The secret history of the war for our world.

CONSPIRACY OF THE DRAGON

by Ni Joseph © 2024

A Chinese secret agent starts World War I to avenge decades of humiliation by the West, and begins more than a century of struggle to determine who will rule our world.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1: Claw of the Dragon

Chapter 2: Back to the Future

Chapter 3: The Bulldog's Charms

Chapter 4: Women and Children First

Chapter 5: In the Giant's Shadows

Claw of the Dragon

July 31, 1914

Most Honorable Shining Sun:

The Eagle Flies To The Sea,

Waking The Bulldog,

To Join The Cock and Bear

And Destroy Them All.

The Dragon Will Rise Again.

Your Eternal Servant,

The Golden Claw

A young and skinny Chinese girl in an open red silk robe sealed the barely dry note and handed it to the gaunt, pale young man in an open shirt as he leaned forward, halfway through a hidden door.  She kissed him slowly on the mouth, pressing the note into his hand, and he held her close until she let go.  She bowed her head low, avoiding his bright blue eyes, and locked the hidden door behind him before looking at herself in the full length wall mirror and hearing a key click in the front door’s lock.  She turned, closing her robe over her taut body, and kneeled on the ornate wool carpet in front of her, her large dark brown eyes low but wide open. 

“I knew England would fall into our trap,” a voice said, pushing open the thick oak door and waving away the pale old men in military uniforms hovering around him.  “Now we will show those shopkeepers what a fighting navy can do.” 

The hunchbacked and middle aged man limped into the small apartment and managed to straighten up.  “Yes.”  He looked past her, bolting the door shut behind him, and glanced at the mirror with a wink and a nod.  “The English have thrown down the gauntlet.  And now we will show them and those damned frogs how to fight as we stand tallest in the world.”  He smiled at himself and tweaked his elaborate moustache.  “They will cry at the beating we give them but thank us for leading them to a better tomorrow.” 

He turned to her now, taking her chin into his right hand, and caressed it for a full minute before looking down right into her eyes. 

“This war has been coming for years, and now we will make them bleed.  First Paris, then London, then all of Europe and Russia will see the virtue of Prussian wisdom.”  He stared at all of her, smiling more, and admired her mouth.  “I know you don’t understand, but you savages will thank us for bringing you civilization.”  He let go of her chin, leering now, and laughed again.  “No more dog eating, feet binding and whatever other humiliations you visit upon each other.”

She watched as he looked at himself again in the mirror.

“Emperor and savior of civilization.”  He patted her head, standing right in front of her, and never took his eyes off himself.

She stood up slowly then with a tightening smile and started undoing the top gold buttons of his simple but sleek and hand tailored green wool army jacket.

“Of course, I’ll need several new uniforms once we win the war,” he said to the mirror while ignoring her and nodded to himself.  “Something in blue would look good.”

She loosened his uniform and removed the rest of his clothes slowly and carefully, trying to avoid looking at the pale skin and the withered, useless left arm hanging from his crippled body.  She grazed the edge of it for a fraction of a second and winced for a fraction more before laying out all of his clothes on a new and large oak chest at the foot of the hand carved queen sized bed.  He turned away from the mirror, nodding to her, and she removed her own robe, taking in a deep breath of air, and pressed her body against his.

He turned to the mirror again, watching her naked back with a growing smile.

She kept her face calm and controlled her breathing as her small and delicate hands moved slowly up and down his body as he stepped even closer to her, and she kneeled on the floor right in front of him. 

“That’s right, my little whore.”  He patted her head again, turning back to the mirror, but then closed his eyes and leaned forward.  “Some things you do understand.”  He held his breath.  “Perfectly.”

“I understand everything and always have.”

His eyes opened wide, and he choked on his breath at her German.

“I’ve always understood.”  She yanked him forward, throwing him to the floor, and leaped up as he looked right at her and she kicked him in the head.  “Since Moltke gave me to you four years ago, saying, ‘to indulge in pleasures that are beneath the empress,’ I’ve understood every single word.”  She smiled at his painful groan as he tried to get up from the floor, and she kicked him in the stomach.  “I’ve understood how pathetic and helpless you were since you first touched me.”  She kicked him again.  “How scared you were of anything different, and how you drove away smarter men who could’ve pointed you to a better future if you hadn’t felt so small and inferior to them.”  She shook her head as he looked up at her with even wider eyes and kicked him in the chest, turning him over.  “I’ve kept you happy and distracted and used your stupidity and arrogance to make you do whatever I wanted.”  She nodded to herself with a smile.  “And I’ve made sure that you pursued your destructive obsession with the English, and never saw your ministers’ recommendations to avoid war with France and Russia.”

He tried to catch his breath, and she kicked him in the chest again, knocking him all the way down on the floor. 

“You were so easy to manipulate.”  She laughed.  “Ignoring your better ministers, believing you were right because of your birth and crying like a baby when the world mocked your stupidity.”  She looked down at him, kicking his useless left arm, and smiled at his scream.  “I could’ve done almost nothing, and you would’ve dragged Europe into a stupid, senseless war.”

She kicked him in the arm again, and he curled into a ball, screaming more, and clutched it with his right hand. 

“Now you’ve got what you’ve always wanted, and it will destroy your precious Prussia and the husk of the Dual Monarchy.”  She pulled out a man’s suit and overcoat hidden in a wooden box under the bed and began to dress.  “You’ve guaranteed the fall of Europe just like we always planned.”

“What?”  He tried to get up on his knees, but she reached down to grab his hair in her hand and knocked his head into the floor.

“Your soldiers shouldn’t have raped and plundered their way through Peiping as they destroyed the Boxers.”  She stared at the blood from his forehead with the hint of another smile and kept dressing.  “You all should’ve stayed out of affairs that were none of your concern.”

“No.”  He stared at the floor, breathing hard, and felt the blood on his forehead.  “We didn’t...”

“Europe shocked us with its armies arriving so quickly to save its ambassadors.”  She pulled him up by his hair again, taking in his wide eyes and labored breathing, and struck him across the face, twice, and then dropped him.  “We realized how truly powerful and dangerous you were then.”  She nodded and then smiled.  “But we also saw how much you envied and hated each other, and how we could use that to destroy you.”

She pulled his head back and slammed his face into the floor, with blood splattering from his nose all over the rug. 

“You’re so convinced of German superiority that you can’t see that the world will slip away from Europe’s grasp as your armies destroy one another.”  She spat on him.  “Germany may well cripple France and Russia, but the English will bleed you dry just like they did Napoleon one hundred years ago.”

He coughed up blood, looking at and then past her, but failed to get up.  “We took Paris before, and London will…”

“Bismarck took Paris because he attacked only France, and he got lucky.”  She waved him away and kept dressing.  “You’ve already sent your armies to Russia, and they’ll cross Belgium tomorrow or the next day.  In a week the English will create a third front, choking you off from the sea and draining the life from you.”  She looked into his watery eyes.  “You can tell yourself whatever you like, but in six months, maybe a year, Europe will be a graveyard, and it will all be your fault.”

He collapsed back into a heap on the floor.  “They’ll lie down when they see our guns.”

“And you’ll see theirs.  And all of your armies will fire every bullet, dull every bayonet and bloody every fist until all of the soldiers are dead and gone.”  She laughed and looked past him at a framed map of the world on the wall with Europe at its center.  “In a generation Europe will be nothing but ruins on the western edge of Asia.”

“No.”  He looked away from her and turned to stare at the map.  “No, I’ll call my armies back.  Cousins George and Nicky will listen to reason.”  He tried and failed to get back up on his knees.  “Together we will…”

“Die.”  She shrugged, not even looking at him, and started walking around the small apartment as she finished dressing.  “You sealed your fate the moment you gave the order to mobilize your armies.”  She stopped, looking at the world map again, and laughed out loud.  “Your soldiers can’t and won’t stop, and you’d know that if you had listened to your ministers and generals for even a minute.”  She turned, shaking her head at him, and smiled even more.  “All that waits are their deaths and your subjugation to the Middle Kingdom.

“No.  You coolies aren’t even human.”  He managed to look up from the floor, wiping blood from his face, and just met her eye.  “You won’t…”

She stepped back quickly across the small apartment and kicked him again and again, making him scream, and doubled him back into his ball.

“We ruled for millennia before you white devils rose from the mud, and soon you will be nothing more than a historical stain,” she said, yelling, and kicked him one more time.  “With our boot on your throats, we’ll return to the glory that was and is China.  And you?  You’ll be nothing more than the cabbage eaters you always were.”

“No.”  He managed to get out and looked up again.  “You won’t get away with this.” 

“I already have.”  She looked right into his eyes and pointed down at him.  “You won’t tell a soul that your yellow, slant eyed whore destroyed your empire as you moaned your pleasures.”  She laughed.  “You can’t even believe it now after all I’ve just told you, and once I’m gone you won’t be able to forget it fast enough.  It’ll be like I was never here.”

Tears streaked down his face.

“I should kill you for what you made me do in the last four years.  But it’s all worth it knowing that you’ll watch as Germany and Europe destroy each other, knowing that in a generation you will all be serving the Middle Kingdom and knowing that we will be the masters and you will be the slaves.”

He sobbed, and she stood up straight, squaring her shoulders, and opened the door hidden in the back wall of the apartment. 

“I want you to remember my face when your empire dies, and you have nothing left but nightmares.”  She stood over him.  “I want you to remember how a Chinese girl destroyed you and your world.”

She turned her back on him, leaving him crying in a little ball on the floor, and shut the hidden door behind her without a sound.

Seven years later he could think of nothing else as an old Englishman listened to his story for a third time and reread the handwritten note in Mandarin. 

“That’s quite a tale, your majesty.”

Wilhelm II, the former Kaiser of Germany, frowned.  “You don’t believe me?”

“I do,” the Englishman said, putting the note in his suit jacket pocket, and looked up at the former Kaiser.  “And we won’t let this stand.”

The former Kaiser’s eyes narrowed on the Englishman.

“I’ve already talked to an Irish friend of mine, your majesty, and despite our current differences, we are going to make this right.”  He shrugged, shaking his head, and turned away from the former Kaiser.  “It might take a few years, but your little whore and her country will feel the full depth of our wrath.”  He nodded with the hint of a frown and reached under his jacket again.  “They will pay for what they’ve done.”

The former Kaiser blinked, tears forming in his eyes, and swallowed hard.  “Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t thank me, you son of a bitch.”  The man left a pistol in front of the former Kaiser and opened the only door in the small room.  “It’s all I can do not to kill you myself.”

The former Kaiser watched the door close and picked up the pistol.  “I know.”  He stared at the pistol, sobbing, and then put it down.  “I know it more than you can understand.”

Back To The Future

The young and skinny Chinese girl now stood straight and tall as an ample young woman hidden behind a black lace veil and an all-encompassing black silk dress.  She waited for the old and winkled warlord in a shiny and ridiculous westernized military cap and glittering uniform to come down the stairs to the foyer where she bowed her head only when he at last turned to meet her eye.

He stood still and studied her for a long moment, hand on his ancient, holstered pistol, and half laughed, leaving the house’s front entrance by brushing past the small young boy in the black western suit at her side.

“Your pardon, Master Guo.”  The woman frowned under the veil, pulling the boy further back from the old man, and bowed deeper.  “A thousand apologies, sir.”  

Guo grunted without even a glance back and kept going as the woman looked up the stairs to see two large, broad men staring down at her with their pistols bulging under their ill-fitting, dark western suits.  She ignored them as they followed her and the boy up the stairs and onto the second story balcony to see a man in a perfectly tailored gray western suit wearing thick framed glasses and looking out over the street below them.  He turned to her with half a smile, and she squeezed the boy’s hand, ensuring that they both lowered their eyes and bowed before him.

The man nodded.  “Little sister,” he said in perfectly accented American English and turned back to the crowded funeral procession on the congested street below them.  “It’s good to see you after so long.”

“And you, brother.”  The woman and the boy looked up.  He stared at the man, but the woman looked past him at the funeral procession below and a horse drawn wagon carrying a large photograph of Sun Yat-Sen.  “Such an outpouring.”

“Of course, little sister.”  The man turned to look only at her but pointed to the large photograph.  “Dr. Sun was a great man, the soul of modern China, and taken away too soon.”

“Yes, brother.”  The woman avoided his eyes even with the veil and half nodded to the procession and photograph below.  “So true.”

“I am happy to see you both, little sister.”  The man took in the still staring boy.  “Your son has grown so much in the last two years.”  He stared back.  “He’s tall for his age.  No?”

“He is, brother.”  The woman tightened her grip on the boy’s hand and drew him closer to her.  “Thank you for noticing.”

The boy smiled as the man took his chin in his hand, caressing it, and examined his eyes. 

“Still the strangest color.”  The man nodded to the two large men behind them and looked up at the woman.  “Does that ever bother you, little sister?”

“Of course not, brother.”  The woman noticed the large men step even closer to her but kept her eyes on the man.  “They’re beautiful, just like his father’s.”

“Hmm.”  The man frowned as the two large men now towered over her.  “I suppose so.”

She stood up straighter, turning back to the slow going procession again as the two large men moved even closer and brushed up against her dress.

“I imagine that once upon a time you would’ve have killed anyone who came between you and your son.”  The man beckoned to inside the house and a young woman in a traditional Chinese dress came onto the balcony.  “No, little sister?”

“We are all family, brother.”  The woman watched the young woman kneel in front of the boy and smile at him.  “Why would I worry?”

“Very true,” the man said, keeping his eyes on the woman’s still tranquil expression, and nodded to the young woman and the boy.  “And of course, you remember my wife.”

The young woman turned without looking up and smiled.  “Little sister, it’s so nice to see you again.”  She took the boy’s hand in her own, caressing it for a moment, and then took hold of it in a firmer grip.  “I understand that you and your brother have many things to discuss.”

The woman blinked at the young woman holding onto her son so tightly, feeling the two large men’s sudden grip on her shoulders, and frowned when she discovered that she couldn’t move.  “Brother?”

“Yes, and we need help eating chocolate cake.”  The young woman nodded to the boy, whose face lit up at her words, and pointed to the inside of the house.  “Perhaps…”

“Yes.”  The boy turned to the woman.  “Mother?”  He smiled big, nodding bigger, and pulled on the young woman’s hand.  “Please?”

The woman swallowed, looking into the boy’s big eyes, and felt the two large men further tighten their grip on her. 

“I promise not to spoil him too much, little sister.”  The young woman stepped back for a second, bowing with half a smile to her, and took a step forward with the boy toward the inside of the house.  “And you and your brother have so much to talk about.”  She shared a look with her husband.  “What between family and other affairs?”

“Yes.”  The woman stifled a frown, unable to move as she watched the boy lead the young woman into the house and turned back to the man.  “Of course?” 

“Cake can smooth any situation,” the man said as the heavy door closed behind the young woman and the boy.  “Can’t it, little sister?”

The woman’s face tightened into three straight lines as her son disappeared into the house, and she stared right through him.  

“I’m glad to know that I have now your undivided attention, little sister.”  The man smiled, removing her veil, and looked right at her.  “I wanted to talk to you about Dr. Sun’s death and your future.”

Her eyes narrowed on him.

“He inspired all of China, little sister, threw off the remnants of the Qing dynasty, rose up against the corrupt west, and began to undo our decades of humiliation.”  The man looked right back into her eyes and turned to point to the procession in the street and the giant photograph of Sun.  “Didn’t he, little sister?”

The woman didn’t move.  “Dr. Sun was certainly an inspiration, brother.”

“But you wanted more?” the man said, losing his smile, and raised a finger to her.  “Didn’t you, little sister?”

“Yes.”  The woman looked right back at him with a curt nod.  “I think we all did, brother.”

“Yes, and I don’t think it’s too late, little sister.”  The man nodded back and took all of her in for a long moment with a thin smile.  “Dr. Sun told me many times that you alone gave China an opportunity that nobody else could, and that he thought that you could have done so much more.”

“That is too kind, brother,” the woman said, trying but barely able to move with the two large men holding onto her shoulders.  “But it’s too late now.”  She shook her head with her expression tightening even more and half pointed to the large photo.  “My sacrifice to cripple the West failed to lift China like Dr. Sun planned.”

“Dr. Sun’s dreams were ahead of his time, little sister.”  The man turned, looking past the photo, and took in the rest of the city and then the world with the hint of a smile.  “But that doesn’t mean it’s too late.”

“You know I am but a simple mother now, brother.”  The woman stared at him.  “I live only for…”

“You understate your abilities, little sister.”  The man turned back again and stepped closer.  “You destroyed the German, Austrian and Russian empires.”  He smiled again and pointed west.  “Nearly brought the English and French to their knees and caused the Americans to bury their heads in their ass.”  He pointed to how small she was compared to the two large men.  “You, just a young girl…”

“That was a world away and a lifetime ago, brother.”  The woman looked past him, taking in a deep breath, and did not shake the tightness from her face and the rest of her body.  “My son is my only concern now, and he…”

“Will get the best education in all of China, little sister.”  The man pointed to the heavy closed door to the house and looked at her again.  “I guarantee that he’ll have an even better life than you could have imagined.  One that gives him a proper upbringing, fulfills his vast potential and ensures that he’ll never suffer from being the blue eyed, mongrel bastard that he is.”

The woman stared again into the man’s eyes, her mouth now a straight thin line, and stifled a frown.

“You know it is the right thing.”  The man noticed her coiled features and checked that the two large men still held her close.  “You know this is your duty, little sister.  Your desti…”

“No.”  The woman turned her eyes away from him, otherwise unable to move, and shook her head.  “No, brother, I…”

The man threw a quick jab, jamming his fist between her eyes and slamming them shut as her head bounced off the larger men’s chest.  “You are not seeing the possibilities, little sister.”  He pulled back his hand, rubbing it, and smiled another thin smile.  “No, not at all.”

She didn’t move, trying to breathe through her already bruising face, and slowly blinked her eyes open to see the man standing over her. 

“You will contribute to the best of your ability, little sister.”  The man nodded as his thin smile disappeared and his face twisted into a tight frown.  He shrugged.  “We all must if we want to return China to its rightful place in the world.”

“You sound like a communist, brother.”  The woman tried her strength against the two large men, her face showing her efforts, and almost squeezed one arm free.  “Or worse.”  She scoffed.  “A woman.”

The man laughed and raised his fist again.

But she pulled her arm free, twisting his hand aside and almost slapped him before the larger man grabbed her again. 

“Good, little sister.  Very good.”  The man watched her continue to struggle and laughed again.  “I’m glad to see you still have some fight in you.”  He grinned, stepping back, and rubbed his wrist where she had wrenched it.  “But I’m not surprised.”  He shrugged.  “No, not at all.”

“You will be.”  The woman stared through him with narrowing eyes, surrendering now to the two large men, and spat on the floor between them.  “And you will pay for this, brother.”  She nodded.  “Rest assured, you will pay dearly.”

“I might, little sister.”  He laughed yet again, staring back, and waved a hand to the house.  “If you didn’t care about your bastard son.”  He leaned in toward her.  “Yes?”

The woman blinked and didn’t move at all.

“I thought so.”  The man took her chin in his hand.  “My mother took you out of the gutter and raised you with China’s wealthiest and most influential family, little sister.  She gave you the finest education, taught you to fight for your country, and you succeeded beyond our wildest dreams.”  He caressed her right cheek, leaning in closer, and kissed her hard slow and deep on the mouth.  “But that doesn’t mean you get to live off of your past efforts.”  He looked into her eyes.  “No.  No, you don’t get to raise the Kaiser’s son in obscurity with the hopes of a normal life.”  He let her go and turned back to the procession, looking over it and the rabble in the street, and then turned back to her and pointed west again.  “Not when you have so much more to give.”

The woman’s face contorted into a deep frown, looking past him, and she started struggling to free herself again as the two large men tightened their grip on her and shoved her halfway onto the floor to restrain her. 

“Now, I am known for my kindness, little sister.”  The man stepped back to watch her squirm without effect in the large men’s hands and pointed to the balcony’s heavy door into the house.  “But I never had our mother’s or my wife’s affection for children.”  He shook his head.  “Particularly boys.”

She stopped fighting then, turning to the man, and let the large men yanked her back up where she found her footing again.

The man noticed her new self-restraint and smiled more.  “I’m glad you’re listening, little sister, and I… I assume that you’ll return to the fight.”  He nodded, his finger still pointed at the heavy door, and his eyes lingered on hers.  “Yes?”

“Yes.”  The woman looked right at him, standing up straighter, and shrugged off the large men as they let go of her.   “I will fight again, brother.”

“Excellent.”  The man smiled more as one of the two large men opened the balcony door to the rest of the house, and the man pointed her down the stairs to the foyer and the front door that led to the busy street and funeral procession in front of the house.  “I’ll be in touch, little sister.  Soon.”

“Soon?”  She stopped at the heavy door without taking a step and then turned back to him.  “And my son?”

“Will be safe.”  The man nodded, looking back down at the procession, and half shrugged.  “And perhaps you can see him at Easter.  Or Christmas.”  He smiled thinly.  “Maybe this year.”

“This year?”  She kept her eyes on him.  “Brother…?”

“He will be safe as long as you fight, little sister.”  The man turned his back all the way to her and pointed west again.  “I’m sure you understand that.”

She nodded and looked west, ignoring the stares of the two large men, and then left the balcony and started down the stairs without another word.

The Bulldog’s Charms

“That is heaven.”  The blue eyed, broad shouldered and to0 lean Irishman in his freshly pressed gray suit smiled big, finishing the last half of his scotch, and placed the crystal glass loudly on the long hardwood table in front of him.  He stared at the two gaunt Chinese guards, in front of him, scowling at their filthy and stained army gray uniforms, and sniffed the air around them with a twisted face.  “Not that you rancid butt fuckers will ever know.”  He shook his head and waved a hand in the air.  “Jesus, Mary and Joseph, you’re fucking embarrassing yourselves and your God damn sewer of a once great culture, you fucking shitheads.”

The two guards stood still, frowning, and the man glanced at two more behind him, pushing his glass toward the first two and the nearly half empty bottle.  “Another.”

The first guard shook his head as the second just stared at the bottle.

“God damn, you bloody, grass eating, cocksuckers,” the man said.  “It’s no wonder we’ve fucked 300 million of you up the ass for the last century.  You’re practically God damn useless with the simplest of instructions.”

The first guard stared straight ahead and scowled, but the second filled up the man’s glass.

“About fucking time, you yellow, shit eating bastard.”  The man picked up the glass, smelled the scotch, and smiled right at him.  “It’s not like you haven’t kissed my ass before.”

The first guard’s mouth tightened, but the second guard sighed and turned back to the bottle.

The man took a long, slow sip, looking at the first guard, and laughed out loud.  “I’ve seen more piss and vinegar from Belfast girls, you eunuch cunt.”  The man glanced at his gold quartz watch, blowing him a kiss, and drained the glass.  “Careful or I’ll fuck your sister again.”

The first guard’s face hardened.

“Please.”  The man laughed again.  “You fucked her when you had a dick.”

The first guard squared his shoulders and stood up even straighter. 

The man smiled at the first guard and pushed his glass forward again.  “Another.”

The first guard looked past the man, but the second guard took in the man’s nod, and refilled it with another sigh. 

The man grabbed the glass but then turned to the sound of the opening door behind him and stood up almost at military attention.

A large guard in cleaner army grays walked in, looking over the man and his full glass, and held the door open as a simply uniformed but much cleaner older man entered the room with a younger woman in a little black dress a pace behind him with another guard behind her.

The first four guards stood up straighter and bowed.

“Mr. Finnerty,” the uniformed man said, ignoring the guards and turned to the man.  “I trust I haven’t kept you waiting long.”

“General Chiang.”  The man bowed even lower, still holding onto his glass of scotch, and came back up with a smile.  “I’m so happy you could find time for me in your busy schedule., sir”

“Yes.”  Chiang looked past the man at the half empty bottle of scotch and sighed.  “I hope you remember your manners this time,” he said as the woman behind him translated the words quickly into English.  “Bao is still walking funny.”

“I understand, General,” Finnerty said with half a smirk and gestured to the room they stood in and then the large house surrounding them.  “I also remember how beneficial our last meeting was, sir.”

“Yes.”  Chiang ignored the gesture to the opulent surroundings, sitting at the head of the table, but motioned for only Finnerty to join him.  “I hope you have a more perceptive view of the world than the last Englishman I saw.”

“I can’t imagine it’s worse, General.”  Finnerty sat down, shaking his head, but then smiled.  “And the Empire can certainly do better than offer the ramblings of a shell shocked and senile old colonel, sir.”

“Perhaps.”  Chiang kept his eyes right on Finnerty.  “Mr. Townley seems quite familiar with our situation.”

“I’m sure he did, General.”  Finnerty shrugged, putting his drink on the table, and leaned back into his chair.  “The man became obsessed with China after the Kaiser blamed one of your whores for starting the Great War.”

The woman’s eyes flickered to Finnerty as she continued translating his words into Mandarin.

“Please excuse me if I have offended your sensibilities, Miss.”  Finnerty noticed the flicker and looked right at her.  “That’s an American accent, correct?”  He made a face and nodded.  “New England, yes?”

The woman turned away, avoiding his gaze, and looked to the General.

“Mr. Townley is an angry, old man who will say whatever comes into his head like old men everywhere,” Chiang said in low tone, frowning at the woman, and kept his focus on Finnerty.  “What I want to know is what the British truly see in China’s future, Mr. Finnerty.”

“Of course, General.”  Finnerty grinned.  “That’s why I’m here, sir.”

“Yes.”  Chiang shook his head and leaned forward.  “And I’m surprised your new minister has not ventured out of his embassy.” 

“Sir Lampson is still overwhelmed with the complexities of China, General,” Finnerty said, leaning back, and held out his hands with a shrug.  “That’s how Townley took the opportunity to pay his respects, sir.”

Chiang frowned.  “Mr. Townley’s perspective and audacity surprised me.”

“I apologize, General.”  Finnerty sat up straighter and put on a frown too.  “Townley is known to talk in riddles.”

“The Chinese can only understand a simple, straight forward approach.”  Chiang raised a finger.

Finnerty noted the raised finger, keeping his eyes on Chiang’s, and nodded.  “The same is true for the British laboring classes, General.”

“Yet Mr. Townley believes that I should gradually and peacefully come to terms with the communists and the warlords.”  Chiang’s face twisted into a deeper frown.  “Ignoring the current events on the ground and the logic of history.”

“And if you don’t mind me saying, General, Townley and several others in the British embassy are a bunch of fucking wankers licking each other’s balls.”  Finnerty shrugged, dropping his frown, and picked up his glass again.   

The woman stopped for a moment, and Chiang looked through Finnerty. 

He looked back and smiled.  “Townley would be happy to see China on its knees for another hundred years, General, but you and I both know your people deserve more than a government of rat eaters and rapists.”  He took a sip of scotch, swallowing with half a nod, and pointed to the door behind him and the nation beyond it.  “And the truth is the Empire now needs a united and prosperous China to safeguard its own future.”

Chiang made a face and looked past Finnerty, but the woman looked right at him.

“With Sun Yat-Sen gone, you are the only man who can unite China, General.”  Finnerty kept his eyes right on Chiang, studying his now blanker expression, and put down his glass on the table with a curt nod.  “Like Washington united America, only you can bring your people together and return the Middle Kingdom to its rightful place in the world.”

The woman nodded, but Chiang didn’t move a muscle and looked at Finnerty for more.

“It’s unsaid, sir, but General Washington’s America heralded the rise of the British Empire in the 19^th century.”  Finnerty half smiled, taking in Chiang’s attention, and pointed back to the door behind him with a bigger nod.  “Now the Empire wants and needs China to renew it for the 20^th.”

“I doubt Mr. Townley would agree with that assessment.”  Chiang nodded now too but made another face.

“I doubt Townley could find pussy in a brothel, General.”  Finnerty looked him right in the eye and chuckled.  “He believes that the Empire won the Great War intact; failing to see that they lost Ireland a decade ago, risk losing India in the next and may even lose the Suez in a generation unless it changes with the times.”

Chiang smiled at Finnerty’s words, studying his loose expression for a second, and then leaned back in his chair.  “You are surprisingly candid, Mr. Finnerty?”

“I’m paid to be, General, particularly when the King and Prime Minister agree with me.”  Finnerty took another sip of scotch.  “That’s why I’m here, sir: to send a clear invitation for you to make history with the Empire’s support.”

Chiang’s eyes narrowed on him.

“You want the Chinese to rise up and lift the British into a better future, Mr. Finnerty?” the woman said in English and then Mandarin.

Finnerty turned to her with a narrow eyed look.

“Well?” Chiang said, his eyes still on Finnerty.

“Yes, and in return the Empire will lift its boot from China’s neck and do everything possible to unleash the potential of what was once the world’s greatest civilization.”  Finnerty nodded to Chiang with half a smile and raised his glass to him.  “And you, General.”  He took another sip.  “You are the only man who can seize that future.”

“With your Empire profiting, Mr. Finnerty.”  Chiang nodded back with his own half smile.  “Yes?”

“Of course, General.”  Finnerty took a larger sip of scotch, throwing up his free hand, and shrugged big.  “Otherwise, we wouldn’t be talking, sir.”

Chiang glanced at the woman. 

“This is your moment, General,” Finnerty said into their shared silence and placed his glass loudly on the table.  “The British Empire and all of Europe are distracted with their own problems; Japan isn’t yet sure of its place since the war and America now wants nothing to do with any of us.”  He put both of his hands on the table between them, spreading them out, and then rapped his knuckles on the hardwood.  “The time to act is now, sir.”

“I humbly disagree, Mr. Finnerty,” the woman said, looking up, but kept her eyes only on Chiang.  “We lack the means to...”

“Do you?”  Finnerty ignored the woman, who kept translating, and kept his eyes right on Chiang too.  “You control southern China, General.  You could seize the north and Manchuria tomorrow if you wished, and no one, not even the Empire, could stop you.”

Chiang turned to look right at Finnerty again and shook his head. 

“No one else can do it, General.”  Finnerty leaned forward and rapped both sets of knuckles on the table.  “Sun failed, the communists have shown they can’t fight, and the warlords won’t leave their fortresses.”  He raised his hands up wide with another smile and a nod.  “Now is the time to stand up while the world is distracted.  Now is the time to regain China’s future, sir.”

The woman stared at him for a moment and then nodded again.

“You have given me much to think about, Mr. Finnerty.”  Chiang leaned back in his chair and nodded too.  “Much.”

“Only you can reverse a hundred years of humiliation, General.”  Finnerty stared at both of them and finished his scotch.  “Now is the time no matter who profits, sir.  You don’t want to lose this moment to make history.”

Chiang stood up with Finnerty doing the same.  “Walk with me, Mr. Finnerty.”

“Of course, sir.”  He followed Chiang out of the room and down the long hall with the woman behind him and the guards surrounding them, slowly passing millennia old clay urns, centuries old bronzes and decades old paintings.

“Does your Empire have such a history, Mr. Finnerty?”  Chiang smirked, gesturing to the artwork, but not really looking at it.  “Does anyone in Europe?”

“We don’t, General.”  Finnerty ignored it as they stopped at the front entrance of the house, meeting the General’s eye again, and pointed forward.  “But we have a future, sir.”  He smiled.  “Something China lost centuries ago.”

Chiang frowned and the woman stepped back to stare at both of them.  

“But it can again, General.”  Finnerty pulled out an old parchment from his suit jacket, unrolling it on a side table to show detailed voyages of the Indian and Pacific Oceans.  “Zheng He’s fabled travels in the 15^th century, sir.”  He stepped aside, nodding, and directed the General to the map.  “Centuries ahead of their time when China nearly ruled the world.”

Chiang glanced at the map.

“The Middle Kingdom was nearly the entire world then, sir.”  Finnerty tapped his finger on the two oceans and turned to Chiang.  “Perhaps it could be so again: no matter what the Empire does.”

The woman blinked as Chiang picked up the map with both hands, holding it up, and looked more closely at it. 

“It is my gift to you, General.”  Finnerty almost smiled, noticing the General’s interest, and stepped further back with a bow.  “I apologize as always for my brusque manner and beg your forgiveness to return another day.”

Chiang nodded without a word and studied the map as the first guard escorted Finnerty through the house’s front doors, across the courtyard and out the main gate. 

The woman watched until Finnerty disappeared onto the street. 

Finnerty stopped at the curb and pulled out a silver flask, taking a long sip.  The first guard stood next to him, glaring, and Finnerty offered him the flask. 

The first guard hesitated and then took it as Finnerty smiled and left him for the only car on the street, opening the back door and getting in.

“Well?” the driver said as the car pulled away.

“I told him exactly what he wanted to hear,” Finnerty said.  “Your recommendation to share power with the communists and warlords fell on deaf ears just as we planned.”  He nodded to the old man behind the wheel, shaking his head, and laughed.  “Chiang wants to be emperor.”

“Yes.”  The old man looked at him through the rearview mirror.  “He’ll fail like all the others.” 

“Yes, he will.”  Finnerty nodded.  “Although the woman, his translator, Soong May Ling, might see through us.”

“I doubt it,” the driver said, now looking only at the road in front of them and laughed too.  “They’re marrying next month, and she’ll do anything to ensure Chiang’s success.”

Finnerty chuckled and turned to the rearview mirror.  “Then we’ve succeeded?”

“Yes.”  The driver nodded with a glance back.  “And China will tear itself apart even worse than Europe did in the Great War.”

“I know.”  Finnerty met his eye and sighed.  “Just like you want, Mr. Townley?”

“Yes.”  Townley smiled.  “Not that it will make up for she did.”

“No.”  Finnerty turned away from the older man and stared out the window.  “But what’s coming after that will.”

Women and Children First 

“It’s a God damn shame that it won’t last.”  Finnerty spat in the harbor, shaking his head at Shanghai’s skyline, and leaned over the ocean liner’s shiny wood railing to see the first light of day hit the Bund and shine on the Yokohama Specie Bank, the Yangtze Insurance, and the Jardine Matheson buildings.  He then turned and smiled at the newly constructed United Imports/Exports warehouse three city blocks away, with the two large cargo ships outside it being unloaded by sweaty and filthy Chinese laborers and looked to the street market already filled with the local gaunt men and women and several fat Japanese soldiers: all walking past each other, bickering with one another and bargaining for all they could afford.  “The little buggers are fucking worse than God damn ants crawling around for their cock sucking queen.”  He shook his head and spat again.  “Worse than the fucking Americans.”

“But more impressive than New York.”  The pale woman in western clothes behind him stepped up next to him, taking his hand in her own, and pointed to the shiny United Import/Export building with a big nod.  “You helped make this city, and it’s rich beyond your wildest dreams.”

“A generous perspective, Elizabeth.”  Finnerty met the woman’s eye, nodding too, and squeezed her hand.  “From a wonderful liar.”

“Look who’s talking?”  Elizabeth gave Finnerty a look and smiled at him and then the bustling city that lay in front of them.  “You were wise returning to China after the war and are lying if you say otherwise.  You saw this city and country’s potential.  And knew that we could made a future and a fortune here.”  She touched her obviously pregnant belly, smoothing out her clean white dress over it, and nodded behind them.  “Start a family.”

Finnerty glanced back at the four young children who looked just like him on an upper deck of the ship flanked by two fat, white nannies and a very skinny Chinese servant.  “They look nervous.”

“They don’t want to leave their home.”  Elizabeth pointed to the Bund and the city behind it that stretched to the horizon.  “Can you blame them?”

“Their home?”  Finnerty laughed, pointing to the growing mass of people in the market, and the rest China in front of them.  “The children don’t look like anyone else here, Elizabeth.”

“Then you aren’t looking closely.”  Elizabeth punched him in the arm, turning them south, and pointed.  “The international quarter has tens of thousands of European and American families, and...”

“I know.”  Finnerty rubbed his arm without looking south and turned back to the docks to see the fat Japanese soldiers talking to a fatter Chinese merchant outside his warehouse.  “Still?”

“Shanghai and all its people show how far the world has come since the Great War.”  Elizabeth nudged him to get back his attention, nodding to the same docks, and noticed his look.  “I’m serious.”

“I know.”  Finnerty nudged her back, sighing, and turned to the soldiers shaking their heads at the merchant.  “Yet…”

“Every day people figure out how to do business, get along and cooperate with each other whether they look alike or go to the same church.”  Elizabeth pointed to the Bund’s international banks and their western suited workers and then nodded to the vast, nearby markets teeming with locals before turning back to Finnerty.  “And in the last few years so have the great powers.”

He made a twisted expression and gave her another look.

“The League of Nations, the Nine Powers Treaty and the Kellogg Briand Pact are all signs that we’ve overcome the horrors of war.”  She nodded again, raising one, two and then three fingers, and pointed again to the city.

“Not exactly, Elizabeth.”  Finnerty glanced at the city with a shake of his head and turned back with the same twisted expression.

“Really?”  She scoffed and turned to him with a matching expression.  “Because you’re always right?”

He shook his head with another sigh and turned away from her to the nearest markets and the fat Japanese soldiers now yelling at the fatter merchant.

She looked past that.  “Have you ever thought that you don’t really need to represent British interests because violence will soon no longer be part of the equation?”

Finnerty turned back and shook his head again.  “I’m glad you’re keeping up with current events, Elizabeth, what with everything else you do.”  He touched her round belly with a chuckle.  “But the world’s not that…”

“Don’t condescend to me.”  Elizabeth met his eye and lifted a finger between them.  “You’re not…”

“I know, and I won’t.”  Finnerty raised his hands in surrender before grabbing her finger and then both of her hands in his own.  “But I’m not just looking after British interests, Elizabeth.  I’m looking after ours.”  He rubbed her hands in his own and noticed the fatter merchant trying to wave away the fat soldiers.  “And you know that whatever prime ministers and presidents say in faraway capitals means nothing compared to the local day to day politics and commerce that everyone has to live with.”

“Yes.”  She looked at him with a frown and pointed back to the markets.  “But the world isn’t so bad that we can’t...” 

“The Japanese massacre in Jinan last year says otherwise, Elizabeth.”  Finnerty squeezed her hands, stepping back, and pulled her away from the ocean liner’s railing so she couldn’t see the fat Japanese soldiers moving forward to surround the fatter Chinese merchant.  He nodded to all of Shanghai.  “And none of the slant eyed bastards care one fig about what the League, international agreements or London or Paris say when they’re shooting each other and bayonetting innocent woman and children.”

“That doesn’t mean you need to be guiding British interests anymore.”  Elizabeth looked into his eyes and put his hands on her belly.  “You have other concerns, more important concerns.”

“I know.”  Finnerty smiled, looking back at her, and rubbed her belly too.  “But I’ve profited more than any other European in China because of my contacts, Elizabeth, and…”

“I don’t need to hear this again.”  She pulled his hands up over her heart, swallowing hard, and nodded to their four children on the upper deck.  “We’ve talked this to death.”

“Which is why you need to take our family home, Elizabeth, and I need to stay and guard what we’ve worked so hard and long for.”  Finnerty kept his eyes on her but noticed the fat Japanese soldiers shoving the fatter Chinese merchant to the ground, and pivoted so all she could see was their children.  “Politics, security and commerce are all the same here, and no matter what London or Paris says things could easily go wrong if we don’t steer the situation on the ground.”

“Then you should leave too.”  Elizabeth half frowned, turning back to see the merchant now fighting back, with two skinny American sailors in pristine whites stopping to watch from a distance.  “Or we should all stay together.”  She looked back at him and pointed to their children.  “As a family.”

“No.”  Finnerty looked back at the children, shaking his head, and pointed to the beating of the fat merchant and the frowning Americans just watching.  “No, it’s too dangerous for you and the children, particularly with what Chiang set into motion last year.”

“And only you can fix that?”  Elizabeth stepped closer, ignoring the beating and their children, and looked him right in the eye.  “You’re the only person smart enough and tough enough to save the Empire in Asia?”

Finnerty turned away from her and looked back at their children. 

“Our children are tougher than you think, Jo…”   

“They need to know their country, Elizabeth.”  Finnerty shook his head again, staring at the four children, and pointed to the youngest.  “Hell, Patrick can barely speak English.”

“He’s two.”  She squeezed his hand, pushing the bangs out her face, and gave him a look.  “He barely speaks at all.”

“Susan and Martha aren’t much better.”  Finnerty took in a breath and turned away from them to look back at the fat Japanese soldiers and the fatter merchant below.  “They sound like Chinks.”

“Because they speak fluent Mandarin and Cantonese like you?”  Elizabeth pointed to the city, past the fat Japanese soldiers and the bloodied and battered fatter merchant, and half smiled to the horizon.  “This is where they live.”  She pointed to all of it.  “Where their friends are.  Where…”

“It’ll just be for a couple years, Elizabeth.”  Finnerty pulled her back, sighing, and looked into her eyes again.  “And my sister needs help.”

“Your sister needs a lot of things.”  Elizabeth scoffed again, shaking her head, and looked past him.  “But our help isn’t one of them.”

“She misses you.”  Finnerty got back her attention, pointing to the children, and nodded.  “And the little ones.”

“But she hates you.”  Elizabeth gave him a look.  “You know that, right?  With a passion.”

“Absolutely.”  Finnerty nodded, half smiling, and let out a loud laugh.  “I’m the one who told you, remember?”

“Of course.”  Elizabeth laughed too, and they shared a look.  “But she loves your money.”

“Too true.”  Finnerty smiled but noticed the merchant bleeding from his chest as the two American sailors started walking away in the opposite direction of the fat Japanese soldiers.  “But she can tell you how awful I was as a child.”

“She already has.”  Elizabeth laughed, putting her arms around him and kissed him.  “She does it every time we talk.”

“I know.”  Finnerty nodded, looking right at her, and gave her a squeeze.  “I love you.”

“I love you too.”  Elizabeth looked right back at him, but stepped away, and pointed to their children.  “And It’s all going to work out.”

“I know.”  Finnerty touched her belly again, grinning, and started to laugh.  “And the next time I see you, you won’t be fat.”

She slapped him.

He smiled, and they both laughed yet again before turning to their children, the fat nannies and the skinny Chinese servant.

Finnerty took in a breath, swallowing, and let it out slowly.

“Let the girl help you when we’re gone.”  Elizabeth pointed to the skinny Chinese servant.  “Her name is Mei, and she’s smarter than you think.”

“I know.”  Finnerty nodded to the servant but looked down at the dead and bloody fat merchant by the docks as a group of Chinese stared up at him from the market and then turned to glare at the laughing fat Japanese soldiers already a block away.  “Because you’ve already told me four times.”

“Yes.”  Elizabeth looked too, noticing their stiff stances and lined expressions of sheer hatred, and then turned to him.  “And if what if your hand isn’t enough?”

“Then I’ll be happier you’re in Belfast,” Finnerty said, pulling Elizabeth away from the scene and toward their children, and squeezed her hand.  “Safe and sound.”

She squeezed back, turning away from the violence, filth and chaos of the city, and let him lead her further into the safe, clean and orderly ship.  “Let’s hope so.”

In The Giant’s Shadows

“Something’s not right here, Mr. Finnerty,” the large, bald and very sweaty Chinese man said through a stutter, staring narrow eyed through a dirty automobile window at a dimly lit shop half a block down and across the street.  He turned around to the man in the backseat.  “I tell you.  Something’s definitely not right.”

“No shit, you dumb, yellow cocksucker,” Finnerty said, looking past the man and searching the dark, empty street.  He closed his eyes as the large man stared at him, and then opened them slowly, looking back.  “If I thought you’d be this fucking useless, Zhou, I would’ve never given you that God damn flask and hired your sorry ass from that useless, syphilitic general.”  He took in a deep breath and held up a finger in the man’s face.  “Now pull your shit together or go back to that butt fuck, cesspool of a village you call home.”

“Yes, sir.”  Zhou handed the familiar flask to Finnerty.  “I didn’t mean to…”

“Of course, something’s wrong, you idiot.”  Finnerty took a large swig, looking again at the shop, and shook his head.  “Our guard is missing, the front door is open, and someone left the back light on.”  He took another swig and shook his head.  “We never leave that light on.”

“Yes, Mr. Finnerty.”  Zhou nodded, taking back the flask, and stopped himself from taking a swig.  “I…”  He faced forward again and put the flask in his jacket pocket.  Never mind, sir.”

“First the troubles in Belfast, then the fires in Shanghai and now…”

“And now your shop in Hong Kong, Mr. Finnerty.”  Zhou squinted at the shop and took in a deep breath.  “Something’s definitely not right.”

Finnerty scowled at the back of Zhou’s head.  “You’re right.”  He checked under his suit coat and opened the automobile door.  “So, let’s find out what’s wrong.”

“Yes, sir.”  Zhou got out of the automobile, scanning the quiet and empty street as Finnerty walked straight toward his shop, and he rushed to catch up.  “Mr. Finnerty?”

“I already checked the street.”  He sighed, his eyes on the front door of the shop, and waved him forward.  “Come on.  Hurry up.”

Zhou looked around again, up and down the street, and didn’t seeing a thing.  “Sir, this might be a trap.”

“No shit, you dumb bastard.”  Finnerty stopped three feet in front of the shop, staring at its heavy metal door, and noticed that it was unlocked and slightly ajar.  “This is obviously a trap.”  He smelled the air with a frown, glancing back, and then half grinned.  “Which is why you’re going in first.”

Zhou closed his eyes, smelling too with a frown, and sighed.  “Like last time.”

“Of course.”  Finnerty shrugged and gave him a look.  “It’s what I’m paying you for, you stupid son of a bitch.” 

“Yes.”  Zhou opened his eyes with a tight look at the door but stepped forward.  “I know, Mr. Finnerty.”

“Wait.”  Finnerty grabbed Zhou’s arm, turning his head, and cupped his ear.  “Listen too.”

They stood still, listening but not hearing a thing, and Zhou pulled out a large knife from under his trench coat, crouching in front of the door, and waited. 

“Never mind.”  Finnerty rolled his eyes and stepped forward, nudging open the door with his foot to see the giant polished mirror he had placed in the shop’s entryway years ago.  They stared at themselves for a moment, and Zhou swallowed hard while Finnerty stepped inside the shop and peeked past the mirror.  He surveyed the dark main floor, taking in the ancient sculptures, vintage porcelain and antique jade displays spread throughout the shop, and saw nothing out of ordinary, except for the light from the back room.  He then glanced at the empty staircase leading to the second floor storeroom with a nod and took another step forward when his nose twitched.

“What is that smell, Mr. Finnerty?”

“I don’t know.”  He frowned, sniffing the air again, and checked the walls, counting the framed paintings and maps as he walked to the back room.  “But it doesn’t look like anything’s been stolen.”  He turned to Zhou’s wide eyes and noticed him keeping a close watch behind them.  “And everything looks normal.”

“Except for the li…”

Finnerty put a finger to his lips and pointed for Zhou to go to the left as he went to the right.  He sniffed the air again and pulled out a handkerchief, covering his nose and mouth as Zhou did the same with the crusty sleeve of his coat.  Then they exchanged a last look, and Zhou stepped into the dark and musty back room, knife raised high.  He blinked as Finnerty followed him, stopping in his tracks, and almost dropped the knife.

“Jesus Christ.”  Finnerty stared opened mouth at the naked old man lying face up on the dark and damp hardwood floor and noticed the lamp light reflecting off a thousand tiny cuts on his clammy, pale skin.  “Townley.”  He bent down, now sweating, and felt his neck for a pulse.  “Edmund?”

Zhou noticed the pink and brown stain underneath Townley and stepped back, covering his mouth and nose more but still coughing from the stench.

“My God.”  Finnerty examined Townley’s blank, hollow eyes, and swallowed hard, his handkerchief still covering his face.  “They fucking bled him to death.”

“My God, my God, my God, my God.”  Zhou stared at the pale dead body and the mess underneath it that seemed to be spreading out all over the floor toward them and took another step back.  “We have to get…”

“Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine.”  Finnerty reached out with a shaking hand and used his fingers to close Townley’s eyes.

“… out of here, Mr. Finnerty…”

“Et lux perpetua luceat ei.”  Finnerty made the sign of the cross in the air over Townley’s head.  “Requiescat in pace.”

“… We’re not safe here.”  Zhou pulled hard on Finnerty’s shoulder but didn’t budge him an inch.  “We have to leave right now.”

“Requiescat in pace.”  Finnerty shrugged off Zhou, looking down at Townley with a frown and a shake of his head, and then wiped away a tear.  “Amen.”

“We should have stayed in the automobile,” Zhou said, now shouting, and grabbed Finnerty by the shoulders with both of his hands, almost picking him up off the floor.  “We should have never come here alone at ni…”

His body dropped to the floor, almost falling on Finnerty, with a knife deep in the back of his head as a tall Chinese woman in a red cheongsam and a flowing black overcoat stepped into the back room with three small men in cheap black western suits coming up behind her.  The woman held up a small lantern, pointing the three men forward, and Finnerty looked right at her.

“You should have listened to Zhou Gang, Mr. Finnerty.”  The woman looked down at the still twitching body with a laugh and then nodded.  “You might have seen tomorrow’s sun.”

“Madame Ni.”  Finnerty stood up from Townley’s body without even glancing at Zhou or the three men in cheap suits, and then nodded back.  “The infamous Golden Claw: hired gun and bloody whore to the Soong family, General Chiang, Sun Yat-Sen and everyone with a dollar in the Qing Empire.”

The three guards drew long knives from under their jackets, but Ni raised a hand.  “No.”  She smiled and gestured to Finnerty.  “No, let’s hear Mr. Finnerty’s last words.”  She laughed with the slightest of grins and looked him right in the eye.  “Before his pain and miseries begin.”

He looked back at her.  “I’m surprised you’d step out of the shadows with your clothes on and legs together, Madame Ni.”  He turned to the three men.  “Especially since you’re nothing more than a wrinkly, dried up hole.”

“Said like a man out of options, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni straightened her seamless sheer dress, shaking her head, and smiled with another, louder laugh.  “Or someone who sees what they want but will never possess.”

Finnerty smiled back.  “I should thank you, Madame Ni.”  He leered at her with half a nod.  “I’ve been searching for you for almost three years, and now you find me."

“So predictable, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni still smiled as her men crouched, twisting their knives in his direction, and watched her raised hand.  “But neither you nor Mr. Townley ever concerned me.”  She pointed to the pale and lifeless body now between them.  “You’re both fools living in the past, too blind to see that your Empire is spent and nearly on its knees.”

“And yet China’s been face down in the mud for centuries.”  Finnerty ignored Townley and looked past the men’s knives to notice their filthy coats.  “Its glory barely a memory as your people starve in the streets, Madame Ni.”

“More words meaning nothing, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni pointed again to Townley’s pale naked body.  “Your mentor is just the latest example of how weak the British are.”

“Townley was an old man…”

“Who died very slowly and painfully by my hand, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni sneered and her eyes narrowed on his.  “Just like your Belfast home burned to the ground last week.”  She saw him take a step back at her words.  “Thieves ransacked your Shanghai warehouse five days ago.”  She nodded as he caught his breath.  “And an accident crippled your oldest daughter yesterday.”

“No.”  He blinked, looking right at her, and just stopped himself from taking another step back.  “You expect me to believe…?”

“That I control events a world away?”  Ni nodded big to him with a bigger smile.  “Of course, Mr. Finnerty.”  She gestured to the rest of the world with another laugh.  “I’ve started wars, caused revolutions and orchestrated the fall of kings right under your nose.”  She looked him in the eye, stepping closer, and shrugged.  “The razing of your family home outside of Coleraine was as easy as crossing the…”

“It was coincidence.”  Finnerty just kept his eyes on her, shaking his head, but swallowed again.  “Nothing more than a coincidence.”

“You believe what you will, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni pointed yet again to Townley’s body.  “But right there is all the proof you need that I can do whatever I want to whoever I want whenever I want.”

Finnerty barely held her stare.

“We cut him slowly and deeply, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni tightened her jaw, nodding big, and smiled bigger.  “Bleeding him over three days as he screamed and cried, begging us for mercy as we drained the spirit out of him like he wasn’t even a three legged dog.”  

Finnerty’s eyes flickered back to Townley, and he started sweating more.

“I showed him a death that made the horrors of your Great War look like a school yard fight, Mr. Finnerty: a child’s game.”  Ni nodded.  “And on his last day Townley realized that I was right.  That it’s only a matter of time before the English kneel before Chinese might.”

He looked up again and she lowered her hand.

The guards stepped forward as one and Finnerty stepped back again, in between two crates near the rear of the crowded back room.

“And as we slowly bleed you to death.”  Ni kept her eyes on him.  “I want you to remember that I could do the same to your young wife and precious children any time I wanted, Mr. Finnerty.”  She let out another laugh.  “Any time.”

“No.”  He pulled out a Webley pistol from under his coat in one clean and quick motion and shot the largest man in the head.  “No, I don’t think so.”

The largest man collapsed to the floor next to Ni, and the other two froze as she kept smiling at Finnerty.

“That’s not going to happen, Madame Ni.” Finnerty looked at her, his pistol now pointed at the second largest man’s head and shook his head.  “Not while I’m alive.”

“Of course not, Mr. Finnerty.”  She sighed and raised her hand again to get back her men’s attention.  “But that shouldn’t take long to rectify.” 

He stared at the shifting wide eyes and the advancing steps of the two men and backed up another last step.  “You know Chiang will shit all over China no matter what you do to me, Madame Ni.”

“And your Empire will collapse in my lifetime, Mr. Finnerty,” Ni said.  “So…”

“Powerful words from someone who hides in the shadows, Madame Ni.”  He ignored her now and turned his attention to the two men.  “Britain will never…”

“Your ‘civilization’ is rotting from the inside out, Mr. Finnerty.” 

“Which is why our warships control your coast, Madame Ni?”  Finnerty scoffed.

“For now.”  Ni took a step closer to him.  “But that won’t last now that America has turned inward against your precious mercantilist policies, will it, Mr. Finnerty?”

His face hardened.

“They hate you for bringing them into your Great War and causing their Depression.  Hate you so much that they’ll close their own borders even if it cuts into their own trade.”  Ni laughed yet again and gave a curt nod.  “It’s just like we planned a generation ago, Mr. Finnerty.”

He pulled the trigger, dropping the second man to the floor, and turned his pistol to stop the third man from taking another step.

“I’ve touched on a sore point, haven’t I, Mr. Finnerty?”  Ni pulled out her own gun and aimed the Lugar right at his stomach.  “I’ve shown you how weak you are, and it scares you.”

“We still have China in our pocket, Madame Ni.”  He turned his pistol to her face. 

“Until America kicks you out, Mr. Finnerty, like they did to your redcoats 150 years ago.”

“You don’t understand Americans at all, Madame Ni.”  Finnerty shook his head with his eyes on both Ni and her last man.  “They’ll…”

“I understand that we’re both living in their shadow for now, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni took another step toward him.  “And that it’s only a matter of time until we bleed them to death too.”

He looked right at only her again.  “Then you misunderstand China’s true potential, Madame Ni.” 

“Perhaps, Mr. Finnerty, but you yourself told General Chiang that the British plan to exploit a resurgent China to reinvigorate their own Empire, even as you fight us and claim that we have no future without you.”  She stared back at him and shrugged.  “A daring amount of hypocrisy even for an Irishman.”

“Only if it doesn’t work, Madame Ni.”  He chuckled.

“It won’t, Mr. Finnerty.”  She took another last step forward.  “Your time is nearly done.”

“And America will just let China rise, Madame Ni?”

They stared at one another.

“They won’t see the danger until it’s too late, Mr. Finnerty.”

He shook his head.  “You’ll never be dangerous with Chiang keeping you in the dirt, Madame Ni.”

“His successors will do better, Mr. Finnerty,” Ni said, and the third man heard her words and turned to stare right at her.

Finnerty noticed.  “Mao and the warlords are even worse than Chiang, Madame Ni.” 

“Perhaps.”  Ni shot the third man in the side of the neck without even looking at him and kept her eyes right on Finnerty.  “But England’s future is even worse for you, Mr. Finnerty.”

He stared at the third man screaming on the floor.

“The world is changing faster than Chiang knows.”  Ni lowered her pistol, straightening up, and nodded to him.  “You know it, I know it, and that’s why I want you on my side, Mr. Finnerty.”

“On your side?”  He turned back with a frown and his pistol now on her.

“You know England is collapsing under the burden of its Empire, and that China could return to greatness with the right leaders,” Ni said with half a bow.  “You could be one of those leaders, Mr. Finnerty.”

He looked right into her eyes.

“You’ve spent almost your entire life in China, Mr. Finnerty.”  She looked right back at him and gestured to the shop.  “You’ve become rich here, had a family here, made a life here.”  She snickered, gesturing beyond the shop, and shook her head.  “Do you honestly think you could have done that in England as the Irish Catholic boy you were?”

He looked down at Townley’s corpse and then into the front room and a fraction of his Chinese wealth.

She noticed.  “Help us make the future, Mr. Finnerty.”  She smiled.  “Embrace the reward you so richly deserve and that the English will never give you.”

“No.”  He raised his pistol to her face and shook his head.  “No, I don’t think so.”

She shrugged and raised her own pistol.  “You’re making a mistake, Mr. Finnerty.”

He frowned.  “Like you did when you threatened my family and livelihood, you cock sucking, stain of a whore.”

“They’re alive because of me, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni laughed, raising the lantern higher and smashed it down on the floor between them, splashing oil and flame everywhere, and lit half the room on fire.  “You would have done well to remember that.”

“No.”  He fired his pistol three times, missing as the flames rose up between them, and then lost sight of Ni completely as she simply walked away from him.  “I’ll see you dead.”

“No, you won’t, Mr. Finnerty.”  Ni turned her back to him, waving him away, and disappeared beyond the flames.  “We won’t see each ever other again.”

“No.”  Finnerty stared through the fire, ignoring the flames, but unable to see anything beyond them.  “No, God damn it.”  He flung his pistol after her, staring into the flames, and then felt Townley and Zhou’s bodies at his feet.  “Fuck.”  He pushed their bodies into the advancing flames and got on his hands and knees below the smoke.  “I’m not dying like this, you bitch.”  He traced his hand along the floor, feeling the seam of a trap door with his fingertips, and almost smiled.  “And I will see you dead, Madame Ni.”  He lifted the door, heading down a waiting ladder with one last look at the now all-encompassing flames, and nodded.  “Along with the rest of China.”

***

Of course the adventure continues.

Read how Ni faces off against Finnerty and the Americans to move China into the 21st century and its rightful place in the world.

Just email Joseph at joe@joestories.com and he will get the rest of Conspiracy Of The Dragon to you.