you eat today?”

“Did I? I don’t remember.”

They turned and walked toward the river. I went the other way, for fear of what else they might say.

3

The phone call had come Tuesday morning saying that the meeting would take place that afternoon. I had to drive fast, but Jenö didn’t complain. There was still a little sun left when we pulled up to the rickety bridge. The gaunt guard studied my ID for a long time. He paid no attention to Jenö?s. As soon as we entered the hut, Jenö said to the general, “I’m sorry about your brother-in-law.” The major wasn’t present, and there was no coughing coming from the back room.

“His brother-in-law?” I stared at them both.

“Sohn, the general’s brother-in-law.” Jenö sat down at the table without being invited. He relaxed.

“Always go with the cigarette butts,” I said.

“Do you think you’re standing here right now because I trust you?” The general shook his head. “Not a chance, Inspector. Sohn thought I should meet you. Otherwise, you would have been turned away at the gate the first time. Maybe shot.”

I looked at Jenö. “How did you know Sohn’s brother-in-law was in charge of this place?”

“I didn’t, not until Sohn told me. He thought the military might go along with selling off the missile program if there was money in it for them, turning the production sites like this one into moneymaking enterprises.” He stood up and strolled slowly around the hut. On the wall was a map of the site. He stared at it intently. “I have no idea what this place could be. It would have to be leveled. There’s certainly nothing worth saving.”

“Nice line of trees along the road,” I said. “Poplars.”

“Too bad they’re not much taller than matchsticks.”

The general cleared his throat. “If there is nothing else …”

“Somehow, you didn’t strike me as a field officer.” I smiled at him.

He smiled back. “Insufficiently crazed?”

“No, you move too much like a panther.”

“Meaning?”

“Unerring sense of balance.” I waited to see if he took that the wrong way. He didn’t. “So what happens now?”

“Now?” It was my question, but the general was speaking to Jenö, as if I had disappeared from the room. “Now, we’re almost out of the woods. Nothing changes, nothing stops. We test what we need to test. We spend what we need to spend. I hear something is planned for the summer in Hwadae.”

“Things will get better until they get worse again.” I listened to the sound of my voice. Neither of them seemed to notice. “No one understands that things can’t go on like this?” It wasn’t good, staying invisible too long in these situations. The trick was rematerializing in the same form that you were when you were last seen.

“I need some air.” The general opened the door. “Things can always go on, Inspector. It’s our curse. There is always a break in the clouds, always. Sohn knew that. It’s what worried him.”

“He was in a hurry,” Jenö said.

“In a terrible hurry.” The general stood in the doorway with his back to us. “He thought this might be the only chance.”

“For what?” I remembered what Pak had said about the theory of the “only chance.”

“To change course. He told me he’d move heaven and earth this time.”

Jenö?s right hand gripped the left. “That was his mistake. It’s always fatal. He shouldn’t have run out of patience.”

“You can drown in patience,” the general said. “Sohn didn’t want to drown.”

“And you?” I asked.

As the general turned to me, he adjusted his jacket. Military and police, I thought; when they get uneasy, they tug at their clothes. “It’s quiet out here. None of those crazy plans going across my desk. The winds sing through the ruins. I write poetry and count the days of my life. When spring comes, I’ll be transferred. The azaleas are nice in Yongbyon in April, isn’t that what they say?”

“And this site?”

He shrugged. “It’s not police business, I can tell you that much.”

“I may see you in Pyongyang, then.”

“Or in Seoul.”

“Keep your balance, General.”

“And you.”

“If we move enough piles of dirt,” Jenö said more to himself than to either of us, “sooner or later someone might notice.”

Chapter Four

The phone rang just as I walked into Pak’s office. Pak picked it up and frowned. “Well, tell your people to take care of it.” He listened for a moment. “How many? Are you kidding? Alright, we’ll be there as soon as we can. But don’t blame me.” He put down the phone and shook