31. Falling
FALLING
The rest of the night had passed in a blur. She couldn’t wait to get out of there. But even if they’d found her, the device was already planted—nearby where they’d been found, alone, but still. It was a tenuous enough connection that interrogating two diplomats would have been unthinkable.
Obviously, if the camera had shown them doing anything, they would never have left the soiree in the first place.
Aya and Giovanni practically made out in the government sedan driving them back home.
When they got back, Marina informed Esmee that she was taking a long shower, and for once, Esmee didn’t argue.
In the morning, they had an unwelcome visitor: the nightwatchman inminban, and one of the security guards from the embassy.
“Can I help you?” Marina said, blinking into the bright morning sunshine while standing at her doorstep. She tightened her robe around her waist.
“I got a phone call from the Ministry. They said the EU sent a cable overnight, and you should come into the chancery.”
Aya appeared beside her in the doorstep. “Thank you for letting us know.” She bowed.
“Literally there is nothing secret we could work on, so why the need to call us in on a Saturday?” Aya said, stirring a cup of tea as she walked back to her cube.
“I have no ide—” Marina stopped.
Giovanni was asleep at his desk.
He never slept at his desk.
“Gio? Giovanni?” Aya said.
No response.
She stepped inside. Marina hung outside—this was between them.
He was slumped sideways in his chair, cheek against one forearm. His other hand hung beside him, fingertips almost touching the floor.
“Giovanni baby.”
Aya touched his shoulder.
His head lifted.
His eyes opened but didn’t focus on her.
“Hey.” Aya crouched beside him. “Look at me.”
He blinked slowly.
“Aya?”
“Yes.”
His eyes closed again.
“Giovanni.”
She shook his shoulder harder.
He stirred, but his head immediately sagged.
Aya straightened.
“Marina, check him out.”
Marina put two fingers against Giovanni’s neck. His pulse was fast. His skin felt hot enough that she didn’t need a thermometer to know he had a fever.
“How long has he been like this?”
“He wasn’t feeling well this morning, but I thought it was just from staying up late after the reception.”
Marina looked sharply at her.
“He said his stomach hurt. I thought?—”
Giovanni made a low sound. His eyes opened.
Aya knelt beside him. “Gio?”
His gaze drifted toward her voice. “Aya.”
“I’m here.”
He smiled faintly. Then his eyes closed again.
“Aya,” Marina stood up, touching her arm. “Stay with him, I’ll go get a doctor.”
“Be quick about it, will you?” Aya tried to joke about it, but failed.
The physician from the Munsu-Dong District Friendship Hospital arrived with a nurse and two Ministry officials, who seemed to make both the doctor and nurse nervous.
By then Giovanni was lying on the couch in the small conference room with his shirt collar open and a damp folded cloth across his forehead.
Aya sat on the floor beside him, holding his hand.
Esmee stood near the window.
Ri had arrived shortly after and remained near the door, eyes drifting towards Marina rather than Giovanni.
The nurse took Giovanni’s blood pressure and pulse under the watchful eye of the Ministry. When she dropped the thermometer on the floor, Marina beelined for them.
She bowed in front of both of the officials, her hands clasped in front of her. “Thank you for coming. Please wait downstairs.” She gestured towards the door.
They looked like no one had ever dared tell them what to do.
She kept a serene look plastered on her face. “Thank you for visiting us at the European Union government delegation. I will now escort you downstairs. My name is Marina Lambert, I am the Regional Security Officer and head of security. I apologize that I did not introduce myself earlier.”
One of them opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
She led them downstairs to the lobby and gestured for them to wait inside the seating area, on the other side of the guard.
“Can you please sign out?” she asked politely, and bowed.
The other man huffed a laugh, and picked up the pen at the guard’s concierge desk. The guard visibly shrank down, just enough, in his chair; letting her handle it.
“Please tell me if anyone else wants to enter the chancery,” she said, and tapped the walkie-talkie on his desk.
“Yes, ma’am,” the guard said quietly.
She ran back up the stairs.
Giovanni was answering the doctor’s questions inconsistently when he answered at all. When the doctor pressed on Giovanni’s belly, he was sensitive, but there was one spot where Giovanni winced.
The doctor, a tall, spare man in his forties, looped his stethoscope around his neck, and spoke rapidly in Korean.
Ri translated.
“He says Mr. Bellini appears to have a gastrointestinal infection.”
“What kind?”
Ri shook his head. “They don’t know yet.”
Marina folded her arms. “What tests are they running?”
The doctor answered before Ri finished translating: “Blood samples.”
“Can they test for typhoid?”
The room went quiet.
The doctor spoke immediately. “With apologies, I am not sure that we have that test.”
Marina looked at him. “No, they can’t test for it?”
“No. He does not have typhoid.”
“You haven’t tested him.”
“There is no typhoid here.”
Marina looked at Esmee. “Get it.”
Esmee walked out and returned with a locked Pelican case. She opened it—it was an emergency medical kit. “Here.” She passed a wrapped item to Marina.
“Then testing him should be an excellent way to confirm that.” Marina handed the typhoid test to the doctor. “All of us were vaccinated before departure, but nothing is foolproof.”
The doctor nodded and accepted the test. “Just so you know, our drinking water is safe.”
Marina bowed.
Aya was quietly furious. “Would you guys do something already?”
The doctor spoke quietly. “He has lower right quadrant pain. That suggests appendicitis.”
“Oh.”
“We could wait for the test to rule out typhoid. But I suggest we prep him for surgery, in case it is appendicitis."
Aya stood up. “Marina, you know the rule.”
Marina pulled out her phone and dialed. “Sven, tell the ambassador we have a med evac.”
“He is ill, but we can treat his condition here,” the doctor insisted.
From the couch came a low moan. Giovanni’s hand slipped out of Aya’s.
She caught it. “Gio?”
His eyes opened. “Aya? I don’t feel well.”
Her face changed.
“I want him out within the hour.”
“But—” the doctor interjected.
Marina ignored the physician. This was not a DPRK medical decision. It was hers. “Agreed. Our protocol is no surgery in the host country.”
“I’m going with him, you know,” Aya said.
Marina nodded. “Okay. Go.”
It took less than an hour for a chartered air ambulance and Vice Minister Jung to show up, separately. The minister of Foreign Affairs showed up as well, he spoke in low tones with the Swedish ambassador who arrived on scene, still wearing golf clothes.
The Ministry did not object to Giovanni receiving treatment in Beijing. They objected to nearly everything else.
There was no evidence he had contracted an illness in the DPRK.
There was certainly no evidence that water had been involved.
The water supply in Pyongyang was sanitary.
The European delegation had consumed imported food.
Giovanni had traveled before entering the country.
It was possible he had arrived already infected.
It was premature to speculate about typhoid fever.
Marina agreed with the last point. Which was why she wanted him somewhere capable of determining what he had. Besides, he looked like he had appendicitis, and none of them were assured by the sanitation or medical supply standards they’d seen.
She stood beside the conference table while Tobias watched from Brussels on a connection nobody trusted.
“They’re loading him onto the air ambulance now,” Marina said. “He’ll be taken directly to the airport. Medical personnel will meet the flight in Beijing. Aya is going with him, too.”
Tobias nodded. “Agreed.”
“Okay, I’m going back,” she said, and Tobias asked her to keep him posted.
Esmee grabbed her arm in the corridor. “You realize this leaves us short-handed.”
Marina nodded. “Less witnesses, too. Thought you’d like that.”
Esmee tossed her hair. “We both know you’d like that even more than I would.” She turned. “I’m going to go find Sven before he leaves.”
Marina grinned. “You go do that. Just remember his boss and the host nation are both here.”
Marina walked down to the front entrance, where paramedics were loading Giovanni on a gurney into an ambulance. An ambulance was outside, red lights swirling silently on top. Aya and the doctor got in beside him, and the nurse clambered in last.
“Airport?” Marina asked Aya.
“I’ll call you before we depart,” Aya said.
A paramedic climbed in last, shutting the ambulance door. The driver switched on the siren.
Marina and Esmee walked back into the chancery—she hadn’t even realized that Esmee had joined her outside.
“Hey, I found a test in the med kit.”
Marina’s stomach clenched. “Let’s talk about it later.”
“I guess it’s just you and me now,” Esmee said.
Marina’s eyes flicked briefly toward Ri.
He was standing against the wall, waiting.
Marina nodded. “It’s just us, now.”