All the students wore white bandanas across their foreheads, knotted in the back. Korean characters were slashed across the front in black ink, but from this distance I couldn't read what they said.
Around a far turn, more battalions of students emerged, all heading toward the big open intersection in front of Guanghua-mun. Vehicular traffic had long since been blocked off. A wooden platform had been set up in front of the gate; student technicians fiddled with wires and speakers and amplifiers.
The sky was overcast, but no rain. Not yet.
I grabbed the leather bag from Ernie.
'I better take up my position,' I said. 'Ragyapa wants me right in front of the gate.'
'Why don't you let me take it?' Ernie patted the. 45 beneath his coat. 'I'm better with this than you are.'
'That won't help. Not with all these students. But speaking the language might make a difference. I know what to say to them.' I stood and hoisted the bag over my shoulder. 'Besides, if I act cool enough they just might think I'm a foreign correspondent or something.'
'Did you bring a notebook?'
'Forgot.'
'Well, then,' Ernie said, 'look studious.'
And so I strode off toward the Gate of the Transformation of Light.
35
As I neared Guanghua-mun, the chanting of the students grew deafening.
'Jayu mansei!' Long live liberty.
'Weiguk-nom chukko!' Death to foreign louts!
'Miguk-nom mullo kara!' Yankee go home!
Although they were shouting all these terrible things, most of the students didn't even glance my way as I skirted their formations. But I felt as if I were tiptoeing past a giant tiger. His belly was temporarily full but if he became hungry and turned his green eyes on me, I'd be gulped down like a before-dinner aperitif.
Finally, I reached my position in front of the gate. I stood behind the podium, hoping no one would notice me.
I studied the area where the Buddhists had gathered. A sea of bald heads. There were too many of them and I wasn't high enough to see over the crowd. I couldn't tell if the little nun was there or not.
The buildings surrounding the intersection in front of Guanghua-mun were mostly deserted. But in a few of them, from high windows, people stared out at the crowd. In one or two windows I thought I glimpsed a glimmer of light. Maybe telescopes. Or photographic lenses. The secret police keeping tabs on troublemakers.
Suddenly, I felt naked standing out here. I wished we had set up a sniper in one of those windows. Ernie had promised to cover me, and I knew he would, but more students and more Buddhists were joining the swelling, noisy crowd every minute. Ernie would have trouble just keeping track of where I was, much less helping me if I needed it.
I searched for Ragyapa. So far nothing.
Suddenly, like a wave, the Buddhists rose to their feet, chanted for a moment, then knelt back down. The monks and nuns looked like a carpet of wool dotted with flesh-colored buttons. That's when I saw her. Choi So-lan, the Buddhist nun. She was in front with some large important-looking old monk who chanted and bowed to her. They were preparing her all right. Like a recipe: Marinate in righteousness before burning.
I wanted to charge over there, to give her the news that Hatcher would be turned over to them, to tell her that she didn't have to go through with this. Why hadn't I sent Ernie to do that? We'd been so nervous that we hadn't thought about it. Still, I had to stop her.
A door in an old wooden yoguan across the street slammed open.
Through it, Ragyapa shoving her from behind, stumbled Lady Ahn. My heart punched the walls of my chest like a clenched fist.
Even from this distance I could see she was a mess. Her hair exploded around her skull like uncut weeds. Her face was dark, shadowed, bruised. Her clothes were soiled and torn. If this had been a normal day, Ragyapa would have never dared to allow her onto the street. After one look at her, any self-respecting policeman would've investigated. But the rows of helmeted police had their eyes only on the surging demonstrators. None of them would break ranks; they'd be under orders not to.
Besides, what the foreign press called riot police weren't really police at all. They were conscripts in the Korean Army. After basic training, they were sent to the special riot police academy and taught how to wear gas masks and protect themselves with shields and wield riot batons. The riot police were soldiers, actually, and subject to military law and under the command of military officers. Most were from poor families, drafted when they were twenty years old. Few had any love for the wealthy students who would turn their backs on the money-making advantages of a university education to come out here and curse them for just doing what they were told to do.
It was an old story. Peasants against the Mandarin elite. And the Korean government wasn't above using class warfare to its advantage. The strong young peasant boys had been trained to beat up the uppity students.
I searched behind the yoguan. No sign of Ernie.
Ragyapa waved for me to come forward. His thug with the M-l could be drawing a bead on me right now. No sense thinking about it. I walked forward.
Twenty yards in front of the yoguan, I stopped.
'Let her go,' I said.
Lady Ahn didn't seem to know I was there. Her eyes were glazed. I'm not even sure if she knew where she was.
'Lady Ahn,' I called, 'can you walk forward on your own?'
She didn't move.
I unslung the bag and carefully set it on the wet pavement. 'I'll leave the skull here,' I said. 'You let her walk toward me.'
Ragyapa smiled. From out of the shadows of the yoguan emerged one of his Mongolian thugs. The thug held the M-l rifle level, pointing it straight at my nose.
'That won't be necessary,' Ragyapa said. 'You will bring the skull to us.'
I knew that if I stepped into the darkness of the yoguan, I'd never step out. Out here, if they shot me, someone would be forced to notice. The riot police would move. Ragyapa and his boys would never get away.
'No,' I told Ragyapa. 'We make the exchange right here. Out in the open.'
From the corner of my eye, I saw something scurry along the side of the yoguan. Ernie, I thought, but I forced myself not to look.
'No!' Ragyapa said. 'You will bring the skull to me now.'
Suddenly, metal flashed from the sleeve of his coat. I saw it press up against Lady Ahn's side. She moaned. Then he lifted it. A gleaming dagger, pressed right into her throat.
'She will die,' Ragyapa told me, 'if you don't do what I say.'
Behind us, student leaders started to rant into the microphones. They were criticizing the president of the republic. Calling him a lapdog of the American occupying forces. Accusing him of letting the filthy GIs get away with assaulting Korean women. Even innocent Buddhist nuns.
The students roared their approval. Off to the side, the riot police started to shuffle. Officers barked orders and the police repositioned themselves closer to the demonstrators.
I looked back at Ragyapa, into the evil in his eyes.
'If I step into the yoguan, she will die anyway,' I said. 'If you want the jade skull, you will have to bring her out here and get it.'
I knelt slowly, watching the M-l rifle move with me. I reached into the bag and pulled out the jade skull. I held it high in the air and ripped off the dirty cheesecloth.
