Pax Robotica: Genesis (Part 6; The End)

“David and I drove to Guangdong Province on the South China Sea Coast the next morning. We didn’t have too much trouble locating a modest house in a rural area. We parked the car, checked our silenced pistols, walked to, and then entered the house surreptitiously. Once we got inside, a sickly looking old man greeted us, ‘Hello, may I help you?’

“He looked at David and said, ‘I know who you are and I know why you are here. You look exactly like him. There’s something you need to know before you kill me.’

“Before either of us could respond, he said, ‘I warned him many times but he would not heed my warnings.’

“The old man began to sob, ‘He was like a father to me. No, more than that, he was the only one who had ever shown me kindness, the only one who believed I could be more than a simple, ignorant peasant. He had been teaching me how to read and write in secret before I joined the army because my own father would have beaten me to death if he found out I had been learning. Petty, ignorant, insecure men did not want their sons to know more than they did.’

“‘When I realized where the Cultural Revolution was going I urged your grandfather to leave Beijing, but he refused. His dignity was at stake.’

“With a trembling hand the old man opened his living room’s cabinet and handed David an old, thin envelop. In it were a picture of a kindly, dignified old man, which David instantly recognized as his grandfather, and an old letter, whose writing David also recognized as his grandfather’s. It read, ‘Thank you, An, for your repeated concerns about my safety, but I cannot leave my ancestral home at the first signs of danger. Even now, in this dangerous phase of our nation’s history, I still believe in the goodness of the people of China. I do not believe any danger will come my way. Please take care of yourself, stay true to who you are and do not let the current turmoil destroy your innate goodness. I look forward to the day I can teach you again, in the open.’

“The old man said, ‘Your grandfather was a very stubborn man. He believed in the human goodness until the end. I risked my own life to warn him the night before, but he wouldn’t leave. So I joined the mob in an effort to steer it away from him, but I couldn’t. When I realized that the mob was going to beat him to death, I had to shoot him; it was the only way I could save him from a prolonged, painful death.’

“The old man cared not about our presence. He sobbed louder and then he wailed. When he stopped, he continued, ‘I was determined to exact vengeance on those responsible for his death. I shouted out the name of the man who had suggested that we go after your grandfather. When the mob agreed with me, I beat him savagely, until every bone in his body was broken, and then left him to die an agonizingly slow death. Over the next ten years, as I rose through the ranks, I lied and plotted and personally tortured and killed everyone involved in your grandfather’s death. That’s how I acquired my name, the Butcher of Beijing.’

“David simply said, ‘I believe you,’ and left. He didn’t forget his end of the bargain. He drove me all the way to Hanoi, Vietnam.

 “Two weeks later I found myself leaping from the PAC-750XL skydiving aircraft that had flown from Hanoi to Hong Kong stealthily. Once I had fallen two hundred yards from the skydiving aircraft I assumed a crouching position on my winged board. My arms hugged my front knee, and I leaned my body forward, tipping the front of my board slightly downward, toward a yacht twenty five miles away.”

The young woman reached out and touched Bane again. But this time he was ready. I could tell that he was willing himself to stay steady. The touch lasted for more than two minutes and he perspired profusely. We just sat there dumbfounded, not knowing what to do.

When she withdrew her hand, he wiped himself with his handkerchief and then continued, “Four other team members from the Special Diplomatic Service, newly recruited by Billy Wayne while I was in Hong Kong with my blessing, and with whom I had trained for ten days in Vietnam’s Ha Long Bay, followed likewise. Together we descended toward the target of our first mission. Frigid air blasted over the lower, uncovered parts of our faces, sending the chills deep inside our otherwise well insulated bodies.

“Our team of five, appearing as five little grey dots that blended almost completely into the early dawn’s sky, glided swiftly across the distance toward the yacht. Each of us mentally rehearsed his role in the attack as we approached our target.

“Our target on the yacht was Dong Shen, the chairman of Sino Strategic Holdings, the natural resources investment arm of China’s huge sovereign wealth fund. He was responsible for buying and developing huge farms in Africa, Asia, and Latin America; oil, gas, and other forms of hydrocarbons in the Middle East, Latin America, Central Asia, the Caucasus region, and Russia itself; rare earths and other critical minerals for high tech industries in several countries around the world. In short, Dong Shen’s job was to make sure that China had what it needed to sustain itself economically, and therefore politically.

“Dong Shen was the most powerful man in China outside of the politburo. His day-to-day investment decisions affected the lives of ordinary Chinese citizens and the functioning of the Chinese economy, which in turn determined China’s political stability and the fates of its elites. Dong Shen felt the power--and the burdens--of his position every waking moment of his life.

“Dong Shen was a workaholic by nature. He woke up at four every morning, did half an hour of Tai Chi, took a cold shower, had breakfast, and then sat down to work. That day was no different, as I learned later from the security cameras.

“Dong Shen’s first order of business was to power up his secured laptop to check commodity prices of grains, oil, gas, and precious and critical metals. Then he moved on to checking political and diplomatic developments around the world, especially in places he had his investments, which these days meant practically the whole planet. Next he checked the weather forecasts. Extreme weather could swing the commodity prices dramatically, potentially causing millions to go hungry. Then he checked for news of new environmental degradations, water levels, potential crop failures, and emerging infectious diseases. Any of these could develop into a full-blown international crisis in a blink of an eye, and Dong Shen did not want any to interfere with the one he’d been planning.

“Satisfied that there wasn’t going to be any, Dong Shen took out his secured mobile phone, punched in numbers, and began issuing orders to his subordinates around the world. I knew full well that those orders were meant to push the United States of America a little closer to collapse.

“Dong Shen allowed himself to look up at the beautiful early dawn’s sky.

“At that exact moment I stood up on my board when it had descended to thirty yards above the sea water. I brought the front of the board up until it was completely level. When I was a hundred and fifty yards from my target I withdrew the Walther P99 pistol strapped to my right thigh, held it with both hands, and then began firing at the guards on the yacht’s deck as I continued gliding toward it. The guards crumbled as the bullets hit them.

“A hundred and twenty yards later I leaned to the right and made a U-turn. The manoeuvre slowed the board down and brought it practically on top of the yacht. I pressed the release button to free my feet from the board and jumped down onto the yacht’s deck.

“I landed ten feet or so in front of my target. I raised my gun and pointed at him. A bodyguard burst through the door and karate-chopped my gun holding hand, dropping the weapon onto the deck. He swung his other hand at my left temple. I raised my left hand to block the attacker’s blow, and then grabbed his wrist and yanked it leftward. At the same time I stepped my right foot forward, just behind the attacker’s back and swung my right hand in a small arc, connecting the attacker’s chest.

“The impact lifted the attacker off his feet, drove him through the air, and then dropped him on his back on the deck. I drew the other Walther P99 strapped to my left thigh and shot the attacker twice in his forehead. His body immediately went limp. Meanwhile my four teammates had landed. Guns drawn, they took up positions just in case another guard emerged from the doors that led to the deck.

“I turned and took a few steps toward my target and said, ‘I wish you had taken my proposal more seriously, Mr. Shen. Now you have to come with us and help us undo the damage you’ve done or we’ll find our countries at war,’ I motioned him to come closer.

“Then I noticed a subtle change in Dong Shen’s face, it had become more hopeful. Instinctively I turned around, just in time to see a pistol being raised by one of the guards I had shot. I dived to the floor as he fired. The bullet hit Dong Shen in his forehead. I rolled and shot the guard twice, killing him this time.

“Dong Shen’s death complicated things significantly for us. We’d have to figure out what he had done and how to minimize the damage. So we spent the next forty-five minutes collecting Dong Shen’s computers, mobile phones, and other gadgets along with the yacht’s security system. We loaded everything onto our boat when it arrived, rigged the yacht with explosives, jumped onto our boat, and headed toward Vietnam.

“We uploaded the contents of Dong Shen’s devices to Billy Wayne’s network for analysis. It turned out the Dong Shen had given his protégés full discretion of how to manipulate the financial markets in order to bring America down, which meant that we had to track these operatives down one by one and eliminate them before they inflicted further damages to the United States of America, because we did not have enough time to undo the damages they’d done. I became a full-pledged assassin in the process.

 “For the next several months, amidst rising tension between the US and China, we tracked them down, from Hong Kong to Shanghai, from Macau to Singapore, from Seoul to Tokyo, from New York to London, from Amsterdam to Frankfurt, and killed them all, one by one. The methods of killing were as varied as the locations themselves, but they were made to appear as everything from car accidents to drug overdose to attempted robberies gone wrong to suicides to terrorist bombing to random acts of violence.”

While Bane was telling the story, his eyes discretely glanced at the armed security guard who was approaching our table.

“I returned to Boston an exhausted, changed man after the last assassination. Billy Wayne and Sophia were waiting for me at the airport and drove me to my apartment.

“Once we had stepped into my apartment Billy Wayne closed the door. Sophia casually picked up an iron crowbar placed on my coffee table and bent it into a welcome home ribbon in front of my eyes.

“‘That’s right, she’s a robot. The real Miss Song is now our guest,’ Billy Wayne said, ‘We were very disappointed with you and we have determined that you are as much a liability as an asset for the United States of America, and therefore we have decided to place you under our counsel.

“‘You’re to be accompanied by this version of Miss Song at all time. She is well versed in the art of love-making and she will fulfil your every need; you won’t find her different from the real Miss Song, not that I can attest to that personally, I assure you. However, she is mainly your counsellor whose chief function is to remind you to control your reckless impulses, impulses that might create international crises that harm the interests of the United States.

“‘Both the President and I decided this course of action after we had reviewed the extensive list of your reckless behaviors; he was all ears after receiving a large campaign contribution from Wayne Consulting, of course. You are to continue your life as before, but your actions will be reviewed in real-time and Miss Song will take appropriate actions should it become necessary. In due time, with you as a live subject, we shall be able to develop a model of impulsive behaviors of the world’s elite and provide them counsellors to help steer their actions to benefit all of mankind. Professor Bane, she is a very capable woman and I advise you to taker her counsels very seriously.’”

With that Bane grabbed a pistol from a security guard who just got within his reach, yanked it from the holster. The young woman immediately sprang to her feet to respond, but it was too late. He shot her twice in her forehead. She fell back down to her chair. An instant later she rose back up to her feet and leaped for him. He emptied the gun on her face and she fell down again. There was no blood; all I could see were glimpses of the metal skull through the holes that the bullets had torn in her face.