They were playing exactly into the hands of their enemies. They were inviting a backlash, a vicious crackdown that would fuel more violence until it all blew up.

Kade needed to stop that from happening. But he’d thrown away his best weapon for fighting the PLF head on. The back doors were gone. Even now, his virus was out there, replicating, closing all the back doors he and Rangan had coded – and the new ones Shiva had inserted – in every mind it touched. He didn’t trust the power to invade millions of minds to anyone. Not even to himself. And not to anyone who might trick it out of him.

No. He had to stop this war a different way. Instead of taking on the PLF directly, he had to up his strategy to a higher level.

In the intersection of Sam’s plan, and in what he’d already seen India doing, and in the nuggets he’d seen in Shiva’s memories – there just might be a way.

Or perhaps they’d send him back to the US, so the ERD could rip whatever secrets remained out of him, like they had with Rangan, like they’d tried with Ilya…

Kade closed his eyes, and in the corner of his vision he could see the icon for the script he’d written when he thought Shiva might try to torture the back doors out of him. The script that would end his life. The choice Ilya had made, rather than let them take the back door out of her mind.

It’s been a good life, Kade thought. Even if this doesn’t work with the Indians – I got Nexus out there. Wats would be happy. Ilya too. And those kids. I was so obsessed with stopping the abuses, but I missed all the beauty. Those kids are going to change the world.

Kade shook his head at his own past self, at his mistakes, at the way he’d let guilt and anger blind him to the wonder all around.

I wonder if Rangan made it? He thought

The sound of the lock turning pulled Kade out of his reverie. His eyes snapped open. Nexus nodes began recording again.

The door opened. Rakesh Aggarwal stepped into the room. With him came a tall Indian woman, dressed in a sari, all angular features and dark, intense eyes. Kade’s memory augmenting app tried to match her face against the database of thousands of government officials he’d pulled down, and found nothing.

Who was she then? A spook? A spy?

Aggarwal pulled the door shut behind him, then met Kade’s gaze, and spoke.

“Mr Lane, I regret to inform you that our government has received a highest priority request from the government of the United States for your incarceration and extradition. Our treaty obligations compel us to honor this request.”

Kade closed his eyes. The icon in the corner of his mental vision loomed large.