Feng shook his head again. “They punish us more. One boy dies. I probably gonna die, if I keep on the way I am. Instead, I meet her.” Su-Yong Shu.
“She came first time when I’m fifteen. Full grown. Stronger than any instructor. But wild. Not a very good soldier. Whole program, down the drain. Soldiers no good. They want her help, yeah? To control us. Make us better slaves.
“First time I ever see her… I’m being punished. Insubordination. So, pain stim. Which means I feel pain everywhere. All over, inside, fire pain, sharp pain, beating pain, all pain, all at once. And I’m curled up trying to fight it, trying show my brothers I’m tough, when she walks in.”
Kade saw it through Feng’s eyes. The barracks. The institutional gray walls and cold concrete floor. The metal frame bunk beds with the rolled-up olive green blankets. The drab brown footlocker that held every possession Feng had. The sergeant instructor pressing the button on the remote that sent Feng’s nervous system into a primeval hell. The door opening. Shu, standing there, in white. A formidable man in a dark uniform next to her. His face an ugly scowl, his shoulders bearing insignia. An officer. A colonel.
“Not just a colonel. The colonel. Man in charge of whole program. And she says to him ‘Stop! Stop this!’ And he says ‘No. They’re not human. We teach them to behave through pain.’”
Feng smiled grimly.
“Then she slaps him. Hard. And she says, ‘This man is more human than you are.’ And she walks up to the sergeant instructor and yanks remote from his hand and turns it off.”
Feng shook his head in admiration.
Kade seemed surprised. “She could do that?”
Feng nodded. “This was maybe two years after she… you know. After she goes digital. After ascension. She’s first true posthuman. And she’s Chinese and making all kinds of discoveries the big bosses like. She thinks she can do anything.”
Feng shrugged, “Me, I just collapse, not sure what to do. Then she asks me, ‘What’s your name?’ and I say ‘Confucian Fist D-42, sir!’”
“’No,’ she says. ‘Your name.’” Feng laughed, then stopped talking for a while, let Kade soak up the shock he felt in that moment. A name. The idea of it!
“My whole life, they taught me that I’m not human. I’m a clone. A treaty violation. I’m a number. I do what I’m told. Su-Yong, she treats me like a human being.
“She changes everything. Next day, colonel is out. Pain stim remotes gone. Training changes. We start to learn more science, politics, history. We get Nexus – what you call Nexus – in our brains.
“You see these people hurt by Nexus. Human bombs. People stealing. Women hurt. But for me… For me, Nexus means I touch my brothers for the first time. I understand that I’m not alone. Until then… ‘brother’ just mean someone I have to fight, have to compete with. One of us won’t get to eat. One of us gets more pain. No love. No loyalty. After Nexus, I can touch their minds… Then I feel them. Then I love them. Then I know loyalty. Then I really have brothers.
“And you know, I still hate instructors. Still today, and especially then. But Su-Yong, she say, we don’t have to be loyal to instructors, don’t have to be loyal to commanders. Have to be loyal to China. To the people. They’re our brothers and sisters.
“What you did, Kade. You give Nexus 5 to everyone. I know it makes Su-Yong mad. She wants more control than that. But you did the right thing.” Feng turned to look at Kade, poured every ounce of emotion into this. “All those people out there. They can start to understand. They each other’s brothers, each other’s sisters. Like you and me. Brothers. You did the right thing.”
Darkness finally fell. Insects came out. The jungle came alive with sounds. The air cooled to a more bearable level of heat.
“So what now?” Feng asked.
Kade turned and looked at his friend. “The monasteries aren’t going to work anymore. The bounty hunters have figured out our pattern. We’re just going to get monks killed. It’s time to try a new strategy, Feng. Let’s head to the coast. Let’s go see the big city.”
17
SURPRISE ENCOUNTER
Friday October 19th
“I’m not here to kill you, Martin.”
What? Holtzmann thought. The distortion was gone. This was a different voice. A voice he knew.
“I was hoping you could answer some questions for me,” his not-assassin continued.
Holtzmann opened his eyes. In the mirror he could see a face there, in the darkened back seat, where there hadn’t been one before. Headlights struck them from another car, illuminated the face for a moment. Dark hair, graying at the temples. Asian features. A face he hadn’t seen in months.
“Kevin.”
Nakamura nodded. “Who did you think I was?”
“I… I don’t know!” Holtzmann stammered.
Nakamura’s face was a mask in the darkened car, utterly still.
“I thought I was being mugged… carjacked…” Holtzmann went on.
“By someone who knew your name?” Nakamura asked. “Who snuck into your car while it was parked at DHS headquarters?”
Holtzmann’s heart hammered in his chest. He was that transparent. A professional could see through him in seconds…
Dear God, what am I doing? he thought. He said nothing.
“You don’t have to tell me,” Nakamura said gently. “We all know things we shouldn’t.”
Holtzmann swallowed, forced himself to breathe calmly. The car drove on down the dark highway, the lights of the DC suburbs sliding by on either side.
Nakamura filled the silence. “Six months ago, Samantha Cataranes was sent to Bangkok. You remember the mission?”
Cataranes? Holtzmann thought. This was about Cataranes?
“Yes. I remember.”
“You dosed her with Nexus 5 before she left. While there, during an op, she attacked ERD contractors during the attempted capture of Thanom Prat-Nung. Three days later, she attacked a team of SEALs, brought down a chopper, helped create an international incident. You remember all this?”
Holtzmann nodded. He remembered the chaos of that week. The botched mission in Bangkok. Dozens dead in the loft fire. The Nexus girl, Mai, among them. Ted Prat-Nung as well. Lane’s escape. Then the attack on the monastery. Su-Yong Shu’s death there. Nexus 5’s release. His own decision to try Nexus for himself… The discovery of Warren Becker dead of a heart attack, the next morning. He wouldn’t easily forget those few days.
“Why?” Nakamura asked.
Holtzmann blinked. “What?”
“Why’d she do it, Martin?”
“I…” Holtzmann fumbled over himself. “We think that Shu coerced her…”
“Could she do that? Coercion that complex?”
A memory flashed through Holtzman’s mind: Secret Service agent Steve Travers, in his suit and mirrored glasses, his hand coming out of his jacket in slow motion, the giant gun held there, the encrypted Nexus traffic between the shooter and whoever was controlling him echoing in Holtzmann’s mind. The world slowing even further as Holtzmann came to his feet and opened his mouth to scream that the man had a gun!
“Yes. Shu could do that.”
“Is there any evidence that she did?”
“There wasn’t any other explanation. We sent Cataranes out there with Nexus 5. It was a stupid move. Su-Yong Shu might have created Nexus. If she discovered who Sam was…”