Taipei, Taiwan
NINE O’CLOCK IN the morning and the Taiwanese capital was shrouded, as it so often is, in a blanket of cloud and drizzle. The taxi deposited Luke and Jenny at a busy intersection where lines of motorcycles and their riders were waiting patiently for the lights to change. People were pulling on waterproofs as the drizzle turned to rain, falling in sheets from a sullen grey sky.
‘This country is so well-behaved,’ Luke said, ‘I haven’t seen one person jay-walking yet.’
‘It’s an obedient population,’ Jenny replied, ‘but it’s still a democracy. They really don’t want to be ruled by China and end up living under an autocracy in Beijing. Come on, let’s cross.’
Luke had slept fitfully the night before. Angela’s last message from VX had left him puzzled. You have meeting confirmed tomorrow. Useful contact. Meet at 0930 at Chiang Kai-shek Memorial, Dazhong Gate.
Angela was very thorough and she normally provided more detail than that, or at least a follow-up call. But when he’d tried to call her it had gone straight to voicemail and he didn’t feel like leaving a message. When he’d shared his concerns with Jenny over breakfast she had dismissed them with a shrug.
‘They’re flat out on the China team, remember?’ she told him. ‘I don’t suppose any of them are getting much sleep.’
Now they were walking into the Chiang Kai-shek Memorial Plaza as per Angela’s instruction, and it was as if they had left the city behind them. All the ugly brown and grey buildings, the satellite dishes and the rush of traffic faded away amid the hushed serenity of the vast park. Luke pulled the peak of his baseball cap down to shield his face from the rain. They had stopped beside a guide plan on a plinth that showed the park’s layout. A central open space was named ‘Democracy Square’ and two archways at the side marked ‘The Gate of Great Piety’ and ‘The Gate of Great Loyalty’.
‘Loyalty to whom, I wonder? Certainly not to Beijing,’ remarked Luke, as they crossed the central plaza and headed as instructed towards the Gate of Great Loyalty.
‘It’s just an expression, Luke. It comes from the saying “Both loyalty and filial piety are attained.”’
‘Well, this is a monument to a man who ruled Taiwan with practically an iron fist. Chiang Kai-shek. Hardly the world’s greatest democrat. In fact, they didn’t have democracy here until 1996, did they?’
Jenny smiled in agreement. ‘Point taken but you know what, Luke? It’s their country. Let them tell it how they want to. Now, which way is this Dazhong Gate?’
He pointed towards a broad white-columned ceremonial archway. Rows of Taiwanese flags were planted every few metres amid the Chinese junipers in the surrounding gardens. The flags hung limp and forlorn in the rain and the place was all but deserted. Just a couple in bright yellow mackintoshes, and they were leaving. Luke checked his watch: 0925. ‘We’re right on time but I don’t see anyone waiting, do you?’ he said.
‘Nope.’
‘OK, let’s split up,’ he suggested. ‘You stay close to the gate. I’ll check around these gardens.’ Luke set off at a brisk pace, quartering the area to be searched methodically in his head. He could see squirrels with dark grey fur and a rat-like appearance foraging around a clump of pine trees while a lone pigeon considered its reflection in a puddle with its head to one side. He stopped to scan the empty benches as an old man in a facemask jogged slowly past ignoring him, his outsize shorts flapping against his bare knees. But of the contact there was no sign. He looked back towards Jenny, who was standing alone beneath the Gate of Great Loyalty.
‘It’s beautiful, isn’t it?’ The voice came from behind him and Luke whirled round, surprised and annoyed to be caught off-guard. It was the elderly jogger with the facemask. He peeled off the mask to reveal a face lined by the years. Tiny vertical grooves on his upper lip told of a lifetime of smoking and there was a deep scar next to one ear that did not look like the work of a careful surgeon.
‘I believe you are looking for someone,’ said the man. ‘Perhaps I can help … Mr Blanford.’
Luke smiled and held out his hand and the man gave him a crushing handshake in return. So this was the contact Angela wanted them to meet. Nice move – a jogger. He hadn’t seen that coming.
He signalled to Jenny, who hurried over. ‘Zaoshang Hao,’ she greeted him in Mandarin. ‘Good morning.’
The man pointed towards a bench in the shelter of an arch. ‘Better out of the rain,’ he said.
‘So,’ he began, once they were seated in a deserted colonnade at the far corner of the park. ‘I understand you would like to meet my employers.’
My employers? Luke threw Jenny a glance. Angela hadn’t mentioned anything about this. Her message had given the impression the man they were meeting was on the home team.
‘Your employers?’ Luke replied.
‘Yes. I’m sorry if my English …’
‘No, no, your English is fine,’ Luke reassured him. ‘It’s just … could you tell us a little about your employers?’
He did not want to enquire immediately about Hannah – it went against everything they taught on the agent-running course back at the Fort. But Luke had a rising sense there had been a major misunderstanding here.
‘You will meet them, my employers. Today,’ the man said, ignoring Luke’s question. As he spoke, Luke noticed for the first time he had a blackened front tooth but he tried instead to focus on the eyes. ‘Arrangements have been made,’ he continued, folding his hands on his lap with an air of finality.
‘OK, just hang on here,’ Jenny interrupted. ‘We haven’t agreed to that yet. I think we need to establish some ground rules here. We’d like to choose the venue, if you don’t mind.’
The man smiled. He seemed to Luke to be very sure of himself. ‘You want information about your Miss Slade, yes? Then we will choose the venue.’ He rose to his feet and began to replace the mask around his mouth. ‘Please be at your hotel at three p.m. this afternoon. Don’t bring anyone else.’
‘Don’t you need the address?’ Luke said.
‘We have the address,’ he replied, his words slightly muffled now by his facemask. ‘You are at the Blue World Nanjing.’ He gave them a very slight bow, then broke into a stiff jog and was gone.