Cryptonomicon

"The Chinese have already done it. They cut an older cable--first-generation optical fiber--joining Korea to Nippon. The cable wasn't that important--they only did it as a warning shot. And what's the rule of thumb about governments cutting submarine cables?"

"That it's like nuclear war," Randy says. "Easy to start. Devastating in its results. So no one does it."

"But if the Chinese have cut a cable, then other governments with a vested interest in throttling information flow can say, 'Hey, the Chinese did it, we need to show that we can retaliate in kind.' "

"Is that actually happening?"

"No, no, no!" Avi says. They've stopped in front of the largest display of needlenose pliers Randy has ever seen. "It's all posturing. It's not aimed at other governments so much as at the entrepreneurs who own and operate the new cables."

Light dawns in Randy's mind. "Such as the Dentist."

"The Dentist has put more money into privately financed submarine cables than just about anyone. He has a minority stake in that cable that the Chinese cut between Korea and Nippon. So he's trapped like a rat. He has no choice--no choice at all--other than to do as he's told."

"And who's giving the orders?"

"I'm sure that the Chinese are very big in this--they don't have any internal checks and balances in their government, so they are more prone to do something that is grossly irregular like this."

"And they obviously have the most to lose from unfettered information flow."

"Yeah. But I'm just cynical enough to suspect that a whole lot of other governments are right behind them."

"If that's true," Randy says, "then everything is completely fucked. Sooner or later a cable-cutting war is going to break out. All the cables will get chopped through. End of story."

"The world doesn't work that way anymore, Randy. Governments get together and negotiate. Like they did in Brussels just after Christmas. They come up with agreements. War does not break out. Usually."

"So--there's an agreement in place?"

Avi shrugs. "As best as I can make out. A balance of power has been struck between the people who own navies--i.e., the people who have the ability to cut cables with impunity--and the people who own and operate cables. Each side is afraid of what the other can do to it. So they have come to a genteel understanding. The bureaucratic incarnation of it is IDTRO."

"And the Dentist is in on it."

"Precisely."

"So maybe the Ordo siege really was ultimately directed by the government."

"I very much doubt that Comstock ordered it," Avi says. "I think it was the Dentist demonstrating his loyalty."

"How about the Crypt? Is the sultan party to this understanding?"

Avi shrugs. "Pragasu isn't saying much. I told him what I have just told you. I laid out my theory of what is going on. He looked tolerantly amused. He did not confirm or deny. But he did give me cause to believe that the Crypt is still going to be up and running on schedule."

"See, I find that hard to believe," Randy says. "It seems like the Crypt is their worst nightmare."

"Whose worst nightmare?"

"Any government that needs to collect taxes."

"Randy, governments will always find ways to collect taxes. If worse comes to worst, the IRS can just base everything on property taxes--you can't hide real estate in cyberspace. But keep in mind that the U.S. government is only a part of this thing--the Chinese are very big in it, too."

"Wing!" Randy blurts. He and Avi cringe and look around them. The pasocon otakudon't care. A man selling rainbow-colored wire ribbons eyes them with polite curiosity, then looks away. They move out of the bazaar and onto the sidewalk. It has started to rain. A dozen nearly identical young women in miniskirts and high heels march in wedge formation down the center of the street sporting huge umbrellas blazoned with the face of a video game character.

"Wing's digging for gold in Bundok," Randy says. "He thinks he knows where Golgotha is. If he finds it, he'll need a really special kind of bank."

"He's not the only guy in the world who needs a special bank," Avi says. "Over the years, Switzerland has done a hell of a lot of business with governments, or people connected with governments. Why didn't Hitler invade Switzerland? Because the Nazis couldn't have done without it. So the Crypt definitely fills a niche."

"Okay," Randy says, "so the Crypt will be allowed to remain in existence."

"It has to. The world needs it," Avi says. "And we'll need it, when we dig up Golgotha."

Suddenly Avi's got an impish look on his face; he looks to have shed about ten years of age. This gets a belly-laugh out of Randy, the first time he's really laughed in a couple of months. His mood has gone through some seismic shift all of a sudden, the whole world looks different to him. "It's not enough to know where it is. Enoch Root says that these hoards were buried deep in mines, down in the hard rock. So we're not going to get that gold out without launching a pretty major engineering project."