Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4567 | Page 190

Ling,
Please try to fix the radios. We need them for contacting the military over the wall before tomorrow morning.
Su wrecked three of them accidentally. Sorry about this, but you're the best mechanic we have since the
mechanic sector has been deployed to another unit.
General Xiang
Ling woke up, finding herself resting upon a stack of papers. She gave a great yawn and realized she had fell
asleep from fixing the radios. She had worked till the next morning, and it was the longest shift she had ever
done all these years. Remembering the narrowed eyes of her colleagues when she had entered the radio room
yesterday, she had known that she had to make an extra effort to prove that she wasn’t a lazy, useless agent after
her two weeks of sick leave, so she had decided to stay up late, deciphering documents all night until she fell
asleep on her desk. Ling chuckled to herself as she imagined the look on her colleagues’ face if they knew she
had worked till the morning. She glanced at the clock. It was six in the morning. It was unusual for the office to
be empty. At least Yang should have arrived, he was always the earliest and had never been late. Just then, Ling
heard a commotion outside and the door burst open, revealing General Xiang and the rest of the agents. Her
mouth fell open when she took in the scene before her. A few agents were hobbling with crutches, some with
bandages around their head. General Xiang seemed a bit battered and bruised, but otherwise, unhurt. Ling
noticed a few of her colleagues were missing, but the hollowed look in General Xiang’s eyes were enough for
her to deduce that they hadn’t survived whatever they had been through.
Before Ling could open her mouth to ask the million questions in her mind, she was held by the shoulders,
pushed back to the wall and handcuffed in a matter of seconds. She could only stare back dumbly at General
Xiang when he hissed at her, “Well, anything to say, traitor?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about! What proof do you have that shows I’m a traitor?” Ling mustered all
the courage she had and fired back. The other agents had surrounded her, with a look of fury in their eyes, but
they were nothing compared to the cold disappointment in General Xiang’s.
“Let’s see,” General Xiang said softly, his tone dangerous, and a chill went down her spine. “You didn’t show up
when we retreated, so obviously you had known about the ambush, and-”
“Wait, what retreat? Who said anything about it?”
“Didn’t you collect your hat yesterday? Didn’t you read your message, Agent?”
Ling ignored the mocking tone and said slowly, “I got the message to fix the radios from Su, but-”
Someone suddenly sniggered, “Who would ask you to fix the radios? You overestimate yourself, Ling. The men
aren’t here for nothing.”
Ling flushed and continued, “Su told me the message was from you, General Xiang! So I went to fix the radios
and-“
“I only sent you the message regarding the retreat in the morning. We all retreated except for you and also Su,
who is too inexperienced, so I told her to go home and rest because she had a sore throat anyway. Apparently,
there is a double agent among us because someone must have gave a slip to the Japanese and told them about the
retreat, because we were ambushed by a bunch of Japanese soldiers and I overheard one of them mentioning the
double agent, we only know it’s a woman. We managed to escape by hiding in one of the carts. Well, only some
of us. A few didn’t make it,”
“Well, I got a message from my hat, but Su gave me another one and told me the one I had was mistakenly put
into my hat, so I ignored it. I went to fix the radio as I was told and deciphered some documents until I fell
asleep. That’s all, I swear, I didn’t know about anything! If you don’t believe me about the message, you could
ask Su about it!” Ling blurted out in desperation.
Someone spoke, “Su’s mother just came and told me, her daughter has lost her voice for now. Bad case of sore
throat.”
Ling looked at General Xiang pleadingly and she could almost see his gears working behind those eyes.
“You’re a talented agent, Ling, there’s no doubt about it, and you don’t seem to be the type that would turn on
us,” General Xiang said slowly, and there was a collective whisper among the agents. “Su and you are the only
female agents here, but Su just joined us a month ago and I don’t see the Japanese picking her to be a spy for