"Word has it you peddle fish."
"As far as I'm concerned, they jump into the truck. I don't know how they get there."
"You're lying."
"Fine, someone loads them on, so shoot me."
He pulled his coat back, and the knife blade glinted in the morning sun. "Don't have to."
"Look, I'm just a middleman. I make a little, I spend a little, I make sure everyone is happy. Are you happy, Comrade Chong?" This was the second crate of fish I didn't have that I was giving away. From the funny look on his face, I thought for a moment I'd made a mistake.
Maybe his name wasn't Chong. Then he pitched forward and collapsed across my legs. I pushed him away and scrambled clear. The guard in the valley was still sipping tea. The dog looked up for a moment, then put its head back down on its paws.
From behind a tree next to the road, I saw something move. Kang stepped out. "Not easy throwing a rock uphill like that. Luckily, he has a big, stupid head."
"Good morning. Taking a stroll, are we?" I glanced down at the lump on the ground. There was no movement.
Kang stood off a few feet. "His name is Chong. If he twitches, I'll shoot him."
"Here?"
"As good a place as any."
I looked back down. "He's not twitching. I'm not even sure he's breathing."
"Good."
"In fact, I think he might be dead."
"Better."
I knelt down and rolled Chong over. No fish for him.
Kang moved a step closer, no longer tensed to reach for his pistol.
"Must have hit his head on something harder than his thick skull."
He glanced down the valley, toward the guard. "We'll leave him here.
Let's go."
"Leave him? Here? And then what?"
"Someone will find him, if something furry doesn't nibble on him first."
"I know this is Manpo, but don't the police like to be informed about unexplained deaths?"
"Inspector, please, they don't even have a filing cabinet. Anyway, it's not unexplained. He tripped on his shoelaces and fell on a rock. Often fatal."
"He was following me. Someone will know that. And the guard in the valley must have seen the two of us up here. There will be inquiries."
Kang was getting impatient. "Don't worry about the guard. He didn't see anything."
"You think you're going to pay him off?"
"I don't have to. He works for me." I couldn't tell if he meant to tell me or if it had slipped out-though I didn't think Kang was the type who let things slip.
"That guard? What is the Investigations Department doing with agents in the hills of Manpo sipping tea?"
"I didn't say he was an agent. Now, can we go?"
"Whose compound is that?"
"No one you'd be interested in."
"Suddenly, I'm very interested."
All at once, Kang looked tired. "Pak warned me you could be an awful pain in the ass."
"You want me to peddle some fish on that compound?"
This brought a thoughtful look. "Pak also said you were smart.
That's an idea I hadn't considered. You'll need to be in there by this evening."
"Why?"
"I don't know." Kang stared down the trail. "No, really, I don't know. My information is that whatever is going on down there gets done tomorrow at dawn."
"Does this have anything to do with what Pak told me?"
"That depends. What did Pak tell you?" It wasn't a friendly inquiry.
"You want my help. That's what you said. But you have told me exactly nothing about what you want me to do. Or more important, why.
I have developed a rule over the years. I stick to it, all the time. Never take a step, unless I can see at least that far in front. You don't want to tell me some secrets, okay, I don't want to know. But if you don't tell me something more than what you've given me so far, this is as far as I go."
Kang looked around. "Nice place for a conversation, I guess. But first, tell me what Pak said."
"All he said was, the ground was moving."
"That's it?"
I thought a moment. "He also said all hell might be about to break out."
"Not might. Will, and soon." I could see Kang was debating with himself about what more to say. "This has been coming for a while.
Months. We first picked it up in February, in Japan. After our initial reports, we were told to stop paying attention, it wasn't our business."
"So you paid closer attention."
"What I don't know can hurt me. Basically, we dug around and realized there has been a decision to fix relations with Japan, finally."
"And that's bad?"
"No, nothing wrong with that, if you can stand smiling at the Japs in order to get a few billion dollars in blood money from them. But there is a hitch. The Japanese want some old problems"-Kang hesitated, then finished the thought-"solved."
"What has this got to do with that compound down there?"
"Nothing, directly. Except that's a Military Security compound, and Military Security has been unleashed to help solve those old problems."
"And they think you're part of the problem standing in the way of those billions?"
"I need to keep them off my neck for at least another week. Knowing what is going on down there might help."
"You're plenty interested in Military Security, aren't you? Is that what you needed from me when we were at the tower, some sense of the location of Military Security offices? I thought the Investigations Department had pretty good sources of information."
"On the outside, Inspector, not at home. Pyongyang is a foreign country to me. Ask me about Beijing, ask me about Moscow, even ask me about Budapest." He smiled. "In Budapest, I know pretty much what goes on, and where. But Pyongyang?" He shook his head.
"Won't it spook them if Chong's body is found on the road overlooking their buildings?"
"I doubt it. Anyway, stop worrying about Chong's carcass. It won't be here long. There will be some lumber trucks by in an hour or so.
They drive fast and have bad brakes. It's a miracle no one has been hit on this road before."
"I thought it was bad shoelaces."
Kang was moving fast down the road. "So he fell in front of a truck."
"Why was Chong following me?" I started off after Kang, wondering how he could move so quickly downhill without falling over.
"He was stupid, but he had a sixth sense. Maybe you don't smell enough like someone who deals in fish. Maybe you look like a friend he once had from Wonsan. Who cares? We've got work to do, and only twelve hours left to do it."
I glanced down in the valley again. The guard was gone. The so called guard dog had his nose in the teacup. It didn't look like it was going to be a problem to saunter in the gate. It was a cinch that the dog was working for Kang, too.
11
The clerk at the inn was cranky. "You know how to fix a video machine?"
Through the door behind him, I could see videotape all over the floor. "Damn Chinese pirates." He kicked at some of the tape that was wound around his foot. "Everything they build breaks."
"Cost a lot?"
"What do you care what it cost?" His eyes narrowed, and he swayed from side to side like a rat snake pretending it was a cobra. "You owe me a basket of fish. And they better never have been swimming in Chinese waters."
"How would you like a new video machine?"
He looked at me coolly. "You stick to fish, alright? I'll do the electronics."
I
shrugged. "Up to you. You know anyone else interested in some fish? I have an extra truckload coming, and if I don't move them, they go bad. Probably smell up the whole inn."
"Hey, you're not bringing them in here. The rule is, no animals in the rooms."