“Jackpot!” The Pillar skews the plane, ready to land. “We’re in Tibet, baby? I hope you brought your orange robe along.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“We’re somewhere near Burang, China. Tibet’s autonomous region.”
“Why?”
“Why what?”
“Why are we here?”
“This is where IBM keeps their Deep Blue machine,” The Pillar says with a happy face, already waving to a few monks waiting for us below.
“Why in here? This seems like the last place on Earth to hide such a machine.”
“You said it yourself. Bury a genius machine in a monastery in the snow. Genius.” He reaches for something in the back with one hand. “Here. You have to get dressed in this.”
I grab the monk’s cloth. “Do you want me to dress up in this?”
“We have to act like monks or they won’t let us see the machine. Trust me, you’ll love it here.”
Before I have a chance to argue, the plane lands with consecutive thuds onto the snow. It’s such a clumsy landing that most of our plane’s nose is buried in white, and there is something burning in the back.
“My best landing yet,” The Pillar says. “The last one, everyone died but me.”
Chapter 30
Outside Burang, China, Tibet Autonomous Region
The beautiful monks welcome us in their orange and red robes as if they hadn’t seen people outside their tribe in years.
I trot in my new boots The Pillar gave me and feel the chill of cold, though I’m wearing a lot of layers of orange. A few steps closer, I realize The Pillar is still inside the plane.
“Pillar? What’s keeping you behind?” I turn and say.
It’s only seconds before he appears from behind the plane. He is wearing a lush orange robe and looks pretty much like a Tibetan monk now. Not just because of the robe, but because he’s shaved his head bald.
“Seriously?” I grit my teeth.
“I am an expert in communication and we need to blend in. Most monks here are bald, so I figured I should too.”
“Do you know how long it’ll take for your hair to grow back?”
“They’ve got pills for that now,” he says. “I didn’t like to comb and wash my hair each day anyways. Always wanted to feel the drizzle of water on my bald head in the shower. It was on my bucket list.”
A closer look, I realize it’s a wig. A bald wig.
Behind us, Tibetans approach us. They speak in a language I don’t understand, but an old man, presumably their leader, smiles broadly and holds me gently by the shoulder.
I bow my head with respect, not knowing what to say.
“Alice of Wonderland!” The old man switches to English.
“You know me?”
“Who doesn’t?” He pulls out a copy of Through the Looking Glass, this one with a red cover.
“You’ve been reading about me?” I am flattered.
“In Chinese!” He shows me that the copy is in their own language. Everything is read from top to bottom instead from left to right. “The monks are crazy about you here.”
“Oh.” I am speechless, wondering if monks dismiss their prayers to read a children’s book.
The old man nears me, whispering, “The monks spend their time chasing rabbits in the snow, wishing they’d fall into a hole. It’s either prayers or rabbit holes around here. I’m Xian, like Xiangqi, named after Tibetan chess game.”
“Nice to meet you, Xian,” I say. “You have your own chess here?”
“The oldest in the world,” he says proudly. “They will tell you the one in Marostica is the oldest, but they don’t know squat.”
“Squat?” I raise an eyebrow.
“I learned English in Brooklyn, New York.” He laughs. “You know our chess game is said to contain the secret of the universe. The Nazis sent their expeditions to Tibet, wanting to find out about it.”
“Nazis.” I frown. “And squat.”
“Or crap.” He mirrors my eyebrows.
“So I assume you know this man.” I switch my glance toward The Pillar, assuming he may recognize him as the Caterpillar from the books, too.
The old man turns and faces the bald Pillar, and his smile broadens. “Of course I know him,” he says. “Who doesn’t know the famous Cao Pao Wong?”
Chapter 31
“Cao Pao Wong?” I glare at The Pillar.
“Better than Kung Fu Panda.” The Pillar remarks.
“You were here before?”
“It’s a long story,” The Pillar changes the subject and turns to Xian. “We need a favor.”
“Shoot,” Xian says, and I can’t fathom his dialect or slang. Maybe he is some sort of a modern monk.
“We have a puzzle that led us to you.” The Pillar shows him the note we found in the chess piece.
“Sticky note!” Xian seems fascinated with it. He sticks it on his head. “Haven’t seen one of those in about… hmmm… forty years.”
“I’ll send you a tank full of sticky notes later,” The Pillar says. “As you can see, it has the word Deep Blue written on one side.”
“White Stones on the other,” Xian says.
“Let’s stick to the part you know about,” The Pillar says.
“You mean the machine?” Xian looks all serious and worried.
The Pillar nods.