#45517

La felicità di ogni bambino è la felicità più grande per tutta la famiglia! Io sto con Fondazione Ariel nella campagna SMS solidale “Nessuno è disabile alla felicità”. È meraviglioso aiutare chi aiuta! Sosteniamo il nuovo progetto “Anche la mia famiglia sorride”, volto a creare una serie di attività per le famiglie con bambini con paralisi cerebrale e disabilità neuromotorie. È possibile donare 2 euro con un SMS al 45517, oppure fino a 5 euro con una telefonata da rete fissa. Abbiamo tempo fino al 12 giugno… non rimandiamo a domani un aiuto che possiamo dare oggi.

        Breakfast was butter tea and tsampa again. The monks distributed it quietly, talking amongst themselves. There were more people there, and Joseph knew he hadn't missed them. They had come up the mountain in the night. Lowell was standing with people Joseph had never met. He drank his tea slowly. When Joseph had gotten his bowl he went to him. "Lowell," he said.     "Morning, Joseph."     "Could I talk to you in private?"     Without a word, the others left them. "It's a beautiful day."     "It is." Joseph took a sip of tea and choked it down. "What was your mission here?"     Lowell smiled and looked into his bowl before returning his gaze to Joseph's. "Find the lama. Document him. Await orders."     The instructions were identical to Cordell's. "That's it."     "That's all."     "Would you have been asked to take possession of the lama?"     "I'm sure." He drank deep. He wiped his mouth on a sleeve. "You're an agent."     "I'm working with GESTALT."     Lowell raised his eyebrows.         "You haven't been responding to your handler," Joseph continued.     "They want me to continue with my mission."     "Why aren't you?"     "Because it doesn't matter to me. I don't want America to have the lama. I want him here. And I'm here."     Joseph drank. "I want you to help me with something." Lowell nodded at him. "The Chinese army is coming here. I thought they would have arrived already, but they're coming, and they're planning to take the lama. I want you to help me stop them."     "How?"     "There are weapons here. The monks took them, but they're here somewhere. We need someone who can speak Tibetan. We can stop this."     "You can't stop China," Lowell said. "If we repel them, they'll come again."     "We can hide him. We can help the monks move him. He can be kept here."     "No matter what we do, Joseph, they'll find a way."     "Then what are you planning to do, Lowell? When they come for him, what are you going to do about it?"     "I don't know." He drank down to the puddle.     "Lowell, this place is special. The lama is more powerful than I thought. He can't go to a partisan group."     "I agree. But what can we do?" He left, and got in line for tsampa. Joseph finished his tea and ran in behind him.     "When I first saw the lama, I had a vision," he said. "You were there, and you gave me a sand pot. You told me the lama had spoken to you. And the story he told you was about dreams, and cycles, and waking up." The monk spooned tsampa into Lowell's tea. "It made me think that it's what I need."     "It's what we all need," said Lowell, swirling his fingers in the slurry.     "Exactly!" Joseph got his and he followed Lowell. "Exactly. We all need it, Lowell. Everyone in the world needs it. That's why we can't let him be taken."     "He doesn't have a very long range, here."     Joseph licked his lips and mixed the tsampa. "We can find a way. But until that time we need to keep him safe."     "What if the world doesn't want him?" Lowell rolled up his ball. "Do you know so much better?"     "All I know is we're running out of time."     The dragon was cleaning his pistol. "Your friend there; she killed Deng?"     "Good fucking riddance."     He shrugged. "It was an impressive job she did."     "She's no slouch."     "Not at all." He stood up from his table and walked to Angela's bed.     "You touch her, and you're dead."     He looked over with surprise and stepped back with his hands up. "I'm sorry, I didn't think. I wanted to see her face."     Joel glowered. "There's not much left."     "The monks will work their magic." He went back to the table and picked up a brush and the pistol barrel. "They know more than we give them credit for."     "Hey, answer me something. When we were at the compound, and you came in to talk to us, you made a mandala. How much of this is just an assignment, for you?"     The dragon quickly reassembled the gun. He aimed down the sights at a vase near the door. "As much as anyone. Nobody here is only following their orders. The lama interests me. I meditate, I keep a clear mind. But, I do as I'm told."        "What exactly is your rank?" The dragon paused, and tilted his head. He spoke something short in Chinese. "They're here," Joel realized.     "I guess you won't see the lama after all."     The lama sat in the chamber. Again the smoke filled the room and dozens of visitors knelt before him and cleared their minds. Joseph watched the lama's face, for facial tics, breath, though he knew he wouldn't see it. The ravens flashed to his mind. Something bad was about to happen. There was only a short time. Lowell was sitting next to him. Emilio in front, again. Alina was missing. She was setting something up. She'd told Joseph to sit in the chamber with the others while she prepared.     He thought on their options. Lowell was right, if they fought off an assault on the monastery, the soldiers would just come back, in greater force. What needed to happen was to find some way to keep the monk safely where he was. Failing that, to get him to another location where he would be in their custody. They could take their time working out a method of propagating the signal.  He knew she was right. Like how Lowell, and Kelly were right. The solution was arrogant, exploitative. But what was the alternative? The news coverage had sealed the monk's fate. With the world knowing about him, the only certainty would be that someone would take him.     "We're ready," said Alina. She pulled him off the ground. Lost in thought, he had melted into the floor. "Get the others."     In the yard, Lowell, Emilio, and Diane joined Alina and Joseph beneath the stone Buddha. "We've got a short time left before the army moves in. Our equipment is being kept in the building the monks serve breakfast out of. We're the best our countries could send. We can stop this." Alina looked bored, not even fooling herself with the show of teamwork. The others seemed not to notice, minds blunted and hazy with the lama's influence. "We get into the building. There are people here who can speak with the monks. Find one, and we'll negotiate. They know what's happening as well as we do. Convince them to let us help." Lowell started to give the same spiel about moral relativism that he tried to pawn off on Joseph but Alina cut him off. "The fact of the matter is, if we don't stop this happening, the lama is gone. We can negotiate details and argue later."     "We need to do this," said Joseph.     Emilio nodded. "We need time to figure out a solution."     Diana assented as well and after locating a well-traveled hiker they went to the kitchen building. "Tell them they need to let us in."     The hiker, who was a late middle aged man with grey hair and who looked as if he wouldn't like to wear shoes in warmer places, spoke to the monks at the door, who were preparing the butter tea for lunch. They spoke back to him. "They say we aren't allowed in."     "Did you explain why we need in?" demanded Alina. "Tell them the lama is at stake."     "They don't care. They already know what you want."     "What we want? Tell them again."     The front gates crashed. Alina spun around.     "Time for me to go," said the dragon. "Don't interfere."     Joel had stood up from bed and was dressing. "Deng told us that we would do the same as you if we had the lama."     "Oh?"     "He was wrong."     "You have no idea what we have planned." He pulled on a vest of armor he'd brought in.     "What is it, then?"     "I have no reason to tell you. You're weak. I don't have to convince you of anything. Don't interfere," he repeated, and left.     Alina jumped over the table, spilling the huge bowl of tea and scattering the monks. "Joseph, let's go," she yelled. Joseph hesitated, then followed her across the table. Lowell looked horrified. "Too soon," Alina muttered. "They came way too soon."     "They came as soon as they were ready."     She threw open the doors of a big cabinet. The weapons were inside. Alina passed one to Joseph, and gathered up a few and carried them away. The monks hurried up, speaking angrily, scolding them. She pushed them aside. "Joseph, take position at the Buddha."     The guns were passed out. Emilio and Joseph stood opposite each other, Emilio taking cover behind one of the pillars. Lowell held a reluctant pistol and Diane had been given another Type 95. The doors boomed again. The soldiers were ramming it.     "You do what you have to, right?" Joseph yelled to Emilio. The doors burst open and they started firing.         "Ange, wake up." She stirred and moaned at the pain. "We've gotta go. The army's come." Angela's eyes slit open. Her face was still slick black. "Come on." Joel picked her up and tried to set her down on her feet, but she fell and he had to support her.     "I can't do it," she said.     "Ange, they're coming and they're going to leave with the lama."     "I don't care." She pushed away from him and fell back onto the bed. "I'm done, Joel."     "So this is it. GESTALT's first failed mission."        "Fuck it. Fuck it. Fuck Cordell. What has he ever given us?" She would have buried her face in the pillow if it didn't hurt so badly. "I don't want a part in this."     The smoke cleared. The Chinese hadn't fired a shot. "I'm out," Joseph said quietly. Emilio nodded.     "Alina, fall back!" he yelled. He looked over his shoulder. Lowell and Diane looked too. Alina was gone.     "The lama," Joseph realized. He threw his gun down and ran for the alley.     "They're coming in," Emilio called.     Joseph could hear the monastery crumbling around him as bullets hammered into the ancient walls. He squeezed through the alley, the cramped tunnel dragging at him and pulling him back. "Alina!" he shouted. The lama was still sitting on his mat at the end of the room, shrouded in smoke.     He burst into the chamber. Alina was struggling, fighting against a Chinese officer with a sharp face. "Joseph, help!" she cried. The man had her restrained, wrapping her arms around her back. Other soldiers were there as well. They must have been staying in the monastery with the rest of them.     "Too late," said the man. "Come here." He jerked his head, beckoning Joseph. "Let them tie you, and you'll be safe."     Emilio ran in with the others and came to a skidding stop.     "Stand down, we've won."         The soldiers brought in a large black cage with shaded glass panels on each wall. Two of them grabbed corners of the lama's mat and lifted him up and into the cage. With a hissing click, the cage door vacuumed shut and a red light at the front blinked on.      The monks watched silently. They seemed to know that this had been coming. Alina glowered, at the soldiers, at Joseph, at the lama in the cage. Her plan would have taken less than a minute. And now, she, and Joseph, and all the foreign agents were watching the worst possible outcome. Whatever objections Joseph had to her plan, almost anything would have been better than seeing the soldiers take the lama away in a box.     Soldiers watched them until the lama was secured in a truck, then untied the captives and left, guns trained. Then, they were gone.