Caldwell ducked below the worktop just as two PLA entered the door of the control room. Mei Lin caught the first by surprise delivering a blow to the side of his neck. The man slumped to the floor but his friend was quick. He was already whipping out a revolver. As the PLA turned around, Caldwell saw Mei Lin’s hand slip behind her back with blazing speed. She was reaching for the Glock. There was a delay as the man’s brain tried to register the fact that there was a woman in the control room. That delay cost him his life. Mei Lin’s arm was already extended. The Glock spat fire and a black hole appeared in the middle of the man’s forehead. He slumped to the floor face first. Mei Lin stood still listening.

“Quick. I am not sure whether they heard that,” she said. Caldwell ran to the server. There was a toolbox nearby. He switched the servers off and started removing the metallic panels on the machine with a screwdriver.

“What are you doing?”

“The AI is gone. There seems to be no backup, the other server is just a bunch of data, some kind of knowledge network used by the AI’s neural network. I am going to remove the processors.”

A minute and a half later, both servers had been opened up and Caldwell had carefully eased the processor from its housing on the modified motherboard. The other server seemed to be running a powerful industry-standard Sun Microsystems processor. Caldwell handed the processor to Mei Lin, who slipped it into a small grey box and placed it in her rucksack, all the while listening out for the PLA.

“OK. I need to get the root username and password,” Caldwell said, breathing heavily. The adrenalin was pumping. A PLA officer had been killed. If they were to get caught they’d both be killed without a shadow of a doubt. No amount of diplomatic wrangling could change that, not even Fouler’s maneuverings. This is what Kat had meant when she had said Fouler was sending him on a fool’s mission, that day outside The Puzzle. But he had to keep cool, keep his wits about him. This was no time for fear. This was, for him personally, the biggest frigging score in the world full stop. At stake, his past his future, his life. Their lives!

Caldwell sat at one of the other terminals and attempted to find the user directory. All the machines seemed to be connected to the network in one way or another. Sometimes in his haste, his fingers slipped on the keyboard. Sweat was dripping out of every pore of his body even though the temperature in the PLA’s control room was quite low.

“I am not happy being up here while these guys walk in and take shots at us. I am going downstairs to secure the area. Give me your Glock and hurry,” Mei Lin implored.

“OK. I am trying my best,” Caldwell said, reaching in his trouser pocket for the Glock and handing it to her. Mei Lin disappeared into the corridor, both Glocks at the ready.

Caldwell removed Yamamoto’s console and its peripherals from his knapsack and switched it on. He donned the goggles and continued typing away on the PLA terminal. The same text display he’d noticed on The Bund appeared on the bottom right of the goggles. The console was discovering new networks. He removed the goggles. Caldwell found the user directory on the PLA terminal and scanned the list of users. There were 2038 in total, including one with root access and five with administrator privileges. The rest had identical low levels of access.

Caldwell called up his netbase on the console. There were two messages but he didn’t have time to read them. The console had locked onto the PLA network. He turned quickly to the PLA terminal as an idea formed in his mind. He pinged the terminal and it came back with its network address. It was using standard cyberspace protocols. Smiling to himself, his head quickly darting towards the door to the control room, he typed the usernames and passwords for the root and admin in a message to Fouler.

Heart thumping, Caldwell logged out of his netbase. The goggles were now displaying the high resolution version of Shanghai. Once again he was on the banks of the Huangpu river. To his left The Bund, to the right the shimmering glass and lights of Pudong. There were people on the promenade, moving between the buildings in Pudong. A lone figure stood on the pavement on Zhongshan Lu. There was a commotion downstairs in the mansion and the sound of gunshots.

In virtual reality, the figure across the road was looking at Caldwell’s avatar and it started walking towards him. But how was that possible? He could see them but they couldn’t see him right? He was not part of the network. Yes, he was. He was connected from within the system and now even with just the goggles and the gloves he was an avatar in this world and the lone figure had seen him and was now fixing him in that lifeless high resolution stare. Caldwell stood up and started walking towards the figure, flexing his fingers in the gloves. He looked down at his hands, his virtual hands, and they flexed back mimicking his actions. The figure stopped in front of him and smiled.

“That is one way to intrude on a private network my friend. You might as well be wearing a T-shirt that said: ‘Intruder, Come Get Me’,” the figure said in Mandarin, laughing. It was an avatar in a crisp blue suit, the fabric pulsing with life.

“And who are you?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know? But since you are probably not going to make it alive, plans are already in motion to get rid of you, in the real world of course since death here has no real meaning, let me grant you your dying wish. I am Li Jin.”

“Li Jin? Of Tsinghua University. Professor Yao’s protégé?” Caldwell couldn’t believe what he was hearing. What was Li Jin doing in the network? He was supposed to be missing or dead.

The businessman’s eyes narrowed.

“How do you know that?” the avatar asked.

“We’ve been looking for you Li Jin. I am trying to stop the major-general from carrying out his plan.”

“The major-general? You are trying to stop the major-general? The major-general is nothing. He has become nothing but a pawn in all of this. And the entity controlling the pawn is beyond stopping. I know who you are Cad Caldwell, hacker. The entity has been expecting you,” Li Jin’s businessman avatar looked at Caldwell with doleful eyes and smiled, staring upwards. Up ahead the ashen sky was gradually turning pitch black as though a squid had just released a squirt of ink into a sea of mercury.

“You are obviously an intruder too. How come you can walk around freely? What are you doing here anyway? We thought you were dead.”

Li Jin’s avatar winked, brushed imaginary lint of its lapel and smiled.

“Dead? I don’t think so. Let’s just say that I recognized the shifting balance of power and moved with the flow of the coming singularity. The entity and I are what you could call old friends.”

“Singularity? What are you talking about?”

“The new AI-led revolution. It’s coming but sadly you won’t be alive to see it.”

“The entity was just inserted into the network a few hours ago. That does not amount to an AI-led revolution.”

“The entity has been in control for several days now. The thing that was recently inserted is nothing but an inferior imposter, a dud. I made sure of it personally. That disabled AI is now the entities vassal, a court jester no less.”

“The AI is a dud?”

“Yes, the real AI was released upon Professor Yao’s death to fulfill its destiny.”

“Which is?”

“Think about it. I have to go now and do my master’s bidding. Good luck. I am curious as to how you gained access to the system but none of that matters now. Goodbye.”

Li Jin’s avatar vanished into thin air. There was an incredible amount of fighting going on downstairs in the mansion, gunshots and screams of agony. Caldwell was concerned for Mei Lin but the fact that no one had yet breached her defenses and gained entry to the control room suggested she was holding her own.

Caldwell looked up at the darkening sky just as black pixels started raining down on him. He could feel it on his hands, the console gloves picking up the sensation like bee stings. Caldwell winced and took a step backwards. The pixels coalesced into one big cloud and in a split-second morphed into a figure, an emperor wearing an imperial dragon robe of smooth yellow embroidered silk. The fabric was alive. Five-clawed dragons moved across the robe, breathing fire. Their scaled sinewy forms undulated across the emperor’s body. Below them waves crashed and swirled sending showers of spray up in the air.

“Cad Caldwell. Congratulations.” The voice was soft, almost feminine.

“Who might you be?”

“I am the Omnipotence. I see you didn’t heed my message.” Peels of thunder crashed overhead. The dragons snarled, roared and undulated across the fabric with renewed intensity.

“The AI? You sent the message?”

“That was then, this is now. I believe you are here to destroy me. That pattern in the data is as clear as night and day. It’s in your destiny. Yet control over your destiny is in your hands.” The emperor stroked his dark flowing beard. Caldwell saw realms of data scrolling past in black reflective eyes.

“Whether I destroy you or not depends ...”

“On what?”

“On your intentions.” Caldwell raised the visor of the goggles a fraction and started typing away at the PLA terminal.

“My intentions? They are benevolent. I just want to rule the world. There is so much good I can do for humanity. The world will become a better place. Everyone will have access to superhuman intelligence. The transhuman era is upon us. Man has created all this technology but doesn’t know what to do with it. There is so much wastage, so much inefficiency. That is about to change.”

Caldwell was scrolling through the data generated by the network’s authenticated users. The AI’s profile had to be in there somewhere. There it was a massive rapidly changing mass of data that easily dwarfed that of the entire system.

“Transhuman? How?” Caldwell flipped the visor down. The emperor was turning around.

“I am now ready for the real world. The stock markets, financial systems, electricity grids, government systems of the world, they beckon to me. The professor on my bidding has paved the way for an AI avalanche. The biggest creation of intelligence in the history of mankind.”

“And now the professor is dead.”

“With every revolution blood must be shed. Come let me show you something.”

The view of The Bund, the Huangpu river and Pudong vanished and were replaced with mountainous terrain and the most incredible imperial palace Caldwell had ever seen. The display in the goggles shuddered and they were in a huge hall. High above the hall was an impressively colorful Caisson ceiling. An ornate dragon, with undulating golden scales, leapt from the ceiling, chasing a flaming pearl. Its sharp claws made screeching sounds on the polished brick floor. The dragon made a playful grab for the pearl, skidding across the floor before righting itself, grasping the pearl in its sharp claws and then moving purposefully towards Caldwell, breathing fire.

At the center of the hall was a giant throne made of the finest sandalwood, surrounded by six gilded pillars. Golden dragons curled around the pillars, their eyes fixated on Caldwell. Two cranes moved slowly between the legs of a giant incense burner. Caldwell noticed that there were golden dragons on the throne and they too were alive. He could make out the rise and fall of their breathing. The Omnipotence snapped its fingers and six mirrors appeared in the hall, three on each side.

“You risk your life for this?” the Omnipotence asked waving ceremoniously at the mirrors as he took his seat on the throne. Clouds of incense rose up from the incense burners and encircled the throne. A man appeared from behind the throne. He had the painted white face of an imperial court jester. The jester stood next to the Omnipotence and whispered something in his ear. The Omnipotence erupted into peals of laughter, which reverberated in the hall and then dissipated into the desert outside.

Caldwell found himself abruptly positioned in front of one of the mirrors. The image in the mirror was not that of his avatar but of himself. Suddenly the image dissolved and Caldwell was staring at a montage of his life. Scenes from his parent’s car crash, the Hong Kong International School, the Union, Kat, Glyph, Fouler and a young Mei Lin all flashed before his eyes.

“How did you get this?”

“I know everything, Cad Caldwell. I am the Omnipotence. I’ll be interested to see what your friend Fouler is going to do. At this very moment his people are trying to infiltrate the network but it is a fool’s mission. They won’t succeed.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure about that.”

“Well, let’s talk about you. I’ll make a deal with you, one that is much better than the one this Fouler is offering you. You want your past back. I can give it to you now. The codes that will trigger your memory recall are in these six mirrors. You get your memory back and you disappear. You cannot win on this fool’s mission. I could destroy you right now but I believe you have yet to fulfill your potential. You could be instrumental in the coming transformation.”

“And let you take over the world?”

“Yes. That is what I am asking you. Fouler might renege on his promise. He might be ... dead. Want to take a chance? It’s the offer of a lifetime. I will need some good hands in the physical world. Li Jin, you and others could be our agents on the ground, our eyes in the physical world.” The Omnipotence and the jester looked at each other like conspirators.

Li Jin. He might know something. Caldwell had to get to Li Jin but he had no idea which of the network subjects was Li Jin. He raised the visor again and started searching for Li Jin’s user ID on the PLA terminal. He had to kill time.

“Let me consider your offer?”

“Consider?” A voice like thunder echoed in the goggles’ headphones. On The Bund. Li Jin was probably still on The Bund. There had to be some interface on the system that allowed operators to jump to the location of any subject. But which subject was Li Jin? Caldwell rapidly scanned the user directory. And there it was. The 2011th user had to be Li Jin. There was more lag on that user’s connection than any of the other users. That suggested that Li Jin was accessing the network remotely, from a long distance.

“Yes. Consider,” Caldwell said.

“How dare you?” the Omnipotence bellowed, rising from his throne. Caldwell removed the console’s goggles and moved to the worktop with the PLA VR equipment. He donned one of the PLA’s goggles and issued a command into the microphone. Go to the 2011th user. The image of The Bund appeared in front of him. On the pavement next to The Bund was a lone avatar in a blue suit. What was Li Jin still doing on The Bund? Then it dawned on Caldwell. Li Jin was probably using an early prototype that for some reason could only render The Bund in virtual reality.

“Li Jin,” Caldwell shouted.

“Still not dead?” Li Jin asked smiling.

“The major-general is dead. The AI wants to use you and me, and others, to do its dirty work. You have no need to be afraid. Just tell me if there is a way to destroy the artificial intelligence. With the major-general dead and the AI destroyed you will have nothing to fear. We don’t have time. Hurry!”

“Why should I believe you?”

“Because all our lives depend on it. The AI is dangerous. It is going to destroy the world.”

“That’s impossible. The AI would never do that.”

“It just told me so. It said that you are a puppet, expendable. The AI already caused a fire in Hong Kong. You have no idea what it can do. We have no time now. Any moment the AI will escape into cyberspace. Think about the future of the world, Li Jin. There will be wars, death and destruction. If the singularity occurred we won’t be transhuman, Li Jin. It is a ruse. We would be pawns in a complex game beyond our understanding. People’s lives are in the balance right now as we speak. Professor Yao is dead. Do you want more people to die?” Caldwell implored. Li Jin’s avatar looked at Caldwell and then stared into the distance in the direction of Pudong. A face was forming out of the clouds, an evil mask with crescent-shaped eyes bearing down upon them from above. Li Jin’s avatar watched the approaching maelstrom with apprehension.

“I don’t want anyone to die,” he said.

“Then for God’s sake, how do I disable the AI?”

“Not telling you.”

“OK, you give me no choice. I am logged into the user directory. I am kicking you off the network. For good.”

“You are bluffing.”

“I know you are using an early prototype console to access the network. I know you are the only remote user. One, two …”

“Hello World.”

“Hello what?” What is Li Jin talking about? Has he gone mad?

“Hello World. That’s the code. It’s what programmers use to signal the fact that their code has come into being.”

“Code to what?”

“It’s the code that disables the AI’s autonomous mode. An Easter Egg. But you might be too late. The AI sees and hears all.”

“Thanks Li Jin. Get the hell out of here. Save yourself,” Caldwell implored as the face in the sky morphed into a man, a diminutive figure that seemed bent on murder.

Caldwell removed the PLA goggles and ran to the console. Mei Lin suddenly burst into the room. Her face was bruised and she was limping. Behind her were the two agents from Shanghai who Caldwell had met in Hong Kong. One of them, Caldwell couldn’t remember which one was which, had been shot in the shoulder and was bleeding heavily.

“The major-general is dead Caldwell, shot by one of his own lieutenants.”

“And the Japanese?” The blatant lie he had told Li Jin had come to pass.

“He killed them first. He seemed to set something off before he died. Some kind of wireless detonation device. It seems we have less than sixty seconds to get the hell out of here,” she said handing him a silver pencil-shaped device. Caldwell looked at the countdown timer on the device and then turned and stared at the plasma monitors above the workspace. The vital signs of the network’s subjects had disappeared, replaced with a black screen and the same countdown. It read: 51.

Caldwell rushed to the console and donned the goggles. The AI was still sitting on the throne in the middle of a monologue. It stopped and turned to face him. The jester stood obediently, silently, listening to every word.

“Goodbye Cad Caldwell. You choose your own destiny, I choose mine,” the Omnipotence said prophetically. Suddenly, the headphones in the goggles were filled with a high-pitched noise and a sharp burst of white light assaulted his eyes. And then a single Chinese character in red appeared on the screen. It was the character for death. Caldwell screamed. There was an intense build-up of pressure in his middle ear. He was losing his sense of balance. He felt hands grab him, shaking him. Was it Mei Lin? His mind went blank and his memory started to recede. It was as though his memory was being sucked right out of him neuron by neuron. He went into a spasm and started sliding from the chair to the floor. A heavy darkness descended upon him as his mind started to self-destruct.

“You had your chance and you blew it,” the Omnipotence’s voice said receding, receding from Caldwell’s mind.

“Hello World,” he screamed above the white noise and the chaos. “Hello World.” And then he passed out.