Текст книги "Heir To The Dragon "

Автор книги: Robert N. Charette

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70

Unity Palace, Imperial City, Luthien

Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

9 January 3040

 

Fuhito Tetsuhara and his dozen buso-senshiguards, the Ryu-no-tomo,or Dragon's Friends, bulled their way through the gathering of gawkers in the corridor leading to the Peony Room. Their 'Mechs and almost two dozen more waited outside the palace grounds, the piloted machines walking protective sentry. Fuhito fretted at the slow progress of his group, but was reluctant to force passage through the courtiers and functionaries. They all outranked him socially, and he had no idea what had happened in the room. He only knew that Theodore had headed there after ordering Fuhito to gather the warriors from the DropShip Tetsuwashiand follow.

He had acted as quickly as possible, but it had taken precious time to unlimber the BattleMechs and march them from the port. The Kanrei had long outdistanced them. They had only reached the outer halls of the palace when the distance-muffled shot had reached his ears. The dismounted senshihad increased their pace, only to be slowed by the crowded corridors.

The Otomo guards moved to refuse entrance to him and his group, but Theodore's raised hand stayed them. Relieved to see his lord safe within the room, Fuhito ordered the MechWarriors to aid the Otomo in guarding the door. He slipped between two brawny Otomo and entered the room.

Fuhito scanned the room as he passed the guardsmen. He was shocked to see the state of the Coordinator. Takashi sat in his carved chair, bloodied and pale. A man wearing the master's insignia of the Brotherhood of Physicians and two red-robed Pillarine Adepts attended him, cleaning his cuts and dressing them with plastiflesh. Fuhito had seen enough injuries to know that at least one of those wounds was beyond the magic of the spray binding and would leave a scar.

The obvious culprit lay sprawled near the center of the room. Two men were examining the body of the nekogami. A court functionary, his back to Fuhito, stood at the feet of the corpse, and Ninyu Kerai knelt near the body, examining the gray ash near the disfigured face of the assassin. The redheaded ISF man said something to his companion that Fuhito could not hear.

Theodore stood in conversation with his wife and his cousin Constance. As Fuhito approached, the Kanrei put down the decanter he was holding and turned to face him. He acknowledged Fuhito's bow with a nod.

"Sho-saTetsuhara, I've a different task for you than I expected. I want you to take temporary command of the Otomo. Chu-saIi has found the attack on the Coordinator beyond his honor."

"Hai!"Fuhito was surprised by the order. He was not surprised that the Otomo commander had committed seppuku for his failure to protect the Coordinator. That was expected. But to do so before the investigation was completed and all were certain that the Coordinator was safe? Chu-saIi had shown a shocking lack of sense for his duty, an unbalanced sense of honor.

"Have the corridors cleared," Theodore continued. "Assure everyone that the Coordinator is safe. I will have a public announcement at ..." He looked at Constance with a raised eyebrow.

"We should be finished here in an hour, Tono,"she replied to his unspoken question, turning from the Pillarine jukurenshato whom she had handed the decanter.

Theodore consulted his ringwatch before finishing the sentence he had left hanging. "Six."

A new presence intruded on the small group, the functionary Fuhito had seen near the body. Fuhito realized with a shock that the man was Subhash Indrahar, the dreaded Director of the ISF. Behind the Director and to one side stood Ninyu, showing no sign of his usual sarcastic half-smile. "Do you think that wise, Kanrei?" Subhash queried. "The Coordinator's injuries from the shattered glass and his subsequent fall are light, but he is dazed and disoriented. He will not be ready to speak so soon."

Fuhito watched their eyes lock, felt the play of kienergy between them. Absorbed with trying to interpret the energies, he started when Theodore spoke.

"I'm doing what I deem necessary."

"Very well," Subhash said quietly. He adjusted his gold-rimmed spectacles, seating them more firmly. "You seem to be well-supplied with advisors whose words you heed. I will attend to the Coordinator."

Theodore paused a moment, seeming to weigh the Director's words. "I understand," he said finally.

Subhash bowed, brief and shallow, then turned his back on them. The Director strode directly across to the group around the Coordinator, dismissing the Pillarines. Ninyu watched, shifting his attention between the Kanrei and the Director. His face was stiff, as though he fought to control his thoughts. Reaching a decision, he cleared his throat.

"Kanrei," he began, holding out a packet wrapped in plain white silk. "Here is something for Michi Noketsuna."

Theodore accepted the offering and looked questioningly at Ninyu.

"It's some information that might be of interest to him. Recordings made by one Jerry Akuma. It seems that Akuma felt it necessary to secretly record his meetings with certain persons. The recordings are quite revealing. There is, of course, a copy for you. It may tell you something about your father as well."

"Domo,Ninyu -kun.I hadn't thought you interested in helping Michi– kun."

"I'm not, but these recordings may encourage him to slither back under the rocks he crawled from. The Dragon will be better off without him and the bad company he keeps."

"These are not fabricated, are they?" Constance asked. Her voice contained only curiosity, but Fuhito suspected her words held more. Once again, he was out of his depth among the subsurface meanings that seemed to fill the court and ensnare the lords of the Dragon.

"The truth is damning enough," Ninyu snapped. He stepped back, and without bowing first, walked halfway across the room before stopping. He seemed unwilling to join those around the Coordinator, but in his covert glance back to Theodore, Fuhito saw his reluctance to return to the Kanrei's group. He stood in the middle of the room for a moment, indecisive. Then he settled his shoulders and strolled slowly out past the Otomo.

"There is trouble brewing," Constance warned. "He is both more and less than one of your companions. Trust him with little."

"I trust him as I must," Theodore stated. "He's completely loyal to the Dragon. As long as the Combine's survival is threatened, he will never betray it."

"He is a small spider, learning the ways of the master weaver at the heart of the web," Constance observed. "He and his teacher may not see your interests and those of the Dragon as one and the same."

Theodore shook his head. "I can't afford to worry about that now. Besides, he won't be a danger for some time to come."

"Any time is too soon," Tomoe asserted.

"That is true, To-chan.But we must deal with the present right now. The future must wait for tomorrow." Without looking at Fuhito, Theodore added, "Isn't that right, Fuhito– kun?”

"Hai, Tono!"

71

Unity Palace, Imperial City, Luthien

Pesht Military District, Draconis Combine

18 June 3040

 

Piotr Hitsu, the man Theodore knew as a kuromakuof the yakuza, entered the audience chamber only after the guards had withdrawn from the room. Hitsu looked worn, aged more than the years since their last meeting could rightly claim. The kuromakuwalked slowly across the floor, his limp more pronounced than when the two had met on Corsica Nueva.

A young boy followed him into the chamber. The boy, impeccably attired in a brilliant white kataginu,was dark-complexioned and thin, clearly no relation of the stocky, pale Hitsu. Something about the boy's face reminded Theodore of one of the oyabunthat Hitsu had gathered into an alliance to serve the Combine. The lad, nervous and ill-at-ease in the formal garb, carried a half-meter cube whose shiny, lacquered surface reflected the surroundings as perfectly as a silvered mirror.

The kuromakuapproached the platform where Theodore knelt. From three meters away, he bowed. He came forward another two steps and bowed again before kneeling.

"I'm pleased to see you again, Hitsu -san,"Theodore began affably. "It's been too long since we have talked face to face as friends should."

"You friendship honors an undeserving old man, Kanrei."

"Nonsense. Have you brought word from the oyabun?They have been silent and invisible these last few months."

"Things will soon be as they were, Kanrei." Hitsu smiled weakly. "Assuming the satisfactory conclusion of today's business."

"If not word from the oyabun,what then is today's business, Hitsu -san? Your request for this meeting was not specific."

"The business is honor," Hitsu informed him. The kuromakusettled himself firmly, resting his palms on his legs just above his knees. He drew a deep breath, and letting some of it loose in a sigh, stared directly at Theodore. The old man's dark mahogany eyes glinted harshly. "Honor and apology."

Hitsu waved the boy forward. With awkward movements the boy rose, padded forward softly, and placed the box on the dais, just to Theodore's right. He bowed raggedly before returning to his place behind the kuromaku'sleft shoulder.

"Nezumi– sanhas atoned," Hitsu stated.

Theodore didn't need to look into the softly humming box to know that it held the refrigerated head of Yasir Nezumi. The oyabunhad paid for his ambitious mistake with his life. He also suddenly realized that the boy must be Nezumi's son.

"Nezumi– sanwas rash," Hitsu continued. "But he was mine as oyabunof the oyabun."The old man ignored Theodore's start at his announcement.

"Nezumi– san'sshame is canceled by his act. My shame remains. As his oyabun,his actions are my actions, and his honor is mine.

"He used your name in unknowing contravention of your will. His ignorance was, of course, no excuse. He acted without my permission or consent, which he would not have received even had I knowledge of his plans. But neither is my ignorance an excuse."

As he spoke, Hitsu removed a pair of white handkerchiefs from an inner pocket, one silk and one cotton. He laid them on the floor in front of himself, silk to the left, cotton to the right.

"This is unnecessary," Theodore protested, suddenly aware of the old man's intent. Yubitsume.The ritual finger-cutting atonement of the yakuza. Though he wished to forbid the action, he knew that it was bad form to refuse. And this man was necessary to Theodore, to the Combine. If Theodore refused his offering, the old man's sense of honor would be outraged. Hitsu would slit his belly in shame. Theodore could not allow that. Even before he had known that Hitsu was oyabunof the oyabun,he had felt that the man's resources, advice, and knowledge were immensely valuable to the Combine. "Your intent is sufficient for me, Hitsu -san."

The old man closed his eyes briefly, but said nothing. Instead, he removed a plain, scabbarded knife from within his jacket. With deliberate slowness, he freed the shining steel from the lacquered wood. Placing the scabbard at his left side, he laid the knife down at his right knee, edge toward himself. Hitsu placed his palms flat against the tatamimats and bowed deeply. He straightened and extended his left hand, palm down and fisted except for an extended little finger, to rest on the mat. He took the knife in his right hand, reaching across to rest the edge against the first joint.

Theodore dropped his eyes and nodded, unwilling to let the old man mutilate himself more than the minimum. He heard the crackle of cartilage as the blade bit home. When Theodore looked up again, Hitsu had wrapped the cotton cloth around his shortened finger, holding its loose ends in his fist. The old man pushed forward his offering, wrapped in the silk handkerchief.

"Please accept my apologies."

Theodore reached out and took the offering. He placed it by his right side, next to the lacquer box. Unsure of the proper ritual response, he bowed.

"Domo, Tono."Hitsu bowed. "Honor is satisfied, and I have business that requires my attention. With your permission?"

Theodore nodded. The oyabunof the oyabunstood stiffly and walked from the room clothed in his dignity, his shame washed away in blood. The boy, green-faced, followed.

The Kanrei remained kneeling, contemplating the box and the small white package with its incarnadine stain at one end.

"You handled that well."

Startled from his musing, Theodore spun. He had risen halfway to his feet and started to pull his gun from its holster before he realized that he knew the voice. Too well. He returned the Nambu to its resting place and fastened the flap. He finished standing and bowed.

Praise was something he was not used to hearing from his father.

Takashi smiled tightly as he slid the painted panel closed behind himself, obviously relishing the surprise Theodore had not quite suppressed. "You still need better control if you are to be Coordinator."

"I don't want to be Coordinator."

Takashi barked a short laugh. "Do you think I did?"

Of course you did,Theodore replied silently. It's your life.Aloud, he said, "You've embraced the office wholeheartedly."

"Hai.I have." Takashi stepped down from the dais and walked to the outer wall. He opened the shojipanels, letting in sunlight as he spoke. "I was very unhappy when my father Hohiro recalled me to Luthien. All I looked for was a life serving the Dragon. I was a warrior, the strong arm of the Dragon who savaged our enemies. But my father knew that the Combine needed a strong heir. One who was more than a simple samurai.

"It is curious, is it not, that our greatest enemy has a similar history? Hanse Davion also wished to be a simple soldier. It is said that the Fox was raised to expect other things from his life than the burden of rulership. But he had an elder brother to insulate him from the concerns of state while I had only my blind devotion to the Dragon. When Yorinaga Kurita killed Davion's older brother Ian on Mallory's World and Hanse became Prince, he did not have the benefit of training at the court before taking his office. But he has prospered nonetheless.

"He did not wish the burden. Nor did I."

Nor I,Theodore echoed in his thoughts.

"Personal desire is a weakness," Takashi asserted. "I learned that as I learned what the Dragon required of me. Courage. Audacity. Tenacity. In time I learned the wisdom of a ruler. The foremost tenet of that cruel wisdom is that one must, and will, do whatever is necessary for the health of the realm. It was an education."

I have been educated, too,Theodore thought. How strange that I should hear you speak my own thoughts. Frightening, too. I had never thought of you that way.

"I won't take the office from you. Being Kanrei is enough for me."

"The office,"Takashi hissed. "You cannot still be so naive to believe that I would be satisfied with an empty title. You have done all you can to usurp my power, and you pretend that you spare me by leaving me a title. Powermatters, boy! Not titles. Why you have balked at taking my life as well eludes me. Unless the reason lies in your weakness."

Theodore wanted to ignore the barb, but found himself trying to defend his position, knowing all the while that his defense was just the sort of weakness his father meant. "Being Kanrei is sufficient for me."

"A transparent subterfuge," Takashi accused.

"Iie.It is a matter of honor."

"What honor is there in a weakling?"

"Honor lies not in strength but in integrity. The teachers you yourself set before me drilled that very deep. The ancient code of bushidois a warrior's ethic, but it draws deeply from the well of Confucian wisdom. The ancient sage laid down laws, laws I have sought to follow. One of those dicta, repeated in our own family's book of honor, states that a man may not live under the same heavens as the slayer of his father. To me that dictum means more than a simple justification for seeking revenge for a death.

"I won't be ... I can't be ... a patricide."

"You are weak."

Theodore said nothing.

"But perhaps not so weak as I have previously thought," Takashi conceded. "Though you have had some success in penning me until now, you still do not have the strength to be the Dragon."

"You're blind to my strength, then. It's there. You've molded your successor better than you think."

Takashi looked at him thoughtfully. "I will admit that you have had successes. Some have even impressed me. But those are soldier's victories. They give you no experience in the higher strategies of ruling a realm. The days for a ruler's wisdom are come again. Already the fighting fades, and we return to the old ways of raiding and harassment. The time of your eminence is past. I shall find the cracks in the walls you have built around me and escape your snares. I will again take up the power that is rightfully mine."

The Coordinator's face lit with fervor as he spoke. Theodore considered what he saw. Once he would have feared the threat, the hint of madness it contained. Now he only feared the results. His father cared deeply for the realm, but Takashi had let his own concerns blind him to its needs. Takashi had forfeited his right to rule. This was no time for weakness.

"You will do what is required of you as Coordinator," Theodore said. His voice was mild, but iron conviction underlay his words. "You will serve the realm as its figurehead while I attend to its health and well being. Mineis the vision that will see us through the future. Mineis the hand that will guide the realm. We mustn't fight and destroy the Combine between us. If you oppose me, I will have you sequestered."

Takashi's eyes narrowed.

"Then I shall not oppose you," he whispered rancorously. "In the open. We shall have our fights, boy. Do not doubt it. But you are right in one thing. We must attend to appearances. We must show the people, and our enemies—most especially our enemies—that we stand together, the head and the arm of the Dragon."

Even as the Coordinator held out his hands in a gesture of reconciliation, Theodore recognized that Takashi was taking the first step in his avowed plan to regain power. Takashi offered the illusion of-accommodation, the appearance of conciliation. There would be no visible signs of dissent or weakness that their enemies might take as an invitation to try again. They would give the impression of strength and harmony to the outside, while remaining opposed.

Theodore embraced his father.

"The Draconis Combine is more important than either of us."

"Hai,my son. We agree on that. You have taken your first step in understanding what is required of you. Your first step in understanding me."

Not my first step,Theodore thought ruefully. I understand you better than you know, Takashi, my father. I have, to my sorrow, become too much like you. In deed. In outlook. I wish it were not so, but it is. All that I thought made me different from you, better than you, has blown away on the breath of the Dragon.

Are you so sure?a soft voice whispered in Theodore's head.

Tetsuhara-sensei! ?

Your feelings are strong. That is good.Ninjo andgiri must be balanced. They are a circle, the yin and the yang. If one is too strong, the balance is broken. You must strive to maintain the balance.

I have striven, sensei. I've failed.

A man cannot be said to have failed until after he is dead. As long as there is life, there is hope. Are you such a coward that you have abandoned hope?

I'm no coward, sensei.

Exactly. You are not your father. If you remember this, you will prosper. I will remember.

When you go forth into the world, you must be your own man. You cannot live another man's dreams, nor be that which you are not. All that you do will be you, and you will be all that you do. You are your own karma.

Theodore started. Those were the exact words Tetsuhara– senseihad used when they had parted on the occasion of Theodore's departure for Sun Zhang Academy. On reflection, he realized that all of the sensei'swords were things that he had said to Theodore at different times and in different places. The conversation was a construct of Theodore's mind. But artificial or not, he recognized the timely wisdom of the sensei'scounsel.

The Dragon possesses five virtues,he reminded himself. Bravery, audacity, and tenacity are but three. Even my father grants me those. The fourth is integrity, the one I had come close to abandoning. I must not allow myself to be so weak.

Perhaps, this is the beginning of the fifth virtue, wisdom. If so, then I am the true heir to the Dragon.