Eliot Pattison - Mandarin Gate

“Liang never intends to arrest Norbu. It’s why the order went only to the constables.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Liang is gone. Call headquarters and ask. He is done here. This order is his farewell gesture.” He saw Meng’s uncertain expression. “Call now,” Shan insisted. “Ask for him.”

The lieutenant frowned and picked up the phone. She spoke to one office at headquarters, then another, before hanging up. “He packed up the office they loaned him,” Meng reported. “Officially he is gone, on to his next posting. They say he may be at that guesthouse. It’s still the weekend. He probably won’t leave until tomorrow.” She looked back at the papers on her desk. “Why issue the order now?”

“He wants the word out to the Tibetans, and sending the order to the constables is how he achieves that. Did they see it?”

“One of them read it and left.”

Shan nodded, as if it proved his point. “He wants everyone to believe Norbu is in grave danger, so there is no hesitation in the plans for his flight from Tibet. It’s the endgame,” Shan said. “The final act of their drama, to ensure he doesn’t arrive in India as just another refugee, but as a hero. We’ve run out of time. The full moon is tomorrow night. By the time the police arrive for him he will have disappeared in the smuggler’s truck.”

“I don’t understand.”

He pulled a slip of paper from his pocket and handed it to her.

“What’s this?”

“Me and Ko. Our registration numbers.”

Her face tightened. “Why do I want this?”

“I have to get Liang back here. I can’t go to the monks and tell them their abbot is a spy and a murderer. They will never believe me now. It has to be a secret they steal from Major Liang.”

She raised the slip of paper again. “Why do I want this?” she asked once more.

“Liang only has authority to imprison me for a year. I can take a year. It will be like a meditation retreat enforced with chains. But there’s a chance he will make good on the threat he made the last time he arrested me. Keep me for years, keep me invisible by moving me around. If that happens, I ask a small favor. Every few months, maybe once a year, just check the central records. It’s important to me, Xiao Meng, a great favor to me. One I will never forget. Then get word to each of us where the other is. Public Security can get messages to prisoners. Otherwise…” he was having difficulty getting the words out. “Otherwise I will never find him. Otherwise today will have been the last day I ever see my son.”

Her face drained of color. “What are you going to do?”

“Lokesh once told me that words are just hollow things. Truth can only be found in the heart, and in actions.”

“Please, Shan. No more riddles.”

“The Tibetans will not accept the truth from my lips, or yours. It has to be shown to them. I will force Liang back here so Tibetan ears will hear what I have to say, so the constables will grasp the truth by Liang’s reaction and get the word to the monastery. It’s a great risk to his mission for him to appear again in the valley. He had to take things to a boiling point, then back away. Otherwise he risks everything. He could frighten away the purbas, the ones waiting to escort Norbu to India. There are only two things that would make him ignore the risk. A chance to complete his vengeance on me and a way to correct his failure to capture the American woman. I will give him both. Everyone already knows me as the bonecatcher who killed a lama. It will come as no surprise when I demand more bounties for killing those who were going to expose his agent and delivering Cora Michener.”

Tears welled in Meng’s eyes. “You fool,” she whispered. “You damned fool. You can’t beat Liang.”

“I am not going to beat him. I am going to use him. I will not let all of them die in vain. I will not let the poison spread across the border. There has to be an end to it.”

“He will kill you if he can.”

“Probably not. Too many people know about me. But he will have to put me away. He has a prison he uses in the desert.”

Meng was silent a long time. “Why does it have to be you?” she asked at last.

He ignored the question. “Will he bring other knobs when he comes?”

Meng looked down at her desk. “He no longer has an official role here. Those assigned to him will have been given new duties.”

“Bring the Tibetan constables. They’re the audience. We’ll do it at the marketplace, by the old stable.”

“Audience?”

“For my confession. Liang announced I killed Jamyang. Half the people here suspect I am some sort of secret operative. Liang himself demonstrated that I was one of those clandestine bonecatchers everyone hates. He showed me he has bounty money. Now I want payment in full. I killed a nun who conspired against the state and I want my reward. I will give them the gun I took from Jamyang as proof. I will say I killed them all for the Motherland. Liang knew Norbu had killed the Lung boy, because of the risk the boy represented to his secret mission, because the boy saw Norbu secretly conferring with Public Security. A bonecatcher relies on the government for his living, and therefore owes it a duty. He keeps watch, keeps alert for trouble. I had to kill the others because they were going to expose Norbu as an agent of Public Security, prevent him from his mission of infiltrating the government in exile. The major will cut me off for fear I give away too much. But they will hear enough. Don’t give the constables any assignments afterwards. Give them plenty of time to warn those in the monastery before the end of the day. In time to stop the purbas from putting Norbu on that truck to Nepal.”

“Liang can’t imprison you for protecting Public Security.”

“Not for the killings. For knowing his secrets.”

“But Colonel Tan-”

“Will do nothing if I am declared a threat to national security. He will be powerless.”

“It’s madness, Shan. It will never work.”

“It is all that will work now. I can’t just go to the monks or any other Tibetan. They will never believe me after what Liang did.”

“It doesn’t get Cora Michener out of danger.”

“I will see the girl gets to the purbas. They can put her on that truck, instead of Norbu.”

Shan turned at the sound of movement in the darkened holding cell. Sansan appeared in the pool of light at the front, her hands gripping the bars.

He sagged. The world indeed was closing in about him. He had to give himself up to stop Norbu but it meant giving up the possibility of helping the exiles and the dropka. “Meng. You have to give her a chance. You can’t just-”

“Shan!” Sansan called out in a strangely scolding voice. “You have to give her a chance.” As she echoed his words she pushed open the cell door. “Lieutenant Meng is helping me.”

“I told her if she stayed at her house she would be picked up by police out of district headquarters,” Meng explained. “Suspicion of stealing state secrets is a serious charge. For now she is safer here.”

Sansan offered Shan a sad smile as she stepped out of the cell. She poured them each a cup of tea from the thermos on a side table.

“Stealing state secrets?” Shan asked. “I thought you were just another dissident.”

Sansan cast a sidelong glance toward Meng, then shrugged. “When I was in college I was noticed for the first time by Public Security. Not for my political activities but for my skills with computer systems. They targeted me for a career with them, running and designing such systems, breaking into systems elsewhere, outside of China. I took special courses at school. That was before someone else noticed my antisocialist leanings,” she added.