Dragon Bones (27 page)

“I know this—”

“But it was beyond China’s capabilities,” Stuart continued, “so Mao ordered boulders blasted and the course dredged, effectively taming the wildness of the river and eliminating the need for trackers. You know what they are, right?”

“The men who pulled boats upriver.”

“Brava, Inspector.”

She didn’t like the way he was testing her, but she decided to let it go for now, because of course he’d want to reestablish the upper hand. This tactic was more common among men than women. Men didn’t like others to see their pain.

“Different people had different ideas all the way up until two months before the events at Tiananmen,” he went on, “when the State Council rejected yet another dam proposal. But how do you divert a country—and the world—from the disgrace of what happened on that square? Li Peng, prime minister back then, pushed for the project to go forward as a monument to national pride. He claimed that China would need no outside help. Of course, it did. So here I am. But so are a lot of outside contractors and suppliers. And yes, we’ve all had problems, not just in dealing with the bureaucracy of your system but with work being unintentionally sabotaged. But I want to assure you that we’re vigi- lant, and we’ve got a foolproof safety system of redundancy upon redundancy—from the smallest moving part to my turbines to the computers that will run the whole thing to the best software in the world that will scan for viruses and any other problem 24/7 from now till eternity.”

“You’re still speaking in generalities. Tell me more about sabotage.”

Stuart thought for a moment. “I’ll lay out two scenarios for you. Let’s say you find that someone’s dumped a load of concrete over your equipment by accident. It doesn’t harm the dam per se. It’s just a nuisance. You with me so far?”

She nodded and he went on.

“Scenario two: We install a piece of equipment. Everything is checked and approved, then checked and approved again. Redundancy upon redundancy even before you become operational to make sure everything is as safe as it can possibly be. You go back the next day and two screws are gone. Would that cause a problem today? No. Will it ever cause a problem? Probably not. But consider the size of the dam. Now subtract a couple of screws here and there throughout the dam. Now you have to worry about overall integrity. As they say in your country, the collapse of the dam begins with an ant hole.”

“You said before that security here is tight enough for you to feel safe. If that’s so, then how do these saboteurs get in?”

“I don’t think they do. I truly believe that our difficulties have had less to do with malicious intent or ‘saboteurs’ than with ineptitude and inexperience. I fault paying people, who’ve never done this kind of work before, a hundred and twenty-two dollars a month for very hard labor. At the same time, I fault
us
for not realizing that those workers might want to pick up whatever they can find here and sell it for whatever price they can get.”

“Could the All-Patriotic Society be involved?” She circled back just to satisfy herself.

“Look, Xiao Da is a nutcase, but that doesn’t mean his group has anything to do with our problems. The real danger to the dam is large-scale terrorism.”

Stuart, who came from a country that prided itself on religious freedom, wouldn’t understand that China considered the cult a domestic threat. On the other hand….

“Sadly, your country has already learned that religious fanaticism can lead to horrible acts of terrorism,” she reminded him. “What would be the biggest threat here?”

“A bomb. Dams are often targeted during wars for defensive or offensive purposes. If this one ever went, millions of people would die. Which is why the dam is protected by two divisions of soldiers, as well as missile batteries.”

“Have you ever met a man named Wu Huadong?”

“I don’t believe so.”

“Did he ever work here?”

“I don’t know,” Stuart answered in frustration. “I don’t recognize the name, but that doesn’t mean he hasn’t worked on the project.”

“Do you have people here who are members of the All-Patriotic Society?” Hulan asked.

“I don’t personally hire the people who work on my crews. As for the others, well, there are about seventy thousand people working here—”

“At the visitors’ center, I read it was twenty thousand,” she said.

“They said it would be twenty thousand when they started. It’s closer to seventy thousand today. They said it would cost ten billion dollars U.S. to build. Later that figure was revised to twenty-four billion, but it will probably be closer to seventy billion by the time it’s done.”

“Let’s get back to the All-Patriotic Society,” she suggested, returning to her original subject.

“You tell me, Inspector. Wouldn’t it be against the law to work here if you were a member of that group?”

“People don’t always tell the truth,” she observed.

Stuart tipped his head in agreement.

“What about foreigners?” Hulan asked. “Is there anyone who might want to stop the project?”

“Where shall I start? Greenpeace? The Sierra Club? International Rivers Network? The National Wildlife Fund? They’re all in an uproar over environmental issues—the species that will be lost, the silting that will eventually clog the dam, and the cesspool that the reservoir will create. Who else? Hell, my government’s National Security Council said that the U.S.—and by extension industrial companies like mine—should steer clear of the project. And what about the bastards over at the U.S. Export-Import Bank who decided they wouldn’t guarantee loans to U.S. companies seeking contracts here? Yeah, there are a lot of people and organizations that don’t want to see the dam completed.”

“But you can still guarantee that it’s safe.”

“Let me put it this way,” Stuart blurted, finally losing his cool, “I don’t think that anything that’s happened with my turbines will put the integrity of the dam in question, but you don’t have to take my word for it. Go ask one of the foreign inspectors.” Sensing a momentary advantage, he pressed on. “Don’t you watch your television news? Haven’t you heard your premier speak of the problems of ‘tofu construction’? He isn’t just talking about those new rattraps along the river they’re moving people to; he’s been talking about the dam. ‘Quality means the life of the Three Gorges Project. The responsibility on your shoulders is heavier than Mount Tai.’ Are you telling me you haven’t heard that?”

“I’ve heard it,” she allowed, “but I’m not so naïve as to think that those workers that you spoke so highly of just a moment ago or even the so-called technically advanced outsiders like yourself can bear the weight of Premier Zhu’s mountain.”

“Do I hear sarcasm, Inspector?” Stuart shot back. “Just who do you think the Chinese will blame if something does happen to the dam? Themselves? Not likely. You’ve got to hand it to Zhu, going against the political tide and speaking out on quality. People listen to him, which is why your government has hired a French company to oversee quality control. They’re outsiders who won’t be as susceptible to bribes as others are within your country.”

“You’re making a lot of money—”

“You bet your ass I am,” he admitted freely, “but that’s not why I’m here.”

“If it’s not the money, then why?”

Stuart looked genuinely surprised by the question, and Hulan realized that all thoughts of Lily had faded from his mind. “It’s the project! My God, woman, don’t you see its magnificence?”

“It’s big….”

Comprehension suddenly flashed over Stuart’s features. “You think this is some male thing—some giant phallic symbol or whatever you women think when you don’t understand something. You’re way off base, Inspector. It’s not about the money, although don’t get me wrong, it’s great. It’s not even about the size, although it’s awesome and I’m honored to have my company be a part of it.” He stood, went to the window, pulled open the blinds, and looked out. “Look at it, Inspector. Think about what it will mean to your country. China’s future depends on power. The dam will help provide that.”

He turned back to her. “Am I upset about what will be lost along the river? Yeah, I care about that a lot, so I’m funding environmental and archaeological projects. And yes, I’m preserving artifacts by buying them through proper channels when they become available on the outside market.”

“Does saving a few relics make you feel better about the lives of the people who’ll be affected by this project?”

“You want to talk about displacing people now?” He threw her a reproving glance, then hurried on. “Take a city like Wanxian. Two-thirds of it will be lost under the reservoir, but a new city is being built to replace it. There’ll be indoor plumbing and electricity for everyone. The New Immigrant City of Wanxian will get its first ever railway connection and an airport capable of handling jumbo jets. Suddenly the people of Wanxian—a place with abundant natural resources but virtually unknown to outsiders—will have the whole world open to them.
That’s
exciting to me.”

He motioned out the window. “At its heart this is a simple construction job involving concrete and steel, but think about what it
means.
Hundreds of thousands have died in floods along the Yangzi in the twentieth century alone. And I have to tell you that China’s record on building dams isn’t very good, so the death toll from collapses is truly mind-boggling. But these things aren’t all in the distant past. Five years ago, four thousand died in what was just another ordinary rainy season. And are you aware of the current situation? What you’ve experienced as a bad storm up in Bashan is causing severe flooding downstream from here. Do you know how many people have died or how many have been evacuated in the last few days?”

She shook her head.

“We don’t know how bad it’s going to get, but I’ll lay out a possibility for you.” He still had his face to the window, but she could see how his features had hardened. He’d punish her now for her accusations. “The mother of all storms whipped through China in 1975. The rains came in three successive waves, each lasting at least twelve hours, each with the intensity of a fireman’s hose. Birds fell from the sky, killed by raindrops that had the force of arrows. Two days later, two of this country’s largest dams downstream from here collapsed. Sixty dams below them fell like dominoes. Overnight. The revered river dragon had escaped with such demonic force that tidal waves wiped out entire towns.” His voice was bitter and accusatory. “Somewhere between eighty-six thousand and two hundred thirty thousand people died. But you know how your government manipulates statistics. Were there five or five thousand deaths at Tiananmen? Li Peng might know, but instead of saying, he diverted attention to the dam, right? So, let’s be conservative and say that it was only eighty-six thousand who died overnight. Two million people were trapped for weeks by the high waters. Another eleven million were stricken by disease and famine. I’m talking now about typhoid, hepatitis, malaria, and starvation. That’s the thing about China. The variety of scourges and the numbers of victims are always daunting.”

His fingers toyed with the string from the blinds. “For the Three Gorges Dam, your government is moving over a million people
upstream
so that millions of people
downstream
will benefit for decades, maybe even centuries, to come. Can’t a Communist like you see the good in the sacrifices of the few for the good of the many?”

He turned to face her once again. “You want to know why I’m here. It’s
all
of it.” His arms opened to embrace his worldview. “It’s the money. It’s saving people’s lives and livelihoods. It’s making sure this dam is built right. It’s getting my hands”—and here he gripped them into tight fists—“dirty, but not in the filthy way that you’ve suggested. It’s knowing that this pile of concrete and steel will be a monument to human achievement that will make a direct impact on people’s lives. Can you say the same for anything you do?”

WHEN STUART’S DRIVER DELIVERED HULAN BACK TO THE VISITORS
’ center, the helicopter still had not returned from Wuhan. The winds had picked up, and the rain was falling so heavily that she couldn’t see the river from the building. The stranded tourists hadn’t budged, and wives complained in a variety of languages that their husbands should
do something.
The receptionist in the kelly green outfit was no match for those husbands, who banged on the counter, complained loudly, and generally acted like the spoiled foreigners that they were. Hulan found a spot against one of the walls as far from the tourists as she could get, sat on the floor, tucked her knees up under her chin, folded her arms across her knees, buried her head, and waited.

Finally, the chopper returned from Wuhan. The pilot said he didn’t recommend flying in this weather, but Hulan climbed in beside him nevertheless and was back at the Panda Guesthouse by one. The desk clerk gave her two thick envelopes that had been dropped off by one of Hom’s men, then she went straight to her room. The rain was worse than yesterday, and the ungodly racket it made as it pounded the building exaggerated the empty silence in the room. She sat on the bed and tried to call David, wanting to find out if he’d made it to Hong Kong safely, but the phone wouldn’t dial out. She padded back out to the lobby and was informed that all phone lines were down because of the storm. “But we still have electricity, Inspector,” the day clerk said brightly. She walked back to her room, feeling low.