No Hope

REAL WORLD—JUNE 11, 2056

SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Minister Im, like many of those attending the 2056 Bio-Engineering Symposium, had a room at the InterContinental Seoul COEX.

The hotel wasn't part of the same building as the COEX Center itself, but was situated a short walk away with a world-famous shopping mall and aquarium between them.

Dr. Wu Zuhai's head spun as he followed the minister out of the dry, climate-controlled conference center and into the warm, muggy Seoul night. He'd sat down and listened with panic when Minister Im had mentioned the phenomenon known as "remote viewing," but the minister hadn't dropped a single additional important detail after that first utterance.

"Remote viewing" was the phenomenon that had sparked Dr. Wu Zuhai's current work, though it wasn't very well known outside of his laboratory. Rather, most scientists had no reason to believe it was real.

Nothing more than pseudoscience, just like all the other kinds of "psychic phenomena" and "spiritual works" which lunatics and superstitious people believed in.

Minister Im was exactly the kind of person who would probably believe there was merit in these kinds of mysterious events, even if he didn't understand the underlying scientific theories. Dr. Wu Zuhai wasn't alarmed that the minister had expressed interest in remote viewing itself.

But he was 'extremely' worried about the reality that Minister Im 'knew' the basis of all his research. Sure, it was easy to believe that one of Dr. Wu Zuhai's research assistants might have leaked details about their research into memory and the true nature of the mind. The Chinese government had orchestrated a few minor leaks to spark external research in the field, in fact.

However, remote viewing? Only a few of the most trusted research assistants in the lab knew that 'this' was the basis of all their research. It hadn't been mentioned in years, long before most of the current research assistants had even been recruited.

Dr. Wu Zuhai would have trusted everyone who knew the truth with his life, and he knew that they'd have rather died than give up what was, in essence, an important national secret.

When Minister Im mentioned remote viewing, Dr. Wu Zuhai should have immediately retreated to his own hotel room. He should have immediately contacted his liaison, an agent working for his own government. The liaison was orchestrating the doctor's security and resources while he was abroad. This was the person Dr. Wu Zuhai should have reported the situation to.

The doctor wouldn't have done this out of loyalty to his nation, or anything so noble as that. He didn't have a shred of loyalty left to his superiors after the government had forced him to stop contributing to the greater scientific world and instead focus on only the projects they assigned to him.

No, this would have been the smart thing to do because immediately reporting the situation was the most likely scenario where Dr. Wu Zuhai would have been considered perfectly innocent of whatever Minister Im was up to.

But even still, there was a chance that the government 'wouldn't' take a chance.

After all, if Minister Im knew about remote viewing, it would seem most likely that Dr. Wu Zuhai himself was the one who let the information slip.

He was the one who traveled the world, not the research assistants. He was the one with his head always in the clouds, who sometimes said things he didn't mean.

If the doctor reported that Minister Im, that religious nutcase who controlled one of the largest religious cults in the world, knew about such a fundamental aspect of top-secret government research…

Well, it wasn't exactly a leap of logic to assume that Dr. Wu Zuhai had made a mistake and was now pretending to be ignorant.

Such a supposed deception on the doctor's part might result in him and his family being snatched back up to China right away and never allowed to leave again.

In the worst case, the family would be taken as prisoners to ensure Dr. Wu Zuhai's good behavior, and he'd be lucky to even see 'them' again.

Yet, informing his liaison was still probably the smartest choice.

Instead, with the alcohol buzzing in his head and confusing his judgment, Dr. Wu Zuhai listened to Minister Im's further words.

"We can help your family, Doctor. The South Asian Church of the Ages is an extremely powerful organization. We can extricate your family and bring them to safety… along with yourself. You would be free to research from exile, to your heart's content.

"You could publish research papers under your true name, helping the world as you once did. At the same time, we would create new identities for you and your family. You could live anywhere in the world. For the first time in your life, you could be truly safe."

These words were like a whispered poem to Dr. Wu Zuhai's ears as he sat on the conference center's bar chair, knowing with every passing moment that he was closer and closer to making the terrible mistake of following Minister Im to his hotel room.

The South Korean man was promising Dr. Wu Zuhai everything his heart desired, as though he could see right into the doctor's soul.

He wasn't lying. The SACA had quite a lot of mysteries and controversies surrounding it. There were a few small countries which brazenly accused the church of having assassinated members of their governments. These supposed victims had been hostile to the SACA establishing megachurches of their radically capitalist organization in those countries' largest cities, so it seemed quite plausible to anyone looking in from the outside.

Of course, the SACA denied all these accusations.

It seemed obviously true, though, that public opposition to the church was a very bad thing if you had the power to back up that opposition. It seemed to get you killed more often than not.

So when Minister Im claimed that the SACA could help Dr. Wu Zuhai and his family escape the grip of their government, it wasn't exactly an empty claim.

But it was a risky one. Very, very risky.

All the alcohol in the doctor's body made him bold. It made him feel clever. It made his heart surge with hope and ignore the practical truth that there was no good way out of this situation now.

In the end, it made him promise to follow Minister Im to his room at the InterContinental Seoul COEX.