James Church - The Man with the Baltic Stare

“That’s what innocence is, Inspector, hope.”

“You southerners lost it along the way, and now we have, too.”

Kim looked about to say something but changed his mind. He gestured for me to continue.

“You think your skirts are clean, rid of the camps you used to have. But I notice you’re not rushing to close the ones up here. Too complicated, you think. You’d rather draw up a list of particulars, crimes against humanity after the fact. Maybe you already have. Maybe that’s one of the lists on your desk.”

“And you, Inspector? How did you fit into this idyllic society?”

“I lived according to the prevailing myth, that’s all. Everyone lives by myths. Prettied up, they’re called truths-basic truths, natural truths, self-evident truths.” None of this sociopolitical pabulum was worth a damn. All that mattered was that I was not going to give Kim the pleasure of seeing me admit that my entire existence had been wrong. Never in a thousand years, I thought to myself-not now, not ever-will you see me grovel. “What I knew or thought a year ago is beside the point. The problem is today. Even if the past was a lie, what am I supposed to replace it with? Another lie? All that’s necessary is to pull the old one out and put a new one in, like a circuit board? Your lies have more diodes. I suppose they work faster, more color and noise.”

“What you replace your empty past with, Inspector, is your business. I’m giving you something different. I’m giving you a choice. Think about it. You choose, and that becomes your fate. Whatever years you have left, it’s all in your hands. Can you handle that? Can you make a decision on your own, without someone telling you which way to go?”

Kang had wanted me to choose. Now Kim wanted the same thing, only he couldn’t help being nasty about it. People who know the truth are that way. “And what if I don’t want to make a choice?”

“Dead. Very simply, dead. We’ll shoot you. In fact, I’ll do it myself. We’ll make it something dramatic, something that will send a message to the others. ‘What a waste,’ they’ll say as they cluck their tongues. ‘O had a choice to live, and he chose to die. Too bad.’ ”

“Maybe that will turn out to be your worst nightmare. What if I end up being a martyr?”

Kim’s smile told me the thought had already occurred to him. “You aren’t martyr material, Inspector. You have no cause; no one will rally around anything you have ever said, or been, or imagined. It will be as if you stepped off a cliff for no reason.”

“I could choose to go back to my mountain, fade away, not cause you any trouble. What’s wrong with that?”

“Not possible. We can’t have you on the fence. It would be a bad precedent, and we’re dealing with a period right now when setting precedent takes priority over normal considerations of right and wrong. I may not accomplish much in the next couple of months, but one thing I will get done and that is to establish precedents.”

“So you’d rather eliminate me. Nothing personal, simply setting precedent.”

“Look, O, here’s a list.” He pulled a paper from the folder. “See the names with the check marks next to them? They’re with us.”

“The familiar name list. I’m not on it, I hope. It seems an unstable place to be. You keep fiddling with the order. These are the ones you’re propping up, I assume.” I glanced at the list. Nobody I’d want to have drinks with. “You don’t pick your friends all that carefully as far as I can see.”

“I’m not picking them; they’re picking me. They come knocking on the door in the dead of night, promising to deliver whole sections of the country, army units, security files, whatever I want.”

“They have probably done the same with the Chinese.” Most of the names were of people used to landing on their feet.

“I don’t care whose tummy they are rubbing, as long as they realize they can’t afford to ignore me. We need a quiet transition, as seamless and unremarkable as we can make it. Nobody raises his head, nobody gets hurt. This is a list of what we like to call our guides, people who know where the paths are, and where they lead. If these are the right paths, and everyone cooperates, all that happens is that the sign in the front window changes. ‘Under new management.’ ”

“The immaculate omelet, made without breaking a single egg. I don’t think so.”

“You don’t think so. I don’t think so, either, but that’s what the plan calls for. If you ask me, there’s no chance things will stick to the script, and when they don’t, we have to go to plan B.”

“Always plan B. Why not start there?”

“You won’t like it. Trust me, no one will like it.”

“Tell me honestly, Major. Do you really think you can blow the whistle, point to the scoreboard, and convince twenty-three million people that you’ve won the game?”

“I don’t know why anyone would believe it, but I’m telling you it’s already happened. It doesn’t matter what the people at the bottom think. They’ll do as they’re told. But the ones at the top, they can see what has happened. I’m not going to spend a lot of time analyzing the causes. The fact is, I’ve never seen so many whipped dogs in my life.”

“Is that so?”

“You saw that group at the table the first night. If I shift my chair, they wet themselves. They’re not cooperative, but they are resigned.”

“Good. In that case, you have probably already looked into how many of your army divisions are going to have to stay for the next hundred years to keep all the dogs in line. Do you think you’re going to pacify the whole country? Go up to the mountains in Chagang sometime and tell me that. Try driving a tank through hills and dales of Yanggang. How long do you think the railroads will last? Will you guard every tunnel and every bridge?”

“It’s one country, for the love of God, O.”

“Of course! You’re a Christian. I should have guessed.”

“That’s not relevant.”

“Oh, no? You expect me to think that your heart doesn’t race when you look around and think of the possibilities for converts.”

“Be serious. Are you with us or against us? I don’t have time to kick this ball around.”

“I know, I know; you are on a tight schedule. Only I don’t think you realize yet what is going on outside the bubble of this compound.”

“Let me try inserting something you may find interesting. Your grandmother was a Christian.”

“Is that so?” Pang did his homework. Kim did his homework. Pretty soon, I’d have a nice genealogy chart to hang in my house.

“She was educated at a Methodist school in Haeju. That’s where she grew up, wasn’t it?”

“You seem to have the file on my grandmother. You tell me.”

“I thought you knew.”

“Fascinating, all fascinating. And it means what? I’m next in line to be Pope?”

“The Pope isn’t a Methodist.”

“What a coincidence. Neither am I.”

“Look, O, you may not believe it, you may not like it, but the biggest change either of us will ever see is already here. Not on the doorstep, not in the wings. It is here, now. In a year, this rump state of yours will not exist. Understood?”

“Within a year, I get to bring in the tray with your breakfast.”

“Maybe.”

“And my friends? What happens to them?”

“Depends who they are.” Kim picked up his pencil. “Who are they?”

“And my world?”

“Your world? I should think you’d be happy to see it disappear. Besides, the new one won’t be so bad.”

“Is it already on display at the hotel? I get headaches.”

Kim put all the papers in a neat pile. “Things have been quiet up to now. But we go into phase two soon. I need a decision from you. Help me make it smooth, or I guarantee you won’t live to see the end of it. That’s the way it is going to be.”