Or had Gao not kept his word to release her? Would she follow his older self into death today, killed by a captor who had no further use for her?
Not knowing the answers to any of these questions, Ian fired once, then again and again. Major Chesterton crumpled, his ankle turning under him, and crashed to the ground.
CHAPTER SIX
Last Hero in China
l
It was like stepping through a doorway. One moment they had been in the terraced garden outside the old monastery, and suddenly Barbara and Qin were standing on a dark, rain-soaked hillside, overlooking a vast temporary camp that would have put the preparations for D-Day to shame.
A city of yurts and tents was spread across broad, dusty fields on every side. Wooden cabins and huts clustered around the base of the hill. Some had simple iron chimneys burping out foul, black smoke. The doom-laden thump of mechanical workings rolled up the hill towards them.
Guards were patrolling everywhere, and troops were drilling in the open spaces left between the blocks of tents. Civilians were hard at work, fetching and carrying. Some wore the robes of monks, and Barbara fancied that she now knew what had happened to the population of the town she had been in previously.
The hill itself seemed to be square, with relatively straight sides rising to the summit. It was more like a squat pyramid, Barbara thought, than a natural hill. It squatted against the fields like a limpet or barnacle on a ship’s hull, parasitically holding on to the land.
Then Barbara felt a pressure behind her ears, and the world around her disappeared again.
She woke up retching, with no idea how much time had passed. She was in a small, stone room. There were no windows, but the door was open and led out into a stone corridor. An oil lamp just outside the door cast a dim, honeyed light into the room. There was very little dust and the air was thick and heavy, having been trapped for a length of time that Barbara could only guess at, but which she suspected would be measured in centuries.
The abbot, or Qin, was watching her as she got groggily to her feet. ‘Welcome back, woman,’ he said. He didn’t seem angry any more.
‘Where are we?’
‘In my mausoleum.’
There were painted friezes on the walls depicting hunting scenes, parades and caravans travelling through mushroom-shaped mountains. At the centre of every scene was a large man who carried a paunch ahead of him like a prow. He was wearing quilted robes and a sort of wide cummerbund. On his head was a kind of mortarboard with a row of tassels at the front and back. He might almost be a comical figure, Barbara thought, except for the face.
It was a face that could adorn the posters in Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, or give Stalin nightmares. Fierce, burning eyes looked out from a proud snarl and a Rasputinesque beard. It was the face of a man who knew he had the power of life and death over everyone he could ever meet, and could not imagine living any other way.
Barbara’s gaze followed the abbot’s as he noticed the friezes. He reached out a hand to touch the painted face, and put the other to his own cheek.
‘This is...’
‘You, I suppose,’ Barbara said. ‘Qin Shi Huangdi.’
‘So you accept the truth? That is good. I may yet let you live.’
He seemed to be struggling with the words, and she got the feeling he was trying to justify something to himself.
‘In any case, your friend Ian did what he was told. Gao reports that he shot Major Chesterton, and so nipped in the bud any coalition to move against me. He will be hanged, of course. He is now a murderer, after all.’
‘I don’t believe it! Ian wouldn’t harm anyone!’
‘Would you harm someone to save the life of someone you loved?’
She didn’t answer. She didn’t have to.
‘So would he. And I have kept my word and spared your life.’
‘Why?’ She didn’t know much about the First Emperor, but she knew he was supposed to be vengeful and sadistic. ‘Why keep me alive instead of killing me?’
He turned away, refusing to meet her eyes, and she realised the truth.
‘I said maybe you were out-possessed...’ She tried to meet his eyes, but he avoided her. ‘You can’t kill me, can you?
That other creature, the one that’s inside you, has other plans, and it won’t let you kill me!’
‘Nonsense!’ He slapped her. ‘I do as I please.’
He dragged her out into the corridor. Oil lamps were burning at regular intervals, and the darkness above them had a weight that made Barbara uncomfortable. She wondered if there was a whole mountain over her head, threatening to crash down on her at any moment. Set into the wall at the end of the corridor was a plain, undecorated slab. A ramp of desiccated skeletons climbed halfway up it, their twig-like fingers reaching out for the freedom that was separated from them by the stone.
Leathery skin was shrink-wrapped around their bones, bearded with patches of fungus that had dried to dust centuries ago. They looked as if they had simply grown older and more decrepit with the passing of centuries, and had eventually forgotten to die and rot.
‘Who were they?’
Qin didn’t spare the skeletons a glance. ‘Labourers, masons, painters. People who could not be trusted to keep what they had seen to themselves.’ He compared his own hand to one of those that had been mummified by the sealed-in air. ‘They were supposed to serve me in heaven, until my return.’ He dropped the hand he’d been holding and kicked its owner, who exploded into choking dust. ‘They didn’t.’
He passed by the ramp and led Barbara into a larger chamber.
Several sarcophagi lay in the darkness sealed with heavy, stone lids. Despite her fear, Barbara couldn’t resist looking at the carvings on the sides. This was an opportunity that could never come again. She knew she was inside the tomb of the First Emperor, and she also knew it had never been discovered by archaeologists or historians. Not in her time, anyway.
The carvings on the sarcophagi showed loving, romantic scenes of courting, and couples holding hands.
‘Your wives... or mistresses?’
‘Concubines,’ Qin said. He stroked the top of the nearest sarcophagus. ‘I had forgotten these…’
He stopped to look at the sarcophagus and his hands moved towards its lid as if he wanted to remove it. His hands fell, and Barbara was relieved. All that could be inside -
hopefully - would be another desiccated mummy, or an ivory skeleton, or simply a layer of dust. None of these would be the best way to remember a wife or lover. If it was her, she decided, she would rather not see what was inside, and remember her lover as he had been the last time they made love.
‘The ones who didn’t bear me sons,’ he muttered.
‘Strangled.’
Barbara’s pang of sympathy for him died quickly; more quickly than the poor women in the sarcophagi had. ‘That was their punishment, was it?’ she demanded, putting every particle of disgust that she could into her voice.
‘Punishment? No!’ Qin caressed the top of the sarcophagus again. ‘A son is an heir and needs his mother. The others... I was to love them for ever, in heaven. They would spend eternity with the one who loved them more than anyone could.’ A shadow cloaked his features. ‘They didn’t. They will be courtesans in heaven, but I remain here, to look after my empire and its people.’
Sadness had replaced the earlier anger in his voice. He might be an alien, or a spirit possessing the living, or both, but Barbara knew he was desperately unstable.
‘If this is the tomb of Qin Shi Huangdi, it’s been lost for two thousand years.’
‘Not to me.’
‘What I mean is, these oil lamps are quite small. How come they’re still burning?’
‘We are not alone here. Four of my captains are on duty.’
As if called, a shadow appeared on the wall. It was massive and bulky, and Barbara realised it was one of the hooded figures who had abducted her and Vicki from Po Chi Lam.
The figure
stepped into the light, and Barbara saw it clearly for the first time. She couldn’t believe her eyes. It was a phrase she had long thought a cliché, but now it was literally true and her mind tried to turn away from the image. It was repulsed, as a magnetic pole is repulsed by a like pole.
‘It’s impossible,’ she breathed, already feeling her voice lose control.
‘No, it isn’t. And soon you and all the gwailos in China will be seeing a lot more of them. A lot.’
Barbara finally screamed.
Ian Chesterton was slumped in the major’s office, a guard on duty outside. He didn’t know why they hadn’t put him in a cell, or even why they hadn’t simply hanged him once they had tackled him to the ground next to the major’s body. He didn’t particularly care, either. He was a murderer and if they hanged him for it, well, at least he had done his best for Barbara.
He noticed a photograph on the wall, and was momentarily surprised. He wasn’t sure when photography had been invented. The picture had a caption identifying the men as members of a Hussar company at Jaipur, five years ago.
Everyone wore old-fashioned uniforms with lots of braid and, after a moment, he recognised a face on the far left of the picture. It was the one he had looked into when he pulled the pistol’s trigger. The one he had seen in the mirror last time he shaved.
‘India, in 1860? So we don’t come here again,’ he muttered to himself. It was a strange feeling to know one’s future, he thought. The phrase ‘someone walking over my grave’ just didn’t do it justice. It was a feeling of awe at the complexity of fate, and fear at the knowledge of one’s own doom, and comfort at there being even one certainty in life, all combined to create a heaviness in the veins and a sluggishness in the mind.
He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, or just keep praying that Barbara was, and would remain, alive and healthy.
‘So,’ a familiar voice said. ‘You’re the Chesterton I’d heard so much about.’
It was none other than Major Chesterton, alive and without so much as a bloodstain on his shirt. He was wiping some parade-ground dirt off his cheek.
‘You’re still alive?’
Chesterton nodded. ‘I do so hope you’re not offended. You got that gun from a private who thought you were me, didn’t you?’
Ian nodded, dumbfounded. He didn’t know whether to be delighted or horrified that things had gone so differently from the way he had intended. How would this affect Barbara’s chances of survival? That was all that mattered. If someone had asked Ian to imagine this situation, he would have said he would want to find the kidnappers and make them pay.
He was surprised, and felt helpless, to discover that he didn’t give a fig about them. He just wanted to see Barbara once again, and hear her voice and know that she was all right.
‘I’d have done the same,’ Chesterton admitted.
Ian managed a thin, humourless smile. ‘I know.’
‘The gun was loaded with blanks. Not even much powder in them, in case you came too close. Just enough to make a noise.’
Chesterton sat down opposite Ian, and the pair spent a moment just looking at each other.
‘I would die for Barbara,’ Ian said. ‘As a matter of fact I almost have, several times. You would too.’
‘I daresay I would, if I’d ever met the lady in question.’
‘You can’t mean that,’ Ian exclaimed. ‘I... You don’t even remember Barbara?’
‘Keep your voice down, dammit,’ the major hissed. He looked round as if expecting to see all his troops listening at the door. ‘I don’t remember much of anything before this week,’ he admitted. He fingered the bump on the back of his head, and wondered how much he could trust this man.
‘I know I shouldn’t tell anyone this, but I feel I can trust you. I wish I knew why.’
I could tell you, but I doubt you’d believe it,’ Ian muttered.
‘I took a fall from my horse. It did something to my memory. I love my life in the Hussars, Ian. I’d never want to do anything else, but if word got out that I’d gone doolally I’d be back to Blighty before you could say... anything, really.’
‘But maybe the Doctor can help you recover our - your -
memory.’
‘The Doctor most certainly can,’ came another voice from the door.
It was the Doctor, of course, and Ian almost leapt out of his chair in delight.
‘You’ve been a complete idiot, Ches-Ian. Complete and total!’ The Doctor waggled a finger at Ian as if he had been scrumping apples. ‘If I hadn’t got here first, you’d have been a murderer.’
Ian’s mind reeled. ‘But if you got here first, why didn’t you say something? Why the charade with the gun and the blanks?’
‘Because young Master Wong - Fei-Hung - spotted that man Gao watching, and we decided to put on a disinformative show for him and his master.’
Ian slumped, and started to shake as all the adrenaline and tension drained away. ‘What about Barbara?’
‘I know where that abbot fellow is. We shall be dealing with him next, once we’ve decided who is to be doing what.’
‘We?’
‘Myself, Master Wong, the other Tigers and the major. We shall have a sort of council of war within the hour. In fact, just as soon as Major Chesterton here collects the remedy Master Wong has been preparing for him to sort out this memory problem.’
He looked pointedly at the major, who shrugged submis-sively. ‘I’ll go now,’ he said, and did so, leaving the Doctor and Ian alone.
‘I’m rather afraid that the major there... well... He’s not you,’ the Doctor said more quietly. ‘I was wrong, Chesterton, about your future impinging on your past.’
‘You were wrong?’ Ian wondered who the hell he had nearly killed.
‘His name is Major William Chesterton.’
‘Bill Chesterton? But that was my great-grandfather’s name-’
‘Exactly. And that is exactly who this man is.’
Ian shivered and his hands trembled. ‘You mean I nearly…’
‘Yes.’
What Ian said next, he would have been sacked for saying in front of his class at Coal Hill School.
2
The ‘council of war’ was taking place in the officers’ mess. A circle of reasonably comfortable armchairs had been pulled around a large circular table stained with rings from years of mugs of tea and flagons of beer.
Kei-Ying, Three-Legged Tham, Beggar Soh and Iron Bridge Three were huddled together, speaking rapidly. Logan watched them suspiciously. The Doctor was using pint pots to hold down the corners of a map on the table.
The two Chestertons arrived together. The major was beginning to realise that this chap Ian wasn’t so bad after all, though the resemblance between them was disturbing. He was unable to express his wonderment in mere words.
‘Upon my soul... I never imagined such a likeness was possible. Who are you, exactly?’
‘My name’s Ian.’
‘Yes, I heard that. Can’t say I’ve heard of an Ian in the family.’
‘I’m a rather distant relative, a couple of times removed.’
‘Ah.’ Now the major understood. ‘You must be one of Aunt Mary’s boys. Though you’ve done a good job of hiding the accent...’
‘Thanks,’ Ian said, then quickly changed the subject. ‘It looks like everyone’s ready for us.’
‘Yes.’ The major saw Logan salute, and returned the gesture. The captain looked as though he’d been through a nervous breakdown, though Chesterton couldn’t imagine why. Shocked by the security breach of Ian being able to wander into the garrison like that, he supposed.
Beggar Soh looked up from the other Tigers and rubbed his hands with glee. ‘Ah, there you are. As occupying powers go, you’re not really doing much with your vassal country, are you?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘I mean you’ve got your own laws here in the city, as if the Chinese didn’t have good enough ones, and outside there seems to be n
o law at all.’
Ian’s attention drifted away from the conversation and he saw Fei-Hung sitting quietly behind his father. He realised he hadn’t been able to ask the young master what had happened when he went looking for Barbara at the monastery.
He slid around the edge of the circle and reached Fei-Hung.
‘Thank you,’ he said first, ‘for all you’ve done.’
‘It was the right thing to do.’
‘Yes, it was. I sometimes wish more people in the world had your attitude. Look, I wanted to ask you: when you went to look for Barbara at the monastery, you didn’t see her at all?’
Fei-Hung shook his head. ‘I’m sorry, Ian. Neither she nor the abbot, Qin, were there. They must have left before I arrived.’
‘Yes, but how?’
‘Perhaps the same way this “General Gao” left.’
This got the Doctor’s attention. ‘And how was that?’ he asked.
‘Magic.’
The Doctor glared at him over the top of his pince-nez.
‘Nonsense, my boy.’
‘I am no liar, Doctor. He waved his hand and cut a fiery hole in the air. I could see another place through it, and then he stepped through.’
‘And the hole?’
‘Closed up after him.’
The whole story sounded preposterous to Ian, but Fei-Hung seemed earnest enough, and had proved an honest and reliable witness so far. Ian also had to ask himself whether the story was really any stranger than a police box that could disappear, and travel anywhere in time and space.
‘There are more things in heaven and earth,’ he muttered to himself under his breath.
The Doctor didn’t notice his comment. He simply tapped a forefinger on the map. ‘We know where he’s going, but that would give him a terrible advantage in speed…’
Kei-Ying had been listening to his son’s conversation with one ear and to his fellow Tigers with the other. He caught the Doctor’s eye, and both men looked from Ian to each other.
The Eleventh Tiger Page 24
