It is Shadrach's job to keep the Khan alive, and the Khan's wish never to die.
"It's absurd, Katya."
"Undoubtedly it's absurd. And it'll be just as absurd the day they come for you and put the electropes on your head and obliterate every trace of Shadrach Mordecai and pour the soul of Genghis Mao into your pretty brown body."
"My pretty brown body," Shadrach says, "is full of complicated and irreplaceable medical devices that register every twitch of Genghis Mao's metabolism. I can protect his health in a way that was never before possible in medical history."
"Think, Shadrach, think! He won't need all your fancy implants once he moves into your body. He won't need you as his dolor ... won't need you at all...."
"Smoothly written ... continues Sliverberg's fascinating speculations on the early 21st century."