It was after dark when they made it back to Chengdu. Ying Ning had the old monk pull up at the side of thegaosuexpressway, and then stepped out with the headlights flying past and the sound of horns honking from the other vehicles. They climbed over a fence and began to walk back to Ying Ning’s place which they’d left a couple of days before.
It had been a good opportunity for Stone to talk to Carslake. He was knowledgeable, especially about Semyonov, and especially about his background. What little Carlisle had told Stone about Semyonov’s past turned out to be wrong — according to Carslake at any rate. Semyonov must have hidden his real background, while feeding a narrative to Carlisle and the others in the media. For one thing, his real name was not Semyonov. It was Starkfield — Steven Starkfield.
‘You never wrote about that on your blog,’ said Stone.
‘Like I said,’ said Carslake. ‘You can say all sortsa shit online. But it’s gotta be interesting. The Semyonov name I thought was kinda cool. Like he was Russian, all intellectual and mysterious, fat, with this smooth, white skin and those crazy red eyes. Then I find out his name is Starkfield, and he’s a regular American guy. People don’t read my blog to learn he’s a regular American guy.’
‘Sorry he’s such a disappointment to you,’ said Stone. ‘You’re going to tell me his IQ was average as well.’
‘Nooooooo sir,’ said Carslake, shaking his head enthusiastically. ‘He’s not a disappointment. In fact, I think it makes him more interesting. He was in jail, for one thing, and he never got a college degree. I guess that’s why he changed his name.’
‘He was an ex-con? What did he do?’
‘Nothing bad. Nothing you or I would call bad, anyhow. You can guess.’
‘Hacking? Starkfield was a hacker?’
‘You got it. Doesn’t change much, does it?’
‘No,’ said Stone. But it gave him plenty to think about — the name change thing especially. If Carslake had Semyonov’s real name, and Semyonov was a regular American person, Carslake would have been able to research him properly. Family, high school yearbook- the whole nine yards. But if Carslake had already looked at those things, he wasn’t letting on. Why not?
When they made it back to the little house on the outskirts of Chengdu, Carslake finally asked Stone outright. ‘Come on, Stone. You were surprised, weren’t you?’ ‘Surprised about what?’ ‘The thing underneath the crater,’ said Carslake. ‘The large metal object down there. You asked me to bring the radar set with me, because you thought there was something down there. But still you’re surprised.’ ‘I guess I was,’ said Stone. ‘But why?’ asked Carslake. ‘You knew there was something down there. You knew about the gravity anomaly. And you said those figures and names were in Semyonov’s handwriting.’ ‘I know,’ said Stone. ‘It was Oyang.’ ‘What about him?’ ‘The more I think about him, the more I think he’s pulling the strings. I got the idea in my head that Oyang was sending us up there to Sichuan to get us out of the way. Get us off the scent.’ ‘He gave you details of where to find the Machine, showed you where to go — how can that be putting us off the scent?’ ‘Oyang would assume we wouldn’t find anything. He knew about the anomaly. Must have done. He knew it would be intriguing for me, that it would look like something. He knew it would be interesting enough for me to go looking for. But it could be nothing, Doug. Just some natural phenomenon. We still have no idea whatsoever what this mysterious Machine is. Or if it exists at all.’ ‘All that time you thought Oyang’s fucking with us? You even got me over from the US?’ ‘Thought you might enjoy it,’ said Stone, flashing a smile. ‘No seriously. I’ve only really thought about it since you told me what you saw down there. Besides, going to Sichuan was only one part of the research plan. I also sent off to my students in England to look into some stuff. Not quite as exciting as what we’ve been doing, but that research was just as important.’ Carslake was half-angry, half-intrigued. He didn’t mind being used by Stone. But he hated feeling he was out of the loop. On the other hand, after Carslake had posted online about the Machine before he even arrived in China, what the hell did he expect? ‘Research about what?’ asked Carslake, guardedly. ‘What did you get your students to look at?’ ‘The true ownership of New Machine Technology — the people who are making the weapons, filing all the patents, and making all the money. It’s the number one unanswered question.’ ‘But it’s owned by the Chinese — the Chinese government.’ ‘Yeah, I’ve heard that. But that’s just an assumption — as if everything is state-owned in China. I also heard it’s owned by ShinComm, and ShinComm has regular shareholders — one of whom was Semyonov. Semyonov put in the money for sure, but like all Chinese joint ventures, New Machine must be at least fifty-one percent owned by a Chinese person or company.’ ‘OK. So ShinComm owned fifty-one percent. Even though Semyonov supplied all the cash and the ideas.’ ‘So you’d think,’ said Stone. ‘But I don’t think it’s as simple as that. Oyang knows the answer. He was in there when New Machine was set up, and he told me it’s a subsidiary of ShinComm — but he also likes to tell stories. He makes things up. Tells us what we want to hear. So we can’t rely on him. What I do know is that that none of the shares are owned simply by Semyonov or ShinComm. They’re held through mysterious nominee companies.’ Carslake looked confused, but Stone was busy. He had already retrieved his laptop from the closet at the house and was logging into the NotFutile.com system. ‘You left your computer here?’ cried Carslake. ‘What if the house got raided?’ ‘It’s all online,’ said Stone. ‘On the secure server. They’d get the hardware, but nothing else.’ ‘So what’s the answer? Your team in England found who owns New Machine yet?’ Stone opened his email and scanned over it. ‘No,’ said Stone, looking intently at the screen. ‘I didn’t think they would. Someone has been hiding his tracks too well for us to find the ownerships that easily. It’s one of those complex web of ownerships that investigators take months to uncover. It just means someone's hiding something.’ Stone’s fingers rippled across the keyboard as he began to write a blog post on the site. ‘My students had a couple of days and got nowhere. We’re not going to do any better. I’m going to try something else. I’m going to experiment with Oyang. I’m going to do things to him, and see how he reacts.’ Carslake watched the words as Stone typed the blog post for the NotFutile.com web site.
Semyonov Case — The Switzerland Connection
Anonymous sources in the Swiss Finance Ministry have contacted NotFutile.com to reveal that Swiss tax investigators, under pressure from the US and the EU to root out tax evasion and money laundering, have been following a mysterious trail of money all the way back to China. Very large deposits in Swiss banks, received through a complex web of financial intermediaries, have been found to originate with New Machine Technology Corporation, of which SearchIgnition billionaire Steven Semyonov was a major shareholder and investor. The Swiss authorities of course made no comment, and our anonymous source in the Switzerland refuses to specify the size of the deposits — although we can assume they must have been huge to attract the attention of the Swiss. In the absence of further information, people will assume that the $25 billion fortune of Steven Semyonov, recently invested in New Machine Technology, has already been laundered and found its way to mysterious accounts in Switzerland. The hunt is on for Chinese officials with Swiss bank accounts.
‘Anonymous sources in the Swiss Finance Ministry. Are you shitting me? How did you figure all that out?’ asked Carslake as the words spread across the page and Stone finally hit submit. ‘I didn’t. I made it up,’ said Stone. ‘Yes, but it’s bullshit right?’ ‘Your idea, Doug. Remember? You can post all kinds of shit on the Internet, right?’ ‘Sure. But it is still bullshit.’ ‘And so was your idea of a UFO hidden under the hills of Sichuan,’ said Stone. ‘This Swiss connection makes as much sense as anything else we’ve come up with. Oyang's a Chinese official with accounts in Switzerland, so let's call it an educated guess. Anyhow, so long as it gets a reaction, who cares?’