The Chinese Assassin (4 page)

From their cars the
Mongolian offi
cials
brought two
boxes of
relics apparently recovered from
the
wreckage. They placed them
on the
ground and
took out
partly-charred documents which Toktokho had
noticed
scattered
in the
scorched grass
at dawn on the first
day.
The
Chinese did
not inspect these closely but had them
transferred
immediately to
their own vehicles.
Toktokho
also saw
the
leading
Mongolian hold up a silver-plated pistol.
The
head of the
Chinese delegation matched
this from him,
almost with
glee, Toktokho said.
Because
of his love of
silver
ornaments
like those
he wore
nightly
on his belt, he remembered this very
vividly
.
It flashed brightly
and
pleasingly in
the
autumn sun, he said. This
pistol was in f
a
ct a souvenir
of Marshall Li
n
Piao’s
stay
in Moscow from 1938 to 1942
which
he
had valued highly.
It
had
been
presented
to him by
Stalin in gratitude
for his strategic advice on
revising
the Soviet
plan
of
natio
n
al
defence.
While recovering in a Moscow
hospital from grave
wounds received
fighting the invading Japanese forces
in
China, Marshall
Lin
bad
time
then to apply his
brilliant
military mind
to
the
Soviet
Union’s strategic planning
in its
great hour of
cr
isis.

He
had
concluded that
the
Ge
rm
an
attack directed
at
Leningrad was
intended
as
a
turning
movement towards Moscow
and
therefore he advised
Stalin to
reinforce
the
defence of his general headquarters,
and
also to hold a sufficient force
in reserve
for this purpose.
Those in
Peking who
ruthlessly
sent
Lin Piao
to his well-planned death planted t
h
is famous
and
much
l
oved memento on the plane to help
identify
his b
u
rned body
and so
compound the
‘irrefutable
evidence’ of his intended treachery. I had noticed it lying on a seat, during the
last
moments of the
flight,
when I burst
into the
closed forward compartment in
which the unconscious Marshall
Li
n
and
his wife Yeh Chun had
been
transported.
But by that
t
ime
it
was
too late
to
do
anything
about
it,
or the other
false
and damning evidence
planted
against us.

When
this silver pistol had been stowed in their car the Chinese delegation
was
conducted
to the
spot where the
soldiers
were
drawn
up around the
line
of dead bodies. On a sudden command
the
soldiers were marched back several paces but
still
stood
guard
at a
distance, with their weapons
at the
ready.
The
delegation then
moved forward
and stared
down at
the corpses, walking quickly
back
and
forth along the line.

The Chinese, Toktokho sai
d
seemed puzzled
at
first
.
Gradually they began arguing among themselves, casting occasional angry looks over their shoulders
at the
Mongolians. Then the two leading Chinese approached the Mongolian government officials and another, more violent argument ensued. The Chinese waved their arms agitatedly in the air and became very irate, pointing repeatedly back at the row of incinerated bodies lying
on
the ground.
Toktokho said he
could hear their raised voices clearly from his hiding
place
among the rocks.

The
Mongolians
at first
shouted back.
But when the
visitors refused to calm down they turned their backs, walked away to their cars, wound
up
their windows and refused to co-operate further.
At this point those
Chinese
who
h
ad been
carrying shoulder cases
took out cameras
and
began photographing the
bodies. Although the sunshine was bright
they used
flashbulb equipment and took many hundreds
of pictures from
every
angle.
While
this was being done
the leading Chinese called
their whole
party
to a
hurried
conference at a distance from the troops and the cars.

Then, after some discussion, they
began
to spread out around the
scene of
the crash,
scouring
the ground minut
el
y with their
eyes.
This
meticulous search
went on for
an
hour, the
Chinese pacing carefully back and forth in
a long line across an ever widening area of the
grassland
beyond the rope cordons
that marked
the limits of the site itse
lf

Toktok
h
o grew alarmed when it
became
clear that the
line was moving slowly but steadily towards the knoll
on which he was
hidden.
His horse stood tethered a quarter of a
mile
away
and he was afraid
it might
make
a
noise as
the
line of Chinese drew near,
and betray his presence. He was struggling in an agony of
indecision, unsure
whether to
make
a
dash
for his horse or remain hidden when the
Chinese heading directly for his hiding
place stopped at the
foot
of the
knoll and
let out a loud cry. He
turned and held
up
something in his hand and
the others in the
line all ran to him.

I
t
was
my
left
shoe!

All the Chinese gathered round and began stamping though the tussocks
of
coarse grass
in the
area,
jabbering excitedly among themselves.
They searched the small
area intensively
for
a further quarter of an hour but found nothing more. Toktokho
was
relieved when at last they returned to
their line
of cars.

After another
conference
with
the Mongolian officials, orders were shouted to the soldiers
and
they
immediately began digging
beside the Trident’s
wreckage with their
bivouac shovels. The Mongolian
representatives appeared
to be
astonished by
the
behaviour
of the
Chinese
who sat
silently in their cars during the digging.
Two hours later, when a large hole
had been
dug, the
Chinese
climbed out of
their
vehicles
and
stood in a
silent
group watching as the soldiers lowered the
nine
bodies, wrapped
again
in their
canvas shrouds,
into the
makeshift
mass grave.

They showed no emotion, uttered no words, but
just
stood sullenly
waiting
while the earth
was
shovelled in on top of the bodies. Some more photographs were taken, then the
Chinese, satisfied that
the land
was flattened
over the grave, without a further word to their hosts
returned
to their cars
and
drove away rapidly in the
direction
of the capital.

Old Tsereng
was
becoming
stiff
and
cramped
by this
time,
He had-been crouched behind the rocks for nearly
six hours.
But
just
as he
was rising
to return to his herds he
saw
the
four Russian
officers coming back to the site from their sunken vantage point
two
miles away. They quickly
dismissed
the Mongolian troops who moved out in a convoy within five
minutes.
The light
was beginning
to fade but
the sound
of
their
vehicles had hardly died away before the much larger -convoy of Russian
vehi
cl
es
re—appeared,
rumbling
back
across
the tundra.

The
soldiers
disembarked
and
immediately began pitching camp again. Toktokho watched in astonishment as new orders were shouted and a detachment of
Russian troops set to with their trenching
shovels to
open
up the newly-dug mass grave. The
nine bodies in their canvas
bags were lif
t
ed out without ceremony
and
loaded once more, one by one, onto the same lorry in which they had been preserved since
the crash.

As dusk fell, Toktokho watched the army lorry
trundle
slowly away across the darkening
grassland
bearing
its
terrible cargo of
burned
human flesh and bones.