Part 23 (1/2)
Doors led off to right and left Most were closed. Through gla.s.s panels he could see his people at work, collating information, organising the vast and complex business of rebellion, or simply debating new ”targets” among themselves. All would finally find its way to the room at the far end of the corridor where his mother had her office. He went there now, throwing the door open, expecting to find a dozen people seated about her desk, but the room was almost empty. Almost At the far end of the conference table sat his mother, her gaunt, grey-haired head bent over a file. She looked up at him from the doc.u.ment, surprised to find him there. ”Chao?”
”I thought...”
”I cancelled it,” she said, antic.i.p.ating him. Then, closing the folder, she stood and came round the table until she stood by him. ”There's a problem.” ”A problem?”
”If s Michael. There's no word from him yet”
He reached out and held both her arms, the same way she had always held his own when he'd been a child and full of fears.
”He'll be okay. He's being careful, that's all.”
”But he said ...”
A look from him silenced her. ”Okay,” she said finally, the moment's weakness pa.s.sed. ”But I've sent Han Ye and Sung out to look for him. If they were ambushed ...”
”He'll be okay,” Chao said, insistently this time, but there was a small knot in his stomach at the thought of his stepfather being in DeVore's far-from-tender hands. Death was preferable. ”How's Pei?” he asked. ”He's fine. The wound's clean. He had a lucky escape.”
”Too lucky, perhaps?”
Emily had been about to turn away, but at his words she looked back at him. ”You think the boy's a plant?”
”If s possible. I mean, it was rather a coincidence that he should be there at that precise moment” ”Maybe. But Lin Pei would have been a big prize for DeVore. He could have taken him back, copied him. Got to me that way. Besides, he lost two morphs. He can ill afford such losses, especially now.”
”I'm sorry?”
She smiled at him. ”You haven't heard, then?”
”Heard?”
In answer she went across and picked up the folder she'd been reading, then came back, handing it to him. Chao opened it, took out the slender doc.u.ment, then looked up at her, surprised. ”Is this true?”
She nodded. ”We've had it confirmed from eight different sources. This morning at eleven DeVore attempted to break the blockade. Missile attacks on five of the stationary satellites were followed by an attempt to slip a number of s.h.i.+ps through the High Barrier. Both the missile strike and the attempt to outrun the American blockade failed. All of his s.h.i.+ps were blown out of the skies. Word is that they carried a total of more than sixty of DeVore's creatures. That1 s almost a fifth of his remaining strength.”
”But what was he trying to do?”
Emily shrugged. ”Who knows?”
”Then things really are desperate ... for him, I mean.”
”Maybe.”
The way she said it made him look at her anew. ”What are you thinking?”
”If s nothing.”
”No. Tell me. I want to know.”
”I don't know,” she began. ”If s just... well, with DeVore you can never take anything at face value. He's a master of feints and illusions. Such a direct action ... if s unlike him, don't you think?”
He shrugged. ”Go on.”
”It made me think of the game ... of wet da. Of how a Master of the game might sometimes play a stone in a part of the board he isn't really interested in, as a decoy, to mask his true intentions.”
”But we know DeVore's true intentions. He wants to break the blockade so that he can bring in reinforcements. Without them he's too weak to win this conflict” ”Or so he'd have us think” Chao stared at his mother a moment, then shook his head. ”No. His weakness is no bluff. If he were strong enough he'd destroy us all without a momenf s thought He'd not waste his time sending patrols out into the mountain pa.s.ses, he'd destroy the Wilds themselves!”
”Maybe.”
He huffed, exasperated with her. ”And what does Tybor say?”
She smiled. ”Why don't you ask him. He'll be here any moment now.” Chao nodded. If anyone could fathom DeVore's twisted mind, then maybe Tybor could, for Tybor had been made from DeVore's own genetic material, flesh of his flesh.
”You've spoken to the boy, I a.s.sume.”
”Huh?” For a moment he was at a loss, then, ”the boy.”
”Yes.” She laughed. ”You've questioned him, I take it”
He nodded. ”He seems ... well, quite ordinary really. But who can tell? DeVore's so devious, I sometimes wake up wondering if I'm really me.” ”I know. I dream of mirrors.”
”Mirrors?”
”You know. What they used to call ching.”
”Ah ...” The thought of it chilled him. When the seven T'ang had ruled Chung Kuo, they had kept copies - ching, or ”mirrors” - of each T'ang, ready for the day they died, so that their successors could symbolically kill their predecessors before becoming the new T'ang. These dung, made in the nutrient vats of the great genetics company, GenSyn, had been perfect copies of their originals but for one important aspect -their minds. For the dung were blank, unthinking creatures, born and maintained only to be ceremonially slaughtered. The thought that such creatures existed was bad enough, but one further element gave the matter a much too personal twist When his mother had fled Europe in the wake of the collapse of the Ping Tiao, it had been DeVore who had aided -some might say permitted - her escape. In return she had given him a single finger from her right hand. From that he had made himself a mate, a perfect copy of Emily Ascher. A ching, alike in all but her mental processes. A thing, not a proper human.
Like Tybor.
”Emily ... Chao ...”
Tybor ducked beneath the sill and came inside. Even crouched he was a good three feet bigger than Lin Chao, his smooth, hairless arms and head giving him the look of something moulded not grown.
Which was near enough the truth.
”Tybor,” Emily said, embracing the creature. ”Is there any news?” ”I'm afraid not,” Tybor answered, pulling out a chair and sitting, so as to be on their level. ”But ifs early yet. They may have been caught in a storm. The weather's unseasonably bad.”
”We were talking,” Chao said, changing the subject ”About the attempt to break the blockade.”
Tybor glanced at Emily, then turned his inhumanly large eyes on Chao once again.