Chen watched the wrecked city go by beneath him, numb with shock.
The helicopters flew north and west, towards the outskirts of the city. Chen saw homes ablaze, a mob of looters carrying off goods from an undefended store, an explosion, the flare of more gunfire. Shanghai was in tatters.
They landed at a military airfield. Dachang, he thought. Here there were lights. Zhao hurried them out of the helicopter and to the executive jet waiting on the runway, its chameleonware skin cycled to neutral gray, a red Chinese flag emblazoned on its tail. Chen barely had time to take his seat in the opulent cabin before they were taxiing down the runway, then taking off, a pair of deadly-looking fighter aircraft taking off with them. He watched the fighters out his window for a moment, before they activated their own chameleonware and became faint distortions, then nothing at all.
They landed at a military airfield outside Beijing an hour later. Another helicopter ferried Chen and Zhao into Beijing proper, armed escort choppers flanking them. Chen had time to appreciate the lights of the city, all looking as it should be. Then they were setting down on the roof of the State Security Building, and armed guards were escorting him and Zhao into the elevator.
A last pair of guards frisked him in front of a doorway, and then it opened for them, and suddenly Chen was in the office of Bo Jintao, Minister of State Security, member of the Politburo, and one of the hardest of the hardliners.
“Professor Chen.” The minister was behind his desk, looking at something on his display. There was a man seated in a chair across the desk from him, facing the minister. “You may sit,” the minister said without looking at Chen.
“Thank you, Minister.” Chen crossed the room. As he did the man across from Bo Jintao turned, and Chen recognized him with relief. Sun Liu, Minister of Science and Technology. A progressive. And Chen’s patron.
“Chen,” Sun Liu said in greeting. His face was grave. Chen nodded his head in return, and sat in the other chair. Zhao stayed at the door.
What is going on here?
“You’re aware of the attack on Shanghai,” Bo Jintao spoke, looking at him for the first time. “Could your wife have done it?”
“Minister, I… I’m sure that she would have no reason…”
“Could she?” the minister repeated.
Chen swallowed. “If she were connected? Yes. But she’s in isolation, Minister, I don’t see how…”
Zhao spoke. “Could she have left a program behind to do this, Professor?”
Chen blinked. “Why would she want to…”
“You will answer my aide’s question,” Bo Jintao said.
Chen sighed. “Probably. But what would she gain from disrupting Shanghai?”
Zhao replied, “Our analysis shows that the cyber-weapon infiltrated the Secure Computing Center first, searched through vast reams of data, and then attacked the Secure Computing Center’s computers, before going on to disrupt civil systems throughout Shanghai. We believe that the intruder was seeking to free your wife from the Physically Isolated Computing Center, and only attacked Shanghai’s civil systems to cover its tracks when it failed to do so.”
“How did you learn this?” Chen asked, turning to look over his shoulder at the aide.
“Your slate and your phone, Professor,” Zhao said. “They’re how the intruder entered the SCC.”
Chen went white as a sheet. He turned back to Bo Jintao. “Minister Bo! I had nothing to do with this! I assure you, I knew nothing!”
The State Security Minister stared at him impassively. Chen felt the cold dread creeping up his spine. This man had tried to kill him once. He could have him killed now with just a word.
“I believe you, Chen Pang,” the minister said softly. “If I did not, you would not be here now.”
Chen stared at the man as the words sank in. Another reprieve. For how long?
“Zhao, continue,” the minister said.
Zhao spoke again. “We believe that this was an attack created by your wife and left behind as insurance in the case of her disconnection. A bot she created to break her out of her imprisonment.”
Chen shook his head. “It isn’t possible for any software to reconnect her. It requires a physical reconnection of the cable, one thousand meters down.”
“We know that,” Zhao said from behind him, “but she does not. The layout of the PICC has been deliberately left out of any electronic records. She might have believed that a software agent operating outside her cage could break through a software firewall imprisoning her.”
The State Security Minister spoke. “Given the probability, we consider it prudent to order an immediate wipe of the Shu upload from the Quantum Cluster.”
Chen bowed his head. It was the end of his dreams. The Equivalence Theorem. The Nobel Prize. The Fields Medal. The billions in commercial licensing. All of it. He had to try one more time.
“But, Minister, her capabilities, the Ministry of Defense depends on them. It’s not too late. We may still be able to stabilize her personality, a clone, even a prisoner, fitted with an interface…”
“No,” Bo Jintao said curtly. “Defense now tells me that their other quantum clusters, thanks to you, Chen, have all the capabilities they need. My own people say the same.”
Thanks to Su-Yong, Chen thought. Not me. My wife has made herself replaceable.
“The rest was closed months ago,” Bo Jintao said. “She revealed our capabilities in quantum cryptography, proved herself a national security risk. And now she attacks us. It is time to shut her down.”
“Minister Sun.” Chen turned to his patron. “Please…” Please, let me wring one more discovery out of her… You’ll get your piece of it…
Sun Liu spoke at last. “I’m sorry, Chen. I agree with Minister Bo. Your wife has proven too great a risk.”
Chen’s heart fell. He lowered his head in submission and defeat.
“But…” the Science Minister continued, “shutting her down does not guarantee an end to these attacks.”
“Our cyber defense team will stop them,” Bo Jintao said.
Sun Liu shrugged. “Perhaps. But we know she is capable of things human programmers are not. The attacks may continue for some time. Perhaps the agents she left behind will target Beijing next?”
Bo Jintao frowned. “What do you suggest?”
“We break her,” Sun Liu said. “We force her to tell us what agents she’s left behind, and how to disable them.”
Chen looked up. Sun Liu knew. He was the only one who knew where Chen’s discoveries truly came from. And what he was really saying now… He wanted to force Su-Yong to tell them something else. The Equivalence Theorem. Despite himself, his heart raced.
“You can do this?” Bo Jintao asked.
“Yes,” Sun Liu said. “Chen can.”
Bo Jintao turned to Chen. “You could do this, Chen? To your own wife?”
Chen sat up straighter in his seat, looked the Minister for State Security in the eyes.
“For the good of the state, I can, and I will.”
21
REGRESS
Friday October 19th
Martin Holtzmann trembled in his car. Nakamura could have been anyone, an assassin. Whenever they wanted him dead, it would be so easy. He was sweating. His breath came fast. His heart was pounding in his chest.
He couldn’t let Anne see him like this.
“Drive around the block,” he told the car.
He took the time to dial up an opiate surge and a norepinephrine chaser. He shuddered as the bliss hit his body, then stretched out his arms and legs as far as he could inside the car, arching his back and craning his neck, savoring those few perfect moments of pleasure coursing through every nerve fiber of his body.