The Simmering Seas

by Frank Kennedy

  “Stand, Daughter,” he told Kara. “If not for you, I would never have had the courage to see this through.”

  She couldn’t remember the last time he gave her credit for anything of consequence, yet Kara complied. She looked to the front stage; Ya-Li stood as well.

  “I should have known!” Ja Yuan spoke for the first time since the attack. He raised both fists, as if prepared to fight.

  “I never trusted you,” he continued.

  “Yes, you did,” Perr said. “Trusted me like a brother.”

  “It was you, wasn’t it?” Hoija asked Perr. “You betrayed the KumTaan to this filth.”

  “I did. I sent one hundred Hokkis to their deaths. Another crime to add to a list many pages long. But shorter than yours, Hoija. Sho. Ja.” He turned to the families. “And the rest of us who are complicit. This man,” he pointed to Ryllen, “was raised in Pinchon and cast out. Yet he came back to save us from ourselves. My son Lang and my daughter Kara took the necessary steps to lead us to this moment of inflection. They turned the tide because I did not have the courage to do it myself. But now? I can’t bear the weight of it, not another hour. I killed one hundred Hokkis to save two billion.”

  He pivoted to the triumvirate. “We have pillaged this planet long enough. We will not lead it to ruin. Tell them where to find the Inventor. No one else can stop the war from consuming Hokkaido.”

  Hoija spit at Perr’s feet.

  “Of course! Why did I never see it? You’re not speaking solely as Perr Syung. You’re also a fragment. A Hotaab sympathizer, perhaps?”

  “It’s of no consequence, General Taron. I’ve seen what’s happening across the divide. Your forces are close to breaking out. And the rest of it? The other universes? If we do not end this war before the divides collapse, Hokkaido will burn. The alliance was a glorious idea, but it went wrong. The Inventor and his cubes must be destroyed, or there will be no glory for anyone. We will be judged for our past crimes, but let the jury also know we acted in time to save our world.”

  Sho Parke, who remained steadfast in his silence, began to laugh. First, it appeared in stilted doses, like the antics of a doddering old man. Then, as he fell into histrionics, he waved his hands and walked away. He jumped off the stage and continued afoot.

  Ryllen stepped lively and aimed his weapon.

  “Is this how you want it, old man?”

  “I was never here,” Sho said between howls. “Do your best.”

  Ryllen did. The blue fire singed a hole through Sho’s back. He tilted to one side then fell to the other.

  “Hmm,” Ryllen said. “Looks like High Cannon needs a new chairman.” He pivoted to Ja Yuan. “How about Nantou? Looking for a new president?”

  “Do the right thing, Ja,” Perr said. “You and Hoija know how to reach the Inventor. Don’t fancy yourself a martyr, like Sho.”

  Ja and Hoija shared a casual glance. The bald-headed leader of Nantou, arguably one of the three most powerful Hokkis among 2.1 billion, showed utter disdain for his right-hand man.

  “This trash is going to kill us either way,” Ja said. “He can have the satisfaction of my death, but he will not have victory. Neither will you, Perr. No one will forgive your treason. Your family is dead.”

  Perr sighed and faced Ryllen. “I told you he’d never turn on the Inventor. None of them will. But it was worth a try. Yes?”

  Ryllen appeared to contemplate his next move. To Kara’s surprise, he leaned into her and whispered:

  “You might want to take out that pistol now.”

  When her father didn’t object, and Ryllen returned his attention to the surviving two-thirds of the triumvirate, Kara reached under her dress and grabbed for the weapon.

  “It’s mad what can happen in these universes,” Ryllen said, directing his words at Ja and Hoija. “I fought you, General, even though you never knew my name. I saw what you did to Nanchoo City. I died twice while I was there. And each time I rose, I vowed revenge. Never got it. You went on your merry damn way. But if I hadn’t stayed after you, I wouldn’t have met Perr Syung, a humble aid worker in New Seoul. We wouldn’t have become friends. And I never would have been able to take him inside the Splinter. And he never would have fragmented into this Perr to show him the truth of what will happen here if we don’t seal the divides before they collapse. And you would have won the day. So, here we are, General. One last chance to do right. Where is the Inventor?”

  She, too, launched into a spate of laughter, albeit this one brief.

  “Like the Splinter, he is safe. But he is also beyond your reach,” she said. “Even if I told you where, you’d never find him.”

  “Huh. Thought you might say that. So did X. Fair enough.”

  “And now, about the …”

  Ryllen’s weapon released a burst of blue flame, consuming Hoija Taron’s head. Her scream turned to a disjointed gurgle before her decapitated body collapsed.

  “And there goes everybody’s favorite gran,” Ryllen said among howls of terror from the families – especially the Tarons. “Remember, people, she was working against you. You don’t know General Taron like I do. This coit is the Chancellory’s personal butcher in another life. Now she’s cut off. For a while. Which leads us to Ja Yuan.”

  “I have nothing to add,” he yelled.

  “But I do.” Ryllen faced Kara. “Ja Yuan gave the order. He had Lang killed. He knew your brother was resisting. He saw a threat. Lang knew it was coming. That’s why he spoke to you on Sanhae. He knew he was going to be assassinated. He put all his faith in you to continue the crusade. He believed in your courage. And this garbage killed him.”

  “I ordered no such thing,” Ja said, chin high and defiant.

  “Yes,” Perr said. “Yes. You did. And I stepped aside because if I resisted, you would have killed me, Li-Ann, Dae, and Kara.”

  He pivoted to his daughter and looked beyond, where his wife and remaining son stood clasped to each other in bewilderment.

  “I sacrificed Lang to save my family. In exchange, Dae was given a wife, and Kara was given her freedom to pursue a career at Nantou.” Perr sneered as he twisted back around to Ja Yuan. “That will never be enough for you. We are all your dutiful servants, to be replaced on a whim. But who are you now, Ja? You can’t dominate Hokkaido’s future without Sho and Hoija. And you will never again be able to kill a member of my family.”

  “I kept you afloat during the reprisals,” Ja said. “Syung-Low exists because of me.”

  “We paid our debt through Lang.”

  Kara couldn’t find the words to sort through what she was hearing. Oh, how she knew these elite families were criminals, and she knew how easily they turned on each other. But in this moment, to see the illusion of the past eight years brought into focus, was too much to bear. Though she did not understand the full scope of what was happening, a simple truth emerged: There was no coming back from today. No hope for anyone left on this stage.

  She tightened her grip on the pistol. Was this always meant to be the climax to her crusade? Was the spiral always directed toward the abyss?

  “It started with you,” she told Ja, the words racing ahead of her thoughts. She took aim. “It ends with you.”

  All she had to do was press the trigger button.

  A soft voice whispered from behind.

  “I love you,” Ya-Li said. “I know you’re not like them. Don’t.”

  He placed a hand upon her shoulder.

  The rage that insisted on ending the man who killed Lang all but receded. A warmth she would not soon forget cascaded through her soul. Kara lowered the weapon.

  As she turned to face a husband who might have been stronger than she first thought, Kara lost track of the pistol. In fact, it left her possession with a glancing move.

  “My daughter is not like us,” Perr said. “She’s not a killer.”

  “But we are,” Ja replied.

  “Yes, we are.”

  Perr shot the president of Nantou Glo
bal through the heart.

  He lowered the weapon to his side and faced his family.

  “I thought I was doing best for all of us,” he said. “Our family. Pinchon. Hokkaido. Now, it will take better Hokkis than me to clean up our mess.” He pivoted to Ryllen. “Make sure they understand it all. Find him and close the divides.”

  Kara predicted his next move, but she never had a chance.

  Perr Syung did not hesitate. He lifted the weapon, positioned it beneath this mouth, and pressed the trigger. He crumpled beside Hoija Taron’s headless corpse.

  The blood pooling around his body would stain Kara’s memory for as long as she lived.

  51

  One hour later

  T HE IRONY WAS NOT LOST ON KARA. If the wedding went off without disruption, fate would have placed her in the master bedroom with Ya-Li. What happened next might have been beautiful and sensuous. Instead, she was married into a union born in violence, blood, and grief. She ended up in the same bedroom, anyway.

  Sitting on the foot of the bed, Kara nursed a glass of water – the same one Ya-Li filled after they were escorted here under guard. The yellow wedding dress was ripped along the side; she couldn’t remember how. Splattered blood added an ugly design below the knees. Ya-Li, who regained his composure and lent a shoulder during those first few minutes alone, now sat by the window and smoked from a pipe. He hadn’t spoken in more than half an hour.

  Where to begin?

  The marriage stood no chance, not after today. It wasn’t for lack of love. Kara knew how he felt, and she saw a reasonable chance of one day being able to requite his love – assuming they owned normal lives. No, the greatest obstacle was Ya-Li’s shame.

  She saw it in those boyish eyes not long after the events of the day settled in. When he recounted all that was said and done, Ya-Li realized he was the biggest fool in Pinchon. Yes, the Tarons and Syungs were criminals, and the terrorists who killed more than one hundred Hokkis were savages. But worse? Kara knew those savages and consorted with them; she knew about the criminal conspiracy; she knew the wedding was likely theater to serve some other purpose.

  Yet she stood on stage and made her vows, having warned Ya-Li of nothing. She was her father’s daughter, after all.

  “I don’t know why it’s taking so long,” he said between puffs. “I saw the last guests leave twenty minutes ago.”

  Ryllen explained his plan amid the rush to dispatch family survivors to separate rooms in the estate. As soon as the authorities arrived, Ryllen would announce he was holding hostages. He intended to release the guests who were quartered in the great hall as a sign of good faith. Staff followed. He said no one would crash the cascade barrier and risk the lives of high-value Tarons and Syungs. In the meantime, he’d stall until his other business was complete. He offered only a curt “trust me” when she asked him to explain.

  “I’m sure they have a plan,” she told her husband. “They wouldn’t have done all this without considering every possibility.”

  “How long have you known them, Kara?”

  She answered, realizing how it might come across.

  “A week.”

  “Then you don’t know them at all.”

  “Apparently not. I didn’t know Ryllen was alive until he killed your great grandfather.”

  “And yet you trust these murderers.”

  “As much as my own family or yours, which I suppose is just north of none.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me of your suspicions?”

  “Would you have believed me if I did?”

  He shaded his eyes and looked away. Smoke poured through his nose after a long drag. Then he did something Kara never expected.

  Ya-Li nodded. “Yes, Kara. I would have believed you.”

  He rose from his chair and tapped off the pipe. Ya-Li tossed his tuxedo jacket onto the floor and undid his cuff links.

  “I’m not a stupid man. People disregard me. They always have. But the truth is, I’m smarter than any thousand Hokkis. I just … I keep it to myself. Kara, I know what my family is like. I know what they’ve done to this planet. They’ve been poisoning the continent for generations. Your friend Ryllen was right: My Honorable Great Grandfather led the first generation of conspirators working with the Chancellory. He loved his family, and he loved Pinchon. But he was not a good man.”

  The revelation stunned Kara. “What? Ya-Li, how did you …?”

  “I’ve known for years. It wasn’t hard to deduce. I study environmental, geophysical, and climatological data. I have many hobbies. It was there for anyone to see. The trends were clear: The souring of the land was a manmade endeavor. All I needed to do was consider motive and opportunity, and the conclusion was obvious. Our estates are built on the threat of starvation.”

  “Did you ever confront Ban-Ho? Or anyone?”

  “No. My family and my books are all I’ve ever had. I couldn’t imagine losing either. I’m sure hundreds of scientists have studied the same data and reached the same conclusion, but they were silenced. Some bribed, some added to the payroll, others killed.”

  “Would you have kept their secret?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe. As you saw today, I’m a coward.”

  He sat on the bed outside arm’s length.

  “Why, Ya-Li? Because you were scared? That doesn’t make you a coward. It means you’re human. I think about Ban-Ho, Hoija, Sho Parke, Ja Yuan … even my father. They never flinched. Never showed fear. They were sure they’d prevail, right until the end. Maybe that’s how you react when you’ve never lost. My father did the most honorable, courageous thing in his life when he stood up to Ja Yuan. Then he put the gun to his own throat because he couldn’t stand losing and having to live with it. He was a coward, Ya-Li. You are a better man than my father. You’re no coward.”

  He moaned. “How do we move on from this?”

  “I suppose that depends on what Ryllen and Ham are plan …”

  “No, Kara. I mean us. Where do we go from here? I’ll never be able to trust you, but I can’t imagine not loving you.”

  “I honestly don’t know, Ya-Li. I still don’t understand much of what happened out there today. I haven’t spoken to my mother or brother. And then my father … this man I once thought was invincible … he’s lying out there with all those others. Kings and queens who thought they ruled the world. And all those officers electrocuted? For what? I need to know why so many people had to die like that. Then we can decide what to do about our marriage.”

  Kara didn’t realize the bedroom door was open until she heard a creak. Ryllen stood in the threshold, his blast weapon to his side. He appeared less intimidating than on stage, but he was the same man who publicly executed three people in the most gruesome manner she’d ever witnessed. The same man gave the order to electrocute one hundred young men and women who were protecting Pinchon from terrorists.

  “You need answers,” Ryllen said. “You’ll have them.”

  She reared up. “I want to know everything. Now.”

  “I came to tell you both: We’re ready to move on to the next phase. The estate is surrounded. We estimate they’ll penetrate the cascade barrier within two hours. We might have had more time, but word leaked about the KumTaan. They’ll be more interested in revenge than rescuing hostages. Understandable, but also anticipated.”

  He said nothing to soothe her rage.

  “When I met you last week, I knew you were dangerous, but I trusted you to do the right thing. Now, all I see is a monster.”

  “Correction. A soldier. And I am doing the right thing. If it wasn’t for me, you’d be dead. He’d be dead. And in two years, every Hokki on this planet would be burned alive. I spent six years fighting a war you’d best pray never comes. I’ve seen the unthinkable, and I’ve done worse. I died seventeen times and tore my way out of the abyss to come back here and save you. This planet, this universe. All of it. And guess what? I’m just getting started.”

  “Started with what? I … no …
we demand answers.”

  “And like I said, you’ll have them. We’ve been sorting through the hostages, determining how much to reveal to whom. You and your husband are among the few who need to know everything.”

  “Why few?”

  “Because if the wrong people know the entire picture, we’ll be compromised. What happened today was a first step. We didn’t come away with the prize, but we hurt the enemy. They’ll retreat and regroup, but we earned time. In war, that’s almost as good.”

  Ryllen started for the door. “Follow. Please.”

  “One question,” Ya-Li said, “or I go nowhere with you.”

  “Fine. One question. Make it quick.”

  “Why my great grandfather? You brought him to the front of the stage and slaughtered him like an animal. He was feeble and could barely hear. Why did you start with him?”

  Ryllen shrugged. “Simple. Cut the head off first.”

  Kara didn’t know what her husband expected to hear, but he had no words of rebuttal. Instead, Ya-Li shot Ryllen a piercing glare.

  “Let’s go,” Ryllen said. “Time for answers.”

  “And then?” Kara said, passing into the corridor.

  “Then, get ready to take a trip, Kara. A long cudfrucking trip.”

  52

  T HE STUDY WAS LARGER THAN a typical Hokki’s flat, and the furniture – ornate, velvet-cushioned, high-backed – was the province of a family which demanded only the most expensive. The high curtains were closed, creating an insular atmosphere. A serving table stocked with silver and finely-honed porcelain featured platters of seafoods, fruits, and breads intended for the reception. Against this backdrop, Kara and Ya-Li entered a room occupied by an uninvited cast. Three soldiers wearing black armor and a devastating blast weapon joined a mixed bag of young rogues with pistols who Kara assumed were Green Sun. Tallest among all was Ham Cortez, who nodded with respect when she arrived. He no longer wore a Sak’ne suit; he was dressed for combat. She wondered if he knew what happened in his own flat two days ago.