14
Lady Ahn sat on a plump pillow, the pale blue silk of her billowing skirt spread before her. Her chima was embroidered in red and gold with the Chinese characters su, for long life, and bok, for good fortune.
Fifi, the Widow Kang, knelt on the floor and bowed, placing a lacquered wooden table in front of Lady Ahn. The table was laden with handleless porcelain cups and a steaming pot of imported Black Dragon tea. Shuffling backward, Fifi waited, her hands on her knees, until Lady Ahn poured steaming tea into the cups and handed them to Fifi, who in turn handed them to us.
Royalty doling out favors.
I'd heard a lot about royalty when I was growing up. Mexicans, like most people, are slightly in love with it. I was told proudly about Maximilian, the red-bearded Austrian archduke who'd been appointed by Napoleon III to become Emperor of Mexico. I was told somewhat less proudly about Quatemoc, the last emperor of the Aztecs, who'd been murdered by the treachery of the Spaniard Hernan Cortes.
I'd heard plenty about royalty, but I'd never seen it up close. Not until now.
Lady Ahn looked gorgeous on her low dais. Anybody's idea of a queen, or an unfortunate princess stranded amongst commoners.
Ernie chomped on a pecan cookie and slurped on his barley tea. 'You have any soju around here?'
Fifi Kang shot him an evil look. 'You wait for soju. You drink too early, pretty soon too much stinko.'
'Hey,' Ernie objected. 'The sun's almost down.'
I knew what he meant. Back at Eighth Army headquarters it was Happy Hour. The go-go girls were dancing, the cheap booze flowing. We both missed it. But my aching need was eased every time I gazed at Lady Ahn. The skin of her face was as smooth as the handcrafted porcelain cup I held in my hand.
She looked so gorgeous, so serene, that I almost didn't want to bother her with my questions. Still, questions had to be asked. I took a deep breath.
'Lady Ahn,' I said, 'tell me about the jade skull.'
She tilted her head toward me and her eyes tightened slightly. 'Why should I?'
Her English was pronounced expertly. No doubt that she'd been well educated.
'You know why you should,' I answered.
I reached in my pocket and pulled out what even Ernie didn't know I had, a clump of red-stained newspaper. I tossed it on the table next to the tea. Slowly, the crinkled sheets opened, revealing the gore inside: crusted blood, shredded flesh, the shriveled remains of a little girl's ear.
Lady Ann's face paled.
Fifi screeched, recoiled, but recovered quickly.
'What's the matter you?' she hollered. 'Why you do that? Your brain go TDY?'
TDY. Temporary duty, when GIs are sent for short periods of time to assignments away from their base camp. With that one slip of the tongue, I learned a lot about Fifi Kang. She'd dealt with GIs before. Extensively. She knew our jargon. Maybe she worked on the compound as a clerk or a waitress. Maybe she dealt on the black market. Or maybe she had been a business girl.
A woman alone, building up the capital to open her own antique shop. Unless she were an heiress, the fastest way to do that was by becoming a professional girl. Looking at Fifi Kang, that's where I'd bet my money.
Ernie picked up on it, too. He chuckled and bit back into his pecan cookie.
Lady Ahn couldn't keep her eyes off the slivers of mottled flesh. Slowly, her face drained of blood. Pulling out my handkerchief, I picked the shredded ear up again and tucked it back into my pocket.
'That ear,' I said, 'belonged to an innocent child. The men who are holding her have already cut off one of her fingers. If we don't give them the jade skull by the full moon, they will kill her.'
Trying to keep her hand from shaking, Lady Ahn reached for her tea. She sipped on it daintily.
Fifi Kang swung her mane of black hair toward me. 'You bother her too much, GI. Why don't you shut the mouth?'
Ernie growled at her. Fifi tightened her lips.
'What I need,' I said, still addressing myself to Lady Ahn, 'is the jade skull. If I give the skull to these men, they will let the little girl go.'
Lady Ahn didn't answer.
'We're willing to pay for it,' I continued. 'Between the two of us,' I nodded toward Ernie, 'we could probably raise a few hundred dollars.'
For the first time Lady Ahn laughed. The soft derisive laugh of a queen.
'Yes,' she said. 'You will pay for it. Everyone pays for the possession of the jade skull.'
I waited for her to go on. She didn't. I leaned forward. 'Tell us about it, Lady Ahn.'
Ernie shot a warning look at Fifi. For once, she kept quiet. Lady Ahn sipped once more on her tea and cleared her throat.
'I don't have the jade skull,' she said.
'But you made arrangements with Herman-'
She held up the soft flesh of her palm to quiet me. 'Yes. I made arrangements. With something as valuable as the jade skull, one must make all arrangements in advance. Even before the piece comes into your possession.'
Lady Ahn stared out the sliding paper door that led onto a narrow balcony. The gray pallor of the sky was darkening. A light rain began to fall. If it kept up, I wouldn't be able to see the moon tonight. How close was the silver orb to full? Too close. And getting closer.
We were on the top floor of a three-story brick building. Fifi had led us all up here the back way so the neighbors wouldn't see her bringing in two foreign men. She'd also called the girl at the antique shop and told her to lock up and go home and under no circumstances to tell anyone- especially the Korean National Police-the whereabouts of the apartment.
It was a nice joint. Plenty of antiques, a few paintings, everything immaculately clean. Ernie felt right at home. He was used to having women take care of him. He expected it. His attitude didn't seem to bother Fifi though.
Lady Ahn spoke again. 'The skull was carved from one solid piece of jade during the Yuan dynasty.'
I clicked it through my memory bank. Ernie was always laughing at me for checking out books from the post library on the history of the Far East. He said it was a waste of time.
'What are you going to do with it?' he often asked.
I never really had an answer for him. Until now.
The Yuan were the first foreign dynasty of China. The Mongols. Established more than seven centuries ago. Contrary to popular belief, Genghis Khan didn't conquer China. He conquered some of the northern provinces, but the conquest was completed, and the great Southern Sung dynasty finally defeated, by his grandson, Kublai Khan.
I said the name aloud, hardly aware that I was speaking. Lady Ann's eyebrows lifted slightly. In approval, I hoped.
'That's right,' she said. 'The jade skull belonged to Kublai Khan.'
My heart flushed with pride. I was glad this woman realized that I wasn't just some dullard who did nothing but drink beer and watch football games.
From what I'd read about Kublai Khan, he probably would've fit right in at Eighth Army headquarters during Happy Hour. He was a drinker. Not of beer or liquor but of kwniis, fermented mare's milk. As a matter of fact, most of his biographers say he died of alcoholism. It was something a lot of the Mongol conquerors had a problem with, although they didn't see it as a problem in those days.
Ernie was having trouble taking all this in. 'Okay,' he said, 'you have some jade skull that belonged to an old Chinese king. So what's the big deal?'
Lady Ahn looked at Ernie as if he were a clump of night soil. But to give him his due, it wasn't a bad question. She must've realized that because she answered it.
'There is a very 'big deal' about this jade skull,' she said carefully. 'The design was not exquisite. Not that Kublai Khan minded. He was a Mongol, a warrior, a rough man. They say that the green jade carving of the skull is
