Chapter 30
A party of Chinese soldiers, led by a young 1ieutenant approached the monastery of Ganden. They were looking for Mary Joe and Lobsang. "What a criminal waste," said the young lieutenant to the grizzled veteran who was his second in command, pointing at the golden finials on the roof of the monastery. This was the monastery of Tsong Khapa, the revered founder of the Gelugpa order to which all the Dalai Lamas belong. As such it was naturally one of the richest as well as one of the most famous monasteries in all of Tibet. The arrival of so many soldiers, their hob-nailed boots echoing on the cobblestones of the courtyard, was like an invasion that shattered the reigning silence of the cloisters. The head lama, the revered chief of the Gelugpa order, one of the most erudite figures in Tibet, was summoned by the young officer and came down from his chamber to receive the soldiers. He received them with courtesy, if he felt any resentment at this intrusion into his sanctuary, as he must have, he did not show it.
"Do you know these persons, abbot!" the young lieutenant asked him, showing him an identikit drawing of Mary Joe and Lobsang.
"No lieutenant, I have never seen these persons before, who are they?"
"One of them is a monk and the other is an American girl. Both are spies and have to be caught and brought to justice. We have orders to search your monastery for them."
"You shall not find them in Ganden, lieutenant, because they are not here."
"Still, we have to carry out the search."
The abbot merely bowed his head. The soldiers went ahead with their search. They searched all the cells where the monks lived, they barged into the Du-khang, the main shrine without taking off their boots, unmindful of the treasures of Tibetan art all around them but coveting the gold and silver that they saw. The lieutenant thought of pocketing some golden butter lamps, but decided against it. He was afraid of General Hu. The General was said to be especially severe on vandalism and theft of any kind. The soldiers ransacked the library, damaging many fragile manuscripts. They did not spare even the community kitchen, looking into the huge butter urns as if they expected to find their fugitives there. Naturally they found nothing. To vent his frustration, the lieutenant, kicked the equisitely carved silver chorten that stood in one corner of the courtyard, before departing. "If these persons come here or you receive any word about them, you must inform us immediately," said the Lieutenant to the head Lama", before leaving. The Lama did not bother to reply. He was shocked at the disrespect shown to an object of devotion. It seemed to him not only senseless, but positively evil.
Similar searches were carried out in the monastery of Samye and other religious establishments situated in the neighbourhood. All of them drew a blank. This information was brought to General Hu at Lhasa. "Have you looked at all the Drogpa camps in the area.?
"Yes sir." said Colonel Chu," no sign of them anywhere."
"They have to be there. Have you got the map l asked you about."
"I am getting it sir, it should be here in a couple of days." He couldn't admit to the Colonel that such a map, if it did exist anywhere, was certainly not available in Lhasa. But the general had guessed his predicament.
"I see that you are having trouble in locating this map. In that case send word to the Cartographic Bureau in Beijing, they may have what we are looking for, and ask them to send the map with a courier as soon as they lay their hands on it."
"Yes, General."
Just then a young officer dashed into the room, all breathless with excitement. "I think they have found them sir, a man and a woman driving an old Land Rover without proper papers. They answer to the description of the fugitives."
"Where was this Captain?"
"In Nagachuka, General."
"Well have them brought here, but continue the search, we could be looking at decoys who are sent out on purpose to throw us off the real trail"
"I hadn't thought of that, General. Yes sir, we will continue the search."
General Hu wanted to interrogate the two captives himself. They were brought to Lhasa from Nagachuka and kept in a single cell in the PSB interrogation centre. The Genral had issued orders that the captives were not to be tortured, physically that is. But they were kept without food and not allowed to sleep at night. A naked 100 watt bulb was kept burning in the bare white washed cell and from time to time a sergeant of the PLA came to the cell and prodded the prisoners with a long pole to keep them awake. This was part of the softening up process devised by General Hu. As always the General preferred refinement to barbarity, even when it came to the interrogation of prisoners.
When the morning came the two prisoners, tired and hungry, were taken to see the General. Sitting behind the imposing desk of the garrison commander, the General was immaculately attired as usual. His staff officers and Colonel Chu, who commanded the garrison, stood around him. The two prisoners were brought before him, chained and handcuffed and sandwiched between two burly warders. The handcuffs and chains were removed at a gesture from the General. Colonel Chu made a mild protest;'' but General, these prisoners could be dangerous," but the General silenced him with a peremptory wave of his hand.
While the handcuffs were being removed General Hu rubbed his hands and looked at his prisoners speculatively. "Bring me a revolver, will you Colonel!"
The Colonel took out a new.38 revolver from a bureau and handed it to the General, who took the proffered weapon in his right hand, holding it at a distance and looking at it critically, much like a jeweller examining a fine piece of jewellery. Then with an unexpected movement he took the gun under the table, where he held it out of sight for about half a minute. When he brought the gun back on the table; his left hand held five.38 cartridges which he put on the table alongside the gun.
The General now looked up at the Tibetan girl standing before him. His look was still mild and speculative, like a professor contemplating an interesting mathematical problem. "What is your name, my dear?"
"Sonam, Sonam Gyatso."
"You are Tibetan?"
"Yes."
The General spoke in Tibetan of which he had a fair knowledge. "Now listen carefully Sonam. We have reason to believe that a man and a woman who are enemies of our country are trying to escape with some valuables. We just want to make sure you are not connected with them in any way."
"I know nothing about it sir, I am only a poor Tibetan."
"Do you know any English."
"No sir."
Two more prisoners were now brought into the room, they appeared to be Chinese convicts, a relatively rare occurrence in Tibet where the jails are filled with Tibetans alone. The two prisoners were lined up against the wall. Sonam was now asked to stand in the middle, between the two prisoners. After initial hesitation, she obeyed, looking at her companion with pleading eyes. The General was directing the proceedings with all the practised ease of a conductor who knows the score by heart. He now picked up the gun, held it aloft for a moment and then put the weapon in the hand of the lone Tibetan. When he spoke again his voice had changed. It was now like a whiplash, commanding and imperious. "All right now, this is what you have to do. This gun as you know has only one cartridge. You have to fire the gun at each one of the three prisoners lined up against the wall. You can fire at the three prisoners in any order that you like, but remember you must fire once and once only at each one of the prisoners. Is that understood."
The Tibetan nodded. The General now unexpectedly switched over to English. "The cartridge is in the second chamber," he said, enunciating each word clearly and precisely. "I repeat the cartridge is in the second chamber." Then he reverted to Tibetan, as suddenly as he had switched to English. "All right now, start firing!" he said with a shout.
There was silence for a while. A silence so intense that they could hear the clock ticking loudly. Then an amazing thing happened. The Tibetan pointed the gun at the General and pressed the trigger repeatedly, trying to shoot down his captors. Nothing happened. The General burst out laughing. "Bravo, so it is as I had suspected. This man belongs to the Tibetan resistance, but he does not know any English. Which means he is only a small fry. The big fish are still out of our reach. Take him away Colonel, his interrogation can now be done at your level."
"Do not be surprised comrades. You should have guessed that the revolver did not contain any cartridges. You would hardly think me so foolish as to hand over a loaded weapon to a suspected terrorist. No here is the sixth round, which I had removed along with the other five." The General produced the sixth cartridge from the pocket of his jacket with all the flourish of a magician producing a rabbit out a hat.
"Do you know Colonel what would have happened if the prisoner knew English. He would have either shot wide on the second shot or tried to turn the gun on me after the first shot had drawn a blank. The first shot is such cases is taken without hesitation. It is only when the second shot is to be fired that the person hesitates and gives his game away. The prisoner's reaction was typical of a someone who is hostile to us, being suddenly entrusted with a weapon. Although he believed that the weapon contained only one round, yet he was desperate enough to take a chance and target me. That means he is a hard-core terrorist, used to risking his own life. Still we are after bigger game and can't waste time with second-rank people.
"The General paced about the room, rubbing his hands in satisfaction. "One last question Colonel, tell me what would have happened had the prisoner been innocent. Any guesses?"
No one spoke.
The General answered his own question. "He would have probably refused to fire. A person unfamiliar with firearms would hesitate to fire them and a Tibetan whose creed is not to cause violence to anyone, even insects and animals would never willingly fire at another human being. Well! that brings us to the end of this little drama. Now tell Colonel have you got the map which I had asked for. The courier should have arrived from Beijing by now."
"Yes, General."
The despatch rider who had just ridden up from the Lhasa airport, saluted smartly and laid a rolled-up map on the table before the General. It was an old contour map, the paper had in parts peeled from off from the canvas backing, but for the most part the map was still legible and had sufficient detail to serve the General's purpose. The General gazed at the map with rapt interest. "Will you point to me the spot where the prisoners are believed to have been last seen Colonel."
Colonel Chu pointed out the northern entrance of the canyon where the prisoners were fired upon by Chinese army helicopters. He traced the southward course of the canyon, down to its termination about fifty miles to the south east. The General continued to look at the map with interest. He was looking at an area about a hundred miles to the east of this point. This was a low lying area surrounded by high mountains and exactly in the centre of this tract was a large body of water that was known as lake Basum Tso. The castle of Lang Derma was also shown on the map, a brown blob with the legend 'castle' written over it. "What is this place Colonel?"
Colonel Chu peered at the map, he had no idea what the castle was supposed to be. Tibet was full of ruined castles anyway, forsaken buildings falling to pieces where no one lived and no one went. "Does anyone know this place?" he asked the assembled soldiers. An old sergeant, who was said to the half Tibetan, stepped forward to look at the map.
"That's Thamba Dzong, the castle of Lang Derma. A place of ill repute, said to be the haunt of devils. No one ever goes there.
"Interesting, where will you go Colonel if you wanted to hide? Naturally to a place where no one goes. What can be better than that. Keep this place under surveillance day and night and report to me at once if anything unusual is seen. Is that clear?"
"Yes sir."
"And even if nothing turns up, I would like to have a look at this place anyway. It sounds the sort of place that may repay study."
