The Chinese Assassin (48 page)

He
nodded again slowly without opening his eyes.

She
turned to
go. At the
door she stopped and looked back. His eyes remained closed and
he appeared already to
be
sleeping. As
the
door
swung
shut behind her, leaving
him
alone in the room
once
more,
the
claw-like
fingers
of
his
right hand tightened convulsively round the butt of
the
black revolver.

25

‘You were
perhaps deceived
for a
moment Mr. Scholefield.’ The crackling coal furnace illuminated
the Public Security
Bureau captain’s
face from below
‘with
a demonic glow as he moved round behind it
towards
the Englishman. His lips
retreated
from his teeth in
another sneering
smile. ‘You were possibly not aware you were paying a
v
i
sit to a museum.’

Scholefield didn’t
reply. H
e
looked round
again at
Yang
who
was slumped back now in
the
interrogation
chair, his head twisted to one side in an
effort to escape the direct glare
of the torch bean

‘We
fi
nd it quite effective to
bring such
prisoners
as the renegade Yang
here to
remind
them of
the
horrors that were once perpetrated by the Nationalist scum of Chiang Kai-shek.’
The captain
stopped
close
beside Scholefield. ‘These cellars below
ground
level were
part
of the
original foundations
of the
Buddhist monastery.
This was one of
several isolation
cells used by the monks. When the
Nationalists razed the monastery to build a prison here in the nineteen thirties they hit upon the brilliant idea of incorporating them as torture chambers.’

The captain
took a
key front his pocket and leaned over to unlock
the
manacles on
the
arms of Yang’s chair.
Scholefield
noticed then that his ankles were also chained together. Yang stretched his cramped arms with difficulty and chafed
at
his wrists, still keeping his head turned away from the light. The captain signalled to
the
guard holding
the
torch to turn the beam aside,
t
hen swung back to face Schole
fi
eld.
‘It
is part of our educative process in the prison to allow difficult prisoners to contemplate what might have happened to them if they were not being dealt with under the humane socialist principles laid down by Chairman Mao and
the
Party.. We find it
helps them realise their responsibility to be
truthful
’

‘The first twist
of
the “Faucet” in Yang’s case.’ Scholefield
spoke
the
words contemplatively, almost to
himself;
not troubling to hide the
disgust
in his
voice.

The officer
looked steadily
back at
Scholefield
for a moment then his
features
broke into
another
slow,
dangerous
smile. But he
said
nothing.
Instead
he turned suddenly
and shouted
at Yang.
‘Now tell the Englishman
why you and your
Russian masters implicated him
in your
treacherous
plot!’

Yang lifted his head slowly, to look at
Scholefield
.
His face was
haggard
with fatigue. ‘When I
approached
you in
London,
I
was acting on
the
orders of vile revisionist traitors
who have long
ago since
abandoned the
socialist
path of Marx Lenin and Mao
Tse-tung.’

Yang’s voice was little
more than a croak and
Scholefield
had to move
nearer to hear dearly what
he said. “They had held me
prisoner
in Moscow for four
years, waiting
for
the
moment when they
could
employ
me for their own evil ends.’ Yang coughed suddenly and lifted his
sleeve to
wipe
the
perspiration from his face. The
captain
signalled quickly
to the second guard
who filled a cup from one of
the
water torture
jugs. Yang took the
cup and drained
it greedily, spilling
a lot of
it down his tunic
front.

‘You see, Mr.
Scholefield
,’
said
the Public
Security captain softly,
taking the cup from Yang’s hands,
‘we
use water
not to
torture a man’s body but
to refresh it, to encourage his
mind
towards correct socialist thinking.’

‘Your
subtle
Thought
Reform techniques are well enough known to the
world,’
replied
Scholefield
sharply without
turning round. ‘The instruments you use to disfigure the mind
have the obvious
advantage that they are invisible. Future generations will find no trace
of your
racks and branding irons—but
that’s only because you’re better versed in
deceit, not human principles.’

The Public
Security captain’s hands clenched
suddenly at his sides. He
took a
quick
pace towards Scholefiel
d
‘Do not forget
that
your
personal safety
in Peking
rests
in only a
very
few
h
ands.’

‘They used drugs
to addle my
mind and turn
me against Chairman Mao
Tse-tung.’
The sound of Yang’s voice
resuming
his
confession
broke the
tension between
the two
men. They
turned to see him
staring
obliviously into
the
fire. ‘They believed that if
they
could
plant false
“evidence”
on western
governments
through China
specialists
showing that
the
Chairman’s close
supporters
murdered the
traitor
Liz Piao—and
were also
planning
a greater crime, t
h
e
murder of Chairman Mao himself —then the bourgeois rightists in positions
of some power
in Peking
would
be emboldened to try to seize power
by
a coup
d’état
.
The Kremlin plotters believed this would produce a new leadership in China
more
favourable towards them and thus help to foster a false and treacherous new friendship with the Chinese Communist Party.’ Yang p
a
used and wiped his brow again. ‘This is an urgent requirement for
the
Soviet socialist imperialists because the ordinary Soviet people are deeply dissatisfied with their wasteful preparations
for
war along
the bor
d
er with
China.
The economic
sacrifices these war
preparations
demand is enslaving the
Soviet peoples.
Also
the Soviet
leaders
anticipated that rapprochement
with China
would deal a
severe
blow to
Sino-American friendship
and put Washington at a
global disadvantage.’

Twenty feet above their
heads,
at
ground
level,
the
headlights of the
Warszawa carrying Tan Sui-ling and
the hollow-chested
cadre turned
once again into the mouth of
Grass
Mist Lane. The driver eased back to a crawl over the uneven surface of the
hutung and as
the
vehicle swung and creaked
on
its inadequate springs the cadre beside
her
plucked at
Tan
Su
i
-ling’s sleeve in
the
curtained darkness
of
the rear seat. In the gloom she watched him unzip a document case and rake
out
a dried bamboo leaf fan. He waved it once or twice in front of his face and grinned. Then, still grinning, he held it, stem first, towards her. The moment she grasped it, he pulled the flat leaf sharply back towards himself.

In the half darkness they both stared
at
the narrow tapering shaft of
steel
left
protruding
from
her
fist.

‘Hsieh hsieh.’ She nodded her
t
hanks
perfunctorily and he giggled inanely by way of response. Then he re-fur
l
ed the body of the dried leaf carefully back round the blade of the stiletto and with great care placed its shaft once more in her hand.
He
reached into the briefcase again,
and after checking ahead through the windscreen that there was still time,
he took out a
broad roll of flesh-coloured adhesive tape and a tiny pair of nail scissors. These she tucked into
the
pockets
of
her baggy blue trousers. When
the car pulled
up at
the outer gate of the
prison, she banded
out
her pass for inspection and sat back in her seat, perfectly composed, fanning herself quietly.
‘We have returned
to visit
the
prisoner Yang,’ she told the guard without looking
at
hi
m

Two minutes later the
car
passed
through
the third gate
into
the inner
courtyard
and she got out, to be met by the same three guards who had been on duty
earlier. They led her to the door
on the far
side
of the compound and with one
guard in front and two behind they escorted her along
the hot fetid
passageways,
across the empty echoing lecture
hall
and
on down towards the cellars. As she walked she continued to fan
herself
with the dried leaf of the bamboo.

S
ch
olef
i
eld looked
speculatively
down at Yang. The
Chinese had stopped talking and was sitting with his head bowed in
the
flickering
light from the fire.

‘
I
f you
were the
loyal
supporter of
Marshall
Li
n
Piao that you
first claimed,’ said
Scholefield
quietly, ‘why did the Russians need to use drugs to poison your mind against Mao Tse-tung? Surely
the
fact that you had to flee with Marshall Lin because of persecution by Mao and his supporters left you with a natural antipathy towards
the
Chairman.’

When Yang raised his head he wore a wary expression. He looked quickly at
the
Public Security captain then back at
Scholefield
.
‘I
was forced to
fly on
the Trident with
the
traitor Lin Piao,’
he
said softly. ‘He
h
ad been deserted
by all his followers
with
the
excep
tion
of his close
family. Members
of his staf
f
like
myself
were forced
onto the
plane
at
gunpoint.
We
did
not want
to accompany him. We wished to stay and
give
loyal
support to
Chairman Mao
but were prevented from doing so.’