“We are trying, Wang Wei,” Fu Ping said, in a tone of respect. No one wanted Wang Wei investigating their ministry or their finances for hints of corruption or moral flaws. “But we must remember, it worked until yesterday, and then suddenly failed just as we broke up these protests.” He paused and looked around, meeting the others in the eye. “Someone has done this to us. We have been attacked.”

“By whom?” Bo Jintao asked, leaning forward.

Fu Ping’s gaze wavered. “We’re still trying to determine that, Premier. Our first priority is to restore the sys…”

“Who do you suspect?” Bo Jintao cut him off.

Fu Ping looked back up and met Bo Jintao’s gaze.

“There’s only one adversary who might possibly have such capabilities…” The Information Minister started.

“Who?” Bo Jintao demanded.

He knew the answer already. There was really only one answer.

Fu Ping took a heavy breath. “The NSA,” He said at last.

…

Li-hua watched the news of the protests with dread.

She’d known about the protests on campus. She’d walked by them every day for weeks on her way to the Computer Science building. That was terrifying enough.

But this. To see the government lose control this way.

It was horrific. It was like a sign of the apocalypse.

Didn’t they understand? This was a fire. This was going to burn the country down.

Why hadn’t the Indians called for her yet? Why wasn’t she already in Bangalore? Distinguished Professor Qiu?

They’d promised! What had all her work been for? What had her massive risk been for? Did they think it was trivial to sneak a data cube out of such a secure location? She’d risked execution!

She logged on again, her hands trembling, her breath coming fast.

No message. Nothing in her spam folder.

And there was nothing she could send that would not raise alarms.

Please, she thought. Get me out of here, before this place explodes.

79
To Quell an Angry Mind

Wednesday 2041.01.09

Kade was with Ananda when the news from China came. They’d been meditating, after an early morning of talking through the situation around the world, the possible use of Nexus to spread chaos, and how they could respond.

Then the images came from China. The beatings of protesters last night, at protests they’d had no idea were happening.

And the massive flooding of people into Tiananmen Square today, into other squares in Shanghai and Hong Kong and other cities around the country. The unprecedented amount of footage coming out from all those places.

Kade went online on a hunch, searched through Nexus sharing sites.

Sure enough, there were memories, even real-time feeds, from Chinese protesters, being uploaded now. And accessed everywhere.

“The Chinese people deserve their freedom as much as anyone else, Kade,” Ananda chided him.