Ramez Naam - Nexus

Kade kept his mind as blank as he could, reeled in the amount he was emanating, rolled off the bed, padded as quietly as he could in boxers and bare feet to the small desk, found the stationary and pen, jotted a quick note.

Robyn Rodriguez is a narc. You must cancel Friday night or uninvite us. You didn't hear this from me, please.

The noise of the shower ended. He pulled the top sheet off the pad, folded it up, scanned around frantically for his pants.

The bathroom door opened. He looked up in time to see Sam crossing the distance between them, her face livid. Her open palm knocked him to the floor before he even saw it coming. His world exploded in pain. The room spun around him.

"You stupid son of a bitch."

She was standing above him, naked, water dripping off of her, fists clenched. She was going to hit him again.

He held his breath.

"I warned you," she told him.

There was a scar below her left collarbone and above one perfect breast, a long line of red against her olive skin. A knife wound? Surgery? There were circular pock marks on her otherwise flat stomach, more above one knee. Bullet wounds? Her nipples were hard. Was she cold? Did this excite her?

What was she?

He spat out blood, tried to talk. "It's not their fault. They're not doing anything wrong."

She kicked him in the stomach. He curled into a ball of agony, unable to breathe.

"I trusted you, Kade. I went to bat for you. I saved your fucking life . And what do you give me? Just pathetic lies. Again, and again, and again."

He gasped for breath, tried to speak…

"Tried… do… right thing…"

"Fuck your right thing, Kade. I'm tired of your lies. If anything about Friday night goes wrong, we're going to assume you sabotaged it. Got it? Anything goes wrong, and you're in an internment camp for life, you and your stupid fucked-up party friends. Dozens of them. You hear me?"

Kade tried to speak. Nothing came out. He nodded meekly instead.

Wats bowed respectfully to the woman who opened the monastery door. This was his fifth attempt today. The woman took a look at him, his skin color, his clothes, his height, his musculature, and addressed him in English.

"May I help you?" Her accent was quite good.

Wats responded in his best Thai, as weak as that was. "Please, honored sister. I'm looking for a monk. I had the honor to serve food to him from my humble stall yesterday. He forgot his alms bowl with me. I would return it to him."

She frowned at him, replied in Thai. "There are many monks, friend. If one has lost his alms bowl, it can be easily replaced."

"Please, honored sister." He bowed again. "This monk blessed my humble stall. I would feel honored to be able to return his lost possession to him."

"Very well. What does he look like?"

Wats rose up out of his bow. "He is tall." He held his hand at temple height. "Nearly as tall as me. Perhaps 1.8 meters. Not young, but not old. He has sharp features. A large nose. With a hook." His hands molded the image in the air as he spoke.

"He is Thai?"

"Yes, honored sister."

She thought for a moment. "That is very tall for a Thai man. We do not have a monk that tall in this monastery."

Wats contained his disappointment. There were many more places to try.

"But," she continued. "I may know who this monk is. Where is your food stall?"

"Off Thep Prathan, honored sister. East of the Chao Por Suea shrine."

"Ahh, near the convention center?"

"Yes, honored sister."

She nodded. "Then I may know who this monk is. It may be Phra Racha Khana Chan Rong Tuksin."

Wats nodded to himself. The title indicated that this Tuksin was only one step below Somdet status, a very senior monk. He nodded, repeated the name to be sure he had it right, then used the colloquial title, "Chan Phrom Tuksin. Thank you, honored sister."

She nodded at him.

"Where would I find Chan Phrom Tuksin, honored sister?"

"He resides at the Wat Hua Lamphong, near Chulalongkorn University. He is special assistant to Professor Somdet Phra Ananda."

Wats nodded again. This went close to the top, indeed. "Thank you again, honored sister." He brought his hands together in a respectful wai to her, turned to go.

"What food does your stall serve, young man?"

He turned back to her. "American food, honored sister. Hot dogs and hamburgers."

She frowned at him. "That is not fitting food to offer a monk," she scolded. "But you earn much merit in going so far to return his bowl."

"Thank you, honored sister." He bowed his head, made the wai to her again.

" Sawadi , traveler."

" Sawadi , honored sister."

29

MADNESS EVERYWHERE

A taxi driven by one of the armed Thai military types took Kade and Sam to the conference after lunch. Kade stood near his poster on mouse-to-mouse spatial memory sharing via machine-learning mediated nanoprobe connections. The growth factors had nearly healed the bruise on his face. What little remained was covered in concealer.

He could see Sam hovering around, pretending to view the other posters. She felt tense and alert through the link. Two more of the men from the safe house orbited around in shirts and blazers, god knew what tucked away underneath there. They made a show of looking at posters.

The crowd came and went. Students and professors made comments, asked questions. Kade fielded them as quickly as he could, repeating himself again and again, constantly thronged. It was clear his poster was making waves. He wished for a glimpse of Narong in the crowd. There wasn't.

Sajja came by, admired Kade's poster. Kade wished he had the note in his pocket. Wished he had some way to warn them.

"Have you seen Narong?" he asked Sajja.

"I think he's sick," the other student said. "Didn't show up with his poster today. It must be really bad for him to miss his poster session."

Kade nodded.

Not that I could have warned him, he thought.

More professors and students came and went. An hour passed.

And then another visitor arrived.

[sam] Heads up. Shu en route.

[sam] Don't do anything stupid.

Kade felt the Nexus bridge to Sam go down. He looked up at the crowd, and there she was, Su-Yong Shu. He could barely see her through the throng in front of his poster. Elegant and stately as ever, going from poster to poster, taking her time, smiling and saying encouraging things to the students.

Save me from the ERD, he wanted to tell her.

But then he would just be someone else's slave.

He was fielding a question when the crowd parted and Shu stepped through. Everyone went silent. Her eyes touched on the concealed bruise on his temple and her expression changed immediately.

"Kade," she said. "What happened?"

Are you hurt?Shu asked him.

He touched his temple, smiled ruefully. "I got mugged. Late last night. It was no big deal. They just took a little bit of cash."

He heard people react, whisper about it. A mugging.

We're being observed,he sent her. They know we communicated via Nexus last night.

Shu's eyes went faraway for a moment, then snapped back to reality.

"Walk with me."

"My session goes until 4 o'clock, Professor…"

"It will wait," she pronounced. Then to the crowd around them. "Please forgive me. I'll bring him back shortly."

And then she was leading him by the hand through the stunned throng. A murmur went through them. Su-Yong Shu had just snapped him away!

She led him away towards the cafeteria. He could see Sam and one of the military types watching out of the corner of their eyes. But what could they do? His assignment was to get close to SuYong Shu. They ordered tea, sat at a table near the window.