YING ZHENG'S NUCLEAR BOMB
Part Two
After Li Si left, I slumped to the ground, leaning against the wall and muttering to myself, "I spent my entire life savings on a one-way trip through time, only to find my own death..."
"Don't lose heart," Dodge said, trying to cheer me up. "Maybe someone will come to rescue us."
"Rescue? Who?" Since I was going to die anyway, I didn't bother being polite. "You think there's a 21st-century embassy here?"
Dodge didn't get angry. He just patted my shoulder and leaned back against the wall to rest. The others did the same, withdrawing into themselves like closed clams. We sat in silence, waiting for the hour of our death.
That evening, the jailer brought our last meal. The Warring States period had no delicacies to speak of—just the same flatbread that had gotten us into this mess, along with some salty meat paste. Holding up the bread, I asked the jailer, "Brother, what's this thing called?"
The jailer replied, "Wowo."
"Wowo!" I slammed the bread to the ground, shattering it. "If it weren't for this thing, we wouldn't be in here!"
"Give it a rest," Dodge said. "They have ten thousand ways to test you. This is the real Qin empire, not a history lesson."
A moment later, a voice called from outside the cell: "I want to interrogate the time-travel felons that were just brought in."
The jailer said, "Commander Han, you're putting me in a difficult position. The Chancellor gave strict orders that these are important prisoners. No one may question or visit them."
Then came the sound of close-quarters fighting—grunts, thuds, the crash of bodies. Within seconds, a man in military garb stood at the cell door, a ring of keys in hand. Dodge leapt to his feet. "Slater!"
I was bewildered. Someone was actually coming to save us?
The man called Slater unlocked the cell and freed us from our shackles. Dodge went to embrace him, but Slater urged, "This is no place to talk. Follow me, quickly!"
Slater dressed us in jailers' uniforms, grabbed the duty tokens, and led us out of the dungeon, where several horses were already saddled and waiting. We mounted up and rode hard for the outskirts of Xianyang, not stopping until we'd covered thirty or forty li.
"We should be safe here," Slater said, reining in. "Qin's household registration system is extremely strict—five families to a bao, ten to a lian. Unfamiliar faces can't operate easily in Xianyang. You were too careless."
"Come here, let me look at you." Dodge dismounted and pulled Slater into a bear hug, then held him at arm's length. "You've bulked up! Great Qin suits you, it seems."
"It's not like I had a choice—I have to fight to survive. Everything's forced."
"You're a commander now? Not bad at all!"
Slater gave a bitter laugh. "You think I wanted this title? I dream of going back every night. When I first came here, they told me it would be three years. Three years turned into more years, and now it's been six, Captain!"
Captain? I stared at Dodge in astonishment. What kind of man was this?
Dodge gave a rueful smile. "Slater, I have some bad news for you. The so-called Reverse Project was a sham from the start. The government never intended to bring us back. As of when we departed, the project hadn't made a single bit of progress."
Slater's eyes went wide. "You mean... we're stuck in Qin for the rest of our lives?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Damn it!" Slater slammed his fist into a tree.
Dodge patted his shoulder. "But now we're here. We'll face it together. We're all doing this for the new era. Future generations will thank us."
I was growing more confused by the second. Dodge made the introductions: "Slater, these gentlemen you don't yet recognize—they're scientists newly recruited by the base, top nuclear physics specialists. And this is Quinn—he's not one of ours, he tagged along by accident."
Slater nodded in acknowledgment. Dodge asked, "The task I gave you before I left—how's it coming along?"
"It's pretty much done, right around here."
We tethered the horses and followed Slater into the mountains. He led us through a narrow, well-concealed crevice that opened into a vast natural cavern. Slater lit the torches, and the space brightened. On the ground stood several massive molds cast in bronze, shaped like alchemical furnaces.
"It was no small effort, sneaking all this together," Slater said.
Dodge tapped one of the furnaces and nodded with satisfaction. "You've worked hard these past years."
I could hold back no longer. "What are these things? Who are you people?"
"There's no harm in telling you." Dodge seemed to transform before my eyes. He turned slowly, fixing me with eyes sharp as a hawk's. "Have you heard of the Revival Alliance?"
4
The Revival Alliance had emerged in the early 21st century—a clandestine resistance organization that opposed the existing social order and openly defied the invisible rule of the great conglomerates, even resorting to violence. Consequently, the Alliance had been the target of relentless government crackdowns across nations and had been nearly eradicated.
I never imagined that crossing into the Warring States would still entangle me with them. What kind of karma was this?
"You're really from the Revival Alliance?" I could scarcely believe it.
"That's right." Dodge nodded. "I'm Ma Qiangdong, captain of the First Action Team."
"Then... why not stay in the 21st century and fight the conglomerates? Why come to Great Qin?"
"Every government hunted us without mercy. The Alliance was on its last legs—barely sustainable. Under those conditions, we formulated the Genesis Project. This is Han Dashun—six years ago, the Alliance dispatched him here to infiltrate and go underground, waiting for exactly this day."
Slater said, "Captain, I've completed all the tasks you assigned. Now can you tell me the full scope of the Genesis Project?"
"Of course. I've come here to execute the Genesis Project's final phase." Dodge spoke each word with deliberate weight: "Kill Ying Zheng. I will become King of Qin."
"What?" We were all stunned.
"Did you catch the news before we departed?" Dodge turned to look at me. "The excavation of Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum has succeeded—it's been called the eighth wonder of the world, the largest imperial tomb museum ever built. The ribbon-cutting ceremony is scheduled for September 8, 2046. It's a massive event—all the major conglomerates will fly to Mount Li to attend. Ha! September eighth—they've got a flair for dramatic dates. 'When the autumn comes and the eighth month arrives, after I bloom, all other flowers shall perish!'"
"After you bloom—you mean—"
Bang! Dodge spread his hands outward in an exploding gesture. "Nuclear detonation."
My blood ran cold. "You want to plant a nuclear bomb inside Qin Shi Huang's mausoleum?"
"Bingo!" Dodge gave me a thumbs-up. "Kill the King of Qin, I take his place, unify the realm just as he did, build the same grand tomb—all I have to do is wait until that ribbon-cutting ceremony..."
"Hold on," I interrupted. "This is impossible. Time is protected by the law of historical causality. If we change certain events, it's equivalent to making a different choice for history, which would spawn a parallel world. We'd never reach our original era, and those conglomerates might never even exist!"
"No, you're wrong." One of the scientists who had been silent until now spoke up. "The law of historical causality isn't that rigid. It has a margin of fluctuation. As long as we don't disrupt major historical events or alter the fundamental trajectory of history, causality won't be affected, and no parallel world will be spawned."
"So," Dodge said triumphantly, "I'll do everything Ying Zheng did. The only difference is that I'll bury a nuclear bomb beneath his tomb. That hardly affects the course of history, does it? Hahaha! Of course, after 2046 is another matter entirely."
So this was the so-called Genesis Project—the most absurd and audacious plan I had ever heard. "But," I said, "first you'd need to actually have a nuclear bomb."
A mysterious smile crept onto Dodge's face. He gestured at the four scientists. "Why do you think I brought them? They're the top elite in nuclear physics!"
"Just the four of them?"
"Of course not just the four! Once I become King of Qin, the entire power and resources of the Qin state are at my disposal. With the technology these four command, plus the full might of Qin, developing a nuclear bomb from scratch would take only a decade or so! And we've already taken the first step—" Dodge slapped the massive alchemical furnaces. "We'll modify these into reaction vessels to extract the first batch of uranium. With these radioactive materials, and with Slater's cooperation, we can eliminate Ying Zheng without anyone being the wiser."
"But—even if you eliminate Ying Zheng, how do you become King of Qin yourself?"
"You think Slater's six years here were just spent secretly building reaction vessels?" Dodge patted Slater's shoulder. "He was a plastic surgeon in his previous life—one who specialized in facial prosthetics, so skilled they called him the Divine Hand. Wear one of his face masks, and not even Ying Zheng's own mother could tell the difference."