Kade shook his head. Shiva’s, not mine.

That he laughed out loud at himself. There was no way that reaching out to a million minds would turn into anything but chaos.

Even with Shiva’s tools to filter and route and connect. A million minds!

All those minds were running Nexus. A million of them that he had an address for. They weren’t even close to all the Nexus users in the world – just the ones his bots had reached.

He’d closed the back doors, but he hadn’t thought to disable the bots he’d already unleashed. They were out there, no longer able to spread, no longer able to make root-level changes or peer into people’s thoughts (thank god) but still sending back pings.

A million minds. What could you do if you could connect a million people together?

“Kade-ji! Kade-ji!”

Kade chuckled and rose to his feet.

If it wasn’t Dr Kade it was Kade-ji around here.

A hell of a lot different than grad school.

He opened the door to his room on the top floor. Peered down. It was Nitya, the house manager, at the bottom of the landing.

“There is news, Kade-ji! Very big news!”

Next to Nitya was a smiling Lakshmi Dabir.

She grinned up at Kade. “India is leaving Copenhagen, Kade. The last leak did the trick.”

Kade felt his own grin grow wider. Well hot damn.

“And,” Dabir went on. “We’d love to invite you and yours to move to a new and more permanent location. Our research facility in Bangalore. Where we can really get started on this work.”

Kade closed his eyes, still smiling.

Maybe this was really going to work.

36
What I Want

Thursday 2040.11.15

The message arrived on Wednesday, and Aarthi herself first thing on a Thursday morning.

Sam smiled as one of the guards opened the door to the New Delhi compound, and the woman entered. It had been years. Three of them.

“Aarthi,” Sam stepped forward and embraced the woman.

Her old colleague looked cool and professional in khaki pants and a smart matching jacket over a pale blouse. Her black hair was cut short, yet stylishly. Her face had a dusting of makeup.

Sam felt drab in the ill-fitting clothes a Ministry of External Affairs staffer had found for her. Clothing had been the least of her concerns. Maybe after they moved to the new location in Bangalore.

“You look good, Samantha,” Aarthi said, standing back, her hands clasped in Sam’s.

“You’re a damn good liar, Aarthi,” Sam said. “And you look fantastic.”

“It’s been too long,” Aarthi said. “Since Kashmir.”