Xu Lei - Search for the Buried Bomber

Ma Zaihai was first to react. He stood up, went over to his backpack, and pulled out a rope with a three-pronged pig-iron hook at the end. Then he made to dismantle the long iron desk. He wanted to use one of the desk legs as a handle for the hook. Unfortunately, the desk was too solid. It was welded to the floor. Though we tried for a long time to move it, the thing never even flexed. We rummaged about for a while, until at last the deputy squad leader found a length of iron wire—thick as a thumb—welded to the wall. We tore it down and wrapped it around the base of the grapnel. Then we all squatted down, curious to see what was really back there.

It was a chaotic scene. The deputy squad leader was still injured, so it was I who took the flashlight and illuminated the vent, while Ma Zaihai reached in with the hook. In fact, Ma Zaihai was far from willing, but he had to obey orders. His lips trembled as he lay prone. We told him to be careful, but what use was that? All three of us lay down in front of the opening and watched as bit by bit the hook moved farther in.

The whole thing took less than half a minute, but I felt as if I’d been staring for a whole day. At last, when the hook was about to bump into the strange face, my eyes were already sore. By then we were ready for anything—the thing suddenly moving or dodging quickly backward—but the hook knocked into it and the face didn’t move in the slightest. No matter how we prodded it, the thing made no reaction. “It seems all flopped over,” said Ma Zaihai. “The feel of it is wrong.” He finally caught the grapnel around the thing’s neck. The point dug in, giving him a tight hold around the head. There was almost no resistance as it came sliding toward us. My heartbeat abruptly quickened its pace. All of us stood up at the same time, each preparing to jump backward at a moment’s notice. No one wanted to react too late.

The pale white head was first to emerge. Next came the body. I saw things like feet and hands and in that moment my mind went numb. How incredibly strange, I thought. Its whole body has gone soft, like some enormous mollusk. My heart gave a leap. Then I realized what it was.

This was no monster. It was a strange rubber suit. It was timeworn and probably left by the Japanese. The twisted face was no more than a squished gas mask attached to the top of the suit. The mask was really more of a helmet. It had a very high forehead and an odd-looking design. The clothing and mask were one piece. It was a model I’d never seen before and presumably protected against much more than just poison gas. Ma Zaihai poked at it with the iron hook. There appeared to be nothing inside. Seeing this, he relaxed and made to swear once more, but he seemed to remember what the deputy squad leader had said and his jaw snapped shut. The deputy squad leader’s countenance remained imposing. Ma Zaihai wanted to take a closer look, but the deputy squad leader grabbed him. “Leave it alone for a moment,” he said.

But nothing happened, so we crowded back around it and the mood eased up. Spreading it open with the hook, Ma Zaihai poked and shined his flashlight over the thing. I remembered the time a gold-striped snake had gotten into my clothing. My mother had whacked at the clothes until the snake slithered back out. There was nothing like that, nothing hidden or the least bit amiss, about this suit.

At last Ma Zaihai turned the suit over. The spot where the rubber body connected to the helmet was already torn, most likely the autograph of Ma Zaihai’s hook. The area around the suit’s chest was also rotted. It had probably been sticking to the bottom of the shaft and ripped open when we yanked it. Inside was absolutely empty. Everyone relaxed. False alarm. Ma Zaihai knelt down and began ripping off sections of the suit. He tore it to shreds. There truly was nothing inside.

“Strange,” said the deputy squad leader, “who would have stuffed this thing back there, and toward what purpose?” As he said this, Ma Zaihai squatted back down and shined his flashlight into the air shaft.

Isquatted down beside him. A faint breeze was blowing out of the air shaft as we shined our flashlights inside. It was utter blackness. Who knew where it led? A strange odor floated up from somewhere far down the shaft. I still remember that scent. It was much lighter than what I’d smelled in the sinkhole, but I could tell it was the same odor. Although I had no idea what it came from, that odor appearing at this moment made me feel uneasy. Had someone used the suit to seal up the opening? Was there a leak in the ventilation system? This blockage had been merely a temporary measure, but now that we’d removed it, would the poison outside begin to leak slowly into the room? As I thought about this I began to feel a little unwell. Ma Zaihai and I piled up a stack of odds and ends and, in a symbolic gesture, used them to block up the air shaft. At least this way we felt somewhat more secure. We sat down, all of us severely dispirited. Such a succession of frights was far too wearing.

In a soft voice, Ma Zaihai asked, “If she didn’t leave through here, then how exactly did Engineer Yuan get out?”

Looking at the opening, I shook my head. We’d been deceiving ourselves. Even if Yuan Xile had managed to crawl inside, she was too big to have advanced any farther. So where had she gone? After all, this was a sealed room. Besides the vent, none of the other openings were big enough for even a cockroach to crawl through. As I thought about this, I involuntarily raised my flashlight and shined it once more around the chamber. The chaos of our search had thrown the entire room into a terrific mess. The extent of our alarm could be seen from the complete disorder, but there was still no Yuan Xile. The four of us were all that were left.

As this thought of “the four of us” occurred to me, I felt a sudden mental jolt. Something had changed. This sensation felt very familiar, as if I’d just experienced it. Again I shined my flashlight around the room. For a long time I was puzzled. Then, all of a sudden, I realized what it was: in addition to us three, the fourth person was Chen Luohu. I assumed he’d been curled up in a corner this whole time. As I swept my flashlight across the chamber, I realized that—for who knows how long—I hadn’t seen him at all. I stood up. Once more I shined the flashlight around the room. Chen Luohu had vanished as well!

Then I really began to fall apart. My blood pulsed in my veins and I could no longer support my own weight. I was rocked by a burst of dizziness and felt as if my brain was swelling in my skull. I was tottering, hanging on by only a thread. I wanted to slump directly to the floor. Luckily, Ma Zaihai helped steady me. “What is it?” he and the deputy squad leader both asked. Stammering, I managed to get it out. I watched as the color drained from their faces. In an instant Ma Zaihai was sweeping his flashlight around the room and calling out, “Engineer Chen!”

The way our excitation continued to increase made us seem like mere pieces on a chessboard, being manipulated by some unseen, diabolical hand, led little by little toward the point of collapse. Every move was perfect. In the flickering flashlight beam, all of us quickly sank into a state of hysteria. I have already forgotten what we felt in those moments, though dread was certain. Thinking back on it now, however, given that we’d encountered something that went beyond any rational explanation, what was there for us to dread? Was I scared of disappearing myself, or scared of being abandoned here?