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At the New a Capital Airport in Beijing, Caldwell and Mei Lin sailed through immigration without a hitch except that an immigration officer took a lot of ving that the sole was indeed a puter. Caldwell had to switch it on and log on to cyberspace before the man was vinced. He’d never seen anything like it before and made a point of telling his colleagues that it was the weirdest and coolest puter he has ever seen. Mei Lin had explaio Caldwell that the first thing they o do in Beijing was to get their hands on some guns. This was not Hong Kong. Things were going to start getting dangerous.“Believe me we won’t get far in Beijing without being armed, if only to heighten our powers of persuasion. The gun speaks a universal language. If you get caught hag in Beijing or accessing forbidden areas, the sequences be dire indeed. A gun may be your only hope to get yourself out of your predit,” she explained. She khe perfect place to get <bdo>9９liｂ?</bdo>some ons. You could evehem by the hour.
“Perfect,” Caldwell said. He was not sure he really meant it.
After a long taxi ride, most of it on a spanking new ring road, they checked into the Zhongguan tial Hotel, a black obelisk bang in the ter of Zhongguan, Beijing’s version of Sili Valley. Mei Lin informed Caldwell that Zhongguan was just a short walk away from Tsinghua Uy, Beijing Uy and a whole bunch of other sce parks at a’s cutting edge of teology.
Everything in Beijing was built to gigantic scale, making Caldwell feel totally Lilliputian. There were gover buildings that filled the entire horizon, hulking great monoliths that were at once modern and traditional. The architecture was a freic fusion of East a – ultra-modern architecture with ese characteristics. There were pagoda-like skyscrapers that disappeared into acid rain clouds. The curved roofs of office blocks modeled on aemp..les reflected sunlight in a billion different places, shiniaments to New a’s pla the world.
Beijing today was like New York or London three or four decades ago, except everything was grander, bigger, gaudier, wackier and crazier. In London or New York, corporate logos domihe sky, perched on top of those cities’ greatest crete and glass phallic symbols. In Beijing corporate brands not only covered everything, at night they filled the polluted yellow skies. The entire heavens became a flickering ema s paying homage to the corporate brands.
Mei Lin had obbr>99lｉb?</abbr>pted for a two bedroom suite, saying that she did not feel safe in Zhongguan, the teology Wild West of Beijing, where a woman could be dragged kig and screaming through the lobby of a five star hotel and nobody would bat an eyelid. Caldwell had no plaints although he was a little apprehensive about having her so close. The closer Mei Lin got to him the harder it was going to be to plan his future after Fouler had given back what was taken from him. There had been an odd silen the matter of their relationship but Caldwell reed that Mei Lin probably sidered it all a thing of the past.
heless, he had no doubt in his mind that he’d fallen in love with her all ain ae his reservations there was no point in denying it. He wondered whether he should let her know at dionight how he felt, if only to get it out of the way. He’d rather have it out in the open than lingering, with so many important things at stake.
So at dinner over fusion cuisine Caldwell said the unspoken.
“Mei Lin, I have something to tell you.”
“Yes.”
“I think I am still in love with you. I just want to have this out in the open so that it is not an issue. I have never in my life met anyone who makes me feel the way you do and that day at the bus stop all those years ago still haunts me. Yet, I am not even sure I am capable of having a relationship, even if you were ied.”
Mei Lin said nothing. She just stared at her plate and pushed her salmon steak with lobster saud black beans around with her fork.
“Let’s drink to you,” she said shortly, pig up her wine glass.
“To us.”
“To us.”
The rest of dinner ent in silenot an unfortable silence, yet a silence all the same. Caldwell felt a bit stupid fing up that touchy subject, but he also felt relieved that he had brought his feelings out in the open. The last thing he wanted was that kind of distra. Now he could trate on thinking about the Tsinghua problem.”
“Maybe we take a walk,” Mei Lin suggested.
“Good idea, I may have had too much to eat.”
They walked along the brightly-lit streets of Zhongguan, marveling at the lights, the holographic logos of major IT s dang in the sky. The Zhongguan architects had gone crazy in a mae to see who could build the most eous building. Caldwell articularly impressed by a two-tlass building shaped like a dn and the symbol for the New a Yuae the blistering cold and the heaviness in the air, Caldwell thought Beijing at night was easily the most romantic city in the world, putting Paris and Budapest in the shade. When a man in an ill-fitting suit on a street er thrust a ruddy-faced ese baby, ed in a silver bla, in his fad offered it for sale, Caldwell ged his mind about that.
“What does he mean, fifty thousand New a Yuan? He’s not really the baby for sale is he?” Caldwell asked Mei Lin, looking back as the cute ruddy face of the baby grew smaller, a pink blob in the distance.
“I’m afraid he is. Probably a ed baby stolen from one of the nearby hospitals. They sell them to couples they see oreet without children. He must have mistaken us for one such couple.”
“Yeah, but on a street er? Yikes!” Caldwell exclaimed, thinking about Kat.
“a is a try of paradoxes, stark extremes. You should know that.”
“I guess.”
“Your parents spent a lot of time in Beijing, right?” Mei Lin.
“Yes. Besides Xian, it was mostly Beijing and Hong Kong during the holidays. What about you?”
“My parents died when I was very young. I never really khem but my grandfather said they were the most perfect parents anyone could hope for.”
“I’m sure. Otherwise how could they have had a daughter like you?” Caldwell cluded that that was easily the iest lihat he had ever uttered. Mei Lin blushed slightly and lowered her eyes. Caldwell noticed that she had straight naturally long eyelashes.
“So what is the plan for tomorrow?” She was deliberately ging the subject.
“I thi ourselves some ons and check out this Tsinghua place. I suggest that if we locate Wang Lin or Li Jin, he’ll probably lead us straight to the labs where this puter is sitting.”
“Many of the Department of puter Sd Teology classes are opeures. We just o get an ID on this Wang Lin kid and tail him. Li Jin is probably dead, like the professor.”
“So what if the server I sahysically removed to another location?”
“Don’t you worry about that. We’ll find out for sure tomorrow. I thiter head bad get some sleep. We’ve got a long day ahead of us.”
***
Caldwell and Mei Liered the grubby Zhongguan cybercafe through grime-stained plastic door flaps. The establishment was in the windowless basement of one of the last few buildings in the viity that had?9９ｌｉｂ? fallen victim to teology industry-fuelled property development. There was no signage, nothing to indicate the presence of the establishment. The proprietor, a longhaired teenage hippie with a wispy moustache, asked them what their pleasure was. He couldn’t have been more thaeen years old.
“Hey man. How you doing? Ameri? Yeah? No problem. We got VR suits man, state-of-the-art, totally immersive man. Public or private booth? We got sex suits, the real deal with full body immersioer than the real thing. We got X-tacy man from Xyberia. The latest version works wonders on your state of mind. We got the best digital stuff man, non-addictive, totally no side effects. Just a puter simulated high that will blow your mind.” The words erupted from the boy’s thin lips in rapid-fire fashion.
“We are not ied in that. We are looking for some shooters,” Mei Lin said.
“Hey, take it easy,” the boy said, his sharp single-lidded eyes darting around the cybercafe. “There are eyes and ears everywhere.”
“We don’t have time to mess about.”
“Hey, I like the lady. I am not saying I have anything to offer you but follow me. It’s too loud in here I ’t hear very well.” More furtive glances around the half-empty cybercafe. A couple of patrons were fast asleep at their terminals. They looked like they had pulled ooo many all-nighters, buroo much midnight oil.
They followed him up a narrow flight of stairs through a doorway with a stained red velvet curtain into a badly-lit room. At any moment Caldwell expected the boy to pull out an old shoebox from one of the dusty cupboards lining the wall to one side of the room and offer them an a NORINCO firearm. Ihe boy’s hand disappeared into his shirt pocket and he pulled out a device which he quickly ran along their bodies. He checked the readout on the device.
“Unionist eh? Honkie chick eh? Just o be sure you are not from the New a Police or the PLA. ’t be too careful in this town. There are eyes and ears everywhere.”
The ser disappeared into his pocket as quickly as it had appeared. He waved his hand along a se of the wall. The motion was so fast that his fingers were just a blur. A door set flush with the wall slid open, to reveal shelves of ammunition that would have made a small try proud.
“Step with me into my boudoir,” the Beijing teenager said with a mock bow. They followed him in and the wall closed behind them. When the boy bowed, Caldwell noticed from the back of his ears that he ag some heavy duty wetware. It was nothing like the personal jukebox implants favored by the kids in the Union, this thing looked like the grills on a Harley Davidson, only flesh-colored.
“Cool ware you’ve got there,” Caldwell plimented.
“Oh this,” the boy said, both hands instinctively going behind his ears, lovingly massaging the rough flesh-crills. “Latest Cybernaut from Japan, made under lise by Great Wall putronics. Cost a fra of what it does elsewhere. This thing is the bee’s knees. All the music, you need, all the software you want right there in your head. Saves you a whole lot of sole time.”
There were guns all over the walls. In the middle of the room was a stack of steel ste units that looked like rown filing ets. The boy walked through the room pulling out these steel trays. And inside hanging on hooks ed i-lined recesses, held in place with heavy-duty Velcro, was all manner of onry, many of which Caldwell had never set eyes on before. One of them immediately caught his eye. It was the same on that the Yakuza had used in The Puzzle ba the Union. The one Agent Jones and Agent Ja had fiscated that m in the Dods.
“What is this one, er, what’s your name?” Caldwell enquired.
“Call me Mozi,” the boy said matter-of-factly as he pulled the gun from its holding place.
“This baby is called The Tube. Japanese import named after the underground in London. So called because these tiny self-propelled bullets are like mini-rockets with a specially-coated head. ght through solid rock, like the tube in Londht? Bullets will drill straight through a man’s skull, before he even blink, without slowing a beat.”
“That I know. My friend was killed by one of these,” Caldwell said, more for his own be than anything.”
“Is that the truth?” wondered Mozi aloud as though Caldwell had told him some far-fetched cod bull story but he was giving him the be of the doubt anyway. “Flavor of the month with the Yakuza I gather. Your friend Yak by any ce?”
“Is that the truth?” Caldwell repeated, the gun and ign the boy’s spot on refereo the Yakuza. The on sisted of a long tube, half fiberglass, half polymer, with a stubby hand-carved crystal stock. The bullets, all thirty-six of them, were hooked up to the outside of the tube by an intricate lattice of springs and coils that seemed to abide by their own laws of physics. They were encased with a thin c of sturdy translut polymer. This gun had been fired before. The polymer had gone all milky like the winds of a car at a car wash. At the back of the bullets were these mini propulsion units like you have on a scud missile. Caldwell hahe gun baozi.
Mei Lin walked over to a tray of diminutive handguns. She picked up a pact pistol with a polymer frame. The gun was small and almost disappeared pletely in her palm when she closed it.
“Polymer frame mini Glock pistol, named after Austriarepreneur Gaston Glock. Syier is strohan steel, the traditional material for these things, but its eighty-six pert lighter and the manufacturer claims it is virtually iructible. Kind of like the hard-on I usually wake up with in the m. Like said hard-on, the Glock ged handgun history because it operated on pletely different principles,” Mozi expounded. Caldwell could swear the kid was reading the specs of some database in his head.
“Ha ha. OK, why would you reend this?” Mei Lin asked, amused at the boy’s loose tongue.
“You are referring to the Gloy hard-on? Oh, I get it. Glocks reat reliability and accuracy. You choose different trigger pulls and the trigger is the only thing you o operate the gun so folks like our Union friend here wont blow their load by mistake. The pull on this baby is sistent every time you squeeze the trigger. Its like having the same asm every time,” Mozi explained, looking at Mei Lin suggestively.
"Mozi, dude. you cut the dirty stuff out?" Caldwell implored. He liked the boy’s sense of humor but for some strange reason he didn’t appreciate the fact that it was aimed at Mei Lin.
"I cut it out but I wont. Thats how I speak man. Take it or leave it. Besides the cute lady finds it funny, doesn’t she?" Mozi asked, grinning cheekily at Mei Lin.
“Sure. So you re we should take the Glocks?”
“Absolutely. No-brainer, really? This thing has three automatic safeties. When you pull the trigger the safeties sequentially disengage, re-engaging automatically wherigger returns to its position. Some re the Glock is the safest pistol on the market, kind of like saying Durex is the safest on the market. There’s got to be some truth to it but how do you prove it?” Mozi flashed Mei Lin a naughty grin. Caldwell decided that there was no point saying anything to the teenager.
“Sounds good,” Mei Lin said examining the Glock.
“There’s more. The trigger system is one of the killer applications. There is nothing to coo hammer, ernal safety to disehe metal pos of Glocks used to be treated with Tenifer. Metal finished with Tenifer bees as hard as a diamond. Think of Tenifer as Viagra funs. Of course these Glocks are all-polymer. Gh s virtually ued,” Mozi tinued, clearly relishing the fact that he was getting on Caldwell’s nerves. Caldwell didn’t quite like the look of the Glocks. The idea of actually shooting someoh one had suddenly lost its appeal.
“Do you have any sound guns?” Caldwell enquired.
“You guys just fooling around right? Thought you guys were going to cause some serious mayhem in Beijing?” Mozi asked, his cool black eyes jumping from Caldwell to Mei Lin.
“Look, do you have a sound gun or not?” Caldwell insisted. There was no way he was going to kill anyone in a.
“We don’t do sound guns. Those are for punk-ass wimps man. We don’t do that shit.”
Caldwell smiled. The boy had a lot of spunk and you couldn’t help but like him.
“Beretta then. Something small, that easily be cealed,” Caldwell ceded.
“Now we are talking. We got the Beretta Mini Cougar, a pact pistol, NATO qualified, fiberglass-reinforced teo polymer, e-plated barrel blah blah. Not as easy to get through s though and not as idiot-proof as the Glocks.”
“OK we’ll take the Glocks then,” Mei Lin interrupted.
“OK, whatever you say. Your call. Gaston Glock would be pleased with your choice.” Mozi shrugged, grabbed two Glocks from one of the trays and rummaged in an></a>other tray below for spare magazines.
“These hold fifteen rounds each. Will you be needing any more ammo?” Mozi asked Mei Lin, who took one of the Glocks from him.
“Another sixty rounds will be fine. We he guns for forty-eight hours,” Mei Lin said, expertly removing the empty magazine from the handgun and replag it with a loaded one. Mozi eyed her suspiciously.
“No do on the Glocks. o pay ht for these. Just toss them when you’re dohe hutong kids will use them for target practice before popping their parents.”
“How much?”
“For you guys 190,000 New a Yuan each, including bullets.”
“Will give you 80,000 New a for both, including bullets,” Mei Lin tered.
Mozi briefly sidered Mei Lin’s offer before breaking into a smile.
“You drive a hard bargain. see you’ve done business with us before Ms. ...”
“Never you mind,” Mei Lin said. She ted out eight ten thousand note bills and hahem to Mozi. The notes disappeared into the depths of the teenage gun dealer’s bomber jacket. Mei Lin placed the Glocks, the spare magazines and the bullets in her bag. Mozi waved his palm across another se of wall and the door slid open. Hidden sensors in the wall.
“I must tell you something Ms.,” said Mozi as they headed back down the narrow stairs into the bright lights and white noise of the cybercafe.
“What?”
“You are a mighty fine woman. I could teach you a thing or two about lovemaking.”
“I could teach you a thing or two about manners,” Mei Lin said affably as they walked out into the air. Caldwell could swear she was enjoying the attention.
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