Shi Qiang quickly returned and said, “You may, either here or somewhere else. The doctor says walking isn’t an issue.”
Luo Ji wanted to tell him that he’d like to change venues. He even started to get up, but then the thought struck him that a sickly appearance better suited his purpose, so he lay back down again. “I’ll see him here.”
“They’re on their way over, so you’ll have to wait for a while. Why don’t you have something to eat? It’s been a day since you ate on the plane. I’ll set it up.” Then he went out again.
The assailant was brought in right after Luo Ji had finished eating. He had a handsome European face, but his most prominent feature was his slight smile, a smile that seemed so plastered on it never went away. He was not in cuffs, but when he entered, two people who looked like professional escorts sat down on chairs, and two others stood at the doorway. They were wearing badges that identified them as PDC officers.
He tried to look as close to death’s door as possible, but the assailant saw through him. “Doctor, surely it’s not as serious as all that?” He smiled as he said this, a different smile appearing over his permanent one like an ephemeral oil slick floating on water. “I’m very sorry.”
“You’re sorry for trying to kill me?” Luo Ji raised his head off the pillow to look at his attacker.
“Sorry I didn’t kill you, sir. I thought you wouldn’t be wearing a vest to a meeting like this. Never imagined you would be so scrupulous with protecting your life. Otherwise I’d have used armor-piercing bullets, or simply aimed for your head. Then I would have completed my mission, and you would be freed from yours, this unnatural mission no normal person can shoulder.”
“I’m already free of it. I submitted my refusal to the secretary general, rejecting the Wallfacer position and all of its rights and responsibilities, and she agreed on behalf of the UN. Of course, you didn’t know this when you were trying to kill me. The ETO wasted an assassin.”
The smile on the assailant’s face grew brighter, like a monitor whose brightness had been turned up. “You’re a funny man.”
“What do you mean? I’m telling you the honest truth. If you don’t believe me—”
“I believe you, but you’re still a funny man,” the assailant said, the bright smile still on his face. It was a smile that Luo Ji noted in passing but that would soon be imprinted on his consciousness as if by liquid metal, marking him for life.
He shook his head and, with a sigh, lay back down on the bed. He did not speak.
The assailant said, “Doctor, I don’t think we have much time. I presume you did not call me here purely to tell this infantile joke.”
“I still don’t understand what you mean.”
“If that’s the case, then your intelligence does not qualify you to be a Wallfacer, Dr. Luo Ji. You’re not as logical as your name suggests. My life really has been wasted, it appears.” The assailant looked at the two people standing on alert behind him and said, “Gentlemen, I think we can leave.”
The two cast an inquiring glance at Luo Ji, who waved a hand at them, and then the assailant was led out.
Luo Ji sat up in bed and thought over the assailant’s words. He had the odd feeling that something wasn’t right, but he didn’t know what it was. He got out of bed and took a couple of steps: no impediments apart from the dull pain in his chest. When he went to the door and looked out, the guards armed with rifles sitting beside it stood up immediately, and one of them spoke into the radio on his shoulder. Luo Ji saw a bright and clean hallway that was completely empty except for two more armed guards at the very end. He shut the door, went over to the window, and drew back the curtain. Looking down from this height he saw that guards armed to the teeth were posted all over the hospital entrance, and two green military vehicles were parked out front. Apart from the occasional white-clothed hospital staffer hurrying in or out, he saw no one else. Looking more carefully, he noticed that on the roof of the building opposite were two people surveying the surroundings through binoculars next to a sniper rifle, and he was instinctively certain that similar snipers were on the roof of his own building.
The guards weren’t police. They looked like military. He called for Shi Qiang.
“The hospital is still under heavy security, correct?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And if I asked you to dismiss all of the security, what would happen?”
“We would do as you asked. But I advise you not to do so. It’s dangerous at the moment.”
“What department are you with? What are you in charge of?”
“I belong to the Planetary Defense Security Department, and I’m in charge of your safety.”
“But I’m no longer a Wallfacer. I’m just an ordinary citizen, so even if my life is in danger, the duty ought to fall to the ordinary police. Why should I still enjoy this degree of protection from planetary defense security? And to have them dismissed or recalled if I so desire? Who gave me that power?”
Shi Qiang’s face remained expressionless, like a rubber mask. “These are the orders we were given.”
“Then… where’s Kent?”
“Outside.”
“Call him in!”
Kent came in shortly after Shi Qiang left. His manner had returned to the gracious demeanor of a UN official.
“Dr. Luo, I wanted to wait to see you until you had recovered.”
“What are you doing now?”
“I’m your day-to-day liaison with the Planetary Defense Council.”
“But I’m not a Wallfacer anymore!” Luo Ji shouted. Then he asked, “Has the media announced the Wallfacer Project?”
“To the entire world.”
“And my refusing to be a Wallfacer?”
“It’s in there too, of course.”
“What did it say?”
“It was quite simple. ‘After the conclusion of the UN special session, Luo Ji declared his refusal of the Wallfacer position and mission.’”
“Then what are you still doing here?”
“I’m in charge of your day-to-day liaisons.”
Luo Ji looked at him blankly. Kent seemed to be wearing the same rubber mask as Shi. He was unreadable.
“If there’s nothing else, then I’ll be going. Rest well. Call for me at any time,” Kent said, and then started to leave. Just as he stepped through the door, Luo Ji called for him to stop.
“I want to see the secretary general.”
“The Planetary Defense Council is the specific agency in charge of the direction and execution of the Wallfacer Project. The supreme leader is the PDC’s rotating chair. The UN secretary general exercises no direct leadership over the PDC.”
Luo Ji thought this over. “I’d still like to see the secretary general. I ought to have that power.”
“Very well. Wait one moment.” Kent left the room, but soon returned and said, “The secretary general is waiting for you in her office. Shall we be off, then?”
All along the way to the secretary general’s office on the thirty-fourth floor of the Secretariat Building, Luo Ji remained under security so tight he was practically shut up in a movable safe. The office was smaller than he had imagined, and simply furnished, with a fair bit of space taken up by a UN flag standing behind the desk. Say came around the desk to welcome him.
“Dr. Luo, I’d wanted to visit you in the hospital yesterday, but you see…” She gestured to the pile of papers on the desk, whose only personal touch was a finely crafted bamboo pencil holder.
“Ms. Say, I have come to reiterate the statement I made to you at the close of the meeting,” he said.
Say nodded but said nothing.
“I want to go home. If I am in danger, please notify the New York Police Department and have them be responsible for my safety. I am just an ordinary citizen. I don’t need PDC protection.”