Private Beijing

Chapter 48

Hua kept one of his agents on the target until we reached the plaza outside Liu Bao’s headquarters. I felt uncomfortable being back in the space where we’d been attacked only the previous day, but no one knew we were here and we moved through the plaza without incident. Hua communicated with Zhang Daiyu by text to give her directions. We caught sight of the man heading down Jinchengfang Street, and she and I worked an overlapping tail to minimize the chances of him getting wise to being followed.

Zhang Daiyu took point for a while and I got ahead of the guy. I guessed he’d go straight on at the intersection with Taipingqiao Avenue, but he turned right so I crossed the street and followed from the other side. After a while, Zhang Daiyu went ahead of him and I took the tail. We carried on like this for twenty minutes, looping around the city until he reached Ganjiakou subway station. He went down the steps into the huge station, and I followed him and joined a queue at a kiosk to buy a ticket. Zhang Daiyu came down and took the lead then. She used her transit pass and tailed the guy through the subway barriers in front of the steps to the platform. When I finally got a ticket and made it downstairs, I couldn’t see her or our target anywhere.

I walked along the platform, which was packed with travelers, and caught sight of Zhang Daiyu standing behind a pillar. The target was talking to her. She waved her index finger discreetly, signaling me to walk on, and I stopped a short distance away, close enough to help, but sufficiently far to be a disinterested commuter. As the only Westerner in a crowd of locals, I was aware I stood out, but that might have worked to my advantage. What foreigner would be crazy or dumb enough to take on someone from a gang?

I heard the rumble of the Line 16 train rolling into the station, and when I looked through the crowd I saw our target finish talking to Zhang Daiyu and turn toward the platform edge. She headed for the exit, texting as she walked.

My phone vibrated and I checked my messages to see one from her.

He made me. He knows I was following. Be careful.

The crowd on the platform waited patiently as the train rolled to a halt. Zhang Daiyu gave me a last glance from halfway up the stairs, but I didn’t react. The target might have had accomplices in the crowd conducting counter-surveillance.

When the doors opened, the calm was broken as droves of people left the train, to be replaced by almost as many from the platform. I was one of them. I pressed my way into the carriage, which was uncomfortably full. I made sure I could see the target throughout our journey north and held on to a handrail as the train rolled on.

We went five stops to Wanquanheqiao where I followed the guy out of an increasingly crowded train. I tailed him through the station and we emerged into a modern part of the city. New buildings nestled in parkland, and mature trees dotted the neighborhood. We walked past a university campus and entered what looked like a government district. There were police everywhere and grand, imposing buildings with ministerial signs. The national flag of the People’s Republic of China fluttered here and there. I felt distinctly out of place as I followed the target along Xinjiangongmen Road.

We neared a fortified compound of imposing buildings that was dominated by a tall concrete pill-box block. The complex was surrounded by high walls, wire fencing, and guard towers. There were cameras everywhere and police vehicles stationed in the street, which had been cut from four lanes to one by some concrete bollards.

As we neared the high-security compound, I tried to identify it, but the small sign on the main gate was indecipherable to me. While my eyes were on it the target walked behind a parked van. I moved to catch up but couldn’t see him anywhere.

“I will tell you what I told your colleague Zhang Daiyu.”

The target startled me by appearing at my shoulder. He must have gone round the van.

“You can waste your time following me, but you can’t change your fate, Mr. Morgan. You are out of your depth. You don’t even know what this place is. It is the headquarters of Guoanbu, our Ministry of State Security. I’m going inside. You, well, you should go back to America. Enjoy life while you still can.”

“Nice tattoo,” I said, nodding at the dragons emblazoned on his forearm.

He stepped forward menacingly and thrust his arm toward me. “This? This isn’t a tattoo,” he snarled ferociously. “This is your doom.”

He turned and walked toward the main gates, leaving me stunned by his audacity.

I texted Zhang Daiyu.

He made me too. Meet you at the hostel.