Jiao gazed forlornly at the soldier, then back at Shan, shaking his head. “You’re nobody,” he said, his voice cracking. “I was going to fire you when I moved to Yangkar.”

“You’re nobody,” Shan echoed. With a dazed expression Jiao followed the soldier out of the camp.

Tan signaled for Zhu to wait, then scribbled a note. “See that the warden of the 404th gets this. He is to report to me first thing tomorrow. And radio for my helicopter. Tell them to bring Dr. Anwei. He has two patients for the hospital.”

CHAPTER NINETEEN

The foundation for the control building on the upper slope had been laid, and a small arbor laced with flowers erected over a podium in its center. The ceremony for the chiseling of the pass, as the deputy director had described it in the invitations sent out weeks earlier, had been designed by Jiao long before his disappearance. The scene looked as if it had been staged for a Party poster. Young Tibetan women in colorful traditional garb and freshly scrubbed workers in helmets stood on either side of a four-foot-high model of a transmission tower. A public-address system played favorite hymns of the proletariat. The Commissar, wearing a once-stylish Mao suit, sat in a place of honor in the front row of chairs, tended by two of his nurses.

The director had protested loudly when Shan and the colonel had visited his office to report that they had sent Jiao away. His complaints had quickly faded, however, as Shan had begun explaining the conspiracy of the Amban Council.

“I didn’t know,” Ren had mumbled at first, but soon he was feverishly disassociating himself from the deputy director, calling Jiao “that arrogant young cub from Beijing.” He clutched his belly when Tan sternly described the misuse of army resources, and for a moment Shan thought he was going to be sick. “These issues were all about operations,” Ren nervously pointed out. “He was in charge of operations, not me.”

“Except” Tan said, “you were the director. Surely you knew something. The chain of command always bears responsibility.”

“This is a national project!” Ren cried. “We abbreviated procedures, yes, but for the good of the nation. Jiao had the full support of the bosses in Beijing!”

“Did you know that Xun and Huan blew up the cavern to kill the people inside?”

“Of course not! The demolition seemed the correct thing to do, from the engineering perspective.”

“They arranged the death of one of your engineers,” Tan pointed out.

“Metok was executed for corruption. A Public Security matter. There’s always a few bad apples on such big projects.”

“Metok was a good man, an honest man, killed by dishonest criminals,” Shan stated.

“It would seem logical to add you as a suspect to that investigation,” Tan suggested.