The Firemaker (54 page)

Margaret watched in silence for a long time from the cab of the pick-up as Li went through the Mercedes, very carefully, like a policeman searching for evidence. Which, she reflected, was what he was. She had no idea what he was looking for, or why. She suspected he was filling his mind with anything that would shut out his friend’s betrayal, squeeze out the guilt and regret. They had not spoken since he had taken the gun gently from her hand and embraced her and told her to wait in the cab. She had done what she was told without question or feeling. She had never spilled living blood, and the shock of it was greater than she could have imagined. She felt numb now, but knew that the pain would come later.

Li emerged from the Mercedes, a dark object not much bigger than a cigarette pack in his hand. He seemed to be prodding it with his finger and then listening to it. It was a moment or two before she realised what it was, and she leaped from the cab and sprinted the twenty-odd yards to the car. She snatched it from him breathlessly and checked the display. ‘We’ve got a signal,’ she said.

He nodded. ‘The battery’s very low.’

She looked at him. ‘Who do we call?’ And even as she asked she saw the cable trailing in his other hand, and beyond him, on the back seat of the Mercedes, Johnny Ren’s Apple Powerbook computer. She thrust the phone back into Li’s hand and slipped into the seat, opening the laptop on her knees. It took several infuriating minutes for the operating system to load before the screen presented her with its options. She hardly dared look. But there it was. The Internet Explorer icon. ‘Jesus …’ She looked up at Li’s perplexed face framed in the doorway. ‘We don’t need to call anyone. We can go on-line. We can put the entire goddamn story on the Internet and the whole world’s going to know about Grogan Industries and Pang and RXV.’

Li understood at once the implications of what she was saying. ‘Do you know how?’ he asked anxiously.

‘I think so.’ She tapped a few keys and opened up a document template on which she could type up their story. ‘It’s crazy,’ she gasped, her face shining with excitement. ‘We’re just about as far from anywhere as we can be …’ She glanced out of the window at the endless expanse of grass and desert. ‘… and yet we can talk to anyone in the world – several millions of them simultaneously.’

The computer beeped and she froze.

Li leaned in, troubled by her consternation. ‘What’s wrong?’

‘Battery’s low on this, too.’ A box on the screen told her she had less than fifteen minutes computing time left. ‘God, how can I write it all in fifteen minutes?’ She starting tapping furiously on the keyboard.

Li could do nothing but wait and watch, anxious and frustrated. He walked around the car, avoiding looking back in the direction of the pick-up. He still couldn’t bring himself to think about Yongli, never mind look at his friend’s body lying in the dirt. The incessant tap, tap of the computer keys punctuated the gentle whine of the wind. He saw, through the windscreen, the concentration on Margaret’s face, the tension there. He heard the computer beep again and saw her despair.

‘Less than five minutes. Jesus, I’ve got to get on-line! Give me the cellphone.’ Her voice was shrill and insistent. He quickly rounded the car and handed her the phone. She plugged it into the modem socket on the back of the Powerbook and clicked the Internet icon. Almost instantly the melody of touch-tone numbers rang out, followed by the familiar white-noise sound of computers talking to each other across the ether – Ren’s password and ID sent automatically by his software. Then she was connected.

Li watched in awe as her fingers rattled back and forth across the keyboard, her eyes flickering up and down between keyboard and screen, the occasional grimace contorting her lips. Then there was a gasp as the computer screen suddenly went black, and the single, high-pitched wail of a disconnected line emanated from the earpiece of the cellphone. She leaned back in the seat and closed her eyes.

‘Well?’ Li asked. He wasn’t sure he wanted to hear her response.

She opened her eyes slowly and looked at him. ‘I sent it to every website and bulletin board and e-mail address I could remember. It’s out there now, Li Yan. It’s not just our secret any more.’

*

The fence that marked the border ran off to east and west as far as the eye could see. Beyond lay Mongolia. A few miles to the north and east, the town of Dzamin Uüd, where it would be possible to catch a train for Ulaanbaatar. They stopped on a slight rise and gazed across the emptiness. They had left behind them, with the Mercedes and the pick-up and the bodies, the elation of sharing their secret with the world, and stood now facing a future of bleak uncertainty.

Li glanced back. China, in all its vast diversity, spread away to the south. His home. His country. In these last moments, as they had walked away, with every word of explanation, and with every step towards another country, his heart had grown heavy with the bitter burden of regret. Now he felt the eyes of his ancestors upon him, looking across five millennia. He had a responsibility to them, as well as to his country and to the oath he had taken as a police officer. He could not simply walk away. Margaret might have told their story to the world, but he had unfinished business in China.

He looked at her, her face stained by sweat and tears, her eyes strained by tiredness and death. And he put the flat of his hand on her cheek and felt it smooth and cool. He wished with all his heart it could be some other way.

He took a wad of dollars from his back pocket and pressed it into her hand. ‘They’ll take dollars,’ he said. ‘They always take dollars.’ He gazed beyond her across the desolate wastes of Mongolia. ‘It’s only a few miles to Dzamin Uüd. Will you manage on your own?’ She took the dollars without surprise and nodded. She had known he would not go to Ulaanbaatar with her. She had seen it in his eyes, had felt it in his touch. And she knew why. She understood. In his place she would have done the same.

‘I’ll always love you,’ she said.

He could not meet her eye. How could he make her understand how hard this was for him? He took both her hands and forced himself to look at her. ‘Even if they find a cure, what kind of existence would it be, living out my life in some foreign place, a fugitive from my own people?’

‘I know,’ she said.

He searched her eyes for understanding and saw only the reflection of his own pain.

‘I’ve got to go back, to clear my name, to wipe away the lies. Would they ever believe me if I didn’t?’

‘I know.’

‘I owe it to my uncle. I owe it to myself.’ He knew it meant losing her. And that was the hardest thing he had ever had to do in his life. ‘Margaret …’

‘Just go,’ she said, and she bit her lip to stop the tears.

They stood for a moment in silence, the wind tugging at their clothes, her hair flying out behind her, shining golden in the sun like a flag of freedom. He stooped to kiss her and they embraced, and clung to one another for a long time. Finally they broke apart, a little at a time, as if breaking the bond of a glue that held them. He turned without another word and started walking back towards the road through grass that ebbed and flowed like water on the shore. In the far distance he could see the black dots of the pick-up truck and the Mercedes where they had left them, the only break on a horizon that cut low across the immensity of blue overhead. His friend and his enemy lay dead there. His love lay behind him. Ahead of him, only uncertainty.

He waited for the call of her voice, turning in his mind’s eye to see her running through the tall grass to tell him that she was coming with him. But there was no call, and he knew that if he turned he would not be able to walk away, to leave her to face a precarious journey across a hostile land on her own. And the urge to turn back was almost irresistible. He knew she would be standing there on the rise, watching him go. He glanced over his right shoulder, an entirely involuntary movement. Just one last look. But she was gone. Down the slope, out of sight and heading for the fence, resolute, determined not to weaken. He could almost see the set of her jaw. Then he heard a swish, swish, swish, and turned to his left to find Margaret keeping stride with him. She smiled and said, ‘You didn’t really think I was going to let you go, did you? I mean, I’ve always wanted to see the inside of a Chinese prison.’ She held his arm and made him stop. Her smile faded. She said, ‘Whatever future we have is for sharing.’

EPILOGUE

REUTERS:
DATELINE SUNDAY, 21 JUNE; WASHINGTON DC:

VIRUS CLAIMS BY US DOCTOR

The existence of a deadly new virus which may have infected up to half the world’s population was revealed last night on the Internet by an American doctor working in the People’s Republic of China.

Dr Margaret Campbell, a forensic pathologist from Chicago, claims that the virus, known as RXV, mutated during the development of a genetically engineered super-rice which was introduced across the People’s Republic three years ago. The new rice, which increased yields by up to one hundred per cent and turned China into a major exporter, was developed during five years of research by the US-based company Grogan Industries.

A spokesman for Grogan refused to comment on the story which appeared on up to a dozen sites across the Internet late Saturday night, accusing the company of resorting to murder in an attempt to cover up the discovery of the virus.

Dr Campbell, who describes the virus as being similar to but more dangerous than AIDS, says that RXV is ingested with the rice and lies dormant in the body for up to five years before attacking and destroying the immune system. She claims the world could be less than two years away from a catastrophe unprecedented in human history.

To date there has been no official response from the Beijing government.

REUTERS:
DATELINE TUESDAY, 23 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

MEMBER OF POLITBURO ARRESTED

Rumours are circulating among US diplomatic staff here in Beijing today that Pang Xiaosheng, the man China watchers were tipping as the next leader of the People’s Republic, has been arrested on murder and corruption charges.

It is believed that Pang, a leading member of the Politburo, was detained after a wide-ranging criminal investigation into a series of murders committed in the Chinese capital.

The authorities, however, have refused to comment, and there is now widespread speculation that Pang’s alleged arrest is linked with the detention of five Beijing-based executives of the international biotech company Grogan Industries.

Pang was Minister for Agriculture and a leading proponent of the genetically engineered super-rice developed in China by Grogan during the nineties. Claims that the genetically modified rice is a carrier of a lethal virus which could have infected up to half the world’s population have created panic in China and grave concern among the international community.

REUTERS:
DATELINE TUESDAY, 23 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

HIGH-RANKING LEGAL MANDARIN ON CORRUPTION CHARGES

The second-highest ranking law officer in Beijing, Deputy Procurator General Zeng Hsun, was arrested here today on corruption charges.

Zeng, the equivalent of a US Deputy District Attorney, will face a closed-door trial to be held within the next three weeks, and could be executed if found guilty. The nature of the charges against him has not yet been made public.

REUTERS:
DATELINE WEDNESDAY, 24 JUNE; BEIJING, PRC:

CHINESE APPEAL TO WHO

The Chinese government today appealed to the World Health Organisation for help in tackling the fight against RXV, the virus carried in genetically modified rice which, it is claimed, could wipe out up to half the world’s population within the next two to five years.

An international team of medical experts, set up by the WHO during the last forty-eight hours, is expected to leave for Beijing immediately. The Chinese authorities have promised unfettered access to the work that was carried out there during the development of the so-called super-rice.

With, potentially, more than a billion Chinese infected by the virus, the search for a cure will be a race against time, with the first symptoms expected to appear within two years.

REUTERS:
DATELINE THURSDAY, 25 JUNE;
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA:

COMPANY OFFERS HOPE OF RXV CURE

The California-based biotech company Grogan Industries today announced a 100-million-dollar investment in the search for a cure for RXV.

The announcement comes just 24 hours after the company condemned and discredited its China-based executives currently held in Beijing, in the People’s Republic, pending trial for murder.

A Grogan Industries spokesman said: ‘While the company cannot accept any responsibility for the illegal actions of overseas executives acting on their own initiative, we feel morally obliged to take the lead in the search for a cure for RXV.’

He continued: ‘To that end we are prepared to invest 100-million-dollars of our own resources.’

With some of the world’s leading geneticists and virologists at its disposal, Grogan Industries say they are confident they can make progress towards a cure in the two-year window of opportunity most experts believe exists before the virus becomes active.

Industry experts believe that a cure for RXV would generate multi-billion-dollar profits for the patenting company.

Ends …

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This story is a work of fiction, but its background is authentic and its premise frighteningly plausible. It involved copious amounts of research in which I received invaluable help from the following people, all of whom gave their time and expertise with a willingness and generosity for which I will always be grateful: Dr Richard H. Ward, Professor of Criminology and Associate Chancellor of the University of Illinois, Chicago; Professor Joe Cummins, Emeritus of Genetics, University of Western Ontario; Zhenxiong ‘Joe’ Zhou, Office of International Criminal Justice, Chicago; Professor Dai Yisheng, former Director of the Fourth Chinese Institute for the Formulation of Police Policy, Beijing; Professor He Jiahong, Doctor of Juridical Science and Professor of Law, People’s University of China School of Law; Professor Yijun Pi, Vice Director of the Institute of Legal Sociology and Juvenile Delinquency, China University of Political Science and Law; Professor Wang Dazhong, Director of the Criminal Investigation Department, Chinese People’s Public Security University; Mr Chen Jun, Secretary-General of the Eastern Film and TV Production Centre, Beijing; Police Commissioner Wu He Ping, Ministry of Public Security, Beijing; Steven C. Campman, MD, Forensic Pathology Fellow, Northern California Forensic Pathology; Robert D Cardiff, MD, PhD, Professor of Pathology, University of California, Davis, School of Medicine; Kevin Sinclair, writer and journalist,
South China Morning Post
; Liu Xu and his mother Shimei Jiang who were my tireless sherpas in Beijing.