The Bangkok Asset

14

In the cab on the way to Pat Pong with Professor Chu, Chanya and I cannot decide what it was we just saw: a sales pitch, a military demonstration, a game, a home movie show? Somehow the inferior and amateur quality of the video made it convincing. No one does poor photography anymore, we’re all pros these days. It is Krom who sets the tone.

“So, the Asset is definitely close to escape velocity, if the video tonight was genuine.” She looks at Chu.

“I think it was genuine,” Chu says. “I’m convinced. Of course, it could have been a mock-up, but I doubt it. The first thing a serious potential buyer will do is test the echolocation for himself, so there isn’t really a chance to cheat.”

“Goldman must be desperate to break all the rules like that.”

“I think he has clearance,” Chu says. “I don’t think he really ‘borrowed’ that tape surreptitiously.”

“How come?”

“The gap is narrowing,” the Professor says. “The others. The competition.”

Krom turns to us to explain something important that the Professor already understands: “If that echolocation exercise was the real thing, that demonstrates much more than a capacity to catch balls blindfolded. That pretty much demonstrates accelerated learning capacity no one else has yet reached. Anywhere, ever. It’s the grail of the TH community: ALE. That’s why Goldman was willing to take the risk to show it to that ministry.”

“Professor Chu’s ministry?” Chanya wants to know.

“No,” Krom says with an affectionate smile, “another ministry.”

“The other ministry the cameramen come from?”

“No,” Krom says, the smile wearing a little. “Yet another.”

“I don’t get quite why the learning capacity is so important. I mean, on an abstract level, sure, it’s what humans are better at than animals, we learn quicker. But why does it get that kind of respect?”

“Because it’s not just a demonstration of physical coordination of a high order. For him to learn to catch the balls that fast he had to tap into accelerated evolution. It involves not just physical response mechanisms but the intellect as well-and computing capacity. Personality. Everything, but especially personality. That is not a totally human human anymore.”

“What is it then?”

“Is it okay to use the word spiritual?”

“You mean he’s become like a Buddha?”

“No. Like a demon. A pre-Christian, pre-Buddhist god. Pagan. Like something out of a Hindu temple, or pre-Roman Europe.” She pauses to think for a moment. “Once you get into this technology all kinds of things start to make sense that didn’t before.”

“You mean this technology is not totally new?”

“They’re starting to think all the great ancient societies had it. It’s what we refer to ignorantly as magic. A superior science that led to catastrophic hubris-all the ancient cultures have that folk memory.”

“So we’re starting back on the road to catastrophe?” Chanya says.

“Personally, I think we’re at the end, on the brink.”

“That’s why we all find the Asset so fascinating,” Chu says as we reach the bars.

“So what is escape velocity in this context?” Chanya asks, too late because we are all distracted getting out of the car. Then we are distracted by Chu. We remember the formerly most intriguing question of the night: which way did he swing?

–

The answer was, with hindsight, inevitable: katoeys. I’m afraid the Professor turned quite coy about those bars he most wanted to visit, which led Chanya to put him in her Total Jerk file even before he turned giggly. It was amazing. Krom and I finally decided to try him out in one of the tranny bars after seeing no serious spark of desire generated in the gay or the straight bars. In the Love Me Tender, however, the quality of the surgery together with the unnerving beauty of its products was damned impressive. Chu grew a beam on his face that quickly developed into an attitude of gratitude and generosity toward us for bringing him to paradise. He insisted on paying for round after round of drinks, while round after round of exquisite products of the gender reassignment industry came to pay him close attention. By the time he had settled on three that he wanted to take home, Krom had already disappeared to the lesbian bars on the other side of Surawong. Chanya and I caught a cab.

–

“Krom made a pass at me,” she said to the window in a soft mutter.

“She did? When? In the bathroom at the restaurant?” That was the only time they were alone together, as far as I could remember.

“Yes. It wasn’t aggressive and I’m not even sure she wanted to do it. I mean, something like that could ruin this little partnership she has with you, couldn’t it?”

“So why did she do it?”

“Because she couldn’t help herself.” A pause. “I turned her down, of course.”