begun to wonder if having Xiao around me has warped my judgment.”
Shun Li stared at the cub. If Xiao won, he would slaughter the polar bears. She sighed as she thought about that. She had spent a lifetime killing people. It had warped her. She had no doubt about that. Likely, she was going to pay a bitter cost for her killings. She’d fled to China to escape her fate, but it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.
She thought about an interview she’d had with Xiao several days ago. The Police Minister had almost seemed emotional, delighted as he told her about the Behemoth Manufacturing Plant. It had proved much smaller than her estimate. He had wondered aloud if she had doctored her document. The threat was obvious. He would tell the Leader about the forgery if she did not do exactly as he wanted.
“Sir,” Shun Li said. “I have something to tell you.” As she squatted before the cub, holding the bottle, she twisted around.
“The Police Minister has…forced me to write reports about my visits here.”
Hong glanced at Tang. When the Leader looked at her again, he seemed like a different individual. His eyes had hardened and his lips firmed.
“The Police Minister spoke with Marshal Gang in his office,” Shun Li said. “It occurred the day the heavy lasers destroyed many Behemoth tanks.”
“Gang was in Beijing?” the Leader asked.
“Yes sir.”
“You have evidence of this?”
“Only the evidence of my eyes,” Shun Li said. “And that of the two East Lightning operatives who escorted me to Xiao’s office.”
“So…” Hong whispered. The Chairman of Greater China began to pace before her. “The Army thinks I am weakened by these temporary setbacks. Yes, the marshals are clever. They realize they must pry me from my secret police.”
Hong stopped, and he stared at the cub suckling from the bottle. The Leader stroked his chin.
“The polar bear is an unpredictable beast,” Hong said. “Often he lazes on the Arctic ice. He will amble in peace and go away if a man approaches him. Sometimes, however, the polar bear turns savage, and then nothing can stand before him.”
Chairman Hong smiled. “Shun Li, you can love. Do you love China?”
“Yes Leader.”
“Then you must aid China this hour and help me decapitate the cancer in charge of the police. You will go the Police Ministry. You will take Tang and several other Lion Guardsmen. You must know the passwords.”
“They change every day.”
Hong made a decisive gesture, chopping the air with the edge of his hand. He had a new ring, and it glittered golden in the light. “Listen to me, Shun Li. There is a secret to power that I am about to share with you. Strike first and strike hard. Do you understand?”
Shun Li stared at Hong.
“I will tell you another secret. I can only trust those who love, as you love. I have searched long and hard for a new Minister of Police. I believe you are that person, Shun Li. Are you ready to risk everything for China?”
She nodded, wondering if Hong’s plan had any chance of success. Then she realized it was her only hope. She might have been Xiao’s knife or means to get to the well-guarded Chairman. But Xiao was a crocodile who would eat her without pause. The Chairman was eccentric and strange. But he could love, and that made him more human.
“When shall I go, sir?” she asked.
“As soon as you are done feeding the cub,” he said.
Shun Li nodded, and wondered what the next few hours would hold.
IDAHO SPRING, COLORADO
Jake, Goose and the Lieutenant were dug in outside of Idaho Springs. The city was in the mountains, thirty miles from Denver. It was nestled beside I-70 and the town had become the forward point against the Chinese still in metropolitan Denver.
As often happened in war, the military seemed to change its mind abruptly. The survivors of the siege of Denver formed the core group of soldiers holding the line here. Soon came regular food, new uniforms, weapons and plenty of air and artillery support. If the Chinese wanted to knock them out of here, they were welcome to try.
Several drafts of Militia replacements had already joined them out here. The Lieutenant had persuaded the Director to bump Goose to sergeant. He didn’t enough sergeants and if he was going to run a full-strength platoon, he needed more.
For Jake, the reward came when the Lieutenant escorted him to the Battalion comm-shack.
Sergeant Jake Higgins and the Lieutenant stamped their feet