by Xu, Lei
I had no idea what was wrong with me. I wondered if I was experiencing the aftereffects of the poison. The doctor told me I was indeed experiencing aftereffects—but from the antidote, not the poison. This variety of poison affected the nervous system. For the last several days my IV bags had been filled with its antidote. This struck me as strange. How did they already know what kind of poison it was?
But the doctor would reveal nothing further. He told me the poison was extremely complex and I'd have to wait until I was better for him explain it. In those years, the warnings of one's superiors were taken very seriously. The line between what one did and did not need to know was always clear. The doctor was obviously under orders. I didn't press him. Instead I asked him when I'd be able to get out of bed and move around again.
"At least another three days," he said. "After that it depends on the results of your urine sample." He told me that even though I hadn't inhaled too much poison, it still might have done permanent damage to my body. Its effects wouldn't necessarily appear while I was young, but as I aged they could become a real problem. The most important factor was how successfully the poison was treated now.
I thought of Yuan Xile. She must be feeling as sick as I was; probably even worse. For the moment there was nothing I could do, though. I was still too weak to get out of bed.
Sure enough, three days later I was allowed to leave the tent. Some of the nurses helped me to sit on a stool placed just outside. I remained too weak to go any farther. Looking around, I couldn't believe what I saw. The whole camp was ablaze with lights. In only the past few days this little encampment had become an underground city, filled with tents and burning lanterns. I stared wide-eyed. Something very strange was going on. With this much equipment and this many people, it was obvious we were going to be here for a long time. Rather than wait for us to return, our superiors had gone ahead and relocated the base.
Plans had changed. It was almost as if we were preparing for war.
CHAPTER
21
Only the Beginning
The doctors and nurses would tell me nothing, but from eavesdropping on their conversations I figured out that none of them really understood why we were here either. They were just doing what they were told. One thing, however, was certain: the order to move camp was given two days after Old Cat had entered the cave. At that point, Old Cat and the rest of us were still trapped in the tunnels beneath the warehouse. I looked again at the Japanese maps of the river system. The tributary our team had navigated wasn't the only one leading to significant areas of the cave. Other teams could have reached them as well. Perhaps one of these teams had already returned to the surface carrying some important object and it was this that sparked our full-scale relocation. But what could this object be? Even the film we'd found wouldn't have convinced our superiors to dispatch men and machines in these numbers. I knew from past experience that it was not the object itself but what it signified that mattered. The frozen warheads we found in the icehouse were one possibility. Depending on what they contained, they could easily have aroused the interest of our superiors.
All this occurred to me while I was lying alone in the hospital tent. I would probably spend my whole life ignorant of the true motivation behind the military's sudden change of plans. Not that it really mattered. At the time there were so many unknowns, it was hard to really care about one more mystery. Anyway, I had nothing to complain about. The arrival of the troops saved my life. Now I had a comfortable bed to sleep on, three hot meals a day and people taking care of me. Still, I slept poorly, awakening each night from restless dreams. Each time it would take me several seconds to understand that I was alone in the hospital tent, not back in the flooded safe room with Yuan Xile. My desire to see her was never stronger than in these silent hours. That wasn't the only thing that kept me up at night. I felt uneasy there. I couldn't forget the room full of Jap corpses. I saw them whenever the lights went out. Shadowy fears haunted me in the dark. I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was coming for us—something we didn't know anything about.
Another week recuperating in the tent and I'd mostly recovered, though I still had to walk with a cane. One week after that I was finally given permission to walk freely around the medical camp. The first thing I did was look for Yuan Xile. I soon located hers, but the guard refused to let me inside. I stood there for a long time as people streamed by. They gave me all manner of curious looks, as if they already knew who I was. Slowly my desire to see her shriveled. I didn't even call her name, just imagined how she must look lying inside. Then I turned and left, ashamed of my cowardice.
I walked aimlessly through the medical camp, feeling sad and distracted, watching people bustle about in every direction. I suddenly felt as if I'd been transported back in time. This must have been just how the place looked 20 years ago, when the Japanese were still there. The devils could never have guessed that two decades later their base would be replaced by ours, and that someone like me would be strolling through it with these thoughts on my mind and these feelings in my heart. I smiled bitterly. I never used to be so sentimental. Now look at me. I was practically depressed.
Wanting to clear my head, I was about to go look for a cigarette when I saw a big, sturdy fellow emerge from the tent to my right. He was holding a bowl of porridge and eating from it as he greeted the people who passed. I stared, unable to believe my eyes.
"Wang Sichuan!" I yelled.
He turned his head and his eyes went wide. For a moment we stood there looking at each other. A hundred feelings welled inside me. I couldn't believe he was all right. I peppered him with questions. "What happened? Why did you go silent? How did you escape from the poisoned passageways?"
He was about to respond, but held his tongue and checked if anyone was watching. Then he pulled me inside his tent and closed the flap. This was odd. If our superiors didn't want us to meet, they would have kept me on a tighter leash. His tent was almost identical to my own, even down to the IV bags. He must have been given the same antidote.
Only when we were in the back of the tent did he finally began to speak. "Damn lucky running into you like this. I've been worried about how I was going to find you. We need to get out of here as soon as possible."
I was stunned. "What are you talking about?"
He leaned in close and spoke in almost a whisper. "When I heard you'd been rescued I started searching for you, but they wouldn't let me inside a number of the tents. I couldn't find you anywhere. That's when I started to worry."
"Worry about what? What the hell is going on?"
"I can't say for sure myself, but I'm telling you we're in danger here, and we need to think of a way out." He glanced back at the entrance, then continued. "All right, I'll tell it to you from the beginning."
He and Ma Zaihai had searched for us after we split up, but they soon realized Yuan Xile and I were long gone. By then they knew they didn't have a chance of finding the safe room fast enough to escape the poison. Their only hope was to return to the ventilation shaft in the main tunnel and crawl back to the projection room. They didn't even stop to discuss it—they were immediately off and running. I remembered after chasing Yuan Xile halfway to the safe room that I'd listened for them, but heard nothing. By then they were already back inside the ventilation shaft. They crawled back to the projection room, but the smoke was too thick. Afraid that if the room was still sealed they'd suffocate, they crawled on. Eventually they reached a section where the cement walls had partially caved in, filling the shaft. They hid on the other side of the rubble, using their bags to fill the gaps and block the toxins. They covered their faces with wet clothing and waited.
With no lights in the shaft, whatever toxins drifted inside were not volatilized. They waited a long time. Eventually, the smoke thinned out and they climbed back into the projection room. Just as they'd feared, the door was still sealed. Although they devised countless ways to escape, none of them worked. Two days after Yuan Xile and I
were rescued, the search party discovered Wang Sichuan and Ma Zaihai still trapped inside the projection room. They had been exposed to much less of the poison than us and were in far better health. Wang Sichuan's recovery was quick. Upon being rescued, the two of them were immediately assigned to the tent we were in and treated for the poison. Although Wang Sichuan had already learned of my rescue, he was initially barred from going to look for me. Still, he thought the worst was over. Then, without warning, Ma Zaihai developed a host of strange new symptoms. Three hours later he was dead.
"Dead?" My heart skipped a beat.
"I watched him die," said Wang Sichuan, a dark look on his face. "I held his hand as they tried to save him. He was in incredible pain."
"How can that be?" I asked. "You said you two had barely been poisoned."
Wang Sichuan shook his head. "The doctor said he was allergic to the antidote." His eyes were filled with more than just sadness.
"You think it wasn't the antidote?" I asked.
After glancing back at the entrance to the tent, he removed something from beneath his bedding and handed it to me. "Ma Zaihai slipped this to me right before he died. Read what it says."
CHAPTER
22
The Plot Thickens
Baffled, I looked at what he'd given me. It was a small medicine bottle. "What's this supposed to mean?"
Wang Sichuan rotated the bottle. A short sentence was scrawled beneath the label: Watch out. They've poisoned me.
I froze. "What's going on here?"
"He didn't have time to explain," Wang Sichuan replied. "And I don't know when he wrote it or why he waited until then to tell me. But so far he's the only one to have reported our findings to command."
This was all too strange. Why would someone have poisoned Ma Zaihai? And why had he been so secretive about letting us know? Could this be the work of the spy?
"His warning was no joke," said Wang Sichuan. "Ever since I've refused the IV."
"What does command think?"
"They think his death was suspicious, I know that, but I think they're suspicious of me. After all, we were in the same tent."
I thought of the guard posted outside Yuan Xile's tent. Was this measure taken in response to Ma Zaihai's death?
"I guarantee you, enemy agents have infiltrated the mission," said Wang Sichuan. "Now they're trying to get rid of us. As long as we stay here we're in danger."
I knew he was serious, but a spy would be taking a huge risk trying to assassinate us here. And our job was done already. "Even if there were spies here," I asked, "what would they care about us for?"
"How would I know? I'm not a spy. But I'm telling you, if we stay here, sooner or later one of them is going to get us. There are too many people around. No way can we guard against all of them." He sighed. "I barely even sleep anymore."
"You think that sneaky bastard is still alive? You think it's him?" He'd followed us like a shadow. I sincerely hoped he was gone, but ever since being rescued we'd been kept completely in the dark. Who knew what was happening now?
"No way," said Wang Sichuan. "He's not that good. Not on his own at least. He'd need powerful friends to pull this off. Smells like there's a rat at the top."
I frowned. "We're not going to be able to handle this thing ourselves. We should just relay our suspicions to command and let them take care of the investigation."
Wang Sichuan shook his head. "Neither of us has a goddamn clue who's in charge here or who's dirty. If we say something to the wrong person, we're both dead. The best thing would be to get ourselves sent topside as soon as possible. Once we're at surface headquarters, we can tell them what we know." He peeled the label from the medicine bottle, tore it up and threw it in the trash. "So what do you think? You with me?"
"Has command requested your report yet?" I asked. He shook his head. "Ma Zaihai was just a soldier," I continued. "No way would his report alone be sufficient. I'd bet someone has already given a geological report. That's why command isn't anxious to speak to us. They probably feel like they've learned what they needed to know."
"Are you saying that someone else from our team survived?"
I nodded. Old Tang and his soldiers were still lying dead in that passageway, but I hadn't seen Old Cat or Pei Qing among their number. Pei Qing's skill as a prospector was well known and Old Cat seemed to have some special status. If they were still alive, our superiors would probably have asked for their report before one of ours. "You're right about getting out of here," I said, "but you've got to calm down. You see how secretive they are about everything. It won't be up to us when we leave."
"That may have been true before, but now that you're here we can handle this no problem. Have you said anything about the film yet?"
I shook my head. No one had brought it up. "You held onto it though, didn't you?"
"Sure I did. It was still strapped to my back when the search party came bursting into the room. I continued holding onto it until Ma Zaihai handed it over when he gave his report. Before he left I specifically told him not to say anything about watching the film unless he had to, but who knows whether he was able to keep his mouth shut? You remember how soft that kid was." Wang Sichuan sighed. "He probably spilled everything as soon as he got in there. He started feeling sick that same day, and only a few hours later he was gone. I never got the chance to ask him about it. It's bad enough that when they found us we were in the goddamn projection room. Pretty much with our hands in the mother-fucking cookie jar, you know?"
"Yeah, I get it. Neither of us knows what he said in his report, so we have no idea how much to reveal in ours. And if they're different, the jig is up."
Wang Sichuan nodded. "You see what I'm talking about. First Ma Zaihai gives his report, then he dies mysteriously. That's what saying the wrong thing could mean. Here's what we do. One of us sticks to the script we devised back in the projection room, while the other says what really happened. This way, no matter what he said, one of our stories will fit and the other will sound like a total lie. The liar will be accused of perjury, the innocent man will be the witness, and both of us will be escorted to the surface so they can investigate the crime. But so what? At least then we'll be safe."
I thought about it for a moment. Back then the punishment for such crimes was severe. If we messed this up, we'd be accused of being rightists or worse, but I knew we had no other choice. Soon it was settled: I'd tell the truth and Wang Sichuan would lie. We took a few minutes to get our stories straight, then Wang Sichuan told me to go back to my tent. "For now," he said, "we're just going to have to play it by ear."
We shook hands before I left. Countless thoughts bustled through my mind, but neither of us said another word.
Walking back to my tent, I became increasingly certain we were in deep trouble. Watching that film had been a mistake far more serious than any I'd made before. We'd surely be brought before a military tribunal. And to make matters worse, I knew that if we'd just minded our own business and returned to the surface, Ma Zaihai would probably still be alive. But then those nights alone with Yuan Xile would never have happened. Given the choice, I couldn't say which alternative was preferable.
I couldn't stop thinking about my report. What would I include, what would I leave out, and how would I account for the gaps? Those nights I spent with Yuan Xile were too many to be simply glossed over. How was I going to explain them?
When I reached my tent the head doctor and one of the nurses were standing outside, engaged in deep discussion. As soon as the doctor saw me he hurried over. "Where on earth did you run off to?" he asked. "Command has been looking for you."
I froze in astonishment. Before I could manage a reply he let out a high-pitched whistle. Four soldiers instantly appeared.
"Sir," one said as they all saluted me without expression, "you are requested at headquarters."
As I saluted them back my heart skipped a beat. I'd never expected it to be this soon.
CHAPTER
&nbs
p; 23
The Report
This was my first time out of the medical camp since the rescue. On my way over I watched sparks fly as equipment was welded together and structures were speedily rebuilt. Headquarters was in a small cement building at the base of the dam. When I arrived it was in the process of being thoroughly reinforced.
As soon as I entered, the officers stopped talking and turned to look at me, their faces not giving anything away. Commander Cheng was among them. Had this been any other time, I wouldn't have been worried. I'd always been skilled at dealing with my superiors. Though I never failed to get the job done, I didn't automatically do what I was told. The higher-ups probably figured it's not worth their time to make me fall in line, but I was well aware I'd never be up for a promotion. This time, however, was different. I'd never seen most of the men present before. I had no idea how to handle them. And the atmosphere was stifling. With my palms sweaty and my stomach doing flips, I was afraid I'd collapse before my report even began. Concealing my nervousness was already out of the question, so why bother? Let them think I was simply weak-kneed at having to appear before command.