Red Dust Part 16

And for less money than I'd have gotten from the conchies, and not for cash on the barrel-head, either.""That's true. Please, I would like to hear why you are here.""It goes way back to when I was a young kid. Barely had hair on my b.a.l.l.s when I had that operation they advertise.

Maybe you don't know about it. Aimed at Tibetans and Yankees to keep our populations down. Took the money like an idiot, spent it in a week. So I'll never have kids, but I figure maybe I want something to live on and this is my shot at it. If we win, they'll make statues of us all."

RED DUST.

245."Or make songs," Lee said. He imagined the King of the Cats singing of his exploits in his slow bluesy voice, and felt an illicit thrill. Part of the King was inside him, he always felt, after that dream. In a different way that part of Miriam Makepeace Mbele was, but there all the same.In his head, the voice of the King of the Cats came in on the fade. Lee had found he could separate the broadcasts and the real world, and attend to them simultaneously. The King was all fired up the way he had been when he'd triggered The Little Bird's revolution. Lee took notice of that kind of thing now. He knew that the King's moods weren't random. He was talking directly to his audience down here in the world.

"Awww-right! Rock aaaaand Redd said, very serious, "Allrooooll. Yessir, we're that hand-waving andcooking right now, good yelling, that Chop-Suckeygolly we really are. Light stuff you've been taught,crawls up and light crawls that won't do you no gooddown, but I can spy with at all against someone withmy real big eye what's a gun. This pistol of minehappening with you folks, might be crude and out ofLet me tell you I'll be date, but its advantage is,bringing you the news only it's mechanical. Pure brutea few minutes out of synch, force, nothing that circuit-and the news right now is buster viruses can touch.there's an army column Here, now, hold it. It's OK, moving on Xin Beiing.

it won't go off. See thatThat's coming to you north little pip there? The actionby northeast, and at won't work unless you slidepresent speed it should be it forward. And it's notreaching the railway pa.s.s loaded. Yeah, that, thelocal time oh nine hundred trigger, that fires it. Three-or thereabouts tomorrow, gram pull, that's all, doubleLooks like a division for action, first click c.o.c.ks thethose of you interested. Any hammer there, secondsoldiers listening, I say I drops it. Real sweet, realcan count your heads, balanced. There's this old 246.

PAVI J. McAvI:baaay-beees.t You wave your guy back in Yankee Townhands in the air if you that makes these by hand,don't care. I can count you takes him a month on oneall the way from up here, piece. He numbers eachwhy I can even tell if one, right above the wheelyou've trimmed your nails there, see? Yankeeor not. I have eyes, believe numbering, illegal or not,me, I have eyes everywhere that's how he does it. NowIn a minute, in just a here's the speed-loader, seeminute, we're going to get how the shot slides right'.

back down to some music, into each hole there?after this public service Wicked stuff. There's theannouncement. That's a flat copper tip here, andspecial message for all you behind that is numberpeople way way up on the twelve shot suspended inTiger Mountain defense liquid polymer. It'll put asystem: keep watching the hole in a man big as bothskies. You know what's your fists together. Hit him coming down. So mellow anywhere and it'll stop himout to the music, and get dead, one shot, every time.ready. We're fast and loud It'll do a yak serious harm,and proud, you shouldn't main reason I have it.listen to what those no- You're on the ground, a yakgrowth eco-freaks tell you.

coming at you, you need anUp here we know all about option. This is it. So here Iecosystems, it how we have a gun, and you havestay alive. Think about it your arm-waving, and whatwhile I lay this on you: "If are you going to do?"the World Don't EndTomorrow I'm ComingAfter You" by the Fairlanes.You know it."Redd held the gun on Lee's head and smiled. Lee went into hypermode, reached out and took it from Redd's grip.

Redd started to react as Lee slowed back down, and then he was working his empty hand, staring at the gun which dangled by its trigger guard from Lee's forefinger.

RED DUST.

247.After a moment, Redd said, "Yeah, well, that's some trick.

I'll give you that."Lee saw that he had offended the Yankee. He handed the gun back. "You are right, it is a trick. But it is what I have."Redd thought for a moment. He said, "You ever stop to think that mercenary has the same wiring as you? She comes after you, you aren't going to take her gun away."Lee had to admit that Redd was right. And he was certain that Mary Makepeace Gaia would not rest until she found him: a certainty he suspected he owed to the buried fragments of her dead sister, who perhaps was simply silent, and not sleeping at all.Redd said, "So let me at least show you how to use a gun."

The song ended, and the King of the Cats came back. He was needling the sky defense systems again. The place where Lee was headed. It couldn't be coincidence.Lee said, "Do you know why they've stopped jamming the broadcasts of the King of the Cats? I have just thought of it. He dangles bait before the enemy; they need him just as much as we do, because they suspect he might give something away.""He also broadcasts with enough power to burn a hole through the planet, it was concentrated on one spot. Jamming him after the trouble in the city must have screwed up communications across half the planet. You listening tothat guy? Never had time myself.""But it is your heritage, Redd.""It's the past, another world and long gone, too. I know how much you Han hold to the past, but we're different.""Ah. Then I see that you are not following the traditions of your ancestors when you ride the range. Forgive me for being so foolish.""Well, I guess you got me there. But, see, it's not exactly following any tradition. It's re-using it in a different way, in a different place for a different purpose. You put any cowpoke from the nineteenth century out on the range, he wouldn't last a day." Redd spat a jet of saliva over the rail, 248.

PAUL J. MCAULEY.into the water. "There's maybe one tradition I like to keep, though. Lucky for you, as it turns out.""I would very much like to learn to shoot.""There you go. Knew you'd come round. I guess if I'm going to give you shooting lessons we should ask permission of the captain."Captain Tsatar was a gun buff himself, it turned out, and showed Redd the hand-made sniper rifle he kept just in case he needed to surprise river bandits who haunted the abandoned villages along the Grand Ca.n.a.l and (in fact its only real use) to pot waterfowl or small game in the border swamps. It had an octagonal barrel two meters long with a telescopic sight that ran its whole length, and a bore as big as Lee's thumb."Accurate over two kilometers," Captain Tsatar said. "Ishot a horse from beneath a bandit at that distance once.He was most surprised."He spoke quietly; they all did. Apart from the sound of water moving past the skimmer's hull the night held an immense stillness. Cold, the sky clear, stars so bright Lee thought he could have reached out and plucked one, like fruit from a tree. The bridge controls made a small comforting glow, like a hearth fire dimming to ashes. Tomorrow they would reach Ichun, the danwei at the end of the ca.n.a.l."It's a nice gun," Redd said. "There's this guy back in Yankee town you should talk to some time."Lee was surprised to see how quickly Captain Tsatar and Redd formed a bond, for Tibetans and Yankees were traditionally enemies: there had been much bad blood during the resettlement, when a million Tibetan pioneers had fallen from the sky and taken the planet from the failing Yankee colony. But perhaps that was the point. Redd and Captain Tsatar shared the same history, and both their races were oppressed by the Han--although in true stubborn Yankee fashion Redd would never admit this. Both knew more about that history than Lee, too. Lee had for most of his life been as unaware of it as a fish is of water, or the child of a rich man of money. It was a medium, taken for granted. But now RED DUST.

249.he was caught up in its strong current, and his life was as unwillingly changed by it as the lives of those without power have always been changed.He was beginning to understand why Redd had stayed after bringing him here.He was beginning to understand the forces in delicate balance all around him, even if he was still unsure just who was trying to move them."We are the first people," Captain Tsatar said when Lee asked if the ku li really existed. "We've never needed a name, until now. If the name strikes fear into our enemies, then it is to our advantage.""Ku li," Soldier said, "is as good a name as any. We are not as numerous as the Ten Thousand Years would have the populace believe, but we will unite the people and move forward with them."Lee said, "Do you mean you will impose your ideas on them?"Captain Tsatar said, "We learn from the people, and then teach them what we have learned. The people will take control from the Emperor and the Ten Thousand Years and centralize all means of transforming the world so it can be done as quickly as possible. Of course, in the beginning, this will mean inroads on the rights of the individual, But political power wielded in the name of the Emperor is merely the instrument by which the Ten Thousand Years oppresses the people."Soldier said, suddenly and unexpectedly pa.s.sionate, "In our hands it will change the world for ever. And for the benefit of everyone."Redd said, "People know they must co-operate to get on.

But they need leading, too. Not much different from running a herd."Soldier said, "When the people take power and make themselves the ruling cla.s.s, then they will have swept away the structure which oppresses them. They cannot oppress themselves."Captain Tsatar said, "In place of a hierarchical society we 250.

PAUL J. MCAULEY.will have an a.s.sociation in which the free development ofeach is the condition for free development of all.""Every man an Emperor," Redd said.Soldier shook his head. "No one will rule but the will ofthe people. Every man true to his own self.""We don't have time to teach you everything," CaptainTsatar said, and smiled.Lee looked from one to the other. "I'm learning all thetime," he said.Captain Tsatar said, "We are few. I admit that. But drag ons hatch from the smallest of eggs. We will finish the trans formation of this poor world even if it means swapping TheBlack Dragon for a three-masted sailing barque, oceans ofwater for seas of dust."Lee said, "It sails on water now.""It sails tame water. It has such a shallow draft that onopen sea the slightest swell would, overturn it. You will soonsee how different dust is from water, young master."Lee thought about that. After a while Captain Tsatartouched his shoulder, lightly, gently. It was then that Leerealized how afraid the man was, how afraid all the crewwere of himself and of Chen Yao. Even Soldier was afraid."Look up," Captain Tsatar said.A faint web rose from the eastern horizon. It lay across thatquarter of the sky as if the invisible lines with which the sageshad linked stars into constellations had come adrift and tan gled there. Without his conscious control, Lee's vision mag nified the view. Stars became bright blurred points. He felt adiffuse sense of expansion, as if he were falling into the sky.

Redd and Soldier and Captain Tsatar were talking excitedly,but he heard only their voices, not their words.The lines were discontinuous, each composed of a myriad :----.

twinkling shards. The web effect was caused by the fact that the lines radiated away from dozens of different points .

s.p.a.ced across the sky, most yet to be revealed by the hori--..zon's slow sinking.

Then blooms of light began to appear all over the web. They were as bright as the brightest stars, and Lee's sight stepped RED DUST.

251.down to compensate. Something in his rewired brain plotted every line. He remembered the technician explaining about cl.u.s.ter probes designed to test Mars's defenses. Each an icy moonlet infected with fullerene viruses which carved it into a hundred fluffy micro-comets and manufactured the viruses which would melt the permafrost during the long fall from Jupiter's...o...b..t to that of Mars. The man was hugely fat, naked and completely hairless, with a nervous habit of looking into Lee's eyes at the end of each sentence and then looking away again. No, not Lee's eyes: this was Miriam remembering part of her mission briefing.The blossoms hung across the sky were the comet heads (each no bigger than Lee's own head) burst by the orbital defense lasers controlled by Tiger Mountain, beyond the eastern horizon. The lines of the web were burning water droplets, exploding in ionisation trails. Rain, falling faintly through the stratosphere, evaporating kilometers above the surface, the viruses suspended in the droplets already destroyed by induction hundreds of thousands of kilometers before they reached the Martian atmosphere.This was not war, not yet. The display showed that the defenses were still too strong for frontal a.s.sault. But it was the beginning of the end of the time before war.

Fifty.T.he road to Ichun was paved with yellow and red bricks set in sinuous curves, like the patterns on the back of a petrified snake. As he walked down the road, with Redd and Chen Yao on either side of them, Lee saw two things.Columns of smoke, five, six, seven of them, rose from various places amongst Ichun's low flat-roofed buildings.And people were running out of the city gate and down the road, so many that they spilled into the rocky desert scrub either side of it. They ran towards Lee and Chen Yao and Redd. They were shouting and waving palm branches, and they were dressed and masked in carnival attire. In a moment they had surrounded the astonished travellers.

Dragons and griffins hoisted Lee on to their shoulders; two snout-nosed carp lifted Chen Yao, who laughed with tremendous glee.Redd pressed up against the masked men who supported Lee, crushing his hat to his head with one hand. He was shouting something that was lost in the noise of the crowd.

"The sky!" the people chanted. "The sky! The sky!"The fin had spread word of Lee and of the riots in Xin Beijing up and down the network of ca.n.a.ls, supplementing the censored television shots of the one news channel The Little Bird allowed to operate. Skimmers had picked up the story, too. News that Lee was heading towards Ichun, and 252.

RED DUST.

253.the portents in the sky that night, had combined to cause a popular revolt.The company of soldiers garrisoned in the town had surrendered after their compound had been set on fire. The governor and his family had fled into the Dust Seas as soon as the revolt had started, riding the last skimmer carried down on the elevators. The post office had been liberated from its night.w.a.tchman, who was now sleeping off a ma.s.sive drunk after all the rice beer to which he'd been treated.

Posters of the Gang of Six had been defaced and slogans picked up from the Xin Beijing uprising covered most of the white walls of Ichun's buildings. Lee recognized some of the PSCM's jargon mixed with quotations from the movie fragments of the King of the Cats. The civic loudspeakers no longer broadcast a bland diet of pop arias, advertis.e.m.e.nts and anti-expansionist propaganda, but the King's round-the-clock rock'n'roll show.And the ma.s.sive elevators which carried skimmers up and down between the Grand Ca.n.a.l and the Dust Seas were stalled. The family which owned and operated them had joined the revolution. Queues of skimmers were already backed up half a kilometer, and growing every hour. Among them was The Black Dragon, which Lee and Chen Yao and Redd had left at dawn.Arriving at lchun by road had seemed sensibly inconspicuous at the time: by now Mary Makepeace Gaia must have worked out how they had escaped. As it turned out, they might as well have carried huge banners broadcasting their presence. In fact, as Lee was carried by the celebrating crowd down the main avenue of Ichun towards the Governor's residence, he saw that a banner with his name had been stretched between two of the big ginkgoes which lined the thoroughfare.Chen Yao, her hands on the scaly heads of the two carp who carried her, shouted, "This is your hour, Wei Lee! Now your journey really begins!""Remember what happened in Xin Beijing," Lee said.

254.

PAUI J. McAu[E Chen Yao laughed. "I don't see any army!""Not yet?'Then the crowd swept between them, and Lee was carried through the gates of the Governor's house.

Fifty-one.T.he Governor's house was perched at the edge of kilometer-high cliffs that dropped straight down to the vast red flatness of the Plain of Heaven. The delicate tiers of the house and its lush green gardens, sheltered by curved windshields that raked the sky like thirty-meter talons, had been turned into the headquarters of Ichun's popular revolt. Manicured lawns, which had been watered every day and cut by a dozen women with hand scythes, were slowly being trampled to mud by the victory party. Cooking pits had been dug into the precious turf; there were tables loaded with sour vegetables, pickled yak brains, mapo dofu with fiery sauces, stuffed roast intestines, pig-face soup, sugar jaffles and other delicacies.One of the self-appointed revolutionary committee explained to Lee that the whole feast had all been looted from the Governor's cold stores. He was a tall nervous student not much older than Lee, handsome in a cadaverous way, his Adam's apple protruding above the knot in his yellow scarf. A yellow scarf and lack of a mask were the badges of authority, it seemed. The committee knew only too well if the town was retaken that no masks could save them from informers, so went bare faced amongst timorous townsfolk who preferred to carry out the revolution anonymously."You see the riches stolen from the populace," another committee member said.

255.

256.

PAUL J. MCAULEY."The Ten Thousand Years cling to the backs of the Hundred Families," said another.

Lee said, "I see celebration seems more important to you than victory."

"As to that," the tall student said, "the Captain of the garrison awaits your convenience. We have secured all weapons and all communications."

Lee did not hold back his anger. "I suppose you mean you have locked up the soldiers. And what will you do when the Army of the People's Mouths arrives at your gates?"

The tall student blinked, taken aback.

Behind him, a young woman stared right at Lee. For a moment Lee thought that another of Miriam's sisters had found him. But the young woman had straight black hair cut to frame a face the color of b.u.t.termilk. Her almond-shaped eyes were as black as Lee's. She coolly met his stare and said, "You must not think that we have not thought of these things."

"Let him talk," someone else said.

Lee said, "I'll not have you on my conscience, so I must speak plainly. I can offer you two choices. You may stand and fight, or run away. Both are dangerous, but you must have realized that when you acted. No? Too bad. Unless you choose, you will all be dead in a very short time. The Army of the People's Mouths would have begun to move on you as soon as communications were cut, and certainly once the elevators stopped working. The skimmers have radio sets, after all. Did you confiscate those?"

"The skimmer crews are on our side," the tall student said.

"So any skimmer captain would say, when faced with a mob. Where are the soldiers of the garrison? Not the officers, but the ordinary soldiers. I'll need to speak with them."

Fortunately, at least one of the revolutionaries had re tained some sense. The ordinary soldiers had been locked up in a warehouse, but they had not been mistreated. There were sixty of them. They stood at parade rest in the middle of the main avenue in front of the gate of the Governor's RED DUST.

257.house, looking ill at ease and watched with intense curiosity by twice their number of townspeople in carnival motley.Lee explained to the soldiers that they had a choice. They would be set free and turned out of the town, or they could stay and fight. They had ten minutes to think about it.It took only five. Their spokesperson, a squat, powerfully built corporal, was thrust forward. "We'll fight," he said.Lee allowed himself a moment to enjoy the surprise of the committee. He bowed to the corporal, thanked him for his helpfulness, and suggested that he go with a squad of his men to the Governor's house and take what food and drink they needed. By that time their weapons would have been returned to them.When the corporal had departed, the tall student said, "Very fine sentiments. But when we return their weapons they will shoot us.""Not at all. The corporal is smarter than you. He knows that if he tried to rejoin the Army of the People's Mouths he would be shot as a deserter, as would all his men. No one in the Army of the People's Mouths could allow them to live, because that would be to admit that they had surrendered Ichun without a fight. So the corporal and his men will fight on your side, for there is a slim chance of victory.

When he comes back, I want you to accompany us around the town. He will know all the defensive positions."It was late afternoon before the corporal had finished showing Lee how to defend Ichun. Meanwhile, the committee had been set to work rounding up those citizens who remained sober enough to dig ditches and lay tanglewire at the edge of the town. In Lee's opinion, such defenses were only good until attackers found a way around them, but at least it gave the townspeople something to do.The corporal agreed with Lee. He was wryly resigned to his fate. Like all in the garrison, he had not been born within a thousand kilometers of Ichun, and was not planning to be buried in it. "But only the lucky or rich choose where to die, and only the Lords of Ten Thousand Years when.""That may no longer be true."

258.

PAUL J. McAuLEv"We hear rumors," the corporal said. He was smiling.

"You really started those riots?"

"In a way. But the rioting came after the Army of the People's Mouths attacked lawful pet.i.tioners in the Square of Heavenly Peace. Their masters sent lite troops against unarmed citizens."

"War is not an embroidery exercise," the corporal said grimly. "I'd guess they'll send warhorses against us, once we've been softened up by culvers. Those defenses won't do much good against a charge, but we can fall back to the main square. The buildings there are two-storied, and have thick walls. We can put a sniper in every window, and keep open a pa.s.sage for retreat to the elevators." The corporal scratched his close-shaven pate. He was a st.u.r.dy weather-beaten man with old laser burns down one side of his shrewd face. "It would be best if you started sending out the old men and women and children now. Order skimmers to turn back. There are plenty of half-lifers, too, stacked in an old warehouse."

"They'll have to stay."

"I'd like to blow up a few buildings. It'll give us proper fire lanes to cover any approach on the square."

"Of course."

"They won't like it," the corporal said.

"I will tell them, if you like."

The corporal smiled. "It's just that I'm no good when it comes to ordering civilians about. It's what stopped me becoming an officer."

Most of the revolutionary committee were waiting in the square, dusty and dishevelled from their labors. Lee gave them the broad outline of his plans, and sat off to one side while the corporal explained the details. The woman who had confronted Lee at the Governor's house came up to him.

She had brought a covered bowl: boiled rice and fried shreds of pork and beancurd. Lee took it gratefully. He hadn't eaten since leaving The Black Dragon.

The woman sat beside Lee while he ate. Her name was Wu Lin. She had been born in the capital. Her parents were RED DUST.

259.

distant relatives of one of the Ten Thousand Years, and had died in an accident soon after her birth. She had been brought up in the Great House of her great-grandfather, and a year ago she had been sent to Ichun to work as an agronomist technician. Her black hair was cut in a wing that brushed her eyes; her nails were broken and crested with dirt. She said, "My comrades have worked hard for you. A kind word would help.""I'm not sure that's true. They believe in their own importance, not in reality.""Are the stories about you true?""I'm sure they are true to those who tell them. I'm sure, too, that those who tell the stories think they know more about me than they do." Lee sc.r.a.ped the last grains of rice into his mouth. The food made a solid shape in his stomach.Wu Lin said, "I'll find you a place to rest. We'll have a night at least before the army comes."Lee took her left hand in both of his. He looked at her nails, then pulled her to her feet. They were exactly the same height. He said, "I know about you. I know more than youthink. I know who your great-grandfather is."She tried to pull away.Lee said, "I've killed a man, and soon I may have to kill a woman. I'm not scared of anything on this world except myself. And that's all you have to be scared of, too."

Fifty-two.

W.

u Lin's room, in a cadre dormito a few blocks outh of the Governor's house, was as small and as parely furnished as Lee's room in the Bitter Waters danwi--and as in his room, one whole wall of Wu Lin's was covered in still pictures of the King of the Cats, printed from the surviving fragments of his movies.

Lee tapped the largest, which in stark technicolor showed the King strumming his guitar and singing to Anne Helm on some lost beach of Old Earth, with his thumb. "I may be mistaken, but is this from Follow That Dream?"

Wu Lin was busy making tea on the room's small hotplate.

"I knew by your hair that you are a follower of the King of the Cats."

"Do you hope I can defeat the Army of the People's Mouths as the King defeated the gamblers' gangsters?"

"You are already a kind of sheriff, it seems. Please, you must explain how you know about me, Wei Lee. We might never see each other again."

Lee took the bowl of tea she held out to him. They sat side by side on the edge of her small hard bed. He said, "I think we may.

Because we're the same." '

She didn't understand. Lee put his left hand over hers.

He said, "When I was a child, I often visited the Great House where you lived. It was in the mountains, above Xin Beijing. 'It was far bigger than either of us thought. I knew only a few courtyards, a few of the buildings."260.

RED DUST.

261.

Wu Lin met his gaze. "Once, I climbed on to the roof of the Southern Flowery Hall. That was where my bedroom was. I climbed a vine that grew past my window. My ayah had to send for the gardeners to bring me down. But I saw the walls, far in the distance. I thought then they were the walls of the city. I didn't see the city until I was ten, when I was sent here."

"I have a trick fingernail," Lee said. "On my forefinger. It always splits in two places when it grows past the quick.

That's what I saw about you. That's when I knew. He changed s.e.x and face, and perhaps he changed fingerprints and retinal patterns too, but he did not change the small things, the unimportant single-gene products."

Wu Lin said, "I always thought I was the only one. I didn't understand why I had been sent here. I thought I'd done wrong..."

Her grip was strong. Lee returned it. "I had the same thoughts. There are others, I am sure of it. Bait, Great-grandfather Wei said, but he didn't understand the nature of our conception. I still don't entirely understand it myself"

"Tell me what you know," Wu Lin said with a sudden fierceness that surprised Lee. When he had finished telling her what Miriam Makepeace Mbele had told him, she said, "It could have happened to me. Not you, but to me!"

Lee said, "Instead, you organized the freeing of Ichun.

Perhaps you will be luckier than I, in the long run. We must defend your prize before we can begin to learn that." He hesitated, and then said, "There is a way in which you can share my fate," and explained about the totipotent fullerene viruses, and what they had done to him.

"And you can infect me, just as the anarchist infected you?"

"Yes. But it is a hard burden, Wu Lin."

"But it's ours, isn't it? It's what we were born for."

So Lee kissed her deeply, and it was done.

Fifty-three.

T.

he corporal came for Lee just after dawn. He was a polite man, and knocked on the door and softly called Lee's name until Lee replied. Lee had slept on Wu Lin s floor matting; as he worked the stiffness from his limbs it occurred to him that he had not slept in a bed since leaving Bitter Waters. As he combed his hair, Wu Lin stirred on her bed, then suddenly sat upright, her hands clasped tightly across her eyes.

"There are grids and numbers wherever I look!"

"The viruses have begun their work," Lee said, and explained what she should expect. "I don't know if it will help us save Ichun, but it gives me hope."

"All we have ever had is hope," Wu Lin said. "Go on now, go to your friends. I will go to mine. Together, my brother, we shall see what we can do."

Chen Yao, Redd, and Captain Tsatar were waiting outside the dormitory with the corporal, in a cold wind that blew thin dust in from the desert.

Chen Yao looked at Lee and said, "You are a G.o.d, Wei Lee.

There are no rules."

"If I'm a G.o.d, what is Wu Lin?"

"A potential."