Frank Schätzing - Limit

‘I appreciate your gesture very much, Mr Jericho. Tian unfortunately didn’t have the opportunity to tell me that you were just moving in.’

Which meant the idiot hadn’t mentioned it. Jericho shrugged his shoulders and pulled the cover off his armchair.

‘He didn’t know.’

That was a lie too, but in that way they had both respected Tu and could turn their attention to more important matters. One after the other, they pushed the armchairs in front of the desk.

‘It doesn’t look so bad after all.’ Jericho grinned. ‘Now we just need something to refuel. What do you think? I could fetch us some coffee. There’s a patisserie downstairs, they do—’

‘No, don’t worry,’ Chen interrupted. ‘I’ll fetch them.’

Ah yes. The game.

‘No, I couldn’t let you.’

‘Of course you can.’

‘No, it’s my pleasure. You’re my guest.’

‘And you’re receiving me unexpectedly. As I already said—’

‘It’s the least I can do for you. How do you like your coffee?’

‘How do you like yours ?’

‘That’s very kind of you, but—’

‘Would you like nutmeg in yours?’

That was the latest thing: nutmeg in coffee. It had allegedly saved Starbucks from bankruptcy last winter. The whole damn world had started drinking nutmeg coffee and swore that it tasted amazing. It reminded Jericho of the Sichuan Espresso craze which had rolled across the country a few years before, transforming the taste of Italian coffee into an Asian variant of Dante’s Inferno. Jericho had taken a little sip from the rim of a cup once, and even days later had still felt as though he could pull the skin from his lips.

He gave in. ‘A normal cappuccino would be great. The patisserie is just downstairs on the left.’

Chen nodded.

And, suddenly, he was smiling too. The skin on his face stretched taut, making Jericho fear it might tear off, but it was a thoroughly lovely, friendly smile, and one which disappeared only once it reached the cracked wastelands beneath his eyes.

‘Yoyo isn’t her real name,’ explained Chen, as they sat slurping coffee together. By now the air-conditioning was on and had created a reasonably bearable temperature. Chen’s posture suggested he thought the soft leather seat might throw him off at any second, but compared with the man who had skulked through the doorframe a quarter of an hour before, he made an almost normal impression.

‘So what is?’

‘Yuyun.’

‘Cloud of Jade.’ Jericho raised his eyebrows appreciatively. ‘A beautiful choice.’

‘Oh, I gave it a great deal of thought! I wanted it to be a light, fresh name, full of poetry, full of—’ Chen’s gaze clouded over and wandered off into the distance.

‘Harmony,’ completed Jericho.

‘Yes. Harmony.’

‘So why does she call herself Yoyo?’

‘I don’t know.’ Chen sighed. ‘I know far too little about her, that’s the problem. Just because you have named someone, it doesn’t mean you know them. The label doesn’t define the content. And what are names anyway? Just rallying calls for the lost. And yet everyone hopes that their own child will be an exception, it’s like being anaesthetised. As if names could change anything. As if there has ever been any truth in a name!’ He took a noisy gulp of his coffee.

‘And Yoyo – Yuyun has disappeared?’

‘Let’s stick with Yoyo. Apart from me no one calls her Yuyun. Yes, I haven’t seen or spoken to her for two days now. Didn’t Tu Tian tell you about any of it?’

‘Only a little.’

For some unknown reason this seemed to please Chen. Then Jericho realised. The way Tu had said it: I’m tempted to say that she trusts me more than her father . Whatever it was that bound Tu and Chen together, and however close this bond was – Yoyo’s preference came between them. And that’s why Chen had wanted the reassurance that, this time, not even Tu knew anything.

‘Well, we were supposed to meet up,’ he continued. ‘The day before yesterday, for lunch in Lianing Lu. I waited for over an hour, but she didn’t show. At first I thought it was because of an argument we’d had, that perhaps she was still angry, but then—’

‘You had an argument?’

‘We stayed out of each other’s way for a while after she confronted me with her reasons for moving out, ten days ago, out of the blue. She didn’t consider it necessary to seek my advice, nor did she want my help.’

‘You didn’t agree with her decision?’

‘It seemed too hasty to me, and I told her so. Very plainly! That there wasn’t the slightest reason for her to move out. That she was much better off with me than in that robber’s den she’s been hanging around in for years. That she’s not doing herself any favour with those types of people – that it isn’t clever—’ Chen stared at the cup in his hand. They were silent for a while. Whole universes of dust emerged and disappeared in the sunlight. Jericho’s nose was itching, but he repressed the urge to sneeze. Instead, he tried to remember where he had read the name Yoyo Chen.

‘Yoyo has many talents,’ Chen continued softly. ‘Maybe I did hold her back too much. But I didn’t have a choice. She incurred the displeasure of prominent circles, and it was getting increasingly dangerous. They caught up with her five years ago – because she didn’t follow my advice.’

‘What did she do?’

‘Do? She completely ignored my warnings.’

‘Yes, I know. But that’s not a crime. Why was she arrested?’

Chen blinked distrustfully.

‘I didn’t say that in so many words.’

Jericho frowned. He leaned over, put the tips of his fingers together and looked Chen directly in the eyes.

‘Listen to me. I don’t want to push you by any means. But we won’t get anywhere like this. You wouldn’t be here just to say that the Party is giving Yoyo a lifetime achievement award, so let’s speak plainly. What did she do?’

‘She—’ Chen seemed to be looking for a way of formulating it which wouldn’t require definitions like ‘criticism of the regime’.

‘May I voice an assumption?’

Chen hesitated. Then he nodded.

‘Yoyo is a dissident.’ Jericho knew this to be the case. But where on earth had he read her name? ‘She criticises the system, probably on the internet, and has been doing so for years. It drew attention on a number of occasions, but until yesterday she always got off lightly. Now something may have happened. And you’re worried that Yoyo may have been imprisoned.’

‘She said I was the last person who could reproach her for it,’ whispered Chen. ‘But I was only trying to protect her. We argued about it, many, many times, and she shouted at me. She said it was pointless, that I don’t let anyone get close to me, not even my own daughter, and how I of all people— She said I was a total hypocrite.’

Jericho waited. Chen’s expression hardened.

‘But I didn’t mean to bother you with these stories,’ he concluded. ‘The main thing is that there hasn’t been any sign of life from her in two days.’

‘Perhaps it’s less serious than you think. It wouldn’t be the first time someone’s son or daughter has disappeared after an argument. They lie low with friends, play dead for a while, just to teach their parents a lesson.’

Chen shook his head. ‘Not Yoyo. She would never use an argument as cause to do something like that.’

‘You said yourself that you don’t know your daughter well enough—’

‘Well, in this respect I know her very well. We are similar in many ways. Yoyo hates that kind of childish nonsense.’

‘Have you checked with the authorities?’