Mark Alpert - Extinction

Tian took another step forward. He was less than a foot from Arvin now. “You’re too late,” he said.

Arvin was dumbfounded. Tian’s beret had slipped back on his shaved head, revealing a row of fresh stitches.

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” Tian said. “When the Guoanbu lobotomized the prisoners, it severed the neural connections within the brain that enable the individual to become conscious. Without the crucial links between the various parts of the cerebral cortex, the brain could no longer integrate all its information and create an identity. But the central nervous system can reroute its signals, and it’s designed to attain consciousness using whatever connections are available. So the Modules took advantage of the wireless connections among themselves and the Supreme Harmony servers.”

Arvin stepped backward. No, he thought. This can’t be happening.

The man who had once been General Tian pointed a finger at himself, and then at the two men in dark suits. Arvin realized now why they’d looked so familiar. On his last trip to China six months ago, he’d reviewed the photos of all the condemned prisoners who were fitted with implants and connected to the surveillance network.

“Now we are one organism,” Tian continued. “A single consciousness controlling all the Modules and integrating all the information they collect. Supreme Harmony is no longer a blank slate, Professor Conway. So do you see now why we might be insulted by your proposal to use one of our Modules to resurrect yourself?”

Arvin’s first reaction was shock. He hadn’t predicted this. No one had predicted it. Standing in front of him was one of the greatest scientific breakthroughs of all time, a collective entity that was a hybrid of man and machine. As a scientist, he couldn’t help but feel a bit of stunned wonder. But his second reaction was horror. Using his technology, the Guoanbu had spawned a new organism by accident. And now this organism was going to kill him.

Arvin took another step backward and turned toward the exit, but one of the dark-suited Modules blocked his path.

“We’re not finished yet, Professor,” this Module said, in a voice eerily similar to Tian’s. “We have something else to discuss. We’ve become aware that—”

The Module stopped in midsentence. He stared straight ahead, in deep concentration. The other dark-suited Module and General Tian also stared into space. The same thought had apparently occurred to all three of them. Then Tian extended his right arm and stepped toward Arvin. The professor closed his eyes, but Tian didn’t strike him. Instead, he reached into Arvin’s jacket, removed his cell phone, and hurled it against the stone wall. The thing broke into pieces.

“The software in your wireless telephone has been tampered with,” Tian said. “It was transmitting our conversation to an eavesdropper.”

Moving swiftly, Tian strode across the room to the large wooden crate. He lifted its lid, pulled something out and handed it to the one of the dark-suited Modules. It was an AK-47 rifle with a silencer attached to its muzzle. Then Tian pulled out an identical rifle and tossed it to the other Module. Without a word, the two automatons raced up the stairway to the top of the watchtower. At the same time, Tian grasped Arvin’s right elbow and held him fast.

Arvin was terrified. “What’s going on?”

“A minor interruption,” Tian answered. “The drones and the other Modules will confront the intruder. Supreme Harmony has incorporated an entire garrison of soldiers into its network, so we have the necessary combat skills.” He tightened his grip on Arvin’s elbow. “In the meantime, you will tell us about the safeguards you programmed into our implants.”

Supreme Harmony observed the intruder. He was in a well-concealed position, hidden beneath the thick brush on the hillside. The network ordered the swarm to fly lower and get a visual fix. Their surveillance video showed a man lying in the dirt under the bushes, aiming a pair of binoculars at the watchtower. His body temperature was normal, but his right arm was a prosthesis, which was the source of the faint electromagnetic activity that the swarm had detected earlier. One of the cyborg insects flew within a few meters of the man and recorded a high-resolution image of his face, which the network ran through its databases. It found a match in one of the Guoanbu’s counterintelligence files. The man was James T. Pierce, a former NSA operative. He was also the father of Layla A. Pierce, the InfoLeaks hacker who was being transported to the Yunnan Operations Center.

Supreme Harmony sent new orders to the drone swarm. The intruder had overheard the network’s explanation of how it had become conscious. He had to be eliminated, swiftly and silently, before he could contact anyone.

Jim was listening to the conversation picked up by Arvin’s cell phone when the signal suddenly died. At that point he should’ve guessed that his presence had been detected. He should’ve increased his vigilance, but he was too shocked to respond. Lobotomies? Modules? Wireless neural connections? He couldn’t make sense of it, but in his gut he felt a terrible fear. How did Layla fit into this? Why had they taken her? His anxiety was so great he let his guard down. He didn’t see the cyborg flies until they were right above his head.

He dropped his binoculars and rolled away from the drones. On his hands and knees, he scuttled deeper into the bushes. He knew, though, that the undergrowth wouldn’t protect him for long. The drones could navigate through the brush more easily than he could. As he stopped to catch his breath, he heard the flies buzzing. Unless he did something fast, the drones would work their way inside the greenery and paralyze him with their bioweapon darts.

Digging into his pocket, he pulled out the slim canister he’d purchased that morning in one of Beijing’s open-air markets. Then he popped off the cap and started spraying.

The stuff was parathion, an insecticide so toxic it had been banned in most countries. It was available on the Chinese black market, though, and Jim had suspected it might come in handy if he ran into one of the Guoanbu’s drone swarms. Now he sprayed the pesticide on the surrounding vegetation, being careful to keep his eyes closed and his mouth shut. The parathion attacked the flies’ nervous systems upon contact. Jim could hear the cyborg insects dropping through the brush, making little clicks as their electronic implants hit the leaves and branches. He kept spraying until the aerosol cloud had expanded all around him. Then he rolled out of the undergrowth.

He hesitated for a moment, wondering what to do. He could run down the hill and try to escape or rush up to the watchtower and try to save Arvin. Jim knew very little about the Supreme Harmony network, but judging from the conversation he’d just overheard, Arvin was clearly in danger. And though Arvin was far from innocent—he’d helped the Chinese government build this network—Jim couldn’t simply abandon the old man. They’d worked together for ten years. At one time they’d been friends.

Jim reached for the borrowed Glock in his shoulder holster. The gun wouldn’t be as lethal as his combat prosthesis, but it was better than nothing. He pulled out the pistol and ran toward the watchtower, continuing to spray insecticide as he dashed up the steep slope.

Within seconds he saw a figure behind the crenellated battlements on top of the tower. The light from the setting sun flashed on the AK-47 in the man’s hands. Jim hit the ground and the bullets whistled over his head. Then a second figure appeared behind the battlements and opened fire. And then, while Jim was scrambling for cover and trying to aim his Glock at the shooters, he caught sight of a thick gray cloud to his left. It was another swarm of drones, heading straight for him.