It is an equally beautiful day in Beijing, the sky cloudless and robin egg blue. Lee has enjoyed the short walk this early morning from his apartment in the City. It is a modest place where he can stay during the week. The weekends are for his suburban home, wife and family. Between them he feels he has achieved the perfect balance, exactly the right feng shui for his life.
Lee walks to the front of the enormous Ministry of State Security building in Northwest Beijing and up a broad sidewalk flanked by a well-mannered expanse of Chinese gardens. Different types of low growing vegetation are laid out in huge rectangles next to each other, in varying hues of green and auburn. Rows of evergreen and deciduous trees are geometrically arranged along the front of the building. Nothing however, no amount of colorful landscaping, can soften the look of the mammoth steel gray MSS building or mollify the staggering monotony of its endless rows of windows. Beyond intimidating, it’s all the way to Orwellian.
Hui Lee, however, likes it. He enjoys walking up to its overbearing main entrance. Inside, the lobby is less grand. Rows of security check points detract and it is no longer as imposing as it once was. A gigantically blown up red Seal of the Chinese Republic with its 4 stars set high above the golden facade of the Imperial Palace is positioned high on the wall. It looks down on everybody in the lobby and is joined by the Shield of the Security Service with its hammer and sickle. Together, they are imposing enough to fully occupy an alabaster wall two stories high.
It is a busy time of the morning and so the check points are crowded. Lee picks a line, it doesn’t really matter, they are all equally long. He carries nothing except for personal things, not even a top coat. As he works most evenings there is really no need to take anything home during the week. As for the weekends, his wife has ordered that he bring no work. There is no Security risk as there would be if he were walking around with something from the MSS facility in his hip pocket. Headache avoided. Feng shui in all things.
He stands dutifully at attention. His gaze drifts. It quite unintentionally falls on Miss Huiliang Tai, who has somehow managed to inject herself into his line of sight rather early this morning. What’s this? Is Miss Tai waving? At him?
Hui Lee is vexed. What could possibly merit this lack of office decorum? But he catches himself. No one must sense that he is not otherwise charmed to see Huiliang so early, right out of the box as it were. Why, she’s a glowing example of what an eager and dedicated staff he possesses, one that obviously thrives under his supervision. Wonderful!
Lee tosses metal items from his pockets into a clear plastic bin, conspicuously holds his ID badge in front of his chest, and waits to be summoned through the scanner. Afterwards, he collects his things, leaving the badge hanging from a lanyard around his neck. Finally, there is a turn style where he lets another machine scan his ID one more time before being let into the main area of the lobby. Miss Tai awaits.
“Good morning, sir. I am so sorry to disturb your morning. However, there is something, a development, that I think will interest you.”
Lee wonders just how early she gets to the office these days. He is going to have to check the daily logs later when he gets the chance.
“I see. Very good.”
It is hard for Huiliang to miss Lee’s discomfiture. So she does what she always used to do with her recalcitrant brothers and stubborn grandfather back home. Take charge.
“Perhaps we should try the Operations Center? I can show you on one of their machines.”
“Great idea, Miss Tai! Please, lead on.”
He barely remembers where the Ops Center is, he has been there so rarely.
Huiliang turns abruptly on her heel and starts off, mindful not to go so fast as to leave her boss completely in her wake. Maybe she should leave bread crumbs so he doesn’t get lost, she is thinking, and a tiny grin of satisfaction begins to crease the usually rigid corners of her red lipstick.
They leave the multi-story glass and marble lobby and descend a wide corridor. It ramps downward and finally curves around to a smaller, beautifully carpeted one story lobby. They are confronted by uniformed security staff and a number of sets of closed wooden doors.
Huiliang doesn’t hesitate but goes directly up to the first person nearest her and presents her ID. The guard glances at it and raises his hand in a gesture toward the door. Before she gets there another of the uniforms opens it for her.
She enters the rear of a gymnasium sized room. Phalanxes of low cubes line up in rows before an array of flat panel monitors, so many panels that they take up most of the front wall of the big room. The largest screens are subdivided and reshape themselves in a constantly changing pattern of rectangles, dependent on the perceived importance of and interest in their subjects.
Huiliang wastes no time but heads to the nearest empty cubicle and proceeds to log in. She cues up the video she wants Hui Lee to see, turning to find him already standing behind her.
“This is from the Hong Kong Harbormaster’s office.”
She hits a key.
Hui Lee watches as video from the Star Ferry CCTV runs. In green eyed night vision Lee can see a group of people on the bow of one of their boats. He sees the caption reading out the time, something like 4:40 am.
Huiliang explains.
“This is Zachary Miller and Kimberly Scott. You asked that we keep track of their whereabouts yesterday. As you can see, they made it all the way to Hong Kong on the CRH. We have their passports clocked at Beijing yesterday when they boarded the train.”
She uses her pen to point at the diminutive figures of Zak and Kim on the bow of the ship. In the emerald glow of night vision their faces are completely unrecognizable. But Huiliang is certain of their identities.
Huiliang taps a key and the whole scene is played out before them. There is the attacker, the confrontation, and the sudden fall into the waters of the harbor. There is the pursuit by the boyfriend. And the lone figure left on the boat gathering their bags.
“Interesting. Our American friends appear to have stirred things up. Was there a Police report?”
Miss Tai pulls up the piece of intercepted Police infrared footage that shows Zak and Kim swimming to shore.
“No,” she answers.
“Hmm. Triad?”
“Possibly.”
Hui Lee is annoyed. Too many questions.
Lee crouches a bit to speak closer to Huiliang.
“Let’s find out, shall we. And while we’re at it let’s find out what more we can about Li Hua Wang and whoever this is who attacked our friends.”
Miss Tai turns to face Lee, her heavy glasses whipping precariously close to his face.
“Right away, sir.”
Chapter 23
On Fire Page 22