Li Jin’s rented van sped along the dirt road creating dust clouds in its wake. It was dark and the deserted winding road was full of pot holes and barely visible in the dim glare of the headlights. Li Jin was driving while Lao Zhou, the headman of his remote Shaanxi village, stared straight ahead, his brow furrowed with concern. In the back of the van, the supplies he had purchased in Xian. Before that, he had paid a visit to a bank in the walled city and bombarded the young teller with a bewildering array of financial instructions. It had already been dark when Li Jin had driven up to the village and woken the headman up. Lao Zhou had been happy to see him after an absence of more than two years but his elation had quickly transformed into concern when he had seen the van and the supplies stacked in the back.

Li Jin had simply thrust a thick wad of New China Yuan in the old man’s hands and explained to him what he needed done. The headman did not understand what Li Jin was asking and he didn’t like what he was hearing one bit. Where had Li Jin gotten all the money from and what was this elaborate scheme all about? Was he in trouble with the authorities? Li Jin’s instructions were even more confusing? He was going to spend several weeks in a computer and the old man was supposed to keep an eye on him and watch numbers on another computer. If he saw something blinking in red or his cell phone went off with a computerized voice saying “Critical Condition”, he was to get in the van, pick Li Jin up and take him to the hospital. All this stuff about computers. The old man did not understand what he was being asked to do.

Whatever the boy was up to, Lao Zhou smelled a rat. Yet, Li Jin was the village’s golden boy and could do no wrong. If he was in trouble, Lao Zhou promised himself that he would do all he could to help him. And the money, several years of income worth, would help the village. He would build a new school, repair the village roads and maybe build himself a new brick house. And Li Jin had promised more money, wired automatically into his account at the Agriculture Bank in Yulin city at weekly intervals. What if the money was dirty?

Li Jin wanted a place to hide out, somewhere remote with no chance of being found and Lao Zhou knew just the place, a deserted cave dwelling high in the mountains that still had electricity and was covered by the provincial wireless and broadband networks. Yet Li Jin had insisted that he didn’t need electricity. He had bought his own mini generator with him. There was a small stretcher at the back of the van, and what looked like medical supplies. Every few minutes, Lao Zhou would turn around and look at the boxes swaying in the back of the van. What on earth was the boy up to? Li Jin looked over at the old man and tried to put his mind at ease.

“Don’t worry Lao Zhou. This is all completely safe. It’s a project related to the stuff that I was studying at Tsinghua,” he explained.

“If you say so. But understand it from my point of view. You turn up in the middle of the night after almost two years away with all this cash and ask me to do this? And you seem to be in this great hurry. I don’t understand it.”

“I will explain it to you afterwards. It’s just a couple of weeks.”

“OK, if you say so. Go off the road here,” the old man instructed reluctantly. Li Jin took a left turn and the van’s wheels spun as he negotiated the vehicle over rough terrain. It was almost impossible to see clearly in the night and one wrong turning could plunge them into a steep ravine.

They were about fifty kilometers outside the city of Yulin, a fortified garrison town during the Ming Dynasty that had served a section of the Great Wall. This was where the Loess Plateau met Inner Mongolia’s Mu Us Desert, a mountainous expanse of yellow earth and sand that stretched for as far as the eye could see. On the way they had passed several of the old Great Wall beacons scattered across the deserted landscape, their adjoining sections long eroded by sand, water and the relentless passage of time.

A few decades previously, enterprising villagers had ransacked the Great Wall, using its pounded earth and bricks to build dwellings. All that was left was shattered fragments of a great history that had all but disappeared. The discovery of natural gas and oil nearby had seen the remote villages achieve some semblance of modernity with electricity, communications networks and some running water but that was in the past. The oil exploration corporations had long disappeared, leaving behind nothing but an arid forgotten wasteland.

As Li Jin willed the van up a steep incline he could make out several arched stone doorways carved into the side of a flattened cliff. The wooden doors were worn out but they still seemed to be holding on to their rusted hinges. Lao Zhou signaled that this was the place. Li Jin switched the engine off, groped around the back of the van and found a flashlight. They got out of the car and Li Jin flashed the light at one of the doors.

Lao Zhou took the lead and pushed the door open. Bits of rotting wood fell off the bottom as they walked trough. They were in a rough corridor lined with pounded earth. Some kind of parasitic weed had managed to populate one side of the wall, suggesting water within. They emerged from the corridor into a sunken courtyard surrounded by several rooms. Lao Zhou walked towards one of the rooms and pushed the door open. He groped along the wall for the switch and flicked it on. A single sixty watt bulb hanging from a wire in the cracked ceiling came to life.

In one corner of the room was a large Kang, or heated platform, made of unbaked clay. There were a few old pots and pans to one side of the room and some shelves made of rough wood. A heap of what looked like explosives sat in one corner. Despite the plants creeping along the walls and the dust, the room was in very good condition.

“Is that dynamite?” Li Jin asked pointing at the explosives.

“Yes, I will move it. What do you think? This place has been uninhabited for years. The family who used to live here moved to Xian. Their farm was destroyed by encroaching sand dunes in one single day.”

“This is perfect, Lao Zhou. Thank you.”

“OK I will help you move the things in the van,” Lao Zhou said, heading back the way they came in.

“Thanks.”

Li Jin followed the old man. This was the perfect place, safe from prying eyes. Yet, Li Jin wondered whether his old guardian could be trusted. There was too much new information here for the old man to keep to himself.

“Lao Zhou, you won’t tell anyone about this, right?”

“Why would I do that Li Jin? As far as I am concerned I haven’t seen you for two years. I just hope you are not in trouble.”

“I am not in trouble. I promise you,” Li Jin lied.

“OK. That’s the end of it then.”

Twenty minutes later, the equipment and the boxes had been moved into the room. Li Jin had the generator going and the equipment was all hooked up, including two uninterrupted power supply units, a generic console, Professor Yao’s backdoor rig and a cheap fuel cell battery for backup. Lao Zhou took in all this equipment like a farmer from a remote province visiting a large city for the first time. It was only when Li Jin started stringing the IV units, drips and pumps to an aluminum arm next to the Kang that the old man’s eyes took on that worried look again.

“What are those for?” Lao Zhou asked pointing at the intravenous drips.

“Those are to keep me fed when I am inside the computer. It means you’ll only need to come once every few days to see how I am doing. This screen will show you my health status. This line and this number show my heart beat.” Li Jin placed one of the sensors against his chest and the number on the monitor started counting up, with a pulsating graphic showing his heart rate.”

“OK I have seen that in the hospital before. What about when you need to poop or pee?” Lao Zhou asked, scratching his head.

“Yes, it is the same thing as in the hospitals. If I am in any danger, the system will switch of automatically but long before that, you will be notified on your cell. The computer is set up to call you if anything goes wrong. And as for pooping and peeing, I’ll just have to deal with it afterwards.”

“Computers can do that? Call my cell phone?” the old man asked in disbelief, an image of Li Jin dying in his own excrement rising in his head.

“Yes, and much more. This is cutting-edge stuff, that’s why they are paying me so much money to test it. Secretly.”

“OK,” Lao Zhou said limply.

The old man watched as Li Jin applied the sensors and lay down on the Kang. Heating elements had been positioned below the Kang and a radiator had been placed at the far corner of one room.

“So you remember the procedure, Lao Zhou?”

“Yes, I am to come back every two or three days, check the screen to see whether this line is like that and these numbers are about the same as the numbers you wrote down on that piece of paper. Next I am to check this pump to make sure that that red light is not on. If the light is green then all is well. Then I am to add more fuel to the generator, make sure it is full every time. If everything is OK, then I leave. If something is wrong or I receive that phone call I am to drive you to Dr. Yu’s clinic in Yulin City.”

“Excellent. Thank you again. I will explain all this when it’s over. Lao Zhou, I owe my life to you. I will never forget that. I am placing it in your hands again.”

“Don’t mention it. You are not a stranger.”

“OK. I am going to go into the computer now,” Li Jin said picking up the goggles and the glasses. Lao Zhou saw the flicker of light from within the goggles’ display and wondered what that was. He could swear he saw buildings, skyscrapers like those they had in Shanghai. He watched as Li Jin took the end of one of the catheter and removed the needle from its plastic sheath. Lao Zhou watched mesmerized as Li Jin tapped at the hollow just below his collar bone and inserted the needle, wincing at the pain. Satisfied with the insertion of the needle, Li Jin made himself comfortable on the Kang and donned the goggles. Lao Zhou thought he saw fear in Li Jin’s eyes as he slid the gloves onto his hands. His eyes traced the wires that disappeared from the gloves into the green plastic box that Li Jin had covered with polystyrene to make it somewhat waterproof.

“Goodbye Lao Zhou and see you soon.”

“Goodbye.” Lao Zhou said as tears welled up in his eyes. What was Li Jin doing to himself and why? Li Jin settled on to the Kang and Lao Zhou watched as the boy’s gloved hands started moving around making weird signs in the air. The old man was sure that he just saw Li Jin open a door but how was that possible? He stood watching for a few minutes. The numbers on the monitor seemed fine. He removed the piece of paper from the pocket of his navy Mao jacket and checked the numbers. Yes, it was all fine. He started moving the explosives to the yard outside. When he was done he picked up Li Jin’s flashlight and headed towards the door. Lao Zhou turned around and looked at the boy he had helped raise lying comatose on the Kang. Below the Kang was the glow of the heating elements. The old man shook his head, sighed and disappeared into the courtyard, closing the wooden doors behind him.