The Orphan Master's Son_ A Novel - Adam Johnson [184]
In the dark, the only thing I could hear was Q-Kee grunting each time she brought her weight to bear on the shovel. Finally I shouted into the darkness, “Let’s pack it in.”
When Q-Kee and I made it back to the crow, we discovered Jujack already inside.
We were soaked and shivering, our hands blistered from working wet handles, the soles of our feet sore from spading the heads of shovels a thousand times into the mud.
Q-Kee stared at Jujack the entire drive back to Division 42.
“You knew she wasn’t there, didn’t you?” Q-Kee kept saying to him. “You knew something, and you didn’t tell us.”
Right away, when we’d descended the stairs to Division 42, Q-Kee marched up to Sarge.
“Jujack’s holding out on us,” she said. “He knows something about this Commander Ga case he’s not telling us.”
A grave look crossed Sarge’s face. He studied Q-Kee. Then he studied Jujack.
“That’s a big accusation,” Sarge said to her. “You have any proof?”
Q-Kee pointed to her heart. “I can feel it,” she said.
Sarge considered this, then nodded. “Okay,” he said. “Let’s get the truth out of him.”
A couple of Pubyok moved to grab Jujack.
“Whoa,” I said, stepping in. “Let’s slow down. A ‘feeling’ isn’t proof.”
I put my hand on Jujack’s shoulder. “Tell the truth, son,” I said. “Just say what you know, and I’ll stand by you.”
Jujack looked at our feet. “I don’t know anything, I swear.”
We all turned to Q-Kee. “Don’t take my word for it,” she said. “Look in his eyes. It’s right there for everyone to see.”
Sarge bent and looked in the boy’s eyes. For the longest time, Sarge just stared. Then he nodded and said, “Take him away.”
A couple of the Pubyok put their hands on Jujack. A look of terror filled his eyes.
“Wait,” I told them, but there was no stopping the floating wall. Soon Jujack was kicking as they dragged him toward the shop.
Jujack screamed, “I’m the son of a minister.”
“Save it for your biography,” Sarge called after him, laughing.
I said, “There’s got to be some kind of mistake.”
Sarge seemed not to hear me. “Fucking disloyalty,” he said, shaking his head. Then he turned to Q-Kee. “Good work,” he said to her. “Get your smock on. You’ll be the one to get the truth out of him.”
Jujack was concealing something, and the only other person who knew what that might be was Commander Ga. I raced to the tank where we were holding him. Inside, Ga was shirtless, staring at his chest’s reflection in the stainless-steel wall.
Without looking at me, Ga said, “You know, I should have had them ink her image in reverse.”
“There’s an emergency,” I said. “It’s my intern, Jujack. He’s in trouble.”
“But I didn’t know then,” Ga said. “I didn’t know my destiny.” He turned to me, indicating his tattoo. “You see her as she is. I’m forced to see her backward. I should have had them ink her image in reverse. But back then, I thought it was for others to see. When really, the whole time, she was for me.”
“I need some information,” I told him. “It’s really important.”
“Why are you so intent on writing my biography?” Commander Ga asked me. “The only people in the world who’d want to read it are gone now.”
“I just need to know one thing. It’s life and death,” I said. “We went to the military base, on the road to Nampo, but there was no corral or fire pit or ox. I know you made a village there, to make the Americans feel at home. But the actress wasn’t there. Nothing was.”
“I told you, you