The rain came down fast but thin. It was early enough that wall-mounted ventilators were churning out pork-flavoured steam, but late enough that the orange sun was hidden behind a thick grey blanket. One could just make out the silhouettes of green-netted high rises that would never be finished, and the distant echoes of young basketballers dreaming of a life outside the metropolis.
Harth walked under towering grey monuments and arrived at a small dark doorway, decorated with a badly printed taijitu. He squeezed his shoulders into the establishment and found an empty table, where laid out prepared for him, was his favourite bowl of noodle soup, offered with beef, mint, and cloves.
He helped himself to the steaming tendrils without looking up. Midway through he paused to pull a small black laptop out of his suitcase and lay it carefully on the table in front of him. It was time to get to work.
Suddenly the man in yellow was in the room, watching him.
Harth saw him approach, and understood that he’d been waiting for him to arrive for some time. The rain pattered against the corrugated roof as Harth’s eyes tracked him.
The man in yellow was concerned, immediately he asked Harth if he had everything he needed for the day’s work ahead, and if he was enjoying the soup.
Harth affirmed that he was enjoying it immensely, and explained that he was meeting a client soon who would be able to help them both. If his services were solicited, their work would be able to proceed apace.
The man in yellow seemed pleased, and wanted to make sure that Harth knew the gravity of the task he was committing himself to. His Hanfu robes glinted under the UV light.
Harth affirmed his understanding, and told him that he was happy to play his small part, but it would be up to others to finish what he had started.
The man in yellow nodded soberly.
He communicated that it was time for him to leave and meet his new colleague. The man in yellow didn’t say anything as he finished his noodles and turned to leave, but Harth thought his expression seemed sad.
He shouldn’t worry so much he thought. In the eastern cities things were different. Out here in the grey plains no one cares about us.
***
A few minutes later Harth was making straight for the highway intersection that was dripping gutter water, where he knew Mr Pei would be waiting for him.
Harth was dressed in a striped formal grey suit and tie, the kind that might be worn by any office worker, and his suitcase with no visible brands. His aim was to impress but not intimidate. He knew that people were easily scared in situations like this, but appearing professional was important. He’d chosen his thin rimmed glasses for tonight's occasion. People with glasses rarely appeared threatening.
He spotted Mr Pei waiting by a street light with the posture of someone trying not to look at his phone but not knowing what else to do. Mr Pei saw Harth approaching and focused on him with a suspicious squint, trying to work out if this was who he’d come here to meet. The man’s clothes gave him the look of a dreary construction worker who’d recently come into money. His potential client had arrived early but so had Harth, the fact that he hadn’t tried to contact him using his phone was a good sign and showed that he was already somewhat committed.
‘Nice to meet you Mr Pei, my name is Wang Yong. We spoke before on the phone.’ He offered his hand and smiled while he spoke. Mr Pei took his hand more out of reflex than anything, committing himself.
‘Nice to meet you.’ He looked relieved but didn’t say anything else. He was waiting for Harth to make the first move.
‘Please, before we continue, did you bring your phone with you?’
‘I did, but it’s turned off’ answered Mr Pei, gesturing downwards and looking somewhat surprised.
At least he wasn’t that stupid, thought Harth. ‘I have to ask if you wouldn’t mind leaving it with me for the rest of this talk, it’s for security reasons.’ He held out his hand for the device.
‘Ehhh I don’t mind.’ Mr Pei replied, hesitantly reaching for an old Iphone.
Not his work phone. Thought Harth before taking a small aluminium bag from his pocket and placing the phone carefully inside. Mr Pei’s expression showed that he understood.
He still wasn’t saying much but Harth could tell the precautions had the effect of reassuring rather than scaring him, which is exactly what Harth had hoped for. He may have been concealing another phone somewhere but it made no difference.
‘Thank you, with that out of the way, we can conduct our meeting inside my apartment, it’s just a short walk across the district.’
‘Lead the way.’ Mr Pei smiled. He didn’t seem at all perturbed and Harth wondered if he was enjoying the theatrics.
‘Right this way.’ Harth set off with a half smile at his new business partner. Mr Pei spoke without a regional accent but the lack of ‘ers’ in his speech revealed a southern upbringing.
‘How long have you lived in Haishan?’ asked Harth, wanting to put him at ease.
‘Oh just the last five years, for work.’ Mr Pei didn’t seem to mind the questions. ‘In the summertime it’s not so bad, but the winter is when the air really gets you.’
That’s true enough, thought Harth, looking at the cranes and steel chimneys, barely visible through the grey haze. They walked through Hutong back alleys, heaving with shoddy electric wiring, and mahjong sets left out to drown in the rain.
‘And how long have you lived here, Yong?’ Mr Pei’s eyes wandered above as they turned through street corners, trying to mentally trace a route back to their meeting place.
‘Oh I don’t live here sir,’ Harth told him. ‘I just come here sometimes for business.’
Mr Pei nodded, and continued looking over his shoulder and down the side streets they were crossing. Harth could tell the winding route was making him lose his bearings.
‘It’s not far now.’ Said Harth gesturing towards a maze of electric wiring and broken tiles.
‘How did you know to contact me?’ Asked Harth, suddenly apprehensive.
‘Your online resume’ Harth smiled reassuringly. ‘Originally my employers wanted to offer you a job, but we realised your talents could better serve us in other ways.’
‘A job?’ He looked confused. ‘Is it still on the table?’
‘Haha, I’m afraid not sir. We can talk more freely inside.’
By now the orange sun was barely visible and the sky was turning a darker grey. They reached the front of an old concrete complex with a steel door, the surrounding streets were strewn with glowing red characters that drew wanderers like moths to a candle.
‘This is it’, Harth buzzed open the steel-caged door with his chip-key, and the two ascended a dusty staircase and a taped up hallway.
‘This is a hotel?’ Inquired Mr Pei, with a tone implying he knew it wasn’t.
‘It’s a friend’s apartment who doesn’t mind me using it.’ Replied Harth, brushing the probe aside. ‘It’s all a grey area.’ He added, responding to the unasked question.
They reached room number 816 on the second floor. Another steel cage was buzzed open, followed by a key turn in an old lock. The lights clicked and revealed an apartment that was much cosier than the grimy hallway would have suggested. The glazed floor and fake marble wouldn’t have looked out of place in a casino hall, if not for the overpriced tea set and ubiquitous enamel chairs.
Mr Pei almost looked disappointed. There was nothing incriminating inside the apartment, no bootleg technology, no piles of laundered money. Barely anything to even suggest an occupant. Harth hated to let him down like this but it was just business.
‘We can talk freely here, no one will overhear us.’ Harth invited his guest to take a seat in the prepared chair and offered to pour him some white tea.
Mr Pei refused, and waited while Harth went to boil the kettle anyway for himself. Mr Pei had clearly been holding himself back before coming here. ‘I want to discuss your offer.’ Harth returned to his seat to listen. ‘I’ve only worked for ZDI for four years, and I’m just a support engineer as you know. I’ve been planning to leave my job for months now for personal reasons so I only agreed to come to hear you out. Anything I could divulge would depend entirely on the sensitivity of the information.’ He folded his arms, fooling himself into thinking he wasn’t committing to anything. ‘So first I have to ask you because you requested this meeting. Who exactly are you representing Mr. Wang Yong?’
‘A competitor.’ answered Harth without pausing to think, It was always better if they thought they were doing it for financial reasons. People like Mr Pei could be sensitive to any suspicion that they were betraying their country.
‘We’ve been in the market for longer than ZDI, but they stopped working with us after the whole semiconductor fiasco.’ Harth continued, deciding to be forthcoming. Normally we wouldn’t have to worry about them, but they have a relationship with the local PSB. For obvious reasons I can’t divulge information about my company, but just to be clear we’ve been doing this kind of work for a long time.’
‘Ahuh’ grunted Mr Pei, pretending to be unconvinced. ‘You’ve been in the market for so long and you need someone like me?’
He was more intelligent than his dreary appearance let on, thought Harth, but then he’d have to be. ‘Like I said Mr Pei, we were looking to recruit engineers in the field, but we decided there were more direct ways of expanding our business interests.’ How far should he go with this? ‘Why waste time and money trying to steal something when we can simply ask those who are willing to give it to us?’ He ended with a wry smile.
Mr Pei nodded, appreciating the directness. ‘And what exactly do you want from me in exchange for what?’
‘It’s a very small amount of information Mr Pei. All we ask from you is to provide a sitemap and a full log of updates and patches on your network for the past two months.’
‘That’s it?’ The engineer wondered. Harth could see his eyes narrow trying to figure out what he was missing, and whether it would be worth his reward.
‘That’s it.’ Confirmed Harth. ‘I can’t imagine it would be much effort for you. As for your reward, it’s 100,000, non negotiable.’
At this moment, Harth undid the buckle on his suitcase, and pulled out a substantial wad of notes. ‘This is 4000.’ He passed it to Mr Pei so he could hold it in his hand. ‘Please examine it to confirm the authenticity of the bank notes. Cash only as digital transactions this large attract attention, there will be a suitcase full of them after you complete your task.’
Chairman Zedong’s red eyes stared out from the paper at Mr Pei with a stern frown as if he knew what was occurring in the room. How many meetings like this has he seen? Thought Harth, staring at the comrade’s chubby face. How many shady business deals?
Mr Pei made a show of checking through the notes, examining the watermarks and the printing quality. If they were fake, they were good enough to fool any bank clerk.
‘If you’re satisfied please return the bank notes’ he requested with an outstretched hand.
Mr Pei returned it surprisingly soberly, but couldn’t conceal the look in his eyes, the feeling that he had just lost something. Harth put it back in the suitcase but didn’t close it. He wanted his client to focus on the reward more than the task.
‘Just place the sitemap and patch log on your USB, and return to this apartment at the same time tomorrow. I will be waiting for you with the money. There’s a map here of the route to the apartment in case you can’t remember the way.’ Harth passed him a small map on paper with street names, which Mr Pei accepted. He looked at the floor and appeared to be quietly considering the offer.
He held himself back but Harth had a read on him. Mr Pei wasn’t from the city, he’d grown up in a small village where his parents had probably picked sterilised soybeans to earn a living. He’d worked harder than most to get to the city to avoid becoming one of the millions of nongs and find his way into working at a software company. But his upbringing had prevented him rising through the ranks as he’d seen his colleagues do. That was why he was leaving after all. That and the girl.
‘And what if something goes wrong?’ Asked his new client, suddenly fearful, ‘What if for some reason I can’t get back here at the same time tomorrow?’
‘You’re a resourceful man Mr Pei, I’m sure you will find a way.’ Replied Harth with a smile. ‘But if the worst should happen and you don’t appear then I’ll be at the apartment the same time the following day. But after that I’ll be gone. I will not wait for a third day.’
Mr Pei nodded his understanding a second time, and fell quiet. He hadn’t expected things to be so simple, and was now wondering what else he should ask or try to negotiate.
‘Can I have some time to think it over?’ He asked pleadingly, knowing there was something he must have missed, should consider.
‘You have tonight to think it over’ retorted Harth, not willing to play along. ‘You have everything you need, all the instructions are clear I hope, if you decide to go through with it then I will be waiting here to check the files and you will have your reward. If not, then that’s your decision.’
Mr Pei, nodded a third time, uneasily. Harth could see his eyes focusing, trying to think of some way it could go wrong, some way he could be being cheated. ‘I will think it over, but I still can’t promise anything.’
‘That’s all I ask for Mr Pei, I hope you will take me up on the offer.’ Harth tried to conceal triumph from his face, it was still too early to celebrate.
‘Now if you don’t mind I have many things to be getting on with as I’m sure you do.’ He stood up from his chair and beckoned toward the door. Mr Pei stared at it helplessly, knowing his time was up, wanting desperately to work things out but knowing there was no way for him to stay.
‘I erm… Yes I should be going too.’
Harth saw the map enter his SuperDry jacket pocket. ‘Remember this time tomorrow, two months of patches, I will be waiting.’
He opened the door with a forceful push and beckoned for his guest to leave. Mr Pei grimaced and forced himself to step into the dusty white corridor, and stared ahead, not knowing what to do next. It was still raining outside, but not so heavily. There was a grating noise behind him.
‘Erh, sir. Your phone?’ Offered the nicely dressed young man, holding out the engineer’s Iphone.
‘Oh yes thank you.’ Mr Pei nodded and quickly put the phone in his pocket, embarrassed at having forgotten it.
‘Good-bye Mr Pei.’ Said Harth, and closed the door with a muffled thud.
***
Harth took a moment to consider how the encounter had gone, and went over the plan in his head.
As he sat down at his desk, wrote himself a few notes, and then looked at the rain dripping down the window before reaching for his jacket. He carefully removed the acrylic patches from his eyelids, and placed them in his suitcase.
He then took the juice jacker out from his jacket pocket that he’d plugged into Mr Pei’s phone before returning it to him, and placed it carefully inside his suitcase for later.
He waited one hour, and then left the apartment.
By this time tomorrow, Mr Pei would have downloaded the files from his computer. The sitemap and the patch notes were completely useless, but they would mean that he could be plausibly scapegoated by the PSB for leaking confidential information.
Even if the engineer had doubts, they would be overridden by a combination of resentment and greed. By the time he arrived at the apartment tomorrow, Harth would be long gone, instead the PSB chief would be waiting for him. Mr Pei would then be taken in the back of a van to an anonymous cell where he would be tortured into revealing what he had disclosed, which was nothing.
He would never see his mistress again, but that was probably all the better for her.
Because unlike all the other local networks that ZDI hosted, ZDI Haishan shared their network with Hongniao. Their network would be accessed from the list of passwords kept on Mr Pei’s phone, and from there dozens of PSB members and local officials would be implicated by sending compromising documents to their accounts.
Harth unfastened his umbrella and walked past gurgling drains as he thought about the unfolding events. If the officials knew what was good for them, the true extent of the leaks would never reach the top, and they would be blackmailed into sending money to Harth’s private accounts.
On his way toward the outskirts he turned his head and saw across the street the same dark doorway decorated with a cheap taijitu.
The man in yellow watched in silence from the window as he walked through the grey cascade. Harth could tell from his expression that he understood the implication of what he had done, even if not the details.
Harth stared back at him coldly. He wanted the man in yellow to understand that he owed him nothing, that people out here worked for themselves and not for anyone else, and that was a lesson he would do well to learn himself.
He stepped out into the concrete jungle and walked beyond the metropolis towards the smog filled hills, and deeply hoped that he would never see the man in yellow again.