The dossier contained fewer than a dozen pages of evidence and a two-page case summary prepared by the lead investigator, Lieutenant Huan Yi of Public Security in Lhasa. Metok Rentzig had been a member of the Party—otherwise he would never have been eligible for his post as deputy engineer at the Five Claws project—so he was subject to the jurisdiction of the relentless Central Commission for Discipline. The data sheet affixed to the inside cover of the file showed that the defendant grew up in central Tibet, had been a star pupil, and received an engineering degree from the university in Chengdu, under the name Chou Folan. His residence was in Lhasa, where his wife and teenage daughter lived. He had been working on a highway project west of Lhasa when he had been reassigned to a special projects team, and weeks later was transferred to the Five Claws site. That Metok had received high praise for his work performance was mentioned only briefly in the case summary, which focused on four key pieces of evidence. First, and central to the case, was a copy of a Hong Kong bank account in Metok’s name with a sum exceeding two hundred thousand American dollars—foreign currency being mentioned since it always gave an unpatriotic flavor to a crime. The rest consisted of three affidavits. One was from a Public Security officer in Hong Kong named Daoli who certified that the money had been put in Metok’s account by a contractor on the hydro project. The second was from Lieutenant Huan himself, stating that he had discovered evidence that the contractor had provided substandard work that had been approved by Metok. The last was an extraordinary statement by the same officer Daoli, dated after his first statement, that he actually recalled seeing Metok in Hong Kong on the very date that the illicit bank account had been opened and had confirmed it by locating a hotel reservation for Metok on that date—although the hotel documentation was conveniently not provided.

It was the flimsiest of cases. The trial had been conducted in secret due to its political sensitivities, and Metok’s request for an appeal had been denied. He had been executed a week after the verdict. Shan read the file a second time, then examined the front of the file and the personal data sheet taped inside it. He peeled away the top of the sheet. Something had been stapled there, and removed, replaced by the taped sheet. He braced his head in his hands as the scene of the Tibetan’s execution returned, unbidden, to his mind’s eye. Every instinct inside Shan told him Metok had not been guilty of corruption but had been urgently eliminated for another reason. If that was the case, Shan had not witnessed an execution. He had witnessed a murder.