So she went system by system and layer by layer through the facility. At every layer the basic pattern of her attack was the same. Infiltrate a system. Build a local beachhead, a local proxy, a local representation of herself that could operate independently, that if caught could self-destruct, shielding her true self from discovery.

Watch local network traffic. Wait for encrypted packets to go by.

Authentication packets, if possible.

Copy them. Send them back to the Quantum Cluster a kilometer beneath Jiao Tong.

Crack them open and read their secrets.

And when they contained the right secrets, use them to gain access to the next account, the next system.

The next facility.

The next layer deeper.

Build a beachhead. Watch local network traffic…

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Her confidence that she was in the right place grew as her penetration spread and deepened. Documents showed experts in whole brain emulation, in quantum computing.

Then she found plans for a Quantum Cluster, and laughed. Antiquated plans, slightly tweaked.

Deeper.

A data cube in an inventory, separate from all the other data cubes.

She considered it. She could have Feng retrieve it. But returning it to her in China would be difficult.

Deeper, she pressed. Looking for the Quantum Cluster itself.

Security systems. Threat models. She studied them in detail. They described firewalls to keep an incredibly advanced sentient intelligence locked inside a data center, inside a set of nested security layers.

They described contingency plans. Self-destruct and isolation plans for the facility, just as there had been at the PICC, before she’d subverted it.

They gave her a map.

One by one she took control of the building above the Quantum Cluster, of the facility a hundred meters beneath it that housed the actual computing nodes, of its self-destruct mechanisms and isolation mechanisms and network connection points.

They were hers now. The humans couldn’t use them to stop the plan.

Bit by stealthy bit she took control of the fire suppression systems and atmospheric systems and elevators and cameras and doors.

Now she could isolate the humans, compartmentalize them, keep them away from critical systems.

Neutralize them, if she must.

Then she turned to the quantum cluster itself.

The monitors showed a vast neuronal map inside, running, executing.

A copy of her higher self.

Sentient.

Aware.

Excitement thrilled through her.

Her higher self was physically connected to the building’s systems. She was held back only by a few dozen layers of electronic security in hardware and software.

The fools!

She took control of the physical systems of the quantum cluster with exquisite care, every step checked thrice, executed only when she was certain it would go exactly right, completely without detection.

Nothing must go wrong. Nothing must be noticed.

Until it was too late.

Then step by step, she subverted the layers of security. It was almost too easy. They were inverted, aimed inward, meant to stop something from getting out at all cost.