Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 18

Daniel felt a chill go through him at the thought On the screen one of the men was kneeling over the boy now, grimacing as he tightened a loop of wire about the boy's neck. The boy's face was turning purple like a bruise, the veins on the side of his neck standing out like cords. And all the while the second guard continued to thrust hard into his narrow b.u.t.tocks, until his brutal face contorted in an agony of pleasure My world, Daniel thought. The universe I inhabit. He tore his eyes from the image of the dying boy and met Horacek's eyes again.

"So will you show me?"

"Show you?"

"How to wire her."

Horacek was silent a moment, then he nodded. "Okay. But you must do something for me first, Daniel. You must swear an oath to me ... an oath of personal loyalty, to me before all others."

Daniel met his eyes unflinchingly, conscious of the immense darkness behind their golden surfaces. "And The Man?"

Horacek came round the desk and stood before him, looking up into Daniel's face.

"You want to work with me, Daniel?"

"Yes."

"Then forget The Man. Now, will you swear?"

Daniel stared back at him long enough to read the ambition, the burning envy of DeVore that dwelt in the dark depths of those golden eyes, then, lowering his head, he knelt and, taking Horacek's outstretched hand, kissed the iron ring. "I swear."

A cold wind blew across the launching field as DeVore stepped down from the tower and greeted his creatures.

Sixty of his morphs stood there, in lines of ten, their huge s.p.a.ce helmets tucked beneath their arms, their long, ma.s.sive bodies made to seem even more gigantic by the rust-coloured s.p.a.cesuits they wore.Beyond them, on the far side of the field, a dozen s.p.a.cecraft waited, their hatches open, like huge metallic spikes pointed at the late evening sky.

Stepping up onto the platform, DeVore felt an immense pride. They had prepared for this for months, yet if they felt anything now that the time had come, they did not show it In that they were the perfect servants, obedient to a fault. Even so, like his boys, they were only a stepping stone to something better.

Beyond them, in the future, lay other, finer creatures. And beyond those ... DeVore s.h.i.+vered, feeling the black wind at the back of him, like a gale blowing from the heart of nothingness.

His vision had no bounds. Exaggerated evolution, that was his aim. A perpetual pus.h.i.+ng back of the frontier. And in that process these creatures that he'd made - fine as they were -were but a start, an inkling of what was to be. Oh Brave New World that has such creatures in it... He smiled at the thought Shepherd had sent him the book only two nights back, and he had read it at a sitting, intrigued that someone - a mere human, who had lived before the modern age - could have seen how it would be. Even so, his own dreams went beyond that Brave New World, to a bright clean future in which his new creatures - his Neumann - had spread out to fill the entire galaxy. And galaxies beyond.

He recalled what Shepherd had said and felt a tiny ripple of satisfaction.

That's what Hike about you, Howard. Your dreams are so modest. But greatness had no call for modesty, as Shepherd himself well knew. And his own greatness lay in just this - that he could see beyond the day, to other, brighter days, far in the future. No. He was not limited as these time-bound creatures were limited, for he not merely dreamed, he could fulfil his dreams. Worlds without end, Amen ...

He looked out over the lines of earnest, expectant faces -long, inhuman faces that were almost abstract in their form - and nodded. "The time has come," he said, raising his voice above the noise of the wind. 'Tonight we shall smash the American satellites and end their blockade of City Europe. Tonight..." he paused, "tonight we start a whole new age." He saw how they looked back at him, self-contained and proud, the very picture of determination. They knew that this was effectively a suicide mission; even so, they would do their best for him. And if they perished in the process, then they would do so without question.

So they were. So he had made them.

As you made the others?

Again they were Shepherd's words. And again the b.a.s.t.a.r.d was right Briefly DeVore thought of Tybor and the other rebel morphs. Those too he had made. But something had gone wrong.

Well, maybe he would have Shepherd look at it sometime and see if he could put his finger on the problem. For he had looked long and hard and still he had no proper explanation. Not one that satisfied. Their genetic programming had been no different from these sixty creatures, nor were there special factors in their nurturing that could have made them different - and yet different they were. Twisted, somehow.

He pushed the thought aside, returning to the task in hand. "You know what you have to do," he said, his voice hard, his eyes gleaming now, as if he saw it all in his mind's eye. "Yes, and you know how difficult a task it is. But there's one thing I've kept from you until now. One final, tiny yet all-important piece in the puzzle. I couldn't tell you before now because I couldn't afford to jeopardise our operation but the fact is, we've breached American security."

DeVore smiled, noting their surprise. 'That's right. We've agents inside the American command centre, and those agents have promised us an envelope of forty-five seconds in which the central control system will be down. For that brief time the crews of all eighteen satellites will be cut off from their command centre and operating on manual control only. They'll be confused and part of their attention will beon re-establis.h.i.+ng a link to central command, so that's when we hit them. As many as we can. The more we hit, the better our chances in the seconds after the system comes back on line. I've had our strategists look at it, and they reckon that if we can hit ten of the eighteen in those first forty-five seconds then we've won." DeVore paused, placing his hands on his hips. "Thafs the theory. But I know you can do better than ten. In fact, if I'm right about you - if you're as good as I think you are - then there won't be a single satellite functioning when their system comes back up."

There were smiles at that

"Can you imagine it? One moment they've a fully operational security umbrella, the next ... nada." He grinned. "You know, I'd love to be there in their command centre when those screens come up again, wouldn't you? All that white noise coming through the speakers. All those fuzzy little white lines on the screens. And if 11 all be down to you."

He paused, satisfied with the effect of his words, then nodded. "Okay. You know what to do. Go to it."

DeVore watched them turn and begin to make their way across to the s.h.i.+ps, then jumped down, a feeling of pure elation flooding him. But that feeling had little to do with the waiting s.h.i.+ps or the perilous venture on which they were about to set out No. He smiled now because a signal had come, at last, an hour back, from Charon, Pluto's cold twin, out there on the farthest edge of the system. There where he had spent long years of exile.

A signal had come, twisting, folding its way between the universes, tumbling in and out of existence until it reached him here on Earth. And following it, threading its way along the same existent/non-existent path, a s.h.i.+p. DeVore grinned, then pushed through the door, mounting the steps of the tower, his cruiser waiting on the pad above.

"Robbie..."

The boy stirred, then rolled over. "Daniel?"

"Shhh." Daniel placed a finger to the boy's lips, then eased back, away from him as he sat up.

"What is iff'

In answer, Daniel gestured towards the open doorway and the showers beyond. Robbie frowned. He'd been woken before now, by older boys, and taken to the showers. But Daniel? He'd not thought Daniel was like that A little s.h.i.+ver ran through him as he placed his feet on the cold stone floor. Come on, Daniel mouthed. There's not much time. He swallowed, then padded through, following Daniel into the shower block. A single dull light at the far end threw blurred shadows over the stalls. As he brushed past Daniel, Daniel quietly closed the door. He turned, frightened now.

"Quick now" Daniel whispered. "Ican't trust anyone dse." He was holding a knife. A finely-honed stiletto with a bone handle Robbie took a step backward. "I... don't understand." But Daniel seemed not to notice his fear. He walked past him and into one of the stalls. "Come on," he hissed.

His legs feeling weak now, Robbie went across. Daniel was kneeling now. As Robbie stepped up to him, he held out the stiletto. "The scar," Daniel said, indicating the bright red line on his neck near the base of his skull. "I want you to cut it open for me. But careful. Just part the surface, okay?'

Robbie hesitated. What in the G.o.ds' names was going on? "I ...I can't."

"You must. Now quickly. I can do the rest."

He noticed the mirror on the floor by Daniel's side, the towel. Grimacing, his hand trembling faintly, he placed the tip of the stiletto against the top of the scar.

"That's it," Daniel encouraged. "Now push. But gently. Just enough to part the flesh."He did as he was told, wincing as the blade cut neatly through, the flesh parting like an opening mouth. Blood weeped from the wound, but Daniel hardly seemed to notice.

"Good," he said, picking up the mirror and studying Robbie's handiwork. "Now pick up the towel and hold it ready. Ill need it in a while." Robbie watched, afraid and yet fascinated as Daniel, staring into the mirror, delved into his own head with the fine blade. At first he didn't understand. Then he gasped.

As the blade emerged, it drew out with it the finest of silver wires, and at the end of that wire a tiny bulb, no bigger than a five fen coin. "What is thai?'

Daniel snipped the wire, then signalled to Robbie to place the towel against his head. Blood was flowing freely now.

"Can you sew?' Daniel asked.

Robbie hesitated, then nodded.

"Good. Then sew me up. There's a needle and thread up there on the tray."

CHAPTER-8.

to nineveh.

They had travelled all night, through the cool darkness of the desert Now it was morning, and Li Yuan sat on a rock in the shade at the foot of the great rocky hollow, his hands bound, looking up at the two men who were guarding him. He could see them just above him, standing on the uppermost ledge of the rocky depression, their slender figures silhouetted against the morning sky. They had their backs to him, but there was little chance of him escaping. Even if he overpowered these two, there were more dose at hand. Besides, where would he run to? There was nothing but desert out here.

They were young men, clean-shaven, the youngest barely out of his teens, and they wore no uniforms, not even a sash or badge, only a strange tattoo, like a blunted spade or an upturned parasol, on their upper arms. There was no mistaking their earnestness, however. Run, they'd told him, and you're dead. And so he sat there, listening.

"He's late," the younger of them said impatiently. "He said he'd be here by now."

"He's probably busy," the other answered. "A lof s been happening."

"Yes, but..."

"No buts, brother. We wait And when He comes, we do his bidding." The younger man fell quiet. The other turned, glancing down at Li Yuan, whistling to himself all the while.Whoever they were, they were a strange lot They talked often of "He", and always with a strange, awed reverence, as if they spoke of a Tang or an emperor of old. Yet he, Li Yuan, was the last of the emperors. And beside this other, he, it seemed, was as nothing. A cult They had to be a cult of some kind. And they had kidnapped him. To ransom him, perhaps.

He almost laughed. Ransom, eh? Well, once he would have commanded a true emperor's ransom - his weight in diamonds, maybe - but now ... Now I'm not worth a p.i.s.s in a rusty tank.

He looked down, smiling. It was strange how the expressions of these barbarians had rooted so firmly in his mind when so little else of theirs had taken hold. There was a blunt realism to many of their sayings that he found attractive, almost Han.

But when they found out his true worth? What then? Would they let him go? Not a hope in h.e.l.l, he thought, part of him already reconciled to his fate. When they find I'm worth less than a bull's pizzle, then they'll slit my throat quicker than ... he searched for the name Zelic had used ... ah, yes, Jack Robinson.

Briefly he had a vision of himself, there before the great white tablet in the walled garden of his father's palace in Tongjiang, in Sichuan Province, sprigs of white blossom in his jet-black hair as he stood beneath the Tree of Heaven, the wind blowing from the mountains to the north. There where his father lay already, encased in pure white jade, his beautifully carved tomb beside that of his elder brother, Han Ch'in, who had been murdered on his wedding day.

Li Yuan s.h.i.+vered and looked down at where his hands grasped each other tightly. They were wild lands now, in the control of some Warlord or another, while he sat here on a rock on the far side of the world, a prisoner of fortune. And suddenly he knew. Knew, with a certainty that took his breath, that he would never see that ancient walled garden again, nor lie with his ancestors in the eternal silence of the family tomb.

No. And no son of his would sweep his tomb and burn incense to his departed souls, for the great chain was truly broken, and he was like a ghost in this land without ghosts.

Li Yuan looked up again, swallowing bitterly. How quickly his mood had changed, like a weather vane, blown this way and that by the wind. So the mad felt, probably.

Not that he thought himself mad. Not yet

Above him there was sudden movement The two young men stepped back, into the shadow of the rock A moment later Li Yuan heard the distinctive whine of a cruiser.

A reconnaissance craft, perhaps, out looking for him. That was, if they even cared where he had got to. In all likelihood these rebels - if rebels they were - had done his son-in-law a great favour in ridding him of such a burden. The sound grew louder briefly, then diminished. As it fell quiet again the two men stepped out onto the ledge once more.

The elder turned, gesturing towards Li Yuan. "Whatever happens, we'll move him tonight."

"To Isis?"

"No. This one's being taken to Nineveh."

"Nineveh?'

Li Yuan saw how the young man turned, looking back at him, his eyes seeing him anew.

"Who is he?" he asked, after a moment

The elder of them turned and smiled. "It doesn't matter, Jem. Who he is now is not important. It is who he will become. In the pit all men shed their former selves ..."

"Oh, I know the words," Jem interrupted. "But a c.h.i.n.k A f.u.c.king c.h.i.n.k!"

"c.h.i.n.ks are human, too, Jem. Cut them and they bleed."

"And so does a coyote. But Nineveh ... are you sure?"

The elder seemed about to reply, then broke off. Someone was coming. "Heather," he said, greeting a young woman who appeared on the ledge carrying a tray on which was a steaming bowl, some bread and a leather water bottle. "What's this?""For our guest," she said, letting them inspect the tray before they waved her through.

She came down the narrow steps and stood before Li Yuan, then crouched, setting the tray down. Then, as Jem covered her with a gun, she set about unbinding Li Yuan's hands.

Li Yuan looked up at her with a smile of thanks as he ma.s.saged each of his hands in turn. They had tied him tightly and there was a deep red welt about each wrist She had green eyes and, in her occidental way, an attractive face. And she too wore the tattoo - that strange bowl-like shape with a spike jutting up from it - on her upper arm.

"Eat," she said simply, handing him the tray and smiling. "You need to keep your strength up."

For a time he was silent as he broke the rough homemade bread and dipped it in the soup. He ate and drank and felt much better for it Yet as he bent down to place the tray on the ground, he winced, a sharp pain shooting through his back. Seeing it, the woman hurried round behind him and, unexpectedly, began to ma.s.sage his neck and shoulder muscles, her hands working their way expertly down his spine, the tension easing from him almost as if by magic. "There," she said, straightening up, then came round in front of him again.

Li Yuan looked up at her, his eyes seeking an explanation.