But now his notebook had been spirited away!
Realizing what had happened, Vasili became agitated, nervously moving about. He went first to see the head of the train’s security, to alert him and his staff to prevent anyone from disembarking; then he used the train’s telegraph machine to wire Unit 701 and report the situation. Unit 701 in turn reported to General Headquarters, who then reported to their superiors — on up the chain of command it went until reaching the most senior director. He issued forth the following directive: ‘The missing documents involve national security; all departments are instructed to provide whatever assistance is necessary. The files in question must be recovered as quickly as possible!’
How had Rong Jinzhen’s notebook been lost? It involved sensitive institutional secrets and it contained explicit information on the problems they had encountered in their attempts to decipher BLACK. Rong Jinzhen had used it to record his thoughts — these most important ruminations on the intricacies of BLACK. How could it have been lost?
Lost!
It had to be recovered!
The train had picked up speed. It was hurrying to the next station.
Everyone knew that the next stop was A City. You could say that Rong Jinzhen had met with calamity just outside his front door, as if it had been long predestined, set in stone. No one would have imagined that so many days could have gone by without anything happening — and now this! It was terribly unexpected, to get all the way home only to have a leather briefcase go missing (not even the safety-deposit box). The culprit behind all of this could not be considered to be someone especially villainous, rather just a damnable thief. It was all like a dream. Rong Jinzhen felt weak and confused; a pathetic, hollow web of intrigue had entangled him, was torturing him. As the train roared ahead, he felt worse and worse. The train wasn’t heading for A City, it was heading to hell.
Once it reached its destination, the train doors were all locked. The orders had been given an hour ago by the Intelligence Service. But common sense told everyone that the thief in question had already left the train. He had disembarked once he had taken the briefcase, and that was in B City.
It is well known that if you want to conceal a leaf, the best place to do so is in a forest. If a person wants to conceal himself, the best place is in a crowd, in a city. Solving this case was not going to be easy. Establishing the particulars was going to be harder than hard. To give you an example, to give you a general idea of the features of this case, consider the following.
According to the records of the ‘Special Investigative Team’ at the time, this case involved, directly and indirectly, the following departments:
1. Unit 701.
2. A City’s police force.
3. A City’s PLA detachment and military reserves.
4. A City’s railway authorities.
5. All of A City’s affiliated government ministries.
6. B City’s police force.
7. B City’s PLA detachment and military reserves.
8. B City’s railway authorities.
9. B City’s health authorities.
10. B City’s Administrative Bureau.
11. B City’s Construction Administrative Bureau.
12. B City’s Communications Bureau.
13. B City’s Reporters Club.
14. B City’s Postal Authorities.
15. All of B City’s affiliated departments; and a countless number of other small work units and departments. The terrain to be covered included:
1. A City’s train station.
2. B City’s train station.
3. The 220 kilometres of track between A City and B City. 4. B City’s seventy-two registered guest houses.
5. B City’s 637 dustbins.
6. B City’s fifty-six public toilets.
7. B City’s forty-three kilometres of sewers.
8. B City’s nine rubbish tips.
9. The homes of all of B City’s residents.
More than 3,700 men were directly assigned to carrying out this job, including Rong Jinzhen and Vasili.
All 2,141 passengers on board came under direct scrutiny, as well as the 43 employees working on the train and the more than 600 plainclothes military men in B City. The train was delayed for five hours and thirty minutes.
The intelligence services in B City used up 484 hours on this case, equalling ten days and four hours.
According to what people said, this was the largest and most mysterious case G province had seen: tens of thousands of people had been disturbed, whole cities were thrown into upheaval; the scale and depth of this operation had never before been seen.
5
Returning to our main story (this is after all Rong Jinzhen’s story, which still isn’t over but rather is just entering a new phase). As soon as Rong Jinzhen stepped off the train and onto the platform in A City, he spied a delegation from Unit 701 approaching him — at the head was a rather exasperated and intimidating looking Director (not Zheng the Gimp, who had yet to be promoted to the post, but rather the predecessor of his predecessor). This was as it should be, thought Rong Jinzhen. Walking up to him, it was clear that the Director had lost all the respect he had once had for Rong Jinzhen. He looked at him with cold, menacing eyes.
Filled with terror, Rong Jinzhen cowered away from those eyes, but he could not escape the Director’s voice: ‘Why didn’t you place such sensitive and secret documents in the safety-deposit box?’
Everyone on the platform was fixated on the scene and saw what happened. There was a quick flash of something across Rong Jinzhen’s eyes that died away almost immediately, just like a tungsten filament burning out; then everything seemed to freeze as Rong Jinzhen went rigid and collapsed to the ground.
When the early morning light shone in through the window, Rong Jinzhen returned to the conscious world, and his eyes opened upon the hazy face of his wife. For one brief moment, he had fortuitously forgotten everything. He thought he was at home, in his own bed, and his wife had just woken him from some disturbing dream, her face looking anxious (perhaps she performed this duty quite frequently). But soon the white walls and the smells of medicine brought him fully back to reality; he realized he was in hospital. The shocking memory of what had happened returned and he heard the imposing voice of his Director: ‘Why didn’t you place such sensitive and secret documents in the safety-deposit box?’
‘Why?’
‘Why?’
‘Why. . ’[Transcript of the interview with Director Zheng]
You must believe that Rong Jinzhen did not deliberately try to lose his attaché case. In fact, he was always very vigilant. Therefore if you said that this mess was the result of him lowering his guard, or because he was treating the whole thing too lightly, or that he was somehow neglecting his duty, well that would be awfully unfair. But not putting his notebook in the safety-deposit box was a lapse in judgement on his part; his vigilance had certainly left him then.
I remember clearly that before they set off on this trip, Vasili and I had repeatedly requested — had urged him over and over again — to place any secret documents (including anything that could identify him as a member of the intelligence service) in the safety-deposit box. And he had assured us that he would do so. On the trip back, according to Vasili, Rong Jinzhen had been very careful, he had placed all sensitive materials in the safety-deposit box, including a book of maxims written and given to him by the Director-General of the Intelligence Service, to secure anything that might expose his identity, especially his particular position, or compromise him. Virtually everything was placed in the safety-deposit box except for his notebook. As to why he left the notebook out: well, that has become an age-old and profound mystery. I believe, unconditionally, that it wasn’t because he intended to write in it that he made sure to leave the notebook out; that’s not possible. He didn’t take risks like that; he didn’t have the courage to do so. It’s as though there really was no reason for him not to put the notebook away, and although he tried to figure out why after it had been stolen, he couldn’t imagine a reason. What is strange, however, is that before it went missing, he didn’t really seem to be conscious of having the notebook with him (and even after it disappeared, he didn’t immediately think of it). Like a woman failing to notice that she has a needle slipped into the cuff of her shirt until it pricks her; normally you just wouldn’t think of it.