“Well...” Joseph said, closing the last of the journals and looking up. “This is an eye-opener.”
“So what do you suggest?” Karr said, looking to Ebert and Kao Chen who stood close by. “Are the craft ready?”
“I believe so. Kim and K. had been working on adapting them. Jelka would know.”
Joseph nodded thoughtfully. “I would rather we did not disturb Jelka right now.
Where are the craft?”
Bcuro, who came into the room at that moment, answered him. “They’re outside. On the surface.” He stared at Joseph a moment, as if surprised to see Kim so enlarged and “normal”, then, looking down, embarrassed by the way he’d stared, said. “And yes, they’re ready.”
“Then we have only to decide who will go through,” Joseph said, his eyes studying Dcuro. “Gregor ... you say each craft will take three, correct?” “And sufficient weaponry.”
Joseph met kbit’s eyes. “You really think this is something that can be resolved by such means?”
Karr nodded. “If we kill them if s over. For good.” Ebert for once agreed. “Karr’s right DeVore’s the source. Whatever’s twisted emanates from him. I, for one, would welcome another crack at him.” “And I!” Karr and Kao Chen said at once, then laughed.
“And you, Bcuro?”
Dcuro nodded.
“Then thaf s five of us ...”
“Six,” Jelka said, stepping into the room.
Joseph stood. All turned to face her.
“But Jelka ...” Karr began
She turned on him. “You would deny me my revenge?”
Karr stared at her, then shook his head.
“Then let us prepare what we need and go,” she said, magnificent at that moment, her golden eyes burning. “Let us finish what my husbands so gallantly began.”
As the glide set down on the executive parking pad Li Yuan hurried the two women ahead of him out of the irising door, carrying the two cases himself. He had spoken to Cho Yi on the flight down, and though the markets had stabilised, there was a sense of fragility about affairs that seemed to bode ill. War had not broken out between America and China, but that was not to say that, later in the day, it wouldn’t And then the spaceports would be closed and there would be no chance at all to get away.
Which was why he was going now. Because, as a gambling man, he understood when to play a hunch. And his hunch was that the whole pack of cards was about to come tumbling down.
He had sent a message to Han Ch’in, telling him what he was doing, but making no
reference to the girl and her mother. If Han came and joined him at Tongjiang,
they would sort matters out between them then. But he had not wanted to have what might be their last conversation spoiled by bitter acrimony.And so you lied to Han. For the first time in your life ...
He did not like what he had done. In fact, his soul rebelled against it It seemed a crime against not only brotherhood but against the mother who had died bearing him.
As they hurried across the apron towards his ship, he noted the increased activity on all sides.
So I’m not the only one flaying a hunch.
Ships were rising up into the air even as they came to the foot of his own craft, the noise so loud that they drowned out his shouted instructions. He waited a moment, until the rumble of one particularly loud craft faded, then shouted again.
“Wait here! I’ve got to deactivate the alarm!”
They huddled together under the port wing of the craft as Li Yuan went round and, reaching up into the panel underneath the fuselage, punched in the code. Satisfied, he stepped out and, taking the controls from his pocket, pointed the light-pencil at the cockpit Lights flashed. The machine came alive.
Li Yuan smiled and looked to the two women, about to tell them to come, across, then saw the expression on their faces. Fear. Sheer naked fear. He half turned, suddenly aware of someone just behind him. A small, neat-looking man with short black hair was standing there, holding a gun up at the level of his head.
“Li Yuan,” DeVore said, smiling unpleasantly. “Long time no see.”
The fighting had been hard and uncompromising - to the death - but now the ship was theirs.
“We’re losing air,” Li Kuei Jen said, from where she sat in the co-pilot’s seat ‘Til have to seal off all of the lower deck sections. Ifd take us far too long to search and find out where the leaks are.”
“Okay,” Emily said, wondering how much time they had before DeVore hit back, “but make sure we haven’t left anyone down there.” The trouble was, they were trapped up here. DeVore had the only shuttle, and that was down there, on the world below.
She turned, looking to Han Ch’in, who had just stepped onto the bridge. He seemed troubled.
“Han?”
Han Ch’in came across. “He’s bad, Emily. I don’t know whether he’ll come through this time. The surgeon reckons there’s extensive damage to the brain.” Emily grimaced. “Is Hannah with him?”
Han Ch’in nodded.
“Okay. I’ll finish here, then go down and see her.”
“He saved us,” Han said, matter-of-factly.
“Yes,” she said. “Strange, huh? DeVore’s prize pupil. And look how he turns out?”
Han laughed, then gave another sigh. ‘Td kill that bastard if I got my hands on him.”
Emily’s smile was tinged with a faint irony. She looked down at her own burned hand. “That’s if you can get your hands on him.” “Do we know where we are yet?”
Emily nodded. “Thafs our home world, all right. Geographically. But from the transmissions we’re tapping into I’d say that it has a history thaf s entirely different from our own.”
“Meaning what?”
“Meaning that DeVore somehow shifted us into an alternate reality.” Han Ch’in gave a laugh of disbelief. But then, seeing that Emily was being serious, he narrowed his eyes. “What?”
“That’s right. If s even possible that there are alternate versions of ourselves down there.”
Han Ch’in took that in. “So what are we going to do?”
“We wait There’s nothing else we can do.”
“Thafs not entirely true,” Li Kuei Jen said, turning in her seat “We could destroy the morph ship.”
“Destroy it?” Emily frowned. “Why?”
“Because if 11 send a signal back to him.”Emily smiled, then nodded. “Okay. Lef s send the bastard a message!”
“Do I know you?” Li Yuan asked.
The first of them looked up from where he was busy binding the older woman’s hands and grinned at Yuan. “Not in this world.” The other, who had arrived just after they had climbed on board, now reappeared in the cabin’s doorway. “Okay. We’ve clearance. If you’re ready, Howard.” “Ready and willing!” the first said cheerfully. Then, straightening up, he smiled at the three of them, who now sat in their chairs, trussed up tightly. “Everyone comfortable? Good. Because we’re going on a little trip. A visit to an old friend. And I want you all to be on your best behaviour, because if you aren’t, I might get a little angry. And when I get angry, I’m not a nice person to be with, understand?”
The two women nodded enthusiastically, but Li Yuan simply glared. The man was little more than a common bully. A thief who used violence to get his way. Even so, the situation was dangerous and he did not want to force the man’s hand.
“Okay,” the man went on, “now listen carefully. When we get closer to our destination, I want you, Li Yuan, to speak to our friend - his name is Joseph Josephs, by the way - and get us permission to land on the pad at the top of the building he rents.”
Li Yuan glowered. “Why should I do that?”
“Because if you don’t, your young friend here,” and he indicated young Fei Yen, “will have a second mouth, slightly lower than her first” The gesture of a throat being slit was unmistakable. Li Yuan studied the man’s eyes and saw that he meant it “Okay,” he said. “But what if they say no?”