Mai Jia - Decoded

Others swore that under his left arm he also had another pistol. But to tell the truth, no one had ever seen it. Still, not seeing it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. After all, who was able to look casually under his arm? Even if one was to see that there was no gun there, the young members of Unit 701 would never concede the issue, saying instead with great gravity that he only carried his pistol when he was on assignment.

Of course, that is quite likely.

Most professional bodyguards carry more than one pistol, as well as an assortment of concealed weapons, just like Rong Jinzhen would sport more than one pencil or pen, and more than one book. Put simply, there is nothing odd about this; it is rather quite as it should be, just like people needing to eat.

Nevertheless, even though Rong Jinzhen had this man of extraordinary capabilities accompanying him, he still did not feel safe or at ease. Upon departure from the complex, he couldn’t help but sense some indescribable foreboding. He felt as though everyone on the train were staring at him, as if he were the Emperor without his clothes. He was sweating profusely; he was nervous, uneasy, terribly out of sorts, and he had no idea as to what he should do, and certainly no clue as to what would make him feel better. Actually, his state of mind was due in large part to the fact that he was overly concerned with his own personal welfare and the importance of his task — [Transcript of the interview with Director Zheng]

I’ve already said this, but the low-level cryptographer from Y country who was abducted by X country’s agents could not compare to Rong Jinzhen: the difference between the two was like that between heaven and earth. It wasn’t that we were being overly cautious, and it wasn’t that Rong Jinzhen was just frightening himself. The mission they were on involved quite a bit of risk. Even at the beginning, we felt that something was a little strange. After Rong Jinzhen had cracked PURPLE, despite everything being kept quiet about his accomplishment, the levels of secrecy on the part of X country were maintained intact, as if they already knew the cipher had been broken. Of course, they would learn sooner or later that PURPLE had been cracked; things of such magnitude cannot be kept silent for long even if we hadn’t used any of their secret files. But they knew , even though they shouldn’t have. In fact, not only did they know that it was Rong Jinzhen who had broken PURPLE, they were also intimately familiar with much of his work. Realizing the situation, all relevant sections and specialists set about investigating the breach, arriving at certain suspicions and threads in the story. All these threads led to Jan Liseiwicz. This was the initial reason for us to begin to suspect his actual identity, but at that time, they remained only suspicions — there was no concrete proof.

One year later, we received an extraordinary report detailing how Jan Liseiwicz and that notorious anti-communist Georg Weinacht were one and the same. It was then that we understood Lisceiwcz’s truly repulsive nature. We wondered how was it that Liseiwicz had gone from being a scientist to a virulent anti-communist and why he was attacking communism in such a roundabout fashion (even changing his name). That, I guess, is a secret he will carry to his grave. But once the veil was drawn from his true face, his attempts to conspire against us became all too obvious. Perhaps there was no one other than Liseiwicz who truly understood Rong Jinzhen’s formidable talent — after all, he had also worked in cryptography, and had feigned attempts to crack PURPLE. Liseiwicz seemed to guess that Rong Jinzhen would follow the same path towards cryptography, sensing that he would most assuredly become an expert. The decryption of PURPLE was, in a sense, inevitable. Knowing this, Liseiwicz had initially made great efforts to prevent Rong Jinzhen from moving into this field, but upon discovering that Jinzhen was indeed a cryptographer, he shifted his efforts towards hindering the cracking of PURPLE. Once he learnt that it had been broken, he tried misdirection once again, launching a covert stratagem aimed at ensnaring Rong Jinzhen. I think much of what Liseiwicz did was at the behest of political interests, something he little choice about. Consider, for instance, that had Rong Jinzhen broken PURPLE right at the beginning, Liseiwicz would have become a disgrace — it would have been worse than having all of his possessions stolen. But the alarm never sounded. At that time, his role was as an early warning system. How else could it have been discovered that Rong Jinzhen was the man responsible for cracking PURPLE? It had to have been Liseiwicz that put two and two together. He got it right! However, there is one thing that he could not have thought of and that was that his scheme to ensnare Rong Jinzhen would have no effect! You could say that in this matter, God was on Rong Jinzhen’s side.

What is more, the enemy’s JOG radio station propaganda broadcasts over the next few days spoke evasively on the subject, offering huge amounts of money to ‘buy’ our cryptographers; such and such a person for such and such a price. I clearly remember that the bounty they first put on Rong Jinzhen was over ten times that for a pilot: 100,000 yuan.

Can you believe it!? One hundred thousand!

According to Rong Jinzhen’s reckoning, such a bounty put him up in the heavens and, simultaneously, put him one step away from hell. He realized that since such an amount had been placed on his head, those seeking to harm him would have sufficient cause and incentive; it would attract not a few people. All this left him feeling helpless. This was his mistake, as our security preparations to ensure his safety far exceeded any danger that he might run into. Besides the faithful Vasili, there were any number of plainclothes protectors accompanying him every step of the way, including those trained in advanced combat techniques. They were all ready for the unexpected. He didn’t know about any of this, so feeling himself being jostled by the hordes of people coming and going along the train made him feel really nervous.

Rong Jinzhen certainly seemed to possess a quality that forced him to waste time on insignificant matters. And yet, his remarkable intelligence and divine luck perhaps all relied upon this indomitable spirit to keep at it, no matter how many times he might have to bang his head against the wall. What’s more, it was this spirit that seemingly gifted him with a sublime deliberateness. This was simply Rong Jinzhen. Although he had read a countless number of books and possessed an unparalleled breadth of knowledge, when it came to daily life he was completely clueless, unaware of what was happening around him; which made him overly cautious and stupid at the same time. It was truly beyond belief. During all those years, he had only left the complex once, and that was to rescue his sister, Master Rong. His trip to Beijing was only his second time away. In all honesty, in the years that had followed his decryption of PURPLE, his life was not especially stressful and he had the time to go home for a visit, if he so desired. Indeed, we would have made arrangements immediately should he have asked. But he always flatly refused any suggestion that he leave the unit. It was as though he were a criminal being watched by a prison guard: his speech was circumspect; his movements, too. The thought of doing simply as he pleased had no meaning for him. But perhaps more to the point, he was afraid that something would happen if he were to leave even for a short period of time. Just like a person who fears being locked at home alone and divorced from human contact, he feared stepping outside his door; feared meeting people. His reputation and his job were like a sheet of glass to him, transparent and fragile. There is nothing that can be done for this kind of person, and he himself made matters worse by nursing these reclusive emotions, painstakingly cultivating them inside him. There was simply nothing we could do. .