Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 52

He raised the rifle to his shoulder and looked through the sight, taking aim.

One shot, that was all it would take.

If they let him.

But he doubted that they'd let him.

Daniel tensed, waiting.

The rounded rectangle of the hatch was dark, no shadows in it For a long, long time nothing happened, and then someone stepped out, their shaven head emerging into the light Daniel narrowed his eyes, surprised.

Not DeVore ... Then who?

Golden robes. Flowing golden robes patterned with blood-red dragons. Beautiful Chinese dragons that floated on the golden silk like living creatures. The man walked towards him, then stopped, a faint smile on his oriental features, his open palms spread, his golden eyes burning like suns. "Daniel? It is the real Daniel, isn't it?"

Daniel blinked. The man was unarmed. Completely unarmed "Who are you?"

The Han grinned. "Me? I'm King of America. Or so they tell me. And now I'm King of Europe, too. And King of the Wilds, come to that. But enough of me. Ifs you I'm interested in."

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't shoot you?" "Hmmm..." The Han scratched his chin, then. "Well, for a start it might annoy your mother."

"My mother?" Daniel shook his head. "My mother's taken. DeVore has her." "DeVore had her. But now I do. She's inside." The Han half turned, indicating the cruiser. "She's a little groggy, I'm afraid, but she'll be okay. Once the drugs have worn off."

Daniel swallowed, steeling himself against believing it. He knew the tricks such people played. To give you hope and then s.n.a.t.c.h it away. To break you with despair. It was pure Sun Tzu.

"I don't believe you."

"No?" The Han shrugged, then sadly. "Well, I guess I might be cautious, too, if I were you. But I'm not lying to you, Daniel, I swear. This is no time for lies."

"I don't..."

Daniel stopped. Behind the strangely-dressed Han, someone had stepped out from the hatch and onto the top of the ramp. Daniel blinked, then shook his head. Was it her, or was it just the copy?

Noticing his gaze, the Han turned and smiled. "Ah ... Mu Ch'in Ascher. You should not be up."

She hobbled across, clearly in pain, her shoulder tightly bandaged.

"Daniel? Daniel... put down the gun."

Despite himself, the sight of her filled him with joy. He wanted it to be her.

Wanted it desperately.

But what if this were some final little torment? Some subtle, nasty twist?

Games. The Man loves games ...

Though it ached now, he kept the gun steady at his shoulder. He saw how she shook her head with exasperation. So familiar that gesture. But what it really hers?

"Come now, Daniel. Either shoot us or throw the gun down.

Which is it to be?" He nudged the rifle barrel slightly to the side, gesturing at the Han. "Who is he?"

"You mean you don't know?'

"Should P"

Her eyes were suddenly strange. She turned, looking at the Han as if seeing him anew, then smiled. "This, Daniel, is Li Yuan, Son of Li Shai Tung. I fought him once. But now ..."

"Li Yuan?" Daniel gave a laugh of disbelief. 'The Tang?"

Li Yuan gave the slightest bow of his head. "The same."

"But you ..."

"Were dead? No. Were exiled? Yes. Were wrong? Often. But now I'm back, Daniel, and I want you to come with me. Now do as your adopted mother says and choose, for I for one am growing cold and would as soon be dead as stand here on this mountainside in my silks!"

They rounded up all of their captives in one of the lower meadows, then sent a messenger up the mountain to let Li Yuan know.

He came down, still dressed in his golden silks, and stood before that silent, bare-headed host Beside him, Daniel looked on, impressed despite himself by the demeanour of the man who had once been ruler of Chung Kuo, and who now, at the end of that world's days, was once again at the centre of it all. There were morphs here - the last of DeVore's once great army of 40,000 creatures - and men, but mainly there were boys. Boys from the camps. Boys who, like Daniel, had never known anything but brutality. From their eyes Daniel could tell that they expected nothing now but death. Li Yuan went among them fearlessly, a piece of plain white chalk in his hand, meeting the eyes of each of them in turn, chalking the men and morphs, ignoring most of the boys.

When he was done, he looked to his General - a tall, stern-looking American with white hair and a neatly-trimmed goatee beard - and smiled humourlessly. "Those I've chalked die," he said quietly. "The rest you release." The man nodded and gestured to his waiting lieutenants, who at once turned away, to begin the work of separating the living from the dead. "Is that it?" Daniel asked. "Are we finished now?" Li Yuan looked to him. "Far from it There is one final battle to be waged before we go."

"Go?"

"Didn't she tell you?" Li Yuan smiled. "I guess it must have slipped her mind.

We're leaving here, Daniel. I've had a s.p.a.ceship built"

Daniel stared at Li Yuan a moment, astonished by the news, then he looked down.

"I don't want to. Not now she's dead."

"She?' Li Yuan's eyes were suddenly concerned. "There was someone you loved?"

Daniel nodded.

"And you're certain that she's dead?"

"As good as."

"And if she isn't?"

But Daniel shook his head. "You saw what happened." "Maybe. And yet there were survivors. You came out" "I knew my way."

Li Yuan stared at him a moment longer, then he turned and snapped his fingers.

At once a messenger came across and, kneeling, bowed before him. "Chieh Hsia?' "Go at once and find out whether there were any more survivors from the rebel headquarters. Any women, particularly." He turned, looking to Daniel. "Her name?"

Daniel sighed, then shook his head.

"Her name, Daniel."

"Hannah."

Li Yuan turned back to his messenger. "You heard. Now go.

And return as soon as you have news."

There were eight of them in all, sat in a ragged circle about a fire that had been built beneath the ruins of the eastern gate, their figures hunched forward, hands stretched towards the comfort of the flames, rough blankets thrown about their shoulders.

As Daniel stepped up onto the brow of the slope and looked down on them, he felt a tightness in his stomach and knew it was fear. Fear that, having allowed himself to hope, that hope would now be dashed. He had never known fear before. Never needed to. Before now it had been him alone, and he'd had nothing to lose, but now...

Daniel closed his eyes, trying to block it out, but it was impossible. Once one started feeling there was no stopping it It was not a tap one could turn on and off.

She's dead, he told himself yet again. She couldn't hove got out. But his heart didn't believe that. His heart wanted the impossible. He looked from figure to figure, trying to make something of their stooped and dejected shapes. Three of them had their backs to him, but that one there ... One of them lifted her head. Her, definitely a her despite the shortness of the hair. Hair that had been burned from her head, or so it seemed. He knew her. "Siri..."

The disappointment was immense. And yet he ought to have been pleased. Pleased that at least someone had survived that carnage. But if Siri's death had meant that Hannah lived ...

Daniel swallowed bitterly. The very idea of it was appalling, and yet he could not deny it If he could have made a deal with the G.o.ds, it would have been that, and he'd have made it without a moment's thought. Love. The sheer brutality of love.

He trudged down, despondent now. Most of them had their heads down, from weariness or injury, yet as he came closer, Siri saw him and half rose, recognition in her face.

Her smile almost broke Daniel's heart "Daniel..."

Hearing the name, one of those with their backs to him half-turned. He barely noticed them, preoccupied as he was with Siri. Then he stopped dead, his mouth falling open. As the blanket slipped from her shoulders, he took a step towards her.

"Hannah...?"

Her face was black, her clothes scorched and soiled, but those eyes were unmistakable. There was a movement of her lips - charred lips that oozed blood through the cracks - then stumbled towards him, her face creased with pain. "Hannah.'"

He gripped her to him, grimacing as he did so, all of his hurt and fear and pain transformed suddenly. For a moment longer he simply held her, then, moving back, he stared into her face, putting his hand up to wipe away the tears that now streaked her fire-blackened face.

"Ifs gone," she said, the effort of making the words clearly hurting her. "Ifs all gone."

"I know."

"No," she said, the pain in her eyes so deep it seared him.

"My work, Daniel. It's all gone. Burned."

He stared at her, smiling now, then kissed her brow, her neck, her blackened cheeks. "No, my love. You brought it out with you."

"But I saw it burning. I tried to save it, but..." 'Ifs all in here," he said, touching her brow with his fingertips. "As long as you're alive, it too survives. Every last word of it" Her eyes widened. But this time as she made to speak Daniel placed a finger gently to her lips, careful not to hurt her.

"Hush now, my love. Hush. There will be time for words later. Now come. The King of America would like to meet you."

CHAPTER-20.

room a thousand years wide.

It was a different place.

The same and yet different. In small ways different Small ways that made Kim think that perhaps it was his room, and that intruders had come and not so much taken things as replaced them. Realigned them.

The workroom and its contents were so familiar, yet so far from his own room - his own s.p.a.ce and time - that even to think of the distance he had travelled made his mind reel And yet it was no distance at aft.

Across the room from where Kim sat, in a chair identical in every way to his own chair back in his own reality, his other self busied himself gathering together papers that would explain to Kim just how the trick had finally been done. Kim's eyes went to that strange distortion of himself. To his otherness, as he had come to think of him. This other Kim was marginally taller than him - an inch or two, he'd judge - and broader at the hips and shoulders, too. Not knowing what the reason for this was, Kim nonetheless felt a momentary twinge of envy.

And suppressed it Buried it...

Kim smiled. That was the trouble with this kind of acute self-consciousness. Others could fool themselves - couldpretend they had not felt what they had felt - but he could not. He was much too self-aware. "Well..." the other said, looking across at him finally. "I think that"s all.

You can read them later. And the journal of course."

Kim sat forward. "Journal?"

"This." The other walked across and handed Kim a bound leather notebook and a file of papers. It was the closest they had come since that first joining of hands, and as the other made to draw his hand away, Kim reached out and held it, examining the ring that rested on the knuckle of the forefinger. A gold ring, but with a band of jet embedded in it, as if a caf s-eye had been distorted topographically.

Kim released the hand. There was an embarra.s.sed pause, then he asked. "Look, what do I call you? I mean, we can't..." "... both be Kim?" His other self frowned, his eyes briefly studying the ring, as if it were the first time he had seen it "No, I guess we can't. Call me K." Kim gave a brief laugh. "It sounds Kafkaesque." "You've read Kafka?" K. stopped, then: "Silly question." "No," Kim said, serious suddenly. "Ask, even if it seems pointless. If s clear that we don't map. Not exactly. If s like this room... like our physical selves. If we're to work together, if 11 help us enormously if we know where we're similar ..." "... and where we're not" "Yes." Kim grinned. "So what now?" "What do you want to see?" Kim answered almost without thought "Her." K. stared at him a long time. Silence. A strange, almost eerie silence, then a sigh. "Well?" Kim prompted. "Don't you?" K. nodded, but it was the vaguest of nods. Kim stared at K. a while, puzzled by his reaction, as much as by his general air of sobriety. He had never met anyone quite so sombre. But sensing that this was something that would be explained in time, he changed tack. "Am I the only one you've been in touch with?" "So far."

"So far? But I thought. . ." Kim looked down at the cover of the journal. "I thought you'd been to a number of worlds."

"I've been travelling for six months now," K. answered. "But you are the first I've come across."

"The first you."

K. nodded, his eyes looking inward. "You see, we inhabit a very narrow spectrum of possibility, you and I. Perhaps thaf s why the Edderiminaru chose us." "The who?"

"Master Tuan and his merry band of men. Thaf s their real name. Or an abbreviation of it, should I say. In its full form if s a description. A very full description, so I understand."

Kim nodded. "They're giant spiders ..."

"Yes. I know."