The Chinese Woman: The Barbados Conspiracy Read online

  “Agent 21059, I would like to introduce Inspector Gao Hui, Officer in Charge of the Organized Crime Unit of the Shanghai Police. It was actually Inspector Gao who convinced the Ministry of Public Security to approach us with this assignment,” said Director Duan. “Agent 21059 has indicated some reluctance to accept this assignment. Of course, I could insist, but that is not my way of managing people. A happy, highly motivated agent is always a hundred times more successful than someone who is forced to take an assignment. We had promised her a year as an Academy instructor,” he said as he turned to Inspector Gao, “giving her the opportunity to spend time with her family and friends. I will let you have the floor, Inspector Gao, since you are the man behind this plan.”

  Gao Hui, clean shaven and well dressed in a navy blue suit, looked directly into Xiaomei’s eyes and said nothing. Xiaomei had great confidence in her ability to read people and sensed that this man was extremely dedicated and highly motivated in whatever are his goals. She also sensed that he had a passion for his work that would overcome all obstacles. He didn’t have a kind face, but it certainly wasn’t unkind or threatening. In fact, he was rather attractive in an unconventional and rugged way.

  Gao Hui began, “I have had the privilege of studying your personnel file Agent 21059. I note that you were a police officer with the Chongqing Police for seven years and have had a variety of experience working the streets of that city. You also were promoted to the rank of Detective at least two years earlier than normal. You are university educated and have almost attained master status in internal boxing. You have scored well above average in all your tests, academic, psychological and physical. You are the ideal person for this job, but that is not why Director Duan asked me to come here. I have not told you anything that everyone in this room does not already know.”

  Gao Hui continued, “About twenty five years ago, I was a Detective in the Criminal Investigation Division of the Shanghai Police. During that time, I was assigned to investigate the murder of a man and his wife who operated a grocery shop in the Pudong District of Shanghai, on Chang Lu street to be exact.”

  Hearing this, Xiaomei sat up straighter and her body became tense.

  “This poor unfortunate couple had a daughter who hid in the closet and was not found by the killers,” said Gao Hui. Xiaomei began to feel numb.

  “The young girl who hid in the closet, terrified for her life and in shock at seeing her parents murdered before her eyes was you, Zhen Xiaomei.” Xiaomei realized that the Inspector knew her family name was Zhen, and he had attended the crime scene where her parents had been murdered.

  Tears began to roll down Zhen Xiaomei’s cheeks and she wanted to scream “Why are you telling me this?” but she kept silent and said nothing.

  “I know who killed your parents, Zhen Xiaomei, in fact I have always known. It was a member of the Mei Hua Triad named Wu Xing and his partner Meng Hong. Unfortunately, they had alibis that we could not counter with hard evidence. Wu Xing was the older of the two and you no doubt remember the long scar on his left cheek. It is Wu Xing who we want you to abduct in America and bring back to stand trial. He cannot be allowed to escape justice and not pay for the crimes he has committed against the people of Shanghai and the people of China. He has left a trail of bodies behind him, at least twenty including your dear parents. I ask you Zhen Xiaomei, will you accept this assignment as presented to you by Director Duan. If there was another way to do it, we wouldn’t ask this of you, but this is the only way. Will you do it?”

  “Yes, yes, yes. I will do it Inspector Gao. I will do it,” said Zhen Xiaomei, tears now rolling down her face uncontrollably.

  ”I promise you, Zhen Xiaomei, we will have justice before this is over,” said Gao Hui.

  After Agent Zhen left the office, Gao turned to Director Duan and said, “I have confidence you have selected the best agent for this important assignment, and one who is obviously highly motivated, but I have one area of doubt. Agent Zhen is an extraordinarily beautiful woman and that is not an asset in most undercover assignments. In my experience, a good agent is one you can’t remember three minutes after seeing them.

  “I can’t argue with your logic and I agree with you one hundred percent Inspector Gao,” replied the Director, “but Agent Zhen has a proven track record. She has learned to turn this natural disadvantage into an advantage. Who knows, instead of hunting for Wu, she may have Wu hunting for her.”

  **********************************

  Master Wang was a short man of average build; not slim but not stocky. He had the face of an old man, partially bald with grey hair, but he seemed to have the body of a much younger man. He moved with grace and his movements were fast and strong. He wore a white T-shirt and loose, black pants. The Agents before him in the large gymnasium wore camouflage pants and green T-shirts. Zhen Xiaomei, dressed as an instructor in a white T-shirt and black pants, faced the biggest male in the class. Suddenly the student delivered a fast kick at Xiaomei’s groin, followed by an extremely fast punch to her face. It was obvious this student was well trained in Shaolin gong-fu. When the kick arrived, Xiaomei had already moved to the side of her attacker, deflecting both the kick and the punch and almost simultaneously striking his neck The strike was light enough not to hurt him, but he definitely knew he had been hit. With another lightning fast move, she was behind her attacker, delivering a light elbow strike to his right kidney, and with another swift move, she moved around him again and pushed him off balance so that he went flying about ten feet across the floor.

  “Now you know how this should be done. Size and strength cannot defeat skill. My assistant, Instructor Zhen, may be transferred to other duties within a short period of time, so I am hoping that one of you is good enough to take her place. From what I have seen, I doubt any of you will be capable enough to fill her shoes, but we will see. You are all experienced agents who have been brought back to headquarters for advanced training. You are the people who will be given the difficult and dangerous assignments and I am one of the instructors who must ensure you are properly prepared.”

  “Before we commence the actual instruction, I want you to listen very carefully to what I am going to tell you. If you understand it and accept it, you will probably survive the most dangerous of assignments. If you do not listen or you do not understand, you will probably not be alive to collect your pensions.”

  “I am here to train you in a unique art of self-defense that is only taught to special police and security units. The particular method is derived from Baguazhang and is called “Jingcha Bagua Quan”, or more descriptive, “Deadly Attack Survival”. For the type of assignments you will be carrying out, this boxing is the only method of combat that will save your life. I have studied your personnel files and I have observed that most of you are quite accomplished in the Shaolin fighting arts. Some of you are even black belts in the foreign arts of karate and taekwondo. Listen to me when I tell you to forget all those arts. Spinning, jumping kicks, fancy poses and that type of assorted nonsense is fine for the movies, but in real life, it will not work and you will pay the price against the deadly opponents you may face as secret agents.”

  “When deciding upon an art of self-defense, there are two questions you must ask yourself. Number one; will it work against someone who greatly exceeds you in size, weight and strength? Number two; will it continue to work as you grow older? You will not always be young. If it cannot meet those two criteria, forget it. You will be wasting your time training in such an art. You must assume your opponent is much bigger, much stronger and much more aggressive than you. He may even have more skill in street combat than you do. He may also be armed with a knife, even a gun. Will you survive? With the skills you now possess, the answer is…not likely”.

  “There are only two targets whereby the largest and strongest men have no protection; the throat and the knee joints. No man has been able to develop a layer of muscle or even fat that will protect his throat or knees. These, therefore, are the primary targets of the internal boxing that I will teach you. If a man cannot breath, he cannot defeat you, in fact, he cannot live. If a man’s knee is broken, he cannot stand. A man who cannot stand cannot defeat you. The testicles are a secondary target, but make no mistake, some men can be kicked squarely in the testicles and keep on fighting, so remember this is only a secondary target.”

  “Once you understand how to disable and even kill your opponent, you must first learn how to prevent your opponent from killing you. The first principle of internal boxing is; do not meet force with force. You do not stand your ground and face your assailant, exchanging blows with a bigger, stronger person. This seems like common sense, but if you examine most martial arts, that is exactly what they suggest you do. In our method of internal boxing, you will always avoid an attack by removing yourself from the target zone. We will teach you how to do this by walking the circle, side-stepping and yielding.

  “The leopard punch to the throat, which involves the use of the second row of knuckles on the hand, requires great speed of movement, not muscular strength.”

  “When kicking an opponent, the knee is the favored target, not only because of its extreme vulnerability, but because it is below the reach of the hands of your opponent so it is very difficult to defend against. Occasionally, it may be opportune to kick the testicles, but never, ever kick above the level of the groin. A high kick against a trained fighter is suicide. Leave that nonsense for the movies.”

  “I look forward to seeing those who have listened and understood what I have said for many years to come in the Service. For those who did not listen or did not understand, I may not be seeing you because your survival is in doubt. If you think I am being too direct; too harsh; remember, the occupation you have chosen is a very s
erious and dangerous business.”

  “I have only had the opportunity to have Instructor Zhen as my assistant for three months, and now I have been advised she will be reassigned again in the near future. It will be both my loss and your loss as her internal boxing is of a very high level, and her ability to teach others is outstanding. I shall miss her very much, and after her new assignment, I sincerely hope she returns to the Training Branch.”

  The meeting with Inspector Gao had been a traumatic ordeal for Zhen Xiaomei, like opening an old wound and rubbing salt in it. She had tried to put the vision of her parents’ murders in the recesses of her mind with only limited success. As a young child, she had been both passive and friendly. Nothing could provoke her to act violently towards another child; it was not the way of the Zhen family. The strongest emotion she had ever felt, prior to the death of her parents, was love. She had loved them so much; she had always considered herself the luckiest child in the world. She never recalled seeing either her father or mother angry, maybe disappointed, but never angry with her or anyone else. Their loss haunted her for years and the pain did not diminish; she was just able to hide it deep within her mind, but unfortunately, ever ready to surface again.

  BEIJING….FIVE DAYS LATER

  “Good afternoon, Xiaomei, or I should say, Li Mei, now that you have studied your new identity. Thank you for coming to my office,” said Director Duan. “We have the pleasure of another visit by Inspector Gao of the Shanghai Police.”

  “Good afternoon Inspector; it is nice to see you again,” said Xiaomei and actually meaning it. Inspector Gao’s original plea had made a great impact on her and she was aware that they shared a common purpose that would not be diminished until Wu Xing was in the prisoner’s dock.

  “Inspector Gao has some new information that will be of interest to you,” said Director Duan, as he indicated to Gao Hui to proceed with his report.

  Inspector Gao was usually a man of few words with no time for idle chit chat or persons he considered overly sensitive. Some people, in fact, considered him too abrupt, even rude. When meeting with Xiaomei, however, he was extremely polite, even kind. Gao felt the strong emotion for Xiaomei that she felt for him, and this created an unspoken bond between them. Both were equally determined to bring Wu Xing to justice.

  “I am very pleased to see you again, Zhen Xiaomei, and I understand your preparation is proceeding well. There has been a new development that may be of great assistance to us. It seems that Wu Xing had been associating with a new girlfriend before he left for America, and this woman is planning to join him there very soon,” reported the Inspector.

  “His history with women has been rather one dimensional. All of his female acquaintances and lovers over the years have been bar girls, thieves and prostitutes. This woman, however, does not fit this profile. She is university educated and a former officer in the PLA. She has no criminal record, in fact, we have been able to learn very little about her, at least nothing negative. Our informant advises they met by accident at an art gallery, although I’ve never known Wu Xing to have too much time for culture.”

  “The woman’s name is Han Xia and she is about the same age as you are. She is quite attractive, sophisticated and well spoken and I can’t imagine what would attract her to Wu Xing. At first we thought she may not have been aware of Wu Xing’s background, but our informant assures us that she knows exactly who he is.”

  “She has applied to immigrate to the USA and will be going as a business class immigrant, sponsored by her uncle in Seattle, who owns a few businesses there. We intend to delay issuing her the required exit permission and passport until you are ready to go to America. We will then book you on the same flight in adjoining seats. If you are able to develop a friendship of any kind during the flight, it is hoped that Han Xia will lead you to Wu Xing. We really have no idea where he is as he is maintaining a low profile in Seattle and, of course, is using another name, so this may be the break we have been hoping for.”

  “That is excellent news, Inspector Gao, “I’m sure Han Xia and I will become best of friends,” Zhen Xiaomei alias Li Mei, said with a smile.

  This was welcome news for Li Mei as she welcomed any information or circumstances that would lead her to Wu Xing. She had no intention of working on this project for many months or years. Within a few weeks, she intended to see Wu Xing stand trial, and following that, to be executed, just as he had executed her parents.

  Unfortunately for Li Mei, the best prepared plans often do not unfold as one would hope or expect.

  CHAPTER 4

  Zhen Xiaomei was late developing as a teenage girl. She had always had a very pretty face, but her long gangly legs and flat chest made her seem awkward and unfeminine compared to most of her female classmates who were developing hips and breasts. Nevertheless, she always attracted male attention, not only because of her unusually attractive face, but more so because of her outgoing personality and ever present smile. For this reason, she was popular with both her male and female classmates. Xiaomei’s interests were always more traditional than her friends and classmates. Whereas they were attracted to American rock music and American style clothing, Xiaomei was studying the zheng and the Chinese flute. Although she occasionally wore a T-shirt and jeans, she much preferred more traditional clothing with silk embroidery and mandarin collars. Also unlike her female classmates, she regularly attended Yongchun gongfu classes and studied taiji under the expert guidance of her grandmother.

  Xiaomei lived with her father’s mother, and her aunt, the widowed sister of her father, in the mountain city of Chongqing. Although they provided a very happy home for her, she cried herself to sleep several times a week thinking of her parents. She missed them so much, she even contemplated suicide so she could join them, but this fantasy always passed quickly. The memories of her parents being murdered were strongly embedded and ever vivid in the recesses of her mind, and when these memories surfaced, she had to struggle to block them from consciousness. She worried that if she couldn’t prevent these memories from resurfacing, she would soon lose her mind. Later in life, even as an adult in her mid-thirties, every few months she would think of her dear parents and cry herself to sleep.

  During high school, Xiaomei decided she wanted to be a police officer. She was well aware that this desire to enter the field of law enforcement was motivated by the murder of her parents. More must be done to rid the world of the predators who preyed upon the helpless, the weak and the innocent. She felt it was her responsibility to become part of the solution. It was well known that the dreaded triad societies were as powerful in Chongqing as they were in Shanghai, and Xiaomei was determined to be their sworn enemy. Although she didn’t know the identity of her killers, she now understood who they were and why her parents were murdered.

  Xiaomei finished high school at the top of her class and many of her teachers and close friends tried to talk her out of joining the police. What a waste, they would say, as they felt Xiaomei had so much potential in other lucrative fields of employment. Nothing they would say, however, could change her resolve. Although her academic interest was in the area of anthropology, three months after graduating from high school, she entered the Chongqing Professional Police University.