Free Flags of Sin by J. Robert Kennedy

Western capitalist values that had been embraced over the past
decades must be suppressed. A population of over one billion, hundreds of
millions of whom were born into a society far freer than he had been, would
suddenly find themselves back in the dark ages of communism, where there was no
freedom, no Western movies, music, television. No Internet, controlled or
otherwise. No cellphone networks or text messaging, as those could be used to
subvert the State.
    He
feared what would happen.
    Civil
war.
    It was
the only logical outcome.
    Who
would win?
    Of that,
he had no clue. He tended to lean toward the adage that no one would be a
winner.
    But what
would trigger it? What would cause China to spiral back in time?
    He
looked at the paper.
    This.
    Had a
nationalist movement begun again? Were these shootings actually not hate
crimes, but targeted killings designed to trigger an end-goal? Start killing
foreigners randomly, heinously, and Westerners would stop coming. Eventually
businesses might pull out, and worse, the Western populations begin to boycott
Chinese made goods.
    Economic
collapse.
    The West
would label China a communist pariah, and push for democratic reforms. The
population would demand these reforms in order to get the way of life they were
accustomed to, back. There would be protests. Tiananmen would be repeated but
on an even bolder scale, since this generation had actually tasted some of the freedom
the previous had fought for.
    And the
Party would fight back.
    He
looked at Ping, and he felt his chest tighten as he pictured her crushed under
the treads of a tank, fighting for a cause he knew she would support.
    And he
wondered just what side he would take.
    “What
have you got there?”
    It was his
boss, Hong, only inches away.
    Li
sometimes wondered if the new Chinese stealth fighter he had been hearing about
was simply an old Shenyang J-8 fighter with Hong strapped to the nosecone.
    “We
found it on the ground,” replied Ping.
    Hong
snatched it from Li’s hand and crumpled it into a ball.
    “What
are you doing?” exclaimed Li, immediately regretting his tone. He lowered his
voice, bowing slightly. “I beg forgiveness, sir, but isn’t that evidence?”
    “Evidence
of what?”
    “Perhaps
if you read it?” suggested Li.
    Hong
leaned in even closer, lowering his voice.
    “Forget
you ever saw this.”
    He spun
around and marched off, leaving Li and Ping agape.
    “What
the hell was that all about?” hissed Ping.
    But Li
knew what it was about.
    It was
what he had feared.
    These
killings are organized, with a political purpose, and the State knows.
    And
they’re covering it up.
     
     
     

 
     
     
    Shaoshan, Hunan Province, China
    December 26, 1893
     
    Li Mei held her adopted son’s hand as they waited outside the bedroom.
Screams sliced through the calm every minute or so, each time sending her son, her
Little Emperor, Shun-sheng, to his feet. And each time
Mei would take him by the hand and pull him back into his seat.
    She was
about to be a grandmother.
    She
smiled at the thought, but a pang of regret shot through her chest as she
thought of her beloved Jun, and how he was missing the birth of their first
grandchild.
    Oh
Jun!
    He had
died of a fever just last winter, and she knew this winter would be hard
without him. Her son, Shun-sheng, whom she silently still called Little
Emperor, had taken it hard. He had been close to his father, and it was a
regret she had always carried that she had never told him the truth.
    He had
had such a happy childhood, surrounded by her family, and by his own siblings
as they had been born, seven in all, for his own safety, her and Jun had agreed
the secret must die with them. There was no hope of him ever regaining the
throne, therefore there was no need for him to know the truth about his past.
    Another
cry from behind the door, another jump from the chair, Shun-sheng pacing far
enough away now that she would have to get up to settle him. She began to