Hong Kong Young Writers Anthologies Fiction 4-7 2019 | Page 210

Zheng He turned towards him, eyebrows raised in a question.
“A dozen more sailors have fallen ill,” Tang Guan said, his forehead creased in concern.
“Again?” Zheng He asked in surprise. “That’s the second time in three days!”
He suspected there was something going on behind the scenes. His sailors were handpicked from the Royal
Navy. They were the elite of the elite. They didn’t just fall ill without warning. Tang Guan evidently
agreed.
“Sir, I suspect foul play here,” he whispered, lowering his voice so no one nearby could hear, “I think
someone poisoned them.”
Zheng He nodded meditatively, hiding a surge of panic that rose up in him. If someone was sabotaging the
expedition, it would be nigh-impossible to stop. Out at sea, there was no way to escape if anything
happened. But why? Why would anyone try to sabotage the voyage?
The answer came to him in a flash. If the scholar-bureaucrat faction really wanted to stop further voyages
from happening, the best way to go about it was to make sure this one ended in disaster. He gritted his
teeth.
Not if I have anything to say about it.
“I want you to take a dozen of your most trusted soldiers,” he said to Tang Guan. “Tell them to guard our
food and water supply on a strict rota and let no one in. If you capture anyone, bring them to me.”
Tang Guan nodded and retreated. Zheng He turned back towards the sea, trying to calm himself down. It
didn’t quite work. His emotions were still in turmoil. It was very clear how much was at stake here. If
everyone on board was poisoned, it wouldn’t just spell the end of further maritime expeditions. It would
also mean their death.
~
Zheng He rushed into Tang Guan’s room. The lieutenant was currently lying in bed, his face pasty-white.
“How is he?” Zheng He asked.
The doctor frowned. “He’s not doing very well. The illness has symptoms I’ve never seen before. I can only
lessen his pain with medicine and let him recover on his own.”
Zheng He gestured for the doctor to leave, watching him walk out of the door. He waited for a few more
moments before leaning in close to Tang Guan.
“Do you know how you got poisoned?” he asked with his voice lowered.
When the lieutenant spoke, his voice was weak. “I think it must have been in the food or water. Whoever
did this was targeting me specifically.”
Zheng He nodded, but inwardly he was going over the possibilities. The food storage room was under
heavy guard. No one should have been able to enter. Whoever was responsible for the poisonings must have
been a high-ranking official, to be capable of entering the room without being stopped. It couldn’t have
been Tang Guan or himself. And that left…
“The executive officer entered the food supply room yesterday. He said he wanted to check how many days
of food and water we still had left,” Tang said, confirming his suspicions.