China Wife

by Hedley Harrison

  David, when he worked over the day later that evening, picked up on Janice as describing herself in the group of independent and career-oriented women. But having been deliberately set up for kidnap and sale in the Chinese efforts to combat people trafficking, she was fully aware of the motivations of women like Alice Hou, which were confused, ambivalent and, in Alice’s particular case, complicated by a faltering understanding of her own sexuality and her ability to relate to both men and women. Alice’s suitability for the role that Mr Hu wanted her for was something that neither Janice nor David had given any consideration to.

  David found it hard to generate any feelings beyond contempt for the likes of Mr Hu.

  ‘One woman we know about is Rose Zhu,’ Janice continued, ‘who originally came from the UK and who is certainly married but had not become pregnant. But what she did do was make a number of trips to the UK and Switzerland that corresponded to subsequent transfers of large sums of money from Chinese banks. The man to whom this woman is married is a cousin of Hu Hengsen and is generally in the same sort of business with a similar retinue of corrupt officials and politicians to cover his tracks.’

  ‘Except that he obviously didn’t cover his tracks too well,’ muttered David.

  ‘It’s our belief that our Mr Hu is similarly planning to marry Alice Hou and to use her as a vehicle for exporting his, and other people’s, wealth from China to the West.’

  Janice’s confidence in her assertion impressed her listener.

  ‘Jesus,’ David said to himself, ‘can it really be that simple?’

  To the sophisticated Western mind, such simplicity might be suspected to mask something more complex, but David at least knew from previous trips to China and Vietnam that the Oriental mind was capable of seeing things in simple terms but at the same time seeing them as much more important than a European or an American might.

  Her continued use of the first-person plural served to confirm for David that Janice was a part of some unspecified official organisation. He also realised that an endgame was in play and that Janice was a part of it. It was this endgame that he was obviously supposed to witness and report on.

  Janice’s briefing continued into the details of what was expected to happen that day.

  Linda Shen, had she been able to hear Janice’s background explanation, would have been pleased to note that her multiple trips to Britain had so far not attracted the active interest of the Chinese authorities to the extent that Rose Zhu’s had, even if they had made at least one trip together. A more thoughtful and less arrogant man, Mr Shi had been careful to maintain as low a profile as possible with the Communist authorities while at the same time developing a deep mutual-protection regime with a select few officials. Linda had benefited from that. But if the knowledge of her trips to the UK wasn’t advertised to the Chinese authorities, they were certainly well known to the UK police and Border Agency and to Susie Peveral, even if the reasons for them were not yet clear.

  ‘So,’ David said, ‘we’re off to a wedding that might not take place.’

  ‘Alice?’

  Viewed from behind, the white satin slim-line wedding gown that Alice was wearing looked stunning.

  As she turned to face Janice, the tight facial expression and dead blank stare were anything but those of a radiant bride. But then, as the slow-motion sound of Janice’s voice and her broadly smiling face percolated into Alice’s overwrought and almost non-functioning brain, enlightenment dawned.

  Alice threw herself into Janice’s arms.

  Hu Hengsen, the seriously under-excited bridegroom, and Mr Xu’s new chief of staff scanned the arriving guests with curiosity rather than interest. Neither knew who the tall foreigner was. Neither knew who the young woman accompanying him was, although alarm bells tinkled vaguely for the chief of staff when it was apparent that the bride knew her.

  How can that be? he thought.

  With the ceremony soon to start and with the need to identify as many of the attendees as possible, on Mr Xu’s direct orders, he didn’t have time to consider how a freshly smuggled young woman who had arrived in China only a couple of days previously could be on such strikingly obviously affectionate terms with someone who was clearly a local girl.

  However, his subconscious brain did tell itself to find out who the local girl was when he had the opportunity. There was something too confident, too commanding about the woman. The new breed of Chinese career women intimidated him almost as much as Mr Xu did, but they were often members of the officialdom; that was his worry.

  How Janice got the invitations to the wedding David didn’t bother to ask. Now in the knowledge that she was almost certainly part of the Chinese Security Services, he was way beyond wondering what Janice Liang was capable of. Equally, he was unaware that the other young woman looking anxiously at Alice as she threw herself at Janice was the mysterious operative that the Australians had planted within the trafficking organisation. But he soon concluded that that was who she was.

  Julie Li, who had immediately recognised Janice and the feelings that seemed to run through Alice, moved quickly to drag her away from the two new arrivals. The presence of a non-Chinese man with Janice made her stand out obviously enough without Alice signposting her any more.

  The incident made Julie feel uneasy. She had no evidence that Janice was hostile to her and Alice; equally, she had no evidence of who she was and why she was there either, and in the company of someone Julie immediately recognised as a Brit.

  Janice’s metamorphosis from victim into confident official – Julie being one knew one – didn’t exercise her mind as much as it might have done in the past. Her capability to prioritise both her activities and her anxieties had developed considerably over the last few weeks.

  The drive out to Mr Hu’s villa had taken Janice and David almost an hour. The driver of the late-model Range Rover that they were using was, like Janice, clearly also a Security Service operative. And he was definitely on the alert. For what was not apparent to David.

  He had been swept up into the usual all-embracing security regime applied to foreign journalists but he had a sense that he was receiving special treatment because of the role he was expected to play. The authority that Janice seemed to exercise was considerably more than that he would have expected from a routine minder. At no time since he had met her on the flight had Janice offered any explanation of her role or why she was charged with his care. But then David hardly expected her to; that wasn’t how the Chinese worked.

  ‘Jesus,’ muttered David once they had emerged from the sprawling outskirts of Shanghai and eventually headed into what reminded him of the gated suburbs of several American cities that he had visited. Except that the architecture was anything but American. And it was anything but Chinese as well.

  ‘The super-rich,’ remarked Janice in a tone of contempt that was very obvious.

  A grunt from the driver focused Janice’s attention. They were approaching what looked like a roadblock. A small armoured car and a knot of men in military fatigues were gathered on the wide verge that was a feature of all the roads leading into the exclusive estate. The soldiers were alert and watching warily an exchange that was going on between the driver of an armoured Mercedes that had been stopped and an Army officer.

  The conversation didn’t last long and the officer issued a sharp order.

  After some hesitation, two men climbed cautiously out of the Mercedes. Quickly surrounded by the squad of soldiers, they were led away in handcuffs.

  David noted that Janice seemed to relax.

  ‘So what was that all about?’ he asked.

  ‘The fat guy is an official of the Interior Ministry,’ Janice said. ‘He’s thought to be in the pocket of Hu Ziyang, our host’s cousin. He hasn’t been arrested until now because his brother is a senior Party official. The deal was that if he showed up here he was confirming his involvement with the Hu cousins, and he would be arrested so that he couldn’t alert anybody at the wedding.’ />
  The Range Rover was waved through once the soldiers at the roadblock had checked the number plate. It was clearly expected.

  ‘Jesus indeed,’ said David as they rounded a corner and emerged from the canyon of high walls that surrounded every property. Coupled with the wide verges, the walls created a depressing impression of exclusion and exclusivity.

  In front of them at the opposite side of an open area as large as a parade ground was a set of wrought-iron gates worthy of any stately home in Britain. The view up a drive opened on to a white stone-built Adam-style winged house that would have not looked out of place in rural Surrey. The opulence was not lost on David.

  The armed security guard at the gate checked the invitation that Janice produced against a list and checked the photographs on the list against the two faces looking at him from the car. The man’s orders were to search all cars entering the grounds. He hesitated. The documents and faces matched his list but there was clearly a proviso or restriction applying to them not apparent to the journalist.

  Needless to say, David didn’t understand the stream of staccato Mandarin that Janice directed at the guard; he did, however, note the driver’s quivering shoulders as he tried to control his amusement. As yet another armoured Mercedes pulled up behind them and its driver nervously tooted, they were waved forward.

  ‘Some woman,’ said David, making no attempt to lower his voice.

  Janice grinned.

  As they parked, more security guards appeared and as they got out of the car they were urged away from the house. They didn’t have much chance to get a closer look at the imposing structure. But, reasonably familiar with real Adam country houses, David recognised that, had he got closer, what they were being channelled away from wouldn’t have been worth looking at anyway. All over the Chinese countryside imitation European houses were being hurriedly thrown up; most were inferior to Mr Hu’s home, but even his dwelling looked artificial and would have offended the sensibilities of most lovers of the genuine article. As they joined the trickle of people heading for the vast back lawn and towards the huge marquee that had been erected to act as marriage venue, Janice hesitated.

  I wonder what her problem is? David thought.

  A wary anticipation had seemed to come over Janice; she was very much about to enter the unknown.

  The marquee was open-sided to give relief from the late-summer heat and divided into two sections, the smaller of which was laid out with rows of plush seats. David had a quick guess at around forty people being expected. Unseen, the larger portion of the tent was equipped as a luxurious dining room for the wedding breakfast. The whole setup again wouldn’t have been out of place in rural Surrey if it wasn’t for the proliferation of plastic, such as would have been most unlikely in Britain at a gathering with the pretensions of the one that they had just arrived at.

  This is very traditional American, David thought with an expression that quickly showed more of contempt than endorsement.

  ‘These people don’t believe in the old Chinese ways,’ Janice said; the bitterness of her tone was obvious to her companion.

  It was then that Alice saw Janice.

  Back up the approach road to the Hu residence, the traffic had been permanently stopped by a well prepared roadblock. Working with a copy of the list used by the Hu’s security guards, the Army officer was satisfied that all the people listed that he had orders to allow through were gathered in the marquee.

  The soldiers formed up and the armoured car was repositioned from the grass verge on to the roadway. The officer gave his orders and the column moved off towards the Hu residence.

  After a series of rapid radio conversations with two other groups of soldiers positioned less obviously, the officer quietly briefed the two NCOs with him. Loyal only to the Army, the NCOs seemed unsurprised by the task that they were being allocated.

  Back at the marquee several of the guests expressed some comfort at the presence of the soldiers, assuming that they had been organised via the usual secret and corrupt channels. Hiring the military for private functions was a fairly common way for the Chinese oligarchs to project their power.

  36

  As Julie Li dragged Alice back to her position at the end of the aisle in the marquee, Janice mentally shook herself back into action mode and scanned the gathering. She knew that she was bound to see Alice at some point, but the sight of her looking so downcast and vulnerable was very upsetting for her. But events were now accelerating and she had no choice but to concentrate on the job in hand.

  Unwilling to risk being caught carrying a camera or recording gear due to the obsessive electronic security aids that men like Mr Hu surrounded themselves with, Janice had to rely on memory. David as a journalist had been reluctantly allowed more freedom because Mr Xu’s chief of staff, in ignorance of David’s brief, had assumed that whatever he wrote could be managed in the way that all journalists’ copy was managed in China.

  Talking quickly in quiet English before they were invited to their seats, Janice identified as many of the guests as she could to the journalist, using his memory to supplement her own. Like David, she had been quick to realise that very few women were present; those that were were there in some menial capacity. It was the only wedding that either of them had ever been to where spouses were clearly not included.

  Janice noted that only two people present, apart from Alice and Julie Li, were personally known to her. She was relieved that it was so few; their invitation was on a rather tenuous basis and the last thing that she needed was for it to be challenged. Being who they were Janice was confident that the two men that she had identified were unlikely to know her or to take any interest in her.

  ‘That’s quite a bunch,’ David said as he stored the names and faces.

  As a photographer as well as a journalist, he had a facility for remembering faces and names together.

  The canned sound of an electronic organ playing the ‘Wedding March’ quietly and rather uncertainly announced the proceedings were about to begin.

  A Catholic priest appeared at the front of the seated area. Disowned by the Church but still ordained, he had become the tool of many of the rich and powerful members of the new Chinese elite, giving them spurious legitimacy and respectability in a society that officially required no such support but unofficially sought it at every opportunity. He was followed out into the open area by a small group of people, all men. The music died and the faint rustle of Alice’s dress on the grass as she was led to her place was the only sound as the bridegroom stepped forward.

  ‘That’s Hu.’

  ‘Sour-looking bastard,’ muttered David.

  The bride and attendant arrived in front of the priest.

  Julie Li, who was now standing next to Alice, her hand under her left elbow in support, hadn’t seen the bridegroom close up. He was shorter than Alice. His dark eyes were like marbles. There was a malevolence about him that struck Julie forcibly. He cast an appraising glance over Alice as he moved into position, and before nodding the priest into action; a look of cruel contempt lit up his eyes.

  Shit, thought Julie, this is the first time he’s seen her!

  Mr Hu moved to stand beside his intended bride. As the priest began to intone his ritual, a dull thud reverberated away in the background. Janice heard it – it was if she was expecting it – and tensed up. David thought he heard something but wasn’t sure. No one else seemed to notice.

  Conscious that he shouldn’t just concentrate on the wedding ceremony, David was scanning the grounds that surrounded the marquee. He suddenly focused. With a professional eye for detail and experience in many unusual situations he realised that something was happening out there. There was movement in the trees at the edge of the lawn. With the eyes trained on the bridal group no one among the guests seemed to have noticed this.

  Knowing that there were soldiers surrounding the Hu compound, David wouldn’t have been surprised that some of them had infiltrated the grounds. But, unlike Janic
e, he had no idea what the troops orders were.

  ‘Jesus, now what?’

  A burst of gunfire had everybody alert.

  37

  Out of respect for her husband and a desire to cultivate his acquaintance, Linda Shen had been one of the few women invited to the wedding of Mr Hu Hengsen in her own right. Her husband had declined for them both. Rose Zhu, who had quickly come to detest her husband’s cousin, had advised Linda against attending. Rose, however, in the seclusion of the changing rooms of the newly opened boutique M&S store in The Bund area nonetheless told Linda all she knew about the intended bride. It wasn’t much. But Rose knew much more about Alice’s purchase process.

  ‘The stupid bastard paid over the odds because this Alice Hou is supposed to be a virgin.’

  Linda, whose own husband was clearly much more forthcoming than Rose’s, found this rather odd. Hu Hengsen’s sexuality was a matter of much debate around the coffee bars frequented by the trophy wives. But in the way of these things it was a debate more based on ignorance and innuendo than fact. But Mr Hu’s sexuality was never going to be an issue, whatever it truly was; like everything else about him, it would be firmly under control and subservient to his business objectives.

  Since both Linda and Rose had been purchased in much the same way as Alice, they were sympathetic to the poor girl. For Rose, she would be a useful addition to her small circle. Linda didn’t expect to see that much of her.

  ‘He won’t even meet Alice until the wedding.’

  Linda didn’t find this odd, however; unlike Rose, she had met her husband for the first time at her wedding, too.

  ‘That old shitty sod Xu brought her in accompanied by a minder. A woman. It seems that my husband’s honourable cousin doesn’t trust Xu, who does, and demanded the woman bodyguard attend the wedding as well as a guarantee that she is returned to Australia so that there can be no repercussions,’ Rose continued.

  ‘Xu provided a photo of this Alice taken in Hong Kong Airport to prove that she had arrived. It’s all cousin Hu has to recognise her by when he arrives at his wedding.’