The Middle Kingdom (83 page)

"Are you
taking the piss, rat's ass?"

Kim's smile
faded slowly.

"Didn't you
hear the bell?" Janko continued, and the group of boys behind
him laughed, as if it were the funniest thing anyone had ever said.

Dull-wits,
thought Kim, surprised that he had missed the bell. He glanced across
at Tung Lian and saw at once how uneasy he was. Strangely, he found
himself trying to reassure the young Han. "It's okay," he
said. "I'm all right, Tung Lian. Really I am."

Janko echoed
back his words, high pitched, in what he must have thought was a good
imitation of Kim's voice, and the ghouls behind him brayed once more.

He felt a slight
twinge of fear at the pit of his stomach, but nothing that cowed him
or made him feel daunted in any way by the boy in front of him.

"I don't
want to fight with you, Janko," he said quietly.

"Fight?"
Janko laughed, surprised, then leaned toward Kim menacingly. "Who
said anything about fighting? I just want to beat the shit out of
you, rat's ass!"

Kim looked about
him. Boys blocked both his way back and his route to the entrance
doorway. He looked up. Yes, he had thought as much. The two overhead
cameras were covered over with jackets. He had been set up. They had
planned this. Perhaps since they'd heard Chan Shui was absent.

So Janko wasn't
alone in hating him. Far from it. Kim shivered. He hadn't realized.

"Please,
Janko. .." Tung Lian began feebly, but Janko barked at him to be
quiet and he did so at once, moving back out of die way.

So I'm alone,
Kim thought. Just as Anton said I'd be. Them and us. Or, in this
case, them and me. The humor of it pleased him. Made him laugh.

"What's so
funny, rat's ass?"

"You,"
said Kim, no longer caring what he said. "You big strutting bag
of bird shit."

But Janko merely
smiled. He moved a pace closer, knowing there was nowhere for Kim to
run this time.

But run Kim did,
not toward the door or back away from Janko, but directly at
Janko—up, onto his chest and over the top of him as he fell
backward, his mouth open wide in surprise, then away toward the
toilets.

"Stop him!"
yelled Janko, clambering to his feet again. "Block the little
bastard off!"

Kim ran, dodging
past anyone who tried to stop him. He would lock himself in. Hold out
until Nung came out to investigate, or T'ai Cho came up to see why
he'd not returned.

But they had
preempted him. Someone had sealed all the locks to the toilet doors
with an ice-based glue. He checked diem all quickly, just in case he
had been mistaken, then turned. Janko was standing there, as he knew
he would be, watching him.

Kim looked up.
Of course. They had covered the camera here too. Very thorough, Kim
thought, and knew from its thoroughness that Janko had not been
involved in planning this. This was all far too clever for him. Janko
was only the front man, the gullible dupe who would carry out the
plan. No, he wasn't its architect: he had been manipulated to this
point by someone else.

The realization
made Kim go cold. There was only one of diem in the whole Casting
Shop capable of planning this. And he was not here.. . .

Janko laughed
and began to come at him. Kim could feel the hatred emanating from
the boy, like something real, something palpable. And this time his
hands weren't empty. This time he held a knife in his left hand.

"Tai Cho!
T'ai Cho!"

Tai Cho stopped
and turned. Director Andersen's secretary was running down the
corridor after him.

"What is
it, woman?" he said, conscious of his colleagues' stares and
annoyed by her lack of decorum. But a moment later, when he had been
told what had happened, he took her arm, oblivious of "proper
conduct," and hurried her back down the corridor.

"Where is
he, for the gods' sake?"

A slight color
came to her cheek, and he understood at once, but he hadn't meant
Andersen. He pulled her around, facing him.

"The boy, I
mean! Where's the boy?"

She was
flustered and close to tears. It was the first crisis that had come
up in her office and Director Andersen had not been there to deal
with it.

"I don't
know!" she wailed. "Supervisor Nung's note was only brief.
He gave no details other than what IVe told you."

"Gods!"
T'ai Cho beat his brow with the palm of his left hand and looked this
way and that, then began to hurry her back toward Director Andersen's
offices again.

Outside
Andersen's door he pulled her around again and spoke to her slowly,
making sure she understood what she had to do.

"I know
it's embarrassing, but it'll be more embarrassing for the Director if
he doesn't get to hear about this fast. Whatever singsong house he's
in, get a message to him fast and get him back here. Here! Understand
me, woman?"

When she
hesitated he barked at her. "Just do it! I'll go and see how the
boy is and sort out things that end. But Director Andersen must be
contacted. The whole Project's in jeopardy unless you can get him
here."

The firmness of
his instructions seemed to calm her and she bowed and went inside, to
do as she'd been told.

T'ai Cho found
Nung slumped over his desk, OD'd. He had been ready to lay hands on
him to get at the truth of things but it seemed too late for that
now. The message to Andersen must have been the last thing he managed
to do in his worthless life.

He shivered and
looked about him, then noticed one of the boys hanging about at the
far end of the Casting Shop. He ran across to him, grabbing the boy
by the arm so that he could not make off.

"Where did
they take Kim? You know, the Clayborn boy? Where did they take him?"

He noticed the
strange look of revulsion the boy gave him at the mention of Kim, but
held on, shaking the boy until he got some sense from him. Then he
threw him aside and ran on, toward the elevators.

They had taken
him to the local Security post. Of course! Where else? But he was not
thinking straight, he was just acting now, following his instincts,
trying to get to Kim before they hurt him any more.

The soldier at
the desk told him to sit and wait. He lifted up the barrier and went
through anyway, ignoring the shout from behind him. Then, when the
soldier laid hands on him from behind, he whirled about and shouted
at the man.

"Do you
realize who I am, soldier?"

The tone of
absolute authority in his voice—a tone he had once used to
cower unruly boys fresh from the Clay—worked perfectly. The
soldier backed off a pace and began to incline his head. T'ai Cho
pressed the advantage before the soldier could begin to think again.

"My uncle
is the Junior Minister T'ai Feng, responsible for Security subsidies.
Lay a finger on me and he'll break you, understand me, soldier?"

This time the
soldier bowed fully and brought his hand up to his chest in salute.

"Good! Now
lead me through to your commanding officer at once. This is a matter
of the utmost urgency both to myself and to my uncle, the Junior
Minister."

As the soldier
bowed again and moved past him, T'ai Cho realized fleetingly that it
was his robes which had helped create the right impression. He was
wearing his lecturer's
pau
with the bright blue patch, in many
ways reminiscent of the sort of gown worn by a high official.

The soldier
barely had time to announce him—and no time to turn and query
his name—before he burst in behind him and took a chair in
front of the Security officer.

This officer was
less impressed by tones and gowns and talk of uncles. He asked
immediately to see T'ai Cho's permit card. T'ai Cho threw it across
the desk at him, then leaned across almost threateningly.

"Where's
the boy? The boy from the Clay?"

The officer
looked up at him, then down at the permit card. Then he threw the
card back at T'ai Cho.

"If I were
you,
Shih
T'ai, I'd leave here at once, before you get into
any more trouble."

T'ai Cho ignored
the card. He glared at the officer. "Where's the boy? I'm not
leaving until I've seen the boy!"

The officer
began to get up from his chair, but T'ai Cho leaned right across and
pulled him down.

"Sit down,
for the gods' sake and hear me out!"

Tai Cho
shivered. He had never felt such anger or fear or urgency before.
They shaped his every action now.

"Where
is the boy?"
he demanded fiercely.

The officer
moved his hand slightly and pressed a pad on the desk, summoning
help. He was certain nOw he had another madman on his hands.

"Understand
me, Shih T'ai. The boy is in safe hands. We're seeing to the matter.
It's a simple case of assault of a citizen by a nonregistered being.
We'll be terminating the NRB in about an hour or so, once
authorization has come down from above."

"You're
doing what?" Pai Cho screamed. He stood up violently, making the
officer do the same; his hands out defensively, expecting attack.

"Please,
Shih
T'ai. Sit down and calm down."

The door slid
open quietly behind T'ai Cho, but he heard it even so and moved
around the desk, so that his back was against the wall.

"You have
no jurisdiction here," the officer said, his voice calmer now
that he had assistance. "Whatever your relationship to the boy,
I'm afraid the matter is out of your hands."

T'ai Cho
answered him at once. "It's you who doesn't understand. Kim Ward
is not an NRB, as you so ridiculously put it, but one of the most
brilliant and important scientific minds in the whole of Chung Kuo.
SimFic have negotiated a contract for his services for ten million
yuan."

He had said the
last three words slowly and clearly and with maximum emphasis and saw
the effect the fantastic sum had on them.

"Ten
million?" The officer gave a brief, thoughtful laugh. Then he
shook his head. "Oh no. I don't believe you,
Shih
T'ai.
This is just more of your talk of important uncles!"

T'ai Cho shook
his head, then spoke again, his voice ringing with firmness and
determination. "There's one more thing you don't understand. I
don't care what happens to me. But you do. That makes me stronger
than you. Oh, you can think me a liar or a madman, but just
consider—if you ignore my warning and go ahead without checking
up, then you'll be liable directly to SimFic for unauthorized
destruction of their property." He laughed, suddenly horrified
by this nightmare, sickened that he should even need to do this.
Couldn't they see he was only a little boy—a frightened little
boy who'd been savagely attacked?

Still the
officer hesitated. "There are certain procedures. I—"

T'ai Cho yelled
at the man; using language he had never before in his life used.
"Fuck your procedures! Get on to Director Andersen at once.
Unless you really want to be sued for ten million
yuanl"

The officer
blanched, then consulted his compatriot a second. Swallowing, he
turned back to T'ai Cho. "Would you be willing to wait in a cell
for half an hour while we make checks?"

T'ai Cho bowed.
"Of course. That's all I want you to do. Here." he took a
notepad from the pocket of his robe and, with the stylus from the
officer's desk, wrote Andersen's office contact number and his name
on the tiny screen. "You'll find they'll switch you through
twice, so hold on. It's a discrete service, you see."

The officer
hesitated, then gave the smallest bow, half convinced now that T'ai
Cho had calmed.

"Andersen?"

"That's
right. He might not be there at once, but keep trying. I’ve
asked his secretary to get him back there as soon as possible. He was
. . . on business."

An hour later
T'ai Cho and four soldiers were taking Kim back to the Project. Kim
was heavily sedated and secured in a special carrying harness. It was
hard to see what injuries, if any, he had received in the fight with
the other boys. His face seemed unmarked. But he was alive and he was
not going to be "terminated," as that bastard in the
Security Post had termed it.

Now it was up to
Andersen.

Director
Andersen met him at the top gate. "I owe you, T'ai Cho," he
said, slapping the tutor's back. But T'ai Cho turned on him angrily.

"I didn't
do it to save your hide, Andersen. Where
were
you?"

Andersen
swallowed, noting the open disrespect. "I— I—"
he blustered, then he bowed. "I'm sorry, T'ai Cho. I know you
didn't. Even so, I'm indebted. If there's anything—"

But T'ai Cho
simply strode past him, disgusted, thinking of Nung and what had been
allowed to happen to Kim. All of it was indirectly Andersen's fault.
For not making all the right checks beforehand. And if there was any
justice, Berdichev would have his hide for it!

Half an hour
later he was back in Andersen's office.

"They're
what?"

Andersen looked
at the package the messenger had delivered ten minutes earlier and
repeated what he had said.

"The boys
family are suing us for assault by a property owned by the Project.
They've started a suit for fifteen million
yuan.
"

T'ai Cho sat
back, aghast. "But the boy attacked Kim!"

Andersen laughed
bitterly. "If that's the case, T'ai Cho, why is their boy on the
critical list and not Kim? Here, look at these injuries! They're
horrific! More than seventeen broken bones and his left ear bitten
off. Bitten off! The little savage!"

T'ai Cho glared
at him, then looked down at the 2-D shots the family's advocate had
sent with his package. Gods! he thought, revolted despite himself.
Did Kim do this? And he was afraid Matyas would kill him!