Bible of the Dead (36 page)

Chapter 44

‘That is Balagezong. We chose it for its remoteness.’

Sovirom Sen was standing besides Jake.

Jake said nothing. He gazed at the wildness of the view.

Sen spoke again:

‘The village of Balagezong is so remote the locals speak their own language. Their own version of Tibetan, barely com prehensible to anyone else. Until we built the dirt roads for the lab, you had to walk five days to reach the gorges. Then another five days to reach the next village. It was perfect for our purposes.’ He sighed. ‘Until recently. At the moment we live and work in pristine isolation – but now they want to put a National Park here. They will demolish the labs, turn them into shops. And then there will be tour buses, guides, bringing people to the most beautiful place in the world. The last frontiers of China. Someone in Beijing wants to make money from the landscape. These days they
all
want to make money.’ Sen grimaced, and gestured to the left. ‘The mountain next to it is sacred. White Buddha Mountain. Piquant.’

Jake gazed at this imperious summit: the slender yet mighty grey pyramid of stone was delicately striated with snow.

‘Twenty-two thousand feet. The Holy Mountain of Balagezong. Of course, you will no longer
feel
the holiness. Correct?’

Jake sought inside himself for his reactions, his new and true reactions: and with another jolt of surprise, a reflex inflected with more delight, he sensed that he
did
feel differently. That cringing awe was gone, the shrivel of feeble smallness, the reverential humiliation of man confronted with the ineffable hugeness of the universe.
Gone.
Instead Jake surged with species pride. I am me. Alive. I am conscious. Man, noble man, the most noble work of evolution.

‘I feel . . . different, cleaner. Lighter.’

Sen laughed.

‘Of course you do. You have had a parasite removed, a prion of stupidity. The most poisonous of mental viruses.’

‘I feel, somehow, more free? Maybe blithe is the word.’

‘Absolutely so, Jacob. And you will get used to it. Very quickly. We find that our subjects need only a few hours to adjust, indeed the swiftness of the transformation is remarkable, given the complexity of the neurosurgery. Mister Fishwick is truly a genius, which is why we pay him the salary of a European soccer star. This is, of course, not very Marxist, but we do what we do! The end
justifies
.’

A Tibetan villager passed close to the terrace, carrying a basket of juniper wood. Jake smiled at the villager, the villager glanced his way, and nodded, with a feudal humility, touching a forefinger to the fold of his purple headscarf, then the peasant walked on along the mountain path, to the lower fields.

Sen continued, ‘Our early operations, our first surgical errors, these were, I accept they were . . . tragic errors. I am candid enough to confess this. My wife volunteered and I could not stop her, likewise my son-in-law. It was perhaps foolish to try such ambitious surgery with the primitive facilities and incomplete knowledge we had at the time. But we were true communists, as we remain today. Keen and zealous, Jacob – and ardent for perfection. And you cannot make an omelette for the emperor without breaking thousand-year-old eggs. I did my utmost to help those we maimed. I employed Ponlok. Many of our guards are wretched victims of our earlier, botched operations. But the tragedies of my wife and Chemda’s father only fuelled my desire to get it right. I knew the ultimate goal was worth any suffering. And so we learned over the decades by trial and error, and now we have succeeded.’

Jake stepped forward. Hesitantly.

Something else was echoing in Jake’s mind, a lost voice, an absent voice, telling him: something.

Leaving Sen behind he walked down the steps of the terrace onto the path. He followed the route of the peasant for a few seconds, then paused in the hard, high mountain sun.

The spectacular view stretched away beneath him, a precipice fell to the tiered and tile-roofed houses of the heaven villages, maybe a kilometre down; then small enclosures of jasmine and apricot trees; and then the mighty gorges beyond, infinitely deep. Black, subtropical, three kilometres down, a different world. They were surrounded by cliffs and gorges and mighty summits. Maybe the most beautiful place Jake had ever seen.

And yet his reaction to the splendour was calm, less impassioned. He no longer wanted to take photos. He didn’t need to mediate the beauty or the terror, the world was what it was. Not so frightening. Mountains and sun, cliffs and turnip fields. Barefoot women with headscarves crouching in the mud, tugging roots. Jake didn’t care too much. He didn’t care at all.

He didn’t care.

That was the difference, that was the substance of the change. His mind was entirely lucid now, deliciously clear, clear as the air of Balagezong: he could stare across an unclouded landscape at last, to the blue remembered hills.

He saw himself, as a small boy. Running down the road with his sister. This memory was new, this memory was old, this memory had lain locked away inside him for so long – but now all the doors of perception had been slammed open, the firedoors, the barriers he had erected to the truth: they had all been blown away. And he remembered.

Jake was seven and his sister was five and they were running down a street from school and then Becky let go of
his
hand and she ran into the road and Jake saw again his sister hit by the car, thrown like a gruesome doll, batted casually to the side and broken, blood everywhere, dead. Her body smashed. Blood framed her blonde head and her white eyes rolled and stared.

The heaven villages stared up at Jake; he stared down. He was standing above heaven, superior to heaven.
I don’t need you any more.

All this time he had been thinking it was his fault: all this time, somewhere inside him, he had felt the gnawing guilt, without quite knowing why, because he had repressed the memory. But the memory was now presented to him: and he was glad amidst the tragedy.

His sister, his poor sister, she had run into the road and there was nothing he could have done. It all happened in a second.
Not his fault.

Energized and heartened, Jake paced back along the yak path to the stupa at the other end of the village. A Tibetan man in
chuba
and cotton trousers was spinning the glittering brass prayer wheel. He acknowledged the white man with a vacant, smiling shrug; Jake smiled back and sat on the steps of the stupa and gazed at the elegant triangle of the Holy Mountain. White Buddha Mountain. The forests were hanging from the steep grey slopes, catching the mist in their dark green branches.

And here came the second memory, delivered to his feet, small and sad and insignificant. A rabbit returned by a dog. A shot bird, feathers scattering forlornly.

His mother. Jake could remember the chain of events, with new and superb clarity. He had woken in the night, age nine or ten, and seen a face, looming above him: his mother, crying, and whispering in the dark and saying goodbye, and saying
Jake I love you I will always love you
and kissing him. And then she was gone.

A white face, in the night, the white face of his mother, with the dark tang of wine on her breath – hovering and then gone. The next morning they realized she had left them – abandoned them all. Broken and drunk and unable to bear the grief of Rebecca’s death, she had fled.

Eyes locked on the warm blue skies, Jake seized upon this simple truth.
That
was why he had dreamed those dreams. Women with white faces and disembodied heads: with their heads detached from their necks,
krasues
,
arps
,
palanggans
, black-tongued kali, it was no witchcraft, it was just a hidden echo, a concealed trigger: these persistent images from the local culture had found a dark and troubling resonance in Jake’s deeply denied memories, his repressed memories, his mother’s white face in the dark in the middle of the night, almost like a dream, saying
I love you Jake
– and crying and whispering and then leaving, abandoning her living child. His mother was the
kinaree
, she was the
krasue
, the nightghost that sucked at him, and yet she wasn’t: there was no such thing.

It had just been a tragedy. It was not his fault. It was just a meaningless tragedy that happened to a piteously small boy – himself.

But now he could understand, and he could cope. The guilt was gone, the darkness was dispelled. He was just a man confronted by meaningless suffering, in a pitiless world.

Meaningless.

Jake stared at the meaningless mountains and the ridiculous stupa and the pointless Tibetan villager. The futility was quite extraordinary. That all of this, all that was visible everywhere: forests and sky and high cirrus clouds and villagers and Chemda on the terrace, and Zhongdian and the cement storks, and Bangkok and England and people everywhere and all the death and suffering, it was all bitterly and blissfully pointless.

Nothing, nothing, nothing. The Zen and withered garden of nothingness. There was no meaning to anything: and in that absence of meaning there was a logical beauty. Of sorts.

Now Jake felt a swaying sensation. And a pain in his head, under the scar, a stinging itch. And he was
hungry
.

His body needed nutrition, so he marched back to the terrace where they were still waiting for him. Ty and Sen and Chemda and Fishwick were sitting at the wide tables, now laid with Tibetan food.

Chemda’s expression was shocked and sad. Tyrone’s expression was wry and intrigued:

‘So how do you feel, trooper?’

Jake pulled up a chair.

‘I feel OK. Better.’

‘Better?’

‘Better than I have felt . . . in a long time.’

Tyrone applauded.

‘There, told ya.’

Sovirom Sen nodded with satisfaction. Even the melancholic Fishwick managed a wistful smile.

Only Chemda was unhappy. She reached out a hand and touched Jake’s hand, her sadness was obvious. He gazed at her fingers, with the bitten fingernails.

‘And what do you feel about me?’ she said.

‘Yeah, better,’ Jake said. ‘C’mon, of course, better about you and everything! Hey. Can we have some food, I am starving?’

Tyrone laughed again:

‘Guess you’re truly mended.’

Chemda took her hand away from Jake’s. He didn’t care, his stomach was protesting its emptiness. He filled a plate with apples and barley breads and a fat dollop of red goat stew and tomatoes in oil and mustard seeds. And he ate, lustily and hungrily, chasing his food with slugs of barley beer, and salted tea from big mugs.

The food was bizarre and it was delicious: he had never had a finer meal. He was free. Jake was a free man.

His stomach was filling in a gratifying way. Clanking a glass of barley beer with Tyrone he sank another swallow of beer, while Sen smiled his aloof and satisfied smile, and Fishwick looked discreetly at Chemda who was staring, silent, downcast, at her food.

Jake returned to his celery in sesame, the hard yak cheeses and momo barley dumplings, even as he ignored the shouting. Then he couldn’t ignore it: Cars were pulling up. Shouts and gunfire echoed across the mighty valley.

Shouting? Gunfire?

Jake gazed down from the terrace.

Men were streaming through the village, into the lab, running past the lab. Men with scars.

They were firing their guns in the air, shouting at everyone, blind fury showing on dark faces.

Lucidly frightened, and calmly alarmed, Jake stayed im mobile. More shouts from behind the lab told Jake that they were surrounded and trapped.

Sen was on his feet, yelling. But the men with the scars ignored him, crudely laughing, jeering even.

Jake stared.

In the middle of the gang at the foot of the steps leading to the terrace was
Julia.
And next to the Canadian woman was . . . Chemda. Except Chemda was also sitting next to him at the table.

The other Chemda had a gun; she was aiming it at Sen. Her face was calm, determined, and entirely merciless.

Chapter 45

‘I am Soriya. Chemda is my sister. And you –’ the gun was pointed at Sen, standing defiantly on the top step, ‘You, of course, are my grandfather. The man who did this to me.’

The young Khmer woman took off a wig and Jake saw the scar on her bald scalp.

‘When I was six months old.’

The scar was faded, almost white.

Soriya Tek turned to the Chinese men, the other men with scars, with their rifles hoisted or pointing. They were the same mutinous guards from the back gate, the men who had tried to bleed Jake out. She spoke to the men.

‘Here. Just as I promised you. Revenge. Here. Now.’ A step forward; a blunt gesture. ‘Kill them
all,
except for her,’ Soriya pointed at Chemda, ‘and him.’

Soriya was pointing at Jake.

‘He is one of us. See the scar. Spare him. Kill the rest.’

An uncertainty prevailed. Some of the men moved towards the terrace, others lingered; Soriya said, more loudly: ‘
Tā shì w
men měi yīgè rén. Bèijiàn tāshā s
, qíyú!
’

The men moved, properly commanded. In moments the terrace was crowded with the guards, Jake could smell the sweat on them. Beer and yak butter and dirt. Sen was led down the steps, then Fishwick, and Tyrone.

Only Tyrone was struggling, shouting. Only Tyrone was fighting.

‘Jake, for fuck’s sake, tell them. Tell them, dude! Fucking tell them! I’ve got nothing to do with this –’

The mob of guards was dragging Tyrone to the nearest cliff, just a few metres away; the cliff plunged, gruesomely, right down to the heaven villages. Maybe half a mile or more.

‘Jake, please, fucking please, Jake. Tell them!’

Jake observed Tyrone’s struggling. He considered, clearly and logically, the fact that Tyrone had betrayed him: no matter that the surgery was a success, Tyrone had risked Jake’s life for his own purposes. Did he deserve to live? Maybe not. And there was another factor to be considered: if Tyrone was dead then Jake had no rival, he could tell his own story. Make all the money. Jake stepped down the terrace, Chemda followed him. He approached his friend. His ex friend. He gazed into Tyrone’s terrified eyes.

‘Mate,’ said Jake. ‘I’m sorry.’

He stepped away.

The men dragged Tyrone the last metre to the edge of the cliff. Chemda was gazing at Jake, appalled; Jake didn’t care.

Let Tyrone die.

Now the American was crying. The hard-assed Tyrone Gallagher was sobbing like a child, and pleading for his life.

‘Please, no, Jake,
pleeeeeease.’

Soriya gestured.

Tyrone was thrown over the cliff. Jake peered over. His friend actually twirled in the air, the drop was so huge. The spectacle was
fascinating
. Jake watched his friend smash against an outcrop of rock, an interesting pink blur of blood showed the body exploding with the impact. The corpse bounced and disappeared into the gorge.

Julia was crying.

Soriya turned to Fishwick.

‘Him next.
Tā de xià yīgè
.’

Fishwick was dragged to the side of the cliff by the sweating guards. The sun shone down on them all, harsh and uncaring. The neurosurgeon was not even struggling, his expression was resigned. His grey ponytail hung limply in the sun.

But Chemda intervened.

‘No, please no –
don’t kill him!’

Soriya turned.

‘Why not?’

‘I am your sister, am I not? Your twin sister? Do this for me.
Spare him.
’

Soriya paused. A brief flash of emotion crossed the killer’s dark impassive face. Illegible emotion: sadness, grief, something profound and repressed. Jake watched, deeply intrigued. Julia was staring his way.

‘For my sister?’ Soriya gestured to the guards. ‘Ach. What does it matter. Let him go. I don’t care. But I will kill my grandfather. Bring me the axle.’

Fishwick was released; Sen was pushed to the edge of the precipice. The pine trees whispered in a mountain breeze; the gorges yawned, dark and hungry.

‘Kneel,’ said Soriya.

The grandfather knelt. Sen looked up, and said, very quietly:

‘How did you get past the main guards? The
inner
barrier?’

Soriya shrugged. ‘They thought I was Chemda. They were confused.’ She waved a hand at the sweating, scarred men, the severed men. ‘These other guards, your
mistakes,
they have decided to help me. I discussed this with them many months ago. I came here in secret. We agreed to all of this. They agreed. You invoke no loyalty, Sen. You mutilated so many. There is no one to help you. Everyone in the laboratory has scattered. They know the PLA is coming.’

Sen smiled.

‘But you think this upsets me, daughter? Please. I am not grieved. I am not ashamed,
I am proud of you
. I wanted to create the perfect communist child. And behold: I succeeded. Because here you are, guilt-free, devoid of mercy, and purely logical. My beloved granddaughter. Biologically atheist.’

‘You gave me away. How beloved is that?’

‘We thought you were a failure! You were taken in the anarchies, the dilapidations, when the Khmer Rouge finally collapsed in Anlong Veng. I never knew what happened to you, do you understand, my child? I didn’t dare hope that you had lived, the baby with the seizures, the fits, and yet, when I began to hear of these pitiless slayings, these cruel and clever murders, I knew. I aspired, Soriya, I hoped that you lived, that you thrived. I sensed you were coming, and I wanted to see you. So I could compare you with your superstitious sister, the control experiment. See if you had evolved. And I regard you now with true delight. My wonderful and beautiful experiment. My perfected, liberated and entirely Godless granddaughter.’

Soriya had taken a rusty iron bar from one of the guards. A car axle.

‘I am not a granddaughter, I am not even a woman. I am not a man either. I am nothing. You made me into a
nothing.
Barely human. You severed me from everything. A freak with no breasts. See.’

She tugged open her shirt. Jake winced at the pale scar tissue she briefly exposed. A double mastectomy: two more wounds.

‘By the time I was eighteen, I was desperate. Why was I so sick in the head? What was wrong with me? Why did I feel that something was wrong, something was missing? So I began to think: maybe I was the wrong sex. And I went to Bangkok. And I had surgery. Sex reassignment.’ Soriya sighed tersely, and rebuttoned her shirt with one hand. She went on: ‘The surgeons cut off my breasts, took out my womb – and gave me hormone injections. Testosterone. And they told me to walk like a boy. This was meant, or so I hoped, to make me better. Turning me into a kind of
katoey.
A she-he.’ She snarled at her grandfather, and clutched the iron bar tighter.
‘Yet it didn’t work
. Of course. I was just angrier than ever. I had mutilated myself for no reason. I went back to America. Went back to being a girl. With no breasts. Mutilated. A man with no penis. Then I joined the army. At that, I was good, a surprisingly strong young woman. All those testosterone injections, all the steroids. So all this has been useful. It has helped me get here, where I can kill you.’

Sen’s smile was gone; for the first time Jake saw con fusion on the old man’s face.

He mouthed a word but Soriya cut him off.

‘Turn that way.
Turn that way.
Cheung Ek. Tuol Sleng. Highway Five. This is for everyone who died. For all the people killed by communism. For the country you beheaded. Turn that way.’

The first shudder of fear trembled at Sen’s mouth.

‘You really think that I should die-–’

The iron bar swung into the back of Sen’s head: the sound of the skull splitting was pulpy, organic, a plashing crack. The brains squirted into the dust, the broken head gaped open, pornographically. Soriya sneered at the sight, then she kicked the twitching body off the edge of the cliff.

‘Now, you, give me a gun.’

One of the guards handed a revolver to Soriya.

‘Throw me off the cliff when I’m finished. At least I can kill myself without guilt. The one thing they gave me.’

She turned and walked a few metres down the cliff and put the gun to her head, and like she was slaughtering a hog with a bolt, she blew her own brains out. Another shower of blood, another splatter of bone.

The weeping sound was Chemda – she had turned away from the scene, crying. Jake watched, absorbed. He watched as the scarred men did their duty: Soriya’s twitching body was hurled off the cliff. Vultures circled down the gorge, seeking the carrion.

Patches of blood and splinters of bone were glistening in the sun. A yak stared placidly at the men, who had already begun to disperse. The guards were drifting away, some were now running.

Within moments, Fishwick, Julia, Chemda and Jake were standing on the edge of Balagezong village. Quite alone. The wind murmured in the yunnanese forests, soft breezes fluting their grief.

Or was it grief? Where was the grief?

Jake touched the scar on his head. It was stinging. He could feel the pain in his mind at war with the clarity. Guilt
was
still there, in his mind; yet he could not connect with it; it was a cherished poem he had forgotten, a beauti ful song he could not quite recall. Just like his love for Chemda.

He felt suddenly blinded. He was blind to something. He had lost a sense. How could he have done that, to Tyrone? Why didn’t he feel remorse?

As he touched his own face, he realized he had wetness on his fingers. Astonishingly, he seemed to be crying. But he didn’t know why.

‘Chemda,’ he said, ‘what have they done to me?’

She reached for his hand. Jake could feel the moistness, like tears, on his face, but he didn’t know what it was for. He wasn’t crying. He was just leaking. He was just fucking
leaking
.

He was a machine, a dead battery, he was Soriya, he was pitiless. A soft machine leaking oil.

Jake hunched down. He wanted to make himself small, to hide from the world. This was bitter and disastrous, everything was futile.

Chemda stooped and kissed him and she whispered:

‘There is something we can do.’