by Mai Jia
For immediate attention!
According to reliable information, K has already arrived in Shanghai. It is estimated that he could arrive in Hangzhou this evening. You must act according to plan; do not do anything rash.
Commander Zhang had thought this telegram so important that he’d brought it round in person.
Hihara worked out the timings: if K had left Xi’an the morning of the day before yesterday, then he might well have arrived in Shanghai a whole day earlier than originally anticipated, assuming he’d gone by train and hadn’t stayed overnight in Wuhan.
Commander Zhang said that he’d come to the same conclusion and so, before coming to the estate, he’d increased the military presence at the train station, with orders to keep a strict watch.
‘What’s the point of having them keep watch?’ Hihara said. ‘You don’t know who you’re looking for.’ He laughed. ‘Even if you did spot him, it wouldn’t make any difference, we can’t arrest him yet. You’ve already given orders, I hope, that nobody should try to arrest him?’
‘Oh, I have, I have,’ Commander Zhang replied.
‘Let him come.’ Hihara was putting the handwriting samples in order as he spoke. ‘Let him come. I’d be much more concerned if he didn’t turn up. If K comes, that means he’s taken the bait and doesn’t know what’s really going on here. It also means that you, Commander Zhang, are on the verge of a breakthrough! We just need to keep watch on their meeting place on Mount Fenghuang, wait for them to wander into our net, and we’ll get the lot of them. First, though, let’s hope that these tests will show us who our Ghost is.’
Naturally, Hihara invited Commander Zhang to join him in looking through the tests. As a well-trained and highly experienced agent, Colonel Hihara had made a study of handwriting; he knew that everyone’s penmanship was different. However, a person’s handwriting is not like a person’s fingerprint. Fingerprints never change: even if you remove the skin, a fingerprint grows back just the same; it can’t be destroyed, no matter how hard you try. Handwriting, on the other hand, is something you can change. It’s true that there are certain handwriting traits you can’t lose, but they’re not always easy to spot, and with practice it’s perfectly possible to acquire enough different styles to confuse anyone trying to identify them.
Today, the two men were in luck. The moment Commander Zhang looked at the second sheet, he called out excitedly, ‘Colonel Hihara, look! Come and have a look at this!’
Hihara took one look and was as excited as Commander Zhang. He laughed in delight.
The two men examined each word in the four writing samples in turn, and on every occasion Commander Zhang said, ‘It’s him!’
Hihara didn’t respond, but he was thinking the same thing. He could hardly believe that Ghost could have been forced out into the open in this way, and besides… And besides, it was even more difficult to believe that it was neither Li Ningyu nor Gu Xiaomeng.
So who was it?
Chief of Staff Wu Zhiguo!
Maybe he was just being cautious, or maybe he wanted as many people as possible to enjoy this unexpected result, but Hihara decided to call in both Police Chief Wang and Secretary Bai to see if they would come to the same conclusion.
Even with no advance warning about what to expect, they too came to exactly the same shocking conclusion.
‘It has to be him!’ Police Chief Wang Tianxiang said.
‘It must be him!’ Secretary Bai echoed.
Hihara looked at Commander Zhang. ‘Well, that means it’s him.’
Commander Zhang looked sombre. ‘Arrest him!’
7
Chief of Staff Wu Zhiguo was arrested by Police Chief Wang Tianxiang.
The next step was to interrogate him. Given that they had cast-iron evidence against him, any questioning was just a formality. Colonel Hihara and Commander Zhang had been through it all before, so they took it in turns to attack him, asking the same questions again and again:
‘When did you join the Communist Party?’
‘Who is your superior?’
‘Who are your subordinates?’
‘Tell us everything you know.’
To begin with, Wu Zhiguo appeared very tough and clear-headed – he spoke carefully and approached the situation calmly. But when Hihara placed Ghost’s original message in front of him, together with the four writing samples Wu Zhiguo had given that evening, the Chief of Staff was struck dumb with amazement. He looked as though he’d seen a ghost: his eyes were on stalks and his face went rigid. He must have been absolutely terrified.
Hihara was in the Japanese secret police; noticing how people spoke and observing their facial expressions was elementary for him. Looking at the sudden changes in Wu Zhiguo, he knew he was getting close to the end of his enquiries.
‘You may as well confess, Chief of Staff Wu.’ Hihara patted him on the shoulder.
‘Didn’t you hear what he just said? Confess!’ Commander Zhang jabbed a dagger-like finger at Wu Zhiguo’s forehead.
Hihara pushed Commander Zhang’s hand away and continued with his more softly-softly approach. ‘I seem to remember that there’s a Chinese expression about how a clever man tailors his actions to the times. Right now, further resistance on your part would be very stupid.’
‘A Monkey King can successfully change his appearance in seventy-two different ways, but clearly he can’t change his handwriting!’ Commander Zhang shouted.
‘That’s right.’ Hihara pointed at the heap of paper on the table. ‘Even if you don’t confess, your handwriting has betrayed you. It’s right there in black and white; we have rock-solid evidence against you.’
‘You cannot put off the evil hour any longer.’ Commander Zhang grabbed one of the pieces of paper and slapped it down in front of Wu Zhiguo. ‘Just look at that – any idiot can see that it’s your handwriting!’
‘Commander Zhang is exaggerating,’ Hihara said with a chuckle. ‘An idiot would not be able to see that it’s your handwriting, but we can. In total we have a sample of eighteen Chinese characters, three numbers, and one letter from the English alphabet. You wrote at least ten Chinese characters that were extremely similar to our sample of Ghost’s handwriting, very similar indeed. And four of them were as identical as if they’d been made with a stamp. Perhaps with those, even a complete idiot would see that they were the same.’
But Wu Zhiguo simply refused to confess. He swore an oath that it wasn’t him; he protested; he forcefully proclaimed his innocence and stressed the injustice of the accusations against him.
This infuriated Commander Zhang. The patience and sensitivity that Hihara had learnt from the weaklings he normally dealt with was also now sorely tested. He had imagined that when Wu Zhiguo was confronted with the evidence, the interrogation would proceed smoothly – he had expected to be able to wrap the whole investigation up quite quickly. He had not anticipated such stubbornness. From the looks of things, it would still be a while before he could pack up and leave.
In truth, Colonel Hihara hadn’t expected to have a third party at the interrogation. He hadn’t been able to say anything earlier, but now that their first round had gone so badly, he decided to make his position clear. He called Commander Zhang outside and suggested as politely as he could that he should leave. They couldn’t possibly bother an important man like the Commander with such a minor matter! All the Commander needed to do was to give his orders, then he could go home and await news of their success, and so on and so forth.
Commander Zhang found himself relaxing. He issued a few final instructions, and left.
Hihara immediately ordered Police Chief Wang to take Wu Zhiguo away. Where to? To the eastern building. Why? For further questioning, of course.
*
The success of an interrogation depends on many things. You need to consider the location, the method, the language, the conditions, the atmosphere, the level of pressure, the sense of urgency, the stages, the process. All of these require careful thought and
skill in their execution.
Hihara wanted Wu Zhiguo dragged over to the east building in order to gain control of the situation. He was hoping this would increase the pressure on him and force him into a state of collapse. Once he’d achieved that, he’d be nearly home and dry. Hihara could be there in the east building sipping tea while at the same time subjecting him to further questioning, intimidation, even torture – whatever he felt like. And when he got tired, there was a sofa in the sitting room or he could go upstairs and have a nap.
In the beginning, the interrogation was held in the sitting room. Hihara asked Wu Zhiguo to sit on the sofa and told Staff Officer Jiang to make him some tea. On ascertaining that Wu Zhiguo smoked, he brought out a packet of cigarettes and handed him one. There was nothing at all threatening in anything that he said; it was all very polite, and he even kept smiling at him. Anyone observing them would have been hard put to imagine that this was an interrogation – it looked like a meeting between a couple of old friends, or perhaps a reunion between two colleagues stationed a considerable distance apart. At least, that was the impression given to Staff Officer Jiang, who’d not been present in the other building and had no idea about what was really going on.
When you’re interrogated, the whole point is to get you to talk – your interrogator wants you to tell the truth. If you don’t confess, they consider you uncooperative. Hihara was a very patient man and he tried to persuade Wu Zhiguo to confess in every way he could think of:
‘You’ve failed to understand where your best interests lie…’
‘You’ve not grasped quite how insignificant you really are…’
‘How about you take a long hard look at yourself?’
‘Do you not understand how lucky you are?’
But in the end he’d had enough.
‘Do you really imagine you’re going to get away with this?’
He threw the teacup he’d been holding straight at Wu Zhiguo’s face and cursed.
‘Damn you! You’re really annoying me now!’
Wu Zhiguo stood up to avoid the teacup and Police Chief Wang rushed forward and kicked him hard in the back of his knees. Since Wu Zhiguo had managed to dodge the teacup, the Police Chief was trying to recover a bit of authority for his boss. Wu Zhiguo was caught unawares and immediately fell to the ground and started moaning.
Hihara walked over and laughed derisively. ‘I would have thought that a tough guy like you would refuse to kneel for anyone – what are you doing down there? Get up! Even if you don’t care what you look like, you’re a disgrace to your uniform.’
Hihara made one more attempt. ‘Listen, this is your last chance. You need to face facts.’
But Wu Zhiguo was still unwilling to face these particular facts. Which meant he wasted this last opportunity. He refused to admit his guilt – he wasn’t guilty! His protestations of innocence were different now. He still spoke in plaintive tones, still had tears in his eyes, but his professional spirit, his self-confidence, had been shattered.
Wang Tianxiang cursed. ‘Stop pretending – you’re nothing but a piece of scum now. Don’t imagine that you can deceive us any more!’
Hihara waved away the Police Chief. ‘What are you doing crying like that?’ he said disparagingly. ‘I really hate men that blubber – it makes them look like women. I don’t want you to cry, I want you to talk.’ He paused, took a step back. ‘Okay, let’s say that your tears have touched me. I’m going to give you one more chance, and that’s the best I can offer you. You really do not want to test my patience any further.’
Wu Zhiguo wasted that chance too.
If the man could endure this, was there anything he wouldn’t be able to endure? Hihara slapped the table and shouted, ‘What the hell…? Well, it seems I’ve got a real nasty piece of work on my hands. I don’t care how tough you think you are, if you’re not prepared to cooperate when people treat you nicely, fine, we’ll see how you feel after we’ve had you at our mercy for a bit.’
He turned to Police Chief Wang Tianxiang. ‘It’s your turn now. Let’s see how hard he really is!’
He stomped off, but when he was halfway out of the room he looked back, glanced to left and right, then pointed to the room to the east. ‘Do it in there, Police Chief Wang, but don’t make too much noise.’
8
The room that Hihara had indicated was next to the main sitting room, right up against the east wall of the building. It was set up as another small guest bedroom, and right now it happened to be empty.
Police Chief Wang ordered the mattress and bedding to be taken away so as to clear the room. Then he had the fat staff officer bring his man in. The moment he entered, the Police Chief threw his cigarette stub at Wu Zhiguo’s face, but the latter ducked.
‘Your reflexes are still very good.’ Wang Tianxiang smiled coldly. ‘But you are also a nasty piece of work – we’ve had a ghost in our midst all this time.’
‘Rubbish!’ Wu Zhiguo glared at him angrily. ‘You must be mad! How can I possibly be Ghost? It’s Li Ningyu!’
‘Oh my God, then I’m in so much danger!’ Wang Tianxiang was pretending to be scared. ‘When you prove your innocence, I’m going to be in real trouble!’
‘So you’d better make sure that you have an out.’
Wang Tianxiang laughed unpleasantly. ‘Well, this is your out!’ he said, kicking Wu Zhiguo right in the stomach.
Wu Zhiguo screamed and fell to the ground.
The fat staff officer standing off to one side was so scared that he took a couple of steps back.
‘Sorry about that.’ Police Chief Wang didn’t make it clear whether he was speaking to Wu Zhiguo or to Staff Officer Jiang. Maybe he was even talking to Hihara upstairs, because judging by the volume of noise just produced and the direction of the screaming, Wang Tianxiang was quite sure that his boss would be able to hear it. Having been given strict instructions not to disturb him, he decided to bring one of the pillowcases and a sheet back in. He told the staff officer to help him gag Wu Zhiguo and tie him to the bed frame.
‘Listen,’ Wang Tianxiang said to Wu Zhiguo, once he was no longer able to make a sound, ‘I’m now going to torture you the way you’ve always tortured Reds in the past. Chief of Staff Wu.’ He snorted derisively. ‘When you decide you can’t stand it any longer and you’re ready to confess, nod three times. Understand? If you nod three times, I’ll let you speak.’
Wu Zhiguo was struggling violently, but he was making only muffled sounds. He looked as if he was cursing.
‘I know exactly what it is you’re trying to say,’ Wang Tianxiang said with a sneer. ‘You’re trying to tell me that I’m shooting myself in the foot here and that when you get out and you have your old job back, you’re going to make me eat shit for this. But I can tell you now, that’s never going to happen.’
He straightened up and cracked his knuckles, right hand first, then left hand.
‘If there was even the remotest possibility that you’d ever be in a position to get back at me, do you think I would dare to do this?’ He bent down close to the bed frame. ‘You won’t be getting out of here alive. Didn’t you hear what Commander Zhang said: even an idiot could tell that you’re the guilty party here – and I am not an idiot. If anyone is an idiot here, it’s you – despite all that’s happened, you’re still not prepared to admit it’s you. You’re the one forcing me to do this! Staff Officer Jiang, you agree with me, don’t you? Are you happy to be punishing him like this? Of course you’re not!’
He glanced over his shoulder, but Staff Officer Jiang was way too scared even to nod in agreement. He just stood there sweating and trembling and wishing he was anywhere but there. Police Chief Wang didn’t appear to notice; he focused back on Wu Zhiguo.
‘We’ve all worked together in the ECCC for a long time, obviously we want to be friends. But you’ve forced us into this situation and we don’t have any choice – understand? You’re making us do this. And since this is what you want, this is what you’re goi
ng to get.’
As he spoke, he removed his handgun and then unbuckled its belt. This he handed to Staff Officer Jiang. ‘Over to you.’
The torture began.
*
Even though Wu Zhiguo was gagged and so couldn’t make a sound, Hihara could still occasionally hear what was going on downstairs. There was the sound of violent thumping; every so often the leather belt hit something hard – the bed frame or the wall – with a loud crack; there was muffled screaming from Wu Zhiguo; there were curses that Wang Tianxiang couldn’t stop himself from yelling; and there were other strange and unidentifiable noises.
Whether it was the result of having been so angry, or because he was still tired after his exertions with last night’s whore, Hihara was absolutely exhausted. His movements were slow, and he felt dizzy. He lay on the bed, thinking he would rest for a moment before going back downstairs to see what was happening, but he couldn’t keep his eyes open and in an instant was fast asleep. Every now and then he was roused by the sounds from below. He thought idly to himself that these awful people were all just the same – they never admitted to whatever it was they’d done until you proved to them that they had no choice.
SIX
1
Just before dawn the following morning, when everyone else in the building was still asleep, Hihara was roused from his dreams by the sound of Wu Zhiguo sobbing. In his dream, he’d seen Chief of Staff Wu curled like a snake at his feet, begging for mercy, weeping piteously. On waking, however, he was struck by how dark and silent everything was. It was as if something had happened – as if someone had died.
The darkness right before dawn is the blackest of all; it poured through the window and sank heavily onto the bed: furry, powerful, hallucinatory… Because of the silence, he could almost hear the sound of the sunlight. It made him uneasy. He got out of bed as quickly as he could and pulled on his clothes. When he opened the door he had a gun in his hand, as if he expected there to be someone with a gun on the other side.