"Where's the duty officer?"
"Here, General." The elite squad captain hurried up, then came to attention, bowing formally to both men. "We're almost done, sir. Only another twenty or so to test."
"Good. Then you'll show us to one of the secure rooms. I want to show the T'ang's chief advisor what we've prepared."
The captain hesitated, about to say something, then bowed again. "Of course, sir. Please, follow me."
They went to one of the larger gates. Steps led up inside. Behind a curtain was a richly upholstered chair. Surrounding the chair was a whole array of the most up-to-date medical equipment.
"I'm impressed," said Shepherd, looking about him and touching various instruments familiarly. "It all seems very thorough."
The General nodded to the medical technician who had hastily joined them and, without ceremony, began to strip off. "I'll go first. Then you."
Shepherd smiled. "Of course."
There was a slight hiss from behind the curtain, then the sound of a wheel being spun.
"Now we're sealed in. If I'm not who I claim to be—if I'm a fake—then this whole cabin will be filled with a highly toxic gas."
Shepherd laughed. "Then I'll pray you are who you say you are."
Tolonen nodded, then dropped his trousers and stepped out of his webbed pants.
"You've some interesting scars, Knut."
Tolonen looked down, then laughed. "Ah, yes. Believe it or not I got that from a woman. A she-cat she was." He smiled and met Shepherd's eyes. "Ah, but that was long ago. Forty years now."
He sat in the armchair and let himself be wired up. The technician busied himself about him, visibly nervous that he should be called upon to test the T'ang's General.
The first tests were simple body scans. Then he was fingerprinted, his retinal patterns checked and his genotype taken.
The General looked up at Shepherd calmly. "If they're like the Ebert copy then these first few tests should catch them. But I'm taking no chances. Anyway, while we're testing for fakes, we can test for other things—psychological indoctrination and drugs."
"It must have been, hard for Klaus."
"He took it very badly."
Shepherd looked away momentarily. "It must be hard to see yourself like that. Dead. Opened up like a sack of meat. Your own face white and cold."
Tolonen said nothing for a moment, then nodded solemnly. "Yes. Anyway ..."
The technician had been waiting, listening to their talk. Now he pulled a large, dome-shaped machine down from above the General's head.
Tolonen explained. "It's basically a HeadStim. But it's been rewired to monitor bodily responses. It flashes images at me—
holograms of senior Family members—and monitors my pulse rate and heartbeat. Any abnormalities register on the telltale screen that side."
He reached round the machine as the technician fastened it about his head, and tapped the tiny black screen there.
"It also provides a full brain-scan."
Shepherd looked at it thoughtfully. "As I said. Very thorough. If any more of these things exist, you ought to get them."
The General made no answer. The test had begun. The technician glanced nervously at Shepherd, then busied himself again. Shepherd understood at once. If they found even one of these copies it would be neutralized immediately. That was good. But the unlucky technician who was in the secure room with it would be neutralized too.
"I shouldn't worry," Shepherd said reassuringly. "I doubt if any more of them exist."
Outside, beyond the great walls of the City, the sun was rising over Pei Ching. The new day—the day of Han Ch'in's wedding—had begun.
MARIA STOOD in the doorway, looking in at her husband. Josef Krenek was dressing, his back to her. She watched him pull the new silk pau about him and fasten it with the cord. Then, and only then, did he turn and answer her.
"What is it, Maria? Can't you see I'm getting ready?"
She had dressed an hour back and had been waiting ever since for him to wake and dress so that she might talk with him.
"It's your brother, Josef. I think he's ill. He hasn't eaten for days, and when I went to wake him there was no answer from his room. He's locked himself in and there's no reply, either from him or from Irina."
Krenek groaned. His brother Henryk and his wife had arrived three days ago from Mars and were due to leave tomorrow, after the wedding. All four were guests of the Tang, with seats at table before the great Arrow Pavilion. But if Henryk was ill...
Krenek pushed past his wife irritably and strode purposefully down the corridor. Stopping before one of the doors he hesitated, then knocked hard.
"Henryk! Are you all right?"
Almost at once the door slid open. His brother stood there, dressed, his midnight-blue velvet ma k'ua, or ceremonial jacket, tightly buttoned, his dark hair combed back severely from his brow.
"Josef. . . what do you want?"
Krenek bowed slightly, acknowledging his elder brother's status. He had returned from Mars only three days ago, newly promoted to Senior Representative of the colony.
"Maria was worried for you. She—"
Henryk Krenek smiled, returning to a lesser degree his brother's bow. His tall, regal-looking wife, Irina, had come across and now stood behind him. Henryk looked past his brother at his brother's wife.
"I'm sorry, Maria, but it was a secret. A gift for my young brother. For being such a good host to us these last three days."
Josef beamed with delight. "It is you who honor me, brother."
"Ah, maybe . . . Even so." Henryk half turned, looking at his wife, then turned back to face his brother. "Perhaps you'd like to come in, Josef? Maria, you'll excuse us a moment?"
Maria bowed low. "I've still much to do, Henryk. I'm sorry I disturbed you with my foolish fears." Her cheeks red, she backed away, then turned and fled down the corridor.
Henryk watched her a moment, then turned and went inside, locking the door behind him.
"Well, brother. . ." he said, turning to face Josef. And even as he said the words he saw Irina come up behind the man and pull the cord tight about his neck, dragging him down with a strange, inhuman strength.
SERVANTS MADE their k'o t'ou as Han Ch'in entered the Chien Cfung Kung, the Palace of Heavenly Purity. Rows of tables had been set up the length and breadth of the great hall. Thousands of tables, filling the space between the pillars. Cloths of imperial yellow covered every table and on each was piled a great heap of wedding gifts.
Han Ch'in looked about him, then ventured into the dimness of the hall. At once two of the servants hastened to accompany the Prince, one going before him, the other just behind, each carrying a simple oil lantern on a long pole. It was a tradition that these halls remained unlit by modern power sources: a tradition no one sought to change.
Han Ch'in strode about, examining things, then turned, his face and shoulders lit from above, his dark eyes shining wetly. His shadows stretched away from him on either side, like ghostly dancers, dark and long and thin, flickering in the uneven light. "Yuan! Come! Look at this!"
Li Yuan had paused in the tall doorway, staring up at the richly decorated ceiling. This was his first visit to the Imperial City and he was astonished by its sheer opulence. Their own palaces were so small by comparison, so mean, despite their luxury. This was grandeur on an unimaginable scale. Was beauty almost to excess. He sighed and shook his head. Beauty, yes, and yet this beauty had its darker side. He knew his history: had learned how the Ch'ing—the Manchus—who ruled from here for two centuries and more, had fallen, weighed down by their own venality and pride and ignorance. This palace—indeed, this city of palaces—had been built on suffering. On injustice and exploitation.
The history of Chung Kuo—it was a succession of dreams and disappointments; vast cycles of grandeur followed by decadence. It was as if a great wheel turned through time itself, ineluctable, raising men up, then hurling them down, to be crushed, together with their dreams of peace or further conquest. So it had been, for three thousand years and more, but it was to end such excess that the City had been built. To end the great wheel's brutal turn and bring about the dream of ten thousand peaceful years.