Kang's eyes went from expressionless to dead. It must have been something he had practiced, because he was very good at it. It was as if a clear lens several millimeters thick had come down over them. All of a sudden, his eyes didn't reflect the light; they didn't react to what they could see. His voice stayed smooth, no hint of threat, but without anything in his eyes the overall effect was disconcerting. I knew he had finished sparring. He was going into battle. "What time did you leave the surveillance site this morning?"
"It's in my report." I took a piece of dried fish without realizing it.
"Must have been about 7:00 a.m."
"How about 6:30?"
"If you say so."
"No, Inspector, when do you say it was?"
"I'd say it was when the sun had just burned through the mist.
Third row of hills was soft against the horizon." I was getting annoyed.
The fish was salty, and I didn't know what Kang was up to.
"Very poetic. But to be a little more precise, what time might that have been?"
"Six fifteen. I looked at my watch when I got into my car. I may have sat there a minute or two before I turned on the engine. By 6:45 I was back in the city."
"At 7:10 you walked into Pak's office. I looked at my watch when you threw the camera onto the desk. You made good time. No traffic problems at that hour?" He smiled faintly. I smiled back. There was more to this than just checking my progress into the city. I'd let him string it out, if that's what he wanted to do. Intelligence types never liked to get right to the point.
"At 6:40, a farmer walking along the highway found a body. He had a watch, too-the farmer, I mean." Kang paused, waiting for my reaction. I said nothing. "Just up the road there was a car in the ditch.
Rear tire had blown. The left front window was shattered." I sat back from the table so I could see him better. "Want to know what color the car was?" Kang's eyes were coming back to life. "It was black. No plates." He didn't pause to get my reaction. "You're in for a cartload of woe, Inspector."
I relaxed. So that was it. He didn't think I had done anything, and he really wasn't trying to make it look like I had. He needed my help; otherwise we wouldn't be in plain sight in the Koryo at dinnertime. I nodded, partly because I finally figured out what he wanted, partly because I needed a second to think. "You've omitted a few details."
Kang laughed. "Well, I must be losing my touch. I guess I'm not getting through to you. So let me try again. The body was about 250 meters from your observation post. It was wearing the uniform of a senior colonel. Someone had cut his throat."
"Only he wasn't a senior colonel." My stomach sent up another warning lurch, and my mind started racing. How would Kang know where my observation post was? 1 had picked it out that morning; even my chief inspector didn't know the precise place.
Kang rubbed his eyes. "I'm tired. You're not listening. And if you don't listen, you'll just get in deeper."
"No, I heard you. But there was no body, no car in any ditch when I drove back. And the car I saw was moving so fast, if it had blown a tire it would have gone airborne and smashed more than the left front window."
"You done?"
"No. Was there a radio scanner in the car?"
"Strange question." I could see I had caught him off guard. "How did you know?"
"I was put on camera duty. I don't know whose job that is, but it's not mine. I'm supposed to look after the safety of the good citizens of the capital, their foreign guests, and their fanny packs. Thirty kilometers down the road isn't my jurisdiction. Dead bodies on the side of said road aren't my problem. Especially if the bodies are wearing phony uniforms.
Especially if the bodies are planted there after I go by."
"That's twice you jumped to a conclusion." He looked past me, watching something in the lobby. "One more point. There was another body.
On a hill near the road. A young boy. His throat had been cut, too."
I exhaled. He was watching me again, but not carefully, not minutely.
He wasn't interested at this point to see if I twitched. Even so, he waited a few seconds before continuing, it was part of his rhythm. "The farmer claims he was checking the field at dawn and saw your car pulling away.
He says he read your plates."
I could have sat and pretended to consider this. That's what he wanted, so I didn't do it. "There was no farmer in no field, Kang. I was watching.
That's what we do almost all the time, we watch. That's my job, and believe it or not, I know how to do it. What do you want from me?"
"Better." Kang raised his head again. "Another beer?"
"I repeat, what do you want from me? I can't work for you. We only work with the Investigations Department through liaison. A beer at the Koryo doesn't count as proper channels."
"You and I share a problem, Inspector."
"That would be Colonel Kim." A little light went on in Kang's eyes, and went off just as quickly. I never thought I'd see it, that light. Now he realized I knew Kim's real rank. I might as well go the rest of the way.
"Let me guess. The Military Security Command is investigating your department. They're trying to use me to get at you." This was just speculation.
All Pak had told me was that Military Security wanted a picture of the car, though it was clear he was plenty worried even with that. I had filled in the rest, about Kang being the target, while I was driving over to the hotel. Kang could only have been in the room for one reason, and it wasn't to second the motion. He needed to find out what was happening, and he needed to know urgently. "If Military Security wants you, you must be in a lot of trouble."
Kang folded his hands and rested them on the table. "Anyone"-he smiled-"involved with Military Security is in a lot of trouble." He finished his beer, then put the glass to his cheek. "Difficult job, catching a speeding car at dawn on film."
"You didn't want that picture. Kim did." I waited for that little light to flash again, but he must have disconnected it. I figured the conversation was over. "Thanks for the beer, Kang. I've got to clean my apartment."
"Inspector." Kang pushed something across the table. "Don't forget this."
It was my pin.
9
"That was the first time you met Kang?" The Irishman was studying the birds on the cloth as if he'd never noticed them before.
"No, I met him in Pak's office, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah. I meant, that was the first time you spoke to him at anylength."
"Is it a problem for you, paying attention? We can end this right here, if that's what you want."
"I'm surprised you're so polite. I thought you'd be, how to put it, nastier."
"Is that an Irish compliment?"
"No. The one thing I remember from the briefings is that Koreans don't like foreigners. Don't get excited. It wasn't meant as a criticism, just a statement of fact. Like saying cow shit smells."
"What makes you think I like you?"
"Good, you don't, then. I hate it when the briefers are wrong."
"It's not that we don't like foreigners. It's not foreigners, it's ourselves we don't like. In our minds, we are small, quivering, bowing, submissive, beaten, cowering dogs. If we like foreigners, it can only be because we are afraid, or currying favor, or kissing their feet."
The Irishman grunted. "So why did I hear Koreans are tough?"
"Different parts of the anatomy, Richie. Different altogether. I once heard a foreigner, a very dumb Russian, complain that I was a tough son of a whore. It wasn't grudging praise. He was mad because I wouldn't take his suggestion. Normally, a suggestion from a Russian is like falling down a well, but this time it was a good one. I knew it. He knew I knew it, but I knew if I took his advice, he would have an edge, or he would think he had an edge. Same thing."