The White Mountain (30 page)

As
if
that meant anything
.

‘Tuan Wen-ch'ang…'

He stepped forward, presenting his papers. The guard ignored them, taking his hand and placing it on to a lit-up pad on the desk in front of him. After a moment the guard released his hand, then brought round a swivel arm. Tuan put his eye to the cup at the end, holding it there a moment longer than was necessary for the machine to take a retinal scan.

‘Okay,' the guard said, then leaned across, taking Tuan's papers. Holding them under the high-density light, he looked for signs of tampering or falsification. Satisfied, he slipped the pass into the slim black box at his side. A moment later it popped out again. At Security Central in Bremen the computer had entered Tuan Wen-ch'ang's personal details into the mainframe.

‘All right. You're authorized for unobstructed passage in the four Cities
in which you have business, full access granted between Level 150 and First Level.'

Tuan gave the slightest bow then walked on, pocketing his papers.

Deep inside he felt mild amusement. It had been much easier than he had expected. But he understood why. This whole society had been conditioned not to anticipate; to think of how things were and had always been, not of their potential. Their security procedures, for instance. They were testing for something that was already redundant; that was as outmoded as the tests they used to find it. On Mars things were different. There the pace was faster. Things had moved on.

He climbed aboard the courtesy train and sat there, waiting, his patience inexhaustible, his path through the great labyrinth of the City mapped out clearly in his head, as if already travelled. It was four hours by bolt to Luo Yang, then another hour and a half north to Yang Ch'ian on the edge of the City, only a hundred
li
from Wang Sau-leyan's palace at Tao Yuan. But the central computer records would show something else; would show him travelling south down the coast to catch the inter-continental shuttle from Fuchow to Darwin. And if the central computer said it was so, who would argue with it? Who would bother to check whether it reflected anything real – anything happening in the solid, physical world?

Outwardly Tuan Wen-ch'ang's face remained placid, almost inscrutable in its mask-like quality, yet deep down he was smiling. Yes, they had had all kinds of things bred out of them down here. Things that the species needed if it were to evolve beyond its present state. And that was why he was here. To remind them of what could be done. To shake them up a little.

And to push things one stage further.

Beyond the one-way glass the two youths sat, their backs to the wall, their hands bound. The preliminary interrogation was over. Now it was time to take things further.

Chen followed the sergeant through, watching how the two boys glanced at him, seeing the uniform, then looked again, their eyes widening as they recognized who he was.

‘Ai ya
…' the younger of them murmured beneath his breath, but the tall, thin youth – the ringleader – was silent.

‘Well, my friends,' the sergeant said, a warm, ironic tone to his voice, ‘you've met your accuser before, but I don't think you knew his name. So let me present Captain Kao of the T'ang's special élite force.'

The thin youth's eyes came up, meeting Chen's briefly.

Good
, thought Chen. So
now you understand
.

‘All right,' he said brusquely. ‘You have had your chance to confess. Now you will be taken before a specially convened panel of judges who will decide the matter.' He paused. ‘Your families will be present.'

He saw the sudden bitterness in the thin youth's face. ‘You bastard,' the boy said quietly. ‘You fucking bastard.'

Again, he let it pass. He was the T'ang's man, after all.

They took them down, under armed escort, to the meeting hall at the far end of the deck. There, in closed session, the three judges were waiting, seated behind their high lecterns. To one side of the hall, on chairs set apart from the rest, sat the four accomplices. Behind them were the families – men, women and children – numbering several hundred in all.

All this
, Chen thought, looking about him, surprised by the size of the gathering.
All this because I willed it. Because I wanted things to be done properly
.

And yet it didn't feel right. He should have broken the little bastard's hand. Should have given him a simple lesson in power. Whereas this…

It began. Chen sat there, to the side, while the judges went through the evidence, questioning the boys and noting down their replies. It was a cold, almost clinical process. Yet when Chen stood to give his statement, he could feel the silent pressure of all those eyes, accusing him, angry at him for disturbing the balance of their lives. He felt his face grow numb, his heart begin to hammer, but he saw it through. He was
kwai
, after all. Besides, it was not he who had threatened another; who had extorted money and then lied about it.

He stared at the two youths, the desire to lash out – to smash their ugly little faces – almost too much for him. The darkness afterwards came as a relief. He sat there, barely conscious of the film being shown on the screen behind the judges – the film he had taken only hours before – yet when the lights came up again, it was hard to turn and confront that wall of hostile faces.

He listened carefully as the senior judge summed up the case, then, steeling himself, stood for the verdict. There was a moment's silence, then
an angry murmur of disapproval as the two ringleaders were sent down, demoted fifty levels, their families fined heavily, their accomplices fined and ordered to do one hundred days' community service.

Chen looked across, conscious of the pointing fingers, the accusing eyes, and even when the senior judge admonished the families, increasing the fines and calling upon the Heads to bring their clans to order, he felt no better. Maybe they were right. Maybe it was too harsh. But that wasn't really the point. It was the kind of punishment, not the degree, that felt wrong.

As the families left, Chen stood there by the door, letting them jostle him as they filed past, staring back at his accusers, defying them to understand.

You saw what your
sons
did. You have seen what they've become. Why blame me for your children's failings?

And yet they did.

Ts'ui Wei, father of the ringleader, came across, leaning menacingly over Chen. ‘Well, Captain Kao, are you
satisfied
with what you have done here today?'

Chen stared back at him silently.

Ts'ui Wei's lips curled slightly, the expression the mirror image of his son's disdainful sneer. ‘I am sure you feel proud of yourself, Captain. You have upheld the law. But you have to live here, neh? You have children,
neh
?' Chen felt himself go cold with anger. ‘Are you threatening me,
Shih
Ts'ui?' Ts'ui Wei leaned back, smiling; a hideously cynical smile. ‘You misunderstand me, Captain. I am a law-abiding man. But one must live, neh?'

Chen turned away, biting back his anger, leaving before he did something he would regret. As Wang Ti said, he should be content to have done his part and helped cleanse his level. Yet as he made his way back it was anger, not satisfaction that he felt. That and a profound sense of wrongness. And as he walked, his hand went to his queue, feeling the thick braid of hair then tugging at it, as if to pull it from his head.

It was after three when they called Karr from his bed. There had been a shootout at one of the stacks east-south-east of Augsburg
Hsien
. Five men were dead, all visitors to the stack. That alone would not have been significant enough to wake him, but, some hours later a sack had been found near one of the inter-deck lifts. A sack containing a full
Yu
dossier
on the Dragonfly Club. Now, less than thirty minutes later, Karr stood in the bedroom of the two-roomed apartment, trying to work out what had happened.

As he stood there the deck's duty officer knocked and entered. He bowed and handed Karr two printouts.

‘Ywe Hao…' Karr mouthed softly, studying the flat, black and white image of the apartment's occupant; noting at once how like the artist's impression of the
Yu
terrorist, Chi Li, she was. This was her. There was no doubting it. But who were the others?

The security scans on the five victims had revealed little. They were from various parts of the City – though mostly from the north-central
hsien
. All were engineers or technicians in the maintenance industries: occupations that allowed them free access at this level. Apart from that their past conduct had been exemplary. According to the record, they were fine, upstanding citizens, but the record was clearly wrong.

So what was this? A rival faction, muscling in on the action? Or had there been a split in the ranks of the
Yu
– some internal struggle for power, culminating in this? After all he'd seen of such Ko
Ming
groups it would not have surprised him, but for once the explanation didn't seem to fit.

‘What do the cameras show?'

‘They're being processed and collated, sir. We should have them in the next ten to fifteen minutes.'

‘And the woman – this Ywe Hao – she's on them, neh?'

‘I sent a squad up to where she was last seen by the cameras, but there was no sign of her, sir. She vanished.'

‘Vanished?' Karr shook his head. ‘How do you mean?'

The man glanced away uneasily. ‘Our cameras saw her enter the maintenance room at the top of the deck. After that there's no sign of her. Neither of the cameras on the main conduit picked her up.'

‘So she must be there, neh?'

‘No, sir. I had my men check that straight away. The room's empty and there's no sign of her in the conduit itself.'

Karr sighed. It was clear he would have to look for himself. ‘You said earlier that she may have been warned – that there was a lookout of some kind…'

‘Two young boys, sir.'

‘I see. And you've traced them, neh?'

‘They're in custody, sir. Would you like to see them?'

Karr looked about him at the mess. ‘Your men have finished here, I take it?'

The Captain nodded.

‘Good. Then clear this up first. Remove the corpses and put some cloths down. I don't want our young friends upset, understand me?'

‘Sir!'

‘Oh, and, Captain… have one of your men run a file on the movements of our friend Ywe Hao over the last three months. With particular attention to those occasions when she doesn't show up on camera.'

The Captain frowned but nodded. ‘As you wish, Major.'

‘Good. And bring me some
ch'a
. A large
chung
if you have one. We may be here some while.'

Chen stood there in the doorway, looking about him at the carnage. ‘Kuan Yin! What happened here?'

Karr smiled tiredly. ‘It looks like some kind of inter-factional rivalry. As to whether it's two separate groups or a struggle within the Yu, maybe that's something we'll discover, if and when we find the woman. As for the woman herself, I'm certain she was involved in both the Hannover assassination and the attack on the Dragonfly Club. I've asked for files on her movements over the last three months. If I'm right about her, then there ought to be blanks on the tape corresponding with the white-outs surrounding the terrorist incidents. We've no next-of-kin details, which is unusual, but you can do a little digging on that, neh? Oh, yes, and the Duty Captain is going to bring two young boys here. They were the woman's lookouts. I want you to question them and find out what they know about her. But be easy on them. I don't think they understood for a moment what they were in on.'

‘And you, Gregor? What will you be doing?'

Karr straightened up, then laughed. ‘First I'm going to finish this excellent
ch'a
, then I'm going to find out how a full-grown woman can disappear into thin air.'

‘And so, cousins, we come to the question of the GenSyn inheritance.' Wang looked about him, his eyes resting briefly on Li Yuan and Tsu Ma before they settled on the ageing T'ang of East Asia, Wei Feng. ‘As I see it, this matter has been allowed to drag on far too long. As a result the company has been harmed, its share price reduced dramatically on the Index. Our immediate concern, therefore, must be to provide GenSyn with a stable administrative framework, thus removing the uncertainties that are presently plaguing the company. After that…'

Li Yuan cleared his throat. ‘Forgive me for interrupting, cousin, but, before we debate this matter at any length, I would like to call for a further postponement.'

Wang laughed, a small sound of disbelief. ‘Forgive me, cousin, but did I hear you correctly? A
further
postponement?'

‘If it would please my cousins. It is clear that we need more time to find a satisfactory solution. Another month or two.'