We went down the stairs into the street. "Ever notice the way the sunlight dances on the river, Inspector?" The river was several blocks away, hidden behind buildings that were empty and served no purpose except as a source of shade for crowds waiting for a bus in the late afternoon.
Pak couldn't see the river; he was just keeping up a one-sided conversation. "You should try your hand at poetry, Inspector. Maybe join a club studying ancient dance."
Pak leaned forward when he walked, sailing into a wind no one else could feel. For someone who examined ideas seamlessly, his thoughts gliding like a razor cutting silk, he moved with a surprising lack of grace, shoulders hunched, arms swinging fitfully just out of rhythm with his steps. He never looked comfortable with gravity; it was a concession he seemed unwilling to make. As a man, Pak was handsome.
The shaggy gray hair made his crisp features seem more delicate and finely wrought. Everything fit perfectly on his small face, even the hint of a frown that rested almost constantly on his lips and the elusive sense of worry that never left his shining eyes.
As we walked, Pak fell silent. Then he was no longer beside me. It happened so abruptly that I went several steps before I realized he was gone.
"Inspector!" I looked around to find him down an alley, sitting under a willow tree whose branches drooped onto a rusted swing set. "Marvelous how we provide for children, the little princes and princesses. Nothing too good for them, eh? Care to guess the last time this was painted?"
I settled next to him. "If this is a social criticism session, I have nothing to say. It only gets me sour looks."
Pak hummed to himself, a folk tune about a young couple separated by a river no one could bridge. They would have drowned themselves, but before things got that far, Pak turned to me, speaking quietly. "Kim is not a captain."
"Figures."
"He's not from any joint headquarters."
"Army?"
"Close enough. He's from the Military Security Command, a colonel."
I didn't say anything. Pak coughed, another nervous habit. He lowered his voice another notch. "I'm not supposed to know where he's from, and neither are you."
"The car?"
"A picture. One lousy picture, Inspector, and Kim would have gone away happy."
"That's what I figured, he was the one who wanted the picture. Those types are never happy, you know that. Happiness doesn't sit well with their sort of noxious purity. They give loyalty a bad name. If the Center mentions it wants a dark night for a drive, Military Security looks for ways to erase the moon." Pak puffed out his cheeks, a sign I was going off on a tangent. I backed up. "Okay. The picture. Don't they have their own camera, something expensive? Or are they too dumb to know how to use it?"
"Inspector!" Pak's tone was always friendly, even when he was irritated with me, but now it was deadly cold. "Don't underestimate them.
If you'd pay attention once in a while, like the rest of us, you'd know that. Don't even think about underestimating them."
"What do we do now?"
"We go back to the office so you can call Kang."
I looked at my watch. "It's early, and you didn't really answer my question."
"At the moment, it will have to do. We'll tiptoe until Kim retracts his claws and pads away. Just hope we're too small for him."
"He may want us as a snack."
"Not if he can't see us, or hear us, or smell us. For the next ten days we fade into the background. See this swing set? It's colorless. Blends in with the dirt. Moves ever so gently when the wind blows. Even the birds won't shit on it, because they don't believe it's here. That's us. Do I make myself clear?"
"I bet they don't have swing sets in Kanggye."
"Inspector"-Pak got up and dusted off his trousers-"notice how the sunlight dances off the sunglasses of that guy on the corner?"
"Yeah?"
"Let's hope the battery in his camera isn't working, either."
7
The number on the piece of paper was only a switchboard. I told the operator I wanted to speak to Deputy Director Kang. "Everyone here is a deputy director," she said. "The lot of them. And I have three Kangs.
So you'll have to be a little more specific."
"How about the Investigations Department?" I asked.
"Better." I could tell she was reading something, and it wasn't a telephone book. "I do have a Kang in the Investigations Department."
"That's fine," I said. "You suppose I could talk to him?"
"Could be, but you'll have to be patient. This switchboard is being upgraded, and they've got wires crossed all the way from here to the border.
Yesterday I tried to connect to a Kang and you know what I got?"
"No, what did you get?"
"Kanggye."
"Ouch."
"In case I lose you, what's your ID so I can call you back?"
I gave her my name and number.
"Okay, Inspector, hang on, here we go." The phone buzzed and clicked for a few seconds, and then another voice came on. "Hello."
My watch said 2:05. "Inspector O here, calling for Deputy Director Kang. Official business."
"Inspector, I know who you are, and you're late."
"Blame the switchboard."
"I've been reviewing your file."
This is rarely a good sign, but it helps to sound unconcerned. "I'm sure you found it fascinating. Especially my poor performance in photography class."
"Your chief inspector rates you highly."
"That's just for the file. He needs that in case he ever wants to get rid of me. If he gives me a low rating, no one will take me."
"No, he's very specific. You have solved sensitive cases involving high ranking cadre. You have protected your Ministry from disturbing developments.
And you have a reputation for following orders in a discreet and sensible manner, with excellent results. What does that mean, I wonder?"
"I wouldn't know. You'll have to ask Pak."
"I might do that."
"Kang, we're each of us busy, in his own way, and I'm glad to have reached you. But my office is hot, I still haven't had any tea, and it will probably take me all afternoon to track down a battery for that camera."
"Exactly why I like your type, always charging ahead to protect the people of the motherland."
"I'll tell you what, Kang, why don't we have a beer?"
A slight pause, then a short laugh. "I thought you'd never ask, Inspector.
I'll meet you at the Koryo Hotel, say at six o'clock. Precisely."
"Good." I hung up and walked across the hall to Pak's office. Pak looked up warily. "He wants to have a beer."
"Where?"
"At the Koryo."
Pak raised an eyebrow. "Funny place to have a meeting. Not an accident, as the Russians used to say, even if you did mention it first." A smile quickly passed across his face. "Quiet day. Thin walls. Watch your step. And Inspector"-Pak walked over to the blackboard and began beating on it furiously with the chalk-"mind your manners."
8
Kang was sitting on one of the benches at a wooden table in the beer hall at the front of the Koryo Hotel. As it usually is, the hotel was quiet and cool. I never figured out where the coolness came from. There was no air-conditioning. Maybe it was all the marble-the floors were marble, and so were the pillars where they weren't mirrored. The marble was too dark for my taste, mostly black and gray, but if it kept the place cool in August, I wasn't going to lodge a complaint on aesthetic grounds.
When the architect first presented the plans for the hotel, they probably looked grand. Two towers side by side, a revolving restaurant on the top, a marble lobby with high ceilings. The scale model must have been fantastic. Scale models usually are. One of my first assignments when I joined the Ministry was to investigate the disappearance of funds from the central offices of the Union of Architects. There were little models everywhere, models for government buildings, movie theaters, apartment houses with perfect balconies and intact facades, parks with winding pathways and beautiful landscaping. Architects make good scale models, but they make lousy thieves. The key to a suitcase was hidden under a marble kiosk in one of the model parks. It wasn't so hard to find. Who ever heard of a marble kiosk? Once I had the key, finding the suitcase was no problem. The key was for French luggage. None of the architects had been to France, but one of them, the deputy chief, had been to Beijing recently.