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“It’s the only reason I’m standing here.”
His unspoken message seemed to be received.
Get to the damn point.
“You can overpower me,” Ivan said, nodding. “I am fat, out-of-shape Russian. Stupid, too. All of us, right?”
He caught the sarcasm. “I can take you. But the man standing near the tree, across the way, in the blue jacket, and the other one, near the Round Tower’s entrance? I doubt I’d evade them. They’re not fat and out of shape.”
Ivan chuckled. “I am told you are smart. Two years off job have not changed this.”
“I seem to be busier in retirement than I was working for the government.”
“This bad thing?”
“You need to talk fast, or I may take my chances with your friends.”
“No need to be hero. Vitt is helping man named Lev Sokolov. Ex-Russian, lives in China. Five years ago, Sokolov marries Chinese national and leaves against wishes of Russian government. He slips away and, once in China, little can be done.”
“Sounds like old news,” Malone said.
“We think him dead. Not true.”
“So what else changed?”
“Sokolov has four-year-old son who is recently stolen. He calls Vitt, who comes to find boy.”
“And this worries you? What about the police?”
Ivan shook his head. “Thousands of children go in China every year. It is about having the son. In China this is necessity. Son carries family name. He is child who helps parents in old age. Forget daughters. Son is what matters. Makes no sense to me.”
He kept listening.
“China’s one-child policy is nightmare,” Ivan said. “Parents must have the birth permit. If not, there is fine that is more than Chinese man makes in the year. How can he be sure to get son in one try?” The Russian snapped his pudgy fingers. “Buy one.”
Malone had read about the problem. Female fetuses were either aborted or abandoned, and decades of the one-child policy had caused a national shortage of women.
“Problem for Sokolov,” Ivan said, “is that he fights criminal network.” He gestured with his short arms. “Is worse than Russia.”
“That’s hard to imagine.”
“Is illegal to abandon, steal, or sell child in China, but is legal to buy one. Young boy costs 900 dollar, U.S. Lot of money when worker earns in year 1,700 dollar, U.S. Sokolov has no chance.”
“So Cassiopeia went to help. So what. Why are you concerned?”
“Four days ago she travels to Antwerp,” Ivan said.
“To find the kid there?”
“No. To find boy she must find something else first.”
Now he understood. “Something you obviously want?”
Ivan shrugged.
Malone’s mind envisioned the torture video. “Who has Cassiopeia?”
“Bad people.”
He didn’t like the sound of that.
“Ever deal with eunuchs?”
NI DID NOT KNOW WHETHER TO BE AMAZED OR REPELLED BY what Pau Wen had revealed about himself. “You are a eunuch?”
“I was subjected to the same ceremony you just witnessed, nearly forty years ago.”
“Why would you do such a thing?”
“It was what I wanted to do with my life.”
Ni had flown to Belgium thinking Pau Wen might have the answers he sought. But a whole host of new, disturbing questions had been raised.
Pau motioned for them to leave the exhibit hall and retreat to the courtyard. The midday air had warmed, the sun bright in a cloudless sky. More bees seemed to have joined in the assault on the spring blossoms. The two men stopped beside a glass jar, maybe a meter wide, containing bright-hued goldfish.
“Minister,” Pau said, “in my time, China was in total upheaval. Before and after Mao died, the government was visionless, stumbling from one failed program to another. No one dared challenge anything. Instead a precious few made reckless decisions that affected millions. When Deng Xiaoping finally opened the country to the world, that was a daring move. I thought perhaps we might have a chance at success. But change was not to be. The sight of that lone student confronting a tank in Tiananmen Square has been etched into the world’s consciousness. One of the defining images of the 20th century. Which you well know.”
Yes, he did.
He was there that day—June 4, 1989—when the government’s tolerance ran out.
“And what did Deng do after?” Pau asked. “He pretended like it never happened, moving ahead with more foolishness.”
He had to say, “Strange talk from a man who helped forge some of those policies.”
“I forged nothing,” Pau said, anger creeping, for the first time, into his voice. “I spent my time in the provinces.”
“Stealing.”
“Preserving.”
He was still bothered by the video. “Why was that man emasculated?”
“He joined a brotherhood. That initiation occurred three months ago. He is now healed, working with his brothers. He would not have been permitted to drink anything for three days after surgery. You saw how the attendant plugged the man’s urethra before wrapping the wound with wet paper. On the fourth day, after the plug was removed, when urine flowed the operation was considered a success. If not, the initiate would have died an agonizing death.”
He could not believe anyone would willingly submit to such an atrocity. But he knew Pau was right. Hundreds of thousands throughout Chinese history had done just that. When the Ming dynasty fell in the mid-17th century, more than 100,000 eunuchs had been forced from the capital. The decline of Han, Tang, and Ming rule were all attributed to eunuchs. The Chinese Communist Party had long used them as examples of unrestrained greed.
“Interestingly,” Pau said, “of the hundreds of thousands who have been castrated, only a tiny percentage died. Another of our Chinese innovations. We are quite good at creating eunuchs.”
“What brotherhood?” he wanted to know, irritation in his voice.
“They are called the Ba.”
He’d never heard of such a group. Should he have? His job was to safeguard the government, and the people, from all forms of corruption. In order to accomplish that goal he enjoyed an autonomy no other public official was extended, reporting directly to the Central Committee and the premier himself. Not even Karl Tang, as first vice premier, could interfere, though he’d tried. Ni had created the elite investigative unit himself, on orders from the Central Committee, and had spent the last decade building a reputation of honesty.
But never had there been any Ba.
“What is that?” he asked.
“With all the resources at your command you can surely learn more about them. Now that you know where to look.”
He resented the condescending tone. “Where?”
“All around you.”
He shook his head. “You are not only a thief, but a liar.”
“I’m simply an old man who knows more than you do—on a great many subjects. What I lack is time. You, though, are a person with an abundance of that commodity.”
“You know nothing of me.”
“On the contrary. I know a great deal. You rose from squad leader to platoon captain to commander of the Beijing military area—a great honor bestowed only on those in whom the government has much trust. You were a member of the esteemed Central Military Commission when the premier himself chose you to head the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.”
“Am I to be impressed that you know my official history? It’s posted on the Internet for the world to see.”
Pau shrugged. “I know much more, Minister. You are a subject that has interested me for some time. The premier made a difficult decision, but I do have to say he chose well in you.”
He knew about the opposition that had existed at the time of his appointment. Many did not want a military man in the position to investigate anyone at will. They worried that it might lead to the military gaining more power.
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But he’d proven the pundits wrong.
“How would you know about any difficult decision?”
