The Commander said, 'His story is that he's got eighteen bombs planted in and around the cemetery and in the mausoleums.' He added, 'He claims to have two or three actually set inside coffins. I believe him. He wants the money and immunity. I gather that Mr Kan's off getting it together at this moment.' (Feiffer nodded.) 'And as far as immunity goes, I'm going to see the Attorney-General as soon as I leave here.' He - said, 'Mendoza's given me three hours to arrange it. In the circumstances, that's probably more than generous.' The Commander said, 'I even find myself having a sneaking admiration for the man's ability.'

  "The families of the people who were killed and maimed in Matsu Lane will find that a great comfort.'

  'I mean, in relation to his efficiency—' The Commander said, 'Look, Harry, I don't have to be filled with righteous indignation. I'm too old a dog for that. All I have to do is see that things keep running properly.'

  Feiffer said, 'Hmm.'

  '—this man poses a threat and I have to find a way to resolve it. If it was a public matter it would be different.' The Commander said, 'Thanks to the news clamp that you opposed, no one, thank God, knows anything about it except the interested patties. That means things can be resolved outside of the public gaze.' He said, 'The accurate situation is that he's got us firmly by the short hairs and the only way to extricate ourselves is to give in. So, as a relatively reasonable man, I'm giving in. It's the appropriate reaction.' He asked, 'Can you even begin to imagine the propaganda the Communists would get out of it if the British Hong Kong Imperialist warmongering etceteras let a Chinese cemetery get blown to bits? It doesn't even bear thinking about. It's a political matter and it requires a political response.' He said definitively, 'That man Mendoza is bloody brilliant and he's going to get exactly what he wants because we don't have any choice.—Clear?'

  Auden and Spencer went past O'Yee at the stone wall of the cemetery and took up sniping cover with their Armalites.

  'Well?'

  'It's clear.'

  'I'm glad.' The Commander said, 'Thus far you haven't felt able to agree with my methods in dealing with this case and thus far, I've taken your views seriously. Now it's different.' He dropped his voice, 'I have good reason to believe that both the Attorney-General and the Governor will consent to the immunity without hesitation.'

  'What about the money?'

  'What about it?'

  'What happens to that? Does he get that as well?'

  That's between him and Conway Kan.'

  'In that case, he gets the money as well.'

  That's between him and Conway Kan.' The Commander said, 'If Mr Kan wants to make a gift of money to someone that's his own affair. It doesn't concern the police.'

  There was a silence. The Commander looked away.

  The Commander said, 'In any event, that's the situation.' We can't afford the trouble the loss of the cemetery would cause.' He said, 'It's one of the oldest cemeteries on the island. There can't be less than three thousand families represented in it. Some of them still quite influential.' The Commander said, 'It's a political gesture activated by—'

  'It's just common bloody extortion!'

  'As far as you're concerned, it's a political case and it doesn't concern you any further!' He said, before Feiffer could say anything else, 'So just leave it. Your job as the local man on the spot is to take charge in my absence and keep the area clear of bystanders, all right? Just keep the area clear and everyone in check. Have you got that?'

  'What about the snipers? Whose idea were they?'

  'They were my idea. They're strictly for the sake of appearance. Ammunition hasn't been issued—and it isn't going to be. All right?' The Commander said, 'Just keep everyone happy until I get back from seeing the Attorney-General.' The Commander waved at his driver to bring his car forward. He looked at Feiffer interrogatively, 'All right?'

  'Is it OK if I at least talk to him?'

  'To who?'

  'To bloody Mendoza of course!'

  'No.'

  'Why not?'

  'Because he's too—'

  Feiffer said angrily, 'Listen, if he's so goddamned brilliant then a few words from me—from the local moron directing bloody traffic—won't make any bloody difference, will it?' He said, 'You might just faintly recall I've been chasing the bugger for quite some time now! I think I at least deserve the right to see him face to face before he flies off with his bloody money to join John Paul Getty on his yacht!' He asked the Commander bitterly, 'You'd agree, Neal? Or wouldn't you?' He said vehemently, 'You never bloody know, do you? I might even be able to talk him out of it!' He added, 'Or shoot his bloody bomb finger off.'

  The Commander paused. He looked at Feiffer's face for a moment. The Commander said quietly, 'I'd be against that, Harry: anything that might jeopardise negotiations, unless it was totally successful.' He asked, 'Just how good a shot are you?'

  'I wasn't serious, as well you know!' He glanced at the Commander and realised that the Commander had been serious. Feiffer said, 'My God, you people must be really desperate—'

  The Commander said nothing.

  Feiffer said, 'I just want to talk to him.' He glanced across to where O'Yee was standing in the street and gazing out at the silent church. He said, 'Not an army, just me. Talk. Not shoot. All right?' He waited. He thought, "This has all been done the wrong way from the start." He thought, "Nothing'll change. He'll say no and it'll all go on continuing in totally the wrong way." He waited for the Commander to decide.

  The Commander looked at him.

  'Talk to him?'

  The Commander looked at him. The Commander's car pulled up behind him.

  'Well?'

  The Commander said, Do it,' and the driver got out to hold open the rear door. The Commander said, 'But don't be wrong.' He went to get into the car. 'I'll be back in approximately two hours. You've got until then.' The driver closed the door after him and got back into the front seat

  'To do what?' Feiffer waited for the Commander to roll down the rear window.

  The Commander paused. He gave a sharp command to his driver and the car sped away.

  It was 3 pm in the afternoon on a wonderfully bright Spring day.

  ... At the cemetery.

  *

  Feiffer said, 'We've got two hours.'

  To do what?' O'Yee looked out at the church. A tall figure half-silhouetted behind part of the fallen tower wall moved a few feet to one side and then disappeared. O'Yee had a strange look on his face. He looked at Feiffer and then across to the main entrance of the cemetery where the uniformed men were, 'From what I hear he's got the game sewn up.' O'Yee said, 'I've been watching the uniformed men—the Chinese. They're not happy about this.' He said with the strange look still on his face, 'Neither am I. Maybe we'd best just give him the money.'

  'Are you serious?'

  O'Yee did not reply. After a moment he said, 'I've got a funny feeling in the pit of my stomach, Harry, like someone's just died.' He said, 'I don't expect you to understand it.'

  'I understand that that murdering bastard out there has killed people!'

  O'Yee nodded. O'Yee said, 'The thought that he could destroy all—It makes me feel—' He said suddenly, 'Just give him the money and be done with it!'

  'And what about the people he's killed?'

  'I'm sorry about that, but there's just nothing to be done! If Kan's willing to pay him, then let him pay him!' O'Yee said, 'Anything! Just so long as he gets out of here!'

  Feiffer said, 'Listen, I've got two hours. There must be something—something he's missed—some leeway—can't you see that?'

  'I can see that he's—'

  'He's been leading everyone along from the word go! He writes political on his letters, so by God, the crimes are political; he sends the cops a bomb so they'll take him seriously, and what do they do? They take him seriously— He kindly leaves duplicate bombs around so we can see just how they're done and think he's clever, so hey presto he's a fucking genius! He leaves fingerprints all over the place so we'll know it's him when he comes to blow up the cemetery, so we say, "It's got to be him." He's done everything with one sole aim in mind: to give us to understand that he's in control, that he's the local bloody Fu Manchu, too clever to be caught, so when it comes time to catch him we say, "No, he can't be caught—we'll give him immunity!" It's all a brilliant piece of nerve and camouflage. But he's made a mistake! Somewhere along the line he's done something which can't be justified! He's made one assumption that doesn't rest on any evidence or reality and that's where we can get in and knock his bloody chessboard right off the bloody table!' He demanded malevolently, 'Now where is it?'

  'I just don't want anyone charging about setting him off!' O'Yee said, "Why not just let Kan pay him the money?'

  'Because that's not the way things are supposed to be done! This is not going to happen behind closed doors! Even the bloody rifles aren't loaded— Now, I want your assessment of the situation so far!'

  'My assessment of the situation is that it's all over!'

  'It isn't all over by a long shot. It's just starting. The investigation is just starting. So far, he's called every one of the shots and while we thought we were investigating a series of bombings all we were really doing was helping him: being his errand boys. Well, that's over. So now we go back to square one. So we start our investigation now.'

  O'Yee said, 'Why the hell do you think the only people with the rifles are Auden and Spencer? Because there isn't a Chinese copper in the whole of Asia who'd start shooting in a place like this!' He said, 'If they didn't know that ammunition hasn't been issued, they'd tear Auden and Spencer to pieces!'

  'What about Mendoza? Why don't they tear him to pieces?'

  'Because he's got the graves of their families and the families of their friends wired up with goddamned gelignite, that's why! You get rid of that and Mendoza won't even make it to the nearest police car!' He said definitively, 'But he has got the gelignite and no one is going to do anything.' He said, 'I'm sorry!' He demanded, 'What the hell have we got left to investigate anyway?'

  Feiffer said,'Him!'

  'Big deal!' There was a strange sound rising from somewhere behind him. O'Yee looked around. It was the Chinese Constables. They were together by the main entrance. It was a humming sound, deep, single toned, like a dirge. You couldn't see who was actually making the sound, but it was there. One of them looked at O'Yee and then at Feiffer. He looked back to O'Yee again. The sound went on and on. The Chinese Constables looked wan and drained as if their strength had gone. Their arms seemed to hang down, ragdoll-like: O'Yee knew he was imagining it The sound went on and on. O'Yee glanced across at Mendoza's outline at the break in the wall. He thought, "Oh my God, what would my father say?"

  He said to Feiffer with an effort, 'What do you want me to do?'

  *

  Auden patted his rifle. It was an AR-18 manufactured under licence from Colt by the Howa Company of Japan, one of the few exported, and Auden was very fond of it. He had spent an entire afternoon with it on the range at the last qualifying shoot and he thought he was very good with it. He patted it again and looked at Spencer's weapon. It was an AR-16, a carbine. Auden smiled at it condescendingly. The rear doors of the Emergency Unit's van were still closed. Inside, was the ammunition. Auden drew a bead through the telescopic sights on the figure moving about behind the ruined wall of the stone bell tower and held his breath.

  He said quietly,'—Bang!'

  *

  O'Yee said, 'We know why he picked those people. He picked Wong because he knew his brother and he probably wanted to meet whoever was investigating the bombings. The fact that Wong's brother used to work at the quarry would have brought someone down.'

  Feiffer nodded.

  '—and Leung because he'd heard about him from Tam. And Tam told him about the cemetery and presumably about Conway Kan. Dien because he was co-owner in the cemetery, Matsu Lane because that was the headquarters of the funeral society that administered it. Us because he wanted immunity to be arranged. And that's all. The bridge blowing up was to convince us that he could make radio controlled bombs like the one he's got now—'

  'Right.'

  O'Yee said, 'I know it's right. Where does it get us?'

  'What else did he do?'

  'Nothing—He wrote us letters.'

  'Saying what?'

  'Saying that he was going to kill people—he was going to send bombs to them.'

  'Right. And what else?'

  'And that he was going to do it for political reasons.'

  'Which was wrong.'

  O'Yee said irritably, 'Right. Which was wrong. So what?'

  'Then why do it? The one thing that everyone seems to have firmly fixed in their minds is that this bugger just doesn't make mistakes. So why say political when it wasn't?'

  'How should I know! To keep it quiet? To—?'

  Feiffer said thoughtfully, 'To keep it quiet.'

  'I don't think I'd like it broadcast too loudly that I was in the process of blowing people up either!'

  'But you don't blow people up.'

  '—the point of which being?' The point of which being that he does.'

  '—I don't follow.'

  'No.'

  O'Yee said, 'So tell me.'

  Feiffer said, 'Hmm.' He asked the cemetery entrance thoughtfully, 'So just how did he expect to get away with it? —by being granted immunity.' He turned back to O'Yee, 'Correct?'

  'Correct.'

  'In that case it wouldn't matter who knew. So why try to keep it quiet?' He asked slowly, 'Or would it make it impossible for the police to recommend immunity if too many people knew about it?'

  'You'll have to ask the Commander about that one—'

  'I have asked the Commander. The Commander, not in so many words, gives me to understand that it'd be difficult but not necessarily impossible—'

  'How the hell's Mendoza supposed to know that?'

  'Bloody Mendoza knows everything, doesn't he?' He asked forcefully, 'Explain to me why it is that Mendoza's wandering about in that church in virtually full view when he knows there are people out here with guns? Tell me, why is that?'

  'He knows they're not going to shoot—'

  'Oh? Why aren't they going to shoot?'

  O'Yee said, 'Well—well, because of the—of the bombs and —and the radio transmitter and—'

  'More than that. For what reason of law or policy?'

  'I don't know—because it isn't—because it isn't appropriate to the crime in progress—I don't know. What are you getting at?'

  'Why is it that he's gone to endless trouble to make certain we can see him clearly? He's now walked backwards and forwards past that hole in the tower wall, since I've been counting, five times. He's showing himself. He doesn't expect to be shot. Now, why not?'

  O'Yee said, 'Do we know if he's armed?'

  Feiffer said, 'According to the regulations, the police are only justified in opening fire when life is endangered.' He said, "The dead don't come under that heading.' Feiffer said, 'So, this time, he's only threatening to blow up the dead—a few bones.' He said in an odd voice, 'Yet surely he'd achieve the same object if he threatened someone living—if he had someone alive as a hostage—surely he could get the same immunity if the person was important enough?—even if he or she wasn't. Or if he had a group of people threatened' He asked O'Yee, 'Do you see what I'm getting at?'

  O'Yee said tersely, 'Go on.' He glanced out at the church and felt a wave of deep hatred pass through him, 'Go on.'

  Feiffer said, 'But he's chosen the dead on purpose. He's chosen them because he knows we won't shoot him out of hand because it isn't appropriate.' He said, 'The fact that he's killed people in the past—or is alleged to have killed people in the past—isn't pertinent to the crime in progress now.' He asked again, 'So why political at the bottom of those letters?'

  O'Yee said, To keep it quiet from the people who have relatives buried here. To keep the immunity and the money strictly between the people who are frightened about what people will think about them if they don't pay—Kan and the funeral society and the rest of them—and the police; the police being the people who are concerned to see that the victims of criminals don't kill the criminals—'

  Feiffer said, 'You mentioned that if the Chinese coppers here thought those rifles were loaded they'd kill Auden and Spencer—yes?'

  O'Yee nodded.

  Feiffer said, 'If the relatives of the—what, three? three and a half—thousand people buried here knew about Mendoza and his bombs what would they do?'

  O'Yee said, 'They'd kill him.'

  Feiffer said carefully, 'The whole point about immunity is that it doesn't actually deny that a crime has been committed, only that a particular person who committed it is going to be held responsible for it in a court of law.' He said, 'A particular person . . .' He said, 'I wonder . . .' He said to O'Yee in an odd voice, 'He's used us, hasn't he? I mean, the police. He's used us. Hasn't he?'

  'Yes . . .'

  'But he has, hasn't he? Used us? I mean, completely! We've been his obedient little helpers all the way along the line—everything he wanted. We've helped him. We have, haven't we? Even now?—especially now. That's true, isn't it?'

  O'Yee said, 'What are you getting at?'

  Feiffer did not reply.

  O'Yee said, 'All right, so he's a coward. He's terrified of—' He said, 'But we can't open fire on him—he's absolutely right!' He glanced at Feiffer's face, 'Isn't he?'

  Feiffer paused. There was a faint smile on his face.

  'We can't—'

  Feiffer said, 'I've got a riddle for you. Listen. What do you get if you take a Chinese cemetery loaded with bombs, a Portuguese bomber with a hand-held transmitter who doesn't believe in God or superstition—' (He said in parenthesis, 'If he doesn't have any belief in other people's religion it's a fair bet he doesn't have any of his own.') '—a Detective Chief Inspector with a reasonably devious mind who's been left temporarily in charge, a series of letters with one word wrong in them each time and, finally, a Special Branch man who smokes cigars?' He asked, 'Well? Tell me. What do you get?'

  'What are you talking about?'

 

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