The American tossed out another card. “Major Xun. Before Larung Gar he was in Kashgar, devising ways to smoke out Muslim rebels. For a year he was assigned to work with Jiao there, when Jiao was in Public Security. They created a team that dressed in black, with black ski masks. They snatched suspected dissident leaders out of their beds in the night, never to be seen again.”

“How could you possibly know this?” Shan asked, then after a moment answered his own question. “Amah Jiejie.”

Pike nodded. “Amah Jiejie may seem a sweet old aunt. But she is quite the cunning operative herself and knows people in key offices all over China. When she calls someone, it is as if the colonel himself is calling.” He tossed out another card. “Huan. He showed up in Larung Gar and made quite an impression on Jiao and Xun. After they destroyed the main classrooms, the teachers kept their students together for classes in makeshift locations. But Huan always knew where they were, to strike next.”

Pike tossed down another card. It didn’t have a name on it, only the numbers 404. “The Amban Council likes to meet in obscure places. Cao and Tink triangulated emails to fix several of their locations. A safe house run by Public Security. Once at a club reserved for senior Party members. Once at the arsenal in Lhadrung. That one surprised me, but then they found another location. The 404th hard labor prison.”

Shan took the card and wrote a name on it, the fourth name he had given the Commissar. “Captain Wenlu. The warden. He nearly beat my son to death. The Tibetans already knew,” he added and explained that the warden had received a Tibetan death chart. “Those from Larung Gar knew and never told us.”

“Christ, Shan, you work for Colonel Tan. It’s a wonder you haven’t received a death chart.”

Shan gave a bitter grin. “The astrologer who made the chart is a friend of mine. I think.”

“It all started at Larung Gar,” Pike said. “They had their female spy there. In emails Xun and Huan call her their ‘robed eyes.’”

“She was the nun,” Shan said.

Pike nodded. “A nun, a widow, a flirtatious train passenger. Like I said, a versatile asset.”

“And a tour guide,” Shan added. “A woman of many talents.”

They watched in silence as passengers began to board the next train.

“I keep watching that video that Zhu brought back from Hong Kong,” Pike said. “That knob officer said he had orders from Colonel Tan. He said it tentatively, like he wasn’t sure he believed it. Then he shrugged and said, ‘Too hard to resist.’ I keep asking myself why he added that. Did you see her today, I mean really see her? You had described a forlorn widow desperate to protect her family and restore her husband’s good name.”

“It was the same woman,” Shan said.