Daylight on Iron Mountain Read Free

as
these
fellows will testify!’
    And he laughed again. A fierce, belligerent laughter.
    There was a crack as another head fell and then another. He had ‘killed’ a good dozen of them by now.
    ‘You know, Chao… I should have a purge, don’t you think? Shake things up a bit. Stop my people from becoming too complacent. It’s what Ch’in Shih Huang-ti would have done. He had no time for fools, you know… except himself, that is. He got conned, Chao, by a shaman. The man took him for a fortune. Riches enough to fight a great campaign. And what did he buy? A bridge! A fucking non-existent bridge! Well, you won’t find me buying no fucking bridges!’
    He swung. There was the crack of clay, the tumble of broken shards.
    ‘But I do like to break things. I really do. It
annoys
them, see. All the pompous little nothings. It winds them up. Gives them indigestion. Stomach cramps… And I like that. I like seeing them all discomfited.’
    Another head flew. The floor now was littered with broken pottery.
    ‘You think me ruthless, Chao, I know. But we Han have always been ruthless. In 259 BC in southern Shan-hsi, the army of Chao no relatives of yours, my friend, I should quickly say was starved into surrender by the Ch’in at Ch’ang P’ing. Etiquette demanded that they give up their weapons and go home, only the Ch’in generals executed them, to the last man. Four hundred thousand men. Beheaded, every last one, their heads made into a great pile as a warning to others.’
    Tsao Ch’un paused, narrowing his eyes. ‘You know what? That purge…it’s a good idea, neh? You could compile a list for me, Chao… like in the old days.’
    A list
, Chao thought, turning his chair slightly and wishing that Amos were there so they could settle this matter.
Another bloody list
.
    Back in the old days it had seemed the only way to go about things. To target one’s enemies and ‘reduce’ them. Necessity had forced their hand. But purges. He hated the notion. Weren’t they at peace now?
    Only the truth was that they weren’t. Not yet. Oh, America would fall, eventually. The Middle East question would be resolved, one way or another, but…
    ‘Well, Chao? Will you
make
me a new list?’
    Chao Ni Tsu looked across to where his old friend stood, baseball bat poised, ready to strike again.
    ‘If that’s what you want.’
    ‘Oh, I do. The more I think of it… Well, imagine. When the executions begin. Think what a panic they’ll be in!’ He laughed, but this time it was barely a laugh. His eyes were serious, looking inward at his thoughts.
    ‘They’ve grown fat and bloated, Chao. Corrupt. Not that I care too much whether they’re corrupt or not, provided I see my share, but… they grow too sure of themselves. And that can’t be good for me, can it now? No. We need to strip them of their power. To make them question whether they are the next to go.’
    Chao nodded. ‘We must make them fear you again,
Chieh Hsia
.’
    Tsao Ch’un met the old man’s eyes and nodded. ‘Fear me… Yes. You have it
perfectly
, Chao Ni Tsu. So make a list. A long list, mind you, sparing no sector of society. And then we’ll see, neh?’
    Outside again, Chao let his Master push him, Tsao Ch’un quiet now, quiet and brooding. But Chao knew that quiet of old. Knew that it meant he’d come to a decision.
    ‘Have you made up your mind?’
    Tsao Ch’un spoke to his back. ‘I did… and then I didn’t. Smashing all those heads…’ His voice softened, as if, for a moment, he was talking of something other than the murder of tens of millions.
    ‘It’s no easy thing to decide upon. Japan… well
that
was easy. There wasalways an animosity between us. They were always our enemies. And so I did not hesitate. I knew what I had to do. But these others… this strange alliance. I wondered if there wasn’t, perhaps, some better way of dealing with them…’
    A strange alliance indeed
, thought Chao. Arab and Jew joining together to fight a