Tolonen nodded, then waved him to continue.

"I've had the surrounding levels staked out thoroughly. Good men. Reliable, ex-service types. My men are in the transits and at all the barriers. If they even cough I'll know about it."

Tolonen stood. "Excellent. Then let's go there, neh?"

"Marshal?" Von Pasenow stared at the old man, surprised. "But I thought . . ."Tolonen came around the desk and placed a golden hand on Von Pasenow's shoulder. "You've done a good job, Major. I knew you would. That's why I hired you. But this is personal. You understand?"

Von Pasenow bowed his head. "Of course, sir. I'll take you there at once."

"Good. And, Major ... if we have to take containment action, we do what has to be done, neh? I'll accept the responsibility for any consequences. But I want at least one of the fuckers alive. I don't care how you do it, but you do it, right?"

Von Pasenow swallowed, then bowed his head. "Sir!"

THE CURTAINS WERE DRAWN, the room in semidarkness. From the far side of the room he could hear her soft, regular breathing and smiled. The room was warm, filled with the sweetly perfumed scent of her. Hesitant, he pushed the door closed and tiptoed to the bed.

Shu-sun lay there, her back to him, a bright red silk wrapped about her nakedness. Gently Tsu Ma sat, careful not to disturb her, then leaned across, his eyes taking in the features of her sleeping face.

He had not been wrong. She was every bit as beautiful as he'd remembered. As he watched, she turned, slowly, sensuously uncurling, her lips parting a fraction, her shoulders and neck stretching. Then, with a lazy motion, her eyes opened, the pupils heavy with sleep. Seeing him, she smiled.

"Where were you?" she asked, her voice a lazy, familiar drawl. "I thought you were going to come, but you didn't. . . ."

He felt a pang of guilt and quickly suppressed it. "I'm here now," he said, placing his palm against her cheek and smoothing it. She took it and slowly led it down her body onto the warm, firm breast beneath the silk.

"I wanted you."

"Wanted?" He felt a tiny shiver of anticipation pass through him. The silken warmth of her inflamed him.

"Want," she said, correcting herself.

She lifted his hand to her lips, kissed it, then, releasing it, drew back her silks, revealing her nakedness.

Tsu Ma let a long, slow breath escape him, bewitched by the sight of her, then leaned forward and gently kissed first one and then the other breast, his tongue lingering on the nipples.

He glanced up at her. Her eyes were closed now, her whole face lit with pleasure at what he was doing.

He bent again, kissing and teasing her breasts, his hands moving down her body, tracing the smooth young shape of it, eliciting soft sighs from her.

Moving back, he shrugged off his jacket and then stood, beginning to undress. Her eyes opened lazily, watching him, her smile heavy with desire, her body turning toward him like an offering. He threw off his shirt and kicked away his boots, then peeled off his leggings. As he moved forward to kneel on the edge of the bed, she sat up and reached out to him, her fingers caressing his stomach and his inner thighs, tracing a circle about his groin, her eyes wide, enjoying the sight of his fierce arousal.

He closed his eyes and groaned as she leaned closer, her fingers cupping his balls gently, tenderly while her mouth opened to him. Placing his hands on her shoulders, he began to knead the muscles there, half tender, half savage.

"Aiya," he moaned, unable to keep himself from thrusting at her. "Aiya!"His hands were at her neck now. As she leaned into him, taking him deeper, he reached up with his right hand and, grasping the point where her hair was gathered into a plait, pulled back her head, as if reining in a horse.

She stared back up at him, her mouth still open, her face entirely changed, a primal savagery staring back at him from her eyes. He shuddered then pulled her down, his mouth going to hers and crushing it almost brutally, even as her legs parted and her body curled about his. With a gasp he was inside her, the shock of entry making them both cry out, she high, he low. Savagely he thrust at her, as if to destroy her, to annihilate her utterly, her cries, the pained contortions of her face, robbing him of all reason. She clung to him fiercely, pushing up to meet each downward thrust like some young animal in its death throes.

As he came she cried out, convulsing beneath him, thrusting up against him as if to split herself, her hands gripping his buttocks fiercely while he groaned as if he'd been speared, forcing his seed deep into her, each thrust now like a dagger blow, his teeth gritted, his whole face contorted in a rictus of pain. Again!

Again! Again!

HE WOKE AN HOUR LATER, his head nestled between her breasts, her arms about his neck and shoulders. For a while he lay there, contented, happy simply to listen to her gentle breathing, to feel the soft warmth of her flesh against his own. Like paradise, he thought. Then, knowing he must get back, he gently broke from her, easing up off the bed.

He stood there a moment, staring at her, aroused once more by the sight of her. It would be easy simply to stay here for a day or two. To sleep and make love and damn the world outside. After all, that was a T'ang's privilege. But a T'ang had responsibilities, too, and right now the world was a place of threats and chaos. Right now the world would allow him only a few snatched moments of pleasure.

He shuddered, then began to dress. For a moment he had forgotten everything-everything but her. He smiled, remembering. The first time had been fierce, like the violent coupling of animals, the second tender, softly, astonishingly gentle. And between ... He laughed, surprised by it. Between times he had fallen in love with her.

Fastening the last button of his jacket, he turned, looking at her again, then went across and, leaning over her, planted gentle kisses on her neck, her cheek, her brow.

"Tonight," he whispered. Then, moving back, he straightened up, preparing himself to go out and face the greater world once more.

Tonight, he thought, knowing that there was at least this one sweet certainty amid all else. I shall come to you tonight, my darling Shu-sun.

But first there was one other matter to be settled.

THEY WERE IN TRANSIT when it began-traveling south from Milan garrison, their cruiser flitting less than a hundred ch'i above the City's roof, as if across a vast, smooth snowscape.

"What's happening?" Tolonen demanded, leaning across to touch Von Pasenow's arm.

The ex-Major looked up and grimaced. "It looks like their contact has arrived. They're decamping. If we don't hit them now ..."

"Then hit them," Tolonen said sternly. "But remember what I said. I want at least one of them alive. Tell your men to shoot to disable if they can, not to kill.""And if they suicide?"

"That's a risk we'll have to take."

Von Pasenow stared at him a moment, then nodded and got back on to his man in Cosenza.

They arrived ten minutes later, setting down beside one of the security hatches. By then it was all over.

"Let's hope they've left us something," Tolonen said as they climbed down from the craft.

"Or someone," Von Pasenow said beneath his breath, fearing the Worst.

Down below it was chaos. Someone had shot at one of the Shen T'se before the ambush was properly set. As a result more than twenty of their own men had been killed or critically wounded. Of the Shen T'se, only one was still alive, and that was because they had blown off both his arms and one of his feet.

He lay in one of the rooms, under heavy guard, his wounds freeze-staunched, his condition kept stable by the Resuscitation Machine he was strapped to.

Tolonen went to inspect the dead first, spending a long time staring at the five Shen T'se, murmuring to himself about loyalty and trust, and wondering aloud how such men as these could be bought. Eventually he left them and came through, frowning fiercely as he studied the half-conscious man.

"You know him?" Von Pasenow asked.

"I did," Tolonen answered. "Or thought I did. He was a good man." He heaved a sigh, then sniffed deeply. "But then, men are not to be taken at face value any longer."

The Marshal turned, looking directly at Von Pasenow. "It began with that rascal DeVore. From him it was contracted by my erstwhile son-in-law, Hans Ebert. And from there, it seems, it has spread, like some contagious disease. The disease of seeming. It hollows a man and replaces him with a shadow, a puppet man, dancing to another's orders. So here."

He went across and stood over the wounded Shen T'se, his face pained.

"Sergeant Hoff ... do you know who's speaking to you?"

Hoff s eyes slowly opened. "Marshal Tolonen? Is that you?"

"Hoff ... I need to know a few things, and I need to know them now."

Hoff shook his head.

"I'll make it simple, Sergeant. You tell me now I'll kill you, quickly and mercifully. You know I can do that, don't you?"

Hoff nodded, suddenly more alert.

"If you keep silent, however"-Tolonen sniffed-"well, I think you've a good enough imagination, neh, Sergeant? I could keep you alive, what, thirty, maybe forty years. And every day of that you would be in agony. In a hell that would make your present condition seem like bliss. So ... what is it to be? A quick death or an eternity of suffering?"

Hoff closed his eyes and groaned. "What do you want to know?"

"Who bought you? Who paid you? Who gave you your orders?" He paused, then, leaning closer. "Andhere's the big one. Where's the boy? Tell me that and I may even offer you a better deal."

Hoff shivered, then opened his eyes again, looking directly at the old man.

"Our contact was a man named Ruddock. He's a Minor Official according to his Security file, but in point of fact he's one of the main mediators between ourselves and the White T'ang's organization."

"Go on."

Hoff grimaced, closing his eyes briefly, then began again. "The paymaster was Li Min himself. As for who gave us our orders ... it was Rheinhardt."

Tolonen laughed. "I don't believe you."

Hoff s eyes stared back at him, a cold certainty in them. "There was a secret meeting, two weeks back, up north. In Goteborg or someplace like that. More than two dozen people attended that meeting, our commander and a number of other high-ranking Security officers among them. Rheinhardt chaired it. The purpose of that meeting was to try to assess just who would come out on top in the event of a war between Li Yuan and Li Min."

Tolonen let out a long breath. "You have proof?"

Hoff nodded. "Our commander . . . Needham . . . swore a personal oath to Rheinhardt. He had us do the same." Again he grimaced, the pain clearly returning as the quick-shot medication wore off. "When the order came from on high we did as we were told."

"I see." The old man nodded, then looked once more to Von Pasenow. "I couldn't understand it," he said. "A Shen T'se unit. Their loyalty is unquestionable. But this, if true, explains it." He looked back to Hoff. "So where's the boy?"

Hoff swallowed dryly, then shook his head. "I don't know. We handed him over back at Linz on our way down here. To a tall man with an oxlike face. Had a shoulder wound. Pale, cadaverous face."

"Li Min's man?"

"I ... I guess so."

Tolonen stared at him a long while, then slowly shook his head.

"I don't believe you, you know that, Hoff? Oh, the part about being in Li Min's pay-that rings true. As for the rest, well ... I think you're out to make mischief for Li Yuan. Rheinhardt-" he laughed, his voice suddenly louder, more authoritative-"I know Helmut Rheinhardt, and he would as soon slit his own throat as think of committing treason against his Master."

He leaned in to the man, placing the fingers of his left hand-the golden, metallic fingers-against the cauterized stump of Hoff s right arm and pressed, gently at first and then with greater and greater pressure.

Hoff screamed.

"Now, Sergeant," Tolonen said, his rocklike face hovering above the sweating man, "let's begin again from the beginning, eh? We've plenty of time, after all. All the time in the world . . ."

F U CHIANG stood beside Karr at the rail, looking down into the fight pit."It is brutal, I know, but it is also one of the few pure things there is. To see them fight . . ." Fu Chiang smiled and turned to look at the giant, casting admiring eyes over his physique. "It cannot be faked. One wins, the other dies. There is such . . . clarity."

"I know," Karr said, his look intense. "I was a Blood. I, too, once fought in a pit, beneath the lights."

Fu Chiang's eyes widened. "You fought . . ." Then he laughed. "You jest with me, Colonel?"

Karr turned to him, his eyes deadly serious. "I fought. Beneath the Net. Eight contests, to the death. And then the Supreme Master, Hwa. He almost beat me." Karr breathed deeply then nodded. "He was a great man, Hwa."

"And then?"

Karr smiled. "And then Tolonen found me, used me. Made me the T'ang's man."

Fu Chiang frowned. "I did not know. It ... well, it strikes me as odd that a Blood should rise to become a Colonel in Security, yet looking at you ..."

Fu Chiang put out a hand, touching Karr's chest. It was like touching a warm stone pillar. Karr watched him patiently, neither offended nor pleased by the small man's touch. Fu Chiang let his hand fall and shrugged. "Anyway, to business . . ."

"He's here?"

"Up above, in the Tower Hall. I left him admiring the view."

"It must be beautiful."

"It is." Fu Chiang smiled. "I like you, Colonel Karr. If ever you tire of being in Li Yuan's service . . ."

He left the rest unsaid, then put out an arm, indicating that they should leave. As they walked along they talked, going down corridors and up stairs, moving along passages cut from the stone of the mountainside, guards everywhere.

"You know what to do?" Fu Chiang asked, pausing outside the great doors.

Karr nodded. "You talked of purity back there. Of the clarity that comes when life or death's the issue.

But it isn't always so. These days . . ." He looked away, troubled, then met Fu Chiang's eyes again.

"Deals. That's all there is these days. Deals."

"That worries you," Fu Chiang said; statement, not question.

"Yes," Karr admitted. "But I can live with that, if it means I can serve the moral good."

"The moral good? You actually believe that?"

"Not all the time. Yet I know there is a difference. To serve a good man, however bad the system that he oversees, well, it might seem strange to you, Fu Chiang, but I find it better than serving such a one as Li Min."

"You make it sound so simple."

Karr shook his head. "Simple? No. It's never simple. Some days . . ." He smiled, then took a step back from the edge. "Never mind. Let's see the White T'ang's man-the Traitor's traitor."Fu Chiang laughed. "The Traitor's traitor. I like that. I take it you do not trust our friend Li Min?"

"No."

"Nor I . . ."

"Shall we?" Karr said, indicating the doors.