Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 58

"Then if s true."

"No. And yet I am in trouble. I have been seeing this woman."

"A married woman?"

Han looked dawn, troubled. "I wish she were. It would make my present problem much easier to deal with. No ... she is pregnant." "Ah ... And she will not relinquish the child."

Han's eyes came up. "Kill it, you mean?"

"I was trying to be sensitive ..."

Han raised a hand, acknowledging that "No. Nor would I have her kill it It is my child, after all. But the woman is common."

"Common?"

"All right. She's a wh.o.r.e, d.a.m.n it! I've been seeing her for several years now."

"But wh.o.r.es ..."

"Take precautions, yes, but this one didn't"

"So pay her off. Give her an allowance."

"I offered, but she refused point-blank"

"Then cut her dead."

"I cannot, I..." Han looked down, embarra.s.sed deeply. "I like her, Yuan."

"Enough to marry her?"

Han Ch'in nodded.

"Ah... I see now. The roan in you wishes to marry her, but the Major... the Major is worried what his superiors will say. And as for your chances of becoming Consul..."

"They would cut me dead."

It was true. For a Consul to marry a wh.o.r.e was impossible. It would be effectively an insult to every wife of every man he met and had dealings with. "Aiya..." Li Yuan slowly shook his head, then, seeing Cho Yi coming back across, leaned across and laid his hand over his brother's. "Let me mull this over for a while, dear brother, and consider what would be best to do. Tell her you will give her your decision in a week.""And if she will not wait that long?" "She will wait, Han Ch'in. I a.s.sure you. In the meantime write down her address.

I will go and see her."

"Do you think that1 s wise, brother?"

"If I am to advise you properly in this matter, I had best meet the woman, neh?" Han frowned, then. "I guess so." Taking a napkin, he scribbled down a name and an address, then handed it to Li Yuan. "There," he said, with a slightly shamefaced expression. "But please... do not say who you are, Yuan. Not yet.

I..."

But Cho Yi was back and no more could be said. Li Yuan pocketed the napkin, then looked up, smiling as Cho Yi took his seat again. "I've made my mind up," Yuan said, smiling at his partner. "I think I'll have the boiled monkey."

Kim looked down at his hands and frowned. "Eighty-four billion?"

"Eighty-four billion."

"But how do they feed them all?"

"They don't. Several billion - three, some say four, billion -are starving in this world."

"But that still leaves ..."

"Eighty billion."

"So?"

"Mars is a farming world. There are ma.s.sive greenhouses out there. And nine-tenths of its output is shipped back here. And then there are the floating factories. Great orbital farms many times the size that you and I are used to." "But why? Why did they let it all get out of hand?" "For the same reasons it happened in our worlds. Because mankind's urge to multiply obeys no laws of reason. And because it suits the people of this world to let it be so. Imagine the size of the markets here! The five Presidents are powerless beside the Heads of Companies. They are the real rulers of this world, and that" s why DeVore has chosen the marketplace as his battleground." "The stock markets?"

"Yes. And he's about to strike. Tomorrow, if I'm right There'll be a trigger event of some kind, no doubt, but it was all prepared long ago." "Prepared?"

"As on our worlds." K. looked at the surprise in Kim's face and laughed. "You mean, you didn't know? You think the great economic collapses that struck our worlds were accidental? No. They too were DeVore's doing. But in both those cases he struck too soon. Despite the Century of Blood, as it was known, mankind survived that body blow."

Kim's eyes widened. "Tsao Ch'un?"

"That's right. Ironic, isn't itf That the great Tyrant should have been the one to save us. I've looked upon him with kinder eyes since I've known. But here Tsao Ch'un never got his chance. He lived and died in obscurity. His moment never came. And DeVore kept his nerve, building his own economic empire - a shadow empire - within those of the great Merchant Lords." K. sighed. "Little do those great and powerful men know it, but the majority of their holdings - vast as they are -are in the hands of their chief enemy. The man who would bring it all rumbling down on top of them. He has built a great web of companies, connected in such complex ways that even the subtlest-minded a.n.a.lyst would never guess who was the Puppetmaster behind them all." "And yet you did."

K. shrugged. "It was easy. I knew what I was looking for."

"And what was that?"

"DeVore himself. Once I found him, I found the main root After that I merely had to dig."

"But why tomorrow?"

"Because it is the last day of this world."

Kim felt a shock ripple through him. "You know that for a fart?" "Not for a fact, but I asked the Edderiminaru, and they sense nothing beyond tomorrow."

"Then we shall fail."

"Only if we do not try to change things."Kim laughed sourly. "That seems a quantum leap of faith. A Vill we, won't we?' kind of affair at best" "Maybe. But if s the best we've got. I know what DeVore plans. So maybe we can prevent it If we can only find out what will trigger the collapse." "It seems a long shot."

K. grinned. "It is a long shot But we've twelve hours at least in which to do it" "And if we can't?" "Then we kill DeVore. If we can."

The girl was very pretty. That was, if you liked that kind of full-blown, curvaceous look to a woman. Personally, DeVore liked his women sum and breastless, like boys.

"She'll do," he said, looking to Wyatt, who was standing close by, looking on nervously. "You'll get her to the reception at eight Oh, and Edmund." "Yes, Howard?"

"Don't go buying any stocks and shares." Wyatt laughed then winked at his old friend. "I shan't" DeVore watched them depart, Wyatt pushing the girl before him into the black windowed glide. As the sleek Min Chang HI climbed into its airlane, DeVore turned away, walking back across the sunlit park towards where his own white executive glide hovered beside the lake. It was all in place. All organised. The thought of that made him laugh. How ironic it was - that one needed to plan so carefully, to organise so efficiently, to bring about such chaos. And there was no doubt in his mind that there would be chaos, for once the props went, it would all fall down, like a pack of cards. And there would be no building it again. No phoenix would rise from these ashes. And no one would know why. That was the beauty of it. The humility of it, in fact Let others gloat over their petty triumphs. He would destroy a world and have no one there to see it That was humility indeed. The glide sank to the floor. A door hissed open.

As he stepped inside, he wondered for a moment whether he shouldn't keep Wyatt alive. As witness. Then he dismissed the notion. "No survivors," he said quietly. "Not a single one." "I beg pardon, sir?" the driver said, his sapphire-blue eyes meeting DeVore's in the driving mirror.

"Nothing," DeVore said, sitting back as the glide began to climb. "Just take me home, Haavikko. I think I need to rest."

As they crossed the huge square that marked the intersection between the east and west cities, Li Yuan leaned across and, nudging the dozing Cho Yi, said: "There's something I have to do, Master Cho. A favour for my brother. I'll get the driver to drop me, then meet you back at the office in an hour." Cho Yi yawned and stretched, then smiled at Li Yuan. "A favour?"

Li Yuan nodded.

"Okay," Cho Yi said. "I'll mind the fort."

"Thanks."

Li Yuan looked away, smiling, as much at Cho Yi's attempt at the American colloquialism as at Cho Yi's condition.

As ever, Cho Yi had eaten far too much, and now all he wanted to do was sleep. But Cho Yi would never admit that Cho Yi would rather sit there at his desk, plugged in, and snore aloud, than admit he needed an hour's nap. But this once it wouldn't harm. And it would give Li Yuan the opportunity to sort out this mess his brother had created for himself. A wh.o.r.e! Who would have believed it of Han Ch'in? Han Ch'in who could have talked the silk briefs off of any woman in the city!

Unless, of course, he'd met her through his work

Li Yuan leaned forward, speaking softly to the driver, getting him to set him down three blocks from where he needed to go, conscious of Cho Yi sitting there beside him, eyes closed yet listening.He sat back, closing his hand over the napkin in his pocket even as the driver began to take the glide down. What was she like? Was she pretty? Was she young'? Li Yuan closed his eyes, trying to imagine how his brother had reacted to the news. He ought to have asked at dinner, but there had been so little time. He gave a tiny, shivering sigh. What a mess! What a G.o.ddam awful mess! The glide descended, moving into denser air traffic, while Cho Yi, beside him, began to snore again.

The Madam, it seemed, was her mother. A thin-boned, hard-faced woman who, he imagined, must have been quite pretty in her time. "Are you sure you would not have another of the girls?" she asked, her fan fluttering agitatedly before her heavily made-up face. She seemed quite reluctant to let Li Yuan have his specific request "I am quite sure, Madam Yin," he answered, standing his ground. "And if it is a question of the fee, I will happily double it Now show me to her. I am growing impatient" Madam Yin hesitated a moment longer then folded up her fan. "Wait there," she said and ducked back inside.

A minute later she returned. "All right But nothing kinky, you understand?"

'1 understand." And Li Yuan bowed, even as the Madam's fan started up agitatedly once more.

"Then follow me."

He followed her, through a corridor that stank of perfume and sweat and out through a small ante room into a hallway that had three doors leading off it She stopped at the second of them and knocked.

"Fei Yen! You have a visitor!"

Flying Swallow. It was such a pretty name. He commented on it now to the mother. She gave a grudging nod, a faint colour appearing at her neck where the line of make-up ended. "I am pleased you like it, for she was named after myself."

NIGHTFALL IN THE PARADIGM WORLD.

"Then it is doubly pretty," Li Yuan said, and only afterward, as he turned back to face the door, did he think how cra.s.s a comment it had been. And yet she had seemed pleased by it, as if she received few compliments. Yin Fei Yen. Both the name and the face seemed familiar. And yet he had never met her in his life before this moment.

As the door opened, the girl, who was sat upon the bed in a desultory fashion, looked up. A moment's hope died as she saw how old he was. He saw how she looked to her mother, a pleading look, then looked down, in an instant accepting her fate.

And Li Yuan, watching the tiny play in her eyes, felt sickened by it all. Was this what his brother wanted? This?

The mother hovered behind him. He turned and pressed the credits into her hand - four times what had been agreed - then stepped through and pulled the door shut behind him.

"Well," he said, staring at her again. "So you are Fei Yen." She looked up, a brief defiance in her eyes. But she knew the score. Her mother had sold her to him. For the next hour she was his, to do with as he wished. Did Han Ch'in think of that? Did he picture her with other men every time he made love to this woman?

Oh, she was pretty. A real head-turner, and no mistaking it. But... there was a cold, sour knowledge in her eyes right now that no games of pretence could ever wash away. She had seen awful things; maybe had awful things done to her, for all the mother spoke of doing "nothing kinky".

And then there was the child.

"Stand up," he said, no tone in his voice.

She stood.

"Now turn around."

She slowly turned full circle, then looked to him, wondering what he wanted from her next. The child - if child there was in her belly, and as yet he had no proof - barely showed. She looked, if anything, underweight. The only clue to her predicament was a tightness about her mouth, a redness about her eyes - as if she had been crying earlier.

So what now?A customer - a real customer - would f.u.c.k her. But this was his brother's future bride.

Talk, then. He'd talk to her.

He went across and sat on the edge of the bed, then patted the s.p.a.ce beside him.

She sat, uncertainly, he saw. As yet she hadn't fathomed him.

"What do you want me to do?" she asked.

He stared into the darkness of her eyes a moment, understanding in that instant how his brother might have fallen for this woman; but his purpose was to check her out To test her.

"What do you want?"

There was a frown, then: "s.e.xually, you mean?"

He shook his head, his mouth suddenly dry. "From life." Her laugh was bleak. It told him much more than he wanted to know. She didn't think his brother was going to marry her. She thought he was only using her, and that now she was carrying his child he would discard her. As well he might. For she was a liability to such a man as Han Ch'in. His brother might as well spit in his General's face as marry this one. "Well?" he insisted. "What do you want from life, Fei Yen?" He saw how she hesitated, then backed away from the truth that had been on her lips. She wasn't going to tell him, that was for sure. "My own place ... and the means to live."