The Emperor's Tomb (Cotton Malone 6)

Tang descended the earthen ramp to the bottom of Pit 3.

Bright overhead lights illuminated the surreal scene. A stable and a chariot filled the first recess. Two short corridors, one on the left and one on the right of the stable, connected with two deeper chambers.

He waited until they were both below ground level before addressing the problem with the administrator.

“I counted on you,” he said, “to make sure the discovery was contained. If you can’t handle the matter, perhaps we need someone else in charge.”

“I assure you, Minister, it is now contained. I just wanted you to know that its existence has leaked beyond the three who broke through.”

“Tell me again what was found.”

“We noticed a weakness.” The director pointed to his right. “There. We thought that was where the pit ended, but we were wrong.”

He saw a gaping hole in the earthen wall, dirt piled to the side.

“We have not had time to clear the debris,” the director said. “After the initial inspection, I halted excavations and called you.”

A jungle of flat cables sprouted from metal boxes and a transformer resting on the ground nearby. He stared at the opening, the bright lights burning on the other side.

“It’s a new chamber, Minister,” the curator said. “Not known before.”

“And the anomaly?”

“It’s inside, waiting for you.”

A shadow danced along the interior walls.

“He’s been there all day,” the director said. “Per your order. Working.”

“Undisturbed?”

“As you requested.”

SEVEN

ANTWERP

NI STUDIED PAU WEN, IRRITATED WITH HIMSELF FOR HAVING underestimated this cagey man.

“Look around,” Pau said. “Here is evidence of Chinese greatness dating back 6,000 years. While Western civilization had barely begun, China was casting iron, fighting wars with crossbows, and mapping its land.”

His patience had drained. “What is the point of this discussion?”

“Do you realize that China was more advanced agriculturally in the 4th century BCE than Europe was in the 18th century? Our ancestors understood row cultivation, why hoeing of weeds was necessary, the seed drill, the iron plow, and the efficient use of the harness centuries before any other culture on the planet. We were so far ahead that no comparison can even be made. Tell me, Minister. What happened? Why are we not still in that superior position?”

The answer was obvious—which Pau obviously realized—but Ni would not speak seditious words, wondering if the room, or his host, could be wired.

“A British scholar studied this phenomenon decades ago,” Pau said, “and concluded that more than half of the basic inventions and discoveries upon which the modern world is based came from China. But who knew this? The Chinese themselves are ignorant. There’s a story, recorded in history, that when the Chinese were first shown a mechanical clock by Jesuit missionaries in the 17th century they were awestruck, not knowing that it was their own ancestors who had invented it a thousand years before.”

“All of this is irrelevant,” he made clear, playing to any audience that might be listening.

Pau pointed to a redwood desk against a far wall. Items needed for calligraphy—ink, stone, brushes, and paper—were neatly arranged around a laptop computer.

They walked over.

Pau tapped the keyboard and the screen sprang to life.

The man stood straight. He appeared to be in his thirties, his features more Mongolian than Chinese, black hair wrapped in a loose coiffure. He wore a broad-sleeved white jacket trimmed at the collar with pale green. Three other men, dressed in black trousers and long gray garments under short indigo jackets, surrounded him.

The man shed his robe.

He was naked, his pale body muscular. Two of the attendants began to tightly wrap his abdomen and upper thighs with white bandages. With their binding complete, the man stood as a third attendant washed his exposed penis and scrotum.

The cleansing was repeated three times.

The man sat in a semi-reclining position on a chair, his legs spread wide and held firmly in place by the two attendants. The third participant stepped to a lacquered table and lifted from a tray a curved knife with a cracked bone handle.

He approached the man on the chair and asked in a clear, commanding voice, “Hou huei pu hou huei?”

The man remained poised as he considered the question—will you regret it or not?—and shook his head no, without the slightest show of fear or uncertainty.

The attendant nodded. Then, with two quick swipes of the knife, he removed the man’s scrotum and penis, cutting close to the body, leaving nothing exposed.

Not a sound was made.

The two attendants held the man’s shaking legs steady.

Blood poured out, but the third man worked the wound, causing obvious pain to the seated man. Still not a sound was uttered. Agony gripped the face, but the recipient seemed to gain control and steadied himself.

Something that appeared to be paper soaked in water was slapped across the wound, several layers thick, until no more blood oozed through.

The man was helped from the couch, visibly trembling, his face half excited, half afraid.

“He was walked around the room for the next two hours, before being allowed to lie down,” Pau said.

“What … what was that?” Ni asked, making no effort to disguise the shock in his voice at the video.

“A ceremony that has occurred in our history hundreds of thousands of times.” Pau hesitated. “The creation of a eunuch.”

Ni knew about eunuchs and the intricate role they played in China for 2,500 years. Emperors were deemed recipients of a mystical “mandate of Heaven,” a concept that officially sanctified their right to rule. To preserve an aura of sacredness, the personal life of the imperial family was shielded, lest anyone be in a position to observe their human failings. Only effeminate eunuchs, dependent on the emperor for their lives, were deemed humble enough to bear such witness. The system was so successful that it became ingrained, but such frequent and intimate association allowed eunuchs an easy opportunity. Childless, they should not have coveted political power to pass on to sons, nor should they have had any need for riches.

But that proved not to be the case.

Emperors eventually became playthings for these pariahs and they became more powerful than any government minister. Many emperors never even met with government administrators. Instead, decisions were shuttled in and out of the palace by eunuchs, no one knowing who actually received or issued the decrees. Only the most diligent and conscientious rulers avoided their influence, but they were few and far between. Finally, during the early 20th century, as the last emperor was forced from the imperial palace, the system was abolished.

“Eunuchs don’t exist anymore,” he declared.

“Why would you think that?”

Thoughts of being recorded faded. “Who are you?”

“I am a person who appreciates our ancestry. A man who witnessed the wholesale destruction of all that we have held sacred for thousands of years. I am Chinese.”

He knew Pau had been born in the northern province of Liaoning, educated in France at a time when young Chinese had been allowed to attend universities abroad. Well read, a published author of six historical treatises, he’d managed to survive all of Mao’s purges, which, Ni assumed, had been no easy feat. Eventually, Pau had been allowed to leave the country—rare beyond rare—taking with him personal wealth. Still—

“You speak of treason,” he made clear.

“I speak the truth, Minister. And I think you suspect the same.”

Ni shrugged. “Then you would be wrong.”

“Why are you still standing here? Why do you continue to listen to me?”

“Why did you show me that video?”

“Faced with death, he who is ready to die will survive while

he who is determined to live will die. That thought has been expressed another way. Shang wu chou ti.”

He’d heard the phrase before.

Pull down the ladder after the ascent.

“The most common interpretation instructs us to lure the enemy into a trap, then cut off his escape,” Pau said. “Different adversaries are lured in different ways. The greedy are enticed with the promise of gain. The arrogant with a sign of weakness. The inflexible by a ruse. Which are you, Minister?”

“Who is luring me?”

“Karl Tang.”

“Actually, it seems more like you are doing the luring. You haven’t answered my question. Why did you show me that video?”

“To prove that you know little of what’s happening around you. Your self-righteous commission spends its time investigating corrupt officials and dishonest Party members. You chase ghosts, while a real threat stalks you. Even within your sacrosanct world, which prides itself on being the Party’s conscience, you are surrounded. Eunuchs still exist, Minister.”

“How do you know any of this?”

“Because I am one of their number.”

EIGHT

CASSIOPEIA VITT WAS SHOVED BACK INTO THE ROOM THAT had been her prison for the past two days. Her shirt was soaked, her lungs aching from trying to breathe.

The door slammed shut.

Only then was she allowed to remove the blindfold from her face.