by Graeme Hall
In the meantime here she was, opposite Xinhua, plucking up courage to cross the road and go inside. What was she thinking? As Sam had pointed out, it was unlikely Gao Zhihua was still working there. Even without anything happening that might precipitate an early departure, Xinhua staff were probably rotated anyway. Nor did she have any idea of what position he had held when he was there, and anyway, in the exceedingly unlikely event that he was still working there, what was she going to do? What if the receptionist actually said ‘Yes of course, one moment, I’ll get him for you’? Would she be able to look him in the face or would she turn and run? But still, what else could she do? She had no other link to Peter’s killer beyond where he worked, and ‘Peter’s killer’ was how she thought of him now. She was certain of that much.
A knot of anxiety was growing and Emma was starting to feel sick. She had decided on a cover story: she was a student doing a dissertation on the role of Xinhua in pre-handover Hong Kong and had been given Gao Zhihua’s name as someone she should talk to. If, as was likely, it turned out Gao Zhihua was no longer there, she would simply say that she must have been mistaken, apologise for the inconvenience and leave. She was wearing her hearing aid and could always use that as an excuse if need be. Emma decided she would count to ten and then come what may she would cross the road and go in. After all, what was the worst that could happen? They’d simply ask her to leave. Unless, of course, the worst thing that could happen was that he might still be there after all.
She got as far as eight when her eye was caught by a momentary glimpse of a man leaving the Xinhua building before her view was blocked by a passing bus. A young Chinese man, uncharacteristically tall. Wasn’t that Liang-bao? Emma pressed the button on the pedestrian crossing and waited impatiently for the signal to change. Once across she walked briskly in the direction the man had gone, but the delay had been too long and whoever it had been was now lost in the crowds.
***
‘But you did go in, in the end?’ asked Sam. They were back in his flat later that day. Emma had been recounting her visit to Xinhua, their conversation accompanied by the sound of a child crying from across the corridor.
‘Yes. Eventually. I finally forced myself to go in. But it was much as you said it would be. There was nobody with that name working there. The receptionist obviously didn’t recognise the name at all, but she was only young and had probably only been there a short while. So, a dead end.’
‘But at least you tried.’ Sam stroked her forearm. ‘Do you think it was Liang-bao?’
‘I don’t suppose so.’ Emma had been worrying about this all evening. Why on earth would Liang-bao be visiting Xinhua? She had told herself she must have been mistaken. ‘There was just something about the man’s height and build, but I only got the briefest of looks.’
‘So what are you going to do next? About Peter.’
‘I don’t know. I could ask some of the group if they have any ideas. I don’t know if any of them have any contacts in China who might know where Gao Zhihua went to, what he’s doing now. But I still don’t think I want to tell them about Peter. Yannie knows, of course, but she’s promised to keep it quiet. And anyway, even if they did know something, so what? What would I do? I’ve no real evidence, and like everybody keeps telling me, nobody is going to be interested in reopening something that was settled years ago. I think the only thing that matters is that I’ve done the best I can for Peter and at least I know what really happened that night.’
‘Have you told your parents any of this?’
‘No, not yet.’
‘Are you going to?’
Emma hesitated before answering. ‘I don’t know. I think probably not. It will only bring back bad memories for no real purpose. But I did speak to them last night after getting back to my place.’ Her face brightened. ‘And I told them I wasn’t coming back for Easter, so we can spend it together.’
‘You told them about me?’
‘Well … no.’ Emma looked sheepish. ‘If I did that they’d be planning the wedding. I just said I didn’t have the money for the flight, which after Sydney isn’t far wrong.’
‘I think my mum’s greatest ambition in life is to be able to say the words “my daughter-in-law”. Anyway, what would you like to do at Easter? Any thoughts?’
‘I was wondering about going away somewhere. Not far, I really can’t afford much, perhaps Macau? We could go, stay over and have lunch somewhere, then come back?’
‘I’ll see what I can organise.’
Emma looked at her watch and saw that it was gone ten. ‘I should be making a move. I’m working tomorrow.’ She saw the look of disappointment on Sam’s face. ‘Next weekend you can have me all to yourself.’
Things were well again. This time nothing was going to get in the way.
Chapter 16
‘This is more conventional than usual,’ said Susan to her companion. ‘If I’m honest I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping for something a bit more out of the ordinary.’ They were in a room on the twenty-first floor of an anonymous mid-range Pudong hotel. The carpet was beige, the curtains brown. A strong smell of cigarettes seemed to be ingrained in the fabric of the room, and the curtains looked as if they might once have been a different colour. Susan was sitting on the edge of a not particularly clean bed. Her companion had taken the room at short notice so he thought it should be clear, but he checked anyway and drew the curtains as a precaution.
‘I rather got the impression that it was urgent, my dear. And again, it’s not an unusual place for an older man to meet a young woman. At least so my straight friends tell me.’
‘It is – urgent, I mean.’
‘I assume you have news for me? Good or bad?’
‘Both. Which do you want first?’
‘Good, I think. Do you want something?’ He was exploring the minibar.
‘Something strong.’
‘That’s not like you,’ he said, finding two miniatures of whisky and a can of ginger ale. He looked at the label on the whisky and frowned. He mixed two drinks and passed one to Susan before taking a seat in a faded armchair. He turned on the TV with the volume fairly high. ‘So? What do you have for me?’
‘Here’s what you wanted.’ Susan took a roll of film from her bag and placed it on the bed. ‘It’s all there.’
‘Excellent work. Quick precis?’
‘He’s developing software that will be encrypted and preloaded onto mobile phones. If anyone has one of those phones, it will be possible to hack in and monitor anything they do or say. Who they call, message, everything. They also hope to be able to record conversations when the phone is switched on even if the phone isn’t in use. It will just be a microphone picking everything up. The user won’t even know it’s happening. The information will just be automatically sent back to Shanghai. It’s all in there. Details of the PLA intelligence units that will run the hacking. How they plan to deploy the technology. The funding. Everything. You’ll need to get this to Hong Kong as well. They’ll need to know.’
‘Excellent, my dear. I knew I could count on you to come through. How far advanced are they?’
‘They’re not there yet. They need the new facilities and new equipment that’s being planned. I’m guessing it could be a couple of years still before they can begin hacking people. But I don’t need to tell you that once they start something they’re certain to finish it. It’s a matter of when, not if. Oh, and I almost forgot. He’s having an affair.’
‘Who is?’
‘Professor Ye.’
‘Really?’
‘Better than that, it’s with a TV news anchor. The one who’s on TV1 in the morning. I also stole his diary.’ Susan took the diary out of her bag and passed it to him. ‘I’ve had a look through it. It’s a social diary – nothing to do with his work – but he’s been seeing her for several months now. I don’t see how he could afford a mistress like that on a university salary. She must be very high maintenance. He’s presumably getting
money from the PLA.’
Her companion was looking through the diary. ‘Expensive restaurants, I see. I don’t know. The PLA doesn’t normally pay that well either. You’re supposed to work for them out of love of the Party and the Motherland. Well, that and the fear of a bullet in the back of the head. I do hope he’s not siphoning off university funds, or worse still, PLA money intended for the project. Now that would be risky …’
‘Surely he wouldn’t be that stupid, would he?’ asked Susan.
‘You never know. Men sometimes do the strangest things for beautiful women. Apparently. I wouldn’t know myself. I suppose the other possibility is that they know all about the affair. Perhaps they even initiated it so they had something on him? It could be a useful way to control the good professor. But that works both ways, of course. I wonder if we could do the same thing? I don’t normally watch the local TV, to be honest. It’s all too noisy and hectoring. But I must find out more about this woman.’ He fell silent, waiting for Susan to continue. She downed her drink in one go.
‘I may need out.’
‘Are they on to you?’
‘I think so. I don’t know for certain but there have been warning signs.’
‘A pity. I’m sure there’s more you could get if you stayed there. Close to your young man. If you just vanish without warning, then if they were watching you they’ll know for sure.’
‘But we’ve got everything we need, haven’t we? What more is there to get?’
‘If you go now we’ll never know. We don’t know what we don’t know, if you see what I mean. And what about Kwok-wah? What is he going to think if you just disappear off the face of the earth? More to the point, what will they think about him if you leave suspiciously? Have you thought about that? I can’t make you stay, that was the deal, but can I persuade you to stick it out for just a little longer? I’ll get everything prepared so we can get you out of the country quickly if we need to. Perhaps you should prepare a cover story as well? You might want to drop hints about sick parents or something.’
Susan was not keen on the idea of staying on. If she was honest with herself she was scared, but she wouldn’t risk admitting that. She was conscious that as one of her first overseas assignments it wouldn’t look good if she bailed out too quickly. Plus, his warnings about Kwok-wah had hit a chord. If she left suddenly suspicions could fall on him. What would they think about him? Would they think he was involved? Perhaps if she stayed on and played it carefully for a few weeks, not going near the computer science department, she could keep an eye on Zhanyuan. It wasn’t long until the end of term. She could stay until then at least.
‘Okay, you win. I’ll stay. For the time being anyway. I’ll keep a low profile for a while until I can get a better sense of whether they know about me or not.’ Susan reached into her bag one more time and pulled out an envelope. ‘We had an agreement. In here is the name of a young man who was sold by his mother in Liaoning in 1960. There’s his date of birth, the names of his parents, and the village he lived in.’ She passed the envelope to him.
‘What other surprises do you have in that bag? A rabbit? I’m a man of my word so I’ll see what I can do, but you know I can’t promise anything. It’s going to take quite a while as well so don’t expect anything back too quickly.’
***
‘This is really not good enough, Mr Yang. Quite unacceptable.’ Professor Ye threw the papers back across the desk. Sheaves of paper scattered and fell in different directions and Kwok-wah scrabbled around to gather them. ‘What have you been doing the last six months? Your literature review is superficial and the preliminary data completely unreliable.’ He was shouting now. Kwok-wah had never heard him like this before.
‘I’m sorry, I … I didn’t think the results were that bad?’
‘No, you’re right. You didn’t think. Never mind being sorry, you need to get some serious meaningful work done and stop wasting your time here. Otherwise clear off back to Hong Kong. Now why don’t you just get out of my sight.’
Kwok-wah closed the door behind him in a state of shock. The departmental secretary looked up from her desk. There was no doubt she must have heard. Most of the department would have heard.
‘Don’t take it personally,’ she said under her breath. ‘He’s been like that with everyone today. I don’t know what the matter is. He was fine when he came in this morning but since then he’s been slamming drawers, shouting and swearing at everybody. He’s …’ She stopped as Professor Ye came out of his office.
‘Did I ask you to gossip with my secretary, Mr Yang?’
‘No, sorry, I’ll … be going.’ Kwok-wah hurried down the corridor to his office as fast as he could without actually running. He had no idea what had just happened. The storm had come without warning. His results had been reasonable, he thought. It was only early days but he felt he was making progress. His literature review, well, it was only a first draft but Kwok-wah had been pleased with it. He knew it needed polishing but even so, it didn’t deserve that sort of response. He sat at his desk, staring at the papers in front of him but unable to take anything in.
He wanted to see Susan. One of her classmates had sent him a message saying she had some sort of bug and was laid up in her room. He also wanted to be back home. He decided to make plans to go back to Hong Kong for a break. He had started to dream about proper Cantonese dim sum. Hong Kong milk tea. He wanted to play basketball with his old school friends. See the latest Jackie Chan film. He longed to see Susan. Take the ferry to Cheung Chau for seafood. Go hiking. Spend time with his parents, his cousin. Waste away a Saturday afternoon seeing what was new in the computer shops in Shamshuipo. Go fishing for squid off Sai Kung. Mess about on a Lantau beach. He wanted to sing in a Tsimshatsui karaoke bar. He wanted to sleep in his own bedroom.
He ached to see Susan.
***
Kwok-wah heard the sirens from the library. He took no notice at first. They weren’t unusual given the nearby hospital and the ambulances and emergency vehicles that often tore along the elevated expressway at speed. Just part of the city soundscape that he absorbed without paying any attention. But when the sirens became louder, closer, and it was obvious that they were somewhere on the campus, he took more notice. Was there a fire? Had someone been taken sick? Curiously, the possibility that they might be police didn’t occur to him. When he was sure there was nothing wrong in the library itself, he put any thought of the sirens to one side and went back to his work, until the level of nearby conversations slowly increased to the point they couldn’t be ignored. The normal quiet bookish murmurings and whispers had become steadily louder until all library conventions had vanished and everyone except Kwok-wah had put their books to one side and were talking about the police and what on earth they were doing at the university.
When work became impossible Kwok-wah left the library to try and find out what was happening. Crowds of students were milling around and the rumours were already spreading. There had been a fight between two men over a woman. One of the cafeteria cooks was wanted for theft. They were searching for drugs. This last explanation was the story Kwok-wah was told when he came across Li Lao, and it soon became the established version that everyone accepted, though nobody could have said why and nobody knew anyone who took drugs anyway.
‘Apparently they’ve been searching all the women’s dorms,’ Li Lao said.
‘Not the men’s?’ Kwok-wah was puzzled. If anybody had drugs – which was unlikely – surely it would be a man?
‘So it seems.’
Kwok-wah wanted to go and find Susan to see if she knew what was going on, but the police were keeping everybody away from that part of the campus. From a distance he could see three police cars and two vans parked in front of Susan’s building. He watched as police began to disperse the students and most of them slowly disappeared into the late afternoon. He had no idea why but a feeling of cold dread and sickening foreboding started to spread through him. She was in trouble. He rememb
ered all the things Zhanyuan had said about her. He knew something was wrong, horribly wrong, but he also knew there was nothing he could do. He should go back to the library or his room, but he felt as if leaving his lookout was abandoning Susan and he had to stay to keep her safe. As if he could keep disaster away by the act of keeping guard for her. He moved away a little to keep the police happy but still found a spot where he could see what was happening. But he couldn’t keep her safe and after he had been watching for an hour he saw several women being led from the building and into the back of one of the police vans. One of them was clearly taller than the others. Her hair in a ponytail.
The next few days were hell. The other women taken away by the police had all come back, but not Susan. He scarcely slept and couldn’t do any work. His beloved algorithms seemed an irrelevance. Most of the department looked at him askance and largely ignored him. Zhanyuan was quiet and didn’t say much, but Kwok-wah more than once caught him looking his way with an irritatingly smug expression that said ‘I told you’. Li Lao was more sympathetic but didn’t seem to know what to say so he mostly kept away. Kwok-wah tried speaking to Susan’s room-mates but none of them wanted to talk to him. They certainly didn’t want to talk about Susan. A collective amnesia was settling in and Kwok-wah suspected that soon they would deny having known Susan at all. Before long it was as though she had never been at the university in the first place; almost as if she had never existed. Had he imagined her? Had he dreamt her?