The Message

by Mai Jia

  He answered his own question. ‘You know as well as I do: this is an encrypted message. Or to put it another way, it’s a cypher-text. Why encrypt it? Because it contains important intelligence. The Communists were afraid that it might fall into our hands – so afraid, in fact, that the agent didn’t care if he got killed, providing he could stop us from getting hold of it. Which means that the intelligence hidden here must also be extremely important for us, would you not agree?’

  Again he glanced at the faces around the table, and again he answered his question himself. ‘I’m sure that by now you’ve all realized why I dragged you out of bed in the middle of the night and brought you here.’

  He raised his eyebrows and waited expectantly. No one moved a muscle.

  ‘I want you to decipher this message.’

  Everyone looked a bit shocked, and Gu Xiaomeng appeared to mumble something.

  But Commander Zhang ploughed on. Heaving a deep sigh, he said, ‘Heaven really is on our side,’ and then he got up and started pacing the floor. ‘Now I need you to help me too,’ he said as he circled the table. ‘With that one stroke of luck we got on to this thing, but that’s not enough. I want to know what’s going on, I want to find out what it is that they’ve gone to such trouble to conceal. It’s my guess that this has something to do with the agent code-named K. If that is correct—’ here, he stopped his pacing and faced them directly, his tone more aggressive now ‘—then there is a great deal at stake here, and you must decipher it!’

  Perhaps because he’d been through so much in his life, the former scholar was a moody, bad-tempered man; furthermore, he’d been in a position of power for several years now and could be nasty when he had to be. Because of this, his subordinates were scared of him. Just now, when his voice had changed, they’d lowered their eyes. But today he was in a good mood and didn’t want to terrorize his staff, so he went no further. Noting how quiet and serious they all were, he smiled and sat back down again, speaking in as kindly a voice as he could muster.

  ‘As the saying goes, you train your troops for a thousand days to use them for an hour. Right now, I need you more than ever. Although none of you have experience in cracking the cyphers used by the Communist military, I’m sure you won’t let me down. I think that… how to explain? Well, first of all, I doubt the code can be that difficult, because otherwise that agent wouldn’t have risked his life to get rid of it – if it was going to be impossible to decipher, he could just have left it where it was. Secondly, you all have your own areas of expertise. Chief of Staff Wu here—’ he nodded at his highest-ranking member of staff ‘—knows the Communists like the back of his hand – you could call him a living encyclopaedia when it comes to their strongholds and positions.’

  Chief of Staff Wu sat very still, determined not to show how pleased he was at this very public vote of confidence from his boss.

  ‘Section Chief Jin and Unit Chief Li are both old hands at this kind of work,’ Commander Zhang continued. ‘They must have deciphered tens of thousands of encrypted telegrams in their time. And Staff Officer Gu is a bright young woman, she knows how to use her brain and she’s prepared to speak out.’

  He flashed them each a cool smile. ‘As the saying goes, three regular guys can beat a genius when they put their minds to it, so I reckon that the four of you should have no problem doing the work of one professional cryptographer. In short, I have full confidence in you.’

  Leaning forward now, Commander Zhang pressed both palms on the table. No one dared catch his eye. ‘I should also tell you that no less a personage than General Matsui is taking this very seriously. So much so that he’s sending an expert to help with the decipherment. This expert is already on his way and will be here this afternoon. Of course, I’m hoping that my people will be able to decipher the message themselves – by which I mean you. This is a wonderful opportunity for you to show your loyalty to me, and for me to show my loyalty to General Matsui and the Imperial Japanese Army. I want you to concentrate all your efforts on deciphering this secret message. It is by success and failure that we measure heroes. I really hope that you are all going to be heroes, that you will help our forces to triumph, and that in doing so you will pave the way to better futures for yourselves.’

  Commander Zhang’s words left the ECCC officers feeling quite bewildered. Why had he singled out the four of them in particular? None of them had any experience decrypting enemy cyphers – their job was to decipher their own side’s messages and that was all. So why entrust them with such an important task? On the other hand, if this job really was as simple as he implied, why give them such an easy opportunity for promotion? And then there was the Commander’s uncharacteristic behaviour: by turns frightening and friendly, it was as if the things he’d talked about were not really what he wanted to say. There was an atmosphere of smoke and mirrors; it seemed obvious that something else was going on.

  But it appeared the Commander had nothing more to tell them. He merely instructed Secretary Bai and Police Chief Wang to look after the group and make sure they were comfortable, then he shook hands all round, got in his car and drove away.

  *

  Wu Zhiguo, Jin Shenghuo, Li Ningyu and Gu Xiaomeng were left feeling lost. They had the strangest sensation that the ground beneath their feet was crumbling away.

  Half an hour later, when they had deciphered the dictionary message with perfect ease, that earlier sense of bemusement was replaced by an all-consuming, paralysing terror. It was as if they’d been flayed, as if they’d been stripped of their surface equilibrium and reduced to raw emotion.

  6

  Just as Commander Zhang had said, the encrypted message was not at all difficult to decipher. In fact, it was as unsophisticated as it gets – so easy you could hardly call it a cypher; anyone with basic literacy could have worked it out.

  In truth it was just a word game that Commander Zhang was playing with them. This so-called cypher was simply a list of numbers indicating the page, the line and the word so that you could pick them out of the dictionary: such-and-such a page, such-and-such a line, such-and-such a word. Thus the very first word they obtained was ‘This’.

  On to the next, and the one after that, until they had the complete message:

  This message is a fake,

  But there is a real plot, at West Lake.

  If you want people not to see,

  Do not show them what you be.

  Right here at our heart there lies,

  A Communist agent in disguise.

  Wu, Jin, Gu and Li,

  Which of you can it be?

  Confess now or be denounced,

  Before your sentence is pronounced.

  When it is all over, do not rue

  That you did not believe our offer was true.

  Maybe only someone who’d been through the old education system would have thought of showing off their learning in this way and attacking his enemy in verse. Though, in truth, it was a pretty poor piece of doggerel: the lines didn’t even scan properly. All those years in the military may have dimmed the Commander’s poetry-writing skills, but as a way of getting to the heart of the matter and laying it all out there, it was unquestionably a masterpiece.

  Quite apart from the effect it had on the ‘Wu, Jin, Gu and Li’ identified in the poem, even Secretary Bai, who hadn’t been named, felt as though every word was a knife. A cold wind was blowing in from all sides and shivers ran down everybody’s spines.

  TWO

  1

  It was impossible to relax.

  Everyone was on tenterhooks.

  Early that afternoon, Commander Zhang’s car returned, but this time it pulled up outside the east building. As it came to a halt, the Commander himself jumped out and raced round to open the rear door, bowing to the man inside as he got out.

  The man was wearing an ordinary scholar’s gown, in a dark colour, with narrow sleeves. His choice of dress made him seem like a character from Chinese history, like a gentleman
from the Tang or Song dynasty. He was not quite forty years of age, short, with pale skin and a friendly expression – there was also something feminine about his movements. Commander Zhang was old enough to be his father, but he was so respectful towards the younger man, it was as if he were his junior. Even though the man wasn’t in uniform, and even though he didn’t have the usual little moustache, there was no hiding his identity: he was Japanese.

  He was Japanese and his name was Hihara Ryu¯sen. However, he was different from other Japanese soldiers in China in that he had grown up in the Japanese Concession in Shanghai and had then spent many years in China as a secret agent. He was completely fluent in Chinese, and even if you tried speaking to him in Zhejiang or Shanghainese dialect, he’d be able to understand eighty to ninety per cent. Earlier in his career he’d been the personal interpreter to General Matsui Iwane, when Matsui was Commander-in-Chief of Japan’s invading Shanghai Expeditionary Army. A year ago he’d been appointed head of Matsui’s secret police and now he was in charge of counter-espionage across Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangxi provinces. He was General Matsui’s most trusted agent and gave orders to Police Chief Wang Tianxiang and many others like him. He had arrived direct from Shanghai and had with him secret orders from General Matsui to supervise the investigations at the Tan Estate.

  Police Chief Wang Tianxiang came rushing out to welcome his boss, and Colonel Hihara immediately queried the arrangements he’d made. ‘Why have you put these people here? They’re wandering in and out just as they please.’ Though his manner was respectful and his voice soft, this was unquestionably a reprimand.

  Commander Zhang spoke first. ‘Police Chief Wang thought that we might be able to trick them into blowing their cover.’

  ‘That’s right, Colonel. I chose this place—’ Wang Tianxiang waved his hand in a big circle, encompassing half the estate ‘—with a view to tricking the Communists into coming out of hiding, so that we can get them all at once.’

  Hihara looked at him in silence.

  ‘If we kept the suspects under really tight guard,’ Wang Tianxiang continued, ‘so that nobody else could get close to them, we’d have no hope of arresting the others. I thought it would be a good idea to leave a few holes, let them think it might be worth trying to make contact. Whatever happens, if someone does show up, whether openly or in secret, we’ll know about it. There’s a listening device in every room – we can track them wherever they go – and I’ve got men everywhere. Whenever they leave the building, they’ll be watched, and the people in the dining hall are also my men. There’s absolutely nothing to worry about there.’

  Here, Commander Zhang put in a flattering word. ‘Colonel Hihara, don’t you worry about a thing, a good general always makes fine soldiers of the men under him – your people are sure to know what they’re doing.’

  Hihara decided to use bureaucratic jargon to sidestep the compliment. ‘Excuse me, Commander Zhang, but Tianxiang is one of your subordinates. Since when did he become one of my people?’

  Commander Zhang could only paste an ingratiating smile on his face and say, ‘We both serve in the Imperial Japanese Army, do we not? And so does he…’

  Police Chief Wang Tianxiang, walking in front of Colonel Hihara, now said warmly, ‘Yes of course, we all know how loyal Commander Zhang is to the Imperial Army.’ Perhaps his intention had been to say something nice, but neither of his superiors was pleased.

  The three men entered the building.

  2

  The eastern building stood on much higher ground than the western one – on that side the mountain sloped more steeply, and the foundations of the house had been built up to allow for a rise of three steps. Viewed from the front, the two buildings appeared identical: both faced south and were designed on an east–west axis, and both had two storeys and an attic, a red-tiled roof, and white walls with courses of grey brick at the top, middle and bottom. Once inside, however, you could see that the eastern building was actually a lot smaller, and much more ordinary. Everything in it was functional and of unexceptional quality. At first glance you might assume the owner had run out of money and been obliged to skimp on this building, making it a bit smaller and simpler. But if that’s what you thought, you’d be wrong.

  According to those who’d worked on the construction of the Tan Estate or were involved in its management afterwards, the eastern building was only put up as a kind of temporary measure after the western building was almost complete, and it owed its existence to a passing comment by a visiting feng shui master. The master came from Manchuria and on his way through Hangzhou visited West Lake to admire its famous views. As he walked around, he happened upon the Tan Estate, then under construction, and seemed drawn to it by some mysterious force. He circled it three times, inspecting everything very carefully, and just as he was about to leave, muttered the following: ‘There is a dragon and a phoenix here, there is good luck and bad; trouble is brewing and it will come from the east.’

  When Mr Tan heard this, he mobilized all the forces at his command to search Hangzhou for this feng shui master. Although he knew it would be like looking for a leaf in the forest, he was determined to try and find him, and he did. He treated the master as the most honoured of guests, held a banquet for him at West Lake’s celebrated Louwailou restaurant and asked for his advice.

  The master went out for another look. Eventually, he took up position on the spot where the foundations of the eastern building would later be laid and sat there the whole night, listening to the wind and watching the clouds. He then advised old Mr Tan to construct a second building in order to prevent the disaster from the east from reaching the other house. Since it was to be defensive, it would have to be tall, which was why it was constructed further up the slope and on higher foundations. It would not be appropriate to skimp on the exterior and so, from the outside, the two buildings appeared very much the same. But the interior didn’t matter.

  That was why the place looked the way it did.

  3

  Police Chief Wang led Colonel Hihara and Commander Zhang upstairs.

  There were three guest bedrooms and a bathroom. The Police Chief himself was staying in the first bedroom and the second had been allocated to Colonel Hihara. They had put a large decorative screen in the Colonel’s room, symbolically dividing it in two: the inner part contained the bed, the outer part had tables and chairs, for Hihara to entertain his visitors.

  Police Chief Wang was aware that Colonel Hihara liked to lie in bed reading late into the night, so he had specially organized for him to have a lamp next to his bed, and a very fine one at that: it had been borrowed from the general’s suite at the officers’ club. And, since summer was on its way, he’d also had an electric fan installed. Fruit and flowers had been placed in the outer part of the room. They had arranged a branch of late-flowering white plum blossom from high in the mountains next to a branch of red plum blossom just about to bloom; the red and the white complemented one another perfectly and filled the otherwise ordinary little room with a delicious perfume, bringing it to life.

  When Colonel Hihara entered the room, he immediately noticed the white plum blossom. He inhaled appreciatively. ‘Look how artistic that is!’ he said to his two companions. ‘With no green leaves to set it off, the flowers stand proud of the bare branch as they unfurl their petals. Just as the poem says, their scent fills the air, arousing much admiration.’

  Commander Zhang, having received a traditional education, had memorized many poems and was just about to recite something himself. But before he’d even opened his mouth, a woman’s angry voice suddenly broke in on them. It appeared to be coming from the large third bedroom at the end of the corridor.

  ‘I want to see Commander Zhang!’

  It was Gu Xiaomeng’s voice.

  Despite having travelled along the wires and through the microphone, her voice retained all its anger, sharpness and rudeness: it seemed to hang in the air of the room. Just as Wang Tianxiang had said, they’d
secreted listening equipment throughout the western building, and you could hear every word as clear as day.

  Colonel Hihara left admiring the flowers for later and walked down to the large room, listening as he did so to the conversation being transmitted from the other building:

  Secretary Bai: Why do you want to see Commander Zhang?

  Gu Xiaomeng: Why…? That’s what I want to ask you – why are you doing this to me?

  Secretary Bai: I don’t need to tell you again, you know perfectly well.

  Gu Xiaomeng: I am not a Communist!

  Secretary Bai: Then prove it! Anyone can just say they aren’t.

  Gu Xiaomeng: Go to hell! Bai Xiaonian, how dare you speak to me like that! Just you wait…

  Hihara listened with interest to the angry clip of Gu Xiaomeng’s heels retreating into the distance. When he could no longer hear them, he turned to Commander Zhang. ‘Who is she? She seems to have a very high opinion of herself.’

  ‘Have you heard of a man called Gu Minzhang? Very rich – involved in armaments.’

  Hihara thought for a moment. ‘The one who gave President Wang Jingwei an aeroplane last year when he visited Wuhan?’

  ‘Yes, that’s him. And she’s his daughter. Given how powerful her old man is, she thinks she can throw her weight around.’

  Hihara nodded thoughtfully as he walked over to inspect the listening equipment. It was all laid out on a large table that had been fashioned from a bedstead: a pair of amplifiers, a speaker, two sets of headphones, a microphone, a tape recorder with a voice-activated switch and so on. There were also two pairs of German-made binoculars. He picked up one of them, went over to the window and focused on the building opposite, muttering, ‘She’d be the one in the middle room upstairs… Oh, very young and very pretty. What was the name…? Gu Xiaomeng. Oh, she does look cross. She has a temper, that one.’