Scientist: An Earth 340K Standalone Novel (Soldier X Book 1) Read online

  “Let him go,” said Itoku.

  Chaeyeon released her hand and Dang fell to the ground. He twisted his ankle as he landed and crunched to his knees. The humiliation seared his brains. He ripped himself to his feet and growled at her.

  “Dog,” said Chaeyeon. “The Chrysanthemum Striped Tigers need more than dogs, you dog.”

  “It was this dog that slit the throat of the Lord of Ten Thousand Suns,” he spat.

  “And your incompetence led Zeyar to find out...”

  “...and so I crushed him alive and left his carcass for Diaochan to find,” finished Dang.

  Chaeyeon’s lips trembled. There had been rumors that she and Zeyar had been lovers. Still, Zeyar would’ve betrayed them to the People’s Favor.

  A silence reined in the room, broken only by Chaeyeon’s angry breathing.

  “Jingfei makes Zeyar look ordinary. She is a triant. She is Diaochan’s lover,” said Itoku. “The ramifications of her death will flip the already fragile psyche of our paranoid leader.”

  “I will kill the scientists and the triant,” Dang said, staring at them all. He knew his moment had come. Diaochan had moved her security forces away from the outer empire back to the inner empire because of her own paranoia that she might be assassinated next. That resulted in the Chrysanthemum Striped Tigers having free reign to build their forces. It was my hand that slew the Lord of Ten Thousand Suns. Me, and still I stand below these fools. I will show them, he thought.

  Chaeyeon laughed shrilly. “You? You haven’t been in the field in over six years. You are old, fat, and rusty.”

  “We need to execute our second plan. Take over the Jade Palace. Now,” he said.

  Six years ago, he’d been at the apex of his health. And even then, the assassination mission had taken it out of him. But he had risen fast in the ranks of the Chrysanthemum Striped Tigers. Now he stood just one rank below the original founders. He gave a searching look at each of the founding members of the Chrysanthemum Striped Tigers.

  “Give me the xu-tiger serum,” he said. “And I will have the strength to do it.”

  They kept silent for a moment. Each of them staring one another in the eye. Dang knew this was his only chance at trying for the serum. If he took it now he would get what he wanted. He would depose of the four that stood in front of him and make his new lieutenants from the xu-tiger stock. He would be more than human.

  Chaeyeon broke the silence by her scornful laughter. She stared at him as if he were shit on her pristine knee-length white boots. Her nostrils flared.

  Itoku, old and stooped, appeared to ponder the situation. His hooded eyes no doubt going through a million calculations. Rumor had it that not even the People’s Favor herself could hide things from the old grandmaster.

  Bopha looked nonchalant as he flipped a vibro-blade in the air. He had his long dark hair tied back in two ponytails, one white and the other black. He was tall and the epitome of the People’s Warrior. It was said that he had once shared the People’s Favor’s bed.

  Kaloni narrowed her gaze in suspicion at Dang. She’d never trusted him. Not even after he’d carried out the assassination.

  Dang decided once he got what he wanted, he would kill Kaloni first. He would take his time with Chaeyeon.

  Yet the silence stretched and Dang knew that wasn’t a good sign. He made his final move.

  “And I will kill the People’s Favor, too. Then you all can lead the forces against the Jade Palace. No more hiding behind shadows,” Dang said. For self-professed leaders, they lacked the fearlessness that came to him naturally.

  Chaeyeon raise an eyebrow. “The dog’s growing the teeth of a tiger?”

  Itoku nodded. He turned to the three other leaders of the Chrysanthemum Striped Tigers. Dang knew they talked directly into their unicast connection, hiding anything from eavesdroppers.

  Itoku’s spotted, old fingers went into his thick, brown robe and then held out the glowing cylindrical vial. It glowed orange striped with black.

  Dang took the vial, but Itoku didn’t let go. For a moment, the test-tube connected their hands. “Once you’ve taken the serum there is no turning back.”

  “I’ve never turned back.” Dang took the xu-tiger serum.

  Chapter 13 - Jail

  Hazou slurped at the thick noodles sucking every bit of dark Sichuan chili sauce. The numbing peppers filled his mouth with joy. His father told him to extract the full flavor, one had to slurp the noodles, and he’d been right. The perfect spongy-soft texture of the noodles made him want to keep eating. The noodles intertwined themselves with small green cowpeas that gave it an extra crunch as he chewed.

  He didn’t mind not having his eyes for this activity. It made him concentrate on his food. Back in the day, he’d be eating and flicking through a dozen newsnet articles at the same time. It felt great to be able to concentrate on his food.

  “They make good food,” said Wenqi.

  The two scientists sat outside the house under the eaves where old man and old lady stood making and serving stir-fried noodles: their specialty.

  If Hazou could’ve seen, he would’ve noticed a long row of midnight revelers consisting of male prostitutes dressed in their tight shorts, the female Boxing Roo gang members with the glyphs on their right cheeks glowing, and the odd net-sneak with fiber sockets for eyes hidden behind dark wraps, and even a young family that looked totally out of place at the end of the line. But he could hear them and it sounded like everybody kept their peace. That might have been due to the huge panda hybrid that worked in the back of the kitchen carving out mock-vegetables from a soyalite block the size of a woman. The panda used a vibro-machete that could’ve lopped heads with a flick. Hazou overheard the old couple joking with the hybrid panda.

  Within thirty minutes, all the noodles sold out. A few revelers complained but left to eat the soy-kebabs across the road.

  “Okay, are they free now?” Hazou asked.

  “Yeah, I was just waiting for that over-sized panda hybrid to leave.”

  The over-sized hybrid who had been walking away turned ever so slightly. He didn’t resemble those cute panda avatars users donned on the neuralnet. His furred head brushed against the eaves. The white fur on his face surrounded black splotches of his eyes. His huge jaw hung low. Bits of tofu clung against the front of his chest. He grunted, his foot kicking up sand, and then disappeared into the night.

  “A real hybrid panda?” Hazou asked, curiosity in his voice. “They all died in the Aqua Wars. We must talk to it.” He turned his head as if he could see where the panda walked.

  “Yeah, that probably explains how the old man and old lady survived by themselves out here all these years. Maybe only a triant would mess with the old hybrids,” Wenqi said.

  “I want to talk to it. I’m fascinated by their creation. Maybe we could run some tests....”

  “Focus,” said Wenqi.

  “Yes, you’re right. Focus.” Hazou straightened his arms on Wenqi’s sleeves as his friend stood. He liked walking around using this technique, it was effective, and he didn’t crash into things. He helped Wenqi by being his hands, and Wenqi helped him by being his eyes. They made up for what they each lacked.

  Together they approached the obnoxious occupants they had inherited.

  “We have a proposal for you,” said Wenqi.

  “Ahh, my name is Hazou,” said Hazou, holding out his hand. “And this is my best friend Wenqi. We have a plan to reinvigorate the Water Spinach Inn.”

  A silence punctuated only by the sound of the soap-sand scrounging a huge wok. Water hadn’t been piped into the inn since Hazou’s father died.

  “They’re staring at one another,” Wenqi whispered to him.

  Hazou spoke into this silence. “Look there was some words said in haste the other day. I apologize. I would like to offer the entire ground level of the Water Spinach Inn to the both of you.”

  Wenqi spluttered. “Hey, you said....”

  “What do you want in r
eturn?” asked the old woman.

  “Your names first. If we are to be partners, we should share names.” Hazou beamed a smile. The silence stretched.

  “I am Lady Lee,” said the woman’s voice.

  “Old Man Yok,” said the man. “Now we have been here for...”

  “Enough of that,” interrupted Wenqi.

  Hazou squeezed his friend’s arm. “As I said, I would like to offer both of you the entire ground floor.”

  “No,” said Lady Lee. “Why should we burden ourselves with a bunch of cripples?”

  “How dare...,” Wenqi began, but Hazou interrupted him.

  “We accept...,” Old Man Yok’s voice ended in an oof as Hazou imagined his wife elbowed him.

  “His wife elbowed him,” Wenqi whispered.

  “Stop that, I can hear. I am not deaf,” Hazou whispered back.

  “We are not giving you any money,” said Lady Lee.

  “You don’t have to,” said Hazou, betting on the goodness of the human spirit that had been in scant supply since their accident left them as cripples. More and more, he realized that the world built itself around the narrow template of the able-bodied and didn’t care for anything else.

  Hazou said, “All we want you to do is use the ground floor kitchen and you can continue to sell. Since my friend and I can’t cook, all we would like is to have dinner. We’ll look after our own breakfast and lunch.” He hoped they would cook breakfast and lunch too, and that they would keep the ground floor clean. He needed them more than they needed him. Wenqi also had said they had kept the eaves cleaned where they’d lived and cooked.

  “No,” said Lady Lee. “You will suck our money later. I know it. I can smell the High Beijing stink on the both of you.”

  That hurt Hazou more than he cared to admit. He decided to be fully honest. “Look, I need you both to sell your food so we can get money to help with the Water Spinach Inn. No, hear me out first. My father once grew water spinaches in this inn, we had our own urban farm and that’s why everyone in Urumqi knew my family’s name. We made real food from our own garden. People from all over Urumqi came to eat our food. It was a very successful inn. Me and my friend, Wenqi, we were scientists for the Department of Agriculture.” He paused when he gave the lie. Saying they worked for the Department of Botanical Weapontech didn’t sound as friendly and would also break binding legal nondisclosure agreements and send him to jail. He smiled and continued. “We know how to take nonlicensed seeds and create great vegetables. Think how much your business can grow.” He didn’t tell them they couldn’t afford any nonlicensed seeds. He pointed up. “I can smell that soyalite block from here. I bet you’re sick of cooking with it. Imagine using fresh vegetables in your noodles. Your business will grow tenfold.”

  “And not to mention you can sleep indoors out of the bad weather. I hear that air-tinge storms are coming,” Wenqi added.

  “Fresh vegetables, you say?” said Lady Lee.

  “You’ve nearly got them,” Wenqi whispered. “The old man is practically jumping and throwing his hand out.”

  “No,” said Lady Lee.

  Hazou gritted his teeth. It reminded him of the time he played mahjong against his father and won. It was the only game he’d ever won. But he won that game by keeping a tile in reserve.

  “You will get water,” Hazou said, throwing in his penultimate tile.

  “What?!” said Lady Lee.

  “Yes, yes, yes, we accept,” shouted Old Man Yok.

  “He’s jumping,” whispered Wenqi.

  “How much water?” said Lady Lee, a tinge of annoyance in her voice, but Hazou detected greed too.

  Water, the most precious commodity available, and the most expensive. He gulped at his promise. It would all depend on what happened next when they visited the water intendant.

  Hazou added the last mahjong tile he’d hidden. He said, “In return for the water, all you have to do is contribute a little, just one hundred cc-chips a month. That’s nothing.” He felt Wenqi stiffen besides him. Hazou had purposely anchored the price higher thinking that the couple would negotiate lower. They would’ve been happy getting fifty cc-chips a month.

  “Fine,” said Lady Lee. “But no funny business.”

  Wenqi said, “She’s shaking her chopsticks at us but she has a big smile on her face.”

  Hazou clapped his hands in delight. He held out his hands and clasped Lady Lee and Old Man Yok’s hands together. Wenqi’s hand crept over Hazou’s so that for a moment all their hands connected.

  “Thank you,” Hazou said.

  Every government function in the China People’s Empire had been centralized since Diaochan, the People’s Favor, ascended to power six years ago. Under the reign of her father, the Lord of Ten Thousand Suns, the empire adopted a decentralized model.

  In turn, Diaochan’s rule of law had been more relaxed than her father’s. Citizens complained at both styles, but Hazou much preferred Diaochan’s reign. She ended the grotesque entertainment of public executions.

  Hazou and Wenqi journeyed to the People’s Servant’s District, which located itself in the north of Urumqi. It took them two aero-buses and now they sat at the back of an aero-moped as its engines popped and groaned.

  They passed under the huge dome heading toward the utilities section. The moped accepted the streamed instructions from the traffic nodes and turned left.

  “You know back when we were younger, the Water Intendant’s shack was just around the corner,” said Hazou, shouting in the wind.

  “Well what’s around the corner now is a male brothel,” said Wenqi. “That’s what happens with centralization.”

  The aero-moped parked itself in a small bay with floating white lines. The parking faced a white round building with greenery that blossomed like a peacock behind it.

  “Wow it’s amazingly clean here compared to where we live,” said Wenqi, as they both got off the moped.

  Long, fake grass and hybrid trees made a strip across the walkway that led to the Department of Environment. The department had strict targets for air, land, and water purity. Though the strictness in quality was relative to the proximity of the seat of the empire. Out here in Urumqi, the quality wasn’t as great as High Beijing.

  Hazou strode forward confidently. They had gotten a lot better at coordinating things between themselves. Hazou’s balance by feeling the long sleeves that fell from Wenqi’s shoulders and Wenqi’s ability to guide his friend started to become intuitive.

  They entered the building and followed round holo-signs to a central gathering area where a spherical servbot guided them to the Water Intendant's office for Southeast Urumqi. The long line snaked around ethereal queue barriers that glowed red and floated in the air.

  It took the two scientists an hour in the queue before they finally met a People’s Servant.

  The Water Intendant’s office consisted of blue tiles along the floor designed in the patterns of a wave. An outline of an extinct bottle-nosed dolphin glowed within the tiles.

  Water Intendant Cai didn’t look like she belonged to either male or female sex. She looked closer to the approximation of a woman than a man. Wenqi whispered this surreptitiously to Hazou.

  Cai’s big blue suit wrapped around a sumo-sized frame and a glistening gold ring with a jade dragon on a red and gold background poked out from the fat of her index finger.

  She rifled through e-papers that displayed ‘108 Tinmai Street’ and held it up in the air as Wenqi leaned forward over the high counter.

  Hazou came to the side. “My name is Hazou Sai and I’m the proprietor of....”

  “Yes, yes, I know all that. The deed was transferred. The water usage can commence once you settle the bill. Here is the bill,” she said, handing the e-paper to Wenqi and then noticing he had no hands, handing it to Hazou, and then noticing he in turn had no eyes, she frowned. “Sorry, I can’t download the braille plug-in on this compnode because the IT idiots don’t allow me to install plug-ins into my browser
. They think I’ll somehow download nukeware.” Cai shook her head. “Maybe you can read it to your friend?” she asked Wenqi.

  The bill said six thousand cc-chips and between the two of them, they had zero cc-chips.

  Wenqi frowned. “This bill is ten years old.”

  “Yeah, thanks genius. That’s because the previous proprietor didn’t pay the bill. And since the property is family inherited, guess what that means?”

  “Sorry, what was your name?” asked Hazou, trying to get this back on track. He was completely caught by surprise. His father hadn’t paid the bill? It must have been a small amount, but he knew the government charged interest on top of the debt.

  Cai put her plump hands against her jowls and stared at them. “Water Intendant Cai. Champion of the lower Urumqi districts. It’s a tough job because I’ve got to deal with a lot of unsavory characters.” Golden tabs glistened on the side of her shoulders giving her an officious look.

  Hazou said, “I used to work in the Department of Agriculture. My friend and I are scientists.” He knew if Cai looked up their employment history it would show up as the Department of Agriculture. The Department of Botanical Weapontech’s Top Secret classification didn’t allow it to be revealed to the lower layers of government.

  “Really? What are you doing living in the shady part of town?”

  “We have an idea to turn my father’s premises back into an urban farm making real organic vegetables. Nonlicensed, fresh, and affordable too,” said Hazou, warming up to his pitch.

  The Water Intendant’s unibrow shot up and her nose ring shook. “Water isn’t cheap, you know. It’s very expensive. And who would you sell to? Your part of town is filled with crazies.” Her index finger made a circling motion to the side of her head.

  “We already have a stall in the night markets and everyone from all over Urumqi comes. The demand for real nutritious food is there because it’s much better than the soyalite blocks from the government.” Hazou leaned forward conspiratorially as he said this.