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Chapter 15

January 2009, Hong Kong

Shortly after Horace gave Ruth those photos of Harry and his new girlfriend, Ruth received a visit from Sherman Tang. She had no prior warning that he was going to call on her. The doorbell to her apartment rang late one evening and there he was, asking if he could have a word. It was all done very quietly and discreetly, in true spook fashion.

"Mr. Tang, how nice to see you." Ruth had only met him once or twice before when she first arrived in Hong Kong, though she had heard a lot about this man from Horace. She was surprised and suspicious of why this man was calling on her at such a late hour and in this manner.

"Ms. Evershed, I hope you are well." Sherman gave Ruth one of his smiles.

"I am, thank you. What can I do for you?"

"I have two purposes in coming to see you today. The first is a matter of a personal nature, and I hope you will forgive me for being frank with you. The other is more business related."

"A matter of a personal nature?"

"Yes, let me come straight to the point, Ms. Evershed. It has been brought to my attention that Horace has recently arranged for some photos of Harry Pearce to be sent to you."

"Yes, he did." Ruth knew better than to deny that she had the photos. Nothing escaped Sherman Tang's attention. She knew about the scolding which Horace had received when he arranged for that first batch of photos to be given to Ruth. Poor Horace is in for another severe reprimand. I wonder if Sherman Tang is going to ask for the flash drive to be handed over. Ruth started to feel a little embarrassed about the whole thing. How much does he know about me and Harry?

"You are an extremely intelligent woman, Ms. Evershed. I'm sure you know what was Horace's intention in sending you those photographs."

"I'm not sure I know what you mean." Ruth was not sure where this conversation was heading but whatever direction it was, she was sure that she was not going to like it.

"Horace is infatuated by you. Please don't pretend that you are not aware of this."

"Horace has been a good friend to me, but there is nothing going on between us. I'm sure you already know that." Ruth could feel herself blushing.

"The problem is not with you, Ms. Evershed, its with Horace. I think he is entertaining some notion that perhaps he could now develop a relationship with you."

"I'm sure that I haven't done anything to encourage him in that way, Mr. Tang."

"I'm sure you haven't, though in this sort of situation, you may not need to have taken any active step to encourage him. Forgive me for being blunt, Ms. Evershed, but there cannot be any future between you and Horace."

Ruth was completely caught off guard. What is he talking about?

"You see, Ms. Evershed, Horace has a bright future within our Security Bureau. His maternal grandfather marched alongside Chairman Mao in the Long March (see Note 1 below). Both his parents are high ranking Communist Party cadres. He has the right pedigree in every respect to climb to a higher station within the Security Bureau, indeed within the Central Government. As you know, Horace has degrees from Harvard and Cambridge and is fully bi-lingual. He has a good understanding of the Western mindset, having spent years living in the West, yet his allegiance remains firmly with China. The development of modern China needs young men like him. I really would not want to see his career trajectory compromised in any way."

"Why would Horace's friendship with me affect his career path?"

"If Horace were to have a romantic liaison with a non-Chinese person, that would not be acceptable to the powers that be in Beijing and would effectively end his career within the Security Bureau. Your background also complicates matters considerably, as I'm sure you'll understand."

Ruth understood exactly what Sherman was saying. No Caucasian woman would do, specially if that woman used to work for Britain's MI5.

"I love Horace as if he were my own son, and I would not want to see him jeopardize his career in any way. China would never accept some one like Sonia Gandhi (see Note 2 below)."

"But this is ridiculous, we haven't even started to …" Ruth was becoming a little angry by now. How dare this old man show up in my apartment and tell me who I can or cannot see? Who does he think he is? And to be compared to someone like Sonia Gandhi? Give me a break! At this point, Ruth began to feel sorry for Horace, who probably was not aware that Sherman Tang was paying her this visit.

"Please don't misunderstand me, Ms. Evershed. I am not as old fashioned or autocratic as you might think. The purpose of my visit today is this : if you tell me, honestly, that you have feelings for Horace and would not be adverse to developing a genuine relationship with him, then so be it. I will not meddle, but I will stop wasting time in grooming Horace to succeed me, and I wish the two of you the best for the future. On the other hand, if you say to me that Horace has only a one sided infatuation with you, in other words, your feelings for him will never progress beyond that as a friend, then leave it with me, I will help Horace see the error of his ways. But either way, I would be grateful for an answer from you."

Ruth remembered the terrible arguments that Harry used to have with Tom Quinn over his love affairs, especially his involvement with Christine Dale of the CIA. She could not understand Harry's motivations at the time, though she could now see where Sherman Tang was coming from. She did not know what to say.

It was not that Ruth had anything against Chinese men, she just never thought of them in that way. Ruth enjoyed her outings with Horace because she found Horace interesting and entertaining. She treated him as a friend, a 'mate'. He had spent more than half of his life living in the US and in England and was about as 'westernised' as he could be. But through offhand remarks and throwaway comments, Ruth knew that at heart, Horace remained staunchly Chinese and was proud of his work as a Chinese spy. Horace had told her that he was amongst a rapidly expanding group of educated Chinese who was keen to see China become a world power again and they would do anything to achieve that goal. Ruth knew that if Horace had to leave the Chinese Security Bureau, he would be miserable.

The real reason why Ruth liked spending time with Horace was that he was always able to bring her the latest gossip about what had been happening in the world of espionage and intelligence, such as the CIA's latest blunders, new schemes about to be hatched by MI6, the latest situation in the Middle East, and of course, any news regarding Harry and Section D. Through Horace, she heard about what had happened to some of her former colleagues, like Zak, Jo, Adam and Ros. With these conversations with Horace, Ruth felt that she still had a connection with her old world, albeit a tenuous connection.

"There is no pressure within the Security Bureau for our agents to marry, of course, but if one were to marry or have any sort of romantic liaison, that person has to be a person with the right background, you see. Besides, in my time, I have seen many inter-racial marriages flounder as the couple grew older and their respective cultural differences start to drive a wedge between them, differences which they were able to ignore in their younger days when they thought that they were in love, or more likely, in lust, with each other."

Ruth wanted to tell Sherman that he was wrong in his assessment. Marriages of same race couples have no better chance of surviving than mixed race marriages. At the same time, having been in the business, she knew how conservative the spy trade could be – as one came up through the ranks, you were encouraged to do everything you could to minimize the possibility that you might be put in a compromising position where your private life was concerned. Ruth said nothing. She did not want to be disrespectful to Sherman, and she did not have strong enough feelings for Horace to warrant having a debate with Sherman on this subject at this time.

"Can I assume from your silence that Horace means nothing to you other than as a friend?"

After a long while, Ruth gave in and nodded. "Horace is and will remain a dear friend who helped me out in times of need. I do not want to see his career compromised on account of my friendship with him. I shall refrain from socializing with him in future." This was the second time in Ruth's life when she had to sacrifice something of herself in order to save another man's career, only this time, she was not sure exactly what it was that she was giving up.

"Good, I'm happy to hear that." Sherman Tang seemed genuinely relieved by Ruth's response. He thought of something else and said, "I would be grateful, however, if you did not disclose to anyone the fact that we've had this discussion today, least of all Horace."

"I won't say a word," Ruth agreed. She did not think that she had any choice but to agree.

"Now, about that business matter I mentioned earlier." Sherman took out a sheet of paper and showed it to Ruth.

"It would appear that there is a traitor amongst our ranks. This is a message containing intelligence about China which one of my agents is trying to pass to the West, possibly the US. When I saw this agent's wife with a whole range of designer handbags, I knew that he was living beyond his means. He had to have found a way to supplement the income which we pay him. We'd like to know what kind of information is being sold to the West. I'd rather that this document was decoded by someone outside of our team, so that word about my discovery will not get back to the traitor in question. I wonder, would you mind taking a look at it? I'd understand if you feel that you are not in a position to give me this assistance."

Sherman Tang had timed his request perfectly. It had been a long time since Ruth was asked to decipher any encoded message. By this point, Ruth was so fed up with affairs of the heart that she was grateful for the chance to do something which required her skills as an analyst. She wanted to show this meddlesome, racist old man that she was not some floozie who had to be warned off men, that she had a first class brain which could be put to good use. She felt that as long as the intelligence related to Chinese matters, she would not be betraying her own country if she helped to decode it.

She gave the document a quick once over and immediately saw a smattering of Farsi in the text though it was all jumbled up and mixed with other languages and codes. It had been a while since she last looked at anything written in Farsi and this got her interested immediately. "Yes, I'll have a look at it. I'll need a day or so, if that's alright."

"Of course. When you are done, can you please put the original document in this plastic holder and the decoded message in this envelope," said Sherman as he demonstrated to Ruth how she should pack the original and the decoded documents separately. "This way, I will know whether the documents have been tampered with by the time they get back to me. I will arrange for someone to collect these from you the day after tomorrow. As for your remuneration …"

"No, thank you, that won't be necessary. You have been kind enough to allow me to stay here for the past few years, I don't really need …"

"Well, if you insist."

" … although I don't think that I would be comfortable with doing this kind of work for you in future. I hope you'll understand …"

"Yes, of course, I understand. Thank you so much for your help, Ms. Evershed, on both matters." Sherman treated Ruth to one of his enigmatic smiles.

After Sherman left, Ruth went to work on the document immediately. Even though Ruth's experience and skills were in the field of intelligence analysis, she did have a healthy side interest in cryptanalysis, the practice of breaking codes. It did not take her more than a couple of hours before she was able to decode the document since the code structure was not complicated to start with. She knew immediately that the information related to the sale of arms by the Chinese to Iran and that both the British and the Americans would be overjoyed to get their hands on this sort of information. She was briefly elated at the fact that she was not rusty in her skills, until she remembered that Sherman had said that this information was compiled by a rogue agent which meant that her work would probably make it easier for Sherman and his crew to send this poor agent to an early demise. That made her feel a little uneasy.

She debated with herself whether she should hand in this work. She was tempted, for all of two seconds, to pass this information to the West but then reminded herself that she did not have any way of passing on this intelligence since she no longer had contacts in that world, and if Sherman ever found out and traced it back to her, she would not be allowed to live. Ruth was not a coward, but she had been let down by the world of espionage before and this time, she figured that the world could save itself.

Ruth remembered that Sherman did give her a chance to back out of decoding the document but she had agreed too readily to take on the job and now, she really did not relish the thought of having to see this disagreeable man again if she had to explain why she had changed her mind. She did not dwell on these matters for long, since she had other things on her mind which came out of that meeting with Sherman.

Ruth now saw Horace in a whole new light and she kicked herself for not having made the connection before. Here was a good looking, highly educated and intelligent man who had been most attentive to her every time they were together. Yet she had been so preoccupied by matters related to her previous life that she failed to notice any of this. Why didn't I see all the clues and get all the hints before? All this time, I was wallowing in self-pity when I could have enjoyed the affections of this lovely man. Is it too late to start something with Horace, just to spite Sherman? Yes, probably. In any case, I don't have a death wish nor could I ever have an affair with someone I don't love with the sole intention of breaking his heart. Poor Horace. Poor me. I wonder how many other opportunities at love I have let slip by the wayside, all because of Harry. I must get rid of his photos on my hard drive. At the very least, I should change the desktop image and the photos used in the screensaver programme. I'll do that tomorrow. If Harry has moved on, so should I.

Given what Sherman had told her about Horace, it was clear that she had outstayed her welcome in this part of the world, through no fault of her own. She would have to relocate elsewhere again. She sighed and felt weary in her bones. She also felt that life had dealt her a terrible hand. I can't have the man that I love, and now I'm told that I can't even have the man I don't want. What is wrong with the world? As for her future, she felt completely lost. When she left London, she had her trip mapped out for her by her colleagues. When she had to leave Paris, she had help from Horace. This time, she would be on her own. She had no idea where she would go or what arrangements she should be making. It took so much effort on her part the last time around to build up a new life that she did not think that she had the energy to do this all over again.

Ruth then recalled an incident in the general office of her Department a couple of months ago which involved the plotting of a Chinese star chart as a means of telling someone's fortune. She went into the general office one afternoon in order to photocopy some course materials for her students and found all the secretaries, except for Becky, in hysterics. Apparently Becky had recently had her Chinese star chart plotted and made the mistake of sharing this information with one colleague who promptly told the whole office.

Amongst the many symbols which could populate a Chinese star chart, the one which most young people was interested in was the peach blossom symbol. When this appeared in someone's star chart, it usually meant that the person in question would have a lot of influences of a romantic nature. If the person was unmarried, he or she could expect a lot of attention from interested suitors; if the person was already married, it would indicate a strong possibility of love triangles and extra-marital affairs. The appearance of these and other symbols in one's star chart did not mean that one was doomed to a particular fate, they only served as indications of certain possibilities, and they should be interpreted along the lines of "to be forewarned is to be forearmed"; for example, if you knew that you were prone to extra-marital affairs, you could take steps to avoid becoming embroiled in this kind of situation.

Becky was told that in her chart, there were a lot of peach blossom influences. Poor Becky was about as mouse-like as they came and usually did not speak above a whisper. She was also quite short and plain looking. This was why her colleagues thought that the possibility of Becky being surrounded by a large number of potential suitors extremely funny. This reduced Becky close to tears and Ruth knew exactly how she felt. Although Ruth laughed along with the rest of them, she broke up the gathering by asking Becky to go over to the Main Library to fetch a book for her. She knew that the Main Library did not have the book she wanted. She was only trying to give Becky an excuse to get away from the pack of hyenas.

Ruth thought that the star chart with peach blossom symbols was a lot of rubbish at the time, but thinking about that incident now, she did not need a fortune teller to tell her that she had absolutely no peach blossom influence in her star chart. I wonder if it would be possible for Becky to transfer a few of her peach blossoms to my chart? I could sure use some of that right now. Her memory of that ridiculous incident helped Ruth snap out of her bad mood, but she remained depressed for a long time after that meeting with Sherman Tang. Ruth had never felt so completely unloved and unwanted.

Note 1 : The "Long March" was an important event in the rise of the Communist Party in China. Most if not all of those who took part in this march have now passed on. Any Chinese person who can claim a connection with any of the men and women who took part in this event will find it easier to have his political aspirations fulfilled in China.

Note 2 : Sonia Gandhi is an Italian woman who married Rajiv Ghandi, the eldest son of Mrs. Indira Gandhi. Following her husband's assassination, Sonia Gandhi eventually found herself the leader of the Congress Party, even though she has indicated many times that she would rather not be involved in politics. Her name is mentioned in this Chapter only as an example of a person who is not a native of a country but has somehow ended up being a leading figure in the political arena of that country.

Thanks everyone for your reviews so far. Apologies for having made one or two of you cry over the last chapter.

As always, all reviews will be gratefully received.