REAL WORLD—JUNE 11, 2056
SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA
Once Dr. Wu Zuhai and his guide moved through the magnificent doors, up the elevator and inside the finest suite in one of the most glorious hotels in all the world, Minister Im found yet another bewildering surprise.
The unmistakable form of American President Robert DeCecco stood at the far end of the suite, staring out at the busy city below through the huge windows. The nearly eighty-year-old man turned and smiled a bright, wide-eyed grin at his guests. Despite his age, the man's lightly tanned face had fewer wrinkles than it had decades ago. Biotech had come a long way.
"Welcome back, Minister," he said in his wobbling American accent. "I see you got the good doctor to come along, as you promised. I'm surprised, but I'll be sure not to doubt your interpersonal skills in the future."
Minister Im's face lit up with a peculiar joy as he bowed deeply to the American. "Thank you, Lord. Allow me to formally introduce Dr. Wu Zuhai. Doctor, allow me to formally introduce President DeCecco, Christ Reborn."
Dr. Wu Zuhai felt as though he'd stepped into some kind of trap. "You didn't mention anything about this," he murmured. He wasn't precisely talking to Minister Im, but almost speaking aloud, as though chastising himself. This was… apparently a far larger conspiracy than he'd realized.
With a sinking feeling, Dr. Wu Zuhai realized that there was no going back. Whatever this was, he was no longer just hearing out the wild plans or theories of a cult leader. He'd been taken into the confidence of perhaps the most powerful men in the world.
If his own government got wind of this, they would assume the worst. They always did. There was no logic or reason to their actions in such matters, only fear and contempt.
The alcohol clouding the doctor's thoughts prevented him from feeling anything but fear. He silently moved to a nearby, well-cushioned chair and slumped down into it, burying his face in his hands.
"You've ruined my life," he muttered. Once more, he was speaking half to the minister and half to himself. "If I'd only left and pretended that I never heard what you said, my life could have just gone back to normal."
"Life will never be normal again," said President DeCecco. "It's not been normal for a very, very long time. The liberals have ruined the world, Doctor. Even in my own great Christian nation, they insist on defying me at every step. This world must be purged, Doctor, and you're going to help me do it."
"And how's that?" Dr. Wu Zuhai spat bitterly. "I have neither the desire nor the ability to do so. What exactly has Minister Im been telling you that I do? And what does any of this have to do with remote viewing?"
DeCecco chuckled. "Everything, Doctor." His expression went blank for a moment. "As you may know, if you've been paying attention to global politics, I've successfully branded the American CIA as a domestic terrorist organization. That was one of my greatest achievements. It turns out that they've been advancing the cause of Satanic liberalism for many, many years."
"I don't care," the doctor muttered.
DeCecco ignored him and kept talking. "During the Cold War between the USA and Russia, about a hundred years ago, the CIA experimented with psychic phenomena of many sorts."
"Of course I know!" Dr. Wu Zuhai snapped, raising eyes that were red with fatigue, tears, and the effects of his drink. "You already know that I learned about all this and used it as the foundation of my current work! Remote viewing, the psychic phenomenon of looking at another time and place! Abandoned by the CIA for several reasons and considered meaningless by proper scientists. So what do you care about it?"
DeCecco smiled. "We both know, Doctor, of the dark truth behind remote viewing."
"I know of no dark truth," said the doctor.
"You know that it worked," said DeCecco, "and that current science cannot explain how."
"Yes," said Dr. Wu Zuhai. "It allowed some CIA agents to predict the future. But these predictions were not always correct. It more frequently and accurately allowed them to see how a certain location looked in the past. But it rarely allowed them to know exactly what time period they were looking at. This variability was one of the main reasons it was abandoned."
Now Minister Im chuckled. "I don't know why you're finding it so hard to put the pieces together, Doctor."
Dr. Wu Zuhai glared at him. "What?" Indeed, it felt like there was a vital aspect of the truth which he wasn't grasping, but he was well past the point of caring. His life was surely over, no matter what.
DeCecco smirked. "We used remote viewing, Doctor, to watch you during the first months of your research. That's how we knew you were employing it yourself."
Dr. Wu Zuhai just stared at him for a long moment. "Wh-what?"
Minister Im nodded with enthusiasm. "About a year ago, we used remote viewing for the first time ourselves, after learning the basics of it from a few CIA agents whom we… interrogated about its use.
"No matter where or when we tried to look, the viewing always pulled the consciousness of the user toward one point in time… and one place. Your lab. And thanks to all the clocks and instruments everywhere, it was very easy to realize we were witnessing an event which had taken place years ago."
Dr. Wu Zuhai couldn't speak. This was… insane. He'd used the basic principles of remote viewing himself to monitor what areas of the brain were active during the process, but hadn't devoted much research time to how the so-called extrasensory perception could have worked. That was for the future. He'd only been interested in activating the part of the brain which allowed memory to be transferred without loss of information.
And that had been where he'd spent most of his research time.
Why was it that the remote viewing performed by the Americans had fixated on him during his first experiments? Had his facility been, as it were, transmitting something like a radio signal? He hadn't practiced remote viewing himself after those first days. If he had, would he have been drawn to the experiments which DeCecco and Minister Im had performed themselves?
And also, if this was all true, why hadn't Dr. Wu Zuhai's own consciousness been pulled back to the American CIA who had used these techniques nearly a century ago? Had the passage of time created too much "distance" between the past and the present?
Seeing that his guest was in a daze, DeCecco continued speaking. "So you see, Doctor, nobody betrayed you. Nobody leaked your greatest secrets. We used the demonic powers of Satan against himself to achieve the goal of establishing God's kingdom on Earth… and you're going to help us achieve that."
The man's words were pure insanity. Satan? God? No, this was a matter of science, pure and simple. Any phenomenon which couldn't be explained by science was simply misunderstood.
But…
Dr. Wu Zuhai did not care what motivated these two incredibly powerful men.
The truth was apparent: he had something they wanted. They had something he wanted.
So Dr. Wu Zuhai took a deep breath, then stood.
"Let me be clear," he said slowly, thinking over every word before he spoke. "I do not believe in your cause. I am a man of science. I will not be a sycophant who tells you what you want to hear. Nor will I pretend to share your beliefs. But I am a husband and a father… and a scientist. If you save my family, and if you allow me to research in peace, then I will perform my research for you. That is all I have ever wanted: peace, security, and freedom. That has often made me an anomaly among the scientists of my country. It is not something my wife truly understands. But it is what I want, and I am willing to do much to attain it."
DeCecco's grin returned. It was even wider than it had been before. "All of that is what America stands for, my friend. Welcome to our cause. However… I think that when you learn all the information we have to share, you'll change your mind. The spiritual world is very real. That's a fact. When the CIA turned their remote viewing toward the planet Mars… do you know what they found?"