The Silk Road Saga: Part I - Silkworm

22 - The Cocoon

The cocoon hummed with a low energy. Its shell was threadbare and sad looking. The white butterfly that it had hatched was almost at the end of its life. No piece of modern technology had lasted longer than seven days in the past. Everyone working for the AIU had a theory as to why this was, but no one knew for certain. Seven days, that was the window that Mr J had to execute his plan. Any longer than that and they would lose their sole advantage; their guns.

Mr J found it amusing that this marvel of modern science, a hybrid creation of nature and nanotechnology, was hidden away in a disused signalling hut on the side of a railway line. He admired the professor, the man responsible for creating this wonder, even if he was now his enemy. In a way he was glad to have such an opponent, it made his job so much more exciting. Of course, it would have been better if the professor had whole heartedly committed himself to the interests of the Party, if he had realised that Mr J was only looking out for the China's best interest. But in Mr J's experience clever men found it difficult understanding what was in their best interests. There was still time to bring the professor around, mused Mr J, although his re-education would be a long and no doubt painful process.

The invisible thread of nanowire that tethered the butterfly to its place of birth was at its limit. It was still relaying images from inside the Mongol's tent but it could travel no further. The stream on Mr J's phone showed a grainy image of a boy pacing back and forth. Mr J's job required him to be a diligent observer of human emotions but even a fool would have recognised all the signs of blossoming young love. It had amused Mr J to track Yue's progress across the Ferghana Valley, watching both young people refuse to admit their feelings for one another. It seemed that time was not such an unbridgeable gap after all. Of course, his study had had a real purpose. While the wormhole's effects on technology had been well documented by the AIU, its effects on the human body had not.

The study was now at an end. He had hoped that the boy might have come in useful, which is why he had ordered his father to be carefully monitored, but events had taken away the luxury of waiting. The Minister had informed him that his activities were becoming increasingly difficult to keep under wraps. The sooner his mission could be concluded the better. Speed and secrecy were the unofficial motto of the Ministry of State Security and it was a motto that Mr J had taken to heart.

He shone a specially designed UV torch at the cocoon. The light illuminated the nanowire, making it visible to the naked eye. It appeared as a thin line of colour, finer than a strand of hair. If you focused on it for too long, then it hurt your retina. Mr J had to keep blinking to stop his eyes from watering. The line of light threaded its way out of the signalling hut. If Mr J had followed it then he could have found the exact spot where the portal remained open, too small for anything larger than this wire to fit through. But that's not why he had come. His mission was one of destruction, not discovery.

He took out the laser scalpel from his pocket and switched it on. The blade hummed into life, projecting a thin wedge of ultra-white heat. A normal knife would simply bounce off the nanowire, as it was as strong as it was thin. Mr J put the torch in his mouth and steadied the blade with both hands. He carefully brought it down towards the strand of light, looking away as the scalpel made contact. There was a brilliant flash of colour, then the wire fell to the ground. In parallel, the cocoon spluttered and died, its life at an end.

"The cocoon is ready for extraction" said Mr J, speaking into his radio.

Overhead, thehelicopter positioned itself for landing. He was here to tie up loose ends. Thecocoon was the only evidence that P2159 had ever existed and it was about to beremoved and the hut burnt to the ground. Inside Mr J's pocket the stream on hisphone went blank. The signal was dead. The last connection between Yue and thepresent had been cut. Invisible to the naked eye, the portal shut for the finaltime. P2159 had closed, never to reopen.