Jack Higgins - Year Of The Tiger

When Chavasse had finished, he stood in front of the desk, naked as the day he was born, and stared down in wonder at the sergeant, who was kneeling on the floor, examining every article of clothing thoroughly.

Tsen pressed a buzzer on the desk and returned to his report. After a moment, the woman orderly came in. She stood beside the desk, completely ignoring Chavasse, while Tsen spoke to her. She took the papers he gave her, crossed to a large green cabinet and started to file them.

Chavasse stood patiently waiting for the sergeant to finish, and then behind him the door opened and he saw Colonel Li framed in the mirror.

A look of astonishment appeared on Li’s face, then was quickly replaced by what seemed to Chavasse to be genuine anger. He crossed the room in two quick strides and hauled Tsen from his seat.

“You stupid swine!” he snarled. “Hasn’t he suffered enough? Must he be completely humiliated?”

“But I was simply seeing that he had the customary search before execution, Colonel,” Tsen explained. “Central Committee orders are quite explicit and the procedure to be followed is most clearly laid down.”

“Get out of my sight!” Colonel Li shouted. “And take that damned woman with you!”

Captain Tsen and the orderly hurriedly withdrew and the sergeant started to help Chavasse into his clothes.

“I’m sorry about that, Paul,” Li said. “Truly sorry, believe me.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Chavasse told him. “Nothing matters any longer.”

“So Captain Tsen’s told you?”

Chavasse nodded. “I’ve won after all, haven’t I?”

There was genuine sorrow on Li’s face. “I’d have given anything to see this affair turn out differently, Paul, you know that. But it’s no longer my responsibility. You’ve been sentenced to death by the Central Committee, and there’s an end to it.”

“It’s strange,” Chavasse said, “but I feel quite pleased about it. I’m even glad my automatic jammed when it did and I didn’t put a bullet in your head. It gives you time to find out for yourself that you’re wrong. That all of you are wrong.”

Li groaned, got to his feet and crossed to the fire. For a while he stared down into the flames, and then he turned. “If only they’d given me a little more time. Just a few more days. You were close, Paul. Closer than you think.”

Chavasse shook his head and said tranquilly, “Oil and water don’t mix, Colonel. That’s basic chemistry. We’re a million miles apart, now and always.”

Colonel Li slammed one balled fist into his palm. “But we are right, Paul. Our progress is as inexorable as a law of nature. We will win and you will lose.”

“You people never take human beings into account,” Chavasse told him, “and they’re the most variable factor in the universe. Nothing’s certain in this life, not for me or you or anybody.”

Colonel Li shrugged. “I can see I’m wasting my time talking to you.” He pulled back a shoulder, brought his heels together and held out his hand. “Goodbye, Paul.”

Chavasse took the hand mechanically because it didn’t seem to matter anymore and then he turned and the sergeant opened the door for him and they went out.

When they reached his cell he halted, but the sergeant pushed him forward and stopped him outside another one at the very end of the corridor. He unlocked the door and pushed Chavasse inside.

It was completely dark and he stood there, arms outstretched in front of him as he edged forward, and then his boot rang against the end of an iron cot and, at that moment, a hard white light was switched on.

The man who lay on the cot was swathed in bloody rags and his hands were crossed on his breast as if he were dead. His eyes were closed and no sound issued from his swollen lips. The face was like wax, the skin so translucent that one would have sworn the bone gleamed through, and yet there was the mark of incredible suffering there.

Chavasse slumped down on the edge of the bed, shaking the man’s head from side to side. “Joro!” he said dully. “Joro!” and he gently touched the cold face with the tips of his fingers.

Slowly, incredibly, the eyes opened to stare blankly at him, and then there was a faint stirring of life there. The Tibetan opened his mouth to speak, but no sound would come out and after a while, the head fell back again and the eyes closed.

Nothing seemed real anymore, everything seemed part of some unbelievable nightmare. He sat there beside the Tibetan, staring blankly at the wall, until footsteps approached and the door opened.

There were five of them including the sergeant. Two of them took Joro between them and went first, Chavasse bringing up the rear with the others.

When they opened the door at the end of the corridor, a drift of rain blew in on the wind. Outside in the courtyard, it was cold and miserable, the sky black with threatening clouds, everything tinged with early morning.

Captain Tsen was waiting with a file of six riflemen in the centre of the yard and he stayedthere, waiting for the sergeant to handle his end of the business as quickly as possible.

Two wooden posts, about ten feet apart, had been hammered into the ground a yard away from the opposite wall, and Chavasse waited while they roped the unconscious Joro into place.

When they seized him in turn and tied him expertly, he was conscious of no fear. He didn’t even feel the bite of the ropes as they were pulled tightly about his arms.

At last they were finished and the soldiers moved away and took up position on one side, the sergeant standing in front of them. Then everybody waited.

Soon Colonel Li appeared at the top of the steps in the main entrance. He was wearing his dress cap and white gloves, everything very formal and correct, and Captain Tsen turned and saluted.

Li came down the steps slowly and crossed the courtyard. He stood a few feet away, hands behind his back, and looked straight at Chavasse, and then he brought his heels together in a quick gesture, saluted and turned away.

Tsen barked a quick order and the six riflemen moved forward quickly and raised their weapons. Chavasse seemed to see everything through the wrong end of a telescope and to hear all sounds as if they were muted and far off. He saw Tsen’s mouth open, the arm start to fall, and he closed his eyes.

The volley echoed flatly across the town through the heavy rain and he waited for death, but it did not come.

Somewhere through the quiet that surrounded him he was aware of footsteps approaching him, and he opened his eyes. Joro hung forward, his dead, useless body straining against the ropes that held it to the post, and Colonel Li stood a few feet away, examining it dispassionately.

As Chavasse stared uncomprehendingly at Li and Joro, his frozen mind refusing to accept what had happened, Tsen barked an order and the sergeant and four men doubled forward. As they untied Chavasse, he looked across at what was left of Joro, at the blood dripping from the shattered face to the wet cobbles.

Li moved forward, his face calm and detached. “That’s right, Paul,” he said. “Take a good look. It’s your fault that poor ignorant fool is hanging there. You got him into this, no one else.”

As the ropes dropped away from him, Chavasse started to tremble with reaction. “Why?” he croaked. “Why?”

Colonel Li was engaged in fitting a cigarette into his jade holder. He paused long enough to accept a light from the sergeant, blew out a plume of smoke and smiled gently. “But Paul, you surely didn’t imagine we had finished with you?”

As a terrible, soundless scream erupted inside him, Chavasse launched himself forward, his fingers reaching for the throat above the high military collar. He never made it. A fist thudded against the back of his neck, a foot tripped him up and he crashed to the cobbles.