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CORRIDOR OF MYSTERY |
DARK CORRIDORS VOL. 2, No. 3 |
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By Deborah & Joel Shlian |
A Chinese-American doctor is lured into China's diabolical scheme
By
RON MILLER
of TheColumnists.com
In Chinese, the "shou" is the symbol of longevity.
In late 20th century China, longevity was a much desired thing,
especially for the aging rulers of the People's Republic, who
saw new challenges to their firm hold on the government of the
world's largest society and feared what might happen if younger,
reform-minded leaders had the chance to succeed them.
So, imagine how they might react if they knew an aged medical researcher in their own country had discovered a way to prolong the life of humans well beyond 100 years--but refused to divulge his secrets to them, even after considerable torture.
That's the central premise of "Shou," the new thriller by Deborah and Joel Shlian ("Wednesday's Child," "Double Illusion," "The Experiment"), which manages to address the thorny issues surrounding the prolonging of human life in an already overcrowded world while entertaining us with an effective suspense plot that also has an overlay of romance.
The central character is Dr. Lili Quan, a young Chinese-American physician who doesn't speak her ancestral language and has no particular affinity for the society her mother left as a youngster at the time of the 1949 communist takeover. She doesn't know she's the granddaughter of Dr. Ni-Fu Cheng, the brilliant researcher who may hold the key to slowing the aging process in humans. She always was told her grandfather died after sending his family off to America.
But the villainous "old guard" in China are keenly aware of who she is--and they hatch a brilliant scheme aimed at luring her to China, where they hope to pry the secrets out of Dr. Cheng by threatening the life of the granddaughter he believes is safely hidden in America.
The Shlians have woven a complex tapestry of intrigue around Dr. Kwan, lining up several opposing factions, all bent on seizing the secret of longevity as soon as Dr. Cheng can be persuaded to show it to someone, presumably his granddaughter, Lili.
There's the profligate son of a South Korean billionaire business tycoon, who makes a deal with a treacherous Asian pirate to take over his father's empire, then use the secret Chinese formula to make it the world's richest and most powerful private company. A giant American drug empire also is anxious to seize the formula and a renegade CIA man is helping out. Also part of the mix are the rebellious Chinese students, who want to topple the present government as soon as the aging leaders relax their grip on power sufficiently.
Before she's caught up in all this intrigue, Lili believes she's falling in love with a young American named Dylan, who has come to her aid on several occasions and has begun a growing romantic relationship with her. However, he knows little about her hasty plan to visit China to take a promising offer for study there--and is thousands of miles away when she realizes she's been lured into a trap.
Her only hope may lie in Chi-Wen Zhou, a handsome young researcher who has been her grandfather's closest assistant. He's been delegated to escort her through China and bring her to the place where her grandfather's research is being conducted. What she doesn't know is that Zhou is working for the "old guard" as their No. 1 Judas goat.
"Shou" cranks up the action considerably once Lili meets her grandfather and learns that he wants her to somehow escape her Chinese guards and take his secret back to the west. The reader climbs aboard a roller coaster midway through 400-page thriller and it becomes increasingly difficult to get off until you ride it all the way down to terra firma.
Though the longevity formula may strike some as a fanciful core for a thriller, it's really not all that far-fetched now that genetic researchers believe they're rapidly closing in on the discovery of a genetic mechanism that "turns off" the natural system of cell repair in humans, starting the aging process. Some insist it may be possible to re-program humans to live much longer lives.
That whole issue is debated thoroughly as Dr. Cheng wonders who really should control such a discovery ultimately. Along the way, the Shlians also give us an interesting portrait of late 20th century medicine in communist China, where the latest technology often walks hand in hand with primitive hygiene and folk-medical solutions to problems.
It's a pretty good read--and it also leaves you with one indelible image that seems to symbolize the heart of the novel: A peek into that large room where Dr. Cheng's ancient, 100-years-plus patients routinely go through the motions of their daily tai-chi exercises in seclusion, knowing they're living well beyond their alloted time, but knowing also that they're going nowhere fast as research hostages in their severely regimented society.
© 2000 by Ron Miller.
Ron
Miller is the author of "Mystery! A Celebration," official
companion book to PBS' "Mystery!" series. You can buy
a personally autographed copy of his book by clicking "Shopping
Mall" below. Read his latest column on the official PBS
Mystery! website by clicking here on MYSTERY!
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