Ice and Fire: Chung Kuo Series by David Wingrove Read Free Book Online Page B

inside Man. You should free yourself from thinking of them. To you they seem
     the greatest threat, but they’re not. They’re the scum on the surface of the well.
     And the well
     is deep.’
    Li Shai Tung took a deep breath. ‘With respect, Ben, in this you are wrong. Your argument
     presupposes that it does not matter who rules – that things will remain as they are
     whoever
     is in power. But that’s not so. Their ideology is false, but, forgive me, they are
Hung Mao
.’
    Across from him Hal Shepherd smiled, but he was clearly embarrassed. It was more than
     two decades since he had taken offence at the term – a term used all the while in
     court, where the Han
     were predominant and the few Caucasians treated as honorary Han – yet here, in the
     Domain, he felt the words incongruous, almost – surprisingly – insulting.
    ‘They have no sense of harmony,’ continued the T’ang, unaware. ‘No sense of
li
. Any change they brought would not be for the good. They are men of few principles.
     They would carve the world up into principalities and then there would be war again.
     Endless war. As it was before.’
    There was the faintest of smiles on Ben’s lips. ‘You forget your own history, Li Shai
     Tung. No dynasty can last forever. The wheel turns. Change comes, whether you will
     it or no. It
     is the way of Mankind. All of Mankind, even the Han.’
    ‘So it may have been, but things are different now. The wheel no longer turns. We
     have done with history.’
    Ben laughed. ‘But you cannot stop the world from turning!’
    He was about to say more but his mother touched his arm. She had sat there, perfectly
     still and silent, watching the fire while they talked, her dark hair hiding her face.
     Now she smiled and got
     up, excusing herself.
    ‘Perhaps you men would like to go through into the study. I’ve lit the fire there.’
    Shepherd looked to the T’ang, who gave the slightest nod of agreement before standing
     and bowing to his hostess. Again he thanked her warmly for the meal and her hospitality,
     then, when
     she had gone, went before Shepherd and his son into the other room.
    ‘Brandy?’ Shepherd turned from the wall cabinet, holding the decanter up. The T’ang
     was usually abstemious, but tonight his mood seemed different. He seemed to want to
     talk
     – to encourage talk. As if there were some real end to all this talking: some problem
     which, though he hadn’t come to it, he wished to address. Something he found difficult;
     that
     worried him profoundly.
    The T’ang hesitated, then smiled. ‘Why not? After all, a man ought to indulge himself
     now and then.’
    Shepherd poured the T’ang a fingernail’s measure of the dark liquid and handed him
     the ancient bowled glass. Then he turned to his son. ‘Ben?’
    Ben smiled almost boyishly. Are you sure mother won’t mind?’
    Shepherd winked at him. ‘Mother won’t know.’
    He handed the boy a glass, then poured one for himself and sat, facing the T’ang across
     the fire. Maybe it was time to force the pace; time to draw the T’ang out of himself.
    ‘Something’s troubling you, Shai Tung.’
    The T’ang looked up from his glass almost distractedly and gave a soft laugh. ‘Everything
     troubles me, Hal. But that’s not what you mean, is it?’
    ‘No. No visit of yours is casual, Shai Tung. You had a specific reason for coming
     to see me.’
    The T’ang’s smile was filled with gratitude. ‘As ever, Hal, you’re right. But I’ll
     need no excuse to come next time. I’ve found this very pleasant.’
    ‘Well?’
    The T’ang took a long inward breath, steeling himself, then spoke. ‘It’s Tolonen.’
    For some time now the T’ang had been under intense pressure from the House to bring
     the General to trial for the murder of Under Secretary Lehmann. They wanted Tolonen’s
     head for
     what he’d done. But the T’ang had kept his thoughts to himself about the killing.
     No one – not the Seven or Hal