“Did Su-Yong send for you?” Bai asked. Then his smile faded. His tone grew more serious. “Brother, there are some things you should know.”

Feng’s smile dropped also. His mind grew focused. “I know, Bai,” he said quietly. “That’s why we’re here.”

“We?” Bai asked.

Sun Liu watched the scene outside from a third floor window of the now-deserted Computer Science Building. More and more of the Confucian Fist were gathering in a single location. And there was some other force. Some force that had arrived in stealth gear, and were now de-activating it. Armed men and women, not Chinese.

What was going on?

Then he felt something rise through him. The evil thing. The dead woman come back to life. She invaded his mind, seized his senses, looked out through his eyes into the world. Her mind stretched out through the nanotechnology infused in his brain, surfing the thoughts of the clones down below, listening to what they were thinking.

And what she heard…

Sun Liu gasped at the rage she felt, as it coursed through his own mind and body.

The creature that had enslaved him was not amused.

“How far is she in the process?” Feng asked.

Kade and Sam were with them now, chameleonware deactivated, hoods off. The Indians were here, chameleonware down also, but hoods still up, minds masked behind them, their faraday lining a shield against neural attacks.

As if that would stop Su-Yong.

Tao spoke. “Hours. Possibly minutes. We delivered the backup cube this morning. It could be any time.”

Feng felt Kade’s mental intake of breath. It was down to the wire.

“We have to move fast, then,” Feng said. “The insanity must be stopped, brothers.” He looked around. He could feel their minds. He could feel their understanding, snippets of their experience. They’d seen it, little bits of it. “If she’s restored, in those first few moments, hours, days… she’d be even more insane than the fragment you’ve seen inside of Ling.”

Feng paused. “And much more powerful.” He looked around at all of them, meeting eyes of his brothers, the men he’d known his entire life. Bai. Tao. Peng. Liwei. Quang. Li-Jiang. Lao.

“I love Su-Yong,” Feng said. “We all do. The insanity must be stopped.”

“And you can do this?” It was Bai, his head turned, addressing Kade.

Feng turned also, watched his friend.

Kade said nothing for a moment. Then he shook his head. “Not alone,” he said. “I’m only human. But together? All of us?” He nodded slowly. “We have a chance.”

Feng turned back to his brothers, watched as they looked at each other, as Bai and Tao and Peng and all the rest exchanged thoughts.

And then he felt their minds reach out to him. Reach out to him and to Kade.

Show us. Bai sent. Show us everything.

Kade opened himself to Feng’s brothers, let them see it all.