The gesture startled Shun Li, although she had long ago schooled herself and did not reveal her amazement. Normally, Lion Guardsmen acted like automatons. Why the change here—had the Chairman told Tang to do that? Hong loved playing such games.
“Much has happened during the past three days,” the Chairman said cryptically. “Before we proceed, though, I want you to tell me why you failed to deliver the warheads to Harbin.”
Shun Li kept her features bland as she thought furiously. There were several mysteries here. Usually, the Chairman moved in secret from place to place. He never let Army people with tanks and guns get this close to him. Yet they led the way. Why?
“Have the Russians and Germans finally crossed the Gobi Desert and fought through the Khingan Range?” Shun Li asked.
“You are evading my question,” he said.
She’d expected to hear grim displeasure in his voice. Instead, he seemed relaxed. This made no sense.
“Before I answer your question, Leader, may I ask one of my own first?”
“You already did,” he said, scowling finally. “Why did you fail me in Harbin? I must know.”
Why had Tang just winked at her? What had the Lion Guardsman tried to tell her? Had Hong noticed the gesture? Of course, he had. Yet he’d said nothing about it. That was strange.
“Leader, I have a… a…”
“A hunch?” he asked.
She had been about to say, “A confession to make.” That he’d spoken like this changed her mind. Karma demanded truth in order to receive truth. Right now, however, she wanted to survive. So she lied, saying, “Yes. I had a hunch. An intuition.”
“Can you describe it to me?”
The burning intensity in his eyes frightened her. She strove for calm, wondering what to say. Perhaps the best thing would be a close approximation of the truth. That way she could walk both paths.
“I suppose I felt that if I planted the warheads, I… ah, personally would be murdering China.”
Those wet eyes seemed to pierce her soul. The Chairman had an uncanny ability to detect lies. Using her inner reserves, Shun Li met his gaze. As much as she yearned to look down, she did not.
In a moment, Hong barked laughter. “Amazing, this is truly amazing.”
The staring contest had drained her. Before she could stop herself, Shun Li asked, “You’re not angry with me?”
The laughter quit abruptly. “I should be. For a day, at least, I contemplated your torturous death. Men would have recorded it for me. I would have watched it many times in slow motion in order to see each of your expressions of agony. Before I could give the order, repentant Army generals came to me, and they confessed a dreadful thing. Several of their brother officers had plotted my death. Can you imagine that? They said I destroyed China through my so-called murderous policies. They said I would go to any length to keep power, even if that meant destroying the Chinese people. The traitorous generals actually attempted to foretell the future. They said I would destroy Harbin with nuclear weapons. The good, confessing generals did not say so, but I believe they would have helped the traitors if your bombs had obliterated the city. Instead, no one planted any warheads because you turned back. Therefore, the Army conspiracy withered away.”
Shun Li sat in shocked silence, feeling as if she could sense every hair follicle on her scalp. Had her actions saved the Chairman’s life?
Chuckling nastily, Hong said, “The good Army generals waited several days, and they saw Harbin survive the American rape. Then they came to me and pledged their service. They told me that now they implicitly trusted me to save China to the best of my ability. And they told me about the traitors. Because of their pleading, and the darkness of the hour, I agreed to spare those treacherous monsters. I will let them die for China as they kill Russians or face the German Kaisers.”
“I see…” Shun Li whispered. Hong had spared traitors? Obviously, he told her his version of the story. In some manner, the Army had gained power, enough to bargain with Hong. The loss of Harbin must have been the final grain to many, or as Americans said, the final straw.
“Naturally,” Hong said, “for such gross inefficacy, I had the former fool of a Police Minister garroted to death. His face turned purple before he expired.” The Chairman chuckled. “I particularly enjoyed watching his heels drum against the floor. He struggled mightily, but to no avail. Can you imagine a Police Minister failing to uncover such a conspiracy?”
Hong returned from his memories, glancing at her. “The former Police Minister had spoken ill about you for many months now. In fact, he poisoned me against you, Shun Li. Yet now I see that you always had my safety in mind. Even after I’d given you an order that might have seen my death—giving the traitors a supposed cause to unseat me—you worked on my behalf. When you say you felt China would die if you planted the warheads, you’re really saying that I would have died—since I am the living embodiment of China.”
“You speak the truth,” Shun Li said in a winded voice. Listening to this, she found it difficult to breathe. Slow and easy, take a deep breath, hold it and exhale deliberately.
“Yes, you are the Police Minister once more,” Hong said. “You will stay beside me as I speak to the generals. I want your assessment of these men. I had to replace my former Army Minister, accepting Marshal Kiang in his place. He has pledged loyalty to me… but we shall see.”
Hong’s mouth twisted with distaste before he smoothed that away with his right hand. He spoke more evenly now. “The Americans dashed into Harbin, and they helped the struggling Russians father northwest of them. Other Russians with the Germans still grind though the Gobi. The air battles have turned in their favor due to a shifting balance of tac-lasers. The enemy has more and we have less. In any case, we’ve taken the brunt of their first attack—”
The Chairman waved aside his own words, and he crossed his arms, falling silent, seeming to brood.
Seeing that he was done talking for the moment, Shun Li sat back. While forcing her muscles to relax, she attempted to decipher his information. Had there been a coup attempt then? Clearly, the Army had clipped the Chairman’s wings in some fashion, or maybe they’d simply reasserted their authority concerning battlefield decisions. She decided that she’d have to wait and see what happened during the meeting.
They spent the rest of the trip in silence. Security seemed as tight as ever as they entered Mao Square with its mighty block buildings. Lion Guardsmen lined the corridors inside and East Lighting personnel stood in number at each crossway.
Instead of going up to the second floor of the Cho En Li Building, they went down into the basement. Something had occurred during her three days of isolation. Had the enemy made calculated attacks deeper into China or on Beijing itself? The strategic ABM stations—both laser and the new particle beam—should have made that impossible. At one time, the Chinese people boasted how nothing evil could touch the homeland. The former national protection behind their ocean moats had ended forever. Now, the Americans were in China to enact revenge for the US invasion.
Soon enough, she and Chairman Hong entered a large chamber filled with marshals and generals, the entire High Command in one place. Giant screens hung on the walls, showing maps and battlefields.
Hong took his place at the head of a vast table. Before she could follow him, Tang grabbed her arm and pulled her near a wall.
“Wait with me,” Tang whispered. “But stay at attention.”
“What happened?” she whispered.
Tang looked down at her, and it seemed he would say nothing more. Instead, he looked forward and whispered, “You were lucky. He was planning a rape session that you would not have survived. I’ve seldom seen him so enraged.” As he spoke, Tang never grinned, never looked down again. He kept peering ahead as his lips barely moved. “Events are becoming strange,” he added.