Asimov's Future History Volume 3 Read online

“I, too, was shocked by the idea,” said Polo. “But you will get used to seeing many wonders here in this empire if you stay long. Come. Let us return to the sitting room.”

  21

  STEVE TOOK HIS seat again in the front room and accepted more tea, poured by the young woman servant.

  Marcia sat next to him, as before. Hunter and Polo continued their talk about the wonders of Kublai Khan’s empire.

  Steve could still hear other servants in the back of the house. Meanwhile, the two servants who had already attended them carried away the leftover food. Moments later, they brought out more of the same — fresh and steaming.

  “I’m full,” Steve muttered in Chinese to Marcia.

  “It’s part of the courtesy here,” said Marcia. “Food will be available as long as we keep eating it. When we left the room, it wasn’t because we had finished but because our host wanted to show us around.”

  Finally, as Polo and Hunter discussed politics within the far-flung empire of the khan, the head servant came in with a younger Chinese man, who was sweaty and breathless. Polo looked up.

  “Yes?”

  “Xiao Sung has information for your guests, sir,” he said in Mongol.

  “All right. Xiao Sung, go ahead.”

  Xiao Sung took a deep breath and spoke in Chinese. “I may have located him in the khan’s palace.”

  “Excellent!” Polo turned to Hunter. “Even I understand that much Chinese.”

  “How do you know?” Hunter asked.

  “I spoke to a courier whom Master Polo knows. He works at the palace. On the palace grounds, he saw a new courier, hired only a few days ago, who fits the description.”

  “Has he spoken to this new courier?” Hunter asked. “MC 5 has a language problem here. To my knowledge, he does not speak any of the prevailing languages, though he can learn languages quickly.”

  “No, our acquaintance did not speak to this man,” said Xiao Sung. “But many languages are used in Khanbaliq. If he is the man you seek, he may have been able to communicate with at least some foreign guests.”

  “Couriers who cannot gossip are in great demand,” said Polo. “They betray fewer confidences. All they must do is deliver written messages or packages faithfully to the right location or individual.”

  “A stranger can just arrive in the city and work in the palace of the khan?” Hunter asked. “Without references or introductions?”

  “Foreign arrivals have a better chance of working in the palace than the local Chinese,” said Polo. “The Chinese are considered a danger within the palace walls, since they are the conquered people here. And because the number of foreign people who will come here cannot be predicted, they are often welcomed quickly into certain jobs.”

  “I see,” said Hunter.

  “MC 5 could get the post of courier, but he will be closely watched during his first months on the job to see that he is reliable. Within the palace grounds, his movements will be severely restricted. He will be assigned to accompany a trusted courier during this time, to learn his way around and to earn the trust of his superiors.”

  “Then we must learn if this new courier really is MC 5,” said Hunter.

  Polo frowned thoughtfully. “To your knowledge, could he be a danger of any kind to the khan?”

  “No,” said Hunter. “In fact, if given the opportunity, he would risk his own well-being to save the khan’s life. But he might wish to gain the ear of the khan someday and offer some opinions.”

  Polo laughed. “Nearly everyone in the empire would love to have the khan’s ear for one reason or another.” He glanced at Xiao Sung. “Is that all?”

  “He has more, master,” the head servant said politely.

  “Oh. Please go on.”

  “I must also inform you that a search for an evil spirit of the description of this man called MC 5 is already underway in the streets.”

  “Eh?” Polo glanced at Hunter. “My Chinese is poor, but did he say that a search on the streets has already begun for this man?”

  “Yes,” said Hunter. “A business rival of mine also hopes to make contact with him.”

  “Ah! I see.”

  “Supposedly, a couple of good spirits have come down from the sky to capture MC 5,” said Xiao Sung.

  “What do they look like?” Steve asked suddenly in Chinese.

  “Like foreigners,” said Xiao Sung. “They resemble Master Polo and your friend, in a general way.”

  Steve grinned and glanced at Hunter. “Yeah, that’s our business rival, playing games. Have they offered a reward for finding MC 5?”

  “No, sir,” said Xiao Sung. “No reward is offered, but the more superstitious people in this part of the city are looking for him.”

  “Do you believe in evil spirits?” Steve grinned at Xiao Sung. “Does everybody?”

  “Of course, sir,” said Xiao Sung, frowning in puzzlement. “But I do not confuse every foreign guest with visitors from the spirit world.”

  “Good,” said Steve.

  “Would it be possible to receive a letter of introduction from you?” Hunter asked. “I must go to the palace and see this new courier for myself.”

  “I will do more than that,” said Polo. “Several days ago, I reported to the khan on my most recent trip out to the provinces. Now I am taking a week or so to relax, which leaves me free today. I, too, am curious about this mysterious stranger, so I will take you to the palace myself.”

  “I am imposing on you,” said Hunter.

  “Nonsense. I will enjoy the walk.”

  “Then I am in your debt.”

  Polo glanced up at this servants. “You will accompany us,” he said in Mongol.

  The servants left the house first, followed by Polo and Hunter. Steve and Marcia walked behind them.

  The young woman servant followed, first closing the front door behind them and then the gate in the wall.

  “Hunter is going to be worried even more about altering Polo’s actions,” Steve said quietly.

  “That’s true. Well, Polo was always welcome at court, so this isn’t likely to be too significant.” Marcia took a deep breath. “I can hardly believe it. I’m about to see the palace of Kublai Khan..’

  Ishihara waited as Wayne and Jane took a break under a large tree on the edge of a city street.

  “Look,” said Xiao Li. “One of my cousins is running through the crowd toward us.” He pointed.

  Ishihara looked. A young man from the village dodged around a peddler’s cart and stopped, breathing hard. “Your friend has been seen.”

  “Where?” Ishihara asked.

  Beside him, both Wayne and Jane tensed.

  “A man saw him deliver a message from the palace of the Emperor to the home of a general, then return again.”

  “What did he say?” Wayne asked in English, impatiently. “Does he know something?”

  “He went to work in the palace,” said Ishihara in English. “The seat of power.”

  “You will come?” The man looked back and forth between Wayne and Ishihara. “If an evil spirit is working in the court, he may cause harm for everyone.”

  “He is not an evil spirit, remember,” said Ishihara. “He is merely a misguided spirit who belongs with us.

  We will take him away from the court if someone will take us inside the palace grounds.”

  “My mother’s cousin is a minor attendant to one of the princes in the court. He will come to the gate if I ask the guard to call him.”

  “Can he let us in?” Ishihara asked.

  “I believe so,” the other man said slowly. “I have never tried before.”

  “Will we be stopped inside?” Ishihara asked. “We cannot disturb the palace routine.”

  “That’s right,” said Jane. “We can’t afford to cause any trouble, remember?”

  “My mother’s cousin has often said that the palace grounds are like a separate city within Khanbaliq.

  Thousands of bureaucrats, servants, and other workers do their d
aily duties inside the walls.”

  “This is acceptable,” said Ishihara. “A few more people can get lost in the crowd during the day. Will you take us to the palace?”

  “I am at your service.”

  “Good.”

  “Are we going?” Wayne asked in English again. “Can we get to MC 5?”

  “Yes,” said Ishihara.

  Steve stared at the towering walls around the palace grounds as he drew near behind Polo and Hunter.

  The grounds covered the equivalent of many city blocks, though Steve could not judge how many from this perspective. The walls rose up at least as high as the Great Wall. Sentries stood guard outside the closed gates. When they recognized Marco Polo, however, they bowed and opened the gates without comment.

  Within the walls, the palace grounds were also laid out in the manner of a city. Broad walkways and large buildings lined up on a right-angle grid. Trees shaded the walks and the buildings. Marcia took his arm and pointed.

  “See that long building with the statues by the entrance and the wooden threshold? By the architecture and the statues, I think that’s a temple of some kind.”

  Steve nodded. “How about the other buildings?”

  “I can’t be sure of most of them. These buildings did not last into our time. Too many are made of wood, and they were replaced one by one as the centuries went by.” Marcia looked to each side, then into the distance. She pointed to a huge edifice topped by a roof of vermilion, yellow, green, blue, and red, shimmering in the sunlight. “The largest building is the palace itself. In Marco Polo’s book, he says the palace is the greatest that ever existed. He wrote that the largest hall can hold six thousand people at dinner. The khan’s quarters are there, and those of his four wives.”

  “Yeah?”

  “And the other buildings must house various bureaucratic offices.”

  “I wonder if there’s any chance we could see Kublai Khan himself.”

  In front of them, Polo and his entourage came to a halt. Polo spoke briefly to a young man in a long, black robe who bowed deeply and hurried away. Then Polo turned to Hunter with an amused smile.

  “I have been fortunate to enjoy the khan’s favor ever since we arrived here. Many of the attendants know me; that man recently passed the examinations necessary to enter government service. He will speak to the chief of the palace couriers, and bring MC 5 to us.”

  “Thank you,” said Hunter.

  “It’s going to be that easy?” Steve muttered to Marcia. “Hard to believe.”

  “Dr. Nystrom sent us on a long detour to the Great Wall. I just hope Jane’s all right.”

  “Of course she is, in Ishihara’s company.” Steve shrugged. “Well, MC 5 isn’t here yet. So our search hasn’t exactly succeeded.”

  “Come,” Polo said to Hunter. “Now we will sit down and wait.” He gestured forward, and his servants led the small entourage again.

  This time the group walked to a shaded garden with a lawn and a hedge of flowering shrubs. Carved stone chairs surrounded a round table of matching stone. The servants stood under a nearby tree, waiting patiently as the others sat around the table.

  “If we must wait long, I shall send for tea,” said Polo. He leaned back in his chair. “What do you think of the palace grounds so far?”

  “It is very impressive,” said Hunter. “Efficiently laid out and well tended.”

  Polo laughed lightly. “You have an odd way of speaking, my friend. It is beautiful here, is it not?”

  “Yes,” said Hunter.

  “You know, in the spring —” Suddenly Polo stopped talking, his eyes on a small group of people approaching them. “The khan! Do as I do.” Polo leaped to his feet. He bowed very low from the waist and held the position. “Speak only if he bids you. Do not address him directly. Say, ‘the khan,’ or the

  ‘great khan,’ as though you are talking about someone not here.”

  Hunter rose and imitated Polo precisely.

  Steve, startled, also got up and bowed; next to him, Marcia did the same. Around them, the servants had reacted more Quickly and also stood motionless in their position. Steve sneaked a glance at the khan.

  The man who stopped in front of Polo, frowning, had sharp, dark eyes and a ruddy complexion. His long, narrow mustache and wispy beard were gray. On his head, he wore a white cloth hat that angled down around his neck. His plain white robe was held by a tasseled belt of gold braid. Of medium height, he was stout but not flabby. Four grim-faced men in elaborate embroidered robes stood behind him.

  “Marco, I did not know you were coming to the palace today. Why did you not have yourself announced to me?”

  Polo did not move. “I did not wish to disturb the khan.”

  “Rise, Marco. Your companions, as well.”

  Polo straightened; his servants did so just a moment afterward.

  Steve and Marcia also stood erect again.

  “I am always pleased to see you, Marco,” said Kublai Khan. “You have business here today?”

  “I seek a new courier working in the palace,” said Polo. “My friend, here, is also from Europe and wishes to speak with him.”

  “Ah.” Kublai Khan glanced at Hunter without interest. “Come tomorrow, Marco. We will visit over tea at midday.” He walked away, followed by his retainers.

  Polo bowed again. The others followed his example once more. When Polo straightened, he grinned at them.

  “I am relieved that he is not angry because I failed to announce my presence. I did not expect to see him today.”

  “Bowing is the acceptable response?” Hunter asked. “What about kneeling and touching one’s forehead to the floor? I heard this was the proper posture in the presence of the khan.”

  “That is true if we are summoned to the throne room for a formal appearance, “Polo said. “Here on the palace grounds, that is much too impractical.”

  “I see.”

  Marcia nudged Steve’s arm and whispered in Chinese, pointing surreptitiously. “That first guy Marco spoke to is coming through the crowd with somebody. Is that MC 5?”

  Steve looked through the crowd. He recognized MC 5, whose appearance was identical to that of the other component robots. MC 5 had somehow acquired a plain black robe and black cloth shoes.

  “Hunter,” he said quietly.

  “I see him,” Hunter said, also in Chinese. “Remember, he does not know we are from his time or that we have come for him. We must not reveal ourselves before we can apprehend him, or he will flee.”

  “What are we going to do, then?” Marcia asked. “We have too many witnesses here just to pounce and disappear with him — unless we want to wind up as a vanishing wonder in Polo’s memoirs!”

  “And we don’t have Jane,” said Steve.

  Hunter switched back to Italian. “I must speak to this man alone, outside the palace walls. I hesitate to ask you for another favor, but can this be arranged?”

  “I believe I may be able to help,” said Polo. “I will have to speak to —”

  Suddenly Steve glimpsed Jane through a crowd of people pursuing their daily business. “Hunter,” he interrupted quickly, in Chinese. “Look.” He jumped up and pointed through the crowd. Now he could see Wayne and Ishihara, too.

  “Be cautious,” said Hunter. “We must get MC 5 away from witnesses and we cannot appear to be kidnapping him. Our other disappearance in front of local people during other missions occurred during and prior to battles, among people distracted by immediate, life-threatening situations. We cannot avoid being noticed here.”

  “But we have to save Jane,” said Marcia, standing up next to Steve. “What are we going to do?”

  “Vanishing from court could alter the beliefs and expectations regarding religion and court policy, maybe even influence the khan himself,” said Hunter. “I cannot take that risk.”

  Jane spotted Hunter sitting in the shade in a small garden at a distance, between a European man and Steve. Even through the crowd of people walking
through the palace grounds between them, Hunter was too big and distinctive to miss. Wayne and Ishihara, on each side of her, had not seemed to see Hunter.

  However, she could not decide what to do.

  A few moments before, Ishihara had spotted MC 5. Now he and Wayne were walking quickly to catch him. MC 5, wearing black, approached Hunter, Steve, and Marcia in the company of a young man. She could see that Hunter must have arranged to have MC 5 brought to him, and she did not want to do anything that would interfere.

  “Be ready,” Ishihara said. “We cannot just grab him and try to run out of the palace grounds. We must apprehend him together and then instantly trigger the belt unit.”

  In another few moments of fast walking, however, Jane saw that Ishihara had almost come with an arm’s reach of MC 5.

  “Hold onto Jane,” Wayne ordered.

  Ishihara took Jane’s wrist.

  “Hunter!” Jane screamed as loud as she could.

  Hunter, Steve, and Marcia suddenly ran forward toward MC 5. At the same moment, Ishihara pulled Jane toward the component robot, with Wayne next to her. Jane braced her feet against the paving stones under her, and bent her knees, pulling against Ishihara. Her feet merely skidded on the stones; she did not slow him down noticeably.

  Steve ran toward MC 5, but he could see that Ishihara nearly had a hand on the component robot already. Suddenly, however, MC 5 saw Steve, Marcia, and Hunter charging toward him. He first shoved his human companion, the other courier, out of the way; then MC 5 darted in the other direction. Even Ishihara, reaching out with one hand, failed to grab him.

  “Hunter, you get MC 5!” Steve shouted as he threw himself on Ishihara.

  “Get him!” Jane called, pulling back harder on Ishihara’s other arm.

  Steve collided bodily with Ishihara and clung to him. “Stop! I order you to stop moving. Let go of Jane.”

  Ishihara neither released Jane’s wrist nor spoke. He grabbed the firmly-tied sash of Steve’s robe with his free hand and pulled. Steve lost his grip, stumbled, and fell to the ground. He understood that some First Law imperative had overrode his instructions to Ishihara.

  Steve glanced over at Hunter. MC 5 had turned to flee, but Hunter snatched him up off the ground and held him high, kicking and flailing. Steve scrambled to his feet.