Daylight on Iron Mountain (45 page)

Meng swallowed, then looked down. His tone had changed, becoming less formal. ‘Tell Jake this… We are not giving up. Shu Liang agrees with me. We’re to meet this morning and devise a new strategy. The Changs think they’ve won, only… well, we will not give up. But look, Jake doesn’t have to be there. We can keep him advised, consult with him by this means. No…
thinking about it, you must keep Jake there with you,
Fu Jen
Reed. Keep him safe and out of their hands, neh? Because who knows what these bastards are capable of ? I thought… well, let’s not speak of common decency. These are evil men, and it is our duty to see them brought to justice. It goes beyond the case now. Beyond contracts and agreements. If those bastards want a war…’

Meng stopped. His chest rose and fell. ‘Forgive me. I didn’t mean…’

But Mary was nodding now. ‘You are right, Advocate Meng. I didn’t see it until now. I was… afraid. But what you say is true. We thought the war was happening elsewhere. But it’s right here, among us, neh? And we must choose sides. Before it’s too late. Before those insects eat us all from within!’

Meng smiled. ‘Then I will let you know what is decided, neh? Until then, take good care and be safe. Kuan Yin preserve you!’

And with that he cut connection.

Mary sat back, taking a long, calming breath, even as Jake appeared in the doorway, towelling his hair.

‘Who was that?’

She turned to him and smiled. ‘It was Advocate Meng. He’s safe and well.’

‘And Shu Liang?’

‘Is alive.’

‘Good…’ Jake looked relieved. ‘What did Meng say?’

‘He says we’re to fight on. And he’s right. I understand that now, Jake. We can’t just lie down and let them trample on us.’

Jake went across and, pulling her up out of her seat, held her a moment.

‘Jake?’

‘Yes, my love?’

‘Can we destroy those tapes? Take them to the oven man to burn?’

Jake smiled sadly, then kissed the top of her head. ‘I’ll do it now. Before the girls get here.’

Jake paused, there in the corridor outside their apartment, listening. Maybe it was his imagination but sometimes he thought he could hear it all, there like the faintest murmur, the whole thing masked by the sound of the fans, pumping the air about the levels.

Ten thousand murmuring voices.

He had thrown the tapes into the ovens for himself, then had stood there afterwards, chatting with the oven man, conscious of the huge stack of plastic coffins – each one containing an unburned body – that filled the corridors outside his quarters. Victims of the latest rioting.

He hadn’t thought it had been so serious, so costly in lives. But there it was, the brutal fact of it, stacked up along the walls of the corridor.

So much violence. And for what? Only he knew it was wrong to seek any kind of sense in it. People were people. They weren’t logical, sensible machines. Not even the best of them. No. This had been coming for a long while. All of that repressed anger, repressed fear. This ‘War’ had found an outlet for them.

Jake let himself in then paused, smiling, hearing Beth’s voice. At least she’d got here safe and unscathed.

‘Mary, Beth, I…’

He stopped. Oh God… What now?

Because Mary had been crying. She got up and came across to him. ‘Jake… Ludo has just been on…’

‘Ludo?’

‘At GenSyn. He asked me to get you to call him.’

‘Did he say why?’

She nodded. ‘I think you should speak to him. I…’ She looked to Beth. ‘Look, we’ll take the kids and go and do some shopping. Leave you be.’

‘Mary?’

‘No. Just call him. Okay?’

Jake waited, while they tried to find Ludo and connect him.

Jake knew it wasn’t good news. Good news wouldn’t have made Mary cry and behave as she had. The question was, what kind of bad news was it? Were GenSyn pulling the plug? Had they decided not to fund Jake’s case any longer? Or was it something worse than that? Only what
could
be worse?

He quickly found out.

‘
Aiya
… Does her son know?’

Ludo Ebert was very like his father, Gustav. He nodded, his grey eyes moist. ‘I called him first, before I called you. He’s… devastated.’

Jake let out a long breath. ‘I don’t know what to say. I… I thought she was
okay. I thought… well, I thought she could handle it all. She seemed so tough. So…’

Self-reliant
. But he knew, even as the phrase came to mind, that it wasn’t what he had thought. Not when they’d been together, anyway. There had always been something brittle, something fragile about her.

Besides, maybe she was right. Maybe she understood better than any of them what was to come. For if Tsao Ch’un won – and it seemed now that he had – then they were
all
for it. Lined up against the wall.

If they were that lucky, and didn’t end up on the torturer’s slab.

Like Chris and Hugo and Jenny. Because nothing had really changed. Tsao Ch’un was still in charge.

He met Ludo’s eyes again. ‘What’s going to happen? Is there going to be a service of some kind, or… I guess everything’s up in the air right now, right?’

Ludo nodded. ‘It is. But if anything happens I’ll let you know. And Jake… I hope I can meet you, once all of this is over. In better times. I…’ He shrugged. ‘Well… keep safe, neh? And keep your head down.’

Then he cut connection.

Jake stood there, holding on to the edge of the table. Kate, and Annie, and now Alison. All the women in his life, dead. All except one.

He took a breath, then spoke to the screen. ‘Get me Peter. Tell him I need to speak to him right now.’

Meng Hsin-fa paused outside the restaurant, regaining his composure. That morning’s news had shaken him. He had come to like Advocate Yang a very great deal. And as for Chi Lin Lin… What a darling boy he’d been.

Shu Liang was waiting for him inside, on the far side of the dining area. Meng looked about him, surprised by how empty it was, how few diners there were. Only why should that be strange? The world was at war. And only fools and madmen acted as if nothing had changed.

So which was he?

Shu Liang greeted him, then gestured towards the meal that was spread out before him.

‘Help yourself, Meng Hsin-fa. Big as I am, there’s plenty for us both.’

Meng sat, then looked about him, surprised by the sheer amount of food
that filled the table. It was a nine-platter meal, at the centre of which were the three meat dishes: pork, stir-fried; Pei Ching duck, glazed a golden red, with the head left on; and pangolin – anteater – boiled and skinned, cooked in ginger and garlic and surrounded on the dish by tiny crabs, turtles and sea slugs. Arranged around these were six other dishes: spicy bean curd; pineapple, to strengthen the stomach; two kinds of noodles; a huge bowl of boiled rice; some small meat dumplings; and as a starter, tiger and phoenix soup.

Seeing all this, Meng stared in wonder. Barring celebratory feasts he had attended, he had never seen such a spread. No wonder Shu was the size he was.

Only he had no appetite right now. The tapes had robbed him of his hunger. The only hunger he had now was for revenge.

‘Shu Liang…’

Shu Liang raised a hand. Then, taking a plate, he began to pick from this dish and that, talking as he did.

‘My reasoning is this. That, things being as they are in the greater world, our friends the Changs will think themselves unassailable. The mere fact that we are associated with GenSyn will, so they’ll believe, drag us down. And yet the law is the law. And we are mere hirelings. It might be argued that we are not to blame for the sins of our clients. Even assuming that we are, how could we get around such a problem?’

Shu Liang paused, took one last rather large spoonful of rice, then set his plate down in front of him. That done, he looked to Meng again.

‘Let me suggest the following solution. That you and I – and I mean not to railroad you into this, forgive me if it seems like such – but that you and I… well… we take this case on separate from GenSyn. That is… that we do the thing without charge.’

‘Without charge?’ But Meng didn’t mean it to sound quite like that. It was just that he had been thinking the same coming over here.

‘If you wish to withdraw, Meng Hsin-fa?’

‘No, no. Not at all. I think that it’s a splendid idea. I think…’

He paused, as Shu Liang raised his chopsticks to his mouth and swallowed down a huge portion of duck and rice.

He leaned towards Shu Liang. ‘To be blunt about it, Shu Liang, I want to nail these fuckers. I want to make them crawl and beg for mercy for what they’ve done. And even then… well, justice is not enough, don’t you think?
I want more than that. I want to humiliate them and make it impossible for them to show their faces in polite society ever again.’

Shu Liang swallowed another huge mouthful of food, nodding as he did. He swallowed, then gestured towards Meng with one of his chopsticks.

‘Then we are of one mind, Meng Hsin-fa. For I shall not rest until I see those bastards humbled and hung out to dry. Curse their evil black souls. I mean…’

He leaned forward, taking another huge pile of duck and rice.

‘…buying judges is one thing, but what they did to Chi Lin Lin… to involve the brotherhoods…’

Shu Liang frowned, then put one hand to his chest. ‘Forgive me, I…’ He belched, then made to smile at Meng apologetically, only the smile became a look of surprise.

‘This duck…’

Shu Liang dropped his chopsticks and grabbed the edge of the table. His face was a strange colour suddenly, his eyes…

He tried to get up, to haul himself up onto his feet, his chest convulsing now, his eyes seeming to pop out from his face.

Meng stood, going round the table to try to help him, but it was already too late. Shu Liang’s hand went to his throat, and then he fell. Sideways and backwards, his huge weight pulling the chair down with him, the tablecloth catching in the big man’s hand, pulling all the dishes down on top of him as he crashed to the ground.

‘
Aiya!
’ Meng cried, knowing that he too had been meant to be a victim of this; seeing how Shu Liang gasped for air now, his face an ugly purple, his huge chest heaving like some animal were trying to force its way out of him.

‘Shu Liang! Shu Liang!’

Only Shu Liang was dead. He lay there now, staring up at the lanterns overhead, his swollen, sea-green eyes stranger yet in the plum-coloured bruise that was his face.

‘Kuan Yin preserve us,’ Meng said, falling to his knees. Only he knew now it would take more than the Goddess of Mercy to protect him. Because this had ceased being a court case. This now was war. And no judges to rule on what was right or wrong.

*

Judge Yo stepped through into the hushed silence of the courtroom, looking to his left as he did and smiling to himself, seeing that it was empty. No presence at all on any of the benches.

He took his seat, smoothing out his silks.

‘Advocate Hui,’ he began. He looked to his right, where the Changs and their advocates sat, five deep on the benches there, and the Judge felt a deep satisfaction that matters had been settled finally. ‘I understand that
Shih
Reed has decided not to pursue his case.’

Hui stepped out into the space before Judge Yo then bowed low. ‘It is so, my Lord.’

‘Then it is my ruling…’

But Yo Jou Hsi never completed his ruling. Right then the doors at the far end burst open and Security officers flooded the floor of the courtroom.

For a moment there was uproar, and then Judge Yo banged his gavel.

‘What in the gods’ names is meant by this? By whose authority do you invade my courtroom?’

One of the Security men – a full major by the look of the leaping tiger on his chest patch – confronted Judge Yo.

‘Yo Jou Hsi,’ he began, reading from a scroll he had unfurled. ‘I am arresting you for conspiracy to prevent the just outcome of the case of Reed versus the MicroData Corporation.’

Judge Yo was outraged. He stood and then turned, looking towards the Changs, as if for some explanation. But Chang Yi Wei, the eldest and most senior of the clan, was being handcuffed right then, while another of the soldiers was reading out the charge against him. A charge of murder and conspiracy to murder.

As for Advocate Hui, he had been forced to the ground and was being read his rights, the big man squirming as he tried to free himself, all dignity gone from him.

‘This is outrageous!’ Chang Yi Wei yelled, as he was half-pulled, half-shoved, up the steps and out of the courtroom. ‘You’ll pay for this! Just you wait! I’ll have you stripped down to a common soldier, see if I don’t! You think GenSyn will save your arse? Not if our great Lord, Tsao Ch’un has his way!’

War. Yes, this was war. Only things weren’t decided yet. And until they were…

Looking on, using a screen further down the corridor, Meng Hsin-fa wondered how long it would be before Chang Yi Wei bought himself a judge and got his freedom again. Not long, perhaps. But it bought Meng time. And in that time he could find other reasons to incarcerate and slow them down. To buy decisions, the way they were wont to do. And to use the law the same way that they did, to make things swing his way.

After all, what did it matter now if he were ultimately disbarred? Unless he fought them now there was no chance. And besides, he no longer cared. Not since they’d killed his friends.

Yes, they had missed a chance when they hadn’t simply put a bullet through his head. They’d thought that they’d get him along with Shu Liang. Only they hadn’t. And now that small omission would come back to haunt them.

And to litigate against them
, Meng thought, smiling grimly. For whether Tsao Ch’un won or didn’t win seemed irrelevant now. He could not wait for the world to find its balance once again. He had to act now. To bring them low. To make them…

Meng Hsin-fa smiled broadly at the thought. To make them pariahs, smeared by so many accusations that they could not go out in public for fear of lost face.

Why he almost laughed. But laughter wasn’t appropriate. Not after what they had done. If he’d had a gun…