Ramez Naam - Apex

With this glimpse of the true posthuman.

Then Su-Yong’s madness crashed down onto him again, crashed through him, out through the link, into a thousand minds, ten thousand minds, a hundred thousand minds, taking all the joy and peace they offered her, and seizing more, and more, and more.

Injecting her own mad chaos into all of them in return.

Kade screamed.

Too gone. Too far gone.

He screamed again, louder.

Around the world, hundreds of thousands screamed.

Too gone. She was too far gone.

Sam watched as Kade’s body went tense, as his breathing all but stopped.

She picked up the assault rifle she’d put down, rose to her feet. Her wrist ached from the punishment the Fist named Genghis had doled out.

Kade relaxed suddenly, a smile coming to his face, his breathing easing, even with the puncture in one lung.

Sam stared at him from above, both hands around her rifle now.

Smiling. Smiling was good.

She should drop back down, get the first aid kit, see if she could stabilize him.

Then Kade screamed.

Feng screamed.

No, Sam thought. No.

Kade’s back arched. His arms flailed out to the side, spasming. His head jerked back. His mouth opened.

No.

He screamed again, louder. His eyelids were open. His eyes were rolled back in his head. Whites showing.

No.

He was thrashing now, like he was having a seizure. She looked over and Feng was on his knees, hands to his head, screaming.

But not like this.

Oh god, Sam thought.

And she was back on the plane, the troop transport, Kade leaning in close to her, explaining what they were going to do, what the risks were.

What he wanted from her.

If it all goes wrong , he’d said. If we’re not getting through to her with everything we’re doing… And then he’d looked her in the eyes.

You have to shoot me, and keep shooting me, until we get her attention.

Sam raised her rifle, her stomach rebelling, her face hot, her vision suddenly clouded.

Kade thrashed again, seizing, his eyes rolled back into his head, and screamed, horridly, louder than ever before, his limbs spasming out of control, his head shaking and twisting, his tongue lolling out of his mouth.

Oh god.

Sam lined up along the sights of her gun, stared through the sudden distortion of hot and wet, and fired.

Her bullet punched through his midsection. Blood burst out onto the wall, the floor.

He kept thrashing, kept screaming.

Sam fired again.

126

Before the Dawn

Monday 2041.01.20

Rangan’s eyes widened as the cop pulled his gun.

“Down on the ground!”

Suddenly he was back inside, strapped down to the table, his head below his feet, the towel over his face, water coming down.

Drowning.

Begging.

Dying.

No.

Then someone stepped between him and the cop. The big guy, the big guy who’d been attacking Stan Kim.

A gun went off. He felt pain rip through the big man in front of him.

Oh Jesus.

Then the cops all around were drawing, screaming at him. And protesters were stepping between him and them, grabbing at them.

“Run!” someone yelled at him.

Then Kade’s mind touched him, touched him from across the globe.

Rangan,Kade sent. Rangan got a sense of immense pain coming from his friend with the thought. Not the protest. The Capitol. That’s where it’s going to happen. The Capitol.

Rangan understood. Understood what was about to happen. Oh god. Oh Jesus. What the hell could he do about that?

Rangan turned, looked around frantically. Where was Stan Kim?

There! There were protesters between them.

“The Capitol!” Rangan yelled at the man. “It’s going to be attacked!”

Rangan saw Kim look at him, shock playing across the senator’s face.

“I can help!” Rangan yelled. “You have to get me inside!”

A dozen calculations flashed across Stan Kim’s face in less than a second, plainly visible through the scrum, through the chaos of protesters and police struggling all around them.

Then something snapped into place for Stan Kim.

The senator nodded sharply. “Come on!”

Then Stan Kim crouched down, slipped his legs below the railing of the stage, and jumped down into the crowd below.

They moved west on E street. The crowd had spilled over past the fallen barricades, was thick around the stage.

“You need a new mask!” Stan Kim hissed.

“Trade me!” Rangan yelled to someone in the crowd, a man wearing a John Stockton mask. They crouched down and traded, and Rangan stood up a president.

Then they ran, Rangan’s need reaching out in front of them, parting the crowd.

“What’s going on?” Kim asked.

“Nexus,” Rangan panted. God he was out of shape. “They dosed everyone with Nexus.”

“Oh hell,” Kim said. “What are you going to do about it?”

“I have no idea,” Rangan gasped.

“Stop!” A line of riot cops ahead held up shields.

“I’m a US senator!” Stan Kim yelled, not stopping. “This man’s my aide! We have to get to the Capitol!”

Kim grabbed Rangan by the arm and charged forward.

The cops hesitated. At the last second the shields parted and they were through, running, the Capitol clear in view not two hundred yards ahead.

“We’re looking at a chem/bio attack at the Capitol,” Pryce heard someone say. “The President’s been evac’d.”

Her phone buzzed again. She read the message.

“Check them for Nexus exposure,” she yelled aloud. “And get them radio shielding!”

“Nexus is oral,” CIA replied.

“Maybe not anymore,” Pryce said. She held her phone up. “Claimed PLF source says this was a Nexus attack. With a neural hack to follow.”

She turned, found her two secret service agents, said it again. “Check it!” she said. “If it’s true, EM shielding! Bring medical aid to them!”

They couldn’t let all those minds hang out there, naked.

Her two agents were nodding already, fingers in their ear buds, relaying information directly to the President’s detail at least. The Secret Service understood Nexus, ever since Steve Travers had been turned into a walking time bomb.

Oh Christ. A thought came to her. Pryce closed her eyes, mentally went through the list. Then she opened them again, and looked at Bernard Stevens.

“Secretary Stevens,” Pryce said. “If those people are incapacitated,” she paused. “As Secretary of Defense, that would make you next in the line of succession.”

Stevens turned his head towards her, stared.

“Sirs!” DRO yelled out. “We have two Dongfeng-6 ICBMs being fueled and readied for launch from Jingxian!”

“Stop right there!”

They were at the steps to the Capitol. Four cops had guns pointed at them.

Rangan was panting, dying.

He stopped, hands resting on his knees.

Stan Kim stood tall, apparently unfazed, his hands in the air.

“Officers, you know me!” he yelled. “I need to get inside the Capitol Building, immediately!”

“Senator,” one of them yelled back. “There’s been a terrorist attack. Chemical weapons.”

“That’s why I have to get in there!” Kim said. “This man here is a specialist on deep cover! He’s equipped to help!”

Rangan stood there, leaning with his hands on his knees, trying to catch his breath, staring out at them through the eye holes of his John Stockton mask.

“Lose the mask,” one of them yelled.

He felt something happening, then. Something amazing. Something epic, like the monk’s mind, but bigger, overwhelmingly bigger, touching people, back there, a couple hundred yards back, spilling over here.