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The Great Wall (near Shuiguan)

Scene 6

Maille climbed over the ruins of a nearby watchtower and hid himself behind some debris. From this point he could observe Zhang clearly, without being seen himself. Zhang smoked, he seemed to be nervous. Maille tried to get the fruit sugar of the mulberries off his fingers. The wind wafted softly over the historic layers of the Wall and time went by. When a wind blows, there's little reason for boredom. The wind makes it clear that the world is dynamic; it spreads a feeling of action. At times the wind comes to us as a living creature that whispers confusing things – stories, rumours, prophecies now seductive, now menacing, occasionally annoying, troubling. The wind, the «great voyager» (Lucien Blagbelle), that comes in from some unknown destination and knows neither destination nor intention, that never takes the same route, but moves ever without hesitation. Small wonder then that the folk of yore had revered the wind as a divine deity – it was as similar a guiding vessel to them as Google, Facebook and Twitter are to us today.

The crunch of stones jolted Maille out of his reverie, somebody was walking below his secret vantage seat. The man was big and sported a brown outdoor jacket and clutched under his arm was a leather briefcase. He was moving directly towards Zhang. The two of them spoke briefly to each other, then the man took out a dossier and held it out before the agent from «Buro 106», who in return handed him a small, bulging packet. Zhang seemed quite fascinated by the dossier and failed to observe that the man had dipped his hand again into his briefcase and suddenly brought out a club. As Zhang blinked, the man clubbed him hard on the centre of his face. Zhang staggered backwards and crashed into the wall, the man wrenched the dossier out of his hand and raced away.