‘No, I’ve lost signal too. What happened?’
‘I could kick myself for not seeing this sooner. The radio frequency generated by the particle accelerator in there, when it’s running, means that the whole building must have been acting as a giant Faraday cage to stop any radio waves escaping and interfering with the electronic instruments outside.’
‘So Sarah’s in there, alone with Aguda, and we can’t see or hear what’s happening.’
‘You don’t need to tell me that. I’ve got to go in after her.’
‘No, wait!’ She felt her voice rise. ‘I mean you can’t. If he sees you before Sarah can learn anything, it’s all over.’
‘It may be all over already, Shireen. If Aguda chose the location so as not to be heard, then maybe he knows we’re on to him. And that means Sarah’s life is in danger. I can’t risk it.’
She knew she couldn’t stop him. She switched her display to Marc’s retinal feed, even though she knew it would be pointless as soon as he too went inside the building.
So, she saw the closed doors of the booster ring building at the same time that he did.
‘Fuck. I’m locked out.’ Marc’s voice crackled through her earpiece. ‘And Sarah’s trapped in there with that monster. Shireen, is there anything you can do from your end?’
She didn’t answer right away. A thought had suddenly occurred to her. If the doors were locked, then Aguda was definitely on to them. In which case, wouldn’t he have simply locked Sarah inside, alone? She quickly traced his whereabouts from his wristpad.
Yup, she was right.
‘Marc, Aguda’s not in there with her. He’s still somewhere in the main building, but I can’t pinpoint his location any better than that.’
‘You mean he’s locked her in there alone? To keep her out of the way until Ignition? That doesn’t make sense. Wouldn’t he want to know what she knew?’
Marc was right. Aguda couldn’t be sure who else knew.
She watched through Marc’s eyes as he turned away from the doors and made his way back to the Mag-8 building. He said, ‘OK, see if you can get those doors unlocked. I’m going to track down Aguda.’
‘OK,’ said Shireen, ‘I’m sending through a map of the site with his location to your AR feed. But you’re on your own after that. I have another idea. Contact me if you need to.’
Shireen knew trying to get Sarah out would be a waste of time. Hacking into the central control system at SESAME in order to release those doors wouldn’t work. Even before they went into Lockdown, the Mag-8 Mind or its Sentinels would be on to her instantly. Sarah was locked in there – alone but, as far as Shireen could tell, safe. And with just a few hours to go, they were getting nowhere. Still, maybe there was something she could try. It would be the most outrageous and foolish thing she’d ever attempted in her life. She shivered. Indeed, it might well mean the end of her life, but she had no other option. And she couldn’t do it without help. First, she had to get across town to the FBI’s National Security Facility.
She slipped out of the building in which she’d spent the past five days and into the cool night air. The streets were eerily quiet. The entire population of the city seemed to have decided to wait it out and watch events unfold on the few official media networks still operating. There were hardly any cars around either, but she found one that seemed to have been abandoned in a hurry near a charging pod. She climbed in, hacked its computer and headed for the Facility. On the way, she called the one person who might be willing to help her.
Zak Boardman picked up almost immediately. Like everyone, he sounded on edge, and was certainly surprised to hear from her. But he was also prepared to listen. Shireen smiled when she heard the young FBI man’s voice. They had quite a bit in common. A few years older, Boardman had shown an almost embarrassing degree of admiration for her during the two days of interrogation after her arrest back in February. Of all the FBI team who had questioned her, he had been the most impressed with the Trojan horse code. She saw him as a kindred spirit and was now thankful that she’d kept in touch with him.
She pinged him the message from Maksoob and gave him a brief outline of what she knew.
‘We can safely assume that if the Purifiers have done something as crude as planting a bomb inside Mag-8, then the Mind or its Sentinels would have found it by now, right?’
‘Of course. So then what exactly are you suggesting they could do?’
Shireen hesitated. How much should she divulge? Too much, and he would try to talk her out of what she had in mind. More likely still, he would just think she was mad.
She took a deep breath. She had to take the chance. ‘Zak, how much do you know about swarm technology?’
‘Huh? Um … well, not my area but I know we have a lot of people working on it. So do the Chinese and Indians. It’s no big secret. But why are you asking me this now? We’re just hours away from Lockdown after all, and—’
‘I know, Zak,’ she interrupted. ‘And I know anyone can look up the details online: flying nanomachines, manufactured in huge numbers, probably up to a billion in a single “swarm” – independent entities, acting in unison, but each obeying remarkably simple rules—’
‘You mean like staying at a constant distance from their surrounding neighbours, which gives the illusion of choreographed motion?’
‘Exactly. Like a murmuration of starlings weaving those stunning patterns in the sky.’
As she spoke, she only half registered the outside world. The car sped along its programmed route, manoeuvring around hastily parked, probably abandoned vehicles. The scene on the deserted Washington streets was like something from a post-apocalyptic horror movie.
‘But that’s wrong,’ said Zak. ‘A nanoswarm is much more like a single artificial organism, a cloud of programmable matter. Each nanobot processor has the storage capacity and power of an insect’s brain. And yet, because it doesn’t need any of this brain power for keeping itself “alive”, or hunting for food or finding mates, its entire focus can be on its mission.’
It was what Shireen had feared. ‘So, a swarm would be more like an army of a billion telepathic killer bees acting as a single unit?’
‘Yes, but wait a minute, Shireen. Are you suggesting the Purifiers could have got their hands on a nanoswarm to send into Mag-8?’
When Zak said out loud what she had only toyed with in her mind, it made it sound both terrifying and so much more real.
‘I don’t know, Zak. I just think that, logically, it’s the only option available to them if they want to evade detection by the Mind.’
‘I still don’t understand. How would that be possible?’
‘I’ll explain later. But I need to get into your TID Lab, and you’re going to help me.’ She knew she sounded more bright-eyed than she felt.
He was silent for a few seconds, then, ‘OK, I’m listening.’
She checked the on-board map. She’d be with Zak in just over thirty minutes, enough time for her to outline what she had in mind and convince him that she wasn’t completely crazy.
She got the car to drop her about fifty metres from the front gate of the NSF compound. Shireen had decided to walk the rest of the way. No need to spook the guards. As she approached, she spotted the skinny figure of the young agent standing in the glare from the harsh arc lights above the security gates.
Zak Boardman walked towards her, flanked by the two heavily armed sentries, both of whom looked like they’d rather be anywhere but here, tonight.
‘That’s far enough, Ms Darvish,’ said one of them, who stood back, levelling his gun at her while the other approached. He held a biometric scanner in front of her face. He nodded as though satisfied and turned to Zak. ‘OK, Agent Boardman, she’s cleared to come in, but she stays with you at all times, understood?’
Zak thanked him and signalled to Shireen to follow him through the barriers into the compound.
Shireen fell in behind him, checking the time as she went. It had taken her long
er than she’d expected to get here. Less than ninety minutes till Lockdown. Looking across at the imposing building, she could see a lot of activity inside. But Zak led her along a diagonal path that took them away from the main entrance towards the far side of the grounds. As they approached, she could make out the sleek glass and steel frame of a newer, smaller structure, half hidden by sycamore trees. This was it, the FBI’s TID Lab. She knew enough about Total Immersive Displacement to understand that it was still a highly experimental technology. But it was her only chance.
She could tell Zak was nervous, but hoped he was smart enough to understand the ramifying consequences of not helping her. At first, he had tried to argue that he should be the one to displace. But she had persuaded him that it had to be her – because if anything went wrong she would need him to bring her back.
Total Immersive Displacement had been feasible for many years, ever since the early days of virtual reality. Shireen remembered her father talking to her about it when she was younger. She had grown up in a world where virtual reality was a given, but it had been mainly used in the entertainment industry, first for fully immersive gaming experiences and then, with widespread use of 360-degree stereoscopic cameras and binaural audio, in movie-making.
TID was very different. Full displacement technology, whereby one could, in the most real sense imaginable, experience being in a different physical location, remained a tightly controlled technology because of its security and ethical implications. Yet, it was an open secret that many countries’ militaries had perfected true TID some years ago.
Zak hadn’t said a word as they had made their way to the laboratory building. Now he presented his eyes and palm to the scanner and the doors slid open. As they entered the deserted building, the lights flicked on. Shireen hoped that their presence wouldn’t attract attention. They walked along the corridor towards the lab, accompanied by the echo of their footsteps; as they went Zak outlined what the procedure involved. ‘The subject is injected with nanobots directly into their bloodstream, which navigate their way to the brain.’ Shireen felt him look at her as he continued. ‘There they take over control of the neurons responsible for visual, auditory and other senses.’
Even though he wasn’t telling her anything she didn’t know already, she let him talk as it seemed to relax him. TID had been something of an obsession of hers ever since she’d heard about it. But she never imagined she would be able to experience it herself, and certainly not when the stakes were so high.
The idea itself was, she thought, technologically beautiful. The nanobots received their data from the remote location, transferring it directly to the subject and so giving him – or her – a total immersive experience: seeing, hearing, feeling, even smelling the location they were ‘transported to’ as though they were physically there. She felt her heartbeat quicken at the enormity of what she was about to do.
They reached the lab and, again, Zak had to be biometrically scanned in order to gain access. Shireen followed him into a large, brightly lit research lab. Everything looked pristine, as though no human had ever set foot in the place. One wall was covered with a bank of electronic instrumentation on which a few multi-coloured LED lights were blinking. The rest of the windowless lab was bare, gleaming white plastic. The only piece of furniture seemed to be a black leather reclining seat in the centre. It reminded Shireen of a dentist’s chair.
She started to walk towards it when she noticed that Zak wasn’t following her. She turned. He stood there, hovering just inside the lab entrance and looking more nervous than ever. She tried to control her frustration and smiled at him. ‘Look, I know what I’m getting into here.’
He didn’t reply but moved slowly to the bank of electronics and began switching on the instruments.
As the lab’s background hum grew noticeably louder, Shireen suddenly acknowledged just what she was asking of the FBI agent. She went over to him and reached out to rest a hand on his arm. ‘Look, Zak, I know this is mad. And I know it’s dangerous. And the best we can hope for is that my worries are unfounded, the Project will go smoothly, and we’ll both be arrested. But then if I don’t—’
Zak’s eyes suddenly flashed in anger. ‘Don’t you think I know that? Would you have got this far if I didn’t?’ He turned back to the instruments.
‘I’m sorry.’ Her voice was barely a whisper. She walked back to the chair in the middle of the room. Of course, there was every good reason to be nervous. What she was planning on doing had never been done before.
She ran her fingers along the smooth leather of the TID chair. It had a certain hypnotic quality about it, beautiful, yet terrifying in equal measure. She had dreamed of a moment like this. But now that it was a reality, all the excitement and romance had vanished. All that was left was a sense of foreboding.
The low electronic hum rose in pitch as the system booted up. Zak walked over to her. He was carrying a metal tray on which there was a very ordinary-looking syringe. ‘Look, Shireen, TID technology is perfectly safe as long as you displace somewhere alone. But you want to put yourself inside the Mag-8 facility. That’s sheer lunacy.’ Damn it, he was still trying to talk her out of this. ‘There’s a Mind in there that is on high alert for anything out of the ordinary … anything at all.’
‘I know that, Zak, and I know the risk I’m taking, but I need to do this. Whatever the Purifiers may have planned, I think it will only become evident after Lockdown. If I displace too early, then I’ll be detected and kicked out by the human controllers. But it’s crucial I’m inside when Lockdown happens. I just hope that the Mind gives me a chance to explain.’
She hoped she sounded more confident than she felt. Zak looked far from convinced, trying to appeal to her common sense. ‘Listen, you know as well as I do that a Mind can assimilate new information and learn new tricks a million times faster than any human. So don’t tell me you can outwit it.’
‘I’m not. And I don’t want to get into a pointless argument about machine consciousness.’ She paused and looked at him. ‘It’s just that I don’t think an AI Mind is capable of recognizing a psychopathic human mind, one willing to destroy the world. Which is why I have to help it.’
Without waiting for his response, Shireen eased herself into the chair. It felt cold where it met her skin. ‘Can we just get on with this please, Zak? We don’t have long and have to time this just right.’
He nodded, reached around to the back of the chair and produced a jet black, full head-and-face helmet. ‘Put this on. It has several thousand sensors and probes on the inside that pick up your brain’s activity and transmit your thoughts to the remote location. At the same time, it’ll be sending data back in the opposite direction.’ He paused, as though he was worried he’d spooked her too much, before adding, ‘But it should feel quite comfortable.’
Shireen gingerly pulled the helmet over her head and let out a gasp of surprise. The front visor, which had looked black from the outside, projected bright, pale blue light on the inside. She felt as if she was staring up into a clear summer sky.
She could hear Zak hooking her up to various machines – monitors that would record her vital signs and allow him to instantly kill the power to the nanobots and bring her back. She felt her nervousness rise a notch. She thought about her parents at home in Tehran. She knew they’d be worrying whether the world would be around for them to ever see her again. She thought about Majid. She missed him more than ever. And she wondered what Sarah must be going through right now, imprisoned and helpless.
Zak snapped her out of her reverie. ‘OK, Shireen. Are you ready?’
Her mouth felt dry. The Sentinels protecting the Mag-8 Mind, and even the Mind itself, would fry her brain if they saw her as a hostile presence and rejected the merge.
‘OK, let’s get on with this,’ she whispered, almost to herself.
‘Right, relax your arm. I hope this doesn’t hurt too much. I’ve never done it before.’ Then there was a sharp sensation of pressure in her
forearm. She sucked in a deep breath. So, this was it. No turning back now. Zak had injected her with the nanobots. Suddenly this didn’t seem like such a great idea. Within seconds she was floating, her body no longer belonging to her. She experienced a brief sense of panic. As a child, she had suffered from sleep paralysis: being fully awake and yet unable to move or speak. This felt like that – and then the sensation fell away …
Slowly the monochromatic blue light changed, and Shireen could pick out features. As her surroundings swam into focus she saw that she was standing in a garden, a place she guessed was a virtual-reality holding area for her to become familiar with the sensation of controlling her avatar body before she was displaced. She looked down to see that she was standing barefooted on a manicured lawn. All around her were thick bushes rich in colourful flowers. She could ‘feel’ the grass beneath her feet and smell the sweet scent of jasmines and roses. She tried lifting her hand up to her face and found it very easy. She told herself that what she was looking at was a computer-generated hand. It wasn’t hers. She knew that back in the lab her own hand would not be moving. Her brain had sent a signal to the muscles to raise an arm, but the nanobots had intercepted it and translated it into the sensation of lifting the imaginary avatar limb.
Shireen had spent her life playing immersive VR games and was perfectly at ease experiencing the sensation of moving around and interacting in a computer-generated world. Wearing her gaming helmet, haptic suit and gloves, it was easy to fool the brain into believing you were in some fantasy world of aliens and monsters – but you still had to swivel your head to look around you, and you still had to physically move your arms, or manipulate your fingers, for your actions to be translated into the virtual world.
This was different. Every one of her senses was confirming to her that she was physically standing in the garden and the illusion was utterly impossible to shake, however hard she tried to convince herself otherwise. She fought back her panic and forced herself to relax, to accept it.
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