Chapter 38: A man assesses a schedule
Once again, Kaa and Joyla met in the Shuimu Lianqing Lingnan Teahouse, the place their counter-conspiracy had started, a start that seemed quaint to them in retrospect. No angels, they wondered what they would have done if they had known before starting what and who they were countering. Would they have been Mahatmas, peaceful resistance to the end, or more warlike, attempting to cut off the head, or perhaps more inclined to run and hide, pull covers of opiates over their minds and senses until the world went away?
But they would never know. They had started down a path of discovery, a path which had entwined their fates with the fate of the world as they knew it, with the fates of two beings so potent that they might as well be from other realms. They could not be laggards, not claim ennui, ignorance, other appointments or think wishfully. They knew the power of those involved, and the aims, and had a plan in action to counter them. But where were the plans of those they opposed? What was the schedule, the next step, the escalation or de-escalation.
They had met to try to guess from the limited tea leaves available to them where Zau’s plan and Dian Mu’s actions were, whether in the lead or behind, what cues they might receive that would trigger their next best step in this fraught and painful dance, one that they had to appear to be enjoying along the way.
And so, Joyla shared the latest meeting between Zau and Dian Mu, what she had overheard, what Rex had seen and what Rex had been shown.
“You both have to get out.”
“No.”
“I’m serious. I can take care of myself, I think, but I can’t take care of you and Rex.”
“Piss off.”
“What?”
“I’m a bit tired of your paternalism, your assumption that I’m some shrinking violet. I’m not the easy mark you met decades ago. And Rex is dangerous in his own right.”
“That’s not what I mean. I’m not sure what about you and Rex pissed Dian Mu off, but if Dian Mu decides to reach out and touch Rex a little more intimately and with perhaps a higher voltage and current, not only can neither of us do anything about it, I’m not sure I’d even try.”
“What do you mean?”
“I mean I still have to get through to her, and I won’t do that by fighting her over Rex. Sorry, but while I know how much he means to you, he’s secondary.”
“What about me?”
“For you, I’d probably throw myself in front of a lightning bolt, although I’d try to seduce the lightning first. You should know that by now. But if I had to, then the entire thing would fall apart as well. Zau would win, humans would lose, Dian Mu would get whatever she’s getting out of this and I would likely be dead. I need both of you gone.”
“Still no.”
“Joyla, please.”
“I tried this same line with Rex weeks ago. No luck with him, no luck with me. You’re stuck with us. As he pointed out, it’s bad tactics to remove pieces from the board suspiciously. Besides, the opera is finally closing and I don’t want to miss the cast party.”
“Fine. I won’t suborn you, try to push you around on this. But be careful.”
“Always. Look behind you.”
Kaa turned, glanced at the shelf at eye level, saw a set of bo shurikens lined up there, shurikens that hadn’t been there when he’d arrived.
“Okay. Points made. Please don’t stick one of those points in me for being a paternalistic dick.”
“Fair enough. So what are we going to do? It seems as if a test run was very successful from Zau’s reaction, what little was visible on the iPad and what I’ve overheard.”
“That’s what I infer as well. My friend the power engineer in the USA has overheard some interesting chatter, seen some data to indicate that a major generation unit, likely thermal coal, dropped off the grid a few days ago.”
“Corroboration.”
“Yes. So why nothing on the news? Why no statements from the government?”
“Hello. China.”
“Point. But this would mean that Dian Mu violently destroyed a coal plant and the government is covering it up. Why?”
“Maybe it’s the Uyghur angle again, only paranoid suspicion instead of us planting it. That would be a pretty successful terrorist act.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Regardless, we need to figure out timing and lighting.”
“Hmmm… I have an idea.”
Joyla laid out her thoughts, Kaa responded. And over excellent noodles and tea they defined a near-term end game. It was tenuous, accelerated and risky. But the alternative was worse, and in the absence of other information, they had to assume that they needed to move fast.