The Inspector Walter Darriteau Murder Mysteries - Books 1-4 by David Carter (best finance books of all time .txt) 📕

the instructor wasn’t sure precisely what that meant, but he did know he didn’t want to be the sole examiner to fail the girl. That thought was a worry. He called her back.

‘You were close there. Do it again!’

Jun thought it strange she was being given a second chance. It had never happened to anyone else so far as she knew, but that wasn’t the point. She had a second opportunity and she must grasp it.

She summoned all her last strength, gave herself a good talking to, and jumped, and failed again. She had jumped 44.7 cm, failing by .3 of a centimetre, but a fail was a fail.

‘You’ve failed!’ said the instructor, ‘and that is terminal,’ and he glanced down again at the note written by the Regional Commander: It would be in everyone’s interest if she were to pass all examinations, and he made a decision that would always baffle her.

‘In view of the fact that you have completed all other physical tests today, and taking into account tiredness at the end of the session, I believe that had you come earlier and done the jump first thing, I am satisfied that you would have passed. In that case I am marking you as a pass.’

She glanced into his face. She could tell he was most uncomfortable with compromising his standards, and she had no idea as to why he had done that, but that didn’t concern her. Her face broke into a smile and she bowed her head deferentially to him three times. He looked away and nodded her toward the exit. He didn’t want to see her again. He never wanted to be reminded of what he had done. She turned and trotted away, grinning as she went. She’d passed all tests. Jun Woo was in.

THAT HAD ALL OCCURRED two years before. Her parents tried everything they knew to change her mind, without success. On the day she left for her initial training it was all they could do to wish her well. Her father left the house early for the tailoring business, citing how busy he was. He didn’t even say goodbye. Her mother told her to take good care of herself, but refused to accompany her to the barracks. Jun Woo went there in the company of her cousin alone, who hugged and kissed her at the entrance, and waved her goodbye, as Jun disappeared through the gates and out of their lives.

From the first moment she was fast-tracked for promotion. The HKPF was well aware of what they had on their hands. She transferred to plainclothes work at the earliest opportunity, and after that she was introduced to a special unit that dealt with people-trafficking, and human slavery. Jun Woo hadn’t any idea that such a thing was a serious problem, but the more she investigated the field, the more fascinated and interested in it she became.

A post was coming up. It was a very dangerous post. The HKPF was proposing to put an undercover officer into the field; they had long been preparing the ground to do precisely that. Jun Woo was informed of the post and advised that it would be two things. Firstly: incredibly dangerous. And secondly: the post could only be filled by volunteers. There would, and could, be no coercion involved, because the chances of coming back were rated at no better than one in three. The whole operation was highly confidential, and no one would leak such information on pain of death. It was a state secret.

Jun Woo volunteered immediately.

She was the first to do so, and she hadn’t needed to think it over for more than a second.

In due course, she was informed that twenty girls had volunteered. That was a blatant lie. Right from the outset the HKPF had wanted Jun Woo, and Woo alone, to take on the mission, for she was the only one within their ranks who they considered had any real chance of success.

She was sent home on a week’s leave with express instructions to tell her parents she was being sent to mainland China for two years intensive training where she would be uncontactable, and this she did, though in truth, they had long lost interest in their wayward daughter’s crazy career, and brushed off the information as if it were an irrelevance. As before, it was her cousin alone who saw her off.

She did not go to mainland China at all; indeed it was quite possible the mainland Chinese had no knowledge of her mission, or even of the small and select unit to which she belonged, for secrecy was everything. She was advised that she had a month to prepare. She would not leave the base during the whole of that time.

Her cover story was that she came from southern China, she could speak the language and practiced the accent, her fictitious parents had died, and her uncle was keen to be rid of her. He was asking a thousand dollars, US, and that seemed a fair deal to all concerned.

Her age was reset to eighteen; that was not a problem for she did look young, and she was given new ID as Lily Sang, and introduced to the man who would play her uncle.

Her handlers deliberately belittled her and told her she was too clean, too sophisticated, too intelligent, too confident, too worldly-wise, too well-turned out, too pretty, and too obviously a plant. She had a month to put all that right or the mission would be cancelled.

She was forbidden to wash or cut her hair. Her neat bob cut was allowed to grow out and then it was hacked to bits by some seemingly short-sighted rural village hairdresser. Her fillings were removed and her teeth downgraded. They discussed breaking her nose, but decided, to her relief, that that was unnecessary. Her make-up was confiscated, as was the ring her first boyfriend had given her, and the expensive wristwatch her father had bought her before