7.
We were 'stuck' in the hospital wing of the secret bunker for another few days. After Sai was declared well enough, an escort showed up to take him to 'debriefing.' The situation got my hackles up right away; I'd never had a four man soldier detail escort me to a debriefing, so why send one for Sai?
I decided to get in the leader's face about it and apparently he was under orders not to get physical with me or anyone because I really tried to get up his nose - and his nostrils flared wildly enough for me to conclude that I had succeeded - but he didn't shove me aside when I blocked the man's access from Sai, nor did he try to make a grab for him when he could have. Instead the man called Touya and Touya ordered me to let Sai go. I told Touya to stick it up his, uh, nose and that at the very least I was going with Sai where ever he was made to go. I knew I was doing the right thing here, especially because I could feel Sai trembling from where he was hiding behind me. I was fully prepared to resist us being separated until the cows came home, just to help Sai not be frightened; I was really only 10% worried that anybody here meant him any harm.
Touya gave in quicker than I expected and actually dismissed the sergeant and his three subordinates. He ordered me to get Sai to the interview room in a reasonable time frame. Well, that was nice, at least now Sai had a chance to dress and wash his face. Mine too; I could feel it needed it.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
The interview room had been given a makeover, I noticed as I wheeled Sai in. There wasn't much that could have truly improved the drab walls and steel furniture, but an effort had been made to make the place feel more comfortable. There was a tray on the table with tea for 5 people - Master T, Ogata, Touya, Sai and myself - with a stack of hospital crackers and what the doctors here called 'nutritional cookies' - supposed to have all the right vitamins and didn't taste half bad either - on two separate plates. A small blanket had been thrown over one chair, meant for Sai I assumed, and the view mirror on the wall was covered with a set of gray curtains, making looking in from the observation room impossible. I hoped anyway. Also it didn't mean nobody could be listening anyway. But then I spotted the recording device - latest IS5 issue - and I realized the point was moot; many people would be listening to what was said today.
"Is that necessary?" I asked, nodding towards the thing on the table.
Touya put his hand on it and said, "It'll save time. This way Fujiwara only has to tell his story once and not be bothered again."
Yeah, right, until there is something some people really want to know and then he has to tell it again and again. I gave Touya a look that matched my thoughts. He gave me a determined look back; well well, he was prepared to back up his words, I was impressed.
After we all settled down and tea had been served Master T invited Sai to tell his life's story in his own words. Sai talked a long time and used many old fashioned phrases, some of which I had to look up - well, OK, ask Touya about - later.
Here is what I remember he said, together with what I figured out later he said.
"I was told I was part of twins born to members of the despicable nobility class and that my parents' name had been erased after their execution and that I should never refer to them or ask after their deeds or I would be punished. I lived with my sister in Linxia prefecture. I went to school and my sister worked in a laundry. Because we were nobility class, we were looked down upon and I had to do well in school or my sister was punished." Here Sai stopped and drew in a harsh breath.
"I tried so hard but the tasks they gave me, they were too hard and too many, and..." He stopped again and looked at the table top for a long moment and then continued. "I was never there to see the punishments and she would never allow me to see the bruises, but I would hear her scream. It was, it was..."
I put a hand on his arm and said softly, "Take your time."
"Then my tutors discovered I was good at math and we were sent to another town, a bigger town, Lanzou, in Gansu prefecture. I was 7 years old. Yanmei started working in a kitchen and I studied math. And my new tutors taught me Go. I did better in school; there were now fewer punishments. Sometimes I still couldn't finish all the home work in time, even if I worked all night and Yanmei would pay for it," he sobbed. I gripped is arm tighter, conveying my support.
"But you never saw her punished, nor ever saw her bruises or wounds,"Touya made the question sound like a statement.
"No, never," Sai answered. Even though a recording was being made, Touya still had been making notes throughout and he made one after Sai's confirmation. He then waved his hand in a please-continue gesture.
"When I was 12 I was getting really good at Go and my tutors recommended me for the Go program. I was accepted and we moved again, to Tianjin city. Now we got a really nice flat to live in and Yanmei didn't have to take job anymore, she looked after the flat and me from then on. I was warned to study hard and pass all exams and win all my games or we'd lose the flat and the clothes and the food.
"I could not win all my games but if it was a non-competitive game I was allowed to take punishment myself and so I could spare Yanmei," he continued. I was starting to feel anger rising up my spine; the little bitch had let Sai take punishments that she wouldn't have suffered anyway! She was lucky she'd been taken to another facility yesterday or I'd have gone to her cell that instant and have decked her for sure.
"I studied hard and won most of my games at first, and then I worked harder and started winning all of them," Sai continued. "By the time I was 16 we were doing very well; we had enough to eat, heat in the winter, an outing in the summer, enough clothes and things to make my sister happy. We were not free to go where we pleased, or at least I was not. During the day I was at the Go school or at a tournament. In the evening I was either home studying or still at school playing internetGo." He paused again. "I suppose that Yanmei could have gone anywhere while I was away from home, but I was told by her and by the guards that she was stuck at home all the time. I made allowances for her crankiness from boredom as much as I could." He looked again at the table top.
"Now I see how she played me. She played me many times but the worst time was when I lost to you, Grand Master, at internetGo," Sai shuddered as he looked up to the ceiling and wrapped his arms around himself as if to keep himself safe. I added my arms and presently he let his head rest on my shoulder.
"I was so upset at having lost, for I knew there would be punishment and it had already started when I arrived home. The guard had to tie me to a chair to prevent me from entering my sister's bedroom. They'd left the door open, and where I was put I could not see in, but I could hear everything!"Sai put his hands to his ears, shaking his head wildly, so I dropped my arms away for a moment so our heads wouldn't collide and then I grabbed him properly from behind, laying my head against his neck so he couldn't head-butt me accidentally. I held on, riding out the storm of his emotions while whispering stuff like 'it's all right' and 'shhh' in his ear.
After some very long moments he stopped thrashing and started crying. I held him tightly, his face against my chest, while the others chose to step out for a break.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
When Sai was finished crying and was calm again I called the others back in and was pleased to note that someone had thought of getting a fresh tea pot and what appeared to be a thermos of noodle soup and some bowls. Touya filled bowls and passed them around and we ate in silence.
After Sai passed me his half-finished bowl - I'd tried to get him to eat more but I could see he was just too exhausted - I put his and mine on the table. "Is there anything else?" I asked Touya, clearly implying that I thought that it was time to quit for the day.
"Just this," Touya said, handing me a single sheet of typed up paper to hand to Sai. I glanced at it in passing; it was a short version of what Sai had told us, cut down to the bare facts. I passed it on and while Sai quickly read it I accepted the pen Touya held out and passed that on the moment Sai needed it. He signed and handed both items back.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
The next day Sai looked better. But unfortunately his ordeal wasn't over yet. Again Touya came in with his notepad around 11 o'clock.
"One last thing," he said coming straight to the point. "Do you have any wishes concerning Yanmei? She wants to be sent home, is that all right with you?" he asked Sai, but it was I who answered.
"Yes, ship her home, she belongs in China, the b," here I stopped myself. "Send her home but cut off her hair first, like her country men did to Sai!" I almost screamed, getting up from my chair. But then I felt a strong tug on my sleeve and I looked down at Sai's tearful face.
"No!" he cried. "Don't cut her hair, please!" he pleaded. I frowned. Why the hell not cut it? She deserved it for making Sai think he was guilty of getting her raped!
"Shindou," Touya said, calling my attention away from Sai who was again sobbing, and this time it was my fault. "Shindou," Touya repeated. "You probably don't know what it means when they cut the hair off like that; it means the person is to be executed."
My heart skipped a painful beat. I looked down at Sai, with his badly cut hair sticking out this way and that. I dropped back onto my seat and embraced him. "Oh Sai, they were going to kill you," I breathed. "And it would have been my fault, wouldn't it? I wasn't careful enough keeping us secret, wasn't I?" I said softly.
Then I felt his head shake 'no' against mine and he said, "No, no, it would have happened sooner rather than later anyway. I was so tired, I couldn't have kept winning. Even for Yanmei, even for Meilin, so tired." He started crying again and I heard Touya leave as I awkwardly climbed onto the bed without letting the love of my life go.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
So now you know what happened at the 2007 InGoTo. Yeah, I know, very sappy story, but hey that's what love does to a man sometimes.
I don't know if you're interested in what happened next. Oh, you are? Well,it's gonna be more mushy stuff you know, but if you really wanna know...
I didn't go to the next InGoTo or the one after that nor will I ever go again, I think; it would be much too dangerous for me to go there again, the Chinese are known to be vindictive. Of course Sai can't ever go again either. In fact Sai isn't allowed to leave Japanese soil; the government - and his grandfather - are too afraid the Chinese will steal him back from us. I kinda get that fear; if he's snatched back, they'll likely have him publicly executed - Touya implied as much some time after we'd settled in - and no one here wants that. Me least of all.
After Sai was debriefed enough to satisfy even Ogata, and after the doctors gave him and Meilin a clean bill of health, I was ordered to escort them to Edo, and I was told my new job description was to be escorting Sai for the foreseeable future, with Touya implying I'd be stuck with that job forever. Not that I minded in the least.
We went to visit Sai's grandparents in their super grand house. The meeting didn't go very well; the only things they had in common was a last name and an interest in Go. But the grandfather was only a low level Go amateur and so they couldn't really talk serious Go with either of us. The grandmother liked Meilin, but insisted on calling her 'Umeko' - that being the name they'd picked for their Fujiwara grandchild - and it confused Meilin, since Sai and I hadn't known to prepare her for that. And we couldn't convince the old lady to lay it off until the next visit. So altogether it wasn't a big hit.
I guess the Go spies using me as bait in a honey trap was in a way justified after all; Sai's Fujiwara grandparents were too cold and aloof to make enough of a connection to a person as emotional as Sai is. If the 'honey' to glue Sai to Japan had had to come from these two, the whole thing might never have worked. Just saying.
Hanging around Sai and Meilin all day and all night, I found that Sai was very good with his former niece, now daughter. He was patient and indulgent of her inexperience, he was firm when he had to be and he delighted in making her smile, as she was him. They really were too adorable for words together. And you know, if it had been any other father with any other child, I probably would have hurled at the candy-floss sweetness, but since it was Sai and Meilin, ah that made all the difference.
After I had been staying with Sai and Meilin for three months I suddenly realized I hadn't been home to my flat in all that time and that I hadn't missed the place at all. That day I asked Sai if I could move in and he said he thought I long since had, and so I called up my landlord and canceled my contract. Official moving only took a day, and I planned it on a day Sai would be busy at the Go Institute anyway, so he wouldn't be bothered by the movers.
Most of our lives went smoothly. Sai qualified as a Pro - a real Pro, not a place holder or spy - in no time flat and was busy playing Go every working day from then on. Meilin liked to eat, sleep, and draw in coloring books and on the odd wall sometimes. She first hated learning Japanese but got over that quickly when she found she was allowed to make friends at school. She got used to being called Umeko and she never once asked after her mother. Most likely there's a bad story there that I fear will come to haunt us later. But for now she is a happy 6 years old and busy learning her first Kanji in school.
By and large Sai was accepted into Japan and Japanese society quite smoothly. But there were one or two bumps along the way. One time Sai and I were invited to a friendly round-robin* Go tournament in Kyoto. There one player refused to play Sai, saying he refused to play Go with a traitor. The man spat Sai in the face too and I was ready to sock him one when Sai called me back. Sai waited until the man had left before telling me not to hold it against the man.
"He is right not to set himself as equal to someone who has betrayed his country," Sai said. I argued that Sai didn't betray his country; he was of Japanese blood! "But I didn't know I wasn't Chinese at the time of my betrayal," Sai said sadly.
I tried to argue against it, but Sai wouldn't let himself off the hook. Not then and still not. Since then the subject has come up from time to time and still Sai won't excuse himself from the guilt. When they refused him permission to go to Canada for a Go conference. When they assigned us a 'security detail' when we went to the International Open Go, held in Sapporo, even though there were no Chinese attendees at that event. Every time something like that happened, Sai told me to cool it and just take it. It really was the only thing we ever argued about. On any other subject Sai would yield to my position - a fact, once I found that out, I took into account whenever arguments came up; I didn't want to waltz all over him after all - but not that one, he never budged on that one.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
Well, this was my story, of how I became a spy, what happened while I was one and how I stopped being a spy. As one of the fathers of a precocious 6 year old and the husband of the best Go Pro of Japan - Master T having retired a year ago, after Touya was killed while on a mission - and not being a bad player myself, I have my hands full and no more time for serious spying. Officially I'm the 'operative' assigned to the still suspect Fujiwara Sai. But since Sai doesn't seem to be making any move towards world domination or treason of any kind, my paper work for my secret job is done within 5 minutes every week. No, on the whole our household is a deadly dull place, only livened up with having to make Umeko wash her artwork off the walls, yet again!
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
Epilogue
"So, how was that? Was it what you're looking for?"
"Exactly what we were looking for, Shindou-san."
Chairs scraping.
"What happens now?"
"Now, we both sign as participant and witness and these tapes will be sealed with our signatures and put in our National Archives, not to be opened until one hundred years have passed."
"So not until the year 2111?"
"Exactly."
Rustling of papers and sounds of pens scribbling on paper.
Recording ends.
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
The end
-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-Go-
* a round-robin tournament is where every player gets to play every other player, win or lose.
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