The waiter, responding to Peter’s hand signal, appeared suddenly with a bottle of champagne and six glasses. He opened the bottle and poured drinks all around. Alex watched as Peter slipped the waiter an American hundred dollar bill and declined change. A tip. The waiter, his evening an instant success, gave Peter a low bow.
Wong’s background was closer to Ming’s than to Peter’s. He had been brought up in Xinjiang, in the far northwest near the old Soviet border. His parents had been forcibly relocated there in the seventies. The Cultural Revolution had been the greatest disaster of their lives. Before the Civil War, he explained in a side conversation to Alex, his grandparents had been landlords, so they were considered capitalists. The Red Guard had come around one day with a vengeance and ordered them to the remote countryside.
“They didn’t want to go work in the fields,” he said, “but they were taken there and then left in the middle of the countryside. They had to build their own house. We were miles from anywhere. The government wanted to keep us apart from the local people. The nearest village was a two-hour cycle ride away, and it had nothing, only a little market.”
Alex’s curiosity was piqued. “That must have been terrible beyond belief,” she said.
Her comment allowed Wong to open up even more.
“My parents were at the Shuanghe Labor Reeducation Camp,” Wong said. “It was a prison farm near the Russian border. The other inmates were mainly young pickpockets, burglars, and brawlers. In the camp, guards and prisoners used the word ‘reeducation’ to mean you’d be locked up in a small cell and struck with electric prods or beaten. Afterward, you’d have to write a self-criticism. Then there was another form of daily torture. During the hours between breakfast and the second and final meal in the late afternoon, no one was allowed to use the toilet. My parents told me little more than that about the camp. I never wanted to know more. How could I?”
“I’m sorry,” Alex said. She was.
“The same government apparatus that tortured my parents today makes me rich,” he said. “Some days I find it confusing. Most days, I don’t think about it.”
He shrugged. Then he buried the thought with a long gulp of Moet and Chandon.
A wave of culture shock flowed through Alex. In almost everything she had read on China, sooner or later the phrase human rights turned up, coupled with the terms policeman, linked with words such as
More champagne went around the table.
“So,” Alex said, “does anyone ever criticize the government?”
“Of course,” Peter answered. “It’s common knowledge that the government is corrupt and is hiding scandals. And that they don’t tell the truth. Everyone knows.”
“What about democracy?” Alex asked.
“We can vote for representatives,” Wong said quickly. “But in China there are too many people. True democracy is not possible.”
“Why would anyone want nine hundred million unwashed, uneducated peasants from the countryside telling the government what it should do?” Peter added with dismay. “That would be absurd! The decisions of state are best left to the educated elite.”
“Fine for you since you’re part of it,” Alex said.
“Of course. But look at the economic miracle of the last two decades. We are obviously doing a lot that is right. Our system might not be like yours, but for China it has worked.”
“What about human rights?” Alex said. “Like detaining prisoners without trial? Like torture.”
“Like Guantanamo?” laughed Ming. “One cannot always control the excesses of our government.”
“So,” Alex finally said, “is this really what Deng Xiaoping meant when he talked about ‘socialism with Chinese characteristics’ almost thirty years ago?”
“It might not be what Chairman Deng meant,” Peter answered quickly, “but it’s what it has become, for better or worse. A lot of business success is through the traditional virtue of
“Okay then,” Alex finally said. “You have all these luxuries and material successes,” she said. “What about spiritual stuff?”
“Of what sort?” Wong asked.
“Maybe inner beliefs,” she said. “A personal creed or a set of morals or a code?”
“Like a religion?”
“Call it that if you like,” she said.
“You mean like Lee Yuan?” one of the younger two men said.
Alex wasn’t sure who had mentioned the name, but conversation at the table stopped cold. It was as if someone had fired a shot. Peter’s eyes widened slightly, as if to admonish whoever had crossed a line. And a line definitely had been crossed because both Wong and Ming, well lubricated as they were, had a regretful look to them.
“I’ve never heard that name before,” Alex said. “Who’s Lee Yuan?”
More of a pause. “Lee Yuan is why we’re here,” Peter said.
“Why’s that?” she asked. “I’m not following.”
Peter began to explain, obviously taking great care with his words.
“Lee Yuan was a wonderful man,” he said. “He was a mentor to the three of us. A mystic perhaps. A great teacher and friend. He recruited all three of us into the current positions we now hold.”
“I see.”
“We would not be where we are today,” Wong said, “if he had not handpicked and groomed us.”
“He is no longer with us,” Peter said. “He died recently. To honor him, his memory, his spirit, we are attempting to complete his final mission. There is a tradition. If a person perishes from this earth and an important part of his life’s work is left unfinished, those who held that person in high regard are honor bound to pick up the fallen standard and finish that task. Sometimes such things are very small. Other times the task is great and may take a lifetime. The three thousand mile march begins with a single step, after all.”
“That’s a noble tradition,” she said. “I can’t argue with it.”
“Thank you,” he said. “But that’s why I’m here, it’s why my associates are here. Lee Yuan was a spiritual man. So we wish to accompany his spirit down his chosen path.”
“So his soul can rest?” she asked.
“Think of it that way if you wish,” Peter said.
Peter’s eyes flicked away from Alex and onto the two other women at the table. The gesture was so quick that she would have missed it if she hadn’t been looking directly at him. But she caught it.
“That’s really all I can tell you for right now,” he said. “I won’t hide anything important from you. Maybe I’ll think of more later. Or on another day. But that’s all you need know for now.”
“Thank you,” she said.
He nodded. Then his serious expression gave way to a smile. The waiter returned and the conversation went back into Spanish. Orders for food were taken and another bottle of Moet replaced the dead one on the table.
Dinner was excellent. A live band started playing toward midnight, and the two younger Chinese agents pulled their partners out onto a small dance floor. Chang watched them go, turned back to Alex, smiled, and extended a hand to her. He motioned to where people were dancing.
“You have to be kidding. I haven’t danced for quite some time,” she said.
“Let’s change that now,” he said. “Please? I’d be honored.”
She drew a breath. The images of her personal tragedy flashed in front of her. She thought of Robert and thought of the discussions they’d had before he died. If anything happened to either of them, the other could go on and create a new life.
“Okay,” she finally said.
Out onto the floor they went.
The name of Lee Yuan did not come up again that evening.
Alex did not weave back into her hotel suite until well past 2:00 a.m.
