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Malone dropped to just above 1,000 feet
“Here we go”
FORTY-SIX
NI STORMED INTO THE OFFICES OF THE CENTRAL COMMISSION for Discipline Inspection, located purposefully away fro’s complex of palaces, pavilions, and lakes that served as headquarters for both the Party and the governsee cloud of unfamiliar emotions, and haunted by the premier’s inquiry
What would be the measure of his life?
Strength or weakness?
He’d called from the car and ordered his entire staff to assemble in the conference room He required allies, not traitors, and it was time to find out where each one of them stood
Fourteen people waited Nine men, five women He calmed the flurry of excitement with a raised hand and immediately excused the women Then he said to the men, “Drop your trousers”
They all stared at him in disbelief
He reht at theain”
CASSIOPEIA STARED OUT THE WINDOW AT THE MOUNTAINOUS landscape Sunshine war inside Chinese airspace for lad she was flying with Malone Though Viktor Tomas had twice saved her life, she trusted Cotton
Implicitly
He’d co
She’d allowed only a fewemotions to herself had always proven the best course She’d read once that wo men, and Malone definitely reiant in business, a self-made billionaire who’d commanded the attention of Europe and Africa A lot like Henrik Thorvaldsen, whoone Death seeht of her own demise, which the experiences in the museum had so vividly illustrated, res What a defining h she’d be forty years old She had no husband, no children, no one hom to share herself She lived alone in an ancient Frenchothers
And ignoring her own needs?
Maybe it was tie all that
She always looked forward to seeing Cotton, and regretted when they parted Was she trying to find a replacement for her father, the one man in her life whom she’d never defied? No That was too simple an explanation Her mother would have said that men were like fields—they required careful cultivation and daily attention, all in the hope that one day they ht prove productive A somewhat cynical approach
Not one that worked for her
Here she was, flying across southern China, headed for who-knehat Was it worth it? If she found Lev Sokolov’s son, then yes
If not?
She didn’t want to think about failure
So she cohts of Cotton and that perhaps shefor herself
So she wanted
Finally
NI WAS SATISFIED THAT NONE OF HIS CLOSE STAFF WERE TRAITORS He recalled what Pau Wen had told hi effects on castration, so he’d pursued the only investigative course that guaranteed results He also ordered his chief aide to conduct an i While that was occurring, he reviehat information his staff had accumulated since yesterday
There was absolutely no reference to any organization called the Ba in any security files Those records would have included prisoner interrogations, witness state and everything that did not mandate a STATE SECRET stamp The archives contained italized,a reasonably quick search possible Historically, his staff uncovered rew out of an ancient Legalistaround the 17th century
Nothing indicated that the organization still existed
He’d also ordered a vetting of Pau Wen, but no official record revealed any connections a
Yet these clearly existed, by their own admissions
A tap on his office door disturbed his thoughts
His chief aide entered “Everyone has been examined No eunuchs, Minister”
“You think I’m insane, don’t you?”
“I would never presue you”
He liked this man, honorable and above reproach, which hy he’d selected him as first assistant
“I was unable to tell you before,” his aide said, “while the others were here But we found soht”
His attention piqued