Page 220 of Never

‘Of course.’

‘When I find out who has been trying to get at me through my wife, I’m going to cut his balls off with a rusty knife.’ Kai hung up.

He had been right to fear that Jianjun would be against the idea of coming clean with the Americans. Jianjun had been raised to see the capitalist-imperialists as lifelong enemies. China had changed, the world had changed, but the old men were stuck in the past.

But that did not mean his idea was wrong; just that it had to be carried out clandestinely.

He picked up his phone and dialled. His call was answered immediately. ‘This is Neil.’

‘This is Kai. I need to know whether you gave President No advance consent for her attack on Sino-ri.’

Neil hesitated.

Kai said: ‘We have to be honest with one another. The situation is too dangerous for anything else.’

‘Okay,’ said Neil. ‘But if you quote me I’ll deny it.’

‘Fair enough.’

‘The answer is no, we did not know in advance, and if we had, we would not have approved it.’

‘Thank you.’

‘My turn. Did you know Supreme Leader Kang was going to attack Jeju?’

‘No. Same thing. No forewarning, or we would have tried to stop it.’

‘What is the Supreme Leader thinking?’

‘That’s what I need to talk to you about. This crisis is worse than you think.’

‘Christ,’ said Neil. ‘That’s hard to imagine.’

‘Believe it.’

‘Go on.’

‘The problem is the weakness of the regime in North Korea.’

‘Theirweakness?’

‘Yes. Listen. Half the North Korean military is controlled by the rebels now. Some of the other half was destroyed at Sino-ri. The Supreme Leader has scattered his mobile missile launchers around the country –’

‘Where?’

‘Bridges and tunnels.’

‘Shit.’

‘If not for that, what remains of the North Korean military could be wiped out with another two or three missile strikes from the south.’

‘So Kang is in deep shit.’

‘And that will make him reckless.’

‘What will he do?’

‘Something drastic.’