“Certainly, sir,” she said. “The Chairman gave me a polar bear cub.”
“How fortunate for you,” Xiao said.
She dipped her head to acknowledge the statement.
“I imagine the Chairman was delighted with your work discovering the Behemoth Manufacturing Plant,” he said.
She nodded.
“You house your cub at his mansion?” Xiao asked.
“Yes sir.”
“And do you visit with the Chairman sometimes?”
“For short periods, sir. Have I done wrong doing this?”
“Guardian Inspector, you surprise me. How can you do wrong visiting with the Great Leader? That is preposterous. Tell me, what do the two of you talk about.”
“Polar bears.”
“And?”
Fear squeezed Shun Li’s chest. She didn’t know the right answer. Did Hong and Xiao speak together about her? Was this a test? She decided the Police Minister was acting much too formally for this to be a test.
“Sir,” she said, “at times the Chairman asks about you.”
“Does he indeed? How flattering,” Xiao said. The man attempted another of his false smiles. “What does the Chairman wish to know about me?”
Shun Li told him because she feared he already knew the answer. Xiao was too much like a robot, a crocodile with a nasty appetite and secretive ways not to know.
As she spoke, Xiao watched her carefully. There was no expression on his wooden features to give a hint to his feelings.
“I will ask you one question, Guardian Inspector. I expect nothing but the truth. Do you understand me?”
“I do, sir.”
“Yes,” he said, staring through his thick lenses at her. “I believe you do, which is good for you. Does the Chairman ask these things because he fears me or because he wishes to dispose of me in some nefarious way?”
Shun Li’s heart began to thud. This was a terrible question. It would make her choose sides. She didn’t want to choose, she wanted to be able to skip whichever way would let her survive.
“Police Minister, I believe the Chairman fears you.”
Xiao smiled. It was a cruel thing.
Shun Li waited to hear him tell her she was lying. He didn’t. Instead, he surprised her by saying:
“The Chairman plays a dangerous game, Guardian Inspector. He needs me, but that is because he makes serious blunders. I have built a careful web around him. It protects his Lion Guards from harm. It is good that I have security operatives in the Chairman’s home. You will now add to their security work as you begin to study the exact layout of the estate and the strength of his personal security. Am I making myself clear?”
Yes. That you’re lying to me. Why would you need to know these things if you already had people there? I am your first and only operative in the Chairman’s country estate.
Shun said aloud. “You wish to provide the ultimate security for the Chairman’s safety and ask that I aid East Lightning in that.”
“Precisely,” Xiao said. “You have divined my thoughts perfectly.”
Shun Li’s eyes felt hot, as if smoke would drift out of her pupils. What intrigue did Xiao play at? Could he believe he would keep his seat of power if Hong died? Or was Xiao thinking the unthinkable: of reaching for supreme power himself?
If she could have, Shun Li would have gladly gone back to North America. These stakes were too high for her. But she was here now and would have to swim with these deadly creatures as best as she could.
-9-
Phase II
From Military History: Past to Present, by Vance Holbrook:
Invasion of Midwestern America, Phase II, 2039-2040
BACKGROUND
By late October 2039, the Pan-Asian Alliance and the South American Federation troops had become mired down due to the uncommonly warm rainy season. (They were warm rains in a relative sense, as it was still cold weather to the troops on the ground.) The torrential showers turned the landscape into mud and added vast, shallow lakes throughout much of the Central Midwest.
During this time, Chairman Hong received several pieces of intelligence that caused him to alter the plans for Marshal Liang’s Third Front. The Chairman was only now becoming aware of the full extent of Chancellor Kleist’s offer to the Americans: the Canadian province of Quebec, in exchange for German Dominion neutrality.
Due to their battlefield supremacy during the Californian invasion, the Chairman loathed the Behemoth tanks. To that end, he demanded the capture of the Denver manufacturing plant. This would entail the subjection of the greater Denver metropolitan area. At the Chairman’s orders, Marshal Liang allocated the Tenth and Fifteenth Armies to