The X Code

The X Code is a suspense novel by He Ma following his Tibet Code, published by Haixia Publishing House in January 2015, about 330,000 characters long and unfolding across nine chapters. The story begins at a hospital bed: the protagonist Xiao Ke wakes from a coma to find he has completely lost his memory, with only two things left beside him—a train ticket and a string of codes of unknown origin. He does not know who he is or what mission he was carrying out; and while he flounders without a clue, pursuers of various factions are already closing in along the trail. Guided by the codes, Xiao Ke is drawn step by step into a vast conspiracy involving forces from several countries. He must, in a very short time, solve layer upon layer of nested puzzles, tell friend from foe, and trace his true identity—because his identity itself is the key to the whole affair. The novel interweaves the identity puzzle, memory flashbacks, and high-intensity action scenes of pursuit and counter-pursuit, with a pace close to cinema and dense reversals. The "X" in the title points to the protagonist's threefold unknowns: forgetting who he is, not knowing the purpose of his mission, and not knowing who the enemy is. The book advances layer by layer across nine chapters, with Chapter 9, "The Ultimate Counterattack," bringing the whole to a close.