Chapter 28
GENERAL Hu Feng landed in Lhasa the morning after Mary Joe's escape, to take personal command of the search operations. He blamed himself for not having taken over the whole business earlier. He was not surprised at Mary Joe's escape. He knew he was dealing with an adversary who was brave as well as resourceful. Far too resourceful in fact for the wiles of Colonel Chu, honest trier though he was. That was why the general blamed himself for not having anticipated this turn of events. He was particularly shocked at the prison governor's penchant for staging gladiatorial contests, which had proved his undoing this time. It was unthinkable that such barbaric practices were carried out by member of the Chinese state. He had a proper Middle Kingdom arrogance about the superiority of the Chinese civilization and could not easily countenance such a thing being done in his own backyard. But then such black sheep had proliferated in the outlying provinces of the state. He must press the Politburo to do a clean up once he got back to Beijing.
The general lost no time in getting down to brass tacks. He was soon in a meeting with Colonel Chu and other officers in the operations room of the Lhasa garison, with a large map of the region spread out on a table before him. Colonel Chu started with a long litany about the incompetence of Wao Wang and other civilians who had allowed his prisoners to escape. He did not explain why he had allowed Wao to retain custody of the prisoner for a whole day if he had so little faith in his abilities. However he was· cut short by the General who held µp an elegant hand to check him, "recriminations are useless Colonel. Tell me what you have done so far to find the prisoners?"
"We have right now about thousand soldiers on the trail of the fugitives. And we have found the get-away vehicle."
"Where did you find it?"
"We found it abandoned at the mouth of a canyon that runs in a north south direction through a mountain chain about fifty miles south east of Lhasa."
"When did you find the vehicle?"
"This morning, a couple of hours ago."
"Colonel, you tell me that your choppers followed the fleeing vehicle up to the mouth of this canyon last evening. You also maintain that you kept the area under aerial surveillance but did not see the lights of any vehicle moving during the night."
"Yes sir."
"Would you have seen the vehicle moving within the canyon."
"That is unlikely sir, given the peculiar overhanging nature of the walls of the canyon."
"That means it is perfectly possible for the prisoners to have reached the end of the canyon during the night, abandoned their vehicle and escaped using some other mode of transport. Your men would have been too far away then to offer any resistance to them."
"That is true sir."
"Depend upon it then. This is exactly what has happened. What form of transport would you use to travel over the plateau during the night, Colonel?"
"Preferably horses, though yak could also be used."
"Horses, that's it. We have to look for people travelling on horseback. Now let's see where they could have gone."
The general looked closely at the map spread out before him. He asked Colonel Chu to point out the main landmarks and settlements within a radius of hundred miles from the spot where the abandoned vehicle was found. "Well, general, about a hundred miles due south of the spot is the famous monastery of Samye, situated in the Tsangpo valley, said to be the first monastery built in Tibet. About fifty miles south west of the spot is the monastery of Ganden, the seat of the Gelugpa sect which dominates the monastic life of Tibet. About a hundred miles due north is the town of Nagachuka. If we go due east the Chinese border is about a two hundred miles due east, across the Salween river and the Dokar pass. There are no other major towns in this area, only small villages or nomad settlements."
"And are these marked on your map."
"No sir."
"Well, then get a map which shows these features. I want everything included, you understand. Even ruined structures which could be used as hiding places. Today, you know the Americans have spy satellites which allow them to see even single houses and huts on the ground. Why do we have to rely on these out of date maps?''
"I'll attend to that right away. In the meantime I will send out troops to all these places that you have mentioned and ask them to be on the lookout for strangers travelling on horseback."
"It is not likely that they will take the risk of travelling during the day, however be on your guard. No harm in that. But I hardly think our quarry will fall into our laps quite so easily. No Colonel, we will to have to outthink them. That's the only way we can succeed. For a start send out search parties in each one of the places that you have mentioned and ask them to gradually move towards the centre of the circle, combing the area as they go along."
"Yes sir."
"And one more thing. Search each and every Drogpa camp that you come across."
"That will take a lot of time, general."
"No matter, time is on our side."
