Ramez Naam - Apex

“General Ouyang,” came the brisk voice. “What are your orders?”

Ouyang took a breath. “Quan,” he said, addressing the man as a friend. “My orders are quite irregular. But they may be vital to our future. Cut your base off from all digital input, immediately. Activate electronic warfare defense protocols. Assume all digital signals are attacks. Then place two Dongfeng-6s on standby. Target them for the following coordinates…”

There was silence after he’d read off the coordinates. He could see the tension in the postures of his pilot, his radio-man, his aide. He could hear the shock in Quan Huyan’s breathing.

“General,” Quan Huyan said. Ouyang heard his old friend swallow. “Those coordinates appear to be–”

“Shanghai,” Ouyang said. “Jiao Tong University. Ten megatons.”

Ouyang could hear Quan Huyan breathing heavily on the other side, in disbelief.

“General,” Quan said. “I cannot fire these missiles without authorization from–”

“Old friend,” Ouyang interrupted. “I hope I never get that authorization.”

118

The Only Way

Monday 2041.01.20

Kade lay on his belly in the darkness, atop the roof, his visor illuminating and magnifying the scene in Jiao Tong’s central square.

The scene of bloodshed.

Around him were Feng and Sam and the Indian Commandos. Getting here had been a grueling ordeal. The streets were a nightmare of angry citizens and nervous, twitchy soldiers. They’d traveled cloaked in chameleonware, winding their way between and through crowds where possible, being stalled more than once by impossible throngs, pushing their way through at times, creating distractions where they could, backtracking when necessary.

All the while their body heat was building up, being trapped in the suits’ heat capacitors very finite capacity.

Three times Kade had been forced to talk Captain Garud down via satellite from trying to slip into the Secure Computing Center without him.

“You’ll need my help or Feng’s to operate the elevator. You’ll need the tools Shu gave us.”

“We’re here now!” Garud had sent back. “Transfer the tools to us!”

“No,” Kade refused.

The truth was, he didn’t trust the commandos to go in without him. Not one bit.

Now, Kade and Sam and Feng were re-united with the Indian team. Minus one. A commando named Srini hadn’t made it. The one who’d collided with the flock of birds ahead of Kade.

The remaining eleven were spread out on this rooftop, chameleonware active, visible to Kade only via the green wire-frames painted into his mind of each figure and the impressive array of gear with them.

Kade had dropped with almost nothing. The rest had dropped with thirty to forty kilo loads of weapons, comms gear, and emergency supplies. The visor used its link to his Nexus OS to fill his mind’s eye with the outlines of guns and grenades and micromissile launchers, of rappelling gear and climbing gear, of backpacks on all the commandos, laden with more.

Somewhere in that gear, Kade imagined, there were two very special packages hidden. Packages they didn’t want him to know about.

“At least a hundred Confucian Fist out in the open,” Garud whispered over their suit-to-suit laser links. “A handful visible guarding the building itself. Now is our best chance to enter.”

“No,” Feng transmitted. “At least thirty, forty of my brothers not accounted for. Could be inside. No way to fight through that.”

“We attack with missiles and grenades then,” Aarthi transmitted.

“No,” Feng repeated.

Captain Garud replied, his voice annoyed. “What do you suggest then?”

“We surrender,” Kade said softly.

Feng rose from his prone position and stepped forward, to the edge of the roof.

“Stop!” Garud yelled across the link.

Feng stepped again, and dropped out of sight.

“What are you doing?” Garud yelled again, outrage in his voice.

Feng reappeared a moment later, down below them, at ground level, his chameleonware deactivated, the hood pulled off his head, walking past the abandoned army lines, towards the mass of protesters in the square.

Garud raised his rifle. “Stop!” he transmitted again. “That’s an order. I will shoot you.”

“No,” Sam said. “You won’t.” Her voice was resigned.

Kade looked over, found her crouched above Captain Garud, her pistol drawn, jammed into the back of his helmet.

“Put down the gun, Samantha!” Aarthi said.

She was up on her feet, her own rifle pointed at Sam.

Kade turned back to watch Feng.

“Put away your guns,” he transmitted. “All of you. If you shoot, we all die. This is the only way.”

Bai pushed through the crowds, rushing, dodging, until he came to a throng of his brothers.

And there, in the middle. There he was.

The prodigal.

“Feng!” Bai said.

Feng stopped in mid-sentence, turned, grinned.

“Bai!”

They rushed towards each other, embraced. They’d spent quite a bit of time together those last two years, when Feng drove Su-Yong, while Bai was assigned to drive her husband.

“We thought you were dead, Feng! We thought the Americans killed you in Thailand!”

He could feel Feng’s mind. This was him, undoubtedly, not like that pale imitation of Su-Yong down below. This was the real Feng.

Feng feigned the look of one insulted. “What?” he said, his tone outraged. “Just a few helicopters, some explosions, one international incident, and you think I’m dead?”

Laughter rippled from the brothers gathered round.

Same old Feng. Bai grinned. So many dead. But this one regained.

“Did Su-Yong send for you?” Bai asked. Then his smile faded. His tone grew more serious. “Brother, there are some things you should know.”

Feng’s smile dropped also. His mind grew focused. “I know, Bai,” he said quietly. “That’s why we’re here.”

“We?” Bai asked.

Sun Liu watched the scene outside from a third floor window of the now-deserted Computer Science Building. More and more of the Confucian Fist were gathering in a single location. And there was some other force. Some force that had arrived in stealth gear, and were now de-activating it. Armed men and women, not Chinese.

What was going on?

Then he felt something rise through him. The evil thing. The dead woman come back to life. She invaded his mind, seized his senses, looked out through his eyes into the world. Her mind stretched out through the nanotechnology infused in his brain, surfing the thoughts of the clones down below, listening to what they were thinking.

And what she heard…

Sun Liu gasped at the rage she felt, as it coursed through his own mind and body.

The creature that had enslaved him was not amused.

“How far is she in the process?” Feng asked.

Kade and Sam were with them now, chameleonware deactivated, hoods off. The Indians were here, chameleonware down also, but hoods still up, minds masked behind them, their faraday lining a shield against neural attacks.

As if that would stop Su-Yong.

Tao spoke. “Hours. Possibly minutes. We delivered the backup cube this morning. It could be any time.”

Feng felt Kade’s mental intake of breath. It was down to the wire.

“We have to move fast, then,” Feng said. “The insanity must be stopped, brothers.” He looked around. He could feel their minds. He could feel their understanding, snippets of their experience. They’d seen it, little bits of it. “If she’s restored, in those first few moments, hours, days… she’d be even more insane than the fragment you’ve seen inside of Ling.”

Feng paused. “And much more powerful.” He looked around at all of them, meeting eyes of his brothers, the men he’d known his entire life. Bai. Tao. Peng. Liwei. Quang. Li-Jiang. Lao.