He trailed off.
“When I saw you go through the window…,” he said, and shook his head. “I knew you only had a few seconds. She provided us with free-floating gate tech for the duration of the mission… so while she was busy with Dragan I went to the balcony and managed to catch you with the graviton field, then drop you through to our exit point. It was the best I could do.”
“That was the best you could do?”
“Hey, I saved your life.”
“You fucking sold us out, Kang!”
“I know that,” he hissed. “Do you think I don’t know that? I had to!”
“You had to?”
“Yes.” He waved his hand, and I could see he was pretty drunk. “There’s… too much at stake.”
“Your wife drafted the adoption papers…How could you do it?”
He didn’t have a good answer for that, and there was only so much satisfaction I could take from watching him squirm.
“Does she know?” I asked him.
“Look,” he said. “You might think you have some idea of what’s going on, but you don’t.”
“He’s not a goddamned—”
“I know.”
“It’s the kid, isn’t it? He’s got the weapon.”
He nodded. “Yeah, it’s the Drugov kid.”
“Why?”
He raised his eyebrows raised a little, surprised, even while the crazy fear still brewed in his drunken eyes.
“Why? Why would she—”
“I don’t know what she’s getting out of it, and I don’t want to,” Kang said. “All I know is there are people who want the Pan-Slavs out of the picture for good and she delivered. After she rigged him and let him go home, he was supposed to stay there and burn the PSE, eighty-seven percent of the landmass pushing east from an ignition point inside Kostroma.”
“Eighty-seven percent?”
He stared, gritting his teeth and not speaking for a moment.
“A pandemic,” he said finally. He looked scared now. “An accident. Nobody’s fault. The haan would step in and fix things, like they always said they would.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I mean, if I was to be honest, I’d thought it before, especially lately, but thinking about it was one thing. Doing it was something totally different.
“But why risk it?” I asked. “Why would she want to destroy them so bad?”
“She doesn’t,” Kang spat. “She doesn’t give any more of a shit about the PSE than she does us.”
“Then why?”
“Deals are made, kid. We see new tech appear, new benefits, better standards of living, but behind closed doors, deals are made.”
“What kinds of deals?”
“I don’t know!” he snapped. “I don’t know who approached her first, but whatever she was promised, she went for it. If this gets out, it will be bad for everybody, but if we can just set things right, set things back on course, it will be okay. No one has to know.”
“But all those people…”
“Sam, look around. You know how this is going to end. How easy was it for you to imagine they’d launched this biological attack against us? Even though it was Dragan, didn’t you wonder, just for a minute?”
I gritted my teeth, not wanting to admit I had.
“The way things are going, how long do you really think it will be before they do something like it, or worse? We can’t just sit back and hope it won’t happen—”
“But all those people, Kang. That’s kids, babies…”
“I know.” He leaned close, looking about ready to crack. “That’s why we have to get that kid back. Do you get it now? None of that matters anymore. We can’t stop it. It’s happening. Now it’s just us or them. That’s the only choice we’ve got left.”
“And what about Dragan?”
“He saw everything, Sam. He’s not coming back.”
“Then I’m going to get him.”
“This is bigger than him. I know how much he means to you, but he’s just one guy. He’d tell you the same if he were here.”
“I’m going to get him.”
“You’ll never get in there, Sam, and you’d never get out alive if you did.”
“I’ll find the kid, and trade him.”
“There’s not going to be any trade. You have to give it up.”
“No! I want Dragan back, and I want my life back!”
I yelled that last part loud enough that people looked over again.
Kang slammed his fist down on the table, causing butts and ash to jump out of the ashtray.
“I’m through playing games,” he snapped. “I’m a dead man, do you hear me? Sillith doesn’t think we can stop it, so she’s going to make damned sure no one finds out what she did before it blows up right in the middle of Hangfei, but I’m not going to let that happen, goddamn it…I sacrificed everything to save this country, and this is all I’ve got left. Forget about Dragan. He’s gone, but you can still do the right thing. Where the hell is that Pan-Slav brat?”
There was desperation in his red eyes and I realized then that this was why he’d called me out there. This was why he’d made contact again. Dragan either wouldn’t or still couldn’t talk, and they didn’t have any way to find the boy. Sillith had given up on finding him and was trying to distance the haan, but Kang hadn’t given up. Not yet.
“I don’t know where he is.”
“Bullshit! Tell me where he is!”
“I don’t know!”
“Please,” he said, changing his tone suddenly. “Do you know where he is? If you do, tell me, please.”
“I don’t—” Kang reached across the table and grabbed a fistful of my tank top, dragging me halfway over.
“Hey!” the bartender snapped finally. “Easy, over there!” Kang didn’t let go.
“Get off,” I said, tugging loose. I pushed away from him, but he held on to my wrist. “Let go of me, asshole!”
“He’s dead already, Sam,” he pleaded. “I thought I could get him back, but I can’t. I can’t even save myself. You can’t let this happen…The burn will start the night of the festival…Our country will be left in ruins! We’re the only hope left for this damned world and we’ll be wiped out! We deserve to live, more than them. You have to—”
I jerked my arm away and started back toward the door, Kang knocking his stool over as he got to his feet and followed after me.
“Sam,” he said. “I swear if you walk out that door you’re dead. You can still do the right thing and walk away from this. Let me help you.”
“Screw you, Kang,” I muttered. There was a lump in my throat as I pushed open the bar door and stepped back out onto the sidewalk.
He was right behind me, swinging the door a little too hard in his drunkenness. He grabbed my arm and pulled.
“Hey!”
Before I could stop him he’d hauled me right up off the ground and pulled me into the narrow alley next to the bar. He slammed me up against the rough brick face, and held me there.
“Let me go!”
I kicked his shin, and stomped one heel down on his foot, but he held me fast, leaning against me and pressing his stubbly chin into my neck as he spoke in my ear.
“I don’t give a shit about them, you hear me?” he said. “Those barbarians deserve to die. All they contribute to this planet is violence. They suck up food, water, and air that other people, better people could be using. The world would be better off without them. Then the haan would have enough. Don’t you get it? They wouldn’t have to take so much from us. We could eat again. We could breathe again, and they’d be in our debt. The world would be better off without the PSE. You know it’s true.”
“I never said—”
“Just take me to wherever you’re hiding and give me what you’ve got. We’ll take it from there. You don’t have to ever know the details. Lijuan is on her way to Duongroi already, and I’ll make sure you get over the border in the morning, just in case. I—”