The Eleventh Tiger (33 page)

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.

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 no 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.

Kei-Ying drew the Doctor aside. ‘You’re worried about her too.’

The Doctor nodded. ‘She is a friend, yes, as is Ian. I fear that to lose one of them would be to lose the other.’

‘If you’ll pardon my saying, Doctor-sifu, you look like one who has lost someone close already.’

‘I was thinking about my granddaughter. She left me recently, you see.’

Kei-Ying nodded understandingly. ‘She’s back in England?

In London?’

‘Yes, yes, in a manner of speaking. She chose to stay behind.’

The Doctor’s eyes became unfocused, as if he was looking at something - or someone - impossibly far away. He fell silent for a moment and Kei-Ying fancied he could feel something of what the Doctor must be feeling. Fei-Hung would set up his own school and surgery some day, gods willing, and Kei-Ying could see himself wearing that expression when he did.

‘She just didn’t realise,’ the Doctor continued, ‘or perhaps I should say understand, that she had made that decision.’

‘Your granddaughter... Do you have sons, Doctor? Or daughters? Or both?’

The Doctor seemed surprised by the question. ‘Yes, hmm, I suppose you could put it that way. Sons or daughters, or both, yes.’

‘Then we must make sure this threat doesn’t last to threaten our sons or daughters.’

‘I quite agree. The conjunction I spoke of before will begin at the moment of totality as seen from Xi’an.’

‘And when will that be?’

‘At exactly eight minutes past midnight. And, whatever happens, we must be there to stop Qin - or whatever is behind him - from exploiting it.’

‘How?’

The Doctor didn’t answer. Kei-Ying searched his face, knowing in his gut the only answer the Doctor could have in mind. The Doctor’s eyes remained level and determined, indomitable.

‘What exactly is it that you’re expecting, Doctor? Men from Mars to land?’

‘Whatever our opponent is, it comes from much further away than Mars. The other end of the line of focus formed by the conjunction is millions of times further away.’

Iron Bridge Three sniffed slightly. ‘Yes, well obviously we have to worry about the troops as well as this conjunction thing.’

‘Troops?’

‘This man Qin, or whatever he’s calling himself, isn’t just relying on those two generals and help from the hells. No, he has a large number of living troops and we’ll have to deal with them.’

‘Won’t they be at Chang’an?’ Ian asked.

Almost everyone at the table shook their heads as one. The major answered. ‘What’s the point in taking towns and villages if all his troops are already in one place? He must have left them scattered along the line from Chang’an to here.’

‘But the town we found was abandoned.’

‘Because it will have been taken by his own personal staff.

They go where he goes. They’ll be in Chang’an with him, but most of the Black Flag members and whatever other thugs he’s persuaded - no offence to our guests - will be scattered around.’

‘If we can stop him exploiting the conjunction,’ the Doctor said, ‘nothing will happen in those towns, and Qin’s followers will simply drift away.’

‘And if we can’t, a civil war,’ Kei-Ying said gloomily.

‘I’m afraid so.’

‘Then we must be prepared for both eventualities,’

Chesterton said. ‘We need forces to be ready at those places where we know there are Qin loyalists, and another group to go after Qin himself.’

‘The men who follow him were formerly Black Flag members,’ Kei-Ying said. ‘I find it a vile idea to face Black Flag against Black Flag, but it is an internal Chinese matter and an internal Black Flag matter.’ He looked around the table, a faint smile playing across his features. ‘I suggest that the Tigers take militia troops on manoeuvres near the places where Qin has forces.’

‘Agreed,’ the Doctor said. ‘In fact, the very suggestion I myself was about to make. Meanwhile, I shall go to find a way to prevent Qin’s plans from succeeding, and to rescue my friend Barbara.’

‘Me too,’ Ian said.

‘And me,’ Vicki piped up.

Fei-Hung looked to his father, who nodded. ‘We will go with you, Doctor.’

‘So will I,’ Major Chesterton said finally. ‘Logan, I’ll want a platoon of volunteers.’

Vicki, Ian and the Doctor remained in the officers’ mess when the others dispersed.

‘Doctor,’ Ian asked, ‘how exactly are we supposed to get to Chang’an? It’s hundreds of miles away

‘- and we must be there tonight, yes.’ The Doctor’s face was troubled, his tone tired.

Vicki was about to suggest that they fly, but held her tongue. She wasn’t sure whether powered flight had been invented yet, and had already embarrassed herself enough by getting things wrong.

She caught Ian’s eyes, and mimed an aeroplane movement with her hand, behind the Doctor’s back. Ian smiled and shook his head, then mouthed ‘1903’.

‘We can’t exactly use the TARDIS,’ Ian said aloud.

‘No. I rather think we must use our enemy’s own energies against it, just as I did with that ruffian Jiang.’

‘But what energy?’

‘Some kind of plasma-based helix. I suspect, you know, that the supernatural occurrences people have reported are signs of leakage or corruption from the energy that has already been sent to control Qin and his Generals.’

‘Perhaps we can find a way to hijack it?’ Vicki suggested.

‘Sort of, hack into it or pirate it.’

Ian snapped his fingers. ‘What about the monk? The one who was Zhao? Surely he had the same ability as the other one?’

‘Yes, yes, of course, but he hasn’t now, has he?’

‘No, but could he have, if you accessed those - what did you call them - secondary memories?’

The Doctor brightened immediately. ‘I really have no idea,’

he admitted, ‘but it must be worth trying!’

Outside the hill where Barbara and Qin had arrived earlier, exhausted civilians were preparing ramps up out of the earth, and carrying stacks of new swords and rifles to racks that filled long wooden cabins.

Gao, his eyeless sockets glowing, walked among the workers, his head swinging from side to side. The workers had done well, producing new weapons for the army that would soon be reborn.

A few minutes after Gao had passed, a ring of electricity pulled back from a point a few feet above the ground. Major Chesterton came through first, quickly followed by Logan, Ian, the Wongs, the Doctor, Vicki, and a platoon of armed men led by Anderson.

The fiery gateway closed behind them.

As soon as he saw the hill, the Doctor sucked air in through his teeth. ‘That will be the receiving point for the energy. We must get inside. The main entrance seems to have been excavated, but it will be guarded.’

‘We could use Cheng’s cave,’ Kei-Ying suggested. ‘It must be in this hill, if this is where it all started.’

‘That will be for you to do,’ the Doctor said. ‘I rather think it’s time I met this Qin Shi Huangdi.’

‘You can’t be serious,’ Ian protested. ‘He’ll kill you, or at least take you prisoner.’

‘Yes, Chesterfield, he might. But sometimes we must face up to such dangers, mustn’t we? Besides which I have a feeling that if he has kept Barbara alive to make her an offer, as Vicki told us, he might make me the same one.’

‘He tried to have Jiang kill you.’

‘Then I imagine it means these great celestial intelligences are not so infallible, hmm? You see there’s always a bright side.’ The cheerful smile froze on his face. ‘Vicki, Chesterton, I’ve been such a foolish old goat!’

‘No,’ Vicki protested, ‘that’s impossible, and you know it.’

‘I’ve been thinking - we all have - that this Qin of yours must have a military reason for coming south.’

‘Well, he is a warlord, and he must be a successful one if he really was the emperor.’

‘A military man would be looking for resources,’ the Doctor explained, ‘seeking to get things for himself and deny them to the enemy. He would be looking for targets he could take and hold.’

‘So?’ Vicki asked.

‘So Qin hasn’t done that.’

‘But he’s taken dozens of places. Just look at the map.’

‘That’s just what I have done, child. Looked, really looked, at the map. And the places he has been taking are all old places. Places with ancient temples and geological faults.