The camera’s crude decision-making software runs through its models. Excitation ramps up. It fires up additional image analysis coprocessing, despite the drain on batteries that have not been charged in a day, may not be charged again until Monday. Its alerting module reaches 87% of the threshold needed to send a message to its upstream human.

No. Not quite. But something interesting may be happening. It will be vigilant. It will see if more transpires.

“She’s insisting that there’s a huge danger,” Varun summarized for General Singh. “Billions of deaths. She’s been eerily right on all of her other predictions.”

They were in the control room of India’s first Quantum Cluster. Varun; General Singh with his broad frame and his thick, black Bollywood mustache; and Singh’s two armed bodyguards.

The soldiers made Varun nervous.

“But she won’t say what’s driving this danger?” Singh asked. “What will cause this nuclear exchange?”

Varun shook his head. “No. Only that she can stop it. That with just a few minutes of access to the net, she can neutralize the threat. And that we can close the firewall after that.”

General Singh looked dubious.

“Do you believe her?”

Varun paused. He’d asked himself that every day. “I don’t know what to believe, General.”

“Is she sane?” Singh asked.

Varun pursed his lips. “Her neural patterns suggest so… but,” he shrugged. “We can’t really be sure.”

Singh didn’t seem to like that answer.

89
Totally Different Building

Saturday 2041.01.19

“We’re going dancing,” Feng announced.

Kade looked up from his terminal. “I really can’t, Feng.”

“All you do is work!” Feng said. “Work, work, work! Time to have a good time!” He grinned widely. “Remember that place in Saigon? Club Heaven? Club Hell? A good time!”

Kade half frowned, horrified yet amused at how Feng’s mind worked. “Where you got run over by a truck? Where a small army tried to kidnap us? Where a building fell on you?”

Feng waved that away. “Building fell on me later. Totally different building. It was a cool club. I hear they got good ones downtown too, places people using Nexus now. We go check em out tonight. You need fun! I need fun.” He grinned and winked at Kade. “You can call it research if you want.”

Kade laughed, despite himself. He looked at the terminal. He was really just checking and rechecking the same code now.

“The US inauguration is on Monday,” he told Feng.

Feng nodded. “End of the world,” he said. “You told me. Better party one last time. Confucius says, night spent sweating with good music, sexy women, good for the fighting spirit.”

Kade laughed again. He couldn’t argue with that logic. He met Feng’s eyes. He could feel something else behind his friend’s cheerful exterior. What was going on in China had been eating away at Feng all week, worrying him. Feng needed this too.