Inspector O 04 - The Man with the Baltic Stare (33 page)

I began. The other customers put down their silverware to listen. The words flowed out.

“There was once a king who cried when he was happy and who smiled when he was mad. He had his subjects whipped when he was pleased with them. He soothed them and treated them with huge banquets when he was angry. At first, there was confusion in the kingdom. People were not sure of themselves. They stumbled through the months, never clear on how to approach the throne, or whether to approach it at all. At the end of a year, they understood. As more time passed, it became inconvenient to deal one way with the king and another way among themselves. They adapted. Children learned to cry when they were happy, to jump with joy when their parents screamed at them with rage, because rage was approval and all children seek that. When lovers sat cooing at each other in the park, passersby knew they were furious and hurried on. If the king nodded in agreement at your petition, the next day you were led to the execution grounds, where the condemned laughed and their relatives told jokes. The other countries did not know how to deal with such an upside-down place. Wise men were consulted. Diplomats went
through special training before being assigned to the court, lest they smile when they should frown and cause a war.

“The king finally died. People stood on the street corners and cheered when his coffin went by, pulled by a long line of white horses decked with ribbons and bright bouquets. The prince did handsprings at the funeral and ordered the royal musicians to play only quick marches for the whole period of mourning, which according to tradition was to last for three years, and thus went on for six.

“Foreigners who observed this did not know what to make of it. You see, they said knowingly to each other, it was inevitable. All the time the people were pretending to be happy when they were actually sad.”

Kang said nothing for a moment. The other diners resumed their meals. The cook returned to the kitchen. “You should write it down,” Kang said finally. All at once, he looked alarmed. “Are you all right?”

Kang stood over me, a question mark spinning above his head.

“What the hell?” I said. I was on the floor. From there, I could see the legs on all the tables. Rarely do you see so many table legs from that perspective. They were all imperfect. No wonder the tables wobbled.

“You passed out, Inspector. I don’t think this is good. I think you need to see someone.”

“Help me up.” I was too weak to lift my hand, or maybe it was no longer connected. It was someone else’s hand. Had we been introduced, this old hand and me? “What wills me to come back, do you think?” I said after Kang pulled me to my feet and put me in the chair with the loose armrest. “What is this awful
fascination I have with light and air? I could have stayed where I was, but for some reason I’m back. Weeds do that.”

“A curse, I know, Inspector. An affliction.” He was taking my pulse, nodding his head to keep count.

“For a moment, you know, I really wasn’t here. Maybe longer. I could have closed the door behind me. I should have.”

“No, you weren’t gone. You were hovering. That’s what we all do in autumn, isn’t it?” He let my arm drop. “Whatever it was, you’re back among us, and your color is getting better. It couldn’t get any worse than it was. Did you finish the story?”

“What story?”

“It was about betrayal, but rather complex.”

“Ah, betrayal. Oak, perhaps.” My head was still clearing.

“You are the one who knows his way around a forest, Inspector, not me.”

“And you are the one who knows his way around betrayals. Can I have a glass of water? Tell me, these days what makes you think you aren’t in the betrayed column? After what happened in Macau, you could be next.”

He produced a glass half-filled. “Ask me again tomorrow. I woke up this morning; that told me I’d make it through today. If I wake up tomorrow as well, I’ll figure the same. It doesn’t worry me, though, which way it swings. You have your door. I have mine. I always have.”

“This armrest is driving me crazy. These chairs were made in China; I can tell. They think they can run this country? Don’t make me laugh.”

“Relax, Inspector; don’t get excited. You might disappear again otherwise.”

“You disappeared, Kang, and not for a couple of minutes. Why did you come back? Why do you care what goes on here? Don’t tell me you’re suddenly a patriot. You’re not a believer. And you’re not here on your own; that’s what I think. Who is paying you?”

“I didn’t leave because I wanted to, you may recall. It wasn’t my choice to stay away so long.”

“It never struck me that you were someone who was too particular about borders, or about your paymaster. Major Kim told me—”

Kang looked away. “Nothing Kim says matters.” He said this softly, like he had turned out the lights in a room he never wanted to see again.

“You know him pretty well, I take it.”

I waited, but nothing came back. The question simply dissolved in the space between us. “Let me guess. You had a joint operation, but it didn’t go well. And now you’re working against him.”

“I’ll say this only once. Never believe anything he tells you. Nothing. Ever.”

“My grandfather was suspicious of oak trees. He said that they were too complex to be trusted.” I thought about it. “And me? You believe anything I say? I’m not all that complex, really. You’ve been watching me; you should know that much.”

“For the moment, I believe whatever it is that keeps me alive. That should be your credo, too.”

“I don’t need it. I’ll find something else. Maybe something halfway in between.”

“A piece of advice, Inspector—stay out of the middle. In times like this, it is the middle that gets crushed. When this is finally over, the countryside will be littered with the corpses of people who chose too late.”

“You’re about to give me a choice, is that it? Don’t bother. I don’t join and I don’t jump. I don’t know if that’s my fate or my upbringing. If you have doubts about me, don’t. I’m not with Kim, and I’m not scared of him.”

“Here.” Kang handed me a napkin to put against the cut. “Take this in case you finally decide it’s worth getting out of the
middle.” He stood up to go. “No sense bleeding to death right now.”

“Let’s suppose the Chinese moved in. Would that be so bad? It wouldn’t be the end of the world. You don’t want the Chinese here in large numbers, of course, or with their ponderous influence.”

“I don’t want them in any numbers, and neither do you.” Kang had helped me back to my hotel room. He was leaning against pressed wood.

“You also don’t want the South to take over.”

“Why should we? We’ll be treated like dirt for a generation. Look how long it took them to stop sneering at Cholla people.”

“Then what’s left?”

“We’ve been on our own for a long time. We can do better. We’re not completely stupid after all these years.” Kang had started down one road of thought, but I could see he changed his mind at the last minute. “You realize, Inspector, that this can’t have a happy ending. There is no clean solution. It’s over the edge of the cliff already.”

“Pity.” He must know about Li.

“I mean, especially for you. It can only end badly.”

“Compared to what?” I said. “If you’re trying to scare me into jumping in line behind you, forget it. I told you: I don’t jump; I don’t join. That’s probably why I survived on the mountain. The more I think about it, the more I realize I was lucky to be there.”

“The problem is, you might not be lucky forever. Life is a series of remembered tasks. What if you forget to inhale one day?”

“Don’t worry; I plan it out every morning when I wake up. So many breaths. So many heartbeats. So many trips to the bathroom. It’s too hard to dole out laughter daily, so I put it on a monthly ration. By the end of the month, people find me dour.”

Kang had a pistol in his belt. He put it on the desk. “What about surprise? What’s the quota for fear this month? Pain?”

“Overfulfilled. I’ve already borrowed against next month. I told you, if you’re trying to scare me, forget it.”

Kang moved to the window and looked outside. “This hotel. You like it?”

“It’s all right. You said so yourself.”

“I’d say you might want to consider moving to a new room. Even better, move out altogether; find a quieter place, something with a better character, maybe. It’s up to you, but that’s what I say.” He looked at the pistol, then at me. “You have something to protect yourself with in these troubled times?”

“My aura of invincibility.”

“Useful, but carry this when you go out from now on.” He took an extra clip out of his pocket. “If you use these up and need more, it means you’re out of luck, so don’t bother looking around for the exit door. Keep one for yourself. I’ll be in touch.” He stepped into the hall and, from the sound of another door slamming shut, took the stairs.

I didn’t have a suitcase, but I also didn’t have much in the way of clothes, so I put everything in the laundry bag. There was no sense checking out, since Kim, or at least his accounting department, was paying the bill. Downstairs, the bird clerk looked up as I walked by.

“It’s no problem for us to do the laundry,” she said. “Just dial six.”

“I thought six was room service.”

She held up one finger.

“Never mind. I prefer to do the laundry myself. Go down to the river and beat it on the rocks, that’s how we washed our things in the old days.”

“There are no rocks.”

“No? That’s progress. Every damn river in the country is filled with rocks except this one.” I smiled at her. She wasn’t bad
looking when you saw her in the afternoon light. “Say, don’t I know you from up in Rajin? Didn’t you used to sing at the casino?”

“Me? I’ve never been up there.” She seemed pleased.

I hoisted the bag over my shoulder. “I’ve always done my own laundry.”

“You kidding me?”

“Sure, it’s how we did things. My grandfather, who you probably never heard of, said he hadn’t spent all that time in the forest fighting Japs just to make sure someone else would wash his shorts.”

“He said that? What about your mother?”

“She died in the war.”

“Oh.” The clerk looked serious. “You shouldn’t call them Japs.”

“Pardon me?”

“Japs. You shouldn’t say that. We get Japanese tourists these days, older ones, not many, but more and more. They like to come and look around at places they used to live, where they went to school, that sort of thing. We’re not supposed to offend them.”

A car, two cars roared into the parking lot. A lot of doors slammed all at once.

“You’d better get back here.” The clerk opened a door behind the counter. I moved quickly to see what she meant. There was a small space and what looked like a passageway, though it was too dark to see where it led. “Do it!” she hissed. “Now!”

I disappeared inside, and the door shut behind me.

“You can’t go up there,” I heard the clerk say.

“The hell we can’t.” A clatter of footsteps up the stairs. A few minutes later, footsteps coming down, not nearly as fast. “Where is he?” It was Major Kim’s voice. He was out of breath.

“I don’t know. He left a few minutes ago.”

“Where’d he go?”

“Out.”

“What out? Where did he go?”

“How should I know? You don’t pay us to put tracking devices in their undershirts.”

There was a slap and a yelp. “You were supposed to keep him here.”

“Yeah.” This time it was the thin man. “You were supposed to keep him here.”

“He didn’t take well to stalling tactics, all right? He left. He said he was going to do his laundry down by the riverside. That’s what I know. You hit me again and I’ll report you.”

Another slap, another yelp. From the sound of his voice, Kim had moved around the counter and was standing right outside the little door. “You people had better get it straight who’s in charge from now on. What happened to these TV monitors? You’re supposed to be taping everyone who comes in here.”

“They’re not on.”

“I can see that. When did they go off?”

“Yesterday, day before, who knows? I’m not a technician. We put in a request for maintenance, but they’re sealed, so someone special has to open them. He hasn’t shown up. Hey! Let go of me.”

“You screw with me once more, you’ll end up in a camp, you understand? And they aren’t nice, those guards. Get these monitors fixed. Everything else better be working, too. I’ll be back to check. And you,” I was guessing he had pointed a finger at the thin man, “you go down to the river and pick him up. If he gets out of your sight again, you’re going to be trading recipes with the crabs at the bottom of the West Sea.”

The car engines started up, and tires screamed out of the parking lot. A minute later, the clerk opened the little door and looked in. “You heard that?”

I came out and straightened up. “I heard.”

“One of these days, I’m going to put a bullet in his skull.”

“Good for you. Since when are we friends?”