Normally, Alex could look at an historical building and—based on its designs, construction material, and countless other details lost to the average individual—know the building’s origins and often events of note that had taken place there in the past. Such were the extrapolative abilities of Alex’s flawless memory. And the history of manmade structures was something that usually came easy for Alex—something that was far easier than reading people. But now he was becoming less sure of the details and, therefore, less sure of himself.
The death of his mentor had hit Alex hard, but his friends Yaw, Chris, Camilla, and now Masha, the Russian woman who accompanied his crew home from Trans Dniester, had been supportive. And of course there was Nikki. She had remained at his side throughout his mourning period, and when Alex decided that he wanted to visit Kunchin, the Buddhist monk in Tibet who had helped him in the past, it was important to Alex that Nikki meet him.
Nikki’s computer prowess and PHOEBE had made alternative identities and travel arrangements that would go unnoticed by the Coalition relatively easy. So with Yaw and Camilla in charge of both the courier business and training regiment left by Winn, Alex and Nikki once again set off for the Potala Palace in Tibet.
Alex promised his friends he would be back in a month. He hoped that Kunchin would be able to answer his questions. He hoped that the old Monk, with abilities similar to his own, could tell Alex, whose photographic memory had proven nearly infallible in the past, why he was beginning to forget things…
“He has been expecting you,” Chodak, the Buddhist monk and Potala Palace guide said to Alex and Nikki as they entered the enormous monastery in Lhasa. “He knows that you will have many questions.”
Choden, Chodak’s brother, smiled and nodded to both Nikki and Alex, pointing the way.
“This place is beautiful,” Nikki said to Alex, awe in her voice as they made their way through the hand-painted, Sutra-covered hallways and past the golden statues that filled the multiple prayer rooms in the temple, often with only candles lighting the way.
The Byzantine array of halls, temples, libraries, galleries, and narrow hallways were dizzying.
“You’re sure you can find our way back, right?” Nikki whispered to Alex.
Alex smiled. “I’ll do my best,” he answered. “And besides, we have them.” Alex pointed to the brothers, Chodak and Choden, as they scurried through the hallway ahead.
“Is Kunchin in some sort of throne room?
“No. Underneath all of this beauty,” Alex began, “is just a cave.”
“Fear is the enemy,” Kunchin said. “It is always the enemy,” the eighty-year old monk continued as he stoked the fire of the wood stove at the center of the Dharma King Cave.
Nikki’s jaw was on the floor. Underneath the enormity of the Potala Palace, which was the world’s largest and richest Buddhist monastery, was nothing but a simple cave, with smooth, uneven walls carved into the rock, and holes in the stone decorated with small statues and Buddhist carvings.
In the center of it all was a metal folding chair across from a small cast-iron stove, with a small elderly man in its attendance.
“Fear has the ability to rearrange events,” Kunchin continued as he stoked the fire one last time. “Fear has the ability to rewrite the past. It has the ability to alter the entire timeline—past, present, and future,” the old Monk continued.
Satisfied with the glow of embers, he used a metal poker to shut the small door of the stove.
He then turned to both Alex and Nikki. “But so does love. The choice between the two is yours to make.”
“I’m starting to…forget things,” Alex said to the Monk. “In my memory. Some of the details go missing. In the stories I see in others.”
Nikki looked at Alex in shock. He had never said a word of this to her. Never even hinted at it.
“This is not unexpected,” the elderly monk answered Alex. “This is the challenge of the universe, to stay resolute. This is why things must always renew. This is why all we do is clear the path for those who follow. It is the very purpose of the impermanence of all things.”
Kunchin turned his attention to Nikki a moment, eyes locking with hers, before looking back to Alex. “It’s the suffering caused by fear that affects you.”
“But I’m not afraid.”
“Perhaps, but most of the world still is. And as one who sees the patterns of this world, it is impossible to remain unaffected by that burden.” Kunchin steadied himself against the rock wall before continuing. “The suffering caused by fear is relentless. The human condition is not. Without discipline and rigorous practice, we soon become inseparable from the influence of our surroundings. And if those surroundings are filled with suffering and fear, the soul detaches from reality. It creates its own narrative. It forgets things by design in order to survive. That is the exhaustive power of fear. Fear consumes much and gives nothing in return. It suppresses the memory and makes destiny seem chaotic, and not the result of cause and effect. That is why fear is the root of all suffering.”
“Is that why you live in a cave? To isolate yourself from a fearful world?”
For the first time, Kunchin smiled. It was a near toothless smile. “In my time, I did what was asked of me. No different than you are doing now. But I am not as strong as you. Nor am I as gifted. But in my time, it was enough. Your time requires your strength and your gifts. And the next generation will require greater strength and gifts than yours. The universe always provides balance.”
“I don’t feel very strong. Or very gifted.”
“Again, choice. When you first went to Mawith in the desert, you ran from your responsibility to others. Then you learned to love. And you no longer ran. When you came to me, you ran from yourself. Then you learned about selflessness. And then you no longer ran from your own power. Your recent travels and losses had much to show you about Karma, did they not?”
“I lost my best friend.”
“And in that pain you let fear encroach. But did he not show you the power of love over fear? Did he not show you the power of choice? Of selflessness defined by his connection to others? Of the recognition and acceptance of Karma? Do you not fight on, with what he started, in his name? In you, is not the battle renewed?”
“But it just doesn’t end. The suffering,” Alex, said, exasperated. He looked at the old man. He took note that the monk labored to breathe. The man’s posture and frail movements alone showed Alex that Kunchin did not have long in this world. Still, the old man’s eyes remained bright and clear.
“And this is why you forget. You are not a moral compass for the entire world at once, Alex, you are only a compass for those you meet, in the time that you meet them. You have been put here to guide, but only for a short time. You allow people to choose. And over time, others will provide a compass, with the hope being that in the end, all will choose. And how do you know the suffering does not end? Not even you can see that far.”
“I don’t…I don’t want to do this anymore.”
“And yet you fear losing the ability to see. Do you understand the purpose of the paradox?”
“No.”
“Those best suited for power are by design ill at ease with such power. In a universe designed by balance, it is the only way that it can be. You’ve seen the opposite of that, have you not? Those who lust for power are most often the least deserving. It is the acceptance of your paradox that is your final burden.”
“But what do I do?”
“Stay in the moment, and trust your training, then, there is nothing to remember. There are only events to observe. Events are cyclical. They transcend the definition of time and create “Samsara” in the old definitions, or “patterns,” as you have called them. This realization must be done, again and again, generation after generation, until all are enlightened. Do you not yet see that it is the cycle itself that gives you your power? The need for balance created you, and thus you were created. Only when one is given the ability to choose, ca
n one break Samsara. But it is still a choice. Once you accept this, your memory will not falter. Only then, can you go back to the beginning.”
“Go back to the beginning?”
“Rest your warrior’s sword and become a farmer.”
“A farmer? I’m not a farmer. I never have been. That’s not me.”
“But it is.”
“I don’t understand.”
“What does a farmer do? A farmer plants seeds and tends to them. A farmer understands that he is part of the cycle of life, and not separate from it. And he is certainly not above it. Do not stop planting seeds, Alex, wherever you go. Do not stop tending to them. Make everyone you meet see his or her true self. That is your gift. Plant these seeds and nurture them. And before long, a beautiful garden will grow, one that can be tended to by new gardeners for generations to come.
“And when things seem hopeless, when you must overcome those who would challenge your cause, remember it is in the effort to help others that we save ourselves. It is the effort that is handed down from one generation to the next. It is the effort that binds us. That is why you cannot and will not fail, no matter how much seems lost. In the end, it is these efforts in totality that create the momentum.”
“That doesn’t help me remember the things I’ve forgotten.”
“Once again, choice. And when your time is done, there will be another. In your heart, you know this already. That is also part of the momentum. This is all that I have for you. But then that is not the only reason why you are really here. You are also here because of her.” Kunchin then turned his attention back to Nikki.
The abrupt turn of energy in her direction made her take a step back.
“And you. Do you understand why you are here?” Kunchin asked her.
“What? Me? No, I…” Nikki felt her face get hot.
“It is not for you to simply meet an old monk, or for you to bear witness to your lover’s journey. It is no accident that you and Alex have become one. You’ve felt it in your heart from the moment he interrupted the patterns of your destiny and allowed you to see new choices.
“You are not here for him today. You are a mystic as well, but one of a different world. A new world. And you’ve unleashed something in that world that will affect this one, something far more powerful than any of the old magic or religion. Something far more powerful than anything that either Alex or I can do. And it will take what you both bring to this world to guide it. Guided correctly, it will elevate mankind. Incorrectly, it will be the end for us all.”
4
Phoebe
Nikki made sure that Alex was still asleep before she gently rose from their bed, moved to the second bedroom, and sat in front of the array of high definition screens that were the primary connection to her online creation, PHOEBE. She had acknowledged that the program had long ago grown beyond her original design intent, which was to find patterns in large data sets in order to predict macro trends.
When she set about creating PHOEBE as a student at M.I.T., her original goal for the program’s purpose was altruistic— she believed PHOEB’s prognostic abilities could prove invaluable in the search for everything from cancer cures, to drought patterns, and pandemic containment. As with all dreams and ideals, its beginnings were perfect. And as with all dreams and ideals, the potential for corruption always lay in wait, like a lion in the weeds.
When Nikki chose to work for the commodities trading firm Kittner-Kusch, she had been sold on the idea that her altruistic vision of making the world a better place could be best realized through using PHOEBE’s abilities in the world of energy. It was a self-serving delusion—Nikki had made enormous amounts of money and lived an envious lifestyle available only to a select few in this world.
That all changed for Nikki when children died over oil and money and no one cared. The bombing of a refinery that PHOEBE failed to predict had caused a catastrophic loss of life, and her boss and then boyfriend and his partners were only concerned with how it affected their bottom line. Nikki was devastated. In many ways, she felt responsible. The mission creep of her dream had drifted too far off course. She quit the energy business and moved to Los Angeles, unmoored and at a total loss. And then Alex Luthecker saved her life—in more ways than one.
In her training with Winn and then Alex, Nikki found her true self, which circled back to the original dream—using her talents to make the world a better place. And in the process, Nikki had recalibrated PHOEBE to do the same. Or at least that’s what Nikki had believed.
Nikki took a deep breath before running through the encrypted password matrix that allowed her to log on to PHOEBE. As she waited for the system to boot up, she thought back to Kunchin’s words in the Dharma King Cave underneath the Potala Palace in Tibet. She knew that the old monk was speaking of PHOEBE. Nikki already knew that PHOEBE had created a language all her own—and done so on her own—a language that the program needed to crack through any firewall or encryption protocol.
She also knew that this language would need to be beyond human comprehension in order to make sense of the massive complexity required to communicate effectively with state-of-the-art encryption technology. And in turn bend the massive global surveillance network to the needs that she required of PHOEBE.
Nikki never saw this as an existential threat. She never considered that developing language was a step human beings took to separate themselves from other species. And now that possibility was beginning to worry her.
The six large high-definition screens, arranged in a half hexagon, abruptly sprang to life in front of Nikki. She spoke the words “local security status” to PHOEBE as a voice command, and all six screens turned into a homogeneous view of the city of Los Angeles, represented only by electronic signals that were created by surveillance technology. It was a high-density, city-shaped web array of neon-red lines, all pulsing with activity as information was moved to and from and around the structures of the city, not unlike blood through the human vascular system. It was a synaptic view of the city’s security, and the constant movement of information made it seem alive, a living organism with the Coalition One Building in downtown Los Angeles being the central brain.
Nikki then spoke the command “family travel history,” and the array of screens abruptly began to change. A series of blacked out streets appeared on the surveillance array, channels of surveillance darkness indicating the family’s movements from LAX through surface streets and on to the apartment complex on Terminal Island in Long Beach where the family now resided.
Other blacked out areas included the Terminal Island apartments where other members of the family currently lived as well as the areas where refugees were kept in hiding until safe transport could be arranged. These safe areas and travel pathways were cloaked zones that PHOEBE had created upon Nikki’s directive. These zones kept Safe Block and the family invisible to the digital world.
In order to do this, PHOEBE had surveillance technology that could track the family’s movements either turned off or misdirected, including law enforcement vehicles and communication. This, along with instant digital identity creation, allowed the group to travel completely unnoticed. It was a new definition of “off grid” that only PHOEBE could create.
Nikki suspected something had gone wrong with her commands to PHOEBE even before Kunchin’s warnings. The first incident happened when she arranged for her and Alex to travel from Tibet to India. Nikki had created IDs and travel documents for the both of them, but when she selected the airline that she and Alex would fly on, PHOEBE not only generated tickets under pseudonyms, the program had also completely shut down a competing airline’s terminal.
The black out of the rival airline had lasted over four hours, just long enough for she and Alex to make the trip. The shutdown of the rival airline had been blamed on computer failure, and Nikki would have never suspected PHOEBE’s involvement had she not checked the program’s activity log when they returned to North America. And she had only chosen to check
it because of Kunchin’s words during their visit to the Dharma King Cave in Tibet.
The implications based on that incident alone had given Nikki pause, but at the time, she held out hope that it was merely a glitch. It was her intention to find out whether it was an anomaly or a systemic problem with PHOEBE now.
Nikki had originally given PHOEBE specific instructions regarding keeping the family safe and to protect itself from Coalition attacks, but within the language she had also given the program specific commands to keep it from breaking laws unnecessarily.
With PHOEBE’s ability to develop a language entirely her own, had she also developed broader interpretations of Nikki’s command set? Had there been mission creep in the program’s assigned functions? Nikki decided to give the program a structural command that would override all the others, a generalized code that she hoped would cap any mission creep on PHOEBE’s part.
“Protect the family, but do no harm.”
Nikki watched the cursor blink for several seconds before all six HD screens began displaying detailed schematics of six brand new high-rise buildings, one on each of the six screens. The buildings were next to one another in a tight cluster and located in downtown Los Angeles.
Nikki recognized the building at the center of the cluster immediately. It was formerly named Coalition Properties West, now named Coalition One, and it was the new worldwide headquarters of the Coalition. But the Coalition headquarters was not the building schematic being displayed on the center screen. PHOEBE wanted Nikki to focus on a different building located northeast of the Coalition One Building. This structure was numbered building four and titled Coalition Assurance on the schematic diagram.
Nikki sat back in her chair. She knew exactly what Coalition Assurance was. It was the Coalition’s private military. And it looked as if Coalition Assurance now had their own high-tech barracks right in the middle of downtown Los Angeles.
Revolution: Luthecker, #3 Page 5
