The Shadow Of Weng-Chiang Part 19

Being able to move from place to place instantly, without pa.s.sing through the s.p.a.ce in between, would give an obvious tactical advantage not just to bandits, but the Kuomintang.

How could an enemy guard against a force who could be in their midst suddenly and unannounced?

They couldn't, and the obvious enemy right now was the j.a.panese Kwantung Army in Manchuria. It wouldn't be long before they moved south and west, into the rest of China. His thoughts were interrupted as Ying opened the door to his impromptu cell. Li immediately hurled himself at the traitor, but Ying knocked him back into the corner with a simple open-handed punch. Ying had always been better at unarmed combat, Li knew, but his laboratory-bound occupation made it easy and therefore painful to forget.

Ying shook his head, his lips as much of a horizontal line as his moustache. 'You were offered a chance to live. Now the Doctor isn't here to save you.'

'Why are you working for them?'

'I paid my dues to the Black Scorpion before I ever joined the authorities. It was something of a traditional occupation for the young men of my village. The question is, what have you been doing, and why are you here?'

The answer was simple, of course. He was here by accident. They would never believe that, however, and in any case there were rules for this sort of situation as there were for any other. 'I've nothing to say to you, traitor.'

Ying smiled. 'Oh, you don't have to talk to me. HsienKo and Kwok are waiting for you.'

At the heart of the dust cloud that swirled through Tai'an, a bustling camp had been set up in the grounds of the old Dai temple. Most of the dust was rising from the thousands of feet that tramped along the streets, while the heavy tyres of numerous vehicles added to the confusion.

Generators hummed on the backs of flatbed trucks, while pairs of fatigue-clad soldiers lugged large cable drums towards a grand archway only a few yards from a hotel. Armed guards patrolled everywhere, and men were carrying stencilled crates from place to place.

T'ai Shan stretched wide above them, like a dusty saw-edged tusk striving to reach the heavens. A V-shaped cutting was chiselled into the peak, a wide staircase zigzagging down the steepest parts of the sloping path. Trees and shrubs lined the track, which occasionally disappeared behind rock outcroppings and twists in the melt.w.a.ter stream beds which wended their way downslope. The black tips of anti-aircraft guns protruded from their sandbagged nests on several promontories as a reminder that they were very close to the wavefront of the j.a.panese advance.

The nearby lychees gave way to cypress and pine, the path sometimes disappearing through tunnels of trees. The brightly coloured walls of temples and paG.o.das were also visible through the trees on the lower slopes, and the sounds of splas.h.i.+ng water came from somewhere off to the right.

Romana ignored the hustle and bustle. She looked around the mam street from the jetty curiously, wondering whether this was some kind of trick. The uniformed men busy all around gave her looks that varied between curiosity and suspicion, but no one stood in her way.

On impulse, she took out the tracer and sampled the local area, making sure that n.o.body was looking in her direction.

The tracer was still ticking, but the strength of the signal was definitely increasing. It seemed to be strongest when she directed the tracer northwards, towards the sandy mountain that overshadowed both the lake and the town. Intrigued, and wanting to test just how free she really was, she walked towards the gentle slopes of the mountain.

Cypress mingled with gingkos and acacias in the courtyard around the sprawling Dai temple complex with its curving roofs and faded primary colours. The intricate woodwork and masonry indicated that this was a temple complex, though the buildings now had telephone wires and noticeboards attached.

Through the open doors and windows of several buildings, HsienKo could see drab men and women toiling away at desks, doing her bidding. Ahead of her, the main hall the Tiangong loomed above the flattened former ornamental gardens. It was a sixty-foot-high wooden building sitting proudly in the centre of the complex, its exquisite wooden construction topped with a yellow-tiled double roof. A seven-foot column carved into a statue of some ancient G.o.d or emperor stood guard outside.

Buildings visible outside the temple complex mostly of one storey with scalloped roofs were gaily coloured. The whole view was slightly blurred by the dust from moving trucks and marching troops that filled the streets. Kwok held the door open for her as she entered her temporary headquarters.

HsienKo stopped with a look of surprise when she saw Li slumped in a chair in the corner, handcuffed to the chair and guarded by a soldier. 'What is he doing here?'

Professor Ying rose from his desk. 'He stowed away in one of the weapon s.h.i.+pments for the defensive emplacements.'

'It seems that the Great Circle footsoldiers can't take a hint.' HsienKo didn't doubt for a moment that he belonged to the rival group. The police force was riddled with Tong members, especially the Great Circle. Ever since Du Yue Sheng had taken over the Ministry of Opium Control, he had seeded the authorities with his own men.

Kwok grabbed Li's arm and rolled back the sleeve to display the scarlet tattoo there. 'Caught red-handed.'

'You will be executed for this,' Li hissed.

'I think not.' HsienKo was saddened. Li could never be useful like the Doctor or Romana, and nor was he harmless.

He was just an enforcer who would only jail or kill them, and there was only one way to be one hundred per cent sure that he wouldn't. Besides, there was an etiquette in dealings between the Tongs, and that too demanded only one course of action.

'Kill him. Sew up his mouth the old way and dump the body where Du will be sure to find it.' Li paled despite his defiant look. 'Ying, Kwok, come with me.'

They left the room, HsienKo feeling another little part of herself shrivel up and die inside. Du Yue Sheng's Great Circle Tong would have to be given a message that the Black Scorpion could take care of its own, and wouldn't tolerate sabotage.

She wondered if she would have felt better if she could have brought new life into the world. At least, then, there would be more of a balance. Unfortunately, the same Dragon energy that had maintained her youth and enabled her to walk the Dragon Paths had rendered her body as barren as she sometimes feared her soul might become. It was another effect she could lay at Weng Chiang's door; G.o.d of abundance, indeed!

It had hurt that Sin could best be disguised as a child. It was a constant reminder of what she could never have. She withstood it, however, telling herself that it was a fitting penance for her lifestyle. Perhaps it would help balance her soul. She repressed a shudder, reminding herself that faith in their G.o.d kept her troops in line. That thought inspired mixed feelings in her.

She walked out of the main hall. Her troops would have to climb the mountain, step by step, to lay the cables, but no such restriction applied to her. 'Take my hand,' she told both men.

They did so, and she stepped out of sight, taking Ying and Kwok with her.

Romana had ascended the first couple of hundred steps without incident, and soon noticed that the pathway up the mountain was bordered not just by many temples and shrines, but by a number of cave mouths as well.

At first she had had no desire to see what was inside until she saw a large cable drum lying on its side outside one cave.

Insulated cables as thick as her wrist snaked off into the darkness of the cave. Romana followed the thick cables curiously; they had clearly been designed to carry huge amounts of energy, but to and from where?

Before long, she realized that the cave was not completely dark. There were pools of light ahead, cast by simple bulbs, but the cables could hardly be for such a simple thing. They were laid along the floor anyway, while a thinner wire ran between the light bulbs.

The tunnel soon began to wind upwards, and she pa.s.sed the occasional fatigue-clad soldier working on junction boxes.

They paid her no heed. Her calves were beginning to ache when she finally emerged into a small grotto.

It had a vaulted ceiling and several pillars running from floor to ceiling, thinning in the middle. She examined the rock pillars carefully. The rock had some sort of crystalline structure, which glittered across the surface like frost. The wires from the junction boxes on the ends of the cables were securely attached to the rock and wrapped several times around it. It could hardly be for earthing, she thought. Then an idea came to her. Many planets had crystal-bearing rock which often displayed energy releases under certain conditions.

Piezoelectricity, she recalled.

The question was, were the Tong trying to tap this type of natural energy, or cause it? More cables continued out of the far side of the grotto. She had come so far that she might as well see what else was down here, so she followed the cables once more.

Li had stared death in the face before, but it was something one never got used to. HsienKo and Kwok were too busy even to stay and watch, which Li felt was inexplicably insulting. The soldier they had left to finish him off was busy searching the office for a needle and thread. That was the way of most of the Tongs, not just the Great Circle: an informer caught spying on a rival would have his mouth ritually sewn up, frequently with one or more of his fingers severed and placed inside first.

He was almost tempted to accept his fate, if only because like most people he couldn't really believe that death was imminent. Belief was a strange thing; someone had once tried to seduce his wife while Li was sitting with her. Li had been too surprised to give the man the beating he deserved, because his mind couldn't quite accept the idea that such a gross impropriety was actually happening.

To a certain extent, he felt the same way now. His training had been thorough and he knew that he had a slim chance of getting out of this, if he timed his movements well.

The chain of his handcuffs went through the supports of the back of the simple wooden chair, keeping his hands behind him. As the guard came back towards him, drawing his pistol, Li wrapped his fingers around those same supports. As soon as the guard was close enough, already stretching his arm out, Li lashed out with both legs. His feet landed on the soldier's chest, catapulting him backwards across a desk. The same force, however, propelled Li backwards in the chair, which crashed to the floor.

Li rolled with the fall, his legs reaching the floor behind his head, and straightened with some effort. Now he was standing, holding the chair by its back. Rus.h.i.+ng over to the desk, Li smashed the chair across the guard's head and shoulders before he could recover enough to aim his gun. The guard's skull caved in, and he dropped. Li quickly took the handcuff keys from the guard's belt and freed himself. The guard's pistol was a standard KMT issue Browning like his own. Li was pleased, since this meant the spare magazines he had would fit this gun.

He needed to blend in with the crowd a little more, so he set about exchanging his suit for the guard's uniform.

Whatever the Black Scorpion were up to, it was obviously centred around the mountain, so that was where he would best be able to consider a strategy to defeat them.

He knew he would win in the end; order out of chaos was something he had had drummed into him all his life, and he wasn't about to start thinking any other way now. The soldier's uniform was a little loose on him, so Li wrapped his jacket around his waist before donning the uniform tunic. That would add a paunch that should help disguise him further. He didn't look very military, though; the trouser hems were some way above his ankles. One more disadvantage to being taller than most of his countrymen.

Once he was dressed, he adjusted the set of his field cap to cover his widow's peak and marched out of the building with a military step. The mountain started just beyond the large archway at the end of the street, and he could see that it wasn't far before he would reach the first cave into which he could disappear.

Kwok wasn't quite sure why HsienKo had wanted the police box brought here, but he had obeyed anyway. It now stood by the Nantian Gate, more commonly known as the South Gate of Heaven.

The gate itself was a squat red-brick building stretching across the split peak at the top of the seven thousand steps that lined the mountain. A large archway was set into the bricks, flanked by two jade pillars. A temple of pale beige was sited atop the wide gate. Three smaller archways ran through that, and it was topped by a red roof.

The Doctor's police box stood just inside the gate, on a wide promenade that looked out eastwards over the vibrant green depressions between the three main peaks and their attendant promontories, all of which had temples or inns built upon them.

Paths lined with brightly coloured flowers led between the buildings and peaks, cutting through the verdant areas. Kwok was impressed despite himself. The word China originally meant 'perfumed garden' before coming to be a.s.sociated more with the Middle Kingdom, and this was surely the garden in question. He was glad to have returned here with HsienKo, as it calmed him considerably.

'What is this?' Ying asked, gazing curiously at the police box.

HsienKo gave Kwok a knowing look. 'Another Time Cabinet, obviously...' She reached out to try the doors. A colourlessly bright flare of sparks exploded from the handle as her hand touched it, and HsienKo flew backwards to crash into the dust a couple of yards away. A faint haze of blue smoke hung in the air between HsienKo and the Doctor's box.

Kwok was at her side instinctively, terrified of what might have happened to her. She sat up with a grimace of pain, looking at her hand. To Kwok's dismay, the skin of her palm was scorched and blackened, but he was relieved that she seemed otherwise unhurt. 'Electrified?' he asked. The Doctor would regret having left such a dishonourable trick for her.

HsienKo shook her head, unable to mask her pain.' 'The Dragon energy, I think. I should have expected that a Time Cabinet might short-circuit it.'

'Then why keep it?' Kwok didn't agree with hanging onto things which had been proven dangerous, especially to her.

'It's the carrot at the end of the stick. Also, it may prove more practical than Weng-Chiang's cabinet. You know what happened to him.'

Kwok shuddered at the thought. If this was a Time Cabinet, then it certainly didn't have the same risks as that used by Weng-Chiang, since the Doctor and Romana looked perfectly normal.

HsienKo dusted herself off. 'Never mind this for the moment. Ying, how has construction proceeded?'

Woo tossed a mooring rope out towards a stout support on the end of a jetty on the Bund. It neighboured a small tour-boat wharf by the mouth of Suzhou Creek. The Doctor cut the speedboat's engines and guided it to a halt. Pale stone buildings with domed roofs and fluttering flags rose beyond the moored steamers and bustling junks.

The Doctor lifted K9 onto the jetty, then looked around.

'Hail a taxi. We should be able to cut along Bubbling Well Road and head straight for Nang Tao airfield from here.'

'Why Nang Tao?'

'It would take far too long to walk all the way to T'ai Shan.

Unless you have a convenient autogyro or Lockheed Electron with automatic pilot?'

'They're being repainted,' Wood said with what he hoped was a straight face. 'Besides, I'd better pick up some things from the club first, and warn Rondo to keep an eye on things while I'm gone.'

'There are more important things at stake than your club.

Romana's life, for one thing.'

'I'm well aware of that.' In truth, he could think of little else. He supposed it was a reaction to the way that instincts were repressed among his people. Only with a woman could he let himself go. This was the case for so many of his countrymen, but somehow he couldn't get round it. It seemed reasonable to a.s.sume that the Doctor had a prior stake, though this was by no means certain. 'Besides, the club is a vital tool in my work here.'

'For Dutch courage?'

'For gathering information and funding equipment.' He didn't want to discuss this; it would be better to get on with the job in hand before arguing over responsibilities like a gaijin gaijin. 'It won't take long. Anyway, it would probably help if we had enough money for the air fare. I tend not to carry that sort of cash when I'm out in the evenings.'

'You've got a point there, I suppose.'

The footsteps of HsienKo, Kwok and Professor Ying echoed coldly from the jagged surfaces of the cavern which they were exploring. The rock around them glittered as quartz crystals reflected the light from their torches. 'Yes,' Ying was saying, 'this was ideal. The main section is through here.' They walked through a thick metal door which led into a concrete-smoothed chamber.

HsienKo led the others through a set of thick doors and out onto the spotless floor of a room full of dark grey metal. The walls on the two shortest sides were lined with banks of dials and lamps. On the longer wall to the left, a great number of the large levers usually a.s.sociated with railway signals and points were set into a platform below a long expanse of dark leaded gla.s.s.

The wall to the right was one long sloping window looking out on a wide concrete floor twenty feet below. Several people in thick one-piece hooded suits were busying themselves at the tangled pipes and pumps of a large heat exchanger, which in turn was connected by several conduits to a trio of huge turbines wrapped in coils of wire. Thick cables disappeared out through channels drilled through the walls.

In the control room which HsienKo and the others had entered, men and women in white lab coats were taking notes of the settings on the innumerable dials and meters. A row of the one-piece hooded suits not unlike those worn by deep-sea divers hung by the set of double doors through which they had come in. Ying, Kwok and HsienKo went up to the platform.

Putting on almost black goggles which they took from their pockets before looking out through the leaded gla.s.s.

Beyond the thick walls and leaded gla.s.s was a beautiful grotto.

Huge b.u.t.tresses of rock stretched up and down from this heart of the mountain like the princ.i.p.al arteries in a human heart. Scaffolding and telescopic pipes led down to the pool which flooded the lowest part of the grotto far below, while blocks and tackle were stretched between the stalact.i.tes like the strands of some enormous web. Slim cylinders attached to waterproofed cables hung from the blocks and tackle, while other cables were wound around the crystal-veined stalact.i.tes, with metal pitons hammered in here and there. Windows of thickly layered silvered gla.s.s were set into the rock wall near the points where cables and pipes disappeared out of the cavern. Ying said, 'We estimate that the primary coil will generate some fifteen thousand kilowatts. That's only an estimate, of course; we've only run it up to a multiplication factor of point five so far.'

'That estimate includes the extra generated by pressure differences caused by the temperature variations?' asked Hsein-Ko.

'Yes.'

She smiled. 'Excellent work, Ying. Weng-Chiang will be delighted with your efforts if they are correct.'

'They are.'

'Remember that we will need those high voltages to resonate at high frequencies. The equipment you've requisitioned will handle that?'

'I'd stake my life on it.'

'You just did. And ours, too; if the system b.u.ms out...'

'It won't. The reactor cavern has been sealed and the pile flooded with heavy water as a moderator. We also have cadmium control rods that can limit the reaction if necessary.

You have no need to fear any more.' Ying gestured towards the grotto rather theatrically. 'The Tong of the Black Scorpion is now the world's first nuclear power.'

Sixteen.

omana had followed the cables through several grottoes, Reach higher than the last, until she reached a cave that was part.i.tioned off by smooth concrete. Two guards drew their guns as she approached. 'No entry,' one of them said. 'Pa.s.s-holders only.'

Romana was interested at once. There must be something sensitive in there if access was restricted. She thought of checking the tracer, but didn't want to give away its use. 'I was just looking for the way out. These caves are very confusing.'

The guard pointed. 'That way.'

'Thank you,' Romana answered primly, walking off in the direction indicated. She soon emerged onto a plateau tens of yards wide, which had been turned into a landscaped garden.