China Miéville: King Rat

‘If we’re both lucky that’s the last we’ll hear of each other.’

‘Good luck, Crowley.’

He hung up.

Tell me about your father, Crowley had suggested, all those weeks ago. Ah, Crowley, thought Saul, that’s just what I can’t do.

You wouldn’t understand.

He walked into the dark streets, heading for home.

Deep under London, in a rough chamber off a tube line abandoned for fifty years, accessible from the sewers and the pipes of a hundred buildings, Saul told the rats the story of the Great Battle.

They were spellbound. They ringed him in concentric circles, rats from all over London, here a survivor of that night, licking her scars ostentatiously, another boasting of his exploits, others chattering in agreement. It was dry and not too cold. There were piles of food for everyone. Saul lay in the centre and told his story, showing off his healing wounds.

Saul told the assembled company about King Rat’s Betrayal, when he had abased himself in the dirt and offered the life of every rat in London if only the Piper would spare him. Saul told the story of how he himself had heard the cries of the dying and had broken the Piper’s spell, shoved him into a void with his infernal pipe embedded in him, and he told them how he had stamped on King Rat in contempt as he did so.

The rats listened and bobbed their little heads.

Saul warned the rats to be vigilant, to keep a watch for the Piper, and to avoid the lies and seductions of the Great Betrayer, King Rat.

‘He’s still in the sewers,’ warned Saul. ‘He’s on the roofs, he’s all around us, and he’ll try to win you over, he’ll tell you lies and beg you to follow him.’

The rats listened intently. They would not fail.

When Saul had finished the story, he sat up on his haunches and looked into the ring of faces. Row upon row of anxious eyes, gazing at him, demanding that he command them. They oppressed him.

There was so much that Saul wanted to do. He had a letter to Fabian in his pocket. Fabian would be leaving hospital soon and he would find it waiting for him, some tentative overtures, hints at explanation g and a promise to contact him when things had calmed down.

Saul wanted to find a permanent base. There was an empty tower in Haringey he wanted to investigate.

There was shopping that needed doing. He had his eye on a very flash Apple Mac portable computer. Leaving the human world behind certainly made things easier as far as money was concerned.

But he could not operate like that as long as the rats hung on his every word, followed him everywhere, desperate to do his bidding. His revenge on King Rat had trapped him with endless ranks of adoring followers from whom he was eager to escape. And there was always the chance that the rats might start listening to King Rat. He was out there, skulking, plotting, destroying. Saul had to ensure that his revenge would last.

He had to change the rules.

‘You should all be proud of yourselves,’ he said. ‘The nation scored a great triumph.’

The gathering basked.

‘It’s a new dawn for the rats,’ he said. ‘It’s time the rats realized their strength.’

Excitement swept the assembly. What announcement was this ?

‘And it’s for that reason that I abdicate.’

Panic! The rats ran from side to side, beseeched him. Lead us, they said to him with eyes and screeches and claws, take us.

‘Listen to me! Why don’t I quibble with King Rat’s right to that name? Listen to me! I abdicate because the rats deserve better than a King. The dogs have their Queen, the cats their King, the spiders will throw up another sovereign, all the nations fawn before leaders, but let me tell you all… I couldn’t have defeated the Piper without you. You don’t need champions. It’s time for a revolution.’

Saul thought of his father, his fervent arguments, his books, his commitment. This one’s for you, Dad, he thought wryly.

‘It’s time for a revolution. You were led by a monarch for years, and he brought you to disaster. Then years of anarchy, fear, searching for a new ruler, the fear isolating you all so you didn’t have faith in your nation.’ A frisson passed momentarily up and down Saul’s back. He was suddenly alarmed. Jesus, he thought, I wonder what I’m unleashing. But it was too late to stop and he plunged on. He felt like an agent of history.

‘So now you know what you can do, the rats will never kow-tow to the whims of kings again. I do not abdicate in favour of another.’ Saul paused theatrically.

‘I declare this Year One of the Rat Republic.’

Pandemonium. Rats tearing around the room, terrified, excited, liberated, aghast. And above the hubbub and confusion, Saul’s voice continued, his speech nearly at an end.

‘All equal, all working together, respect going to those who deserve it, not just those who claim it… Liberty, Equality… and let’s put the "rat" back into "Fraternity",’ he concluded with a grin. This way, he thought, maybe I can get a bit of peace.

He raised his voice over the clamour.

‘I’m not Prince Rat, I’m not King Rat… Let the Betrayer cling to his outmoded title if he wants, pathetically hankering for the past. From now on there are no kings,’ said Saul.

‘I’m just one of you,’ he said.

‘I’m Citizen Rat.’

Alone again.

I’ve done this before.

You can’t keep me down.

Watch your back, Sonny.

I’m the one that’s always there. I’m the one that sticks. I’m the dispossessed, I’ll be back again. I’m why you can’t sleep easy in your bed. I’m the one that taught you everything you know, I’ve got more tricks up my sleeve. I’m the tenacious one, the one that locks my teeth, that won’t give up, that can’t ever let go.

I’m the survivor.

I’m King Rat.