An Inch of Ashes (Chung Kuo)(14)

Haavikko looked down, abashed. ‘If I spoke out of turn, Major Karr...'

Karr laughed. He had put his arm about Chen's shoulders familiarly, like a father about his son's. ‘Here, in Kao Chen's, we have an agreement, and you must be a party to it, Axel. In these rooms there is no rank, no formality, understand? Here we are merely friends. Kao Chen insists on it, and I...' His smile broadened. ‘Well, as your senior officer, I insist upon it, too. Here Chen is Chen. And I am Gregor.'

Karr put out a hand. Haavikko stood up slowly, looking at the offered hand, hesitant even now to commit himself so far. But then he looked at Chen and saw how his friend's eyes urged him to take Karr's hand.

He swallowed drily. ‘I'm grateful. But there's one further thing you should know about me before you accept me here.' He looked from one to the other. ‘You are good men, and I would have no secrets from you. You must know what I am. What I have done.'

‘Go on,' Karr said, his hand still offered.

Haavikko stared back at Karr, meeting his grey eyes unflinchingly. ‘You heard me say how it felt as though I were in a bad dream, unable to wake. Well, ten years I inhabited that nightmare, living it day and night. But then, a month or so ago, I woke from it. Again I found myself in bed in a sing-song house, and once again a strange girl was lying there beside me. But this time the girl was dead, and I knew that I had killed her.'

Karr's eyes narrowed. ‘You knew?'

Haavikko shuddered. ‘Yes. I remember it quite vividly.'

Karr and Chen looked at each ot an;I&rth= killed her, some sign of understanding passing between them, then Karr looked back at Haavikko. His hand had not wavered for a moment. It was still offered.

‘We have all done things we are ashamed of, Axel Haavikko. Even this thing you say you did  –  even that does not make you a bad man. Chen here, for instance. Would you say he was a good man?'

Haavikko looked at Chen. ‘I would stake my life on it.'

‘Then it would surprise you, perhaps, to learn that Kao Chen was one of the two assassins you were after that day ten years ago.'

Haavikko shook his head. ‘No. He can't be. They were dead, both of them. I saw the kwai's body for myself.'

Karr smiled. ‘No. That was another man. A man Chen paid to play himself. It's something he's not proud of. Something he'd rather hadn't happened. Even so, it doesn't make him a bad man.'

Haavikko was staring at Chen now with astonishment. ‘Of course... the scar.' He moved forward, tracing the scar beneath Chen's left ear with his forefinger. ‘I know you now. You were the one on film. With your friend, the small man. In the Main of Level Eleven.'

Chen laughed, surprised. ‘You had that on film?'

‘Yes...' Haavikko frowned. ‘But I still don't understand. If you were one of the killers...'

Karr answered for Chen. ‘Li Shai Tung pardoned Kao Chen. He saw what I saw at once. What you yourself also saw. That Chen is a good man. An honest man, when he's given the chance to be. So men are, unless necessity shapes them otherwise.'

‘Or birth...' Haavikko said, thinking again of Ebert.

‘So?' Karr said, his hand still offered. ‘Will you join us, Axel? Or will you let what's past shape what you will be?'

Haavikko looked from one to the other, then, smiling fiercely at him, tears brimming at the corners of his eyes, he reached out and took Karr's hand.

‘Good,' said Wang Ti, appearing in the doorway. She moved past them, smiling at Axel, as if welcoming him for the first time. ‘And about time, too. Come, you three. Sit down and eat, before dinner spoils.'


Over the meal Karr outlined what had been happening since his return from Mars. Their one real clue from the Executive killings had led them to a small Ping Tiao cell in the Mids fifty li south of Bremen. His men were keeping a watch on the comings and goings of the terrorists. They had strict orders not to let the Ping Tiao know they were being observed, but it was not something they could do indefinitely.

‘I'm taking a squad in tonight,' Karr said, sitting back from the table and wiping at his mouth with the back of his hand. ‘In the small hours. I want to capture as many of the cell members as possible, so we'll need to be on our toes.'

Chen nodded, his mouth full. He chewed for a moment, then swallowed. ‘That'll be difficult. They organize tightly and post guards at all hours. And then, when you do confront them, they melt away like shadows. You'll have to corner them somehow. But even if you do, I've heard they'd rather die than be captured.'

‘Yes... but, then, so will most men if they're given no other option. Sun Tzu is right: leave but one avenue for a man to escape by and his determination to fight to the death will be totally undermined. He will recognize how sweet life is and cling to it. So it will be tonight. I'll offer them a pathway back to life. If I can capture just one of them, then perhaps we'll get to the bottom of this.&rs neg bae&rwilquo

Haavikko smiled. The man looked, even ate, like a barbarian, but he thought like a general. Tolonen had not been wrong all those years ago when he had recognized this in Karr. Haavikko put his chopsticks down and pushed his bowl away, then reached into his pocket and took the notebook from it.

‘What's that?' Karr said, lifting his chin.

Haavikko handed it across the table. ‘See for yourself.'

He watched as the big man thumbed through the notebook. At first Karr simply frowned, not understanding, then, slowly, he began to nod, a faint smile forming on his lips. Finally he looked up, meeting Axel's eyes.

‘You did this all yourself?'

‘Yes.'

Chen pushed his bowl aside then leaned forward, interested. ‘What is it?'

Karr met his eyes thoughtfully. ‘It's an analysis of the official investigation into Minister Lwo Kang's murder. And if I'm not mistaken, there are a number of things here that were never included in the findings of the T'ang's committee.'

Karr handed the book across to Chen, then looked back at Haavikko. ‘May I ask why you did this, Axel?'

‘I was ordered to.'

Karr laughed. ‘Ordered to?'

‘Yes, by General Tolonen, shortly before I was dismissed from his service. He asked me to compile a list of suspects, however improbable. Men who might have been behind the assassins. It was a direct order; one he never rescinded.'

Karr stared back at Haavikko, astonished. ‘I see. But, then, surely Marshal Tolonen ought to have it?'

Haavikko hesitated, then looked down, shaking his head.

‘I understand,' Karr said after a moment. ‘And maybe you're right. After what happened there's no reason why he should trust you, is there? The Marshal would see it only as an attempt to get back at Ebert. He'd think you had invented this to discredit your enemies.'

Haavikko nodded, then looked up again, his eyes burning fiercely now. ‘But you two know Ebert. You know what he is. So maybe that,' he indicated the notebook in Chen's hands, ‘incomplete as it is, will help us nail the bastard.'

Chen looked up. ‘He's right, Gregor. This makes interesting reading.'

‘Interesting, yes, but not conclusive.'

Chen nodded thoughtfully, smiling back at Karr. ‘Exactly. Even so, it's a beginning.'

‘Something to work on.'

‘Yes...'

Haavikko saw how the two men smiled knowingly at each other and felt a sudden warmth  –  a sense of belonging  –  flood through him. He was alone no longer. Now there were three of them, and together they would break Ebert, expose him for the sham  –  the hollow shell  –  he was.

Karr looked back at him. ‘Is this the only copy?'

‘No. There's a second copy, among some things I've willed to my sister, Vesa.'

‘Good.' Karr turned to Chen. ‘In that case, you hang on to that copy, Chen. I'm giving you two weeks' paid leave. Starting tomorrow. I want you to follow up some of those leads. Especially those involving men known to be friends or business acquaintances of the Eberts.'

‘And if I find anything?'

There was a hammering at the outer door to the apartment. The three men turned, facing it, Kao Chen getting to his feet. There was an exchange of voices, then, a moment later, Wang Ti appeared in the doorway.

T">‘It's a messenger for you, Major Karr,' she said, the use of Karr's rank indicating to them all that the man was within hearing in the next room.

‘I'll come,' said Karr, but he was gone only a few moments. When he came back his face was livid with anger.

‘I don't believe it. They're dead.'

‘Who?' said Chen, alarmed.

‘The Ping Tiao cell. All eight of them.' Karr's huge frame shuddered with indignation, then, his eyes looking inward, he nodded to himself. ‘Someone knew. Someone's beaten us to it.'


Ebert was standing with his captain, Auden, laughing, his head thrown back, when Karr arrived. Signs of a heavy fire-fight were everywhere. Body bags lay off to one side of the big intersection, while the corridors leading off were strewn with wreckage.

Karr looked about him at the carnage, then turned, facing Ebert. ‘Who was it?' he demanded.

‘Who was what?' Ebert said tersely, almost belligerently.

‘Was it DeVore?'

Ebert laughed coldly. ‘What are you talking about, Major Karr? They were Ping Tiao. But they're dead now. Eight less of the bastards to worry about.'