Wu-Fong Residence, Taipei, Taiwan, Republic of China
"Okay," Shannon said again, before fixing up her headset. She needed both hands free if she was going to paint. "Why are you asking me this?"
"Because your wife's busy," Li told her over the phone, "Plus, Michael and Aki are spending time with their kids, and I'd feel guilty about taking that from them."
"Don't you have anybody else you can talk to about this? Surely you have to have at least one other friend you can trust, right?"
"Actually, you four are some of the only friends I have."
"Wow. No offense, Marty, but that's kinda sad."
"I meant friends I can trust, Shannon. Plus, Sun and Huang are more colleagues than anything else."
"Ken Ma?"
"Busy rebuilding Singapore."
"Wang Jingwei?"
"Yeah… people still call him a 'Hanjian.'"
"Ambassador Lea?"
"One, he's American. Two, he's kind of gone off the deep end ever since the war started with his whole weirdo pseudo-race war theory."
Marty, what the hell are you talking about?
"Yeah… He wasn't happy about us allying with Japan. And he was pissed when we declared war against Britain."
"Right. So, I'm the only person you trust enough to bounce ideas off of?"
"Pretty much."
"So, what's this about, anyways, Marty?"
"Political capital."
"Come again?"
"Political capital. It's a fancy way of saying 'How much shit we can get away with.' And right now, we're drowning in it."
"Yeah? I mean, we just won a global war, Marty. The KMT is stronger than ever."
"Yeah, that's the thing," he told her. "All of the KMT is stronger than ever."
You just love your lectures, don't you, Marty?
"So the KMT is still the largest party in China with over a supermajority in votes in both houses," she figured. "Because we're in a giant tent that basically encompasses the entirety of the political spectrum besides some fringe and regionalist parties?"
"More or less. The KMT has enough seats in the Assembly to make Putin's United Russia or the Japanese LDP look like posers."
"And with the victory, the KMT's power would be entrenched… both the good and the bad."
"Precisely. Sure, this is Sun's party, but it's also the party of your father, as well."
Shannon groaned. "Don't fucking remind me."
"Sorry. But it's true. The KMT is the party of modernity and technology, but it's also the party of worker suicide, cheap mainland labor, and good old-fashioned corruption."
"Yeah," she told him. "I know."
No shit, I know. I grew up in that world.
There's a reason I left it.
"So," Marty offered, and she knew that tone. Her friend wanted to sell her something, but she didn't know just what it was. "What are you going to do about it?"
"I have some connections to help out whistleblowers." Which was a fancy way of saying that she still had people on the inside whom she'd point in the right direction. "Let's just say that they know where to go."
"No buried bodies?"
"Not yet," she figured, while still figuring out just what he was getting at. "For fuck's sake, Marty, stop with the cryptic stuff. We're on the same side, and you know it."
"Sorry. Force of habit."
"I know," she sighed. "Rachel's the same way. So I'm going to do what I do with her and just ask you up front what this is about."
"I know where all the dead bodies are, Shannon."
"Okay, better. Wait, when you mean 'dead bodies,' you mean that as a metaphor, right?"
"Most of the time. Long story short, I'm sitting on a powder keg of info that would be damaging to a whole lot of influential people if it leaked. Corruption, exploitation, and literal dead bodies."
"How big a barrel are you talking about?"
"Enough to explode damn near most of the KMT or catch them with the shrapnel."
"Including…"
"Yes, including him."
Good.
"I'm in."
"You are? I mean, Rachel told me you would, but I thought I'd have to give you this grand lecture about duty and fucking your dad over."
"Yeah, well, I was already doing that. So, how deep does this go?"
"Well, it's not everyone. Take the military, for example. Sure, there are some generals that are selling guns and ammo to the triads on the black market, but there are just as many who aren't."
"Like Mike, right?"
At least I hope so.
"Mike is an exception, since he literally believes that he will go to Hell if he does corrupt shit and threatened to shoot anyone who hurt innocents. Mostly because of the first thing."
Oh thank goodness.
"He truly is one of a kind, isn't he?"
"Kinda? Sure, he's definitely the only Catholic general in the military, but there are others who are clear of corruption. There's Cai E, who lives up to his legendary reputation of course."
"He's the one who fought Yuan in the Lost History, right?"
"Right. Honestly, the majority of generals are like him: Professionals who have a code of conduct that they follow. Guys like Mike just take it to the extreme."
"So, who's the kind of general who's corrupt? Jiang Jieshi?"
"Actually no. Ever since he learned about his Lost History self, Jiang has stayed as far from politics and corruption as humanly possible out of fear of making the same mistakes."
"Huh. Well, that's an improvement."
"It sure is, Shannon. And that's the good news: Most of the military is pretty clean, all things considered. Turns out not having a warlord era is a good way to keep corrupt assholes out of your ranks."
Because you don't need them.
"So it's mostly politicians and businessmen?"
"Yeah."
"Like who?"
"Well, I can tell you who it isn't," Marty told her. "Sun's pretty clean. Same with Wang Jingwei, of all people."
"Him?"
"Yup. Turns out he's been scared shitless of turning into his Lost History self, so he has been doing everything he can to salvage his reputation with Sun's help."
"I guess that's one way to do it," Shannon figured. "But for all the corrupt politicians and businessmen, how does that work?"
"The usual. Kickbacks, ties to the triads, graft, covering up abuses, and bribery. Same with a lot of businesses, but I guess you can add 'Exploiting cheap mainlander labor and poor working conditions.'"
"So what happens next?"
"I compile it and then send it through the right channels," Marty figured. "People get busted and volun-told to retire, and the KMT and China both end up better-off."
Well, if there was ever a time to purge corrupt members of the government, now was as good a time as any.
"This could destroy the KMT," she warned. "No amount of political capital can save them if the sheer amount of corruption is high enough."
"Then it's a good thing we have rank-choice voting."
"Even if it was designed so KMT factions didn't wipe one another out and lose to the fringe candidates?"
"Especially when it's designed to prevent that, Shannon. God knows we'll need it if they actually do implode.
