For a moment longer, its shrieks echoed across the shattered land, flapping like bats against the ceiling of the sky. Then, as they faded, a pure, high ringing tone grew, until it filled the sudden stillness.
She blinked and looked, but he was gone. Slowly, fearfully, she went across. The earth whence he'd come no longer gaped, but was smooth and seamless. And beyond it, there where he'd stood—there, where the tower had tumbled shrieking into the fiery web—was nothing. Nothing but a huge circle of ash.
Jelka shuddered and then woke, remembering. Kalevala and the storm. And the morning after—the circle of darkness in the woods and the seven charred tree stumps. And Kim. All of it linked somehow. All of it tied in to the future. But how or why she did not know. Not yet.
CHAPTER NINE
Plucked Eyes and Severed Heads
Tolonen was stripped to the waist, exercising, when Kim came into the room. He turned, nodding to Kim, then continued with his routine, bending to touch his toes, then throwing his arms up above his head, twisting his torso once, twice to either side, before ducking down again. It was a vigorous, impressive routine that even a much younger man would have found strenuous, but at seventy-five the old man made it look easy. He was in fine physical condition and, but for the bright, golden sheen of his artificial arm, he seemed in perfect health.
Kim waited, watching respectfully, in silence. Only when the old man had finished and was standing there, toweling himself down, did he cross the room and stand by the broad oak desk that dominated the study.
"Hello there," Tolonen said, coming across. "How are you, boy?"
He reached out with his good hand and held Kim's hand a moment, meeting his eyes squarely, challengingly, as he always did.
"I'm fine," Kim answered, taking the seat the Marshal offered him. "I wasn't sure you'd have time to see me."
Tolonen smiled, making his way around to the other side of the desk. "Nonsense. You're always welcome here."
Kim bowed. "Thank you. But I wouldn't dream of keeping you from your business."
The old man laughed. "There's no chance of that, my boy. I’ve got to be off in twenty minutes. Li Yuan himself has summoned me. I'll have to shower and change before then, but we've time for a chat, neh?"
Tolonen turned, taking a tunic from the back of the big, leather-backed chair, then pulled it on in one swift motion. To Kim, watching wide-eyed from his chair, he seemed like a god, there was so much power and authority in every movement.
He turned back, facing Kim again, and sat, leaning toward Kim across the broad expanse of the desk's surface. "So how's business? Did you finally get around to registering those patents?"
Kim hesitated, not wishing to burden the old man with his problems. "There were difficulties," he said, after a moment. "Complications with the patent. . ."
"Complications?" Tolonen sat back slightly. "You mean the thing didn't work, after all? But you were so confident."
"No . . ." Again Kim held back, loath to discuss the matter. But Tblonen was staring at him now, curious. "The device works. That's not the problem. The problem is that someone beat me to it. They registered a day before me."
"I didn't think anyone was working on the same lines. I thought you said. . ." Tolonen stopped, his face changing, suddenly realizing what Kim was actually saying. "But that's outrageous! Does Li Yuan know of this?"
"Not yet."
"Then maybe he ought. We should do something . . ."
Kim looked down, shaking his head. "Forgive me, Marshal, but I would rather the T'ang knew nothing of this. He has much on his mind as it is. Besides, the problem is mine, not his, and I shall find ways and means to solve it."
Tolonen stared back at the young man a moment, taking in his words, then gave an emphatic nod. "All right. But if this should happen again . . ."
"I'll let you know . . ." Kim smiled. "But enough of my troubles. How did your investigations go?"
Tolonen gave a small sigh and put his hands together, metal and flesh interlaced. "They say that those who look shall find, neh? I can say very little just now, I'm afraid. I..." He stopped, studying Kim's face a moment, then reached into the drawer to his left and took out a slender computer file, placing it on the desk between them.
"Can I trust you to be discreet, Kim?"
Kim narrowed his eyes. "This has to do with what you found?"
"It has. At present only three people know what is in that file. With yourself and the T'ang, it'll make five. And so it must remain, for the time being. You understand me?"
"I understand."
"Good. Then take the file and read it. And let me know what you think. In return I shall have a special team investigate this matter of the patent." He lifted a hand to still Kim's objections. "I heard what you said, my boy, and I respect you for it, but sometimes it does not hurt to have a little outside help, neh? All I ask is that you keep the information in that folder to yourself and return it once you have had time to consider its significance."
Kim leaned toward the old man, about to ask him about the file, when the door to his right swung open and Jelka came hurrying into the room. She was talking, already three or four steps into the room, when she stopped and fell silent, realizing that her father was not alone.
She bowed her head. "Forgive me, Father. I didn't realize you had company."
Jelka turned, looking across at Kim. He was sitting there, like a large-eyed child in the big, tall-backed chair, the very smallness of him making her frown involuntarily, then look back at her father.
Kim smiled, amused, not hurt by her reaction. Across from him, Tolonen stood, turning to his daughter with a kindly, indulgent smile.
"This is Kim," he said. "Kim Ward. A valued servant of Li Yuan. And this, Kim, is my daughter, Jelka."
Kim stood, offering his hand, seeing how she had to bend slightly to take it. Her hand was warm, its pressure firm against his own, enclosing his, her eyes friendly, welcoming.
"I know who Kim is, Daddy," she said, releasing Kim's hand. "He was on the Project."
Kim's eyes widened, surprised that she remembered. But Tolonen merely laughed.
"Of course! I'm forgetting, aren't I?" He came around, putting an arm about his daughter's shoulders. "Why, you might almost say that she found you, Kim, after the attack. We had given up any hope of finding survivors, but Jelka insisted that you'd escaped. She made us search the vent for signs that you'd got out that way. And you know what? She was right!"
Kim stared, his mouth open. He hadn't known.
He looked down, suddenly abashed. That first time he had seen her—when she had come with her father to visit the Wiring Project—he had stared at her in awe, thinking her some kind of goddess. Never, even in his wildest imaginings, had he thought she would remember him. But she had. More than that, she had made them look for him.
Kim looked down at his hand. He could still feel the gentle warmth, the firm but pleasant pressure of her hand enclosing his, and shivered, surprised once more by the strength of what he felt. And when he looked up, it was to find her watching him still, a strange intensity in her vividly blue eyes.
The file lay on the desk beside him. For a brief moment both men had forgotten it, but now Tolonen reminded Kim, pointing to it.
"Take it with you, Kim. And look at it closely. You don't have to answer at once. The end of the week will be soon enough."
Kim stared at the file a moment, then, impulsively, answered the old man. "I don't need that long. I'll give you my answer tomorrow." He smiled. "Whatever Li Yuan wants, I'll do. If lean. . ."
At that Tolonen laughed, and, as if letting his daughter in on a joke, began to explain. "Kim here is a physicist. Our experts say he's the best, despite his years. Maybe the best weVe ever had."
He could see how she glanced at him, then back at her father, as if she couldn't quite take it in. Indeed, to Kim, sitting there watching her, nothing seemed more implausible than the fact that men like Tolonen and Li Yuan should need him, seeing in him something that they could not match, and using words like "the best." To the part of him that was Claybom—that had come up from the darkness beneath the City—it seemed absurd. And when this girl, so tall and beautiful that she seemed somehow unreal, narrowed her eyes and asked him if it were true, if he was the best, he could only laugh at her and nod,