“Rice wants to send you and a few other experienced agents there on parallel solo operations. We think that improves the odds that you’ll get through—and back.”

“I agree, and I like the tactic of working alone. I’ve been looking through the report, and whatever bits of evidence we have point to the caliph, but why bring machine rights into this? What is he after? The Machinehood’s ultimatum was broadly worded bullshit, right? A new era for humanity. Stand with us or render yourselves extinct. Why create this SAI bogeyman? We know the al-Muwahhidun hate AIs and bots, but they sell biotech for money, and that relies on the infrastructure they’ve destroyed. What do they hope to gain from these attacks?”

Olafson spread his arms wide. “The caliph wants to rule the world. He’s never shied away from telling us that, right from his first propaganda vids. Someone who holds the keys to the world’s first super-soldiers could do just that. The deregulation in North Africa led to his rise in the early eighties. We don’t know how far he’s taken biogenetic modification since he closed the borders. Given that video segment from your source, plus the fact that we can’t identify the smart-matter you found, they might have tech that’s more advanced than any in the world. As for the SAI angle,” Olafson tapped his temple with an index finger, “he’s using fear as his strongest weapon. They’ve already scared pill funders and disrupted production. That’s having a negative impact on the world’s labor force. People are hoarding their supplies or finding themselves unable to work. Add to that the idea that a SAI is masterminding the whole thing, and people can come up with a hundred plausible end-of-humanity scenarios. Scare people enough, they’ll capitulate to your demands. He can hold the rest of the world’s way of life for ransom.”

“But he preaches nonviolence, and the Machinehood is willing to kill.”

“He used to. He hasn’t issued any public videos in nearly a year. For all we know, he’s dead. Maybe someone more radical is in power. Here, look at the next section in the report.”

Welga skimmed the portion that Olafson highlighted in their joint visual. The al-Muwahhidun destroyed any network stellas near their borders, and they had no coverage within their territory. That much hadn’t changed. And since the epic fuckup in Marrakech with Welga’s team, the United States had sent only bots to fight at the front lines of the empire’s expansion.

“We haven’t had any human intel from inside the empire since 2088?” Welga asked.