Interlude T

  Grozny, Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, Erd simulation

  Year 2000 of the Current Era (local time)

  In the residential suburb of Novye Aldy, officers from the OMON riot police search civilian Chechen homes. The officers are dressed in green or grey uniforms with balaclava masks; most of them are drunk. Officially they are here to check residents’ documents, but their real objective is loot and entertainment. Residents who fail to procure sufficient valuables are summarily executed, while the women they encounter are gang-raped and sometimes strangled. Walking down an intersection from the main road, the officers enter the home of a young woman named Toita, who is eight months pregnant with her first child; after raping her, they execute her with gunshots to the stomach and chest.

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  As Toita falls dying to the ground, the fetus inside her starts kicking ferociously. Unbeknownst to Toita’s drunken assailants, there is a complex rhythm to these kicks involving eighth, quarter, and half notes. Should one interpret these notes in terms of a ternary number system, the following message would appear: “We are willing to supply weapons sufficient to neutralize the current threat. However, it is imperative that this support cannot be traced back to us. To accomplish this, we will, assuming an agreement between us can be reached, transfer to you the capacity to construct your own versions of the weapons we possess.”