Free Wingrove, David - Chung Kuo 02 by The Broken Wheel (v3.1)[htm] Page A

payroll now, Stefan. I'm appointing you
lieutenant, as from this moment. Ranking equal with Wiegand."
    Yes, he thought.
That should take the smile from Wiegand's face.
    When Lehmann had
gone he stood and went across to the map again. In the bottom
left-hand comer the carp-shaped area that denoted the Swiss Wilds was
crisscrossed with lines, some broken, some solid. Where they met or
ended were tiny squares, representing fortresses. There were
twenty-two in all, but only fourteen of them—boxed in between
Zagreb in the southeast and Zurich in the northwest—were filled
in. These alone were finished. The eight fortresses of the western
arm remained incomplete. In four cases they had yet to be begun.
    Money. That was
his greatest problem. Money for wages, food, and weaponry. Money for
repairs and bribes and all manner of small expenses. Most of all,
money to complete the building program: to finish the network of
tunnels and fortresses that alone could guarantee a successful
campaign against the Seven. The Confiscations had robbed him of many
of his big investors. In less than three hours the remainder were due
to meet him, supposedly to renew their commitments, though in
reality, he knew, to tell him they had had enough. That was why
Helmstadt was so important now.
    Helmstadt. He
had wooed the Ping Tiao with promises of weapons and
publicity, but the truth was otherwise. There would be weapons, and
publicity enough to satisfy the most egotistical of terrorist
leaders, but the real fruit of the raid on the Helmstadt Armory would
be the two billion yuan DeVore would lift from the strong room. Money
that had been allocated to pay the expenses of more than one hundred
and forty thousand troops in the eight garrisons surrounding the
Wilds.
    But the Ping
Tiao would know nothing of that.
    He turned away
from the map and looked over at his desk again. The Notice of
Confiscation lay where he had left it. He went across and picked it
up, studying it again. It seemed simple on the face of it: an open
acknowledgment of a situation that had long existed in reality, for
Lehmanris funds had been frozen from the moment Berdichev had fled to
Mars, three years earlier. But there were hidden depths in the
document. It meant that the Seven had discovered evidence to link
Stefan's father to the death of the Minister Lwo Kang; and that, in
its turn, would legitimize Tolonen's killing of Lehmann Senior in the
House.
    It was an
insight into how the Seven were thinking. For them the War was over.
    They had won.
    But DeVore knew
otherwise. The War had not even begun. Not properly. The
confiscations and the death of T'angs notwithstanding, it had been a
game until now, a diversion for the rich and bored, an entertainment
to fill their idle hours. ; But now it would change. He would harness
the forces stirring in the lowest levels. Would take them and mold
them. And then?
    He laughed and
crumpled the copy of the Notice in his hand. Then Change would come.
Like a hurricane, blowing through the levels, razing the City to the
ground.
    * *
*
    MAJOR HANS EBERT
set the drinks carefully on the tray, then turned and, making his way
through the edge of the crowd that packed the great hall, went
through the curtained doorway into the room beyond.
    Behind him the
reception was in full swing; but here, in the T'ang's private
quarters, it was peaceful. Li Shai Tung sat in the big chair to the
left, his feet resting on a stool carved like a giant turtle shell.
He seemed older and more careworn these days; his hair, once gray,
was pure white now, like fine threads of ice, tied tightly in a queue
behind his head. The yellow cloak of state seemed loose now on his
thin, old man's frame and the delicate perfection of the gold chain
about his neck served merely to emphasize the frail imperfection of
his flesh. Even so, there was still strength in his eyes, power
enough in his words and gestures to dispel any thought that he was
spent as a man. If the flesh had grown weaker,