The Kingdom of Four Rivers

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The Kingdom of Four Rivers Page 20

by Guy Salvidge


  They walked up to the breach, like they had done hundreds of times before. It did not usually bother Liang, but now...was he going to be trapped in the shield? Time to find out. Ji Tao went through first, determined as she was. Sovann and Liang looked at each other and followed—

  Chapter Twelve

  S: The turncoat returns. Good afternoon.

  K: I'm sorry, I—

  S: Forget it. You did well; I'm proud of you.

  K: Proud? I don't understand.

  S: Yes, proud. You don't think you would have been allowed to say those things had I not intended you to?

  K: I thought—

  S: You thought you were doing a good deed. And you are, you are. Just not the good deed you thought you were doing.

  K: What have you done?

  S: Instead you should ask, 'What have I done?' You have given me, my administration, a pretext.

  K: A pretext for what?

  S: A pretext for a crackdown. We have been monitoring a number of undesirable elements. Today my men are sweeping up these undesirables.

  K: You mean all of this...it was planned?

  S: Not precisely. There was a chance that you would follow the script after all. That would have been a different scenario, one that would have had its own benefits and shortcomings.

  K: You lied to me.

  S: No, I didn't. It was the actual truth which compelled you to act as you did. But you should have asked yourself, 'why am I being told this secret information?' You won't be speaking in public again, that's for sure. You have served your purpose, and now you will be kept here. I should warn you that it will be necessary for my government to discredit both you and your account.

  K: How could you do this?

  S: To do otherwise would be negligent. I said before that you would lie if you thought it would help people. But it seems that the other is also true—that you will tell the truth, even if it means putting yourself in danger.

  K: What will happen to me now?

  S: Nothing. You will not be harmed; I promise you that. But it will be necessary for you to remain here indefinitely. You see, you are going to be an extremely unpopular figure in Baitang society. An all-purpose scapegoat, if you will.

  K: These undesirables you speak of, does this include the Chens?

  S: You say 'the Chens' like it means something. Do you know how many Chens there are in Baitang? But to answer your question, yes and no. We were going to question some of your friends, perhaps re-educate them a little, but it seems they have taken matters into their own hands.

  K: What do you mean?

  S: Some of these Chens fled Baitang last night.

  K: They probably thought you would come after them.

  S: Probably. But there's more. There was an incident at the west gate. The guards were massacred by a mob of rioters, which included your friends.

  K: I don't believe that.

  S: You should. In fact there is some interesting footage that I will show you later. It seems one Chen Ji Tao was... how shall I put it?...deeply implicated in these events.

  K: But she got away.

  S: They got away, yes. Not only Chen Ji Tao, but Chen Liang and Chen Sovann.

  K: And now you're after them.

  S: I have another reason for wanting to bring Chen Ji Tao into custody. It seems she has something of significance. A key.

  K: A key to what?

  S: You don't know? I suppose you might not have been told. It's a key to a cryonics facility. Know which one?

  K: I can guess.

  S: You haven't asked how I know about the key. I'm not psychic, you know! But I have informants. They are my eyes and ears.

  K: Cheng must have told you.

  S: Correct! Chen Cheng is my informant. You might be interested to know that I knew nothing about this man until very recently. You yourself highlighted his potential importance to me, as you might remember. But there is something unusual about all of this, isn't there? Something unexpected.

  K: You mean that Cheng is Ji Tao's brother.

  S: Her brother, yes. It is not usually so easy to turn brother and sister against each other. But extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures, don't they?

  K: You've sent Cheng after her. That's what you've done.

  S: Correct again! The die is cast. And now we wait for young Cheng to deliver his sister to us, and more importantly the key. And then we shall pay a visit to some of your contemporaries, I think. I wonder if they will prove more loyal than you have done, Kai Sen?

  *

  It was raining again. Not for the first time, Liang wondered whether they would have been better off risking capture at home. No one had spoken for a long time. There was Ji Tao trudging onward, soaked to the skin, and Sovann peering up at the heavy clouds. And the jungle, always the jungle—at least the mosquitoes had left them alone for now. It would be dark soon.

  “We can't make Zizhong,” Liang said. No response. Had they heard him? How could he be sure that he had he spoken at all? “We can't make it,” he repeated.

  “What do we do then?” Sovann said, her voice distant.

  “We can't go back,” Ji Tao said. “We've got to keep going.”

  “We need to find somewhere dry,” Liang insisted. Normally he admired his cousin's determination, but sometimes it bordered on pigheadedness.

  “Come on,” he said. “Ji Tao.”

  Liang stopped, and Sovann sat down in the mud. But Ji Tao kept walking. “I can see someone,” she said. “On the road.”

  Liang looked up the road, which was barely visible in the gloom. He saw nothing except for his cousin, splashing through muddy pools of water.

  “I'm not going any further,” Sovann said. She was filthy and shivering. Rain was hitting her face but she made no attempt to shield herself.

  “We've got to get you dry,” Liang said. But how to achieve this? Everything was saturated. Their bread was mouldy, their bedrolls soaked. There was nowhere to go, no place to hide. Liang's bones were starting to ache from the damp. He attended to Sovann, trying to cheer her up. It was useless; she was disconsolate. And now Ji Tao was out of sight.

  “Get up,” Liang said. No response. Then he was angry—angry at Ji Tao for her stubbornness and Sovann for her lassitude. “Come on! We'll die here! Get up!”

  Slowly, Sovann got to her feet. “Where are we going?” she said dully.

  “A little further. Let me help you.”

  He virtually had to drag her along the path. Liang had no energy left, no ideas. Sovann wasn't heavy, but she was as uncooperative as a sulky child.

  “I can see Ji Tao,” he lied. “There she is.”

  “Where?” Sovann said, not bothering to raise her head.

  But wait—Ji Tao really was there, and she was talking to someone in a waterproof jacket. Ji Tao was pointing through the rain at Sovann and himself.

  “There she is,” Liang said. “I told you.”

  Seeing the sorry state of her companions, Ji Tao came a little way back along the path toward them.

  “Hurry up,” she said. “I've found shelter.”

  That motivated Sovann more than anything Liang could have said. Suddenly she seemed interested.

  “Where is it?” Liang asked.

  “He'll show us,” Ji Tao said. “Come on.”

  The shelter turned out to be little more than a lean-to, but Liang was grateful nonetheless. The jacketed man had tied a sheet of tarpaulin between an old fence post and the trunk of a tree. The four of them huddled in the muddy hollow beneath the tarpaulin. It was too wet for a fire, but they had torches to see by. Liang made sure that Sovann lay between Ji Tao and himself. He rubbed her cold arms, trying to squeeze some life back into them. Thankfully, the rain was abating.

  “You should have come prepared!” their benefactor said. He was a round man with a chubby face and yellow teeth.

  “We were in a hurry,” Liang said. “We're trying to get to Luihang. I'm Chen Liang, by the way.”

/>   “Mo Ti,” the man said. “You can't get through to Luihang; they've blocked the road at Zizhong. That's why I'm heading back.”

  “Who blocked the road?”

  “The government. I think they want to round everyone up. I heard shooting at Zizhong. And I saw a metal bird on the ground—I can't remember the proper name for it. I haven't seen one since I was a boy.”

  A metal bird? “They fly in this metal thing?” Liang asked.

  “I think so. It had a sort of spinning blade on top of it. But I didn't hang around long enough to find out. From the sounds of it, they were shooting everybody.”

  “We can't go back to Baitang,” Ji Tao insisted.

  “So you keep saying,” Liang said.

  As they recuperated, Mo Ti explained that although he had not been at the Autumn Symposium, some friends of his had been there. He and his friends had got out of Baitang shortly before the gate had been closed, but then a patrol had picked them up. Mo Ti's friends had been arrested, and he had only escaped by fleeing into the jungle.

  “And now you're going back to Baitang?” Ji Tao asked him.

  “I haven't done anything wrong,” he said. “What can they do to me?”

  Liang told Mo Ti about the incident at the west gate and the shooting of the guards. “That must have been shortly after my friends got picked up,” Mo Ti said. “I hope they're all right.”

  “I don't think it's a good idea to go back to Baitang,” Liang said. “They might try to link you with the shootings.”

  “What the hell?” Mo Ti said. “I should have stayed at home.”

  “At least you're a free man tonight,” Liang said. “Hey, have you got anything to eat? Most of our stuff is ruined.”

  Mo Ti shared his food with them, which consisted of a couple of flasks of cold soup and some jerky. Then they huddled against the wind.

  “We really owe you,” Liang said. “I don't know what we would have done. I've got this green jade, shaped like a dragon.”

  “That's okay,” Mo Ti said. “Maybe you can help me too. You said you want to go to Luihang, right? Well, maybe we can still get there, just not through Zizhong.”

  “You mean go through the jungle?” Liang said.

  “There's no other way,” Ji Tao said. “Unless the troops at Zizhong give up and fly off in their metal bird.”

  “I doubt that,” Mo Ti said.

  “Do you know any jungle paths?” Liang asked.

  “Nope,” Mo Ti said. “I was hoping you did.”

  “Cousins Ji Tao and Sovann did some exploring in the jungle, not far from here. That was only a few weeks ago.”

  “Yeah,” Sovann said. “Want to tell him what we saw?”

  “Ah,” Liang said. “It's nothing like what we'll see in Baitang if we show our faces there any time soon.”

  “I'm worried about uncle Tuan and aunt Rong Li,” Ji Tao said.

  “What did you see, Chen Sovann?” Mo Ti asked.

  “Uh, we saw some cannibals,” Liang said.

  “Not exactly,” Ji Tao said. “It was a dead man with his chest ripped out. And besides, that was further west of here.”

  “I don't like the sound of that,” Mo Ti said. “Are they really cannibals?”

  “I don't know,” Liang said. “It could have been a tiger.”

  “Tigers don't hang people from trees,” Sovann said.

  Given the situation, sleep did not come easily. Liang was weary and yet his mind refused to let him rest. For a long time he looked at the stitching on the corner of the tarpaulin. When he closed his eyes, all he could see were the faces of the mutilated guards. He saw the last guard been dragged outside again, brains spilling out of his head. The others eventually dozed off. Sovann's chest rose and fell against him. At least she was warm now. Mo Ti was snoring. Liang couldn't get the faces out of his mind. His brain had rebelled against his wishes. In desperation, he considered getting up, but realised that he couldn't do so without waking the others.

  After a while, paranoid ideas began to percolate in his tired imagination. What if Kai Sen was part of a plan to get rid of the Chens and others like them? He was a sleeper, wasn't he? Why did Ji Tao trust him? What about his letter to Ji Tao, denouncing Cheng? Cheng had never seemed like such a bad fellow. Maybe Kai Sen had wanted Ji Tao to turn against her brother. But Cheng could be in on the plot to get him too. It was all so confusing. And then there was Bao Min....

  Morning. It was still early, but Sovann was stirring. Yawning, Liang wriggled out from under the tarpaulin and got up. His clothes were all muddy. He would have to wash them in the river. Liang looked at Sovann's mud-streaked face, her eyelids fluttering, and then he noticed something.

  Mo Ti was gone.

  Had he gone to the toilet? If he had done so, then he had taken all his possessions with him, except for the tarpaulin. Puzzled, Liang looked around. There was no sign of him. Then Liang realised that his backpack had been moved. It had been next to him before and now it was down near where his feet had been.

  Opening the flap, Liang confirmed what he already suspected: the green jade was gone. At least he hadn't stolen everything. You're an idiot, Liang said to himself. Why did you mention the jade to him? But it could have been worse. They had lost the jade but gained the tarpaulin, as well as the food Mo Ti had given them. Perhaps it was a fair trade after all.

  “We've been robbed,” Liang said to Sovann when she finally opened her eyes.

  “What?”

  “The jade. Mo Ti stole it and now he's run off.”

  “What's that?” Ji Tao said, rubbing her eyes. “Mo Ti's gone?”

  “Mo Ti stole the green jade,” Liang said. “I know, I shouldn't have mentioned it to him. It's not that important. The tarpaulin is more useful anyway,” he said in conclusion. Ji Tao nodded, but Sovann said nothing.

  The sun was high now, the heat oppressive. By the time they had reached a familiar bend in the river, close to Zizhong, it was nearly midday. The trickle of lost souls coming the other way had dried up. Whatever had happened at Zizhong was over. Liang's head was pounding, his thoughts confused.

  “Let's get off the road now,” Liang said. “Come on, Ji Tao.” He was somewhat surprised when she complied with his request. He had half wondered whether she had intended to hand herself in at Zizhong. Hiding in the undergrowth, Liang tried to sneak a glance at the path into the crumbled town. He saw nothing untoward.

  “Doesn't look like anyone's there,” he said.

  Ji Tao was leaning with her back against a tree. “I can't be sure,” she said.

  “Wait,” Sovann said, crouching nearby. “I hear something.”

  Someone was coming up behind them. Guards perhaps? Liang heard footsteps crunching dead leaves. “Quick, get down!” he hissed. They pressed themselves into the dirt. Voices. But now Liang couldn't see anything except mud. From the sound of it, two or three people were coming along the road. Ji Tao raised her head out of the undergrowth to get a better look.

  “What can you see?” Sovann whispered.

  “Shhh,” Liang said.

  Ji Tao pressed herself into the mud again. “Be quiet,” she whispered. The voices approached, then receded as they passed their hiding place.

  “It's Cheng,” Ji Tao said abruptly.

  “What? Then why are we hiding?” Liang asked.

  “See for yourselves,” she said, lifting herself into a sitting position. Sovann and Liang got to their knees and looked at the path. Three figures, their backs turned, were walking into Zizhong. They were about one hundred metres away. The three people were wearing green tunics, the uniform of the Inner Shield Authority. One of them was certainly Cheng. As they watched, Cheng and his accomplices stepped under the ruined archway. Guards appeared brandishing rifles, seemingly having come out of nowhere. Liang realised that they had been hiding on the other side of the wall. And now Cheng was being ushered out of view, into Zizhong itself.

  Liang sat down in the mud, his knees throbbing. “Well, I can't bel
ieve it,” he said.

  “I told you before,” Ji Tao said. “He's working for them.”

  “What do you think he's doing here?” Sovann asked.

  “Isn't it obvious? He's been sent after us.”

  “Why?” Sovann said. “I don't understand—we haven't done anything.”

  “They saw Ji Tao on that view screen,” Liang pointed out. “They must think she was involved in the shootings at the guardhouse.”

  “No,” Ji Tao said, shaking her head. “That's not the important thing. They want the key. That's why Cheng is here.”

  Liang was confused. “What key?”

  “The key to the crypt where we found Kai Sen. You know, the lift key. I've still got it, remember? They can't get in without it.”

  Now he understood. “There are more sleepers down there. More like Kai Sen.”

  “Yes, and not only that—also supplies, equipment, all sorts of stuff. Bao Min couldn't get all the loot by himself, so he recruited Cheng to help him.”

  “Cheng and his family who were conveniently in Luihang at the time,” Sovann added. “And we helped him.”

  “Right,” Ji Tao said. “But something went wrong. We ran into those scavengers and lost two of the caravans. Then we ended up getting down to the crypt before Cheng and Bao Min could.”

  “So now they want to wake the other sleepers, but they can't get down there without the key,” Ji Tao said.

  “Bury it here,” Sovann said. “They'll never find it.”

  “No,” Liang said. “They'll torture us. I don't think we'd be able to stand up to that.”

  “Then we'll destroy it,” Sovann said. “It wouldn't be hard.”

  “You're looking at this the wrong way, Sovann,” Ji Tao said. She showed them that she was wearing the key on a chain around her neck, under her clothes. “This key is the only thing we have going for us. Think about it. What do we matter to them? We're nothing. They can shoot us if we get in their way, or lock us up and leave us to rot.”

  “Right,” Liang said. “But they need the key first. Once they've got the key, we don't matter any more. Right now we're important.”

 

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