“Right. They use the American acronym because it was developed in America,” Pike ran his finger down the exchange, reading the references in sequence. “Do you have the FAE yet? Sorry the FAE may come tomorrow. Be patient these things are tightly controlled. I can’t be patient, get the FAE.” And finally, Cato read: “FAE denied. Just use the conventional explosives I sent.”

“I don’t understand,” Shan said. “An FAE?”

“A fuel air explosive. A thermobaric bomb.”

“I’m not a soldier, Pike,” Shan pointed out.

“It sucks all the air out of an enclosed target. Bunkers, buildings, caves. Made to kill people, not destroy structures.” Pike pointed to the dates of the emails. “Not long before my daughter died someone was planning to suffocate everyone in that cave, with help from the army in Lhadrung.” Pike switched back to Mandarin and turned to Tan’s assistant. “Who has authority to order munitions? Especially such a serious weapon.”

“Several staff officers would,” Amah Jiejie replied, as Shan handed her the printed page. “All the colonel’s direct reports, the headquarters staff, and all of the wardens. But for something unusual, the colonel wants to know about it.”

“Except the colonel wasn’t up at midnight talking about vacuum bombs with the Five Claws,” Shan said.

“Of course not,” Amah Jiejie agreed, then asked the dates of the emails. “Major Xun was away that week, at a Party conference.”

“But not the warden of the 404th,” Shan suggested.

“Not the warden,” Amah Jiejie confirmed, then rose as the phone on her desk rang. Shan followed her out of the conference room. When she put down the receiver she looked as if she might weep. “There’s a car waiting, Shan. They need you at the hospital,” she announced in a brittle voice.

Ko lay unconscious on a hospital gurney outside the surgical chamber when Shan arrived. Dr. Anwei was shouting orders to nurses. Shan ran to his son’s side. Blood matted Ko’s hair and had dried on his fingers. His prison tunic was torn in several places, and each tear adhered to his flesh with caked blood. A nurse was using scissors to cut his clothing away.

A man was shouting Ko’s name in a frantic voice. Only when a nurse began patting his shoulder, did Shan realize the cries were his own. Someone clamped an insistent hand around his arm as he leaned over and tried to shake his son awake.