.’

  She part opened the door to find War dressed as he was on the plane; cargo pants and his surplus jacket over a blue polo shirt.

  ‘Ivan, you drew this didn’t you?’ she asked holding up the drawing for him to see.

  ‘We must go,’ he said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘You’re in danger.’

  ‘From what, from who?’

  War looked back up at the hallway and then back to her.

  ‘You must come with me,’ he said.

  Intuition told her that he was there to help. She grabbed her bag and they left.

  X-ray

  The soldiers parked the gurney carrying Quintus just inside a radiology room. Quintus kept his mind clear as they talked with the officer and the radiology technician.

  ‘For five minutes the westerner was blasted with an electroshock baton — there is no fight left in him,’ a soldier said in Mandarin.

  ‘He certainly looks somewhat frazzled,’ laughed the bespectacled technician who next described what needed to be done.

  The officer then ordered the soldiers to uncuff and untie Quintus, so they could take him from the gurney to the X-ray bed. Using a knife, a soldier cut the plastic zip tie from Quintus’ wrists and then the other soldier unlocked the handcuffs making Quintus free of restraint.

  His chance had arrived.

  He sprang into action and sat up fast. He jabbed the nearest soldier under the armpit, paralyzing him. The officer tried to hit Quintus with a baton but after a well-targeted blow he was quickly on the floor unconscious. The other guard met a similar fate.

  The out-of-shape technician attempted to flee but Quintus blocked the door with the gurney. The technician raised his hands as if surrendering.

  ‘Don’t hurt me. I’ll give you money,’ he said in English.

  ‘Where are we? What is this place?’

  ‘This is 327 Military Hospital. Chengdu. South-west China.’

  ‘Take off your jacket,’ Quintus told the technician who complied.

  ‘Okay, now lift up your arm a little.’

  The technician closed his eyes and did so. Quintus jabbed him and the technician was paralyzed on the spot.

  A minute later, Quintus left the X-ray room wearing the technician’s coat and a cap he found. As he walked the deserted corridor, he noticed the lights of the neighboring airfield through a window. He saw the shadowy shapes of six military helicopters on a concrete patch by the airstrip. He didn’t have time to stop and see more, but he saw enough.

  Quintus turned into the corridor where the elevator was. He kept his head down to hide his face from a wall-mounted CCTV camera. After reaching the elevator, he pressed the button and waited for the doors to open.

  He hoped Tina was okay and wondered if what Marx said about the woman named Kristen was true. Was she somewhere in the hospital? And if so, was her life in danger? He didn’t know and had no way of knowing. Marx could have just been playing mind games. Quintus had to act on what he knew.

  The elevator bell rang. Its doors opened, and he stepped in and pressed the button for basement level one.

  Visiting the General

  Sickly General Zhou was startled when he sensed someone sitting in a bedside chair. It was dark in his hospital room, so he couldn’t see who it was, nor did he have the strength to switch on a light.

  ‘Who is there?’ he feebly asked in Mandarin.

  ‘Save your strength general.’

  ‘Aaron Marx is that truly you?’

  ‘Yes.’

  The general sighed and Marx wasn’t sure it was a sign of disapproval or relief. Outside of that, it could have been just an indication of how near the older man was to death. It was some time before the general again spoke and when he did his voice seemed to come from a distant place. />
  ‘I have nightmares that I’m already in the underworld. Do you think such things exist?’

  Marx couldn’t help but chuckle. Atheists are the biggest chumps, he thought.

  ‘Yes, well Hell is certainly not for the fainthearted and for some of us, dear comrade, it’s an inescapable fact,’ Marx said. ‘But try to rest and fret not. You won’t be dying today — a new liver is being prepared for you as we speak.’

  Interrupting Mahjong

  Quintus watched the elevator’s electronic floor numbers drop to B 1. Following a juddering stop, the elevator door opened, and he carefully exited.

  After finding the corridor empty he quietly made his way towards where he thought the cells were. As he reached the corridor’s corner, he heard men casually talking.

  He paused and peeked around the corner to see three guards playing Mahjong at a table opposite the cell doors. Above them was another CCTV camera covering the area.

  Quintus ducked back and grabbed a fire extinguisher braced to the corridor’s wall. With it in hand, he darted around the corner and threw it at the CCTV camera. A direct hit. The camera was smashed to smithereens.

  Quintus then ran at the first guard who stood from the table and quickly immobilized him and did the same to another soldier reaching for a radio. The last remaining soldier swung a baton but missed. Quintus threw counter-punches and that soldier crumpled to the floor.

  After ensuring the area was guard free, he grabbed a set of heavy keys hanging from a nail above the table which he hoped were for the cell doors. Intuition told him Tina was behind the second door. One of the keys worked and he unlocked the door. He opened it wide enough to let light into the cell. Inside it he saw Tina sitting on the floor.

  ‘Told you I’d be back,’ he said quietly to her.

  Tina smiled with relief and he took her hand to help her to her feet. Around her, the Falun Gong practitioners either nodded or smiled at him, as if what was occurring was all very matter of fact.

  ‘Everyone out and fast before alarms start ringing,’ he said.

  ‘Quintus what’s happening?’ Tina asked.

  ‘These people must get out of here or they’ll be butchered. It won’t be easy to escape, but we have to try,’ he said. ‘The sun will be up soon, so we need to move quickly.’

  Speaking in basic Mandarin, Tina repeated Quintus’ concerns to the women as he began to free the occupants inside the other two cells. Inside them were a mixture of Tibetans, Uyghurs, several house Christians and a democracy activist who spoke some English.

  Soon enough 30 bewildered prisoners, talking in hushed tones, were milling outside the cells. With anticipation they watched Quintus, approach a steel door that he guessed was the one that he and Tina was first brought in through. He saw another CCTV camera monitoring it.

  SMASH!

  The fire extinguisher was again put to good use in obliterating it.

  He went to the door and tried keys to open it. After two attempts, he found the right key and pushed the door open. It was still dark outside and, as far as he could tell, there were no guards on that side of the building.

  Asleep on Duty

  There were now two blank monitor screens in the hospital’s main security room situated on the ground floor. But all 12 monitors in the room may as well have been turned off, as the soldier, a 20-year-old Kunming native named Wei Zexi, who was meant to be watching them, was asleep while sitting upright in his chair.

  Over the past four months, sleeping on the job had become a habit for Wei and he’d gotten away with it so far. Besides, his commanding junior officer was often off doing something similar somewhere else in the building. To both Wei and the officer, getting forty winks was the best use of their time.

  Since his early teens, Wei had dreamed about joining a special forces unit, but he lacked the necessary fortitude and skills. Now he complained to his friends that he was only a glorified security guard. It was not even a military base. If he was a guard in the neighboring airfield, he wouldn’t be falling asleep, Wei told himself. Nothing ever happened at the hospital in the early hours of the day, everyone knew it, and this was his justification for sleeping.

  The hospital may have been run by the military, but it was a money-making machine for the higher ups, especially the specialized doctors and local party officials. Along with expensive immunotherapy procedures Wei knew the hospital made most of its money through organ transplants. Most of the staff knew how the organs were acquired, and he had seen via the monitors how the prisoners were pulled out of cells and then prepared. No one was allowed to talk about it, but they all understood those killed for their organs were enemies of the state, at least according to the higher ups. He told himself it was none of his business and so there was no point losing sleep over it.

  During the beginning of each shift he usually set the alarm on his cellphone for 4.45 am so he would at least be awake for the final hour of his time on duty. After his phone alarm went off, on this particular morning that we’re focused on, he stood up from his chair and went to the bathroom to relieve himself and wash his face.

  It was when Wei got back that he noticed two of the screens that should have been showing the basement were blank. He picked up the phone to make a call but paused when he saw on another screen, one that was working, two non-Chinese men in a hallway outside a room on the fifth floor. He didn’t know who they were. One of them was making a call on his cellphone. Wei decided this was something he should report.

  Vacher’s Call

  As Marx sat by General Zhou’s bedside, he felt the phone in his pocket buzz. He pulled it out, checked the caller ID and exited the room to take the call in the corridor.

  ‘Vacher anything wrong?’

  ‘Sir, we can’t find Ivan and now we can’t find Kristen,’ Vacher said.

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘They are not in their rooms and we have searched the whole floor. I’ve called her cellphone but there’s been no answer.’

  ‘If you don’t find them soon, I will hold you both personally responsible.’

  Up on the fifth floor, Vacher looked at Irfan and raised his eyebrows, communicating that their boss had not taken the news well.

  ‘Should we alert the Chinese? We could get Deng onto it? They can help search,’ Vacher said just as four armed guards turned the corner and approached them. ‘Some Chinese have just shown up Mr. Marx,’ he said.

  Vacher was all smiles until one of the soldiers shouted orders which he could not understand. Both the tone and the manner were unfriendly and that riled the Frenchman.

  ‘Hey, relax. Everything is fine. We’re your guests for Hell’s sake!’ he said back at the soldier.

  Another soldier attempted to take Vacher’s phone and a scuffle ensued resulting in both foreigners being pinned to the floor.

  CHAPTER XII

  The Escape

  History one day will recall when 30 prisoners of conscience escaped from 327 Military Hospital in Chengdu; how they managed to flee certain death and avoid being recaptured. Quite an achievement in an Orwellian state such as modern-day China.

  It may have not been a prison but getting out of the hospital was still no easy feat. It was surrounded by CCTV cameras and a 12-foot-high fence topped with razor wire. Its exit and entry points were manned by guards. Beyond the hospital grounds was either the city’s outskirts or the airfield.

  Not that Quintus knew these details as he ventured out of the building. The others remained inside as he recced for the best avenue of escape.

  Carrying the fire extinguisher, he went along the side of the building, which took him towards a hospital exit manned by two bored soldiers at a checkpoint. He made sure he was out of their eyesight when he knocked out two exterior video cameras with the extinguisher. Satisfied there wasn’t any more cameras covering their intended escape route he went back to the building door where the others waited. He told both Tina and the English-speaking democracy activist what he saw and then ou
tlined a plan for them to relay to the others.

  ‘I will take care of the guards and once I give the signal everyone has to rush out the gate and get into the city, split up and do what they can to not get caught from there on,’ Quintus whispered to them.

  Just after Tina and the activist told the others the plan, Quintus pulled her aside and spoke to her softly.

  ‘I will stick out like a sore thumb here. You’ll have better luck without me if you go into the city and get to the nearest U.S. consulate,’ he said.

  ‘What are you going to do?’ she asked him.

  ‘I’m going back to the airfield to steal a helicopter.’

  ‘What? Why?’

  ‘It’s the best idea I’ve got right now.’

  ‘The security there would be ten times worse than here.’

  ‘Maybe. Probably.’

  ‘If you do get a helicopter where are you going?’

  He paused before answering.

  ‘I need to go to a mountain.’

  ‘Then I want to come with you.’

  ‘It will be more dangerous.’

  ‘I can handle that.’

  For a further two minutes, Quintus tried convincing Tina to go with the others, but she was adamant otherwise. Eventually he yielded.

  ‘Alright, you can come but you need to do what I ask of you. Promise me. Your life may depend on it.’

  She nodded and then Quintus told the activist to inform the others it was time to go.

  Quintus led the group up the side of the building. Upon reaching the corner, they stopped in the shadows. The exit and its checkpoint were just ahead. Quintus indicated to Tina and the others to remain while he went forward. At a crouching run he snuck up on the checkpoint where one guard was now asleep and the other was barely awake in a booth. He had little trouble knocking them both out.

  But as he prepared to wave the escapees through, a 4WD military vehicle approached from within the hospital grounds. He signaled to Tina and the others to stay put and he hid behind the booth just as the vehicle pulled up at the checkpoint’s boom gate. The driver inside the 4WD looked around for the guards until his door was yanked open and he was pulled out by Quintus and given a paralyzing jab.