Decoded (19 page)

To tell you the truth, at that time I was not sure if Rong Jinzhen was a genius or a lunatic, but there was one thing that I was absolutely certain of – I was not going to be surprised if he turned out to do amazing things or did nothing at all; whether he became a hero or the whole thing ended in tragedy. So when he decrypted PURPLE without a word to anyone, I was not surprised at all – I just felt a great relief on his behalf. At the same time I was so impressed I really felt like getting down on my knees and kowtowing to him.

I should also explain that after Jinzhen cracked PURPLE, we discovered that all the suggestions that Jan Liseiwicz had been sending him for how to decrypt it were completely wrong. That means that we were very lucky that right from the beginning, the team working on deciphering PURPLE had decided not to let him know what was going on – otherwise he might well have ended up taking completely the wrong path, in which case he would never have been able to decrypt it. There are all sorts of things where it is very difficult to sort out the rights and wrongs; originally it seemed terribly unfair that he should not be allowed to see the letters Liseiwicz was sending him, but as it turned out, it was all for the best – kind of like dropping a sesame seed and picking up a pearl. As to why Liseiwicz’s suggestions were so wrong, there seemed to be two possibilities. One is that it was intentional: he was trying to ruin our work. The other is that it was unintentional: he was making the same mistakes in his own attempts to decrypt PURPLE. Given the situation as we understood it then, it seemed like the second option was the most likely, because he kept telling us that PURPLE was impossible to decrypt . . .

[To be continued]

PURPLE had been cracked!

Rong Jinzhen did it!

It goes without saying that in the weeks and months that followed, this mysterious young man reaped enormous rewards for what he had achieved. It did not matter that he was as solitary as before – living alone, working alone; it did not matter that he carried on reading his novels, playing chess with people, interpreting their dreams, saying little, impassive in company, not caring who he was speaking to – he was absolutely the same as he had always been. The difference was how everyone else felt about him, which had undergone a complete revolution – now everyone believed in his genius, his abilities and his luck.

There was not a man or woman in the whole of Unit 701 who did not know him and respect him. As he walked back and forward, alone as usual, even the dogs seemed to recognize him. Everyone understood that even if all the stars in the heavens dropped from the sky, his star would still be shining there forever – he had achieved more glory than anyone could use up in the course of a lifetime. As year followed year, people watched his promotion: team leader, deputy group leader, group leader, deputy section chief . . . he accepted it all calmly, with perfect modesty. As they say, still waters run deep.

That was how people felt about it – they admired him without jealousy, they sighed but without sadness. They had all come to accept that he was unique, that there was no one else like him, that there was no point in trying to compete. Ten years later, in 1966, he became chief of the cryptography section – a position that would have taken anyone else twice as long or more to achieve. However, everyone seemed to have been expecting it of him; there was no sense of amazement at his early promotion. Everyone seemed convinced that sooner or later he would end up taking over management of the whole of Unit 701 – the title of director was just waiting until the right moment before it settled down upon this silent young man’s head.

It would have been perfectly easy for the thing that everyone was expecting and waiting for to happen, because in Unit 701, as in any secret organization, it would not be easy for the vast majority of the senior managers to take on the heavy responsibilities of the job. Furthermore Rong Jinzhen’s impassive and adamantine personality seemed to make him a very suitable choice for the role of head of a secret unit.

However, in the space of just a couple of days at the end of 1969, something happened. Even today, very few people know what occurred in those crucial hours, and so explaining the course of events is the subject of the next section of this book.

BLACK, as the name perhaps implies, was the sister of PURPLE, but much more advanced, sophisticated and profound, just as the colour black is deeper than purple. Three years before – Rong Jinzhen would always remember that terrifying day, it was 1 September 1966 (not long before he had gone and rescued Master Rong) – the first traces of BLACK had made themselves known. It was akin to a bird somehow comprehending that lurking within a mass of cloud there is a mountain of snow cutting off access to what lies beyond. From his first engagement with BLACK, Rong Jinzhen had a premonition that his attempt to crack it would bring him perilously close to annihilation.

What happened later was exactly that: the tentacles of BLACK spread continuously throughout PURPLE, expanding, growing, just like rays of darkness engulfing the light, thoroughly consuming it. According to members of Unit 701, the dark days of ten years ago had come again, and nearly everyone put their hopes for a resolution square upon the shoulders of Rong Jinzhen, 701’s star cryptographer. Three years on, and day after day and night after night Jinzhen was still searching for even the smallest ray of light, but none was to be found: the darkness was overwhelming. It was in the midst of this situation that Unit 701 and the General Headquarters jointly organized a research symposium on BLACK – a low-key and yet grand conference.

The conference was held at Headquarters.

Much like many other government divisions, Unit 701’s General Headquarters was located in Beijing. Travelling from A City by train required three days and two nights; there were also flights between A City and the capital, but it was not possible to take these as aeroplanes always made people think of hijackings. Quite honestly, the chances of an aeroplane being hijacked were slim, but if such a plane were to have on board a cryptographer from Unit 701, then the likelihood of a hijacking would increase dramatically, perhaps even a hundredfold. And if that cryptographer was Rong Jinzhen, the man responsible for cracking PURPLE, and who was in the midst of deciphering BLACK, then the chances of an attempted hijacking would increase beyond measure. You could even say that if Rong Jinzhen was aboard, it would be best for all concerned if the flight never took off. This was because if the intelligence agency of X country had managed to get wind that Rong Jinzhen was on board, then their agents would have already infiltrated the aeroplane and be waiting anxiously for it to take off to carry out their insane and brazen actions. This was no joke, but something that had been learnt the hard way. Everyone at Unit 701 knew of the spring of 1958. It was just after Rong Jinzhen had cracked PURPLE: a low-ranking cryptographer from Y country had been abducted in just this manner by agents from X country. Zheng the Gimp was familiar with this case; he had learnt of it almost immediately; he had even had a few dinners with the cryptographer in question. But now, who knows where this person is, who knows whether he is dead or alive? This is perhaps one aspect of the cruelty of the cryptographer’s profession.

In contrast, boarding a train or a car is a much more reliable and safer method of travel – even though unexpected incidents can happen, there are also always counter measures at hand; there are always escape routes. Needless to say then, whilst in a car – unlike on an aeroplane – one needn’t sit and wait to be kidnapped. That said, driving such a long way is rather difficult to endure, and so Rong Jinzhen settled on the only choice left: train. Because of his special status and because he carried top-secret documents, he was able to book a soft sleeper car for the trip; all that was required was for them to ensure upon departure that a station security official had cleared them a berth. Of course, carrying out such an action was an extremely rare occurrence which couldn’t help but make Rong Jinzhen feel a little uneasy.

Accompanying Rong Jinzhen was a man of an incredibly serious demeanour, rather tall, with a dark complexion, a somewhat big mouth and triangular eyes. Adorning his chin was a longish moustache which stubbornly curled up on itself, rather like hog bristles. His stiff mode of conduct made people think of steel wire, and his determined approach suffused everything he did. In many ways, he gave off what seemed to be an aura of death. Saying that this man projected a lethal spirit, a ferocious appearance, is perhaps not saying enough. The fact is that throughout Unit 701, this rather serious man was held in very high respect; he had always possessed a certain power and prestige. But, as people also said, his power was not the same as that of Rong Jinzhen, whose importance lay in his intelligence. However, the man had a very special role to play: whenever a senior member of Unit 701 needed to travel beyond the complex, they would always want him along for the ride. Because of this, everyone called him Vasili, after Lenin’s bodyguard in the 1939 Russian film
Lenin in 1918
. He was Unit 701’s Vasili.

Most people would say that they had never seen Vasili wearing anything other than his fashionably large windbreaker. His hands would always be stuffed in its pockets. He walked with long strides, full of energy – an awe-inspiring figure, just what you would expect in a bodyguard. Amongst Unit 701’s younger members, there were none who did not harbour a mixture of envy and respect for Vasili. They would often gather together and talk about him enthusiastically – his vigour, his various demonstrations of bravery. Even though his hands were always in his pockets, this only made people speculate fantastically on what lay therein, saying that in his righthand pocket was a German-made B7 pistol, ready to be drawn at a moment’s notice. In his left, a special permit, handwritten and given to him by the head of the intelligence service – some famous highranking military officer: all he had to do was take it out and wherever he needed to go, he went; not even the prince of heaven would dare to obstruct him.

Others swore that under his left arm he also had another pistol. But to tell the truth, no one had ever seen it. Still, not seeing it doesn’t mean it wasn’t there. After all, who was able to look casually under his arm? Even if one was to see that there was no gun there, the young members of Unit 701 would never concede the issue, saying instead with great gravity that he only carried his pistol when he was on assignment.

Of course, that is quite likely.

Most professional bodyguards carry more than one pistol, as well as an assortment of concealed weapons, just like Rong Jinzhen would sport more than one pencil or pen, and more than one book. Put simply, there is nothing odd about this; it is rather quite as it should be, just like people needing to eat.

Nevertheless, even though Rong Jinzhen had this man of extraordinary capabilities accompanying him, he still did not feel safe or at ease. Upon departure from the complex, he couldn’t help but sense some indescribable foreboding. He felt as though everyone on the train were staring at him, as if he were the Emperor without his clothes. He was sweating profusely; he was nervous, uneasy, terribly out of sorts, and he had no idea as to what he should do, and certainly no clue as to what would make him feel better. Actually, his state of mind was due in large part to the fact that he was overly concerned with his own personal welfare and the importance of his task –

I’ve already said this, but the low-level cryptographer from Y country who was abducted by X country’s agents could not compare to Rong Jinzhen: the difference between the two was like that between heaven and earth. It wasn’t that we were being overly cautious, and it wasn’t that Rong Jinzhen was just frightening himself. The mission they were on involved quite a bit of risk. Even at the beginning, we felt that something was a little strange. After Rong Jinzhen had cracked PURPLE, despite everything being kept quiet about his accomplishment, the levels of secrecy on the part of X country were maintained intact, as if they already knew the cipher had been broken. Of course, they would learn sooner or later that PURPLE had been cracked; things of such magnitude cannot be kept silent for long even if we hadn’t used any of their secret files. But they
knew
, even though they shouldn’t have. In fact, not only did they know that it was Rong Jinzhen who had broken PURPLE, they were also intimately familiar with much of his work. Realizing the situation, all relevant sections and specialists set about investigating the breach, arriving at certain suspicions and threads in the story. All these threads led to Jan Liseiwicz. This was the initial reason for us to begin to suspect his actual identity, but at that time, they remained only suspicions – there was no concrete proof.

One year later, we received an extraordinary report detailing how Jan Liseiwicz and that notorious anti-communist Georg Weinacht were one and the same. It was then that we understood Lisceiwcz’s truly repulsive nature. We wondered how was it that Liseiwicz had gone from being a scientist to a virulent anti-communist and why he was attacking communism in such a roundabout fashion (even changing his name). That, I guess, is a secret he will carry to his grave. But once the veil was drawn from his true face, his attempts to conspire against us became all too obvious. Perhaps there was no one other than Liseiwicz who truly understood Rong Jinzhen’s formidable talent – after all, he had also worked in cryptography, and had feigned attempts to crack PURPLE. Liseiwicz seemed to guess that Rong Jinzhen would follow the same path towards cryptography, sensing that he would most assuredly become an expert. The decryption of PURPLE was, in a sense, inevitable. Knowing this, Liseiwicz had initially made great efforts to prevent Rong Jinzhen from moving into this field, but upon discovering that Jinzhen was indeed a cryptographer, he shifted his efforts towards hindering the cracking of PURPLE. Once he learnt that it had been broken, he tried misdirection once again, launching a covert stratagem aimed at ensnaring Rong Jinzhen. I think much of what Liseiwicz did was at the behest of political interests, something he little choice about. Consider, for instance, that had Rong Jinzhen broken PURPLE right at the beginning, Liseiwicz would have become a disgrace – it would have been worse than having all of his possessions stolen. But the alarm never sounded. At that time, his role was as an early warning system. How else could it have been discovered that Rong Jinzhen was the man responsible for cracking PURPLE? It had to have been Liseiwicz that put two and two together. He got it right! However, there is one thing that he could not have thought of and that was that his scheme to ensnare Rong Jinzhen would have no effect! You could say that in this matter, God was on Rong Jinzhen’s side.

What is more, the enemy’s JOG radio station propaganda broadcasts over the next few days spoke evasively on the subject, offering huge amounts of money to ‘buy’ our cryptographers; such and such a person for such and such a price. I clearly remember that the bounty they first put on Rong Jinzhen was over ten times that for a pilot: 100,000 yuan.

Can you believe it!? One hundred thousand!

According to Rong Jinzhen’s reckoning, such a bounty put him up in the heavens and, simultaneously, put him one step away from hell. He realized that since such an amount had been placed on his head, those seeking to harm him would have sufficient cause and incentive; it would attract not a few people. All this left him feeling helpless. This was his mistake, as our security preparations to ensure his safety far exceeded any danger that he might run into. Besides the faithful Vasili, there were any number of plainclothes protectors accompanying him every step of the way, including those trained in advanced combat techniques. They were all ready for the unexpected. He didn’t know about any of this, so feeling himself being jostled by the hordes of people coming and going along the train made him feel really nervous.

Rong Jinzhen certainly seemed to possess a quality that forced him to waste time on insignificant matters. And yet, his remarkable intelligence and divine luck perhaps all relied upon this indomitable spirit to keep at it, no matter how many times he might have to bang his head against the wall. What’s more, it was this spirit that seemingly gifted him with a sublime deliberateness. This was simply Rong Jinzhen. Although he had read a countless number of books and possessed an unparalleled breadth of knowledge, when it came to daily life he was completely clueless, unaware of what was happening around him; which made him overly cautious and stupid at the same time. It was truly beyond belief. During all those years, he had only left the complex once, and that was to rescue his sister, Master Rong. His trip to Beijing was only his second time away. In all honesty, in the years that had followed his decryption of PURPLE, his life was not especially stressful and he had the time to go home for a visit, if he so desired. Indeed, we would have made arrangements immediately should he have asked. But he always flatly refused any suggestion that he leave the unit. It was as though he were a criminal being watched by a prison guard: his speech was circumspect; his movements, too. The thought of doing simply as he pleased had no meaning for him. But perhaps more to the point, he was afraid that something would happen if he were to leave even for a short period of time. Just like a person who fears being locked at home alone and divorced from human contact, he feared stepping outside his door; feared meeting people. His reputation and his job were like a sheet of glass to him, transparent and fragile. There is nothing that can be done for this kind of person, and he himself made matters worse by nursing these reclusive emotions, painstakingly cultivating them inside him. There was simply nothing we could do . . .

[To be continued]

Due to his profession and his overly cautious nature, to say nothing of his fear that something might happen, Rong Jinzhen was trapped within a valley of secrets. Days and nights passed in this fashion; from beginning to end he was like a fenced-in animal. His approach to life at Unit 701 soon became familiar to everyone: he had a singular attitude – stiff, almost suffocating. His only joy was to pass the time in a world of the imagination. But now he was on his way to Beijing. It was only his second time away from the complex and it would also be his last.