Ramez Naam - Crux

Kade stretched out his arm, his posthuman hand partially reformed by gecko genes. His fingers brushed those of young monks as they passed. His eyes locked on to young eyes. His mind met tranquil thoughts, tinged with youthful excitement at his arrival.

Then they were through the gates and into the stone courtyard, and Kade’s breath caught. There were dozens more monks in orange robes standing in a ring around them. A hundred, maybe. Most of them just as young as the ones who’d greeted them outside the gate.

Feng stopped the jeep and Kade climbed out. The minds of the monks caressed his, bathed him in their peace and tranquility. He walked towards one at random, dazed by this. And as one, the monks dropped to their knees on the cobblestones.

“Bo Tat,” he heard. “Bo Tat.” A hundred voices said it. He didn’t know the words but he could see the meaning of it in their minds, their hundred minds merged as one.

Bodhisattva. Heroic-minded one. Bringer of light. He who would sacrifice himself, be reborn in suffering, time after time, until every living being reaches enlightenment.

Kade’s breath came fast. His heart was bursting. So much beauty. Amid all the pain and horrors of the world, there was so much beauty in the world. The way the minds of the monks intertwined, the way they connected to one another.

He caught an echo of those million minds he could feel when he tried, a thin layer of consciousness encircling the globe, still shapeless, still unformed. Those million minds could be like this, connected, merged, mutually comprehending, more than the sum of their parts. He closed his eyes and the dream pulled at him, tried to tug him out of the here and now.

Kade opened his eyes, forced himself back to the present, reached out the hundred monks before him with his thoughts. “I am not Bo Tat,” he told them with a laugh. Not enlightened. Not heroic. “I’m a novice . Less than a novice.”

He turned as he spoke, to take them all in, speak to them all.

“ You are the brave ones,” he told them. “ You are the ones risking your lives to shelter us. You are the ones who’ll build a better world. You are the beginning of something much bigger.”

He felt them smiling, joy and hope rising in unison across a hundred minds.

Then there was another mind behind him, harder, closed off. He finished the turn and came face to face with the man. Older than the rest. Tall, sharp featured, with dark expressionless eyes. The abbot.

“Welcome, Kaden Lane.” The voice carried no warmth.

Kade bowed and lowered his eyes to show respect.

“Thank you so much for taking us in.”

The old monk nodded. “I am Thich Quang An. This way. I’ll show you to your rooms.”

Feng grabbed their packs and they followed him. The monks rose as they left the courtyard. Two of them fell in behind Kade and Feng.

Quang An led them to a branch in the path. He rattled off something in Vietnamese to the two monks who’d followed them, then turned to Feng. “Dat and Lunh will take you to your rooms to get settled. Kaden, come with me to my quarters. There’s something I want to show you.”

Feng gave Kade a curious look. Kade shrugged. Feng shrugged back, and then he was off with their packs and the two monks.

The abbot’s mind was still hard and opaque as he led Kade the other way.

“Thank you again for taking us in,” Kade said. “I know it’s a risk for you.”

“It’s nothing,” the man said curtly. His mind was a mask, unyielding.

“If I’ve offended…” Kade began.

The old monk snorted.

They turned a corner, and then another, and kept walking. The monastery was larger than Kade had realized.

“I know that I’m not a bodhisattva,” Kade said. “Not a holy man.”

“Do you?” The abbot turned, raising an eyebrow. “Do you really?” His mind was inscrutable.

“Yes,” Kade said. “I do.”

“You’ve given great powers to the young and foolish. Dangerous powers. Powers they should have worked for. Powers that even now are being abused, are they not? Some may love you for it. I do not.”

Chicago flashed through Kade’s mind, a glimpse of wires and then chaos. The news videos of broken bodies strewn about, men and women whose lives had been ended abruptly.

Powers that even now were being abused.

Kade opened his mouth, reached for some answer, some way to say that he still believed in people, still believed they’d use this mostly for good, despite the abuses.

But the abbot had already turned, walking briskly away, and Kade had to rush to catch up to him.

“Here.” Thich Quang An opened a door, gestured Kade inside before him. “There is something within, for you.”

Kade bowed, and entered.

Then something hard jammed itself into Kade’s belly and he gasped. Someone grabbed him from behind and slapped heavy tape over his mouth. He thrashed and tried to kick out but men held him. Then everything went black as they brought something down over his head.

[activate: bruce_lee full_auto]

His body dropped low and twisted and for an instant the hands on him were gone.

[Bruce_Lee: Escape Succeeded!]

He felt his leg lash out and make contact with a soft target.

[Bruce_Lee: Attack Succeeded!]

Someone groaned. Kade’s body twisted again and he felt something whoosh by him.

[Bruce_Lee: You Dodged One!]

Then he felt the heat of a body nearby and his fist lashed out and–

[Bruce_Lee: Attack Succeeded!]

Oh my fucking God

pain lanced up his right hand as soft, not-yet-fully-healed bone and raw nerve made contact with something much harder. He curled over, cradling his throbbing hand as the pain brought tears to his eyes. Then something hit him in the head, hard, and the world spun.

[Bruce_Lee: Dodge Failed L]

Kade came to slowly. They were carrying him by his ankles and armpits. He could see nothing through whatever was over his head, but something told him he was outdoors again. He tried to yell but he was still groggy, and managed only a weak grunt. The tape around his mouth stifled it.

Then he felt other minds. Three of them. A handful. A dozen. Monks closing in. They were all around him. Their minds were linked and that linkage encompassed him, showing him what they saw, a dizzying image of himself, black bag over his head, carried by hugely muscled Asian men while three more armed with guns and knives moved with them.

Two dozen monks. They moved to block the way of the bounty hunters, minds serene, trembling a bit, but calm and determined. A faint breeze ruffled their orange robes. Their faces were still, their mouths set in impassive lines. Not a sound came from them but the rustling of their robes and the soft shuffle of their sandaled feet.

Kade tried to speak. He tried to reach out to them with his thoughts, but the world still spun.

Then he saw the gun come up.

No .

He focused, forced himself to concentrate.

Run…He tried to shout it with his mind. It came out as a whimper instead.

A bounty hunter put the muzzle of his pistol between the eyes of a monk. And Kade recognized him… one of the monks who’d opened the gate, who’d reached out to touch him… Just a boy, just a boy.

Run!

The bounty hunter said something in Vietnamese, and Kade understood it through the minds of the monks.

“Get out of my way or I’ll blow your fucking head off.”

“You cannot have him,” the young monk replied. And Kade saw it from the monk’s perspective, saw the ugly brute of a bounty hunter, the shaved head, the tattoos across his scalp, the bulging muscles, the dark hole in the muzzle of the huge gun, the man’s thick finger on the trigger. He felt it all from the young monk’s perspective, felt his heart beating in his chest, felt the boy’s terror and his awe of Kade and his utter resignation to this moment.