Page 78 of Never

Yanji had the largest Korean population of any Chinese city. It had two Korean-language TV stations. One of the Korean residents of Yanji was Ham Hee-young, a bright and capable young woman who was the illegitimate daughter of General Ham, a fact not known to anyone in North Korea and very few people in China. As manager of a department store she earned a high salary plus commission on sales.

Kai landed at the domestic airport, Chaoyangchuan, and took a cab to the city centre. All road signs were bilingual, with Korean above Chinese. Some of the young women on the city streets wore the chic, sexy styles of South Korean fashion, he noticed. He checked in to a large chain hotel, then immediately went out again, wearing his heavy coat against Yanji’s bitter cold. He ignored the taxis at the hotel entrance then walked a few blocks and hailed a cab on the street. He gave the driver the address of a Wumart supermarket in the suburbs.

General Ham was stationed at a nuclear base called Yeongjeo-dong, in the north of North Korea, near the border with China. He was a member of the Joint Border Oversight Committee, which met regularly in Yanji, so he travelled across the border at least once a month.

Many years ago, he had become disillusioned with the regime in Pyongyang, the capital, and had begun to spy for China. Kai paid him well, channelling the money to Hee-young, Ham’s daughter.

Kai’s cab took him to a developing suburb and dropped him at the Wumart, two streets away from his actual destination. He walked to a building site where a large house was going up. This was where Ham spent the money he made from the Guoanbu. The land and the house were in Hee-young’s name and she paid the builders out of the money Kai sent her. General Ham was close to retirement, and he planned to disappear from North Korea, adopt a new identity furnished by Kai, and spend his golden years with his daughter and grandchildren in their lovely new home.

Approaching the site, Kai did not see Ham, who took care never to be visible from the street. He was in the half-built garage, talking in effortlessly fluent Mandarin to a builder, probably the foreman. He broke off immediately, saying: ‘I must talk to my accountant,’ and shook Kai’s hand.

Ham was a spry man in his sixties who had a doctorate in physics. ‘Let me show you around,’ he said enthusiastically.

All the plumbing had been installed and now carpenters were putting in doors, windows, closets and kitchen cabinets. Kai found himself envying Ham as they toured the building: it was more spacious than any home Kai had lived in. Ham proudly pointed out a bedroom suite for Hee-young and her husband, two small bedrooms for their children, and a self-contained apartment for Ham himself. We gave him the money for all this, Kai thought. But he had been worth it.

When they had looked around they stepped outside, despite the cold, and stood at the back of the house, where they were hidden from anyone on the street and could not be overheard by the builders. There was a cold wind and Kai was glad of his coat. He said: ‘So how are things in North Korea?’

‘Worse than you think,’ said Ham immediately. ‘You already know how completely dependent we are on China. Our economy is a failure. Our only successful industry is making and exporting armaments. We have a woefully inefficient agricultural sector that produces only seventy per cent of our food needs. We lurch from crisis to crisis.’

‘So what’s new?’

‘The Americans have tightened up sanctions.’

This was news to Kai. ‘How?’

‘Just by enforcing existing rules. A shipment of North Korean coal destined for Vietnam was seized in Manila. Payment for twelve Mercedes limousines was refused by a German bank because of suspicion that they were destined for Pyongyang, even though the paperwork said Taiwan. A Russian ship was intercepted transferring gasoline to a North Korean ship at sea just off Vladivostok.’

‘Small things in themselves, but they get everybody scared of doing business,’ Kai commented.

‘Exactly. But what your government may not realize is that we have only six weeks’ supply of food and other essentials. That’s how close we are to famine.’

‘Six weeks!’ Kai was shocked.

‘They’re not admitting that to anyone, but Pyongyang is about to approach Beijing for emergency economic aid.’

This was useful. Kai could forewarn Wu Bai. ‘How much will they ask for?’

‘They don’t even want money. They need rice, pork, gasoline, iron and steel.’

China would probably give them what they wanted, Kai thought; it always had, in the past. ‘What’s the reaction of the Party hierarchy to yet another failure?’

‘There are rumblings of discontent – there always are – but such murmurs will come to nothing as long as China props up the regime.’

‘Incompetence can be dreadfully stable.’

Ham gave a short bark of laughter. ‘Too fucking true.’

***

Kai had several American contacts, but the best was Neil Davidson, a CIA man at the American embassy in Beijing. They met for breakfast at the Rising Sun, in Chaoyang Park Road near the US embassy, convenient for Neil. Kai did not use his driver, Monk, because government cars looked official, and his meetings with Neil needed to be discreet, so he took a cab.

Kai got on well with Neil, even though they were enemies. They acted as if peace was possible even between such rivals as China and the US, given a little mutual understanding. It might even be true.

Kai often learned something Neil had not intended to reveal. Neil did not always tell him the truth, but his evasions sometimes yielded clues.

The Rising Sun was a mid-price restaurant patronized by the Chinese and foreign workers in the central commercial district. It made no effort to attract tourists, and the waiters did not speak English. Kai ordered tea and Neil arrived a few minutes later.

Neil was a Texan, but not much like a cowboy, except for his accent, which even Kai could detect. He was short and bald. He had been to the gym that morning – he was trying to lose weight, he explained – and he had not yet changed out of his worn trainers and black Nike warm-up jacket. And my wife goes to work in blue jeans and cowboy boots, Kai thought. Funny world.