O'hara's Choice - Leon Uris [21]
The factory was operating smoothly. The academy demanded less and less of his personal supervision, and it was clear that Captain/Colonel Storm was now woven indelibly into the palace fabric, a fact that made him extremely uncomfortable.
“I’m a Marine,” he told Matilda in his less happy moments, “and Marines do not make government policy, Marines carry out their duty, however repugnant it may be.”
Suddenly he desired nothing more than to be relieved of this command, but then a ship arrived with a diplomatic and military pouch.
Without recourse, he was commanded to remain. His work in Nandong had helped create a much-desired and firm relationship. Hang in there, Tobias, until you can establish unshakable stability, he was told.
“Stability,” Tobias cried to Matilda, “is an IMPOSSIBILITY!”
But he calmed down and finally formed a justification. “I will stay on duty as long as the Corps wants me on duty here. It is the least I can do for what the Corps has given me.”
“I, too, will remain,” Matilda answered. “It is the least I can do.”
• 8 •
THE BIRDS OF PERU
When Tobias felt that the region had attained the kind of stability he had been requested to establish, he once again asked to be reassigned.
The emperor held in his hand a copy of Colonel Storm’s request.
“But your sons have not yet returned, and it has been three years.”
“We need to speak straight on, Your Majesty.”
“We always have,” the emperor retorted, “in a somewhat circuitous manner.”
“I speak for Madam Storm as well as myself. Although I will hold no interest in the future trading company, it was highly unethical of me to seek profit from my position at the palace—I prefer life as a Marine rather than a merchant. In my eagerness to establish a good life for my sons, I did a corrupt thing. I know Your Majesty would not hold me hostage until the return of my sons to Nandong, so you are no longer bound by our agreement.”
“And your sons? Will they return?”
“That is up to them. The madam and I feel we have afforded them the opportunity, but it is their decision what to make of their lives.”
“You speak so strangely. This world would become chaos if fathers did not control the destinies of their sons,” Wu said.
“The tradition of obedient sons is not as powerful in America as in China. The value of my mission here has been proven. I am no longer needed.”
“You are needed, Tobias.”
“The artillery and the academy are on firm footing. That is what I came for. I did not come to be a minister of the royal Nandong court. I long for my own way . . .”
“Tobias, I have seen you look down from your balcony, over the wall to the port. Each time a ship leaves Nandong filled with emigrants—or shall we call it by its true name, substitute slave labor, contract indentured labor, coolie labor . . . the pig trade. My people go out of China as pigs, live as pigs, and most die as pigs.”
“I am deep into your history and I understand the conditions under which China has had to evolve. Too much desert, too many magnificent mountains, and never enough bountiful earth. God’s wrath has devoured your people through drought, flood, earthquakes, bandits, monsoons, disease, and drought again. Massive starvation and basic existence have been China’s curse for the centuries. Sometimes, Your Majesty, I can almost bring myself to understand why you have to throw your people out to the world. What I cannot bring myself to understand, ever, is the lack of human compassion.”
“You forgot to mention the recurring cycles of infanticide and the ravages of pestilence, Tobias. Much less the rape of China by foreign nations that drugged our people with opium. And put the coolie trade in suffocating holds. No matter where the coolie lands, he is looked upon as a subhuman monkey.”
“And the profits from the coolie trade?” Tobias dared.
The emperor gave a small laugh. “At least the coolie knows he is worth something. We have become a mockery. Compassion ends at the line where we