All went white. Every sense overloaded, not in static, but in a single coherent wave. Everything was one single pulsing rhythm.
Thought evaporated.
Time evaporated.
Space evaporated.
Identity evaporated.
There was nothing.
Nothing
but
this
white
beyond
white.
Wats tensed. The driver with the all-too-familiar face came up the stairs to the roof. Kade's back was to him. The driver crossed the distance between them at a walk, careful to not alarm the serving staff. Wats flicked the safety off of his rifle.
The driver's back was square in the center of his sights.
If he did shoot… would one shot take him down? It had taken many, many bullets to take down the last man he'd seen with that face.
He had to decide. Fire now, on a bad hunch? Kill on incomplete data? Or watch the situation?
Wats took a deep breath. They were in public. Kade had been seen with Shu. If they were going to kill him, they wouldn't do it in plain sight.
He watched the driver's hand come down on Kade's shoulder. Wats tensed. Then… nothing. He exhaled, but kept the crosshairs on the back of the driver's head.
20
ONLY HUMAN
Consciousness returned slowly, in fragments. He was alive. His name was Kade. Kaden Lane.
Vision faded back in, slowly, disorientingly. Shu was looking at him. How long had he been gone? How long had he been back? He tried to speak, found that he could not. His heart pounded in his chest. He tried to throw his mind at hers, found that it was just as restrained. He willed his hand to move towards the phone in his pocket, and it would not obey him. The Nexus disrupter was no longer running. He tried to start it again. The Nexus OS ignored him.
A chill went up his spine. Just like that, he'd lost. Su-Yong Shu controlled him.
This is what we did to Sam, he realized.
He could feel Shu rifling through his mind, his memories. The creation of Nexus OS. The party. The bust. The briefing about her. The mission they'd sent him on.
You're a fool, Kaden Lane.
I didn't want to be here, he sent. I was blackmailed.
He felt no pity from her, no sympathy. You could have come to me, she sent. You could have told me. I would have protected you. You and I, we're alike. We're on the same side.
Are we? he wondered.
They accused you of things, Kade sent back to her. They showed me evidence. You used Nexus to kill people an to coerce them. You took over their minds like you're taking over mine.
She struck him then, with her mind. It hurt like hell. He could feel the stinging across his face, as if she'd reached out with her right hand and slapped him. Harder. Like she'd broken bones in his face, left him bleeding and bruised. He couldn't even flinch. He blinked, breathed in through his nose. His face ached. Tears welled up in his eyes.
You arrogant child, Shu sent to him. How dare you lecure me on morality. Do you know the things those monsters you serve have done? Here. See them!
He saw images from Shu's mind. A Chinese scientist found dead in a Saigon brothel; a Range Rover, found at the foot of a cliff in the Australian outback, bodies charred beyond recognition; a famous Indian AI researcher, no identifiable pieces of her remaining after a car bomb in Delhi; an American geneticist, found in an apparent suicide in his home; more.
The worst. Yang Wei, her mentor, the Nobel Prize-winning neuroscientist who'd trained her, one of the greatest minds she'd ever known, burning to death, trapped in his limousine after the Americans had attacked it, dying in agony as Shu watched helplessly.
Her mind was full of rage, full of hate. She despised them.
They kill to stop progress, she sent, to stop science that frightens them. To stop our evolution. How could you work with them?
Kade trembled. They called you a killer. They said you helped your government assassinate people. You built the tools.
Su-Yong Shu sighed mentally. She emanated regret. They used the tools I built, yes. My government is little better than yours. They take science, and they pervert it.
So it was true, then. They'd used her tools to kill.
They'll do the same to you, Shu sent to him. They'll use your tools in ways you never intended.
I won't let them, he replied.
Shu mentally scoffed at him. They won't ask your permission.
I'll stop them, he told her. I will.
Another image bubbled up in Kade's thoughts. Su-Yong Shu in front of rows of identical Confucian Fist soldiers, arms spread widely as if to say "ta-da!" They said you helped China make soldiers. Clone soldiers. Human robots.
Her mind hardened in anger.
There's one right behind you. Why don't you ask him what he thinks? She sounded cold, dangerous.
The hand on his shoulder.
Feng's voice echoed laughter in Kade's mind. Robot! I like it. Robot's strong, made of titanium and carbon fiber. Bulletproof!
"Feng," Shu said aloud, "why don't you sit and help us with this food? We seem to have more than we need."
Feng sat next to Kade, heaped a plate up with food, radiating appetite and amusement.
You're a clone, Kade sent him, a slave. They showed me.
Feng laughed in Kade's mind again, his mouth full of noodles. Clone, yeah. Like I told you, big family! Lots of brothers. Slave? That's what they wanted. But I'm free. My brothers too. Thanks to her.
"Mmm, good noodles!"
Shu cut in. I could not tolerate the thought of posthumans as slaves to mere humans.
Dr Shu, I give up, Kade sent. I'm sorry any of this happened. How can I persuade you to let me go?
Shu sipped her tea, her face turned towards the lightning coming down east of Bangkok. "I think the storm's coming closer," she said. "Don't you?"
Kade felt some control of his body return. He turned to look. Maybe the lightning was a little closer. It was hard to say.
You're a very dangerous man, Kaden Lane. Your government is right to fear you. This technology we have is explosive in its potential. How could baseline humans compete with us?
I don't mean to harm anyone, he told her. I never did.
You're only barely in control of your own mind, she scoffed. Your intentions mean next to nothing right now.
Kade said nothing. They sat in silence for a moment.
Come to my lab, she sent him. Accept the postdoc. Let the ERD think you're spying for them.
That hatred for the ERD. He could feel it at every thought of them.