Tao stepped into the yurt and removed her hat and coat. Everything she wore was chosen to emphasize that she was Chinese and not American. Even the way she carried herself had changed. Kilkenny considered how easily she had slipped into this native persona. The most significant change in Tao’s appearance, though, was the simplest to execute. Before leaving the United States, Tao cut the waterfall of silky hair that reached her waist, trading her tresses for a functional, military bob.
‘Time to do your makeup,’ Tao said as she placed a low stool and a tackle box on the floor near the fire. She pointed to where she wanted Kilkenny to sit.
‘I never thought I’d hear anyone say that to me,’ Kilkenny replied.
Tao started by cleaning and drying Kilkenny’s face, neck, and hands — areas of skin that would be visible when he was dressed. She laid out various prosthetics and began applying adhesive to Kilkenny’s skin.
‘Careful,’ Kilkenny said. Some of the fading bruises on his face were still tender.
He remained still as Tao affixed bits of latex to simulate edemas and lacerations. In the first pass, she fattened Kilkenny’s lower lip, blackened an eye and a cheek, and raised welts on his hands and forearms. Tao next softened the edges around the prosthetics with flesh-toned liquid latex, erasing seams that would destroy the illusion.
‘Are you sure you want to do this?’ Tao asked.
‘Somebody has to let Yin know what’s happening. I’d hate for him to have a heart attack when Bravo shows up for his execution.’
‘But why you?. Why not one of the others?’
‘You mean someone of Chinese descent?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Better they stay outside. If something goes wrong, they have a chance of blending in and getting away. It was either going to be Max or me, and I’d rather have him running Alpha and covering my back.’ Kilkenny laughed.
‘What?’
‘On the flight over, Max asked me the same thing.’
‘What did you tell him?’
‘That I’m the man on a rope, the guy they lower down into a deep hole to rescue someone trapped in the darkness. My job is to find the lost soul and hold fast to the rope. Yours is to pull us out.’
Tao stared into Kilkenny’s eyes for a moment and once more saw the strength of his conviction. They had saved each other’s lives more than once, and an absolute trust cemented their friendship.
‘That new haircut is still taking some getting used to,’ Kilkenny said, breaking the silence as Tao resumed work on his forehead.
‘For me too. I’ve had long hair since I was a little girl. At least it will all grow back and some deserving kids will benefit from my little sacrifice.’
After signing on for this mission, Tao donated her hair — in two twelve-inch-long chunks — to Locks of Love to make wigs for pediatric cancer patients. Kilkenny first saw her new bob when he landed in China. The change in Tao’s appearance was so severe that at first he didn’t recognize her — which of course was the idea.
She applied a mix of paints and powders to tint Kilkenny’s artificially swollen areas in shades of milky yellow, black, and blue. Around the open wounds, Tao dabbed on a dark viscous fluid that, as it dried, formed a crusty, fractured surface like coagulated blood. She also placed droplets of simulated scab on Kilkenny’s face and neck, mimicking blood splatter. On two of his fingers, Tao blackened the nails. Last, she smeared and dribbled simulated blood onto Kilkenny’s uniform, transforming him into a thoroughly abused prisoner.
‘Now, just sit there for a moment and let everything really set up,’ Tao said. ‘I have to get changed.’
She stepped behind a modesty curtain, removed her civilian clothing, and donned the dark gray uniform of an officer of the Ministry of Justice. Like U.S. marshals, cadres assigned to the Ministry of Justice were an armed force separate from the police and the People’s Liberation Army. This force provided security for the courts, oversaw the handling and transport of prisoners, and, as the insignia on Tao’s uniform indicated, executed prisoners.
‘How do I look?’ Tao stepped into view.
‘Like a death-row inmate’s worst nightmare,’ Kilkenny replied.
‘I thought men liked a woman in uniform.’
‘It depends on the woman and the uniform,’ Kilkenny said, recalling the first time he saw Kelsey in a NASA flight suit.
Tao caught the melancholy tone in his voice and dropped this line of banter. ‘Let me take a look at you.’
Tao slowly walked around Kilkenny, studying her handiwork at various angles.
‘I may not win an Oscar for best makeup,’ Tao said, ‘but it should do the trick.’
19
It was almost midnight as Bob Shen downshifted, slowing the truck as he drove up to the main gate of Chifeng Prison. The approach was a paved two-lane track covered with a thin layer of wind-driven dirt. The truck’s thickly grooved tires kicked up a dusty haze behind the vehicle. A guard stepped out of the gatehouse and signaled Shen to halt.
Shen brought the truck to a stop at a white line painted across the roadway — the entire vehicle now bathed in harsh, cool light. The guard took notice of the Beijing markings stenciled on the truck’s body as he strutted toward the driver’s door. Two more guards appeared near the gate, their weapons trained on Shen and Tao, seated in the cab beside him.
‘Papers,’ the guard demanded.
With cool detachment, Tao handed a dossier to Shen, who passed it to the guard. The man quickly scanned the forged documents.
‘Prisoner transfer, eh,’ the guard said. ‘We received no notification of any transfer scheduled for tonight.’
‘If you had actually read those documents,’ Tao replied, her voice a blend of superiority and boredom, ‘you would have noticed that this transfer is unscheduled for reasons of state security.’
Chastised, the guard made a more thorough review of the paperwork and found that the transfer authorization bore proper signatures from the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of State Security. The packet included a photograph of the prisoner but listed no name, meaning Beijing wanted no record kept of this person’s movements within the prison system. The prisoner was obviously not a common criminal.
The guard motioned for the outer gate to be opened and returned to the gatehouse. The barrier — a five-meter-high wall of electrified chain link fastened to structural steel tubing that curved inward near its full height and was topped with a tightly coiled helix of razor wire — rolled to the left along a narrow-gauge rail. When the way was clear, Shen pulled the truck forward to the next barrier. The outer gate closed behind the truck, and only after it was secure was the inner gate opened.
Though no longer aiming at Tao and Shen, the two guards kept their weapons trained on the truck as it passed through the gate. Tao paid no heed to the guards’ aggressive stance — it was standard procedure. A lax display at the main gate would have surprised her more.
A jeep arrived at the gatehouse just as the truck cleared the inner gate. The senior guard approached as the jeep came to a stop and handed Tao’s dossier to the lieutenant at the wheel. Unlike the guard, the lieutenant took his time reviewing the documents.
The young officer was a tall man, Tao realized as he stepped out of the jeep, and carried himself ramrod straight. He walked directly to Tao’s window, and they exchanged salutes.
‘Good evening, Captain,’ the lieutenant said. ‘The paperwork authorizing this transfer appears to be in order, though I am a bit surprised that we received no prior notification.’