Trembling, he lifted the weapon and fired, watching as the gold-tinted visor split and then exploded.
It is not Chi Hsing, he told himself, as he held the beam on the falling figure. It is not Chi Hsing. But even as the lasers of the other men caught him, burning into his chest and arms and neck, he felt a great pang of sorrow. He had killed a T'ang, a Son of Heaven! And now his clan would be eradicated, the ghosts of his ancestors unap-peased. His wife, his child . . .
He stumbled forward, then fell and lay still. One of the suited figures paused, looking down at him, then stepped over him and clumped on heavily toward the corridor. Behind him came others. Terrorists. Yu. The suited figure laughed triumphantly, then yelled instructions into his suit microphone.
They had done it! They were on board!
out ON the great mid-ocean city of Sohm Abyss it was late morning. The restaurant was quiet, only a few people scattered about the tables. Kim was sitting in his usual corner, a half-filled ch'a bowl at his elbow, when Rebecca came into the room. Seeing him, she went across and sat, facing him.
He looked up, meeting her eyes, uncertain what to say. He had not seen her since the night of the party, but had kept to himself, working longer hours than usual and sleeping in the lab. For a day or two, he had even avoided coming here, lest she track him down. But he had known all along that he would eventually have to face her. To have it out with her.
"Hi," she said softly, offering a smile. "I wondered where you'd got to. I left messages on your comset. But maybe you didn't get them. I'm told youVe been working hard."
He raised his eyebrows, as if he knew nothing about the messages, but it was untrue. He had seen them. More than a dozen in all, asking him to contact her and talk.
"IVe been worried about you," she said, leaning toward him, the scent of jasmine wafting across to him. "I thought you might be angry with me about what happened. When I woke up that morning and you'd gone . . ."
He looked down. "I'm not angry with you."
That much was true. He wasn't angry with her, he was angry with himself, for having made such a fool of himself. And now he felt ashamed. Deeply, thoroughly ashamed. He had let himself down. Himself, and Jelka.
"Look, I'm sorry," he said. "I was drunk, I..."
She laughed softly, provocatively. "Not that drunk."
"That's not what I meant," he said, meeting her eyes again, his face deadly earnest. "I mean that it was wrong what we did. If I'd have been sober I would never have gone to your room."
"You mean you didn't enjoy what happened?" Her eyes were wide, staring into his. Reaching out, she touched his fingers, then closed her own about them. "Because I did. And I can't stop thinking about it. You and me, Kim, together in the darkness. It was wonderful. Didn't you think so? You and me, doing that." She shivered, squeezing his fingers tightly.
"It was wrong," he said again, steeling himself against her touch, the soft seductiveness of her words. "There's a girl..."
He saw the movement in her eyes. The surprise and then the calculation. "A girl? Someone you like, you mean?"
He nodded. "I made a promise."
"A promise?" She smiled, then frowned, the two expressions strangely coexistent in her face. "What kind of promise?"
"She's young, you see, and her father . . . well, her father is a powerful man. He doesn't want her to see me, so he's sent her away. To the Colonies. But I made her a promise. I..."
He stopped, realizing that he had said much more than he'd intended. But he wanted Rebecca to understand, to realize why that night with her had been so wrong.
Her fingers slowly loosened their pressure about his own. She withdrew her hands, then sat back, nodding to herself, a strange look on her face.
"So you fuck me and leave me, and that's it, huh?"
He shivered. "It wasn't like that. If I'd been sober . . ."
"If yorid been sober." She shook her head, her face suddenly hard, her eyes angry with him. "Don't you see it, Kim? Don't you understand things yet? Or is it only atoms and abstract forces that you comprehend? This girl. . . she won't wait for you. Not if her father's against you. They hate us, Kim. Don't you get that yet? On the face of it they may smile as they use us, but deeper down they hate us. Clayborn we are. Different from them. And they despise us for that."
"No," he said quietly, disturbed by the sudden change in her, the pent-up anger in her tiny frame. "Some of them, yes. But not all. This girl . . •"
She stood abruptly, staring down at him, "You still don't see it, do you? You and I, we're of a kind. We know how things are. How they really are. We know about the darkness down there. Know, because it's in us, every hour of every day. And we know what it's like to suffer, to be bought and sold and treated like mere things." She shuddered, staring down at him defiantly. "We're of a kind, Kim Ward. Don't you understand that yet? You belong with me. Wards, that's what we are. A pair. A matching pair."
He sat there, shaking his head, denying her, and yet a part of him saw the truth in what she was saying. He licked at his lips, then spoke, pained that it had come to this.
"What you say, Becky . . . it's true. We are alike. But that's all. And what we did . . ." he shivered, "it was a mistake. Can't you see it was a mistake?"
She stood there, staring at him; a long, angry stare that seemed to weigh him. Then, without another word, she turned and walked away, closing the door quietly, carefully behind her.
For a moment he sat there, staring at the door, conscious that it wasn't over, that he had not convinced her that it was over, then, turning his head, he realized that someone was standing there, not six paces from where he sat.
"Tuan Wen-ch'ang!"
The tall Hui bowed his head and smiled, showing his imperfect teeth. "Kim . . . May I sit with you?"
"Of course. Please . . ." Kim half stood, giving a tiny bow of greeting.
Tuan sat, setting his chung down in front of him, then looked across at Kim.
"You look disturbed, my friend. Is something troubling you?"
Kim looked down. If Tuan had come in while Rebecca was talking to him, he would have seen, maybe even overheard something of what had passed between them. Yet that was not what Tuan had meant. He was asking Kim if he wanted to talk about his troubles, to share them with him.
For the briefest moment Kim hesitated, wondering whether he should keep this to himself, but then, seeing the look of sympathy, of understanding in the tall Hui's face, he nodded and leaned toward him.
"It's like this..."
"What's happening up there?"
Tseng-li stood at Li Yuan's desk, staring down at the screen set into the table's surface. He had been disturbed by the echoing metallic sound of the shuttle docking, and had come here quickly, not stopping to consult any of the others.
The lieutenant's face looked up at him, concerned. "I'm not sure, my Lord. Chi Hsing's shuttle has docked. About three minutes back. Captain Henssa went to greet him."
"Chi Hsing?" Tseng-li laughed, but his features formed an uncertain frown. "Are you certain?"
"The coded signals were current and correct. No one but Chi Hsing's personal Security could have known them, my Lord."
Tseng-li nodded, but he was thinking, This is wrong. Li Yuan would have warned me. He would not have gone had he known Chi Hsing was coming. For a moment he stood there, leaning forward as if in a trance, then, "Have they boarded already?"
The lieutenant looked away at another screen. "Yes, they're coming through even now. I..." His head jerked back, as if he had been punched, his cheeks visibly paler, his eyes wide. "Arya......"
The screen went black.
Tseng-li ran. Out down the slow curving corridor and on, into the second room on the left, nodding to the guard. There, he bent over the cot and unceremoniously lifted the sleeping infant from among its covers and ran on, out through the far door. People were stirring now, lifting their heads as he ran through their quarters, or coming out to call after him, but there was no time to stop and warn them. His duty now was to Kuei Jen alone. Already it might be too late.