The Dragon Men

Chapter Twelve

Dragons embossed in gold twisted across the surface of the box, and they engaged Alice’s eye. Hypnotic, really. Rather like the Impossible Cube, but pleasant, without inducing a headache.

Everyone got to his feet as the new trio boarded the ship. Gavin attempted a bow in the Oriental fashion. A smile quirked at the edges of Lady Orchid’s mouth, though Alice couldn’t tell whether it was a smile of approval or disdain. Since they were trying to be optimistic, she settled on approval.

Gavin scrambled about for chairs for everyone. Kung hesitated a moment, but Orchid settled into hers as if she had used them all her life, though Alice didn’t remember seeing anything but a low stool in the grand house, and Yeh had sat on pillows back in Tehran. Did the Orientals even use chairs? Li was the only one who remained standing. He set the box on the table in front of Lady Orchid. The dragons looked as though they were dancing. Gavin was avoiding looking directly at the box, and Alice wondered nervously if the dragons might draw him into one of those awful fugues.

“I am Prince Kung,” the man said. “Emperor Xianfeng was my half brother.”

“I am sorry to hear of your loss, sir,” Alice said formally.

“Thank you.” He took a breath. “It is. . strange to speak with foreigners, but still interesting.”

“In what way?” Phipps asked.

“You do not know our manners, just as we do not know yours, though it was good of Lord Ennock to make an attempt.” He nodded at Gavin, who flushed slightly. “You speak too bluntly for us, too forthrightly. On the other hand, we have little time, and our usual ways to discuss will fail. So I will be. . forthright. I have learned English because I feel our two worlds, East and West, would be better off in cooperation than at war. My half brother did not feel as I do, and General Su Shun definitely does not. He intends to invade the West as soon as he can confirm the death of Lady Michaels.”

He repeated this in Chinese for Orchid’s benefit.

“We know this,” Gavin said. “We also know that Lady Orchid wants to put her son on the throne so she can rule as regent.”

“That is so,” Kung replied with a nod. “Normally, we would work out a careful, subtle plan to discredit Su Shun and push him off the throne, or even assassinate him through a careful campaign of poisons. But we simply do not have time.”

“He is already partly discredited,” Orchid said in Chinese, with Kung translating. “The emperor cannot be one who is disfigured by the blessing of dragons. He must be unsullied so his body may accept the power of the Jade Hand.”

Phipps crossed her arms in a familiar gesture. “So the emperor must be physically perfect, but once he ascends the throne, he becomes disfigured. Interesting.”

“Not disfigured,” Kung replied. “Enhanced. The Jade Hand is a piece of heaven. Therefore, it does not mar. It improves.”

“But my arm and my eye”-Phipps held out the former and tapped the latter-“are disfigurements?”

“They are not the Jade Hand.”

“It makes as much sense as declaring a bit of glassy carbon valuable,” Gavin said. “I think the point Prince Kung wants to make is that the fastest way to change power is to steal the Jade Hand and give it to Lady Orchid’s son.”

“Wouldn’t that mean. . cutting off the boy’s hand?” Alice asked in a hesitant voice.

“Yes,” Orchid said simply.

A moment of silence followed.

“Su Shun cut his own off when Xianfeng died,” Kung said at last. “It’s been that way since the time of Lung Fei.”

“Wait,” Alice said as something occurred to her. “If you are-were-Emperor Xianfeng’s half brother, you must also be half brother to Jun Lung, the Chinese ambassador to England.”

“Ah, yes.” Kung nodded. “My brother shares my views on East-West cooperation, though he was more or less exiled for his pains.”

“Was he a Dragon Man?” Gavin asked. “His family name was Lung.”

Kung shook his head. “Coincidence. Lung was once common as a family name until it became customary for Dragon Men to take that name, but here and there you will still find a Lung who has not received the blessing of dragons. Xianfeng was a Lung before he took his Celestial name. My brother is even more aggressive about cooperation with the West than I, and the ambassador position was granted him to get him out of Peking, I am sorry to say.”

“Along with his son, Feng,” Alice said leadingly.

“Feng, yes.” A vague look of distaste crossed Kung’s face. “We do not speak of my nephew.”

Alice leaned forward. “Because he was disgraced for not being able to follow into Jun Lung’s profession.”

“You know of this?” Kung looked startled.

“Feng was my friend,” Gavin said. “I saved his life, and he saved mine. More than once.”

“Where he is now?” Kung demanded.

Alice and Gavin exchanged glances. There was an uncomfortable pause, and then Gavin finally said, “Sir, I regret to inform you that Feng has died.”

“Has he?” Kung didn’t look distressed. Rather, he calmly steepled his fingers. “How?”

“It is a long and complicated story,” Alice said. “And we will gladly give you every detail at a more opportune time. However, suffice it to say that Feng sacrificed his own life to save mine and Gavin’s.”

“Actually,” Phipps said, “his sacrifice saved the entire world.”

At this, Kung raised both eyebrows. “The world?”

“Perhaps even more,” Phipps said. “Far from being ashamed of your nephew, sir, you should be proud of him.”

“I see. Then I am most eager to hear this entire story.” Kung resettled himself. “But as Lady Michaels has pointed out, first we must finish our current business.”

“We have a number of problems to overcome if we wish to steal the Jade Hand,” Lady Orchid said. “Su Shun has barricaded himself in the Forbidden City, and I don’t think we can lure him out.”

“What exactly is the Forbidden City?” Gavin asked. “I’ve heard of it but don’t know anything about it.”

“The Forbidden City is the official palace compound of the emperor in Peking,” Kung explained. “It is located in the northeastern part of Peking and is surrounded by a moat and a high wall pierced by four gates. It covers many acres, including a river, and contains many buildings. A second wall surrounds the Palace of Heavenly Purity, where the emperor once lived, but after the great Emperor Yongzheng died, the emperor’s residence moved just outside the second wall to the Hall of Mental Cultivation, which is fortunate for us. The difficulty is that only a handful of people are allowed to go in or out of the city itself. Concubines are not allowed to leave the Forbidden City without special permission, and only recognized concubines are allowed to go in. The same applies to general maidservants-everyone is scrutinized upon entering and leaving.”

“What about men?” Gavin asked.

Lady Orchid looked shocked. “The only men allowed into the Forbidden City are close friends or advisers to the emperor, and even they must leave after sundown. No man but the emperor passes the night in the Forbidden City.”

“Why is that?” said Alice.

“To ensure proper succession, of course,” Kung replied. “No one can doubt that Lady Orchid’s son is anyone but the emperor’s issue because no man has ever been allowed to spend time in Lady Orchid’s presence. Until she fled, at any rate.”

“But you mentioned eunuchs,” Phipps put in.

“Of course there are eunuchs.” Lady Orchid pulled a fan from her belt and waved it. “The Forbidden City couldn’t function without them. They run everything. They guard the gates, they collect the taxes, they keep inventory, they cook, they clean, they entertain, they transcribe messages-everything.”

Gavin shifted. “When you say eunuch, you mean a man who’s been-”

“Yes.” Li spoke for the first time, and when Kung looked reluctant to translate for a mere lieutenant, Phipps stepped in to translate, though Alice was the only one at the table who couldn’t understand him. It was growing frustrating, and she wished she understood the strange, singsong language. “A male whose three preciouses have been removed. Usually in boyhood, at age seven or eight, though a few have the procedure done in adulthood. The eunuchs maintain a special chair with a hole in the bottom for-”

“Thank you,” Gavin interrupted shortly. He looked ill.

“Good heavens!” Alice felt sickened herself. “Why on earth would parents do such a thing to their own child?”

Lady Orchid cocked her head. “The Forbidden City needs thousands of eunuchs, and they hire more than a hundred every year. Any such boy-or man-who presents himself to the city gates is guaranteed a position. At the beginning, that includes plenty of food, clothing, a small amount of money, and a chance to attain real power. It does not matter what family one is born into or what one’s father has done-all eunuchs have an equal chance. What chance do you offer the poor in your country?”

“Certainly not a chance at mutilation,” Alice snapped.

“Your poor starve in the streets, from what I hear.” Lady Orchid waved her fan. “Along with those who contract the blessing of dragons. Here, we cherish such people.”

“You cherish the Dragon Men,” Gavin corrected. “What about zombies?”

“They are rounded up and put in a place where they can await their time. They certainly don’t wander like lost toddlers.”

“Now, look,” Alice began.

“I think,” Li put in, “it might be best if we discussed these things at another time. We need a plan for the Jade Hand.”

Alice glanced at Gavin. He had grown up half starved in the streets himself. Would he willingly have traded that part of himself for the guarantee of a job? Given the chance, would his mother have allowed it? No, of course not. She was being ridiculous.

“You said the Forbidden City has thousands of people in it,” Gavin was saying. “They have to eat. How does food get in? And messages?”

“Food, cloth, animals, and other market items are brought to the gates.” Lady Orchid continued to fan herself. “The eunuchs receive everything and make payments at the gate. Merchants and messengers never set foot inside the city. Not only are they male; they are not worthy. The only other way in is through the Passage of Silken Footsteps.”

Click jumped into Alice’s lap. She idly touched his head. “And what might that be?”

“A secret passage that leads out of the Forbidden City. It was built in case the emperor needed a hasty emergency exit. But it is also heavily guarded by both eunuchs and machines. No one is allowed near it. I am one of the few people who even know it exists.”

“The walls are also impregnable,” Li said. “A number of Dragon Man inventions keep watch round the perimeter. Anyone who tries to climb over is instantly killed. The only weak points are the gates, and they are just as heavily guarded with machinery.”

Gavin cracked his knuckles. “Machinery is our specialty.”

“But not if we have no chance to study it first,” Alice mused.

“There is, of course, a much simpler way,” Lady Orchid said.

Phipps raised an eyebrow, the one not covered by a monocle. “And?”

“Bribery. The eunuchs are quite corrupt. For the right price, anyone can gain entry to the Forbidden City.”

“Why didn’t you say that earlier?” Alice cried. “That makes everything much easier!”

Kung hesitated. “Sufficient funds are. . not available.”

“I have money,” Alice replied promptly. “More than enough, I’m sure.”

Here even Lady Orchid bolted upright. “You have?”

“Certainly.” And she explained about the reward. The silver bonds would easily provide enough to bribe their way into the Forbidden City, perhaps even get them close to Su Shun, and then-

“Unfortunately I do not believe that will work,” Kung said. His hands were clenched around a cup. He seemed to notice and made himself relax. “I have heard all about those reward bonds. They were issued outside China and can be used only outside China. The borders are sealed, as you may remember, and those bonds are actually illegal here. They are worthless.”

Alice wanted to slump in her chair. Why was it every time they came up with an idea, something happened to destroy it? Sometimes it felt as if the world didn’t want them to succeed. Even the clockwork plague had abandoned them-Gavin seemed to feel no urge to come up with a brilliant or outrageously creative plan.

And then something else occurred to her.

“Why did you bring up bribery at all,” she asked, “if you have no money?”

“I had money, but it seems to have. . vanished,” said Lady Orchid.

“Does it have something to do with that box?”

Here Lady Orchid hesitated. “It is called the Ebony Chamber.” And here she spun what seemed to Alice a very strange story about a box and a missing declaration for the heir to the throne and an equally missing lot of priceless jewelry.

“May I?” Alice said, and at Lady Orchid’s nod, she pulled the box to herself and picked it up to examine it from all sides. Her brow furrowed as her hands wandered over it. Click put out a paw and batted at it.

“You’re a dear,” Alice told him, “but don’t touch, please.”

“What is she doing?” Li asked.

“Alice is talented with clockwor-Dragon Man inventions,” Gavin supplied. “She’s the only person we know of who can reassemble or repair them.”

Kung looked impressed. “We must keep this fact from Su Shun, or he will add her as a concubine.”

Alice decided she was too busy with the Chamber to react to this outrageous idea. She opened it and looked inside, then closed it again. There was much more to this box than a simple lock. Without knowing quite why, she brought the box up and lowered it over her own head. Instantly she became dizzy. Darkness swirled around her, but it was darkness with texture, like silk and sandpaper together. Layers of it slid over her, stealing her breath away. She felt hundreds of places all at once, and for a second she understood what a clockwork fugue was like for Gavin.

She jerked the box away, and the world abruptly returned to normal.

“Are you all right?” Gavin asked.

“Perfectly,” Alice replied, trying not to pant. “Though I am not in a hurry to try that again.” The dragons shimmered and twisted, laughing in their golden silence, and the phoenix latch glimmered enticingly. She ran her fingers over it. “Did you say the combination number was oh-one-eight?”

“Yes.”

“Because the latch is not set to oh-one-eight. The last number is set between seven and eight.”

“Why would that matter? The lock opened.”

“It matters quite a bit,” Gavin murmured. “Oh, how it matters.”

As if in a dream, he moved his finger toward the phoenix latch and flicked the number fully to 018. Sudden weight pulled the Ebony Chamber down, and it dropped from Alice’s hands to land with a thud on the table.

“Thank you, darling,” Alice said with satisfaction. “And now. .”

With a magician’s flourish she opened the box. Everyone crowded around to look. The phosphorescent light gleamed off a pile of jewels.

Lady Orchid gasped and pulled the box to her. “My jewels! Where did they come from?”

“That may be difficult to explain.” Gavin cleared his throat. “For a while, the Third Ward housed a clockworker named Viktor von Rasmussen. He discovered that there are different universes that exist side by side with this one. We can’t see or hear them, but they still exist. Dr. Rasmussen even found a way to bring different versions of himself from those universes into this one.”

Phipps shuddered at this. “Took forever to persuade him to send them back.” she said. “Caused no end of trouble, and a long line at the privy,”

“This box was created somehow like the Impossible Cube,” Gavin said. “It bends time and space around itself and creates. . a gate into other universes. Though I don’t understand how it works without a power source.”

“Anything you put into the box doesn’t actually exist in our universe anymore,” Alice put in. “When you set it to oh-one-eight, anything you put inside goes into a. . a piece of universe number eighteen, for want of a better way to put it. Change the lock to another number, and you’re looking into a different universe. You have a thousand universes to choose from-more than that, if you count the half spins and quarter spins that seem to affect the box as well.”

Gavin rose and said vaguely, “I’ll be right back.” And he went below.

“I am not worthy to understand,” Li said with a shake of his head. “This is very confusing.”

“Let me demonstrate.” Alice picked up Click and dropped him into the box. He yowled with surprise and disappeared inside, even though he was a bit larger than the box and the box was already filled with jewelry. Alice shut the lid on him before he could jump back out, noted the latch-it was still set to 018-and spun it at random. The numbers landed on 365. The yowling ended. Alice opened the box again. It was empty of both cat and jewels. Lady Orchid made a sound of protest.

“It’s all right,” Alice told her. “Click is still here, but he’s also gone elsewhere. You could say that he exists and does not exist at the same time.”

“How much material will fit in there?” Kung asked.

“I’m not sure, though it looks to me like this box is the embodiment of an infinite set. You can add an infinite set to an infinite set any number of times and still have room for more infinite sets, so I think you could add an infinite amount of material to this box and still have room.”

“Fascinating,” said Lady Orchid tightly. “Please bring back my jewelry.”

“Of course.” Alice reached for the latch.

“When you do,” Phipps put in, “point that thing away from me. I have a feeling your cat won’t be very happy.”

Alice reset the phoenix latch to 018. It belatedly came to her that she might be wrong and that she might have condemned Click to a terrible destruction. Her rash actions were almost like a clockworker’s, and she didn’t enjoy that thought in the slightest.

She opened the box. Click sprang out and rushed away with another yowl. He fled belowdecks past Gavin, who was coming up with the Impossible Cube, its lattices still dark. He set the Cube on the table opposite the Ebony Chamber. The Chamber was still filled with jewels. The Cube was filled with empty space.

“What are we to do with this?” Li said.

“I’m not sure,” Gavin said. “I just. . wanted it nearby.” He paused a moment. “Who created the Ebony Chamber?”

“Lung Fei,” answered Kung. “The same Dragon Man who created the Jade Hand and the salamanders. They are all connected.”

Lady Orchid, meanwhile, carefully tipped the jewels out of the Ebony Chamber. They made a gleaming hoard of stiff beauty on the tabletop. She was setting the box down again when she froze. “Connected. No.”

“What is wrong?” Kung asked, looking worried again.

“They are all connected. Kung, I know why the Chamber was empty, why there was no paper proclaiming the heir’s name.” She put her hand inside the box to feel around, then withdrew it with a sharp gasp. “What-?”

“It feels odd, yes.” Alice leaned toward her. “What did you mean just now?”

“I have seen Xianfeng open the Ebony Chamber more than once. But whenever he did so, he placed the Jade Hand over the phoenix latch. Like so.” She put her palm over the latch, covering it completely. “I thought it was to hide the numbers from the eunuchs. But now. . if the Chamber is connected to the Hand. . I wonder.”

“The Hand creates another infinite set,” Gavin said with a nod. “There’s oh-one-eight and oh-one-eight-A.”

Lady Orchid shut the box and tried other numbers-009, 005, 000. Every time she opened the Chamber, it was empty. This only seemed to confirm what she was thinking. “I believe he did declare an heir-my son-but we need the Jade Hand to open the Ebony Chamber to the correct. . place.”

“All of which only reinforces our-your-need to lay hands on the Hand, so to speak,” said Alice. “We became rather sidetracked.”

“Yeah. An infinite set in an infinite set.” Gavin slowly turned the Ebony Chamber open again and held the Impossible Cube over it. “So, what would happen. .”

Electricity arced blue from the Chamber to the Cube. It snapped and hissed like a nest of snakes. Alice’s hair rose, and she felt it prickle across her neck. A low rumble built swiftly into a high whine, and air moved through the stable.

“Gavin!” Alice cried. “Stop!”

But Gavin seemed caught in a trance. He lowered the Cube closer to the box. The whine grew louder and more shrill, a dragon screaming its own death. Power twisted and writhed around Gavin’s hands and spilled onto the table. The cups and dishes shattered. Jewelry flew in all directions. Everyone, including Phipps, seemed stunned. Alice moved. She shoved the table hard. The Ebony Chamber went flying, and one of the table legs caught Gavin’s thigh. His hands jerked, and the Impossible Cube bounced across the deck in the opposite direction. The whine faded and the electricity stopped. The Chamber remained dark except for the limned dragons dancing across it, and the Impossible Cube carried a soft blue glow except for a few dark places where the lattices crossed one another. A blanket of silence dropped over the deck.

“Goddamn it!” Phipps pounded the table with her brass fist. “And damn it again! Ennock, if you ever do that again, I shall rip your bollocks off and stuff them up your arse!”

Alice flushed at the dreadful vulgarity, the worst she’d heard in her life. “Lieutenant! There’s no call for-”

“Not the time, Michaels.” Phipps had lost her hat yet again and cast about for it. “Is everyone all right?”

Everyone reported that they were, including Gavin. Kung and Orchid gathered up the jewelry and piled it on the table again. Li scooped Phipps’s hat from the deck where it had fallen and returned it to her with something in Chinese that no one bothered to translate for Alice. Phipps responded from her chair, and Li bowed to her. He stayed bowed for a little longer than strictly necessary, or so it seemed to Alice, and Phipps gave him a long look with an expression Alice had never seen before as she put her hat back into place. Then she caught Alice looking at her, and her expression went wooden again.

“I’m sorry,” Gavin said. “The plague was. . I’m sorry. I won’t do that again.”

He wouldn’t meet Alice’s eyes, and she knew they were both thinking the same thing-three fugues in one day now. Her stomach felt cold and sick, and more than anything she wanted his arms around her for just a moment, but not in front of all these people.

“What happened, then?” Alice asked.

“I don’t fully know.” Gavin gave the Impossible Cube an uneasy glance. “The two of them seem to share a connection.”

“Two infinite sets,” Alice agreed.

“Two sets of infinite.” Gavin’s voice was dreamlike. “One gives power; the other takes it. I can see it down to the matching particles. What one does, the other matches. When these two are one, they can split the particles in pieces, change gravity, tilt the world and slosh the oceans. It calls to water. Always water. Tilt the glass and slop it over, flood the land, flatten mountains, and we’ll all be underwater.”

“Flood and plague will destroy us if you don’t cure the world.” The words of Monsignor Adames echoed from the Church of Our Lady in Belgium and slammed through Alice with the force of twelve hammer blows.

“Gavin, you’re frightening me.” Her voice was shaking. “Snap out of it.”

“Together they can flood the continents with their infinite. Tilt the world, slosh the glass. Tilt the axis, flood the-”

Phipps slapped him on the face with a crack. Gavin started, then blinked at them all with wide blue eyes.

“What’s the matter?” He put a hand to his cheek. “What did-?”

“We shall keep the Cube and the Chamber separated until we can study the phenomenon further,” Alice said briskly over the thickness in her throat. “Right now, we need to plan our way into the Forbidden City.”

This remark was met with general assent, though everyone found it difficult to keep their eyes off the Cube and Chamber, squatting like hungry lizards only a few paces away. Even the impressive pile of jewelry on the table couldn’t compete.

“Flood and plague will destroy us if you don’t cure the world,” Alice thought. But we’ll never put them together, so that so-called prophecy won’t come true, Monsignor Adames. Of that, you may be sure.

“The secret passage goes under the moat and both walls,” Lady Orchid said. “One end is found in Jingshan Park, which is outside the northern wall of the Forbidden City. The other end emerges just behind the Hall of Mental Cultivation, the emperor’s residence. Eunuchs guard several points along the entire passageway, and we will need to kill or bribe each one.”

“Can they all be bribed?” Alice asked doubtfully.

“I doubt it very much. Some will raise an alarm no matter what we do.”

“I thought you said you were one of only a few people who even knew the passage existed.” Gavin drew up a chair again. “What about all these eunuchs?”

Lady Orchid waved this aside with her fan. “Their tongues have been cut out so they cannot reveal its existence, and neither can they read or write. This is why they are easy to bribe-many are unhappy with their situations.”

“I can imagine,” Gavin growled.

“Once you have emerged from the passage, you will find more guards and servants,” Kung said. “They are everywhere. And then you will have to enter the palace, find Su Shun, and take the Hand from him.”

“I can build us some weapons,” Gavin said doubtfully, “but I don’t think we can do this alone.”

“The young lord is correct.” Li had taken up a position behind Phipps’s chair now. “You will need men to fight when you are in the passage, and men to fight when you are in the Forbidden City. The fighting will serve as a distraction for the guards so you can find Su Shun and take the Hand. Once you have given the Hand to Prince Zaichun, he can end the battle.”

“Where would we find someone suicidal enough to-oh.” Alice stopped herself. “Are you. . volunteering, Lieutenant Li?”

He bowed to her. “My men and I stand ready, Lady Michaels.”

She shook her head. “We can’t ask you to do that.”

“You saved our lives, Lady Michaels. I only ask that you do not disappoint us with refusal. My men and I only wish to serve you and, if necessary, die with honor.”

“We accept, Lieutenant,” Gavin said before Alice could object again. “And thank you. You and your men honor us with your service.”

Yet another bow from the lieutenant. Alice abruptly found the air too close. She got up and stalked toward the front of the ship, picking her way around the rolled-up endoskeleton and the piles of silk. One of the whirligigs flitted up from below to land on her shoulder, and she touched it with an absent gesture. Thoughts swirled through her head. So much was happening so fast, and she couldn’t take it all in.

And then Gavin was there. He put his arm around her waist. She started to pull away at first, then sighed and leaned against him. It was good to stand with someone strong.

“Penny?” His eyes were very blue, and the salamander made a brass circle around his ear. “Or maybe I should offer a nickel. Inflation, and all.”

She managed a weak smile. “It just came over me all at once that our plan involves bringing a number of men into the Forbidden City so they can fight and die, and then we intend to kill a man, cut off the hand of a small boy, and graft one of the dead man’s hands onto him. I don’t know how we came to this point, and I don’t know if it’s right.”

He nodded. “I think the fact that we’re questioning what we’re doing means we’re on the right path. The only people who don’t question themselves are tyrants and despots.”

“And. . clockworkers,” Alice whispered.

His arm tightened around her waist. “And them. Look, we’re risking our lives, too. Tyrants don’t do that-they make other people risk their lives. Besides, thousands will die in Su Shun’s war with the West if we don’t stop him.”

“I know.” She sighed heavily. “I do know. I just don’t like carrying this kind of responsibility. I never asked for it. I certainly don’t want it.”

“Another good sign, I think. Su Shun does want it, and look where it’s taking him.” He paused. “But that’s not the worst of what’s bothering you.”

“No.” She stared into space. “They’re asking you-we are asking you-to build weapons. That means you’d probably go into a fugue. It frightens me, Gavin.” He started to protest, and she held up a hand. “I know all the reasons we’re doing it, and I agree that we must. But the fear is still there. I’ll just have to live with it.”

There wasn’t anything else to say, so he gently turned her around. “We should go back and see what they’re planning.”

At the table, Phipps was pointing to the map. “So your spies put piles of gunpowder and ammunition here and here and here.”

“Indeed,” Kung replied. “The question is, what can we do with them?”

“Did he say gunpowder?” Alice put in.

“He did,” Phipps said.

“Hm.” Alice studied the map. “I might have an idea, then.”

“We have a few ourselves.” Phipps drummed her brass fingers on the table. “Gavin, what kind of weapons can you build by tomorrow morning?”

He glanced at Alice, who kept an impassive look on her face. “Tomorrow morning?”

“In three days, the Jade Hand will have grafted itself permanently onto Su Shun’s arm and give him a stronger hold on the throne,” Li explained. “It would therefore be best to go after him tomorrow night.”

“Oh.” Gavin ran a finger over the salamander at his ear. “If you bring me more copper, a steel bar, and some magnesium, I could probably build a pair of electromagnetic emission power pistols, and maybe a vibratory frequencation blade.”

“I definitely can’t translate that,” Phipps complained.

“Two large pistols that make zap noises and a sword that will cut through almost anything until the power runs out,” Alice supplied.

“Easily done,” Kung said.

“What was the lady considering?” asked Li.

Alice touched the little whirligig on her shoulder and thought a moment. “My whirligigs can follow fairly complicated orders if they are worded properly, though Click has a distressing tendency to do as he wishes. If we avoid using him, I think we can create quite a display for our Forbidden City friends, though you two lieutenants would have to work out a few military details.”

“I see.” Phipps turned to her Oriental counterpart. “Can we do that, Lieutenant?”

Li made one more bow. “It would be an honor, Lieutenant.”

Alice looked between them one more time.