Wingrove, David - Chung Kuo 02 (47 page)

Wang Ti had been
watching them, surprised by their change of mood. Gently, careful not
to wake the sleeping child, she took Ch'iang Hsin from Haavikko's
lap, then turned, facing her husband, the child cradled against her.
"Why so bitter, husband? What has the man ever done to you?"

"Nothing .
. ." Chen said, meeting her eyes only briefly.

Haavikko looked
between the two momentarily, noting the strange movement of avoidance
in Chen's eyes, knowing it signified something; then he leaned toward
him again.

"There's
one particularly vile specimen who hangs about with him. A man by the
name of Fest. He was a cadet with me, and afterward he served with
Ebert and me under Tolonen. He's a Captain now, of course. But back
then . . ." Axel shuddered, then continued. "Well, he was
partly to blame for my downfall."

Chen looked past
Axel momentarily, lifting his chin, indicating to Wang Ti that she
should wait in the other room; then he looked back at Axel, his face
creased with concern, his voice suddenly softer, more sympathetic.

"What
happened?"

Haavikko
hesitated, then gave a small, bitter laugh. "It was different
then. I can see that now. The world, I mean. It was shaped
differently. Not just in my head, but in its externals. You could
trust the appearance of things much more. But even then there were
some—Ebert among them—who were made . . . crooked, you
might say.
Twisted.
And it's in their nature to shape others
in their own distorted form."

He glanced up,
giving a little shiver, the sheer rawness of the hurt in his eyes
making Chen catch his breath.

"We'd gone
down to the Net, the day it happened. Ebert, Fest and I. We were
after the assassins of the T'ang's Minister, Lwo Kang, and had been
told to wait for a contact from our Triad connections there. Well, I
didn't know that Ebert had arranged for us to stay in a singsong
house. It began there, I guess. He had me drugged and I... well, I
woke up in bed with one of the girls. That was the start of it. It
doesn't seem much, looking back, but it's . . . well, it's like I was
clean before then; another person, unsullied, untouched by all those
darker things that came to dominate me."

"And that's
what happened?"

Haavikko gave a
bitter laugh. "No. But that was where it began. I can see that
now. The two things are inseparable. That and what followed. They
were part of the same process. Part of the twistedness that emanates
from that man."

"Ebert, you
mean?"

Haavikko nodded.
"Anyway ... It was later that day. After we'd found the corpses
of the assassins. After we'd gone to the Pit and seen Karr defeat and
kill the adept, Hwa. Ebert made us go to the dressing rooms after the
fight. He wanted to take Karr out to supper and share in his victory.
It was something he didn't own, you see, and he wanted to buy it. But
Karr was having none of it. And then Tolonen arrived and accepted
Karr's services as guide. Oh, it's all linked. I see that clearly
now. But back then. . . well, I thought things just happened. You
know the saying
Mei fa tzu,
'Its fate.' But there was a design
to it. A shape."

Haavikko paused,
taking a deep, shuddering breath, then continued.

"It was
when we were coming away from the assassin's apartment. We were in
the sedan: Ebert, Fest, and I. Ebert was sounding off, first about
Karr and then about the General. He said things that he would never
have dared say to the General's face. When I called him out for it,
Fest came between us. He told me to forget what was said. But I
couldn't . . ."

Haavikko was
silent a moment, looking down at his hands. When he looked up again
there was a strange sadness in his eyes.

"I don't
regret what I did. Even now I don't think I would have acted any
other way. It was just. . . well, let me tell you. When I was alone
with the General I asked to be transferred. I felt unclean, you see.
Of course, the old man asked me for my reasons. But when I tried to
avoid giving them he ordered me to tell him what was up. So I did. I
told him what was said in the sedan."

Chen let out his
breath. "I see . . ."

"Yes. You
can imagine. Tolonen was livid. He called Ebert and Fest back at
once. It wasn't what I wanted; even then I didn't feel it was right
to get Ebert thrown out of the force for something he'd said in a
heated moment. But it was out of my hands at that stage. And then . .
."

"Fest
backed him up?"

Haavikko nodded.
"I couldn't believe it. They were both so convincing. So much so
that for months afterward I kept asking myself whether I'd been
wrong. Whether I'd imagined it all. Whether their version of things
was really the truth. It was as if I'd had a bad dream. But it was
one I couldn't wake from. And it all began back then. On that day ten
years ago."

A voice came
from the shadows of the doorway behind them. "I remember that
day well."

The two men
looked around, surprised. There was a figure in the doorway, a giant
of a man, his head stooped to clear the lintel, his broad shoulders
filling the frame of the door. Karr.

Chen was up out
of his chair at once. He went across and embraced the big man,
smiling fiercely. "Gregor! You should have said you were
coming!"

Karr held his
friend's arms a moment, smiling down into his face; then he looked
back at Axel.

"Yes. I
remember you well, Axel Haavikko. I remember you coming to watch me
fight that day. But I never understood until today why you
disappeared from things so suddenly. You have good cause to hate
Major Ebert."

Haavikko looked
down, abashed. "If I spoke out of turn, Major Karr . . ."

Karr laughed. He
had put his arm about Chen's shoulders familiarly, like a father
about his son's. "Here, in Kao Chen's, we have an agreement, and
you must be a party to it, Axel. In these rooms there is no rank, no
formality, understand? Here we are merely friends. Kao Chen insists
on it, and I ..." his smile broadened. "Well, as your
senior officer, I insist upon it, too. Here Chen is Chen. And I am
Gregor."

Karr put out a
hand. Haavikko stood up slowly, looking at the offered hand, hesitant
even now to commit himself so far. But then he looked at Chen and saw
how his friend's eyes urged him to take Karr's hand.

He swallowed
dryly. "I'm grateful. But there's one further thing you should
know about me before you accept me here." He looked from one to
the other. "You are good men, and I would have no secrets from
you. You must know what I am. What I have done."

"Go on,"
Karr said, his hand still offered.

Haavikko stared
back at Karr, meeting his gray eyes unflinchingly. "You heard me
say how it felt as though I were in a bad dream, unable to wake.
Well, for ten years I inhabited that nightmare, living it day and
night. But then, a month or so ago, I woke from it. Again I found
myself in bed in a singsong house, and once again a strange girl was
lying there beside me. But this time the girl was dead, and I knew
that I had killed her."

Karr's eyes
narrowed. "You
knew
⁷
."

Haavikko
shuddered. "Yes. I remember it quite vividly."

Karr and Chen
looked at each other, some sign of understanding passing between
them; then Karr looked back at Haavikko. His hand had not wavered for
a moment. It was still offered.

"We have
all done things we are ashamed of, Axel Haavikko. Even this thing you
say you did—even that does not make you a bad man. Chen here,
for instance. Would you say he was a good man?"

Haavikko looked
at Chen. "I would stake my life on it."

"Then it
would surprise you, perhaps, to learn that Kao Chen was one of the
two assassins you were after that day ten years ago."

Haavikko shook
his head. "No. He can't be. They were dead, both of them. I saw
the
kwai's
body for myself."

Karr smiled.
"No. That was another man. A man Chen paid to play himself. It's
something he's not proud of. Something he'd rather hadn't happened.
Even so, it doesn't make him a bad man."

Haavikko was
staring at Chen now with astonishment. "Of course ... the scar."
He moved forward, tracing the scar beneath Chen's left ear with his
forefinger. "I know you now. You were the one on film. With your
friend, the small man. In the Main of Level Eleven."

Chen laughed,
surprised. "You had that on film?"

"Yes. . ."
Haavikko frowned. "But I still don't understand. If you were one
of the killers . . ."

Karr answered
for Chen. "Li Shai Tung pardoned Kao Chen. He saw what I saw at
once. What you yourself also saw. That Chen is a good man. An honest
man, when he's given the chance to be. So men are, unless necessity
shapes them otherwise."

"Or birth .
. ." Haavikko said, thinking again of Ebert.

"So?"
Karr said, his hand still offered. "Will you join us, Axel? Or
will you let what's past shape what you will be?"

Haavikko looked
from one to the other; then, smiling fiercely at him, tears brimming
at the corners of his eyes, he reached out and took Karr's hand.

"Good,"
said Wang Ti, appearing in the doorway. She moved past them, smiling
at Axel, as if welcoming him for the first time. "And about
time, too. Come, you three. Sit down and eat, before dinner spoils."

* *
*

over the meal
Karr outlined what had been happening since his return from Mars.
Their one real clue from the Executive Killings had led them to a
small
Ping Tiao
cell in the Mids fifty
li
south of
Bremen. His men were keeping a watch on the comings and goings of the
terrorists. They had strict orders not to let the
Ping Tiao
know
they were being observed, but it was not something they could do
indefinitely.

"I'm taking
a squad in tonight," Karr said, sitting back from table and
wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. "In the small
hours. I want to capture as many of the cell members as possible, so
we'll need to be on our toes."

Chen nodded, his
mouth full. He chewed for a moment, then swallowed. "That'll be
difficult. They organize tightly and post guards at all hours. And
then, when you do confront them, they melt away like shadows. You'll
have to corner them somehow. But even if you do, I've heard they'd
rather die than be captured."

"Yes. . .
but then, so will most men if they're given no other option. Sun Tzu
is right: leave but one avenue for a man to escape by and his
determination to fight to the death will be totally undermined. He
will recognize how sweet life is and cling to it. So it will be
tonight. I'll offer them a pathway back to life. If I can capture
just one of them, perhaps we'll get to the bottom of this."

Haavikko smiled.
The man looked, even ate, like a barbarian, but he thought like a
general. Tolonen had not been wrong all those years ago when he had
recognized this in Karr. Haavikko put his chopsticks down and pushed
his bowl away, then reached into his pocket and took the notebook
from it.

"What's
that?" Karr said, lifting his chin.

Haavikko handed
it across the table. "See for yourself."

He watched as
the big man thumbed through the notebook. At first Karr simply
frowned, not understanding; then, slowly, he began to nod, a faint
smile forming on his lips. Finally he looked up, meeting Axel's eyes.

"You did
this all yourself?"

"Yes."

Chen pushed his
bowl aside and leaned forward, interested. "What is it?"

Karr met his
eyes thoughtfully. "It's an analysis of the official
investigation into Minister Lwo Kang's murder. And if I'm not
mistaken, there are a number of things here that were never included
in the findings of the T'ang's committee."

Karr handed the
book across to Chen, then looked back at Haavikko. "May I ask
why you did this, Axel?"

"I was
ordered to."

Karr laughed.
"Ordered to?"

"Yes, by
General Tolonen, shortly before I was dismissed from his service. He
asked me to compile a list of suspects, however improbable. Men who
might have been behind the assassins. It was a direct order, one he
never rescinded."

Karr stared back
at Haavikko, astonished. "I see. But then surely Marshal Tolonen
ought to have it?"

Haavikko
hesitated, then looked down, shaking his head.

"I
understand," Karr said after a moment. "And maybe you're
right. After what happened there's no reason why he should trust you,
is there? The Marshal would see it only as an attempt to get back at
Ebert. He'd think you had invented this to discredit your enemies."

Haavikko nodded,
then looked up again, his eyes burning fiercely now. "But you
two know Ebert. You know what he is. So maybe that,"—he
indicated the notebook in Chen's hands—"incomplete as it
is, will help us nail the bastard."

Chen looked up.
"He's right, Oregon This makes interesting reading."

"Interesting,
yes, but not conclusive."

Chen nodded
thoughtfully, smiling back at Karr. "Exactly. Even so, it's a
beginning."

"Something
to work on."

"Yes . . ."

Haavikko saw how
the two men smiled knowingly at each other and felt a sudden warmth—a
sense of belonging—flood through him. He was alone no longer.
Now there were three of them, and together they would break Ebert,
expose him for the sham—the hollow shell—he was.

Karr looked back
at him. "Is this the only copy?"

"No.
There's a second copy, among some things I've willed to my sister,
Vesa."

"Good,"
Karr turned to Chen. "In that case, you hang on to that copy,
Chen. I'm giving you two-weeks paid leave. Starting tomorrow. I want
you to follow up some of those leads. Especially those involving men
known to be friends or business acquaintances of the Eberts."