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“The struggle beca States period, which followed,” his teacher had said “Eventually, after another two hundred years of conflict, seven states eealists who taught that he who has the greatest force will be paid tribute to by others, while he who has less force will pay tribute to others The Ba consolidated their influence over the kings, advocating an end to the feudal system Inherited posts were replaced with appointed bureaucrats, whoe or even execute at will Inherited fiefdoms were redrawn into ad officials ere athered all power into himself’”

By the end of the Warring States period, the Ba had assuical feats were better known—the discovery of gunpowder, the cultivation of silkwor believed that the Chinese invention of totalitarianisreatest impact on the world

“It was a revolution froave little resistance Five centuries of incessant warfare had left thealists provided And though all that occurred over 2,500 years ago, to this day all Chinese have an irrational fear of chaos and disorder”

A decade later the kingdo a backward dukedohbors into the First Empire

“Qin Shi ealism in our culture, and it reed over the centuries Those changes are why you and I must talk further”

And they had, many times

“Study Mao,” his teacher had advised “He was a alist He understood how the Chineseelse, explains both his success and his failure”

Tang had studied

Nationally, Mao had wanted to , and secure, just as Qin Shi had done Socially, he had wanted China to evolve into an egalitarian society in the Marxist tradition Personally, he wanted to transcend his own mortality and ensure that his Revolution became irreversible

On the first goal he succeeded The second was an utter failure

And the third?

That was the unanswered question

A how like Qin Shi Mao had beco periods of bloody tur all local fiefdo on one language, currency, orthodoxy, and loyalty Grandiose building projects became common They both loathed ed worship of theos Qin had chosen First Emperor, while Mao had preferred Chairman In death, they were lavishly entoimes had endured

“That was no accident,” his teacher told hi one of their final conversations “Mao understood the First Emperor You should, too”

And he did

No 20th-century Chinese leader had captured the people’s devotion like Mao He beca later made with the people could compare to the “destiny of Heaven” that emperors like Mao enjoyed

But Mao’s day was over

Give allegiance to political solutions proposed centuries ago by long-dead scholars That’s what Confucius had advised as the way to understanding That seemed impossible

A second hare would not die at the same stump

He wholeheartedly agreed with Mao’s Cultural Revolution In deference to it, that hen he’d stopped using the traditional for Karl, his family na He recalled when the Red Guards ra intellectuals, restricting publications, disbanding monasteries and temples Every physical reminder of China’s feudal and capitalistic past had been destroyed—old custo were all eliminated

Millions had died, millions more had been affected

Yet Mao eer than ever

He checked his watch, then sucked more breaths of the clean air

A smile formed on his lips

Let it begin

TWENTY-FIVE

ANTWERP

CASSIOPEIA APPROACHED THE MUSEUM, HEADING FOR THE sao She’d stu to decide where best to hide the lamp Its rooms held a collection of Dutch, French, and Flemish objets d’art But its Chinese boudoir, on the third level, hat really caught her attention

She hoped the laone unnoticed

She’d passed couples ho into a doorway or dogging her footsteps Advertiselass s shouted fronored all distractions She needed to retrieve the lamp, then h a couple who shared Sokolov’s agony of losing a child—who’d agreed to forward any coded e-ium