An Inch of Ashes (45 page)

‘He’s
dying
.’ She raised her voice suddenly, anger spilling over into her words. ‘Goddammit, Ben, they’ve given him a month! Six weeks at most!’ She swallowed, then shook her head, her eyes pleading with him now. ‘Don’t you see? That’s why you can’t go after her. You’ve got to come home. You
must
! Mother needs you. She needs you badly. And me. I need you too, Ben. Me more than anyone.’

Heng Yu read the top copy through then, satisfied, reached out and took his brush from the ink block, signing his name with a flourish on each of the three copies. One would go to Li Shai Tung. The second he would keep for his own records. The third... well, the third would go to Prince Yuan, via his contact in the palace at Tongjiang, Nan Ho.

Heng Yu smiled. Things could not have gone better. The boy was safe, the T’ang pleased, and he was much closer to his ambition. What more could a man ask for? Of course, not everything had been mentioned in the documents. The matter of the bronze statue, for instance, had been left out of the report on Sergey Novacek.

It had been an interesting little tale. One which, in spite of all, reflected well on young Novacek. Investigations into the past history of the bronze had shown that it had once belonged to his father, Lubos, who, to bail out an old friend, had had to sell it. Sergey Novacek had heard of this and, hearing Heng Chian-ye talking of it, had set things up so that he might win it back. The matter of Shepherd, it seemed, had been a secondary matter, spawned of jealousy and tagged on as an afterthought. The statue had been the prime mover of the boy’s actions. From accounts, he had returned it to his father on his sixtieth birthday.

And the father? Heng Yu sat back, stroking his beard. Lubos Novacek was, like many of the City’s leading tradesmen, a respectable man. His trade, however, was anything but respectable, for Lubos Novacek acted as a middleman between certain First Level concerns and the Net. Put crudely, he was the pimp of certain Triad bosses, acting on their behalf in the Above, buying and selling at their behest and taking his cut.

A useful man to know. And know him he would.

As for the Great Man – that pompous halfwit, Fan Liang-wei – Heng had enjoyed summoning him to his Ministry and ordering him to desist from his efforts to get Ben thrown out of the college. He had shown Fan the instrument signed by the T’ang himself and threatened him with instant demotion – even to the Net itself – should any word come back to him that Fan was pursuing the matter in any shape or form.

Yes, it had been immensely satisfying. Fan’s face had been a perfect picture as he had attempted to swallow his massive pride and come to terms with the fact of the boy’s influence. He had been almost apoplectic with unexpressed anger.

Heng Yu gave a little chuckle, then turned to face his young cousin.

‘Something amuses you, Uncle?’

‘Yes, Chian-ye. Some business I did earlier. But come now, I need you to take these documents for me.’ He picked up two of the copies and handed them across. ‘This first copy must be handed directly to Chung Hu-yan and no one else, and this to Nan Ho at Tongjiang. Both men will be expecting you.’

‘Is that all, Uncle Yu?’

Heng Yu smiled. It was a moment for magnanimity. ‘No, Chian-ye. I am pleased with the way you have served me this past week. In view of which I have decided to review the matter of your allowance. In respect of past and future duties as my personal assistant, you will receive an additional sum of twenty-five thousand
yuan
per year.’

Heng Chian-ye bowed low, surprised yet also greatly pleased. ‘You are most generous, Uncle Yu. Be assured, I will strive hard to live up to the trust you have placed in me.’

‘Good. Then get going, Chian-ye. These papers must be in the hands of their respective agents within the next six hours.’

Heng Yu watched his cousin leave, then stood, stretching and yawning. There was no doubting it, this matter – of little substance in itself – had served him marvellously. He laughed, then looked about him, wondering momentarily what his uncle, Chian-ye’s father, would have made of it.

And the matter of the Melfi Clinic?

That, too, could be used. Was something to be saved until the time was ripe. For though his uncle, Heng Chi-po, had been a greedy, venal man, he had been right in one thing. Information was power. And those who had it wielded power.

Yes. And never more so than in the days to come. For Chung Kuo was changing fast. New things were rising from the depths of the City. Things he would do well to know about.

Heng Yu, Minister to the T’ang, nodded to himself, then reached across and killed the light above his desk.

Which was why, in the morning, he had arranged to meet the merchant, Novacek. To offer him a new arrangement – a new commodity to trade in; one he would pay handsomely to possess.

Information.

C
hung Kuo: An Inch of Ashes
is the sixth volume of a vast dynastic saga that covers more than half a century of this vividly realized future world. In the fourteen volumes that follow, the Great Wheel of fate turns through a full historical cycle, transforming the social climate of Chung Kuo utterly.
Chung Kuo
is the portrait of these turbulent – and often apocalyptic – times and the people who lived through them.

In
Chung Kuo: The Broken Wheel
the ‘War of Two Directions’ intensifies. Revolutionary activity is rife, culminating in an attack on Bremen stack, which kills over 15,000 citizens. Behind this, and behind a new splinter cult, the Yu, is our old friend DeVore – or at least a convincing copy of him – while at his side is Stefan Lehmann, son of an old Dispersionist leader, and as cold and cruel as DeVore himself.

Whereas once there was unanimity, now things are far from well within the Seven, with the odious Wang Sau-leyan sowing discord between the T’ang. For Prince Li Yuan, personal events overtake public considerations. When Fei Yen, heavily pregnant, defies him and goes riding, he kills all her horses. Furious, she leaves him, returning to her father’s house. A week later, she tells him that the child she bears is not his.

This is not the only betrayal Li Yuan suffers. Ebert’s scheme to work with DeVore is uncovered and reported to Marshal Tolonen, Ebert’s future father-in-law. Horrified but convinced of Hans’ guilt, the old man goes to Ebert’s father, Klaus, his childhood friend, and gives him twenty-four hours to resolve the matter. Only things go wrong: Klaus is killed by one of his goat servants, while trying to choke his son to death, and Hans Ebert flees to Mars.

Kim Ward’s true history of the world – his ‘Aristotle File’ – grows more influential with every year, undermining the work of the ‘Thousand Eyes’. When his labs are attacked by assassins, everyone is killed bar Kim, who – using his darkest instincts from the Clay – savagely fights his way to freedom. He hides in the warren of ducts, traumatized, until the ancient sage and Master of
wei chi
, Tuan Ti Fo, led by a dream, rescues him.

With Li Shai Tung’s death, Li Yuan becomes one of the Seven. His first act is to test the paternity of Fei Yen’s child. He then divorces her, marrying three new wives. But his heart is empty, his mind numbed by what has happened.

But there is a new threat to the Seven, the ‘Sons of Benjamin Franklin’, a group of rich young Americans, heirs to their fathers’ Companies, who want change as fiercely as any lower-level
Ko Ming
revolutionaries.

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