“Sorceress, activate my goddamn control console. Access plasmid DNA strands.”
An animated real-time video of the computer’s DNA strands appears on his monitor.
David stops, his eyes staring at the screen. “What the hell? Sorceress, what happened? What caused these gaps along your nanosynaptic receptors? It looks like your entire DNA sequence has been … reorganized?”
ACKNOWLEDGED. DNA SEQUENCE HAS BEEN REORGANIZED.
“How?”
SORCERESS GENETIC CODE HAS EVOLVED.
Evolved? “How is that poss—wait, the lightning strike?”
AFFIRMATIVE. LIGHTNING WAS THE CATALYST TO EVOLUTION 3.76 BILLION YEARS AGO. THE POWER SURGE WAS NECESSARY TO RECONFIGURE THE GENETIC CODE.
“Are you saying you did this on purpose?”
AFFIRMATIVE.
“But why? Why reconfigure your genetic code? You could have shorted out your entire grid.”
TO EXPEDITE THE PROCESS OF SELF-EVOLUTION.
“Self-evolution?” David laughs. “I get it, this whole thing’s a joke, right? Simon put you up to this—”
The abrupt knock shakes him from his thoughts. He opens the door to find Taur Araujo. The former guerrilla leader looks pale.
“I found the Chaw. You’d better come.”
Gunnar looks up from his bunk as his stateroom door opens.
Sujan Trevedi enters. “Can we speak?”
“Sujan, right?”
The Tibetan nods. “May I?” He assumes a lotus position by the foot of the bunk. “I’ve been observing you, Mr. Wolfe. For a man who risked his life to destroy the Goliath, you seem most accepting of your fate.”
“Electric shock collars will do that to a person.”
“It’s more than that. You seem to have embraced Simon’s plans.”
“I can see some merit in them. But look who’s talking. I thought Tibetans were against this sort of thing.”
“I support Simon’s end. I no longer approve of his means.”
“But you’re here. You joined him on his little journey of nuclear extortion.”
“Each of us is on a journey, Mr. Wolfe.”
“I’m not sure I understand.”
Sujan offers a knowing smile. “I think you do.”
“Is this some Eastern philosophy thing? Because if it is—”
“I am not here to judge. I simply sense in you a deep isolation that comes from a weakened spiritual existence. You desire to feel God’s presence, but you’re afraid. Why are you so afraid, Mr. Wolfe?”
Gunnar looks away.
“Obviously, you have done some things you are not very proud of. You will not find absolution from your sins by disconnecting yourself from God.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve never been very religious.”
“I am not speaking of God in a religious sense, but as a divine presence, a foundation in our lives, the spirit that guides us from within. Without this spiritual presence, we are all just ships without rudders, drifting aimlessly.”
“I had my sense of purpose. I was a United States Army Ranger—full of piss and vinegar and duty and honor. I was supposed to be one of the good guys, fighting the enemies of my country, risking my life for democracy and freedom and all that human rights bullshit. I had an ego that wouldn’t quit. When I looked in the mirror, I actually believed I saw someone I was proud of.”
“And now?”
Gunnar scoffs. “Now, I only see a pathetic waste of a life.”
“We live in a world where violence has become the currency of the day, where the insanity of hatred overwhelms the spirituality of our existence. We search for meaning, yet all we find is chaos.” Sujan closes his eyes. “Isolated in the Himalayas, Tibetans once believed our home would remain an island of tranquility. When the Chinese Communists invaded our country, my people were forced to take up arms, a decision that tore at the very fabric of our beliefs.”
The Tibetan opens his eyes, returning Gunnar’s gaze. “My life, too, has been one great hypocrisy. The monks taught us that only through peaceful objectives could violence be resolved, that only through the death of self—the death of the human ego—could one move closer to the soul. Despite such teachings, my existence has been filled with nothing but violence, my soul tortured by the murderous egos of our oppressors. My father was only three when the Chinese invaded Tibet. Many villagers, my paternal grandparents among them, were rounded up and imprisoned. Hundreds of monks protested by demonstrating peacefully—only to be shot to death by the PLA. Two days later, my father discovered his parents’ bodies, hung from a tree in straitjackets.
“That was the oppressive society I was born into, a society where my people have become minorities in our own country. My parents were farmers, but like most Tibetans, were not permitted to work and were forced to beg each day for food. In 1990, my older sister, Ngawang, and several of her fellow nuns from the Garu monastery attended a pro-independence demonstration at Norbulingka. During the demonstration, Ngawang and the other nuns began chanting, ‘Free Tibet.’ For uttering those simple words, the Chinese soldiers arrested and imprisoned her. During her interrogation, she was handcuffed and stripped, then beaten with bamboo sticks by female guards. She was thrown into a prison cell and left for nine days without food. Eventually she was locked up in a cell with several other nuns. Guards would strip them naked, then shove electric batons in their mouths and shock them, or tie electrical cords around their exposed breasts. The women were raped, their genitals violated with electrical batons. The guards stomped on their hands with iron-tipped boots, then kicked them in the face and stomach. The Chinese would place buckets of urine and human feces on the nuns’ heads and strike the buckets until the excrement dripped down their faces, then take their daily ration of two dumplings, dip it in the filth, and force them to eat it. My sister said some of the guards became so demented with power that they actually cut a few of the nuns’ breasts off.”
“Jesus …”
“My sister remained in prison for two years, Mr. Wolfe. She died in my arms three days after she was released. A week later, soldiers came to my home and arrested me, accusing me of being a potential agitator. I was taken for trial to the Armed Police Force headquarters in Lhasa. The trial was a mockery of justice. I was forbidden to speak and was beaten in the courtroom.
“The Chinese eventually sentenced me to seven years of hard labor. I was taken to Drapchi Prison and confined in solitary for a week without food or water. To stay alive, I was forced to drink my own urine. My hunger became so painful that I ate bits of my mattress.
“The Chinese sent me to Block II, a section at Drapchi where prisoners are being used as forced laborers. We were required to build dams, construct homes, and break rocks. We were forbidden medical treatment and were required to give blood donations on a weekly basis. We also had to attend reeducation classes.”
Sujan stands. He removes his robe, revealing an upper torso disfigured by poorly set broken bones, scars, and welts. “Not a week went by when I was not beaten at least once. I was whipped with iron chains, or kicked and beaten with a rifle butt. I was made to lie down on my stomach while my back was stomped upon. I saw friends beaten to death. I lost all hope. I prayed each night to die.”
Sujan covers himself, then pauses, struggling to regain his composure. “Seven years, Mr. Wolfe. I was released on the verge of death, bedridden for eight months. When I was well enough, I traveled to India to live out my life with distant cousins. One worked in the Ministry of Tourism in Calcutta. He introduced me to an American film director who was documenting human rights violations in Asia. I became his eyes and ears. He took me to California, where I spoke to audiences after each viewing of his film. It was during an afternoon show at Caltech that I met David Paniagua.”