People in the streets looked happy, their eyes were shining, and it was hard to believe that only a few weeks earlier Shanghai had been gripped in a paroxysm of fear at the prospect of the arrival of the NRA.
Nationalism changes people in the most peculiar ways, Daniel thought with a rueful grin. Chiang Kai-shek had made the “white ghosts” nervous and been transformed in the eyes of his people from a bandit into a prominent leader. Carried by a wave of national pride, no one cared now that the new father of the nation had slaughtered vast numbers of its sons and daughters.
Soon Daniel was in the apartment of his cryptographer, the son of a German pastor and a Chinese woman.
“Where have you been?” he asked, fussing over Daniel. “We’ve been looking for you everywhere.”
Daniel explained what had happened to him—without mentioning Nina, of course.
The cryptographer brought him a piece of soap and a change of clothing.
“Here, clean yourself up and get a proper rest. I’ll send a message to Berlin that you’re back.”
Daniel spent several days gathering information about what had been going on in the city while he’d been in jail.
Don Fernando told him about the seizure of the Pamyat Lenina: “Mr. Sterling sent the Dogmeat General’s men a telegram, and they let me go. But Miss Nina was taken into custody.”
“Did she really go to Wuhan after me?” Daniel asked, surprised. “I thought it was Nina who reported me to the police.”
“Oh no!” exclaimed Don Fernando. “She’s madly in love with you. When you were gone, she and I went to visit every morgue in the city. I was so sad that my heart physically ached—and all the while I still had to broker the deal to save Shanghai.”
Daniel felt a rush of warmth inside. “Where’s Nina now?” he asked.
“No idea,” said the Don, sadly. “Probably she’s finished.”
Fernando informed Daniel that he had persuaded Chiang Kai-shek’s representatives, Big-Eared Du, and Sterling, to come to an agreement that the Green Gang and the foreigners would provide the Kuomintang with funds in exchange for betraying the Chinese communists and their Bolshevik allies.
It had been promised that the NRA would sit tight until the Red Guards and the governor’s soldiers had destroyed each other, and then enter the city unopposed. The foreign concessions were left untouched, Chiang Kai-shek came to a number of agreements with the “white ghosts” on mutual cooperation and some preferences to make the common people a little bit happier, and the International Settlement city fathers issued a resolution: “Chinese citizens may now freely visit all the city’s parks.”
Within a few days, there was a huge crowd in the Bund, waiting for their chance to try the forbidden fruit.
These developments were a bolt from the blue for the Bolsheviks and the Chinese communists. Trying to save the situation, Mikhail Borodin called for everybody to disobey Chiang Kai-shek’s orders, but the Red Guards were in no position to resist the combined forces of the foreigners and the Kuomintang.
The result was a stalemate for Germany. Since Daniel hadn’t been directly involved in the negotiations between Chiang Kai-shek and the “white ghosts,” he hadn’t been able to win any privileges for the Germans. Now they no longer enjoyed their favored status as the Kuomintang’s sole Western ally, and German industrialists would see no rewards for their months of illicit support.
Berlin decided that the best strategy, for the time being, would be to keep pitting the Russians, Chinese, and the Great Powers against one another, and soon Daniel was ordered to go to Peking to conduct a large-scale secret operation there.
Tamara was about to depart for Nagasaki when the news spread like wildfire that Nanking had fallen just after Tony and Klim’s arrival. The NRA soldiers had pillaged the local foreign concession, killed the vice president of Nanking University, and wounded the British Consul.
Every expatriate’s worst nightmare had become a reality. Even the most unflappable and level-headed among them were soon busy packing their suitcases. Rumors spread that every boat ticket for Europe and America had sold out in a single day.
Tamara became sick worrying about Tony and Klim, and she couldn’t stop reading newspapers and calling her friends to try and find out what was going on in Nanking.
“Mommy,” Roger cried as he rushed into her room, “turn on the radio!”
Hurriedly she fumbled with the dial on the receiver.
“American missionaries who have lived in China for years,” said an unknown anchorman, “are leaving the country in large numbers. Their churches are being burned down, and peasants are looting their houses.”
“It would appear that it’s not the messiah the Chinese have been waiting for but the NRA,” said a voice remarkably like Klim’s.
Tamara felt a flood of relief wash over her: he was safe after all.
“Tell us what happened in Nanking?” the anchorman asked.
“When the massacre started,” Klim said, “a group of foreigners gathered at Mr. Hobart’s house at the top of Sacony Hill. There were about thirty of us, including some marines with a radio transmitter.”
“Where did they get it from?”
“The marines had been sent by the captain of a British ship—to observe the events that were unfolding in the city.”
Please tell me, Tamara prayed silently, please, tell me Tony is alive!
“Looters started trying to break into the residence,” Klim continued. “We threw all the valuables we could find out of the window to buy us time. While the soldiers were fighting over them, we let off a distress signal. Then the American and British ships opened fire on the city and forced the besiegers to let us go.”
“How many Chinese were killed during shelling?” the anchorman asked.
“I don’t know. I know that we lost eight people, and about a dozen were injured.”
Tears were streaming down Tamara’s face. Now she had no doubt that Klim would tell the audience that Tony was one of the victims.
“We made ropes out of sheets and climbed down the city wall,” Klim said. “First down were the men carrying weapons, then the women and children. British seamen were waiting for us on the river bank with lifeboats.”
“Are you sure you were attacked by Chiang Kai-shek’s soldiers, not the communists?” the anchorman asked. “After all, we have a cease-fire now.”
“Do you think the commander knows what all his troops are up to?” Klim answered. “In civil wars, men with guns are free to do what they like.”
“Therefore the bombardment of Nanking was justified?”
Klim sighed wearily.
“I’m just grateful to be sitting here in Shanghai, chatting to you. I could just as easily be lying in a ditch with my throat slit open.”
The anchorman thanked Klim and read the latest news. The new military commander appointed by Chiang Kai-shek had ordered the Red Guards, who had entrenched themselves in the northern districts of the city, to surrender their arms and give themselves up. But they had refused to obey him and organized their own communist government.
Tamara turned off the radio. Without Tony, she thought in horror, I won’t be able to save the children if street fighting breaks out here.
She could hear the sound of an engine outside her window. Her mind went completely blank for a moment. If they tell me that Tony is dead, I’ll be dead, too, she thought.
A floorboard creaked, the door hinge groaned, and a familiar figure appeared in the doorway.