Hou Tao was damn nervous. But he remained composed knowing that he belonged. He deserved to be right where he was. I’m the real deal, I earned it, I own this. It was his first day on the new job. Senior Scientist. At Thimk, the new king of the hill in Silicon Valley. Hou Tao’s every thought and notion were still voiced out in his head in Hokkien, the local dialect of his home city of Xiamen, in China’s Fujian province. Now, freshly armed with a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon and a high visibility, three-year post doc at the MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, Hou Tao, known in American circles as Tommy Hou, was ready. At MIT, a series of experiments and iterative approaches had yielded explosive insights into the human mind. Originally intended to merely advance machine learning and synthesis of information, Tommy’s group had stumbled upon some discoveries regarding reliable triggers involved in certain kinds of decision making. A recent article in Science, later summarized the work as having “created a spare set of keys to the human brain.”
After two and a half years, when Tommy finally stopped ignoring inquiries from Wall Street to Silicon Valley to Langley, Virginia, he very quickly had a stack of lucrative offers to sort through. Among the most persistent suitors was the Chinese government and a company he had never heard of, but later realized they were just a front for the Russian government. The conversations with China’s mindless, patriotic attache’s were tiring. With commitments for full support to obtain a green card from so many famous companies, he was wholly uninterested in returning to the chaos and squalor of his homeland. He loved his hometown and his family, but the idea of grinding away in some secret government lab in Beijing repulsed him.
What cemented his decision to stay in America was an experience he had during his recent trip to visit his parents in China. He had just finished a much needed two-week period of total immersion in family, food, sights and the sounds of his home, completely shutting off his overactive cortex to rest and reset. Tommy then arrived at the Xiamen airport to catch his flight to Taipei and then connect on an EVA Air nonstop to Boston. But as he passed through immigration, the officer seemed to stall. The officer never looked up, appearing to work, as if there were normal procedures to complete, but Tommy knew better, he was stalling. Maybe the computer system has a problem, Tommy thought. Minutes later, as the line of people behind him scoffed and scattered to other lines, a supervisor came over.
“Hou Tao. Come through here. I will take you to someone that needs to talk to you.”
“Who is it?”
“Party official. Stay calm and don’t act upset. You are not in trouble.” Tommy’s heart rate started to climb rapidly as chemicals released and massaged his system into a state of high alert. There was an even more senior uniformed immigration official watching as they approached. The official opened the door behind him and beckoned Tommy to enter. Tommy slowed, wanting to see what was inside the room before blindly walking through the door. But, the immigration officer put a hand on his shoulder and abruptly ushered him in.
“Hou! take a seat,” blurted a thin, bespectacled man in a cheap blue suit. He was standing, while two other seated men, a little older and more worn looking, simply observed. The room had the classic layout of massive Chinese faux leather armchairs, arranged in a U shape, with two chairs at one end and several chairs lining each side. There was a rosewood side table between each chair, with ashtrays and covered tea cups. A plump, rosy-cheeked women in an apron, nervously poured hot water into the cups from a large, glass-lined thermal jug. Despite the strict prohibition on smoking, the two stoic party officials that were seated, puffed away, filling the room with the rank odor of strong Chinese tobacco. The thin man motioned for Tommy to sit in one of the end chairs. This was the seat reserved for the guest of honor.
“My flight is going to take off soon,” protested Tommy, his voice a bit shaky.
“No, it won’t. It will be slightly delayed,” declared one of the older officials, confidently. It was all very unsettling. Tommy now put together that they knew about his flight, flagged him in the system and were waiting here to pull him aside, all very orchestrated.
“What is this all about?”
“You have been honored by the invitation to join the most elite corps of software security scientists in the country. Yet you refuse to accept such an honor and serve your country where it has the greatest need.”
“Is that a crime? I have more work to do, to finish a very important project. I can only hope to complete this work in a few places. They are all in the USA. It is my career interest.”
The man who had been silent thus far, now joined. “Congratulations!” Tommy now understood with the utterance of just one word, that this man was really the one in charge.
“What for?” Tommy answered, very puzzled.
“Satisfying your career interest. That is very nice.” The tone was clearly sarcastic. Tommy’s stomach turned. “You must answer the calling for the sake of national interest!” The man’s tone rose sharply. Unaccustomed to such treatment and such a situation, Tommy felt paralyzed. “Your parents will be disappointed to hear of the opportunity you seem to reject.”
“I did not reject. No one told me anything specific before. They just told me that I should apply my education in China and keep the intellectual resources of China strong. You didn’t tell me anything specific either. Now you threaten me with my parents?” Tommy was shocked by his own temerity. His head was pounding as his heart raced even more. Tommy was wide-eyed, awaiting his next reprimand. The man in charge just held his gaze, flat and unshaken. Then the unexpected happened. He smiled.
“Hou Tao, have some tea. Relax. Your plane will wait. The idiots that spoke to you in the USA, I was informed that they had been very detailed. But it does not surprise me in the least to hear that they have failed in their responsibility. Spoiled and soft. Big shots living in America. I will deal with that.” Tommy did relax a notch as he took a deep whiff of the fragrant tea. He was suddenly shocked when the senior official abruptly switched to perfect English. “Let me clear the air,” he spouted, ironically, as he took a deep drag on the pricey Chunghwa cigarette, and obscured the air between them. He offered up a stick to Tommy, who immediately held up a flat palm in polite refusal. “These others don’t speak a word of English. I know it for a fact. Which is why they are here. So you and I can have a private conversation.”
“You have had a perfect life. Your father is low level enough to not have moved around, and get caught up in the political games. At his age, being a party secretary of a district of Xiamen is ideal. He will be able to finish a respectable career and retire comfortably. He has been a good father to you. Hefei, the top technical university, and then grad school in the United States. Yes, you are a lucky young man. But, I don’t mean to downplay your hard work.”
Tommy responded in Chinese. “My father made my luck. It wasn’t easy for him. To pay for it. He is not a corrupt man like most others.” Tommy realized the error in saying such a thing, and he scanned the room for larcenous reactions. He did detect troubling body language. Oh shit. Tommy processed rapidly. How do they know so much? Am I in trouble? Is my father in trouble? “What is going on here?” Tommy was suddenly more emboldened, his imaginary first amendment rights now distorting the true reality.
“Your parents. Your father in particular. Nothing would please him more than to know that we are having this conversation right now.”
“Does he know?” Tommy captured instantaneous reactions from the three others present. They had no concept of the extent to which his skills, which to them were merely potential tools of state security, weapons of global competition, allowed him access into their very souls. His understanding of human behavior was paramount, essential in the merging of man and machine. The thin man told all, simply in the way he glanced toward his boss, in his own attempt to witness a reaction of human frailty. The second in command, who had initiated the interrogation, also shared the truth as his eyes suddenly dove to avoid contact with Tommy’s. These were predictable behaviors. The boss acted completely otherwise. His eyes widened and his brow furrowed immediately, in an expression of complete surprise. Oh, he is good. But Tommy already had his answer. It saddened him and he looked down, in a gesture that left no doubt as to his conclusion.
The senior leader dared not embarrass himself with a lie. Instead, he wisely moved on. The point had been made, to leak this insight, as a means to chip away at Tommy’s resolve. Their research was clear. Tommy’s father was the main figure in his life and Tommy was still young enough to feel the tether of his youth. “Hou Tao, you can board the plane now. But before you do, I want to ask you a favor. Come with me to Hangzhou, for a few days only. I want you to go back and continue your work in Silicon Valley. But first, I want you to see something. I promise you. Five days from now, no matter what, you will be on a flight to Boston, sitting in first class.”
Hou Tao’s first day jitters at Thimk had little to do with starting a new job in the most prestigious AI research group in the world. His confidence was unshakable with regard to his technical prowess. Besides, his task was to build an entirely new team, in a new area of study. An area where he was uniquely qualified. His jitters had everything to do with secrets he now carried, along with a specific assignment. He wasn’t yet sure exactly what he was going to do, but the situation clouded his thinking. It entirely distracted him from his true ambitions.
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