Heart of the Storm, page 16
“In other corners of the world, though, where depredation is the rule,” I said, “I can swoop in and save them for the moment. But the whole system is not built to protect them. Not even a little. There's no system to protect them. People whine about all sorts of privilege, but that's the real one – whether you live on that bedrock, with a system beneath you that's designed to allow you to live your life, and stop the people who'd happily keep you from it, through malice or negligence. Even when it's imperfect, even when it gets messed up, at base...you can mostly do that here.
“And I don't want the power, not really,” I said. “Because then I feel like I'd have to go into the morally questionable places of this world, and try to set them right...rather than just kill or incarcerate a villain and let people get back to their lives.”
“You've got like a savior complex,” Wade said. He was smiling a little.
“The goddess thing is a joke. Until it's not anymore.” I tucked the vials away in the backpack gingerly. “Because with escalating, godlike power comes godlike responsibility. And I don't think I have the wisdom to use that in a way that won't blow up in my face, and probably that of a whole lot of other people.”
He seemed to ponder that. “I think I know what you mean.”
“Do you?”
“Well, I was personally involved in at least two countries we invaded thinking we knew better – almost godlike – what kind of governance they needed,” he said. “We failed, and people we made promises to about the countries we were going to build for them, they paid a big damned price for our arrogance. So yes, I get it, how godlike power married to human awareness might not work out as well as we hope.”
“'Godlike power married to human awareness,'” I said, turning each word over slowly as I said it. “Hey, that sounds like us, once upon a time.”
He chuckled. “What happens when I keep draining soldiers and gain godlike power, too? Will I lose my human awareness?”
“It is harder to connect with ordinary people the more powers you stack on,” I said. “Oh, I make a good try of it. And losing my powers for that time, boy that was humbling. But sometimes it's tough to just...be...in the world, when I can do all these things and the average person can't. I don't put myself over them or anything, but the difference is there. It makes people treat me just a little differently. Some exalt me. Some try and pretend there's no difference between us. That's probably the best way to do it. But there's a reason I don't really have many human friends. It's a hard difference to ignore, even if I don't mean anyone any harm, they're probably thinking, 'She could become a dragon at any second and bite my head off.'”
“Funny,” Wade said dryly, “that's exactly what I was thinking standing at the altar with you. Of course, I was mostly worried about it in a figurative sense.”
“Ha ha.”
“Yes, now I get it,” Wade said. “It's just always going to be tough for me, the soldier, the SEAL, not to look at any weapon I can get my hands on and think...'Boy, it'd be nice to have that the next time the shit hits the fan.'”
“Oh, I think that all the time,” I said, glancing at my backpack. Rising to my feet, I took hold of it, my course decided. “Can you pack the tent back up?”
“I can,” Wade said, rising as well. “Why would I do so?”
“Because I want to go to Guangzhou,” I said, picking up my camo and slipping it over my head. “Fen Liu was there during the war, working with the Communist Party.”
“We're still digging into her past, huh?” Wade asked.
“Until I have a better idea,” I said. “We're not going to reconnect with Lethe or the others just sitting around here. Either Sierra will connect us, or it won't happen. Either way, we still have a mission. Might as well get on with it, right?”
“Right,” Wade said, and did something to the tent that let all the air out in a great rush. I felt it stir my hair. “Onward, then.”
“Onward,” I agreed. Because the fastest way to get the others back was to get rid of Fen Liu. Or at least that was what I was telling myself.
CHAPTER FIFTY-THREE
Lethe
“This is...uh...” Lethe said, staring out the window of the car. The words weren't quite there for her; what she saw was a spectacle unlike anything in her upbringing. Unlike anything in her life, really, and given the length of said life and the breadth of experience therein, the number of times when she'd encountered something like this – something amazing, something utterly inexplicable, something that took her breath away and left her lost for any word in any of the many languages she knew – well, it was rare.
Consequently, her response was rare, too, and consisted of a curse in her native language that caused Chen to stare at her blankly. It must not have translated.
Hades heard it, though, and chortled. “I thought I raised you better than – oh, who am I kidding? This is exactly how I raised you.” He peered out the window, too, though, and saw...well, what there was to see.
And what there was to see...was a massive city of towers that scraped the skies, all concrete, glass, and steel, stretching for blocks and blocks, miles and miles.
And there wasn't a soul anywhere in them.
“See, they build them in advance of demand,” Chen said, “to create ready-made cities. Sort of make-work infrastructure projects, where people could just move in and have a job, have an apartment, grocery stores, all that. But it takes a while for them to be ready, for demand to live here to catch up. So they sit here abandoned for a time, like this one.” He glanced back. “Probably be a pretty great place to shoot a movie, though, huh?”
“Quite so,” Hades said. “And there's no one around?”
“No,” Chen said. “They're not for sale just yet. So the places sit abandoned.” Towers and towers, a full city, unoccupied.
“Great place to hide, then,” Lethe said, meta-low, “especially if you've got food and water.” The distant rumbling of thunder under the sky told her that while they already had the former, the latter might be along shortly, and could be collected in the still built into their pop-up tents. If need be.
“Perhaps we should stay here for a bit,” Hades said. “Check in with our people. See what...what they think.”
“Oh, cool,” Chen said. “Hey, I can wait with you, if you want. Not like there's no parking around here.”
Lethe just stared at him. “Sure. Why don't you do that?” To Hades she just shrugged. It was helpful to have a car and a driver. Probably. So long as Chen didn't outlive his usefulness.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FOUR
Sienna
“Ricardo will catch up to us in Guangzhou,” I said, opening my eyes from adjusting my falcon's course. He knew where he was going, and he'd rest if he had to before flying farther. It was over a thousand kilometers from Anshun to Guangzhou, which meant he wouldn't catch up soon. Night had settled in, and Wade was finishing zipping up his backpack, putting away the tent, which had folded back into a small pouch almost as easily as it had been deployed. We had water I'd drawn from the air, we'd choked down some food pellets that had been almost decent, and now we were ready to get on with the next leg of our journey.
“I'm a little concerned about that falcon,” Wade said, rising to his feet and slinging his backpack on his shoulder.
“He'll make it fine,” I said. “He'll sleep if he gets tired, hunt if he gets hungry–”
“Not what I meant,” Wade said. “Ricardo isn't indigenous to China. Which means him flying around is a red flag that anyone with a passing knowledge of birds can see. And anyone with a beyond-passing knowledge of Sienna Nealon might just catch.”
“Shit,” I said. “You're right. He might just be what led them to us back in the rail yard.”
Wade nodded, face grim. “We should figure out a way to send Ricardo home. Or else send our would-be pursuers on a wild falcon chase.”
“Yeah,” I said, contemplating that. “Maybe.” I didn't want to leave Ricardo exposed to danger. He'd done too much for me over our time together to even think about abandoning him in a hostile and potentially unforgiving environment. I didn't exactly know the ecosystem here, where he could be exposed to danger just being in China, even absent the hostile attentions of the local government.
“We can talk about it later,” Wade said. “Sierra – bearing and distance to Guangzhou?”
“Guangzhou is approximately 1,000 kilometers southwest,” she said into my earwig. “I recommend flying low to avoid radar.”
“What about emissions control?” I asked. “Should we shut off the phone?”
“Guangzhou is a city of over eighteen million. It seems unlikely that a single satphone operating with our encrypted burst transmissions will be detectable in a soup of electronic activity, but if necessary, you can simply order me to remotely turn off your phone, should you be unable to reach it.”
“We should just be aware,” Wade said, “if we move into a less inhabited area, like that rail yard, that we might want to consider going dark on comms for a while, until we're back out in the general area of the city where other people’s electronics use will help mask us.”
“Right,” I said, and reached out my hand to his expectantly. “How's our camo holding up, Sierra?”
“I detect no problems with the camouflage. Batteries are at 78% and should be good for several more hours of continuous use. I will be monitoring your location and shifting the imagery as appropriate.”
“All right,” I said, and saw Wade hesitate only a moment before taking my hand. “Guangzhou it is. Local CCP HQ.”
I felt Wade's hand in mine as we lifted off, and started to turn, following Sierra's verbal instructions as we took off into the night and bent southwest, into the deepening darkness of the mountains.
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Guangzhou SPRAWLED over the landscape like few cities I'd ever seen. I'd heard it said that the easiest way to imagine the size of China's population is to realize that there are forty cities in the country Chicago's size or bigger. Whereas America has Chicago, LA, and New York as its biggest cities, and everything after that is smaller, sometimes considerably. Guangzhou was certainly one of those. Only seventy-five miles from Hong Kong, and ninety from Macau, meant it was a gateway to two of the biggest commercial towns in China.
The air turned desperately warm as we swept toward the glowing downtown area. It felt sticky on my skin as we left the thinner mountain air behind in favor of subtropical breezes. “I'm searching for landing spots where you'll be able to avoid cameras,” Sierra said. “Trying to find a convenient blind spot not too far from the local CCP offices.”
She eventually guided us down in a pattern toward the center of this river-cut city. It was absolutely chopped through with waterways, bisecting the business districts and colleges and giving the whole place a soothing feel in spite of the blinding lights of downtown, which pulsated like beacons in the night. A tower reminiscent of the CN in Toronto bore rainbow coloration slightly off downtown, and a brightly lit riverboat cruised by slowly beneath us.
We came in for a quiet landing in a spot where nobody was standing, nobody was loitering, and – hopefully – nobody was looking out a window nearby. Tough to be 100% certain on that last point, but Sierra did her best from the dozens of micro cameras on our camouflage.
“The CCP headquarters is 800 meters to your left, three streets over,” Sierra said. “Would you like me to cut contact now?”
“No,” I said. “Try to keep to bursts of transmission or data if you can; maybe reduce the signal if that's possible? But I'd like you to keep an eye on things, make sure no one's following us, or we're not missing a pattern that's going to get us killed.”
“Understood,” she said in a voice so like my mother's it still occasionally unnerved me.
“We could probably stop holding hands now,” Wade said, “if you wanted.”
“Oh. Right.” I pulled my hand from his, lit by the glow of neon. There were so many skyscrapers, so much light. It had a distinct Vegas-on-steroids feel. Every skyscraper was sleek and new, and possessed enough lighting to make Paris envious.
Also, I didn't actually want to part hands with Wade. But I didn't want him to know that, either. He'd made his choice, and it wasn't me, but I kinda needed his help, so I was determined to not be a little bitch about it.
“This way.” Wade nodded in the direction indicated by Sierra. We walked beside each other, and I tried to take in the sights.
It was oddly charming, like a city of the future transplanted into now. Compared to some of the ragged and broken cities of the US, it gave me a feeling of cleanliness and care, like whoever lived here actually gave a shit about it, and didn't want needles and feces scattered everywhere (for example). It didn't make me happy knowing how many people were being imprisoned in the country to produce the effect, but it did make me wonder how you could achieve a similar result without being absolute fascists. Because that might have been worth looking into, given the sad state of American cities.
“Not one of these buildings was here seventy years ago,” Wade mused. “They've built a metropolis in that time.”
“Probably would have built it faster without all the murder, man-made starvation, and despotism,” I said. Wade just chuckled. “I can't argue that it all looks pretty, but man, the cost.”
“The cost is indeed high,” Wade said. “And remains so.”
Ahead, we could see the CCP HQ. It was like a blast from the city and country's past, with Asian columns and a palatial front. We walked into the shadows pooling at the front of the building, and I stopped there for a moment, pretending I needed a minute.
In reality, I was already tapping into my powers, pulling up Maria Westcott in my head.
And sure enough, seconds after I did, the vision of a dozen horribly mangled Chinese citizens appeared before me, causing me to suck in a terrified breath at the very sight of them.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Jian
He didn't want to come out. Underneath the car was the safest place for him, and his mind was still racing.
If only he hadn't come. If only Anshun hadn't erupted into hostilities. If only Sienna hadn't been killed, or caught, or fled...
Turned into a cat, cramped under the wheel well of a car, he knew nothing except the fears, the what ifs, and the knowledge that he was trapped. Trapped in this spot, trapped by his decisions, trapped by fate itself turning against him.
And he felt even more trapped when he realized, very suddenly, that someone was calling his name. And they were very close indeed, standing just outside the wheel well of the car.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Sienna
Itried not to keel over from the sight of the battered, beleaguered souls that had been standing in front of the Guangzhou CCP headquarters. I'd seen some miseries in my life, up close and personal, so I liked to believe I was a fairly jaded person.
Still, seeing those ghosts – and there were dozens – all queued up like they were waiting for passage across some river in the underworld...it almost made me take a step back and trip over my own feet.
They looked significantly worse than those I'd seen back in Anshun, for starters.
Three of them were wearing dunce caps, but...that wasn't quite all. At least two of the caps looked like they were weighed with other things, and one of the poor souls had something with real weight seemingly bound around his neck. Signs with Mandarin lettering proclaimed, “Black Gang Member” on one, and “Capitalist Running Dog!” on another were hung around their necks as well.
And there were bruises. Lots of bruises. Black ink seemed to have been spilled down one of their faces, they were so beat up – or maybe actually had black ink covering them.
“Do any of you know Fen Liu?” I whispered. Sad shakes of heads in most cases answered me.
But not quite all.
“I'm going to avenge you,” I said. “Going to avenge you and topple the government that did this to you.” I said it with as much certainty as speaking my own name.
All but one of them faded into the darkness. Because that was all it took.
“I know Fen Liu,” the last man remaining said. “I knew her well.”
“Of course you did,” I said, glancing up at the cameras positioned around the eaves of the CCP headquarters. “Would you like to take a walk and tell me about it?”
He nodded. “Yes. Yes, I will tell you all I know about her. Her lies. Her evils.” His face twisted, and the rage that had kept his soul on this earth for however many years after his death still animated his face. “I will tell you all I know of her.”
CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT
Jun Gong
Jun was a low-level functionary and member of the Chinese Communist Party in Guangzhou. He'd been so for a very long time, all the way up from his youth. It was a family trade, his parents having ingratiated themselves as party members in good standing, and their parents before that having done so in their day.
This was the way in China: hereditary membership in the ruling class. Princelings with a proper inheritance.
In the days of his grandparents it was proper food in times of starvation. Access to stores that had stocked shelves even when no one else had a scrap to eat. If there were no meats for the proles, they had them. The CCP did not short its members; they always had the best of everything. The rest of the country could burn; they were the leaders.
But even the leaders of the future had to start somewhere, and that was why Jun was sitting in a tight room packed with security monitors on an evening after dark. And he would be sitting here until the latest part of evening, when some lesser employee with lower standing would come to relieve him and sit here for the early morning shift. Given time, he would move to day shift, or something better, and continue his upward ascent through the ranks of the party.
