Cai told them to sit, but remained standing himself, patrolling the window, keeping a constant, distracted eye on proceedings beyond it. ‘How can I help you?’ he asked.
‘I want to talk to some of your athletes,’ Li told him. ‘In particular, members of the men’s sprint relay team. But, in general, anyone who knew the three sprinters who died in last month’s car crash.’
Cai looked at him sharply, his distraction suddenly gone, his focus very clear. ‘Why?’
‘I have reason to believe their deaths might not have been accidental.’ Li watched his reaction very carefully, and could have sworn that the colour rose very slightly on his cheeks.
Cai was clearly searching for a response, but in the end nothing came.
Li said, ‘And at some time I would like to speak to colleagues of Jia Jing, his coach, others in his weight class. I thought protocol demanded that I should speak to the Supervisor of Coaching first. You know Jia was found dead last night?’
Cai remained silent for a moment or two longer. Then he said, quietly, ‘I understood it was a heart attack.’
‘It was.’
‘Then what’s the connection?’
‘I don’t know that there is one.’
Cai regarded him thoughtfully. ‘We seem to be losing most of our best medal hopes,’ he said at length. ‘But, really, I don’t think I want you speaking to any of my athletes when they are just about to engage in competition with the United States. I don’t believe my superiors, or yours, would be particularly happy if we were to upset our competitors and lose to the Americans.’ He made a tiny nod of acknowledgement towards Margaret. ‘With all due respect.’
‘With all due respect,’ Li said, ‘I won’t speak to anyone until after they have competed. Do we have any of the sprint events tonight?’
Cai said grudgingly, ‘The men’s and women’s sixty meters, the four hundred and the eight hundred.’
‘Then I’ll be able to speak to some of them later,’ Li said.
Cai glanced at his watch. ‘Is that all?’
‘Actually, no,’ Li said. ‘I’d like you to tell me what you know about doping.’
Cai’s face clouded, and a frown gathered around his eyes. His demeanour conveyed both defensiveness and suspicion. ‘Why are you asking me?’
‘Because as National Supervisor of Coaching, I would have thought you might have some expertise in the subject,’ Li said evenly. ‘Even if only to ensure that none of our athletes is taking drugs.’
‘That’s impossible,’ Cai said defiantly.
‘Why?’
‘Because we have so many competitors, in so many disciplines, and there are so many different drugs.’
‘So tell me about some of them.’
Cai sighed deeply. ‘There are five main categories of drugs, Section Chief. Stimulants, narcotics, anabolic agents, diuretics, and peptide hormones.’ He appeared to think this was sufficient.
Li said, ‘That doesn’t tell me much. What are the more commonly used substances?’
Cai glanced at his watch again. ‘Anabolic steroids,’ he said. ‘Mostly testosterone and its derivatives, including clostebol and nandrolone. They increase muscle strength by encouraging new muscle growth.’
Margaret spoke, almost for the first time. ‘And bone mass,’ she said. ‘They stimulate the muscle and bone cells to make new protein.’
Cai nodded. ‘They help the athlete to train harder and longer. But usually an athlete stops taking them at least a month in advance of competition, because they are so easily detectable. They’re used mainly by swimmers and sprinters.’
‘And weightlifters?’ Li asked.
Cai flicked him a look. ‘Yes,’ he confirmed. ‘Although generally human growth hormone would be the drug of choice for weightlifters. Being a naturally produced hormone, it is very difficult to detect. It is excellent for building muscle and muscle strength, and allows the user to take shorter breaks between workouts.’
Margaret said, ‘And it can cause heart and thyroid disease.’ Li looked at her and raised an eyebrow. She went on, ‘As well as acromegaly.’
‘What’s that?’ Li asked.
Cai said, ‘Enlargement and thickening of the hands and the face.’
Margaret said, ‘Not necessarily noticeable in a weightlifter, who has already distorted his body by building muscles beyond their natural shape and size. But if he was taking it long enough it could also distort the growth of bone and internal organs.’
‘Which, of course, would be preferable to taking steroids which would only shrink your testicles and give you acne,’ Li said.
‘Oh, worse than that,’ Cai said ignoring Li’s sarcasm. ‘Steroids can damage your liver and your kidney. They can change your blood cholesterol and increase the risk of heart disease and stroke. Oddly some men even grow breasts. And that’s not to mention the psychological effects. Paranoia, psychosis, or roid rage as the Americans call it.’
‘And that’s just the men,’ Margaret said. ‘Women get hairy, it screws up their menstrual cycle, and gives them deep voices.’
Li listened with growing disbelief. It seemed inconceivable to him that people would voluntarily submit themselves to such horrors. ‘So what else do they take?’
‘EPO,’ Cai said. ‘Erythropoietin. And its new, improved version, Darbepoetin. It’s a naturally occurring hormone produced in the kidney. It promotes the production of red blood cells, so more oxygen gets carried to the muscle, increasing the stamina of the athlete. Used by distance runners and cyclists.’ He gazed out as a Chinese pole-vaulter cleared five meters seventy-two, and the crowd roared its approval. ‘When a genetically engineered version of EPO became available in the late eighties its use became virtually endemic among cyclists.’ He turned and looked at Li. ‘Between nineteen eighty-seven and nineteen ninety, nearly twenty cyclists died mysteriously in their sleep.’
‘I read about that,’ Margaret said. ‘They all died from heart failure. Increase the number of red blood cells and you increase the viscosity of the blood. It gets thicker, reduces the speed of the blood flow, and when the athlete is sleeping and his heart rate falls, the blood gets so thick it just stops. And so does the heart.’
Li swore softly.
‘Of course, they got around that,’ Cai said, ‘by diluting their own blood with a saline drip and monitoring their heart rate while sleeping. It used to be undetectable, which is why they all loved it. But now there is a very efficient test which can detect synthetic EPO, differentiating it from the endogenous hormone.’
‘And what about blood doping?’ Margaret asked.
Cai nodded. ‘It happens.’
‘What is that?’ Li asked.
Margaret said, ‘The athlete draws off some of his own blood and stores it in a frozen state. He trains in his depleted blood condition, prompting his body to replenish its blood supply, then re-injects himself with his own blood just before competition, again increasing the red blood cell count. Of course, he’s just as likely to infect himself with something nasty, and if he uses blood products other than his own, risks allergic reaction, kidney damage, fever, jaundice, even AIDS or hepatitis.’
‘There are plenty of other drugs,’ Cai said. ‘Diuretics for losing weight, or flushing other substances out of your system. Amphetamines to give you a competitive edge, increase alertness, fight off fatigue if you’re a team sport player. Beta blockers to steady your hand if you’re a shooter or an archer. Narcotics to mask the pain of an injury.’
Li shook his head. ‘We live in a sick world,’ he said.
Cai shrugged. ‘It’s human nature, Section Chief. Just like today, victory in the ancient Olympic Games in Greece brought rich rewards. Money, food, housing, tax exemptions, release from army service. So the athletes started taking performance enhancing substances — mushrooms, plant extracts. Ultimately drug use was one of the main reasons the ancient games were abandoned. So, you see, nothing has really changed in the last two thousand years.’