The Captain nodded. "I was greatly torn, Excellency. My orders . . ."
Heng frowned. "Go on."
"It is about the prisoner, Excellency."
"Prisoner? What prisoner?"
"The man we took. In the raid. I had orders to report at once to Marshal Karr."
Heng Yu stared at him, not understanding. "Forgive me, Captain, but what has any of this to do with me?
The Captain swallowed then bowed his head. "It's just that Colonel I has given countermanding orders. And as the Colonel is my immediate commanding officer . . ."
Some small glimmer of light began to dawn in Heng"s mind. "And this prisoner. . . was he taken in connection to the matter of the missing Imperial tapes?"
The Captain snapped to attention, his boot heels clicking smartly together. "Excellency!"
"Ah. . ." Now he understood. "I see." He sniffed, then gave a single decisive nod. "Okay. You go now, Captain. Say nothing of your meeting with me. I will see to the matter personally. And Captain . . ."
"Excellency?"
"Your action today will not be forgotten. The T'ang has great need of loyal friends, neh?"
"Excellency!" The Captain bobbed his head then turned, disappearing into the shadows.
Heng Yu took a long breath. He was sweating. For a moment he had thought it was an assassination attempt But this. . . this could prove equally important. If Colonel I was countermanding orders then it gave him the opportunity to break the man - to demote him and humiliate him. 7f he had countermanded orders.
He was still late - more than twenty minutes late now - but it would have to wait. This was far more urgent.
Smiling to himself for the first time that day, Heng Yu turned and, half walking, half running, retraced his steps, heading back to Pei K'ung's palace.
I Ye's guards had tried to stop or delay him. Several of Ming Ai's eunuchs had also interceded, trying to keep him from the cells, but his threats had seen to them. Pushing the last of them aside, Heng Yu grasped the iron handle and swung the door back.
The cell was small and stank of shit and burned flesh. Instinctively, Heng put the cuff of his cloak to his face, covering his mouth and nose.
A single lamp illuminated the manacled body on the table. A single glance told Heng Yu that he was too late. The man was dead, slit open from chin to balls, his entrails scooped out and placed into a large enamel bowl that stood on the floor to one side. At a sink in the corner, I Ye stood washing, scrubbing the blood off his hands and arms.
"Ah, Chancellor," he said, smiling into the mirror. "I was on my way to see you."
Heng shivered. How such a man had ever risen to power was a mystery to him. "Is it true?" he asked, lowering his cuff, the stench making him grimace with distaste. "Did you countermand Marshal Karr's orders?"
I Ye turned, the water from his arms dripping red, his face expressing puzzlement. "Countermand the Marshal's orders? I am afraid I do not follow you, Master Heng."
Heng coughed, then straightened up, trying to act as dignified as possible in the circumstances. "You knew the orders, Colonel I. The Marshal was to be informed at once."
"And so he was. I sent my equerry to see him in his office. Unfortunately, he was not there."
"Not there?"
"It seems he was at home with his family. However, a sealed note was delivered to his office. I am sure he will receive it when he returns."
Heng Yu stared at I Ye for a full thirty seconds, seeing how the man's smile became fixed, then shook his head. "You are an ambitious man, Colonel I."
I Ye bowed, as if he had been complimented, then turned, reaching for a towel.
"So what did you find out?"
I Ye turned back, wiping himself, the white cloth of the towel smeared red. "Nothing we did not know already."
"And the tape?"
"Was lost, unfortunately. We cast the net too late, it seems. Either that or one of those we captured managed to hide it."
"Is that possible?"
"If it was, we'd soon find out. These birds sing sweetly when they're caged."
"And this one here?" Heng pointed without looking at the corpse of the fat man.
"Was only a contact. He knew very little."
"So we're no further on."
I Ye pulled on his tunic then came across. "On the contrary, Master Heng. We now know several things we didn't before today. We know for instance that the tapes are genuine. That they're from the Imperial library at Tongjiang. We know for certain where the messenger was coming from and where he went. We know also that he is due to return to get his second payment. All we have to do now is wait."
"And if he doesn't show?"
"Then we'll watch the ports."
"And if he doesn't leave? What if he knows we're looking for him and goes to ground?"
"Then we'll be patient. When he doesn't return, someone will get anxious. Someone will be sent. And when that someone comes . . ."
Heng considered that. Personally he didn't think they had made much progress, but then, it wasn't for him to make that judgement.
"Does she know?"
Heng saw the movement in I Ye's face, the momentary uncertainty.
"Not yet."
"You know what she'll do if you fail?"
"I know." I Ye considered that a moment, then laughed. "But if I succeed."
"If you succeed." Heng forced himself to smile, as if I Ye's ambition were commendable, but he understood now what I Ye wanted. Understood - as he hadn't before that moment - what currently motivated him. He wanted Karr's job. He wanted to be Marshal in Karr's place. And so he worked, patiently and with an exact care, to undermine Karr even as he kept within the letter of his orders.
Heng turned, giving the corpse one final glance. "You'll send me a copy of the report, I hope."
"Of course," I Ye answered urbanely. "It will be on your desk before the day is out."
"Good. Very good." Heng made to turn away, but I Ye called him back.
"Master Heng?"
"Yes, Colonel I?"
"Was it my Captain, Dawes, who told you where I was?"
It was after six when Heng Yu finally returned to his rooms. He had missed three appointments - important appointments with senior officials on matters of great urgency - and even though his secretaries had dealt with things efficiently in his absence, he felt, perhaps for the first time since he had become Chancellor, that the responsibilities of office were getting too much for him.
It is out of control, he thought, recalling the mad, vain glint in his Mistress's eyes, the distraction in his Master's. The Great Experiment has failed.
Li Yuan's great vision of a new and healthier state had foundered almost at its inception - foundered because he had personally withdrawn from the task of its creation, leaving it to other, less enthusiastic hands. It might have worked - indeed, it ought to have worked - but the ship of State had wrecked itself on the rock of Pei K'ung^s vanity, on her obsession with control. In giving her power, Li Yuan had effectively destroyed any last chance the new state once possessed. After the City's fall there had been a moment - one brief, deceptive, shining moment - when it might have happened: when the terms of Li Yuan's promise to Hans Ebert could have been fulfilled and a new, more equitable, saner society could have been established. But old patterns of behaviour quickly reestablished themselves. People forgot the reasons for that Fall. Greed, corruption, fraud, nepotism, addiction, mindless violence, murder, theft and a thousand other shades of bad behaviour. . . the darkness had seeped back, swamping the bright ideal, until, this very day, he had helped promote the document that would douse that light completely.
Ah yes, but he hasn 't signed it yet, Heng thought, the faintest glimmer of hope holding out against experience. And until he does, until he agrees to her insane war, her debilitating taxes, then the vision is still alive.