Inspector O 04 - The Man with the Baltic Stare (22 page)

Kang waited a moment before letting a few drops fall into my glass. “You actually believed him?”

“I take it you mean that wasn’t his intent.”

“Oh, no, he really did want you to go through the motions. One of Kim’s main tasks, though, is to accomplish exactly the opposite. He is supposed to make sure the son is so badly compromised that no one can possibly follow him. He must have wondered how to do that, until you crashed into view. Your appearance lets Kim claim that he’s made every effort to save the successor’s reputation, but due to the bad faith of the Chinese and the incompetence of a former North Korean policeman—the grandson of a Hero of the Republic no less—that has proved impossible. He discredits Beijing and the opposition in Pyongyang in one move. Brilliant.”

“I didn’t realize my skills were in such demand.”

Kang screwed the top on the bottle. Vodka time was over.

“This leaves me with a question.” I said. “Do you think the son did it? Murdered that prostitute in his hotel room?”

Richie coughed and fumbled with his glass. “How can you drink that potato water? Have a bit of this whiskey, why don’t you?”

“The Chinese have become concerned,” Kang ignored my question, “and concern has rapidly become alarm, at what the South is doing. Colonel Pang and his teacups are already moving to stop the process.” Astounding, did Kang have Chinese
maples on his payroll? “But the scent of blood is on the wind. Gangs from China and everywhere else see an opportunity to carve up the country into spheres of influence. For all I know, the Mafia has set up shop on Kwangbok Street.”

“You forgot something.”

“The opposition. Yes, meanwhile, there is a loose resistance building against outside efforts to seize on the situation. It isn’t anything coordinated—yet.”

“So I noticed. It sounds a lot like holly.”

“Really?” Kang looked at Richie and smiled faintly. “Holly takes at least a couple of years to germinate after you put the seed in the ground, or so I’ve heard.”

Richie sat up. He seemed better, energized somehow.

“Holly . . . ,” Kang said. “Tough little tree. Refresh my memory, what kind of leaves does it have?”

“Leathery, spiny.” I hesitated because I hated to give him what he wanted. “And glossy.” What a son of a bitch he was, both of them were. “And you two want to talk me into joining this loose resistance, I suppose. It was you who pulled me back into this sewer from the beginning, wasn’t it, from the moment that car stopped in front of my cabin. How you did it I don’t yet know, but if I go back and look, I’m sure I’ll find your paw prints.”

Richie was staring at me intently.

“Sorry,” I said, “but I don’t have the time or the inclination to help.”

“Is that so?” Richie had sunk back against the cushions. His voice was flat. “You went to Macau to help Kim.”

“I didn’t. I went to find out what is going on. Besides, I had to prove something to myself.”

“That’s fine,” Kang said. “That’s good. A little self-validation before the sheet is pulled over your face for the last time. While you’re at it, you might consider whether you really want to be treated like dirt between the toes of China. Because that’s what you’ll end up being. The South Koreans will lose the game; the
Chinese will win. Seoul is a pack of fools. You want to join them? I wish you the best of luck.”

Succumbing to imagery never leads anywhere good. On the other hand, the mental image of 10 billion Chinese toes did carry a certain weight. “What do you propose doing about it?”

“We don’t need to fight the Chinese, Inspector. We don’t even have to make them unhappy. We need them to think we are prepared to cooperate. It wouldn’t take much. Colonel Pang is a reasonable man, as you’ve seen. It’s too bad he’s been marked to die.”

“Pang? Marked to die?”

“That surprises you? Not by us. Kim and Zhao have apparently decided they need to get rid of him. Kim is under strict orders not to rile the Chinese, so he’ll let Zhao and his viper do it.”

“Kim and Zhao are cooperating in this?”

“Not only in this.”

“What about Pang—I assume you’ve warned him?”

“Warned Pang? Why would I? He wouldn’t warn me if he learned that I was on a list for elimination. And he won’t warn you, either; don’t fool yourself into thinking he will. He’s very smooth.”

“This is beginning to sound like a class reunion. Is there anyone involved in this whole thing that you don’t know?”

“I haven’t had much to do these past long years but go over my mistakes, pummel myself for all the missteps, and think ahead to this moment. Believe me, I’ve thought about it. I’ve examined every angle. I’ve run through all the options. I’m ready to do whatever is necessary. My only question at this point is: Are you?”

That night, Greta drove me back to my hotel.

“You don’t like the brake pedal?” I said as we went through the gears.

“I’m saving it for someone special.” She pulled into a spot near the castle, with a view of the city. “You’re not as much of a coward as you pretend, are you, Inspector?”

“That depends.” We weren’t anywhere near my hotel.

“We went through a lot of trouble to bring you here.”

“So I noticed. It might have been easier if you’d stayed in Macau long enough to talk to me there.”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“Sure you do. You go there to gamble, or just leave messages?”

“Macau is an interesting place,” she said. “I’m sure you must have enjoyed your stay.”

“Something went wrong; the message didn’t get to him on time.”

“ ‘For want of a nail,’ isn’t that what they say?”

“You must know why he wanted that room, that particular room.”

She looked at her watch. “Deadlines loom, Inspector. Your hotel is at the bottom of the hill. It’s not that long a walk, though the cobblestones can be murder in the dark. Maybe we’ll see each other again.”

Her car disappeared before the engine even made third gear. As I made my way down the hill, I looked for a phone. It seemed to me that I couldn’t stand aside and let events take their course. If I knew Pang was targeted, he deserved to be warned. Yes, absolutely, I wanted him out of the country, back on his own side of the river. For that to happen, he didn’t need to end up dead. Whatever he had done to the captain was between the two of them. This was different; it was between Pang and me.

“The colonel isn’t here.” The voice on the other end was clear and crisp. There was no crackling on the line. We could have been within a few blocks of each other. More likely, the voice was in Beijing, ready to route the call to Pang once a few details were cleared up—like who had dialed the number and why.

“Yeah, he isn’t there. Never mind that. I need to talk to him,
urgently.” I was using a pay phone, and I didn’t know how long I could talk. The woman who sold me the phone card in the tobacco store had been short-tempered. She was about to close for the night and didn’t like it when I showed up. After I fumbled with the money, she muttered to her husband, grabbed the bills from my hand, and held up a few.

“What?” she said in Russian. “Tabak?”

It was the only Russian she knew, or all she would admit to knowing. I wanted the most expensive phone card she had, but judging by how she threw it on the counter, I wasn’t too sure that was what I got.

“You need to talk to Pang urgently?” said the voice on the other end. “So do I. So do a lot of people.”

I figured I knew what that meant. “Something happen?”

“You have a reason to know?” The voice became full of thorns. “Where are you calling from, anyway? Who told you how to access this system?”

“Maybe I owe him money, a lot of it.”

A pause. “Well, invest it. Put it under your pillow.” Another pause, longer this time. “Never mind; forget the pillow.”

“He’s dead?”

“You could say that. His lungs were next to him when he should have woke up this morning.”

“Ah.” It was all that came to my mind. I took a deep breath and hung up.

I didn’t bother to tell Kang I was leaving. After a testy exchange at the airport with a clerk who insisted it was impossible to change the routing on my ticket, I booked the afternoon flight to Beijing and then caught a plane the next day to Pyongyang. When I walked in the door of the hotel, I was greeted with a loud shriek.

“Stay where you are!” A woman was shampooing the carpet, giving the fish a run for their money. “Don’t move. It’s wet. You’ll leave footprints.”

“Inspector?” The bird was on duty. “We didn’t know where you were, and we were getting ready to move your things out of the room this afternoon, not that you have much there. Oh, and there’s a message for you. It came about an hour ago.”

The note was from Zhao. All it said was: “2.” I went upstairs to wash my face and give Kim a call but decided to let him stew. When I came down again a little before two o’clock, the man who never blinked was standing at the front desk. He stared at me.

“I missed you,” I said. “On the plane, I was trying to remember something my grandfather once told me. It’s one of those things that if you think about too long, you can’t remember. But as soon as you stop thinking about it, you remember. Maybe if you went away, I’d stop thinking about it and then it would pop into my head.”

He didn’t have much to say to that, so I went out in front. I only waited for a couple of minutes when the car pulled up. The little man went through his routine.

“Game time,” said Zhao as soon as the door shut and we pulled away.

“What game would that be?”

“Ask Pang, why don’t you.” Zhao laughed his panther laugh. I saw the driver smile to himself.

“Is there a way we could talk, just between ourselves?” We could always get rid of his other ear, I thought. Why don’t we do that?

Zhao pressed a button on the armrest. The driver frowned.

“Is that better?”

“Fine,” I said.

“The last pieces are in place, and we are ready to put the machinery in motion. In case you hadn’t figured it out, the Russians have the northeast. The Japs have everything on the east coast below Chongjin. And I have the west coast. I don’t want anything to upset this arrangement.”

“Pyongyang?”

Zhao appeared to consider this. “You want it? It’s yours.”

“No, thank you.”

“Then stay out of the way.”

“Like Pang?”

The panther’s eyes looked sated. “Shall we mourn Colonel Pang, Inspector? Would you like a moment to grieve? It’s not such a great loss, you know. He had orders to secure the entire northern half of your country. I don’t think he would have tried to get everything all the way down to Kaesong, but one never knows what might happen in these situations. He was on the verge of sending in the stable of your sniveling defector generals he had been holding in reserve. They’ve been well treated, every need attended to. In return, they were going to help Pang stuff your country back under the imperial wing, exactly where the
mandarins in Beijing think it belongs. Who can say? Pang might even have been appointed governor-general. I’ve saved you from that, and more.”

“So far, I feel no stirrings of gratitude.”

Zhao growled softly. “I told you not to go to Macau, but I know you went anyway. And then you disappeared. I don’t like that, but I’ll let it go this time if you give me what I want.” There was sweat on Zhao’s upper lip.

“And what would that be?”

“Keep an eye on Major Kim for me. He isn’t your friend. He doesn’t have your interests at heart. If he has his way, you’ll be licking his boots.”

“I doubt it. That would ruin the shine.”

Zhao reached over and touched my chest. “We have a lot in common, Inspector. We both hate to be bossed around; we both want to preserve what is best about the old ways. And neither of us gives a damn about politics. This is the time when we need to work together.” He pushed me back against the seat. “I know, you don’t think that is possible. But I do. I think we are the perfect couple.”

I slipped sideways. “You might be right,” I said. “But I need some time to think it over. You see what I mean?” I put his hand in his lap.

Zhao moved away, his face twisted in rage. He stabbed the button on the armrest. “Pull over,” he said. “Get this bastard out of my car.”

We swerved to the side of the road. The little man jerked the door open. “Get the fuck out,” he said. “Get the fuck out of the car right now.”

“Very good,” I said. “You’ve been studying.”

“Take a deep breath.” He grinned at me. “Go ahead, take a couple, while you’re at it.” He slammed the door, and the car sped away.

After getting out of the car, I went back to my hotel, hung the
DO NOT DISTURB
sign on my doorknob, and tried to sleep off the memory. At six o’clock, the doorbell rang.

“Room service.”

“Go away. Look at the sign.”

“That’s for the room-cleaning staff. I’m not cleaning. I’m checking the minibar.”