Caldwell heard his name rumbling through the mountains like distant thunder. The sound gradually grew closer. It was Mei Lin calling out to him. The goggles had slid off his face and he was slumped in front of Kenzo Yamamoto’s console, which had reverted to its former shape. He’d been booted out of the Tsinghua system. The lights in the operations room were on.

“Wow, that was so realistic. I thought I was dead.”

“Dead? What happened?”

“Call it a stroke of luck, call it whatever, but I may have stumbled upon the answer to all of this.”

“Go on,” Mei Lin urged.

“I hacked into the Tsinghua University system and found the computer that seems to be single-handedly responsible for the data being sucked out of cyberspace. It appears it is not so much sucking data as replicating it into the largest database probably ever built. We are talking terabytes of data everyday. We are talking sensitive data, mostly US economic, financial and scientific data. It’s almost like the entire knowledge of the Western world is being systematically appropriated. Not really appropriated, as it is all public domain, but basically being digested in a way no human can digest information.”

“What do you mean digested? What are you talking about? What kind of computer?”

“An AI unlike any other, if this kid is to be believed.”

“Which kid?”

“Have you heard of Professor Yao Guo Chuen?”

“Yes. He was one of my professors at Tsinghua. Very tight with the PLA. Some would say too tight. What has this got to do with him?

“This AI and some quantum neuroprocessor that powers it seem to be his latest pet project.”

“How do you know that?”

“Well only three people have access to this so-called data-guzzling machine. Professor Yao and his two assistants Li Jin and Wang Lin. It appears that Wang Lin had recently fallen out of favor and seemed to hold some kind of grudge against the other student.”

“But how do you know it’s an AI?”

“Was just talking to Wang Lin on the university BBS. He thought I was a girl from the department, a girl called Vicky Zhao. He started talking about this AI based on a quantum neuroprocessor. The strange thing is that both the professor’s and Li Jin’s accounts are disabled.”

“A disabled account means they have left the school. The accounts are disabled temporarily and then finally deleted.”

“Or they are dead?”

“Dead?”

“That was what I first thought when I saw the disabled accounts.”

“Mmm ...”

“Earlier this evening Anthony and Victor were talking about some rumored breakthrough in Shanghai. They were scant on details but I think what they were referring to is somehow related to this huge amount of data going into Tsinghua. The stuff going on in Tsinghua has got to be related somehow to Shanghai. Wang Lin said something about the city being a trailblazer for the AI.”

“And Kenzo Yamamoto guy found out about the AI or whatever is going on in Shanghai. He bribed someone in the PLA for the blueprint and had someone build the consoles for him to order. His intent was to sell the information to the highest bidder?”

“And was murdered before he could,” Caldwell continued.

“And he sent the consoles out to two people he thought actually had a shot at accessing this thing? A hacker and an artificial intelligence expert? Sounds like some kind of network that the AI is being built for.”

“Yes, it would seem so.”

“If it is a network why didn’t Yamamoto access it himself? They have hackers in the Yakuza too?”

“He would have if he could get in. I am sure he tried. He figured we would have more luck. The American professor and I.”

“So, the American professor’s involvement and the conversation with Wang Lin confirms an AI. One that’s so powerful that Kenzo would do anything to get his hands on it?”

“Yes, one that is so powerful that it just might upset the global balance.”

“That’s impossible.”

“If the professor has made the breakthroughs Wang Lin says he has, it is totally possible. This AI is heuristic. It learns to learn to learn. And with a quantum neural network on a chip there are no limits to the computing power it has at its disposal. That would explain why they don’t have it on the network. It is probably that smart. They’ve got it caged up in a lone server, feeding it terabytes of data.”

“We need to get to this standalone machine before the AI starts causing any trouble. This quantum chip, if it really exists, needs to be destroyed,” said Mei Lin.

“But they can simply make another chip. Wang Lin said it was expensive to produce but with government or military funding the sky is the limit. The Chinese government has virtually unlimited reserves.”

“In that case, the only thing we can do is make sure this device cannot penetrate cyberspace. What happens inside New China is the internal affairs of New China, no concern of ours.”

“True. But as long as the AI is inside New China it will always be a threat. It needs to be destroyed.”

“Wait a minute. One thing at a time. Fouler’s instructions are to find the offending system, create some kind of backdoor and notify him. It appears you have found the system. I think we need to call Fouler and give him an update, see if the parameters have changed as far as he’s concerned.”

“Good idea. However, do not forget that I am supposed to provide access into the mysterious network to fulfill my side of the bargain. That I can’t do right now but it wouldn’t hurt to give Fouler an update.”

“Could this Wang Lin kid be making idle boasts just to impress this Vicky Zhao girl?” Mei Lin asked.

“I doubt it. He didn’t sound like the prankster type.”

“OK.”

“So how was your trip to Kornhill?”

“I managed to get a bug in the apartment. It was easy. It’s a Japanese consulate flat but it appears only the two Japanese guys in the Mercedes were living there. Those guys are pigs. Bear bottles and porn magazines everywhere. I have audio feeds going directly to a secure database in cyberspace. I’ll have a look tomorrow to see what the Yakuza are cooking up.”

“Excellent.”

“So why did you think you were dead earlier?”

“Because in virtual reality, Wang Lin pushed me off this ledge above the clouds. The rendering was so realistic I thought I was actually dying. This is one hell of a console. I have a feeling I haven’t even scratched the surface on what this thing can do.”

“Yeah. That pyramid thing was weird.”

“I wonder what that was all about.”

“Let’s have a look at the Tsinghua server before I call Fouler,” she suggested.

Caldwell logged into the Tsinghua University network and brought up the network topography. He drilled down into the departmental system. The lone server was gone. It had disappeared from the network.

“It was here just a few minutes ago. The university authorities have probably taken it off the network. Wang Lin found out I was an impostor when I jacked out the first time you came in. The girl whose ID I was using logged into the student BBS. The logs showed terabytes of data going in everyday.”

Caldwell navigated to the logs. The console remembered his steps and it was just a matter of backtracking through the system. The logs were gone.

“My God, they move fast.”

“OK we better get moving too. I’m calling Fouler.” She connected an extra pair of goggles to a HYDRA terminal and used a keyboard to dial a special number for Fouler. Several logins and multiple layers of encryption and call-backs Fouler’s face appeared on the terminal screen. He was in some kind of van. Vast vistas of concrete were flying past the tinted windows. Cad thought he saw what looked like Chinese or Thai adorning buildings and billboards. The man was constantly on the move.

“Mei Lin, Caldwell. Any news?”

“Lot’s,” Caldwell said and explained to him everything that he had found out since he logged into the Tsinghua server except details of the hacking. Caldwell had a feeling Fouler would find them tedious.

“This makes a lot of sense. I had a feeling that this would end up being university-related. A lot of the cutting edge stuff these days seems to be happening in academia and that Tsinghua is a hotbed.”

“So what is the plan?” Mei Lin asked. She looked tired.

“I think you guys should head up to Beijing. See what you can dig up. I am advocating you go to Beijing first because there may be a chance to destroy this thing at its source, if that’s indeed what we need to do. You need to wait for my confirmation on that. I am currently in Tokyo and I have with me here Diane Joplin, the daughter of the American professor.”

“OK, we’ll fly up tomorrow evening. The Joplin girl?” asked Mei Lin.

“Yes. And Mei Lin, everything we know so far is based on the student Wang Lin’s story. For all we know he may be feeding us a cock and bull story. So this trip to China is to be quick – in and out. Do you understand?”

“Yes sir.”

“And Caldwell, well done.”

“Just keep your end of the bargain and I’ll keep mine, Fouler.”

“Something else. This Professor Yao of Tsinghua? He’s dead. Killed in New York at the Global Technology Forum no less,” Fouler informed them.

“What?” Caldwell asked, shocked. The line was already dead.

“That would explain the disabled accounts. Whatever it was they invented, it seems they are now paying for it with their lives.” Mei Lin said with some apprehension.

“I had my suspicions. What I need to know is how in the hell Fouler found Diane Joplin and what is he doing in Japan?”

“Easy. She’s a teenager. Sooner or later they leave an electronic trail. About him being in Japan? That guy is always one step ahead of everyone else. He moves in his mysterious ways.”