2
"Ah, you see, Park? The vena cava of the Platypusbear is the same as the Armadillobear's. Add it to the list, Kim."
Park and Sun were quite literally up to their elbows in Platypusbear. The stench of blood and death lingered like bad cologne on Park even after he washed and rubbed himself in oils. Sun smiled gleefully as she held up the Platypusbear's heart, pointing out the details of the organ. It was not unlike some sort of ancient sacrificial ritual. Park prepared for the moment when Sun would tell him it was now time to drink its blood.
"Excellent, Sun." Park made sure to keep his voice as neutral as possible. Difficult to do with a quivering organ shoved under his nose. "Don't you think we've gathered enough data, though? I mean, that's our third heart. Isn't that a little excessive?"
"You can never have enough hearts, Park," Sun replied matter-of-factly.
"Well, I'm comfortable with our assessment of the definition of 'bear' now," Park stated.
Sun waved her hands dismissively, casually loosing bodily fluids everywhere. "Nonsense. Our work is barely half done. Kim, bowl."
"I don't understand, Sun," Park said. "We've-"
Sun dropped the heart into the bowl with a decisive slap. Kim flinched as blood delicately spattered his face.
"We've pretty much figured out…" Park tried to continue, noticing Kim dramatically wipe his face. "…figured out the detailing on the 'bear', haven't we? We've been at it for three weeks and know the animals from hide to hair, so to speak. Can't we start making, or breeding, or building, or whatever it is you do?"
"Park, please," Sun cleaned her hands on cloth and began to remove her apron. "There is still much to do on our preliminary work."
"Such as?" Park had washed his hands and now fumbled with his apron strings.
"Kim, would you please put that heart away?" Sun stepped behind Park and took the strings from him. "We still do not have detailing on the Skunkbears."
"And we won't," Kim called. "They're Dai Li property."
"And on top of that," Sun continued, ignoring Kim, "we'll need to examine the foetuses. There; untied."
She patted Park's shoulder and he and Kim watched her leave the room. Park held his apron, Kim his heart, the table overwhelmed with blood, and the both of them began to realise how over their heads they were.
"Fetae?"
"Foetuses," Sun corrected, not looking up from the writing table.
Park and Kim looked at each other, the same though crossing their minds.
"Correct me if I'm wrong," Park said, "but don't we need the foetuses for breeding?"
"You are wrong," Sun replied.
Again, there were shared looks between the men.
Sun finally noticed the silence that pressed down on the room. Her head lifted and she studied the both of them.
"Did you both think we wouldn't need to examine them also?" Her honey-tongued voice was mystified. "How extraordinary. Do you know nothing at all of animal sciences?"
Park puffed out his chest. "We never claimed to expert animalists like you."
"Certainly not," Sun remarked. "An alchemist and a…what is it you do again, Kim?"
Park's voice sprang over Kim's would-be outburst. "Which is why we called you, didn't we? For assistance, not condescension and insults on our chosen fields of study."
"Yes," Sun replied. "And as leading expert here, my decisions should not be questioned."
"Expert," Park countered, "but not leader. I am the head of this project, Sun. All your suggestions will be passed through me. And if I do not understand feel free to explain. I will not be offended. Kim, shut up."
Kim's mouth clicked shut and it marked the arrival of another tense silence. This one hung around for a shorter time period but was louder than its predecessor.
"Fine," Sun answered, spitting the word like chipped ice. "You are right, Park; you are lead on this. My apologies. Shall I now suggest your next step, then?"
Park nodded his head graciously.
"You think you have the makings of a 'bear', do you?" Sun asked.
"Don't we? There are features and characteristics in all the 'bears that are the same. You have pointed that out all along." Park shrugged his shoulders as if that said everything.
"But when do the differences appear?" Sun questioned. "How long is a foetus in such a generic state to be indistinguishable from other species? What are the first defining characteristics to appear? Could you stop those features even appearing? If so, for how long? Will it die without its distinguishing marks? How much-?"
Park cut his hand through the air. "Enough, I get it."
"Do you?" Sun persisted. She punctuated her words with a finger shoved into his chest. "This is not a parlour room trick, Park. You cannot bluff your way through this one. Sacrifices must be made, and first on the altar with be your reservations and morality. Selfless duty to science calls you to sacrifice your own pride and do whatever it takes to make a bear."
A third silence, the embarrassed and nervous little brother of the three, fell across the room. Park stared at the finger stabbed at his chest and swallowed.
Kim cleared his throat. "Well, look on the bright side, Park. At least you don't have to save the world."
Kim stared down at the note Sun had given him. "What's this?"
"The address of my supplier. You can get us more bears there."
"'East Gate'?"Kim's eyes widened. "But this is in the lower ring!"
"Yes?"
"I don't go to the lower ring!" Kim sputtered.
"There's a first time for everything, Kim." She patted his shoulder. "This will be a good learning experience for you."
Kim sputtered away, a look of mortification plastered across his face. Park turned hesitantly to Sun. "And what will we do then?"
The smile she gave him sent shivers up his spine.
"We are going to pay a call on the Dai Li."
The world was full of injustice, partiality and all-around unfairness. Kim knew that better than most.
Take, for instance, his current circumstances:
Forced into yet another life-or-death situation by the whims of their magnificent idiot King. Cornered into working with a Spirit World banshee who had a tundra for a soul. And he, Assistant Minister of the Sciences, made to ride public transport.
This went beyond humiliation. This – all of this – was an attack on his person.
He got off at the stop Sun indicated and almost keeled over. He had thought the smell inside the train was bad but this was assaulting, like a latrine on a hot day. Could it be possible the noise was worse? The train bellowed its horn and rattled off, leaving Kim to hold his ears as well as his nose.
Kim treaded the directions Sun had given him. The East Gate was a crowded affair. There were few actual stalls here, even less hawkers. Instead the streets were filled with animals. Cockerelgoats, cowhens, koalasheep (the three of them had briefly looked at adding koalasheep to their research. But, as it turned out and despite popular belief, koalasheep were not bears) and, of course, chickenpigs. Hundreds of chickenpigs. A shudder went through Kim as their squealing reached his ears. Ever since Park and Kim's last encounter with that demon from the North in the guise of a woman, he had become a hardline vegetarian. He could not shake the feeling there was something keenly human about the cries of a chickenpig.
With one last shudder of revulsion Kim set off following Sun's directions. He pushed his way through the crowds, keeping one hand tight on his money pouch and his feet well away from hooves. He should have added pats to the list as he firmly stepped into one.
Sun's directions led Kim down side streets and narrow lanes. The roads became increasingly empty of people and filled rather with industrial buildings, storehouses and stock sheds. There were no trading farmers here, no merchants inspecting product. This was a place only the locals travelled. Kim swallowed and counted the buildings on the street.
There. The fifth one. A weathered storehouse with a faded signboard: Vui's Stock and Trade. With great hesitancy Kim entered the front door.
It stank. Badly. The musk of dozens of penned animals clung to the air like those cheap oils Park had been using lately. The noise was bearable, at least. As far as he could see the storehouse only kept koalasheep and they seemed content enough.
Kim stumbled as someone clapped his shoulder.
"Can I help you?"
Kim turned to yell at the man. He had an issue with personal space, the issue being never to cross his. Except the man who'd broken his unseen boundary was not a man.
To be fair, she could only be described as a woman in the loosest sense of the word. She was as broad as one of palace guards and taller than any of them. Her hair was short cut and she had dark, peasant skin.
Kim stared up at her. "Um?"
"Vui," she said with an easy smile. "The one and only."
"Indeed," Kim murmured.
"Looking to invest?" she asked. "Master sent you down to check my stock?"
"Master?" Kim drew himself up to his unimpressive full height. "I am no one's servant."
"Oh, sorry," Vui said with a slanting smile. "Had the look of a number cruncher about you."
"I'm a scientist!" Kim fumed.
"Ya don't say?" Vui's eyes brightened. "I know a scientist myself. Can you make fireworks? Lightning from stone? Turn water to that fogsmoke?"
Kim frowned. "That's alchemy, my compatriot's work. Nothing but showmanship and nonsense."
"Oh. So what do you do, then?"
"I don't do; I study physical science."
Vui's blank stare ruffled Kim's already stirred up temper.
"What's that?" she asked.
"Physical sciences," Kim repeated, this time with slower enunciation. "You know? How things move and the laws that apply to them."
Vui's brow creased. "Like bending?"
"No." Kim's voice was positively flat-line. "Not like bending."
"Can't bend, can you?" Vui's eyes twinkled mischievously.
"I study the very essence of the cosmos!" Kim steamed.
She slapped him on the back again and almost threw him on the ground. "Don't worry, yeah? We all compensate somehow."
"But-!" Kim rubbed a hand across his face frantically. Oppression! The world was oppressing him! But he would be the better man here. He calmed himself as best as he could. "Sun… Sun sent me."
"Well, why didn't you say so, Little Man?" Vui replied happily. "What she want this time? Not wolfbats, I hope. Sold out on those just the other day. Guess you were lying before, eh? Master did send you down." She guffawed. "Come along then."
Kim stumbled after her. "Little man?"
He hated the universe.