Dragon Bones (7 page)

“China has embarked on the greatest construction project in the world,” Ho continued. “But once the Three Gorges Dam is completed, the reservoir will cover over two thousand archaeological sites. What we call Site 518 lies two hundred and eighty of your miles downstream from Chongqing, just east of the Qutang Gorge. I have come here today because we’ve suffered the loss of several artifacts from this excavation.”

“You’ve been in contact with the local authorities….”

“We’ve worked with the Security Bureau in Bashan, the town closest to the site, but what do a few policemen in a small village understand about thefts of this sort?”

And couldn’t it be possible, even probable, that those policemen were somehow involved? David mused.

“What specifically is missing?” he asked.

An odd stillness came over Ho.

“I’ve relied on the leader of the dig to keep me informed of what’s been stolen, but I am a long way from the Three Gorges and don’t receive as much information as I’d like.”

“Are you saying you don’t know?” David was skeptical of the idea.

“I am aware of the identity of certain pieces, but the team is pulling out artifacts faster than they can be cataloged, and we cannot begin a search until we file an international report detailing each missing item.”

The vagueness of the sentence mixed with Ho’s body language contained a lot of possibilities. Could the Cultural Relics Bureau be so disorganized as not to know what it was finding? Maybe the bureau wouldn’t know, but certainly they’d have to know at the site, wouldn’t they? There had to be something more….

Ho pulled on an earlobe and confided, “Even in the year 2002, archaeology is still a largely unmechanized profession. We work with shovels, spades, scrapers, and brushes. As a result, we see cuts, bruises, and sometimes broken bones. But Site 518 has had more than the usual number of problems.”

Ho gazed away as he said this last bit. David understood. You could tackle something head-on or pretend that you really weren’t saying it.

“I’ve handled several cases involving work-related accidents,” he prompted. The only good that had come out of the terrible events at the Knight toy factory was that they had opened a new practice area for David in workplace safety. These past few years, he had been hired not only by the Chinese but also by American and European companies to help avoid or correct abuses.

“I’m aware of your expertise in these matters. I’ve been told you bring to the table a unique set of abilities. Our entire country is grateful for what you did at the Knight factory.” Ho followed this piece of flattery with a new disclosure. “So far this summer we have had five accidental deaths.”

“All at Site 518?”

“All in the vicinity.”

“From what you’ve said, fatal accidents should be rare.”

“Correct.”

“So then what are these ‘accidents’?”

“A worker fell from a ladder. A bridge collapsed and three men died. And there was a drowning.”

“Except for the man who fell from the ladder, these don’t seem necessarily work related.”

Director Ho jutted his chin. It was the Chinese equivalent of a shrug, but what exactly did that shrug mean?

“Is there any way these deaths are connected?”

“They were all local day workers.”

This didn’t seem like much to go on. After all, most of China’s vast population could be categorized as local day workers, whether in fields or in factories.

“Has anything been done to improve safety or to investigate these deaths more closely? Again, what does the local Public Security Bureau have to say?” David asked.

“How do we improve safety when we have phantom accidents?” Ho came back silkily. “How do you get the Public Security Bureau to do something when nothing seems wrong?”

“Phantom?”

“We have nothing to pinpoint and no one to accuse.”

“Be grateful,” David reassured the director. “It probably means no one’s to blame. The Public Security Bureau would investigate if there were something to worry about.”

“That’s what I was told.”

Sometimes David’s job was closer to that of a psychiatrist or priest than that of an attorney. People wanted to tell him something, but he had to wait until they were ready.

“We are a country of more than a billion,” Ho said, still circling his problem. “We cannot worry about the death of every peasant. A foreigner’s death, however, brings us unwanted attention.”

Again Ho fell silent, but this time David wouldn’t allow the director to skirt the issue. “Tell me exactly what happened.”

“A young man named Brian McCarthy worked at Site 518 as a foreign expert. He was recently found dead. Today I was informed that it was not an accident. This makes me question the other deaths.”

But what Ho said next showed that he was less concerned with the loss of life than with the bureau’s reputation in the international community. “Our difficulties make their presence known at an inopportune time,” he went on. “The world’s eyes are focused on the Three Gorges Dam….”

Actually, David thought, the dam had transfixed environmentalists, politicians, and investors in great debates about pollution, safety, and money, but most people around the world had not even heard of it.

“Not everyone wants to see the dam finished,” Ho explained. “Even in our own government there are factions against it….”

This was also true. Premier Zhu Rongji had startled the country recently when he made public comments critical of the quality of construction, as well as of the graft and corruption connected to the project.

“Everyone is looking for someone to blame,” Ho complained. “The tiger will continue to roar and the phoenix will rise again, but an ant is insignificant.”

The implication was clear: China was losing face on the world stage and Ho was worried that he might be set up to take a fall to divert bad publicity about the dam.

“Our situation is complicated by the fact that the team at Site 518 is international,” Ho continued. “Suppose one of them is involved in either the thefts or the deaths?”

“Then you would want to work with the Ministry of Public Security.”

“Exactly, and yet we both know that this may not be the best thing for foreign relations.”

True again. The MPS was deeply feared. Its agents were notoriously aggressive, and they didn’t follow rules that might be considered commonplace by someone from England, France, or the United States.

“What do you want me to do?” David asked.

“I want to hire you to look into the disappearance of our artifacts. Find them and whoever is taking them. If you discover something internal to our bureau, I’d like you to keep it that way.”

“Absolutely,” David answered. “I consider all matters that I take on to be sensitive and private.”

“I also need someone who can shepherd us through whatever may come up with the investigation into Brian McCarthy’s death.”

“I have a lot of experience dealing with local security bureaus.”

But this wasn’t quite what Ho had in mind. “I understand that you have special
guanxi
with the MPS.”

“That my wife is employed by the ministry is no secret,” David responded, though he was a little surprised by the segue from his general experience with local police to his very particular connection with Hulan at China’s equivalent of the FBI.

“Vice Minister Zai assures me that you and your wife have worked well together in the past on matters sensitive to the state,” Ho stated evenly.

David hadn’t expected Zai’s name to come up either. It seemed that Ho had gone to considerable lengths to check out David’s credentials.

Then Ho dropped his final bombshell. “Your wife has been assigned to investigate Brian McCarthy’s death. So, in addition to looking into the thefts, I’d like you to represent the bureau’s interests if it’s discovered that his or any of the workers’ deaths are connected to Site 518.”

Ho pushed his chair back and stood. “We have an appointment at the Ministry of Public Security at three o’clock. You can inform me of your decision to take the case after you’ve heard what the vice minister has to say.”

When David and Director Ho were ushered into Vice Minister Zai’s office, Hulan was already there. David remembered back with incredible clarity to the day five years ago when he had first entered this room. He recalled the total shock he experienced at seeing Hulan, the woman who had disappeared from his life seven years previously. From that moment of supreme confusion, they had reconnected and fallen in love again.

Now he felt conflicted. It seemed they were being brought together for an investigation, but this whole setup was suspicious. Why throw them together again after so many years? What was it about this case that required the two of them? Just what was Ho after? Not to mention Zai. Hulan wouldn’t like being pulled away from her All-Patriotic Society campaign, David knew that much. Their eyes met briefly, and he read profound wariness in hers. It put him at ease to know that she picked up on his caution too. David had heard enough Chinese bureaucrats obfuscate or lie or try to paint something in rosy hues when the colors of the situation were as dark as mud that he never believed every word that was spoken. Only speak one-third of the truth. Hulan had taught him that.

True to personal form and social custom, Zai had retreated beneath a veneer of bureaucratic authority, which was exactly what David expected. Familiarity didn’t mean that this meeting would be anything less than formal. In the center of the room, four overstuffed chairs had been placed facing each other with a little table between them. Tea was poured. Watermelon seeds were set out in a dish. Cigarettes were offered. Compliments were exchanged. David watched Hulan through all of this. Whatever emotions she’d felt this morning were now deeply hidden, but he wondered if she too was thinking of that day five years ago when he’d walked into this office. What did she see when she looked at him now?

Zai smoothly led them into the purpose for the meeting. “Attorney Stark, Inspector Liu,” he began, falling back on formal titles befitting the situation, “we have brought the two of you together in hopes that you can once again help China by using your special skills. In the past, Inspector Liu has not let political correctness influence her reasoning, while Attorney Stark has always understood the importance of keeping secrets. Inspector Liu carries with her a badge of government authority, while you, Attorney Stark, can sometimes get people to answer your questions for the very reason that you do not carry a badge. You have not crossed any politically difficult lines in the past. As a result, no one has lost face.”

“Keeping things to ourselves is what American lawyers are trained to do,” David said.

“Which may be particularly important in this situation.” Zai shifted his attention to Ho. “Director, have you told Attorney Stark about McCarthy’s death?”

When the director nodded, Zai said, “Good. Now I hope you will explain to Inspector Liu a little bit about your other problems.”

After Ho repeated much of what he’d told David earlier about the missing artifacts, Hulan asked, “But why are you so interested in what happened at Site 518? Haven’t several sites along the river been looted?”

“Looted and vandalized,” Ho admitted ruefully. “Most of the people who do this are not sophisticated. We call them ‘mound-digging rats.’ They don’t know what they’re finding, and in many cases they’ve broken more than they’ve stolen. Some of these hooligans have been arrested. They’ve been sent to prison or labor camp for terms of one to fifteen years.”

“What about the artifacts that aren’t broken?” Hulan asked.

The director cleared his throat of Beijing grime, then said, “Sadly, many of them leave the country and are put up for auction. Sometimes they disappear into private collections or even into unwitting—or unethical—museums.” Ho leaned forward and spoke directly to Vice Minister Zai. “At least a million of our relics are being held captive in private and public collections in other countries!”

“Until very recently almost anyone could walk into a country and take whatever they wanted,” David explained, “but then some of the most famous museums in the world would not be so famous if not for this practice. I think of the Elgin Marbles in the British Museum or the Egyptian artifacts in the Louvre. Often relics of this sort can be repatriated. Countries that wish to keep their friendship with China are most willing to negotiate returns.”

“Attorney Stark is right,” Ho agreed. “But we must know where they are in order to retrieve them.”

“What about the Poly Group bronzes?” Hulan asked. “You knew where they were.”

David had always admired the way Hulan refused to succumb to the strictures of female decorum in her investigations, although Director Ho was not so appreciative of her impertinence.

“Those bronzes were ransacked from the Summer Palace by British and French troops one hundred and forty years ago,” Ho said plaintively. “When Christie’s and Sotheby’s put them up for sale two years ago, we asked that they be returned to Beijing.”

David remembered this case clearly. At the time, Hulan had said that the government should have hired him to deal with the auction houses. Instead the PRC issued a proclamation to the effect that there would no longer be a policy of looking the other way while the nation’s treasures were sold off in a city that once again belonged to China. The Hong Kong courts thought otherwise. One country, two systems. Mainland China’s laws protecting national treasures did not apply in Hong Kong, where stolen antiquities were openly displayed for sale in shops along Hollywood Road. So the bronzes had gone on the block, with the Poly Group, a commercial arm of the People’s Liberation Army, making the winning bids to the tune of $6 million U.S. The Poly Group said they’d made the purchase as a matter of patriotic pride. But instead of donating the bronzes to a museum, the group had used them as a marketing tool, sending them on a tour around the country to attract new customers.

“We would all like to prevent a repeat of that embarrassment,” Zai confided to David, “which is why you are here. From the ministry’s perspective, prosecution is less important than retrieval and repatriation, if indeed the artifacts have left the country.”