w.a.n.g opened the car door and said, "The flickering will stop at five in the morning. I'd suggest you not pursue it after this. Believe me, you won't get anywhere."

Sha stared at w.a.n.g for a long time and then nodded. "I understand. Strange things have been happening to scientists lately...."

"Yes." w.a.n.g ducked into the car. He didn't want to discuss the subject any further.

"Is it our turn?"

"It's my turn, at least." w.a.n.g started the engine.

An hour later, w.a.n.g arrived at the new planetarium and got out of the car. The bright lights of the city penetrated the translucent walls of the immense gla.s.s building and dimly revealed its internal structure. w.a.n.g thought that if the architect had intended to express a feeling about the universe, the design was a success: The more transparent something was, the more mysterious it seemed. The universe itself was transparent; as long as you were sufficiently sharp-eyed, you could see as far as you liked. But the farther you looked, the more mysterious it became.

The sleepy-eyed planetarium staffer was waiting by the door for w.a.n.g. He handed him a small suitcase and said, "There are five pairs of 3K gla.s.ses in here, all fully charged. The left b.u.t.ton switches it on. The right dial is for adjusting brightness. I have a dozen more pairs upstairs. You can look as much as you like, but I'm going to take a nap now in the room over there. This Dr. Sha must be mental." He went into the dim interior of the planetarium.

w.a.n.g opened the suitcase on the backseat of his car and took out a pair of 3K gla.s.ses. It resembled the display inside the panoramic viewing helmet of the V-suit. He put the gla.s.ses on and looked around. The city looked the same as before, only dimmer. Then he remembered that he had to switch them on.

The city turned into many hazy glowing halos. Most were fixed, but a few flickered or moved. He realized that these were sources of radiation in the centimeter range, all now converted to visible light. At the heart of each halo was a radiation source. Because the original wavelengths were so long, it was impossible to see their shapes clearly.

He lifted his head and saw a sky glowing with a faint red light. Just like that, he was seeing the cosmic microwave background.

The red light had come from more than ten billion years ago. It was the remnants of the big bang, the still-warm embers of Creation. He could not see any stars. Normally, since visible light would be compressed to invisible by the gla.s.ses, each star should appear as a black dot. But the diffraction of centimeter-wave radiation overwhelmed all other shapes and details.

Once his eyes had grown used to the sight, w.a.n.g could see that the faint red background was indeed pulsing. The entire sky flickered, as if the universe was but a quivering lamp in the wind.

Standing under the flashing dome of the night sky, w.a.n.g suddenly felt the universe shrink until it was so small that only he was imprisoned in it. The universe was a cramped heart, and the red light that suffused everything was the translucent blood that filled the organ. Suspended in the blood, he saw that the flickering of the red light was not periodic-the pulsing was irregular. He felt a strange, perverse, immense presence that could never be understood by human intellect.

w.a.n.g took off the 3K gla.s.ses and sat down weakly on the ground, leaning against the wheel of his car. The city at night gradually recovered the reality of visible light. But his eyes roamed, trying to capture other sights. By the entrance of the zoo across the street, there was a row of neon lights. One of the lights was about to burn out and flickered irregularly. Nearby, a small tree's leaves trembled in the night breeze, twinkling without pattern as they reflected streetlight. In the distance, the red star atop the Beijing Exhibition Center's Russian-style spire reflected the light from the cars pa.s.sing below, also twinkling randomly....

w.a.n.g tried to interpret the flickers as Morse code. He even felt that the wrinkles in the flags flapping next to him and the ripples in the puddle on the side of the road might be sending him messages. He struggled to understand all the messages, and felt the pa.s.sing of the countdown, second by second.

He didn't know how long he stayed there. The planetarium staffer finally emerged and asked him whether he was done. But when he saw w.a.n.g's face, sleep disappeared from the staffer's eyes and was replaced by fear. He packed up the 3K gla.s.ses, stared at w.a.n.g for a few seconds, and quickly left with the suitcase.

w.a.n.g took out his mobile and dialed Shen Yufei's number. She picked up right away. Perhaps she was also suffering from insomnia.

"What happens at the end of the countdown?" w.a.n.g asked.

"I don't know." She hung up.

What can it be? Maybe my own death, like Yang Dong's.

Or maybe it will be a disaster like the great tsunami that swept through the Indian Ocean more than a decade ago. No one will connect it to my nanotech research. Could it be that every previous great disaster, including the two World Wars, was also the result of reaching the end of ghostly countdowns? Could it be that every time there was someone like me, who no one thought of, who bore the ultimate responsibility?

Or maybe it signals the end of the whole world. In this perverse world, that would be a relief.

One thing was certain. No matter what was at the end of the countdown, in the remaining one thousand or so hours, the possibilities would torture him cruelly, like demons, until he suffered a complete mental breakdown.

w.a.n.g ducked back into the car and left the planetarium. Just before dawn, the roads were relatively empty. But he didn't dare to drive too fast, feeling that the faster the car moved, the faster the countdown would go. When a glimmer of light appeared in the eastern sky, he parked and walked around aimlessly. His mind was empty of thoughts: Only the countdown pulsed against the dim red background of cosmic radiation. He seemed to have turned into nothing but a simple timer, a bell that tolled for he knew not whom.

The sky brightened. He was tired, so he sat down on a bench.

When he lifted his head to see where his subconscious had brought him, he shivered.

He sat in front of St. Joseph's Church at w.a.n.gfujing. In the pale white light of dawn, the church's Romanesque vaults appeared as three giant fingers pointing out something in s.p.a.ce for him.

As w.a.n.g got up to leave, he was held back by a snippet of hymnal music. It wasn't Sunday, so it was likely a choir rehearsal. The song was "Come, Gracious Spirit, Heavenly Dove." As he listened to the solemn, sacred music, w.a.n.g Miao once again felt that the universe had shrunk until it was the size of an empty church. The domed ceiling was hidden by the flashing red light of the background radiation, and he was an ant crawling through the cracks in the floor. He felt a giant, invisible hand caressing his trembling heart, and he was once again a helpless babe. Something deep in his mind that had once held him up softened like wax and collapsed. He covered his eyes and began to cry.

w.a.n.g's cries were interrupted by laughter. "Hahaha, another one bites the dust!"

He turned around.

Captain Shi Qiang stood there, blowing out a mouthful of white smoke.

10.

Da Shi Shi sat down next to w.a.n.g and handed him his car keys. "You parked right at the intersection at Dongdan. If I had arrived just a minute later, the traffic cops would have had it towed."

Da Shi, if I had known you were following me, I would have been comforted, w.a.n.g thought, switching to Shi Qiang's familiar nickname in his mind, though self-respect made him hold back the words. He accepted a cigarette from Da Shi, lit it, and took his first drag since he quit several years ago.

"So how's it going, buddy? Finding it hard to bear? I said you couldn't handle it. And you insisted on playing the tough guy."

"You wouldn't understand." w.a.n.g took several more deep puffs.

"Your problem is, you understand too well.... Fine, let's go grab a bite."

"I'm not hungry."

"Then we'll go drinking! My treat."

w.a.n.g got into Da Shi's car and they drove to a small restaurant nearby. It was still early, and the place was deserted.

"Two orders of quick-fried tripe, and a bottle of er guo tou!"22 Da Shi shouted, without even looking up. He was obviously a regular here.

As he stared at the two plates filled with black slices of tripe, w.a.n.g's empty stomach began to churn, and he thought he was going to be sick. Da Shi ordered him some warm soymilk and fried pancakes, and w.a.n.g forced himself to eat some.

Then they drank shots of er guo tou. He began to feel lightheaded, and his tongue loosened. Gradually, he recounted the events of the last three days to Da Shi, even though he knew that Da Shi probably knew everything already-maybe Da Shi even knew more than he did.

"You're saying that the universe was ... winking at you?" Da Shi asked, as he slurped down strips of tripe like noodles.

"That's a very appropriate metaphor."

"Bulls.h.i.t."

"Your lack of fear is based on your ignorance."

"More bulls.h.i.t. Come, drink!"

w.a.n.g finished another shot. Now the world was spinning around him, and only the tripe-chomping Shi Qiang across from him remained stable. He said, "Da Shi, have you ever ... considered certain ultimate philosophical questions? For example, where does Man come from? Where does Man go? Where does the universe come from? Where does the universe go? Et cetera."

"Nope."

"Never?"

"Never."

"You must see the stars. Aren't you awed and curious?"

"I never look at the sky at night."

"How is that possible? I thought you often worked the night shift?"

"Buddy, when I work at night, if I look up at the sky, the suspect is going to escape."

"We really have nothing to say to each other. All right. Drink!"

"To be honest, even if I were to look at the stars in the sky, I wouldn't be thinking about your philosophical questions. I have too much to worry about! I gotta pay the mortgage, save for the kid's college, and handle the endless stream of cases.... I'm a simple man without a lot of complicated twists and turns. Look down my throat and you can see out my a.s.s. Naturally, I don't know how to make my bosses like me. Years after being discharged from the army, my career is going nowhere. If I weren't pretty good at my job, I would have been kicked out a long time ago.... You think that's not enough for me to worry about? You think I've got the energy to gaze at stars and philosophize?"

"You're right. All right, drink up!"

"But, I did indeed invent an ultimate rule."

"Tell me."

"Anything sufficiently weird must be fishy."

"What ... what kind of c.r.a.ppy rule is that?"

"I'm saying that there's always someone behind things that don't seem to have an explanation."

"If you had even basic knowledge of science, you'd know it's impossible for any force to accomplish the things I experienced. Especially that last one. To manipulate things at the scale of the universe-not only can you not explain it with our current science, I couldn't even imagine how to explain it outside of science. It's more than supernatural. It's super-I-don't-know-what...."

"I'm telling you, that's bulls.h.i.t. I've seen plenty of weird things."

"Then tell me what I should do next."

"Keep on drinking. And then sleep."

"Fine."

w.a.n.g Miao had no idea how he got back into his car. He tumbled into the backseat and fell into a dreamless slumber. He didn't think that he was asleep for long, but when he opened his eyes, the sun was already near the horizon in the west.

He got out of the car. Even though the alcohol that morning had made him weak, he did feel better. He saw that he was at one corner of the Forbidden City. The setting sun shone on the ancient palace and turned into bright gold ripples in the moat. In his eyes, the world became once again cla.s.sical and stable.

w.a.n.g sat until it got dark, enjoying the peace that had been missing from his life. The black Volkswagen Santana that he was now so familiar with pulled out of the traffic streaming through the street and braked to a stop right in front of him. Shi Qiang got out of the car.

"Slept well?" Da Shi growled.

"Yes. What next?"

"Who? You? Go have dinner. Then drink a little more. Then sleep again."

"Then what?"

"Then? Don't you have to go to work tomorrow?"

"But the countdown ... there's only 1,091 hours left."

"f.u.c.k the countdown. Your first priority right now is to make sure you can stand straight and not collapse into a heap. Then we can talk about other things."

"Da Shi, can you tell me something about what's really going on? I'm begging you."

Da Shi stared at w.a.n.g a while. Then he laughed. "I've said the very same thing to General Chang several times. We're in the same boat, you and I. I'll be honest: I know f.u.c.king s.h.i.t. My pay grade is too low, and they tell me nothing. Sometimes I think this is a nightmare."

"But you must know more than I."

"Fine. I'll tell you what little I know." Da Shi pointed to the sh.o.r.e of the moat around the Forbidden City. The two found a spot and sat down.

It was now night, and traffic flowed ceaselessly behind them like a river. They watched their shadows lengthening and shortening over the moat.

"In my line of work, it's all about putting together many apparently unconnected things. When you piece them together the right way, you get the truth. For a while now, strange things have been happening.

"For example, there's been an unprecedented wave of crimes against academia and science research inst.i.tutions. Of course you know about the explosion at the Liangxiang accelerator construction site. There was also the murder of that n.o.bel laureate ... the crimes were all unusual: not for money, not for revenge. No political background, just pure destruction.

"Other strange things didn't involve crimes. For example, the Frontiers of Science and the suicides of those academics. Environmental activists have also become extra bold: protest mobs at construction sites to stop nuclear power plants and hydroelectric dams, experimental communities 'returning to nature,' and other apparently trivial matters.... Do you go to the movies?"

"No, not really."

"Recent big-budget films all have rustic themes. The setting is always green mountains and clear water, with handsome men and pretty women of some indeterminate era living in harmony with nature. To use the words of the directors, they 'represent the beautiful life before science spoiled nature.' Take Peach Blossom Spring: it's clearly the sort of film that no one wants to see. But they spent hundreds of millions to make it. There was also this science fiction contest with a top reward of five million for the person who imagined the most disgusting possible future. They spent another few hundred million to turn the winning stories into movies. And then you've got all these strange cults popping up everywhere, where every cult leader seems to have a lot of money...."

"What does that last bit have to do with everything you mentioned before?"

"You have to connect all the dots. Of course I didn't need to busy myself with such concerns before, but after I was transferred from the crime unit to the Battle Command Center, it became part of my job. Even General Chang is impressed by my talent for connecting the dots."

"And your conclusion?"

"Everything that's happening is coordinated by someone behind the scenes with one goal: to completely ruin scientific research."