Flypaper: A Novel

by Chris Angus

  Eric hunched forward slightly in his saddle to give more protection from the wind to the girl he called Li Li. She sat in front of him, shivering and wet. She’d grown attached to Logan, reserving her rare smiles for him. In turn, he tried to encourage her, for he had only to look into her gentle, black eyes to reinforce his understanding of what they were doing here and how important his job could be sometimes. He was taking this pretty, olive-skinned girl to a whole new life, one she could not even begin to imagine.

  They were close to the border now. He could smell the cooking fires, the animals, and even the sour odor of unwashed human bodies. This was a primitive, backcountry crossing, manned by peasants hired for the dull task of waiting for the handful of traders and nomads who might happen by. It was the perfect place to slip across the border.

  Of course, he had no intention of actually trotting up to the crossing and presenting their papers. Dr. Hu and his family had no papers and Eric wanted no record of having been here himself. No. They would bypass the crossing and move through a steep pass in the mountains.

  But he needed to see the situation at the crossing in order to determine their route. He smiled at Li Li, took her arm and gently lowered her to the ground. The others gathered around.

  “The border is just in that next valley,” he said. “I’m going to take a look. You can rest until I get back.”

  Too weary to do more than nod glumly, the riders slowly dismounted and sat on the ground, holding onto the reins of their horses. Li Li snuggled into her mother’s side. They were a pitiful- looking group, like a bunch of water-soaked animals.

  “May I come?” asked Dr. Hu.

  “If you like.”

  They crossed the steep hanging valley to a cleft in the rugged range facing them. The end of the valley held a small glacier and ice field that was a maze of fallen ice chunks and crevasses, a treacherous landscape best avoided. They spurred their tired mounts almost to the top of the ridge, then dismounted and tied the horses.

  “Keep as quiet as you can,” said Eric.

  They climbed another fifty yards. They were at eleven thousand feet in elevation here and Dr. Hu, unused to high altitude, was breathing heavily.

  Eric held an open hand to tell him to wait as they neared the top. Then he crouched and shimmied forward until he could peer down at the border below.

  It was a familiar, if depressing, sight. He recognized the gray stone building that served as both home and official station for the border guards. There was a small, fenced-in corral with a few miserable-looking horses. The road itself was little more than a dirt track, though somehow a tired, vintage pickup truck had managed to fight its way there. Eric had never seen a vehicle at this crossing before and wondered what it might mean. Nothing good, that much was certain.

  He stared for a long time, then motioned Dr. Hu to come forward.

  “The rain should help us,” he said. “They must all be inside. We’ll bring the others up here and keep behind the ridge for a couple of miles until we’re well inside the Kazakhstan border, then move back down to the road. My contact is expecting us five miles beyond, where that dirt track turns to a more or less viable road. He’ll take you by car straight to the American Consulate in Qaraghandy. There will be details to work out, but once we’re past this border, you’ll be free.”

  Dr. Hu’s face showed excitement despite its weariness. “I don’t know how I can ever repay you.”

  “Well, let’s hold that thought till we actually make it. We’re not done yet.” Eric took out his binoculars and scanned the building below. Then he swept the ridge beyond and froze.

  Dazhao detected the change in his demeanor at once. “What is it?” he whispered.

  “I saw something . . . a reflection along the opposite ridge. There shouldn’t be anything there and there’s no sunlight to cause a reflection. That means it must have been an artificial light of some kind.” He settled onto his haunches, resting his elbows on the ground. “Let’s wait a bit. See if anything else turns up.”

  Dazhao drew his feet up in a ball to try to conserve body heat. “Will you go to Qaraghandy with us?” he asked.

  “No. Once I put you in touch with my contact, I’ll be done. I have to get back to the embassy in Beijing before I’m missed. I’m supposed to be on a climbing expedition with Longwei. At least that’s our story. So far as I know, my cover hasn’t been compromised by all of this.”

  “Li Li will miss you.”

  Eric lowered the binoculars. “And I’ll miss her. She’s a sweet girl. You’re a brave man to do what you’re doing. Your whole family is. I’m just glad I could help.”

  He lifted the binoculars again and stiffened. “Damn!”

  “What is it?”

  “Take a look.” Eric handed him the glasses. “There are soldiers up there. A lot of them.”

  “Yes. I see them. What are they doing there?”

  “Waiting for us. There’s no other explanation. Somehow, the premier guessed where we were going and sent soldiers to ­intercept us.”

  “How could they possibly know where we are?”

  “You’re an important person and have certainly been missed in Beijing for some days by now. There may even be a nationwide search going on. Perhaps the local authorities passed on news of the men I killed a few days ago. That might make them put two and two together. This crossing is the closest to where the bodies would have been found.”

  Eric took the binoculars back and scanned the horizons on all sides. This time he spotted more soldiers on two other ridgelines. There could be no mistake. The cat was definitely out of the bag. The soldiers were watching the sleepy border—in fact, now that Eric thought about it—too sleepy. Maybe the whole thing was a setup, and they were waiting for Dr. Hu to walk right into their hands.

  “Come on,” he said and the two men crouch-walked down the slope to the rest of the party. Just as they arrived, Li Li stood up suddenly and pointed.

  “Soldiers!” she cried.

  Everyone turned and looked where she was pointing. A line of men on horseback had been traversing a steep slope a mile away. A man at the front of the column stopped and pointed in their direction.

  “That’s it!” Eric said. “Get mounted and follow me.”

  The bedraggled group climbed onto their mounts and began to follow Eric back into the hanging valley. He realized they had only one chance and it was a slim one at best: They would make for the ice field at the head of the valley, a dangerous and distorted landscape that could offer places to lose the soldiers. The glacial field cut across the border and passed deep into Kazakhstan. Eric knew because he and Longwei had ice-climbed there years ago and spent time determining precisely where the border was so they wouldn’t cause an international incident by climbing where they shouldn’t.

  The soldiers who’d seen them were also in a tight spot. They were on a rocky hillside with tricky footing for the horses. They couldn’t go any faster than a walk and would have to cut obliquely across the slippery slope in order to intercept Logan and company, not meeting up with their target until they were almost at the ice field.

  It would be a race to see who got there first.

  Several rifle shots rang out. Dazhao’s wife and children ducked involuntarily. But the shots were meant to alert the other groups of soldiers to the location of their prey. The message was taken and they could now see troops on three sides heading in their direction, probably a hundred soldiers in all.

  Eric kept pushing them hard, even as he tried to think of a way out of this mess. He was pretty sure they were going to reach the ice field first. It was what they’d do once they got there that concerned him. With an elderly man, a woman, and two children, none of whom had any climbing experience, their options looked bleak.

  They galloped across the valley floor. Li Li rode with Logan and her younger brother was with Dr. Hu. They passed through a field of low shrubs and sharp, rocky stones that slowed them to a walk as the horses picked their way thr
ough. It was maddening to move so slowly, but the soldiers would face the same problem.

  Then they were at the edge of the ice field. The glacier had undergone significant melting and drawback over the last several years in this age of global warming. Numerous rushing streams of melt-water emanated from the ice, cutting gullies and treacherous underwater caves and waterways.

  Eric led them into a deep cut in the ice that led straight into the ice field. As soon as they were out of sight of the soldiers, he immediately changed directions, cutting north through a bewildering maze of gullies and shifting watercourses. It was still raining, maybe even harder. But that was good. It cut down on visibility.

  The gully they were following began to peter out and then came to an abrupt end against the ice where an underground river emerged in a chalk-colored surge of ice water.

  “We’re trapped!” Dazhao’s wife cried.

  Eric didn’t take time to argue with her.

  “Dismount!” he yelled.

  He took their pitiful belongings off the horses and then cut the animals loose, slapping them and forcing them to head off down another side channel. Then he took out ice crampons and an ice axe, quickly attached the crampons to his boots, wrapped a rope around his waist and began to climb up the face of the ice wall.

  The others stared at him in astonishment.

  “We can’t do that,” said Dazhao’s wife.

  Eric climbed quickly. It was difficult with only one ice pick instead of the two he normally used, but the climb was only thirty feet. He stood on top and looked out across the valley.

  The soldiers had merged into one large group and were just entering the gully. There was little time. He took the rope off his waist, pounded a piton into the ice and attached the rope to it. Then he made a quick sling and threw it back down.

  “Put the kids’ arms through the sling. I’ll pull them up.” It took only a minute to haul in both children. Then he pulled Dr. Hu up and with his help managed to pull Dazhao’s wife and father-in-law up as well.

  As soon as everyone was on top, Eric pointed across the ice field. “Dr. Hu, lead off in that direction. The rest of you follow.”

  He was still coiling the last of the rope when a shot sounded and a bullet struck the snow at his feet. He scrambled quickly out of range and didn’t wait to see what would happen next. Closing up with the others, he pushed them to hurry even faster. By his reckoning they were less than half a mile from the official border. That might not stop the soldiers, however. He was counting on the ice to do that. There was no reason the men should have climbing equipment with them. Without it, the thirty-foot ice cliff would be an insurmountable obstacle. Their only option would be to backtrack down the valley, return to the border crossing and then make their way down the road. By that time, Eric hoped, Dr. Hu and his family would be long gone.

  They continued up the ice field for nearly a mile. Then Logan paused to get his bearings and altered their heading slightly more northward. They hiked in the rain to the edge of the glacier, where they used the ropes to lower everyone to the rocks below. There had been no sign of further pursuit. The soldiers didn’t have ice gear. Without it, they couldn’t follow.

  They hiked inland as quickly as Dazhao’s father-in-law could go. They were certainly in Kazakhstan now and moved down the steep slopes to intersect with the dirt track. A couple of miles farther and they saw a van parked by the side of the road. Eric recognized his contact standing beside it, his mouth open, as they came down from the ice field.

  “Didn’t expect you from that direction,” the man said.

  “Slight change of plans,” Eric replied. “There were a lot of soldiers. Best if you get everyone aboard and out of here as fast as you can. If Premier Zhao has committed this many troops, he may not give a damn if they violate the border. He’s more interested in the prestige he’ll lose if Dr. Hu escapes.”

  The man nodded and opened the van door.

  Li Li ran to Logan and hugged him. He stroked her hair. “Your job now, Li Li, is to help your parents, get your education, and make the world a better place. Will you do all of that for me?”

  She nodded, tears in her eyes.

  Dr. Hu and the others all gave Logan hurried thanks and quick bows. Then they piled into the van until it looked for all the world like a car full of waterlogged puppies. The door slid shut and the van lurched away, Li Li’s face pressed against the back window, staring at Logan until the last moment.

  Eric heaved a huge sigh of relief as the vehicle disappeared. He’d done this sort of thing many times over the last ten years, but none of the other groups had touched him like this one. He felt he had achieved something special with Dr. Hu and his family.

  He turned to begin the long hike home. On his own, in this country he knew so well, he’d have no trouble avoiding the soldiers.

  Maybe, he thought, he wouldn’t consider a new line of work after all.

  Marcia was dreaming. She knew this because she’d had the same dream ever since she’d been a small child. She was standing at the head of a long valley. A river wound in serpentine fashion past the steep hills, chalk-colored glacial waters churning. The landscape was familiar, yet there was such bleakness, such wildness to the setting that she knew she could never have seen it before.

  Heavy, black clouds hung over the valley. She was nearly naked, wearing only some strange animal hide. She began to move down the slope toward the river. Now the dream picked up pace, the same as it always did. She moved faster and faster. She became aware of others ahead of her, a primitive group of people. They seemed tired, walking listlessly, yet no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t catch up to them.

  Then suddenly she was flying over the landscape, hovering above the group. One of the figures, a woman, appeared to be leading the others. She was the tallest. There was pride in her stature, self-confidence to her gait. She urged her comrades on, moving up and down the ragged line.

  Marcia understood, even in her dream, that this woman was special. And she knew the dream was coming to its inevitable conclusion. She began to fly straight down toward the tall, imposing figure. At the last moment, the woman turned toward her and looked up. There was a flash of curiosity in her eye, an intensity. She could almost make out the woman’s features . . . almost see her face clearly. Almost . . .

  And then she woke up.

  She always woke at the same moment, just before she saw the strange woman clearly.

  She lay flat on her cot, soaked in sweat. It was certainly not an unusual dream for an archaeologist. Such fantasies occurred frequently when she was dealing with difficult site problems. Anxiety. She remained still for long minutes, replaying the images in her head, comparing them to the ones she’d had before. It was the same dream. The same damn dream every time.

  Samdup was small, shorter than Dr. Kessler by several inches. The Tibetan’s face was dark, almost black from the high-altitude sun he’d endured all his life. But the excitement hovering on it was real. There was certain to be a bonus for this discovery.

  Marcia motioned to him to sit as she slumped, exhausted, on a boulder by the swiftly rushing stream they’d been following for the past hour. Too many cigarettes. She vowed once again to give them up.

  “How much farther?” she asked in her hoarse voice.

  “Soon, soon,” Samdup replied for the umpteenth time. The man knew a smattering of pidgin English, but his sense of time, like many Tibetans’, was vague at best. She hoped this wasn’t a wild goose chase. Yet there was no denying her companion’s excitement.

  She struggled along behind the Tibetan through two more valleys, the hills between them growing higher. Finally, they stayed atop one of the ridgelines and Samdup’s agitation went into high gear.

  “Almost there, almost there!” he said.

  Then she stared down into a depression in the ground, and her jaw dropped. The surface of the depression was flat and dark in color. It looked like a sort of sinkhole, but upon closer inspection
she decided it must be another soft deposit that had turned to travertine.

  Lying three-quarters buried in the ground were at least half a dozen skeletonized bodies. The forms were strewn about in various random poses. This was no burial site. These people had clearly arranged themselves together as though relaxing at a picnic site. Marcia scrambled down the rocky slope and walked up to the largest set of remains. It had one arm flung out across the back of a child-sized figure. The exposed bones had begun to wear away from the relentless wind, but it seemed unlikely that the little assemblage could have been exposed for long or they would have turned to dust by now from the abrasive, windblown sands.

  There were three adult-sized figures and three that appeared to be children. She stared at them in puzzlement. What could have happened here? It was almost as if they’d lain down to die together. Had they been poisoned? Killed by enemies? But if that were the case, the positions would almost certainly have suggested some sort of torment. This was far too peaceful. She was convinced she was looking at a family group.

  Dr. Kessler had an affinity for family, precisely because she had never been able to have one of her own. She’d never found a man who showed the slightest interest in creating a family with her. It was a great sadness in her life, one she had learned to dismiss, filling the empty space instead with her career. But the group lying before them reminded her of the enduring structure of the family throughout human history.

  “Is very good?” Samdup stared at her intently.

  She put a hand on his shoulder. “Yes, Samdup. It is very good. Very exciting. There will be a good bonus for you.”

  The Tibetan beamed.

  Then Samdup straightened and stared at the sky. “Look,” he said.

  Kessler followed his pointing finger and saw a distant speck on the horizon. As it grew rapidly, they began to hear the thump, thump of a helicopter. Minutes later a large Chinese military helicopter hovered over them, then settled to the earth, raising a cloud of dust. She stared in dismay as Huang emerged, bent over, his pressed, pin-striped pants plastered by the backwash to his stick-like legs.