‘Time to come clean, Stone,’ declared Carslake. He’d barely closed the door of the cab. ‘What’s all this socialist brotherhood shit with you and Ying Ning? You’re no more an international revolutionary than I am.’
Stone met this with a blank look. It did its job. Carslake was quickly obliged to show his hand. ‘Your interest is weapons,’ said Carslake. ‘Which makes me think your interest out here is the same as mine.’
‘Which is what?’ asked Stone, deadpan again. Carslake had done his research. He was an interesting guy, this Carslake.
‘Come on, man,’ Carslake sneered. ‘These aren’t regular weapons. I’ve been digging around. You saw that horror show in Afghanistan. It’s the tip of the iceberg. There’s a freakin’ conveyor belt of technology coming out of ShinComm, and some of it ain’t for boy scouts. Technology like no one’s seen before, like it landed from Mars.’
Mars? Here we go. Stone readied himself for the alien speech. But Carslake had clearly started his work on ShinComm a long time ago. Even before Junko had confronted Semyonov at that press conference. ‘And where are they doing the work? The research?’ asked Carslake, his gravelly drawl suddenly gone. ‘Answer me that? Where are the labs? You told me you went to the Factory City. No labs there.’
Carslake was asking the same questions as Stone had back in Hong Kong. No wonder he’d jumped at the chance to come along.
‘Perhaps the labs are out there in Sichuan, in the hills,’ said Stone. Deliberately lame.
‘Yeah. And what do you see there? Nothing. Because it’s underground.’ Carslake was talking a mile a minute. ‘And then there’s Semyonov — I mean, question mark. Have you seen that guy? He learns fluent Chinese in three months, completely fluent. Then he writes with both hands at the same time.’
‘It’s a trick. So what?’ said Stone.
Carslake’s eyebrows shot upwards. ‘A trick? It’s not normal, man. You know it and I know it.’
‘No I don’t “know it”,’ said Stone, lying. ‘But what do you think? He’s on holiday from Venus or something?’
‘How should I know?’ shouted Carslake, looking suddenly affronted. He could see Stone was trying to draw him out. ‘I’m just saying. There are some non-human characteristics there. Remember what the chess champion said when the computer beat him for the first time?’
‘Gary Kasparov?’ said Stone. ‘He said it felt like playing against an “alien intelligence”.’
‘That’s right. And that’s what it feels like with Semyonov. Alien. Admit it, Stone. The guy’s a freakin’ billionaire. Twenty-nine years old. So where are the girls, where’s the yacht? And then to cap it all he gives away all his money.’ Carslake made hand gestures for emphasis, like he was handing out hundred dollar bills with a mad look in his eyes. ‘I tell you, Stone. It’s not human.’
‘Is that why they killed him?’ asked Stone. Carslake didn’t know, but Stone bet his ass the American would have a theory.
‘I didn’t say he was killed. I didn’t say he was alien either…’
‘You said both those things in your blog.’
‘Sure. But you can say all sortsa shit online,’ said Carslake. It was a good answer. ‘Let’s just say there was something alien about him. Maybe the Chinese thought the same and they killed him. That’s what we all think, isn’t it? They took his money and killed him. But, whatever. The cool thing is, the Machine is still there, and only Semyonov knew anything about it.’
‘So you think the Machine is real?’
‘Why else was Semyonov in China — at all? Semyonov was a very smart guy. He was looking for new things. Maybe China has made a discovery so gigantic, and they wanted Semyonov to help make sense of it. To exploit what’s there, to get at the technology and make it work. I get the feeling… we ain’t seen nothing yet.’
Stone looked back at the American, who stopped talking for the first time in twenty minutes. The driver glanced at them in his rear view mirror. You had to hope the guy didn’t speak English. ‘The Machine. What do you think it is?’ asked Stone, playing him along.
The wild look in Carslake’s eye came back. ‘I don’t know. That’s why I’m here in China. And that’s the reason you’re here too,’ said Carslake, but he couldn’t help blurting his opinion. ‘OK. Something is found buried in a remote part of China. Something ancient and weird.’ Stone thought of the gravitational anomaly. ‘The Chinese, being the people they are,’ said Carslake, ‘Want to take advantage of the discovery. They don’t bother about making an announcement. After all, they've been working at that site since the Sixties.’
‘That was the middle of the Cultural Revolution,’ said Stone.
‘When all kinds of crazy shit were happening. If you were a Chinese scientist here in 1968, you’d keep your mouth shut. You’d probably seal up what you’d found to protect it from the mob. Anyhow,’ said Carslake. ‘Thirty years later, China becomes a peaceful and prosperous place, and someone reopens the cave or whatever. They work away to understand what they’ve discovered, possibly for years. And what do they get?’ Carslake looked at Stone rhetorically. ‘They get nada. Finally someone…’
‘You mean Robert Oyang?’
‘…Brings in Semyonov,’ said Carslake. ‘A man of unique intelligence and creativity, to help crack the writing, or the technology, or whatever. Semyonov sees straightaway that this is mankind’s biggest ever discovery. Sells up everything, putting his whole fortune into the project. The Chinese regime insists he lives in China, and he has to give up his money…’
Those were exactly the two conditions Oyang had described. The “down payment”.
‘But someone in power loses his nerve,’ Carslake said. ‘They should never have told Semyonov about the Machine, and they kill him.’
Give Carslake credit. He’d tried hard not to mention the extra-terrestrial element, and apart from that, his theories had a certain logic. Stone knew they also had a lot of holes.
As the car pulled up, Carslake said, ‘This is the Fedex office, my friend. There’s some stuff waiting for me that we’re gonna need when we leave for the monastery. It’s going to show exactly what they have hidden under that mountain. Then we’ll know for sure.’
Perfect. Carslake had hired the equipment in LA and had it sent over. Was even talking like it was his own idea.
Stone stayed back while the figure in leather jacket and bandana disappeared into the office. Let Carslake go into the Fedex office alone. The Chinese customs could well have taken a special interest in that package, and if Carslake was going to be arrested picking it up, he may as well be alone.