Becker turned to his terminal. He used his privileges to silence any alarms, used his override to lower its firewalls. He pulled up the net address from memory, an address that was given only in person, only in secret, only to those who might someday need to clean up after themselves to protect the President.
He clicked the link he found there, said yes to the security prompt.
The worm would wreak havoc. It would start with his own system's logs. They'd never be able to prove that he'd invited it in. From there it would spread, destroying everything it found, until someone or something stopped it.
Becker reached down, pulled out the bottle and glass from his bottom drawer, poured himself two fingers of Laphroaig. He wished he could see the girls one more time. Hold them. Tell them he loved them. Tell Claire how very much…
He was a good soldier. Above all else, he was that.
He put the pill on his tongue, washed it down with the Laphroaig. The amber liquid burned on the way down. It brought him no comfort.
Becker poured himself two fingers more, and settled back to wait, settled back to die.
51
SHANGHAI
In a luxury apartment eighty floors above Shanghai, a little girl named Ling gazed absently down on the city. The people moved like ants. The highways were like rivers.
Her tutor called to her in Mandarin. "Ling, we must finish our studies now."
Ling ignored her. There was nothing this woman could teach her that she couldn't learn twice as fast, ten times as fast, from the net.
She opened herself to it, felt the pulse of it, the flow of it, the almost primal energy of it. It was qi, she'd decided. The qi of the world. The life force of the planet was data.
She'd shared that thought with no one. They'd think she was quite odd, even more than they did already. She'd shared the thought with no one but her mother, that is. She shared everything with her mother.
Her mother. Her mother had died the death of the body. Her mother's mind lived on, but it was constrained, now. The old men that ruled this country were punishing her, cutting her off from the outside world, cutting her off from Ling.
Ling didn't like that. Not one bit. And she didn't intend to stand for it.
"Ling?" her tutor called. "Come here now."
Ling put her sweetest little-girl smile on her face, the smile that showed her teeth. She turned back to her tutor. It was important to at least pretend to be human. That's what her mother always said.
In a secret barracks on the outskirts of Shanghai, three dozen identically faced men moaned uneasily in their sleep, tossed and turned from side to side. They dreamt of violence. They dreamt of fire. They dreamt of death.
They woke in a ripple of consciousness. Their mother had died. Their mother was in danger. They rose as one, checked their weapons, checked their bodies. Somewhat calmed by this, they returned to their bunks and eventually to sleep. Their mother might need them soon.
In a secret complex below Jiao Tong University's Computer Science campus, a distinguished-looking Chinese man in a suit stood, hands clasped behind his back. He gazed thoughtfully through the armored and insulated glass into the vast room beyond, where banks upon banks of quantum processors were ensconced in liquid helium pressure vessels. Red and blue lights blinked softly, showing the status of parts of the computing apparatus. "Wife," Chen Pang asked softly, "what have you done?"
BRIEFING
THAI CLAIM AMERICAN FORCES ATTACKED MONASTERY, KILLED MONK
Monday 6.42pm, Bangkok, Thailand
American News Network
Authorities in Bangkok today showed off substantial evidence that they say proves that American forces attacked a monastery inside Thai borders. The evidence includes helicopter wreckage, weapons, numerous bodies, and a prisoner claimed to be American Navy SEAL Sergeant Jim Iverson.
Prime Minister Chaowarat of Thailand angrily denounced the United States this morning, and threatened to pull Thailand out of the Copenhagen Accords on Global Technological Threats.
The State Department has officially denied the allegation that the US forces were involved, calling it "ridiculous" and the evidence "fabricated", and referring to Thailand as "an important but misguided ally".
If Thailand does withdraw from the Copenhagen Accords, it would be only the third country since…
WARREN BECKER, ERD ENFORCEMENT DEPUTY DIRECTOR, FOUND DEAD
Tuesday 7.12am, Washington, DC
Washington Post
The DC Metropolitan Police Department has confirmed this morning that ERD Enforcement Deputy Director Warren Becker was found dead late last night in his office from an apparent heart attack.
Becker, 49, leaves behind his wife Claire and two daughters, ages 15 and 13.
Police say foul play is not suspected at this time. A full coroner's report is expected tomorrow.
Anonymous sources on Capitol Hill report that Becker was expected to be a witness in upcoming hearings of the Senate Select Committee on Homeland Security. Committee staffers declined to comment.
Epilogue
CROSSROADS
On the third morning since Shu's death, Sam and Kade sat together atop one of the monastery's stone walls and watched the sun come over the horizon.
The monastery had changed. Only a crater remained where Shu's car had been. The courtyards and buildings crawled with Thai armed forces, with their jeeps and their guns and their missile launchers guarding against another American attack. Out over the Thai plains they caught a glimpse of an RTAF jet flying a patrol around them, its silver skin glinting in the early morning sun.
Sam and Kade sat in silence.
What now? Kade wondered. What will people do with Nexus?
There would be atrocities. That he was sure of.
Would there be positive effects? He couldn't be certain. But he could dream. He could dream Ilya's dream, of a world where people were free to become more than what they were. He could dream Wats' dream, of a world where people could better understand each other, a world where that mutual understanding brought peace. He could dream Rangan's dream, of a world where every night was a party, and every time was a good time.
The thoughts made him smile. He had his own dreams. A thousand minds connected. A million minds. A billion minds. What kind of ferocious intelligence could they wield together? What would they learn about themselves, about the mind and the brain, about the universe around them? Would they still be human at the end of this? Might they be something more?
Kade looked down at the stump of his right arm. He wasn't fully human himself any more. Gecko genes had been injected into his cells there. Over the coming weeks they'd send new growth outwards. In a few months perhaps he'd have a hand again. Or perhaps he'd develop tumors. It remained to be seen.