by Chuck DeVore
He permitted himself a twisted smile and walked deliberately to the door. He knocked.
No one home. Fu was annoyed that these peasants would spoil his entrance by not being home—they were probably working. He decided to go looking for Chu.
Fu rounded the house and started uphill to the citrus groves. In spite of himself he found their aroma delightful. Ah, there was Chu’s woman. Fu kept his eyes fixed ahead, not acknowledging the presence of the strange woman who seemed both to lack hatred towards him and be unbowed by his power.
Chu Ling looked up from her work in the garden and gave Party Boss Fu a modest nod. As usual, Fu ignored her.
Fu saw Chu Pui pruning a leafy green orange tree. He was intent on his work, dusty, sweating, and, no doubt, smelly.
“Comrade Chu!” Fu called out loudly. Chu’s head whipped around and his eyes narrowed in hatred at the Party boss.
“What brings you here to foul my orchard?”
“Come, come. At least you can be cordial when the People’s representative comes to visit.”
“‘People’s representative’!” Chu spat out, “People’s dogshit, maybe. Have you come here to try and rob me again?” Chu yelled more loudly than Fu yelled his false greeting.
Fu sharply drew in his breath and narrowed his eyes. He growled softly, “Chu, if you know what’s good for you you’ll pay the road tax or pay to use County trucks to bring your village’s fruit to market. One or the other, your choice Chu.” Fu stood with his hands on his hips, his right hand reassuringly resting on his pistol in its holster.
“Why you son of a turtle’s egg.” Chu then yelled again, “What are you going to do if I don’t pay your bribe, bandit, shoot me?” He took a step towards Fu.
Fu suddenly realized that Chu was a powerfully built man, used to a life of hard work. Fu never did anything more demanding than shuffle papers or lift his chopsticks to his mouth. He felt his shaking hand lift the holster’s leather flap. Fu took a step back. “Are you threatening a Party official?” Fu’s voice cracked. “Look Comrade Chu, agree to pay today and your little outburst will be forgiven. If not, the road tax doubles tomorrow.”
Fu caught movement out of his left eye. It was Chu’s older brother and partner! He stepped back again. His foot landed on a large clod of dirt and painfully twisted as he lost his balance and fell.
Chu started towards him with a cruel gleam in his eye. Fu grabbed at his pistol and strained to remove it from its holster. Chu closed in, looking like a bear ready to attack. Just as Fu’s violently shaking hand got the pistol free a piercing scream filled the air, “Pui! In God’s name stop!”
As the scream began, Fu simultaneously started to pull the trigger and jerked his head around for a split second in reaction to the sound. Fu’s pistol kicked back and a tarnished brass shell casing flicked out of the ejector port. A red blossom of blood erupted on Chu’s thigh and Chu tumbled to the ground with a roar.
Chu yelled, “You’ve shot me!” It was a statement, not a cry.
Just out of sight Chu’s wife screamed, “Stop!”
Chu lifted himself up on his hands, rocked back on one foot, and launched himself at Fu’s pistol.
Fu fired again, this time the shot passed just to the left of Chu’s heart, grazing the fleshy portion of the farmer’s outstretched arm. If it hurt, Chu didn’t show it.
Chu now had both hands on the pistol and was quickly wrenching it around. Fu managed to pull the trigger once more. The action of the pistol’s slide sliced open both of Chu’s hands while his left hand received a nasty powder burn, but still the farmer pressed on.
The gun was now pointed at Fu’s head. “Go ahead and pull the trigger now you bastard parasite.” Chu triumphantly roared. Fu’s gurgled cry was choked off when Chu’s hands crushed down around Fu’s right hand and squeezed the trigger. The bullet entered under Fu’s jaw and came to a rest just under his cranium. The Party boss’s body convulsed and went limp. Chu just lay there on top of Fu’s lifeless shell, not wanting to be pulled back into the world, back into facing the consequences of his action.
Chu looked up, blinking at the bright July sky. He saw his weeping wife. He saw his older brother, ashen-faced and frozen to the ground. There were four other villagers, good friends all, nearby.
Chu’s wife spoke first. “We need to get you to a doctor. You are bleeding badly.”
“No!” It was Chu Kwok, his brother. “We need to handle this ourselves. A doctor would only alert the Party. This is not good. Oh, my brother, what have you done?” Kwok voice betrayed little sympathy for his sibling.
“Something we all wanted to do years ago!” Chu fiercely said.
“Let’s get you inside and stop the bleeding,” his wife firmly said, “Help me!”
Two men from the village grabbed Chu around each arm and carried him down to the house. Chu carried Fu’s pistol in his right hand like the head of a slain dragon.
Lee Bensui had been Lipu County’s Deputy Party Administrator for 15 years now. Loyal to Fu Mingjie, he nonetheless resented the elder leader’s authority, reach and complete control of all bribes. Fu treated him well enough by the standards in this province, giving him ten percent of all he collected. Lee’s main gripe with Fu was that he allowed no other official corruption other than his own. Everything had to be channeled through him. A smaller man with less intelligence and drive than Fu, Lee made up for his shortcomings by developing a reputation for vicious retribution. Lee considered the local contingent of the People’s Armed Police (PAP) to be his personal vanguard. Fu liked the arrangement as long as Lee kept in line—kind of a good cop, bad cop, ying, yang method that served Fu’s leadership style wonderfully.
When the call came that Fu was killed, murdered by a local villager, Lee was ready to act immediately. If he reacted with enough force, two ends would be achieved: one, this dangerous rebellion would be quickly crushed, and two, his position as Party leader in Lipu County would be assured. With Fu’s network of bribes already in place, Lee figured he ought to be a very wealthy man in no time at all!
Lee called out a company of the PAP and began the trip to bring Fu’s killer to justice and teach those insolent hill people a lesson they’d never forget.
Lee anxiously drove his old brown GAZ-69 jeep in the middle of the convoy of ten trucks carrying a force of 121 men. They would reach the village just before nightfall.
The PAP convoy stopped 500 meters short of the edge of the plateau that held the village. The officers assembled their men and gave them final instructions in the failing light. A lone figure came out of the bushes near the road. He was stopped and frisked by the paramilitaries, then shown to Lee Bensui. The two men conversed for a moment. The man made hand signs and pointed up the road. Lee called the PAP’s company commander over, then soon started up the hill.
A few minutes later, they were at Chu’s house. The shadowed man was allowed to slip away. A platoon of 40 police armed with assault rifles surrounded the house. The captain walked carefully around the house with his pistol drawn, Lee following timidly behind him. The other 80 paramilitaries fanned out in groups of four to round up the rest of the small village.
The PAP captain heard a groan and carefully looked in a window. Inside, beside a kerosene lamp, was the prostrate and bandaged traitor, Chu Pui. At his bedside was Fu’s Makarov.
“He’s armed,” the captain hissed.
Lee shuddered in the twilight, “Kill him.”
The captain motioned for two of his men to come closer.
He whispered the situation to them and pushed them gently forward to the window. The captain stood right behind them, pistol drawn.
“Wait!” Lee rasped. “He’s asleep. We shall capture him and give him a trial tomorrow. Then we shall execute him.” How could I forget? The going price for kidneys was now $2,000 each. Chu’s other internal organs, if properly harvested, could bring another $5,000! I almost threw away a fortune! Lee grinned mercilessly—yes, it is good to be the boss.
/> It was now almost midnight. Lee was tired, but elated. Except for one small hitch, the operation had gone smoothly. Fu’s killer was in custody and the entire list of subversive religionists in this vile village were safely rounded up. 103 people in all. The only hitch came with trying to figure out what to do with the 42 children. After briefly conferring with the PAP captain, Lee decided to bring them all into town and place them in the Lipu orphanage while the Party decided what to do with their seditious parents.
The cries of the children were disconcerting, and Lee’s anger only made it worse. He finally quieted the lot of them by firing a shot from his pistol into the air.
As the moon began to rise a lone man again stepped out the shadows to confer with Lee. Chu Ling strained her eyes from the back of the 2-1/2-ton truck. “Chu Kwok!” she yelled.
The shadowed man turned briefly.
A guard yelled at Chu Ling, then smashed her foot with the butt of his rifle. Chu Ling winced and yelled again, “God loves you Kwok. He can forgive you for what you have done!”
The guard cursed and swung the butt of his assault rifle at Ling’s head. She felt a blinding pain and with a dull thud, fell into a heap in the bed of the truck.
* * *
Lieutenant Colonel Chu Dugen knew his men were ready; whatever for he didn’t know, but he knew they were ready. It was nearing the end of the day, a Day One day in their endless cycle of airport attack training. He finished up two award recommendations. One for a young lieutenant who really excelled at teaching martial arts techniques, the other for a very efficient Sergeant First Class of supply.
Chu heard the light knock at his door that could only mean one person—his political officer. “Come in comrade political officer!”
The young officer with a bad case of acne came in. In the beginning, this creature tried to lord it over Chu with his power—then Chu invited him along for a 40-kilometer speed march with his commandos. Every man had 40-kilograms of rucksack and equipment. Within an hour the poor specimen was weeping at Chu’s feet. Ever since then, Chu had perfect control over the man. Their agreement was simple: Huang Enlai the political officer acted as Chu’s intermediary to the Party, keeping him abreast of Party rumors while Chu kept the political officer out of trouble with his men. Chu knew it must be terribly lonely for the man, but that was Huang’s problem.
“Colonel Chu,” the political officer stammered, “I have some bad news for you.”
“Come in, close the door,” Chu’s mind whipped wildly around behind a placid exterior. He suppressed an urge to ask, Is it my father?
“Colonel Chu, your father was arrested and executed for murdering the head of the Communist Party in Lipu County. Your mother and every adult in your village is being held on suspicion of sedition and on the unlawful practice of religion. Your uncle remains free. He is a true patriot. He turned in your father after your father murdered the Party official. Your uncle also vouched for you saying you had no foreknowledge of this heinous crime and that you are no Christian.” The political officer looked down and waited for Chu to absorb this.
The full weight of the man’s words were sinking into Chu’s rapidly numbing mind. First the Party kills my twin sister, then the Party steals the fruit of my father’s labor, then the Party takes my father’s life, and imprisons my mother and my entire village.
“Colonel Chu,” this was obviously a painful moment for the true-believer political officer, “The Party only asks one thing of you. One thing to be certain of your reliability: that you renounce this Christian religion. . .”
Chu looked up sharply and regarded the political officer as a bothersome insect.
He stammered on, “. . .that is, if you practice it. In return, if you perform well on your upcoming mission, the Party may see its way to showing clemency on your mother.”
Chu dismissed the thought of his being a practitioner of an alien religion with the wave of his hand, “I’m no Christian, comrade, you can tell Chairman Han himself if you wish. It is also unfortunate about my mother. However, I am sure she had no part in this crime—she is no counterrevolutionary. My father was a hothead—what he did, he did on his own. Comrade, you mentioned a mission. . .” Chu wanted desperately to change the subject to something he could master. A military operation would focus his energies and could, as the political officer hinted, provide him with the means to save his mother.
At the Chu’s mention of the word “mission” the young political officer’s face went pale, “Oh my, you weren’t supposed to be told . . . I mean. . .” The Party’s military representative collapsed in a heap on a chair.
Chu’s mind zeroed in on extracting the information he wanted out of this poor excuse for a man. “Huang Enlai, I already know we have an important mission; one that all China depends on for us to execute with valor and honor—you, you only need to provide the details my friend.” Chu almost gagged at using the term “friend”, but these were extraordinary times.
Huang looked around conspiratorially and lowered his voice to a whisper, “You must promise not to tell anyone that I told you.”
Chu whispered back, “When were we to be told about the mission?”
“Tomorrow morning.”
Chu suppressed a roll of his eyeballs, this man was worried about 12 hours. He resented the fact that this wretch stole half a day of prep time from his battalion of brave commandos. He pulled close to the contemptible creature and said, “Tell me now before I decide to assign you as lead man in the assault.”
Huang’s eyes bugged out and he began stammering again, “Jia. . . Jia Battalion is. . . is to fly to Hong Kong tomorrow evening. From there. . . once there. . . we will fly to Taiwan to seize Chiang Kai-Shek International Airport. We will be a diversion. . . China will attack Quemoy Island minutes after our assault. We will be heroes. . . Heroes of all China!”
And most assuredly dead heroes. No wonder why the dogs offered my mother mercy in exchange for my valor in this upcoming suicide mission. Once I’m dead, they can safely do what they wish to her without fear of embittering one of their most reliable assassins.
Chu smiled grimly at the pock-faced Huang, “Yes Enlai, we will be heroes.”
* * *
Donna turned back to her memo. She was putting the finishing touches on a memo entitled, “Chinese Actions Towards Taiwan Signal a New, Dangerous Phase In Cross-Straits Relations.” The memo cited several disturbing trends of recent Chinese behavior: increased naval maneuvers off the coast of Quemoy, an increased level of military preparedness in the Nanjing Military Region, additional PLA formations being moved into position opposite Quemoy and Matsu, a large build-up in short range ballistic missiles and artillery, and an unusual amount of military activity continuing after Taiwan’s presidential elections last March.
She concluded her missive:
China’s continued military build-up opposite Taiwan appears to be for political reasons, both domestic and international. Domestically, the build-up plays to the increasing nationalism China’s leadership is fostering in the wake of continued economic turbulence. Internationally, China’s actions are slowly building the case that China regards Taiwan as its own and will pursue whatever means required to recover the territory.
While a Chinese attack on Taiwan remains unlikely in the near future due to the lack of sufficient amphibious assault capacity and the vulnerability of an attack to Taiwan’s air force and anti-ship missile capacity, an enumeration of China’s relative advantages and disadvantages would be useful in viewing China’s current actions:
China has the following advantages:
1) Any attack would likely achieve tactical surprise.
2) Hundreds of short-range ballistic missiles are now in place. These could be used to attack airfields and command, control and communications nodes to degrade Taiwan’s defensive capabilities.
3) Much of China’s fleet has been concentrated within one day’s steaming time from Taiwan. China would have naval superiority, enabling China t
o effectively blockade Taiwan.
China has the following disadvantages:
1) Their amphibious capability is modest and not regarded as well-trained. At most, China could assault the offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu with any real assurance of success.
2) China’s build-up has placed Taiwan’s armed forces on higher alert. Taiwan has moved to reinforce the offshore islands, making their successful capture more difficult.
3) China must continue to regard U.S. intervention on behalf of Taiwan as a very real possibility. This complicates planning significantly for any invasion or blockade.
Donna reviewed her report. The conclusion was weak and didn’t live up to the memo’s heading. The memo also didn’t come close to expressing her beliefs about China’s likely aggression. Time to think. She decided that a fresh cup of coffee was the proper medicine and pushed away from her desk.
Walking the 50 feet over to where her section kept the coffee pot was usually a therapeutic interlude for Donna. With the hours she kept, coffee was Donna’s friend. Walking to get coffee was her excuse to think creatively. It wasn’t much, but then, Donna didn’t need much to spark her analytical capabilities.
What if China were to strike Taiwan? What would they gain by such an attack? How would they do it? Why the continuing military build-up and quickening operational tempo if not to attack? The Taiwanese are taking more precautions than normal—clearly they’re worried. Yet, the Administration denies anything is amiss. Everyone at the top says China has too much to lose if they attack. . .
She rounded the corner and saw Mr. Scott talking to Jack Benson. “Slumming it today, Mr. Scott?”
“Donna! I was just talking with Jack about you. We’ve decided to release you from your Indonesia team commitments. Jack here has been complaining that you’re not as effective at the China desk when you’re working 70-hour weeks trying to do two jobs at once.”