"They're what?"
Andersen looked at the package the messenger had delivered ten minutes earlier and repeated what he had said.
"The boys family are suing us for assault by a property owned by the Project. They've started a suit for fifteen million yuan."
T'ai Cho sat back, aghast. "But the boy attacked Kim!"
Andersen laughed bitterly. "If that's the case, T'ai Cho, why is their boy on the critical list and not Kim? Here, look at these injuries! They're horrific! More than seventeen broken bones and his left ear bitten off. Bitten off! The little savage!"
T'ai Cho glared at him, then looked down at the 2-D shots the family's advocate had sent with his package. Gods! he thought, revolted despite himself. Did Kim do this? And he was afraid Matyas would kill him!
Andersen was muttering to himself now. "Fuck him! Fuck the little bastard! Why did he have to go and attack one of them?" He looked at T'ai Cho. "Why didn't you tell me he was capable of this?"
T'ai Cho went to protest, then thought of all that had been happening the last week or so. Were there warning signs? The restless nights? The problems with Matyas? Should he have foreseen this? Then he rejected all that. He threw the photos down, and with all the angry indignation of the parent of a wronged child, he stood and shouted at Andersen across the table.
"He didn't attack this boy! I know he didn't! They attacked him! They must have! Don't you understand that yet?"
Andersen looked up at him scornfully. "Who gives a shit, eh? We're all out of a job now. There's no way we can contest this. Nung's dead and the cameras were all covered over. There's not a bruise on Kim and the other lad's in critical." He laughed. "Who in their right mind would believe Kim was the victim?"
T'ai Cho was watching the Director closely now. "So what are you going to do?"
Andersen, as ever, had preempted him. He saw it in his face.
"I've taken advice already."
"And?"
Andersen pushed the package aside and leaned across the table. "The Project's advocate suggests there are ways we can contain the damage. You see, there's not just the matter of the Project's liability to the parents of the injured boy but the question of personal responsibility." He looked directly at T'ai Cho. "Yours and mine, in particular. Now, if Kim had actually died in the fight . . ."
T'ai Cho shook his head in disbelief. His voice, when he found it again, came out as a whisper. "What have you done, Andersen? What in the gods' names have you done?"
Andersen looked away. "I've signed the order. He'll be terminated in an hour."
BERDICHEV WENT to the cell to see the boy one last time before they sent him on. Kim lay there, pale, his dark eyes closed, the bulky secure-jacket like an incomplete chrysalis, disguising how frail he really was.
Well, well, Berdichev thought, you have tried your hardest to make my decision an empty one, haven't you? But perhaps it was just this that the Wu had foretold. The darkening of the light.
He knelt and touched the boy's cheek. It was cooler than his own flesh, but still warm. Yes, it was fortunate he had got here in time—before that asshole Andersen had managed to bugger things up for good and all. He had "Pai Cho to thank for that.
And now it was all his. Kim and the Project. And all for the asking price of ten million yuan he had originally contracted purely for the boy.
Berdichev laughed. It had all been rather easy to manage in the circumstances. The board had agreed to the deal at once, and to help facilitate matters he had offered eight of the ten sitting members an increase in their yearly stipend. The other two he had wanted out anyway, and when the vote went against them he had accepted their resignations without argument. As for the matter of the aggrieved parents, their claim was dropped when they received his counterclaim for two hundred million— his estimate of the potential loss of earnings SimFic would suffer if Kim was permanently brain damaged. They had been further sweetened by an out-of-court no-liability-accepted settlement of fifty thousand yuan. More than enough in exchange for their dull-witted son-
But what damage had it done? What would Kirn be like when the wraps came off and the scars had healed? Not the physical scars, for they were miraculously slight, but the deeper scars— the psychological ones?
He shuddered, feeling suddenly closer to Kim than he had ever been. As if the Wu's reading had connected him somehow to the boy. The sun was buried in the earth once more, but would it rise again? Would Kim become again what he had been? Or was he simple, unawakened Clay again?
Ten million yuan. That was how much he had gambled on Kim's full and complete recovery. And the possible return? He laughed. Maybe a thousand times as much! Maybe nothing.
Berdichev got up and wiped his hands on his jacket, then turned to the two SimFic guards, indicating that they should take the boy away. Then, when they had gone, he crossed the cell and looked at its second occupant. This one was also trussed.
He laughed and addressed the corpse of the Director. "You thought you'd fuck with me, eh, Andersen? Well, no one does that and gets away with it. No one. Not even you."
And, still laughing, he turned and left the cell.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Ice and Fire
BE PATIENT, Li Yuan, we'll not be much longer now!
Pearl Heart tugged the two wings of his collar together with a show of mock annoyance, then fastened the first of the four tiny catches. He was sitting on the edge of his bed, Pearl Heart kneeling on the floor in front of him, dressing him, while Sweet Rose knelt on the bed behind him, brushing and braiding his hair.
The younger girl laughed softly. "Your hair's so long, Li Yuan. Such good, strong hair. It doesn't split easily." She leaned forward, brushing her nose against it, breathing in its scent. "I wish I had such hair, dear Yuan."
He made to turn and speak to her, but Pearl Heart gently brought his head back around, tutting to herself. The last two catches were always the most tricky to fasten.
Li Yuan laughed softly. "Your hair is lovely, too, Sweet Rose. And never more lovely than when it rests across my lap."
Sweet Rose blushed and looked down, reminded of what they had been up to only hours before. Bearl Heart looked up into his face, amused. "Perhaps you'd like all five of us next time?"
He looked past her, smiling. "Perhaps. . . ."
"Still,"-she continued, frowning with concentration as she tried to fix the last of the catches, "it will be good for you to get some exercise."
Li Yuan laughed, delighted. "You really think so, Pearl Heart? After last night?"
She leaned back away from him with a sigh, the collar fastened at last, then shook her head, her eyes sparkling.
"You young men. You think you're real horsemen simply because you can keep at it all night long, don't you? But there's more to horsemanship than keeping in the saddle!"
Sweet Rose had gone silent, her head bowed. Pearl Heart looked back. Li Yuan was staring at her strangely. She thought back, then ducked her head, blushing, realizing how she had linked the two things. Li Yuan was about to go out riding with Fei Yen, and there she was saying ...
"Forgive me, Prince, I didn't mean ..."
But Li Yuan simply leaned forward and took her head between his hands, kissing her forehead before pressing her face down into his lap and closing his legs about her playfully.
She fought up away, enjoying the game, then stood there a few paces off, admiring him. Sweet Rose had finished and had placed a riding hat upon his tight-coiled hair. He was dressed entirely in green, from hat down to boots: a dozen subtle shades of green, yet each pf them fresh and bright, reminiscent of the first days of spring, when the snow has just thawed.
"You look—" she laughed and clapped her hands—"you look like a prince, Li Yuan!"