Striking the Balance

He looked at Nieh with something less than perfect liking. “How can you expect us to work with folk who are not only godless but who put sluts in positions of authority?” he demanded. “The scaly devils are right to scorn you for that.”

Nieh did not mention that he and Liu Han were lovers. Instead, he said, “This poor woman was captured by the little scaly devils and forced to give her body to these men or be starved. Is it any wonder that now she burns for revenge against them? They seek to discredit her, to lower her effectiveness as a revolutionary leader.”

“I have seen some of these pictures the little devils show,” Su Shun-Ch’in answered. “In one or two, the woman Liu Han looks to be forced, yes. In others, though-the ones with the foreign devil with the fuzzy back and chest-she is doing nothing but enjoying herself. This is very plain.”

Liu Han had fallen in love with Bobby Fiore. At first, maybe, it had been nothing more than two miserable people thrown together in a situation where they had no relief save each other, but it had grown to more than that. Nieh knew it. He also knew, from his time with Bobby Fiore on the road and in Shanghai, that the foreign devil had loved her, too, even if he hadn’t bothered being faithful to her.

No matter how true all that was, none of it would matter to theqadi. Nieh tried a different tack: “Whatever she did in the past that the little devils show, she did only because without doing it she would have been starved to death. Possibly she did not hate all of it; possibly this foreign devil was decent to her in a place where anything decent was hard to find. But whatever she did, it is the scaly devils’ fault, not hers, and she repents of having done it.”

“Maybe,” Su Shun-Ch’in said. By Chinese standards, his face was long and craggy; he might have had a foreign devil or two in his distant ancestry. His features lent themselves to stern disapproval.

“Do you know what else the scaly devils did to the woman Liu Han?” Nieh said. When theqadi

shook his head, he went on. “They photographed her giving birth to a child, and photographed that child coming forth from between her legs. Then they stole it, to use it for their own purposes as if it were a beast of burden. You will not see them showing pictures of that, I would wager.”

“This is so?” Su Shun-Ch’in said. “You Communists, you are good at inventing lies to advance your cause.”

Nieh reckoned all religion a lie to advance a cause, but did not say so. “Thisis so,” he answered quietly.

Theqadi studied him. “You are not lying to me now, I do not think,” he said at last.

“No, I am not lying to you now,” Nieh agreed. He wished he had not tacked on the last word. Then he saw Su Shun-Ch’in nodding soberly, perhaps pleased he was acknowledging he did sometimes lie. He went on, “In truth, the woman Liu Han gains face from these pictures the scaly devils show; she does not lose it. They prove that the little devils fear her so much, they need to discredit her by whatever means they can.”

Su Shun-Ch’in chewed on that like a man working meat from a chunk of pork that was mostly gristle. “Perhaps there is some truth in this,” he said after a long pause. Nieh had to work hard not to show the relief he felt as theqadi continued, “I will present your interpretation of these pictures to the men who believe as I do, at any rate.”

“That will be very fine,” Nieh said. “If we stand together in a popular front, we may yet defeat the little scaly devils.”

“Perhaps there is some truth in this,” Su repeated, “but here, only some. When you say a popular front, you mean a front you will lead. You do not believe in equal partnerships.”

Nieh Ho-T’ing put as much indignation as he could into his voice: “You are wrong. That is not true.”

To his surprise, Su Shun-Ch’in started to laugh. He waggled a finger in Nieh’s face. “Ah, now you are lying to me again,” he said. Nieh started to deny it, but theqadi waved him to silence. “Never mind. I understand you have to say what you have to say to support your cause. Even if I know it is wrong, you think it is right. Go now, and may God, the Compassionate, the Merciful, someday put wisdom into your heart.”

Sanctimonious old fool,Nieh thought. But Su Shun-Ch’in had shown he wasn’t a fool, and he was going to work with the Communists to fight the little devils’ propaganda. And he was right about one thing: if the People’s Liberation Army was part of a popular front, that front would come to reflect the views of the Communist Party.

After Nieh left the mosque, he went wandering through the streets and narrowhutungs of Peking. The scaly devils had set up a lot of their picture machines. Liu Han’s images floated above every one of them, coupling with one man or another: usually Bobby Fiore, but not always. The little scaly devils turned up the sound at the moments when she neared and reached the Clouds and Rain, and also for the unctuous commentary of their Chinese lackey.