He stared at the two youths, the desire to lash out—to smash their ugly little faces—almost too much for him. The darkness afterward came as a relief, and he sat there barely conscious of the film being shown on the screen behind the judges—the film he had taken only hours before. And when it was finished and the lights came up again, he found it hard to turn his head and face that wall of faces.
He listened carefully as the senior judge summed up the case; then, steeling himself, he stood for the verdict. There was a moment's silence, then an angry murmur of disapproval as the two ringleaders were sent down—demoted fifty levels—their families fined heavily, their accomplices fined and ordered to do one hundred days community service.
Chen looked across, conscious of the pointing fingers, the accusing eyes, and even when the senior judge admonished the families, increasing the fines and calling upon the Heads to bring their clans to order, he felt no better. Maybe they were right. Maybe it was too harsh. But that wasn't really the point. It was the kind of punishment, not the degree, that felt wrong.
As the families left, Chen stood there by the door, letting them jostle him as they filed past, staring back at his accusers, defying them to understand.
You saw what your sons did. You have seen what they've become. So why hate me? Why blame me for your children's failings?
And yet they did. Ts'ui Wei, the father of the ringleader, came across, leaning menacingly over Chen.
"Well, Captain Kao, are you happy now? Are you satisfied with what you have done here today?"
Chen stared back at him silently.
Ts'ui Wei's lips curled slightly, the expression the mirror image of his son's disdainful sneer. "I am sure you feel proud of yourself, Captain. You have upheld the law. But you have to live here, neh? You have children, neh?"
Chen felt himself go cold with anger. "Are you threatening me, Shih Ts'ui?"
Ts'ui Wei leaned back, smiling; a hideously cynical smile. "You misunderstand me, Captain. I am a law-abiding man. But one must live, neh?"
Chen turned away, biting back his anger, leaving before he did something he would regret. As Wang Ti said, he ought to be content that he had done his part; satisfied that he had helped cleanse his level. Yet as he made his way back it was anger not satisfaction that he felt. That and a profound sense of wrongness. And as he walked, his hand went to his queue, feeling the thick braid of hair then tugging at it, as if to pull it from his head.
IT WAS AFTER three when they called Karr from his bed. There had been a shoot-out at one of the stacks east-southeast of Augsburg Hsien. Five men were dead, all visitors to the stack. That alone would not have been significant enough to wake him, but some hours later, a sack had been found near one of the interdeck elevators: a sack containing items from the Dragonfly Club, plus a handwritten file ; giving full details of how the raid had been planned.
Now, less than thirty minutes later, he stood in the bedroom of the two-room apartment, trying to work out what had happened.
As he stood there the deck's duty officer knocked and entered. Coming to attention, he bowed his head and handed Karr two printouts.
"Ywe Hao . . ." Karr mouthed softly, studying the flat, black-and-white image of the apartment's occupant; noting at once how like the artist's impression of the girl—the Yu terrorist Chi Li—she was. This was her. There was no doubting it. But who were the others?
The security scans on the five victims had revealed little. They were from various parts of the City—though mostly from the north-central hsien. All were engineers or technicians in the maintenance industries: occupations that allowed them free access at this level. Apart from that their past conduct had been exemplary. According to the record, they were fine, upstanding citizens, but the record was clearly wrong.
So what was this? A rival faction, muscling in on the action? Or had there been a split in the ranks of the Yu—some internal struggle for power, culminating in this? After all he'd seen of such Ko Ming groups it would not have surprised him, but for once the explanation didn't seem to fit.
"What do the cameras show?"
"They're being processed and collated, sir. We should have them in the next ten to fifteen minutes."
"And the woman—this Ywe Hao—she's on them, neh?" The Captain nodded. "I sent a squad up to where she was last seen by the cameras, but there was no sign of her, sir. She vanished." "Vanished?" Karr shook his head. "How do you mean?"
The man glanced away uneasily. "Our cameras saw her enter the maintenance room at the top of the deck. After that there's no sign of her. Neither of the cameras on the main conduit picked her up." "So she must be there, neh?"
"No, sir. I had my men check that straight away. The room's empty and there's no sign of her in the conduit itself."
Karr sighed. It was clear he would have to look for himself. "You said earlier that she may have been warned, that there was a lookout of some kind. . . ." "Two young boys, sir." "I see. And you've traced them, neh?" "They're in custody, sir. Would you like to see them?"
Karr looked about him at the mess. "Your men have finished here, I take it?" The Captain nodded.
"Good. Then clear this up first. Remove the corpses and put some cloths down. I don't want our young friends upset, understand me?" "Sir!"
"Oh, and Captain . . . have one of your men run a file on the movements of our friend Ywe Hao over the last three months. With particular attention to those occasions when she doesn't show up on camera."
The Captain frowned but nodded. "As you wish, Major." "Good. And bring me some ch'a. A large chung if you have one. We may be here some while."
CHEN STOOD there in the doorway, looking about him at the carnage. "Kuan Yin! What happened here?"
Karr smiled tiredly. "It looks like some kind of interfactional rivalry. As to whether it's two separate groups or a struggle within the Yu, maybe that's something we'll discover if and when we find the woman. As for the woman herself, I'm certain she was involved in both the Hannover assassination and the attack on the Dragonfly Club. I've asked for files on her movements over the last three months. If I'm right about her, then there ought to be blanks on the tape corresponding with the white-outs surrounding the terrorist incidents. We've no next-of-kin details, which is unusual, but you can do a little digging on that, neh? Oh, yes, and the Duty Captain is going to bring two young boys here. They were the woman's lookouts, it seems. I want you to question them and find out what they know about her. But be easy on them. I don't think they understood for a moment what they were in on."
"And you, Gregor? What will you be doing?"
Karr straightened up, then laughed. "First I'm going to finish this excellent ch'a, then I'm going to find out how a full-grown woman can disappear into thin air."
"Cousins, we come to the question of the GenSyn inheritance."
Wang looked about him, his eyes resting briefly on Li Yuan and Tsu Ma before they settled on the aging T'ang of East Asia, Wei Feng. "As I see it, this matter has been allowed to drag on far too long. As a result the Company has been harmed, its share price reduced dramatically on the Index. Our immediate concern, therefore, must be to provide GenSyn with a stable administrative framework, thus removing the uncertainties that are presently plaguing the Company. After that—"
Li Yuan cleared his throat. "Forgive me for interrupting, Cousin, but before we debate this matter at any length, I would like to call for a further postponement."
Wang laughed, a small sound of disbelief. "Forgive me, Cousin, but did I hear you correctly? A further postponement?"
Li Yuan nodded. "If it would please my cousins. It is clear that we need more time to find a satisfactory solution. Another month or two."