Shadow of the giant

door, Han Tzu said,
"There is no one in this building with the authority to command me."
    It was his announcement that he was taking control of the
government, and everyone knew it.
    "Shoot him," said Snow Tiger behind him.
    Han Tzu turned around, putting the pen to his mouth as he
did.
    But before he could fire a dart, the soldier who had refused
to nod had blown out Snow Tiger's head, covering the other soldier with a smear
of blood and brains and bone fragments.
    The two soldiers bowed deeply to Han Tzu.
    Han Tzu turned back around and strode out into the anteroom.
Several of the old generals were heading for the door. But Lieutenant White
Lotus had her pistol out and they all froze in place. "Emperor Han Tzu has
not given the honorable gentlemen his permission to leave," she said.
    Han Tzu spoke to the soldiers behind him. "Please
assist the lieutenant in securing this room," he said. "It is my
judgment that the officers in this room need time to contemplate upon the
question of how China came into her current difficult situation. I would like
them to remain in here until each of them has written a complete explanation of
how so many mistakes came to be made, and how they think matters should have
been conducted."
    As Han Tzu expected, the suck-ups immediately went to work,
dragging their compatriots back to their places against the walls. "Didn't
you hear the emperor's request?" "We will do as you ask, Steward of
Heaven." Little good it would do them. Han Tzu already knew perfectly well
which officers he would trust to lead the Chinese military.
    The irony was that the "great men" who were now
humiliated and writing reports on their own mistakes were never the source of
those errors. They only believed they were. And the underlings who had really
originated the problems saw themselves as merely instruments of their
commanders' will. But it was in the nature of underlings to use power
recklessly, since blame could always be passed either upward or downward.
    Unlike credit, which, like hot air, always rose.
    As it will rise to me from now on.
    Han Tzu left the offices of the late Snow Tiger. In the
corridor, soldiers stood at every door. They had heard the single gunshot, and
Han Tzu was pleased to see that they all looked relieved to learn that it was
not Han Tzu himself who had been shot.
    He turned to one soldier and said, "Please enter the
nearest office and telephone for medical attention for the honorable Snow
Tiger." To three others, he said, "Please help Lieutenant White Lotus
secure the cooperation of the former generals inside this room who have been
asked to write reports for me."
    As they rushed to obey, Han Tzu gave assignments to the
other soldiers and bureaucrats. Some of them would later be purged; others
would be elevated. But at this moment, no one even thought of disobeying him.
Within only a few minutes he had given orders to have the perimeter of the
defense complex sealed. Until he was ready, he wanted no warning going to the
Politburo.
    But his precaution was in vain. For when he went down the
stairs and walked out of the building, he was greeted by a roar from the
thousands and thousands of military people who completely surrounded the
headquarters building.
    "Han Tzu!" they chanted. "Chosen of
Heaven!"
    There was no chance the noise would not be heard outside the
complex. So instead of rounding up the Politburo all at once, he would have to
waste time tracking them down as they fled to the countryside or tried to get
to the airport or onto the river. But of one thing there could be no doubt:
With the new emperor enthusiastically supported by the armed forces, there
would be no resistance to his rule by any Chinese, anywhere.
    That's what Mazer Rackham and Hyrum Graff had understood
when they gave him his choice. Their only miscalculation was how completely the
story of Han Tzu's wisdom had swept through the military. He hadn't needed the
blowgun after all.
    Though if he hadn't had it, would he have had the courage to
act as boldly as he did?
    One thing Han Tzu did not doubt. If the soldier had not
killed Snow Tiger first, Han Tzu would have done it after—and would have killed
both soldiers if they had not immediately submitted to his rule.
    My hands are clean, but not because I wasn't prepared to
bloody them.
    As he made his way to the department of Planning and
Strategy, where he would make his temporary headquarters, he could not help but
ask himself: What if I had taken their initial