And now Borger was hacking in for one reason and one reason only. Retaliation.
Caesare was all ears as he dropped himself into the chair next to Borger. “Okay. Spill it.”
“They haven’t given up,” he replied, “which means they’ve probably figured out what happened to the vials of bacteria. That they were injected into Wei’s daughter. Which is why I think Qin was killed.”
Caesare savored the thought. He wished he could have been there to see the look on Qin’s face when he realized John Clay had tricked him. A simple, but brilliant move that no doubt left the murderous Chinese agent in a moment of stunned disbelief. And if Qin was dumb enough to try to double-cross the wrong people on his end, Caesare had to agree that Qin was probably no longer alive.
“So what do they have?”
Borger rolled himself forward to the edge of the old tarnished metal desk, where he reached out and began typing. A window appeared, filled with unreadable—at least to Caesare—Chinese logographic characters. With another command, the Chinese text was promptly replaced with English. But the cryptic logs were still readable only to Borger.
“These are system logs. Captured from several of their internal servers. Things like search strings, along with breaches of access into telephone and transportation systems. Including one system which is their own version of our FBI’s facial tracking database. But China is way behind with their local infrastructure, so only the largest cities have enough cameras to yield anything helpful. Which means they are much more limited in trying to find Li Na in a country of a billion people. But they’re trying.”
“Any leads?”
“A lot. But it’s truly a needle in a haystack. At least for now. However, their challenge isn’t being able to identify the needle, it’s finding the right haystack. Coverage is spotty, but if Li Na happens to walk through an area that is plugged in, they’ll find her quickly.”
Caesare peered at the screen of cryptic computer syntax. “Wonderful.”
***
In a large nondescript, twelve-story building in Shanghai, a set of dark eyes were staring at another computer monitor. With strands of straight black hair hanging in front of his face, the Chinese hacker known as M0ngol was carefully studying a list of cell phone logs. His pale complexion was awash in the glow of his own monitor. Behind him, in hundreds of similar cubes, sat the rest of China’s notorious group known as PLA Unit 61398. Or more specifically, Advanced Persistent Threat 1, the state-sanctioned hacking group identified in 2014 when a United States Federal grand jury returned an indictment for five of the group’s officers.
After the allegation, the Chinese government quickly denied any existence of such an organization, only to acknowledge a year later that it had “multiple” cyber warfare personnel working within its military.
Personnel who were now trying desperately to locate the teenage girl, Li Na Wei.
They had sifted through every piece of information they could find on the girl and each member of her family. Everything. Emails, phone calls, school records—any personal connection they could establish. Which meant every conversation they could find a record of, even handwritten correspondence.
Unfortunately, the girl’s father, General Wei, had been exceedingly careful to destroy every shred of evidence he could on the whereabouts of his dying daughter. In the end, he even took his own life in an attempt to protect her. But eventually, M0ngol found her––at a remote hospital where she was being hidden.
But Li Na had escaped with the help of an American and was now either dead or on the run. The first possibility, he just didn’t believe.
She was out there. He was sure of it. And so far, still hidden. She hadn’t reached out to anyone that M0ngol and the others were monitoring. Nor had she returned to any familiar places in Beijing. Or withdrawn any money from the active accounts they had purposely left in place. Not a hint of a trace.
M0ngol was again at the cell phone logs, still working to identify unseen relationships among millions of calls. If he could establish enough connections, they could begin analyzing voices and keyword patterns. Anything that could suggest someone was in need of help. From there they would start whittling down leads to the most likely proximities.
It was a huge, drawn-out effort, but M0ngol forced himself to be patient. He was eager to redeem himself in the eyes of the MSS. After what had happened to Qin. He had to find the girl. Because in the end, it was either her…or him.
9
The People’s Republic of China held many distinct titles. One, being the most populous nation on Earth. And another, being one of the greatest coal producers in the northern hemisphere. With production peaking at a staggering four billion metric tonnes per year, the country generated nearly seventy-five percent of its electrical energy needs from Earth’s most abundant and dirtiest fuel source.
Yet, its mining industry, like many others, was now in a state of terminal decline. Once-great production areas of the country were systematically being turned into ghost towns. And it was ironic that what had once stood as one of the country’s greatest strengths had now become a major weakness.
Beneath a field of stars, Li Na sat quietly in the train’s last car, nestled into the corner and leaning against the freezing metal. She wore two shirts beneath a thick dark sweater and two pairs of pants now colored almost black from the coal.
The heavily loaded train rocked from side to side under the strain of its own weight, passing the switch point and causing the metal cars to screech briefly as they switched to a different track.
The swaying subsided, and the cars resumed sounding their rhythmic clack-clack as the train began to regain speed.
Li Na’s eyes were low and dull, her arms wrapped around herself to keep warm. The large city of Chifeng passed by in eerie darkness, strangely silent considering the city’s recent prominence as one of Inner Mongolia’s central rail hubs. The government had used it primarily in transporting China’s dwindling coal shipments from the mountains of Dornod to the hundreds of power plants spanning the country’s northern territory.
It was the last place anyone would have thought to look for her. Stashed away in a train car and almost completely covered in black coal.
It was not intentional but she’d been there for almost two days now. It hadn’t taken long for Li Na to realize how well the dark powder concealed her.
A sudden jolt of the car caused her large satchel to slide off, and she reached down to pull it back up and over her shoulder.
Her father hadn’t just saved her. He also knew the government would be coming for her if she lived and had provided her with the means to escape. If she was lucky enough. Included in the satchel, among other things, was some emergency food, a small GPS unit, and several stacks of money.
She reached into the satchel again and withdrew a fourth item. Under the crescent moon, she could make out the faint picture of herself. By including a falsified passport, he had sent her a message that could not have been clearer: get out of the country.
She was now headed toward Shenyang. But first, she needed a place to stay. To hide until she could figure out how to make it to the coast. It was a place her father had once told her about and a place that most people would not believe, even with their own eyes.
It was the best plan she could think of. She was completely alone now and prayed they wouldn’t find her. At least not until it was too late.
Li Na’s thoughts suddenly drifted to the one person she most wished was still with her. Someone she barely knew but was the reason she was still alive. A man who had saved her from the clutches of agent Qin and allowed her to escape. A man who she was sure had lost his life in the process.
She could still see his face. With his dark hair and broad shoulders, the American soldier pulling her through the damp tunnel, trying to escape Qin’s men.
10
Surrounded by shelving units and computer hardware, John Clay eased himself into a chair in Lee’s lab and moved clo
ser to the screen. He motioned affirmatively to Lee who then accepted the incoming video call. Appearing immediately onscreen, Caesare and Borger’s tired faces seemed to be further highlighted by a dirty, dusty wall behind them.
“Looks like you guys are enjoying your new digs,” mused Clay.
“It’s like the Hilton. Will and I are headed to the spa.”
Next to him, Borger frowned with disappointment. “I’d settle for a vending machine.”
“Don’t mind him,” Caesare chided. “That’s just the caffeine withdrawal talking. Soon we’ll have him on this delicious coffee.” He raised a mug in front of the screen and took a sip. It was all he could do to keep from grimacing. “Okay, maybe it’s not all that funny.”
“Well at least you’re both in good spirits,” Clay offered.
“How could we not be? We’re in paradise.” Caesare’s eyes turned to Lee’s image on their screen. “Hey, kid. Welcome aboard.”
“Thanks, Mr. Caesare.”
“So, how you feeling, Clay?”
“Better. The water seems to be helping.”
“You don’t know the half of it. Wait until you’re swimming around for a while out here.”
Clay peered curiously at the screen. “What do you mean?”
Caesare touched his side. “No more pain.”
“At all?”
“Nope. Whatever this water is absorbing from that alien ship is amazing.”
Borger nodded solemnly. “Maybe too amazing.”
“What do you mean?” Clay asked.
“Commander Lawton is worried that whatever’s in those plants may be too good to be true. That there could be a caveat. A big one.”
Clay shook his head. “Any other good news?”
Caesare grinned. “Yeah. As long as by good you mean troubling.”
He nodded to Borger who cleared his voice. “It, uh, looks like our Chinese friends don’t like to give up.”
Clay’s brow furrowed. “Meaning?”
“They’re trying to find Li Na Wei. And this time, they’re pulling out all the stops.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I’m in one of their systems.”
“And they don’t know?”
“Not yet. When they found me last time, we were breaking into the same servers to get cell tower data. They then hacked my system but not before I tunneled back to them using their own packets to transfer a piece of my code. Which opens a secondary connection back to me with the same packet ID. Unless they’re reading binary at the packet level—”
“Okay, okay. I believe you, Will,” Clay interrupted.
Next to Clay, Lee whispered the word “wow” under his breath.
“The point is,” Caesare said, “they want her. Bad. They must know what she’s carrying.”
Borger nodded. “They’re looking everywhere. Electronically and visually. They’re taking images of the entire area and doing a pixel search, just like I am.”
“Can we find her first?”
“I doubt it. They have far more resources. Their urgency is another reason why they haven’t noticed my code in their system yet. I’m only watching their results and communication. If I tried to get any real data, they’d see it.”
Clay rubbed his chin. “I can’t believe they haven’t found her yet. A teenage girl can only move so fast.”
“It helps that their satellite technology is not quite up to our standards yet. But they’re flying dozens of aircraft over the area, taking ultra-high-resolution pictures.”
“How is she eluding that?”
“Probably some brains and a hell of a lot of luck,” Caesare said.
“The problem is,” Borger added, “luck doesn’t last.”
“No, it doesn’t.” After a quiet moment, Clay leaned back in his chair, thinking. “There is one more possibility.”
“She’s not alive.”
“Correct.”
“But they would have found her body by now.”
“Probably so,” Clay nodded. “She’s more likely to be alive. And from what I saw, she may be scared but she’s also very bright. And she knows that they’re looking for her.” Clay suddenly paused, remembering what she had with her: the metal case of vials and a leather bag she carried on her back. Both had been left by her father. Clay was starting to wonder what else the General had left his daughter.
“There’s something else,” Caesare said, interrupting. “Commander Lawton isn’t just afraid of what this bacterium can do. She’s afraid of what it may have already done. The samples you brought back are acting differently, and if any of that has been passed on to the girl, there may be side effects.”
“What kind of side effects?”
“She doesn’t know yet. But one thing she made very clear is that genetic mutations can be very touchy things.”
Clay returned to his previous thought. “If she has enough resources, where would she go?”
Caesare thought about the question. “I’d get the hell out of Dodge. Staying in China means it’s probably just a matter of time before they find her.”
“So she heads east.”
“I would. Unless she wants to freeze to death. East is also the shortest way out of the country.”
Clay’s face showed a small ray of hope at the thought. “She is smart.”
They all reflected for a long moment until Caesare broke the silence.
“So…how did things go with Alison?”
11
Alison.
“Yes, Sally.”
You not happy.
Alison folded her arms and forced a smile through the wall of glass to where Sally was floating on the other side.
No, she wasn’t happy. In fact, she was angry. Even furious. Furious at the very idea of her having to retract it all. Everything they’d done. Achievements that had literally changed the world. Forever.
Frustrated because retracting their work was the equivalent of telling thousands of peers that they were wrong. Really wrong.
That all the results of the studies were ruined by their own ignorance. And not only was their scientific reputation severely tarnished, they ran the risk of being ignored and branded a laughing stock for the rest of their career. It was the ultimate insult, and to make matters worse, Alison would have to do it herself. Ironically, in science, if one’s assertions had been disproven by someone else, such as a peer, it would have been less shameful. But when you announced it yourself, it was an acknowledgment of just how incompetent you really were.
Of course, none of it was true. IMIS worked, and it worked beautifully. Too beautifully. The problem, literally, was the unforeseen extent of their success. And while Alison wanted to blame both Admiral Langford and Secretary Miller, she couldn’t. Nor could she blame Clay. They all knew the truth behind the danger IMIS now posed both to the team and itself.
There had to be another way.
Even Lee was surprised. He too admitted that there was something in their computer code, in the algorithms, that he didn’t fully understand. Something that allowed the giant machine’s vast array of silicon and copper to achieve more than they ever expected. Whether it was the hardware or software, or the combination, he wasn’t sure. But what he did know, and what they all understood, was that the system could be replicated. The exact hardware could be reassembled, the software studied, and the data copied. IMIS could be reverse engineered until all of its secrets were eventually revealed.
They would have to do more than just make it vanish. They’d have to make the world forget it. And a retraction would be the first and most painful step.
“No, Sally,” she finally replied. “I’m not happy.”
What wrong Alison?
“It’s hard to explain.” She took a deep breath. “We can talk again, but I don’t know if it’s safe anymore for people to know. At least not yet.”
Alison paused, expecting a reply, but Sally remained silent. She continued.
“Sally, how many dolphin
s are there?”
Sally’s response was short.
Thousand.
A loud beep sounded, signifying a bad translation, and IMIS changed the word.
More thousand.
Another beep sounded and one more adjustment was made.
Thousands.
Alison nodded. The occasional corrections always reminded her that IMIS was still learning.
“Do dolphins fight?”
Yes, she answered. But no like peoples.
“What do they fight for?”
Sally’s response was not immediate. As if she paused to consider the question. Love.
“You fight for love?”
Yes. Another pause. Dirk fight me. A moment later the sentence was revised. Dirk fight for me.
Alison smiled warmly. “I guess humans and dolphins have that in common.” Actually, she thought, all life had it in common.
“How do you learn, Sally?”
From heads.
“You mean your elders.”
Yes. Many heads. Many teaches.
Alison grinned. “So have we.” Again she paused, considering other species. How other animals taught each other. And when they couldn’t, how nature stepped in to fill the void, through environment and instinct. It brought her back to a question she and Chris had pondered many times. What exactly was instinct?
In almost all species, parents taught their young. But in many cases, the rearing window was simply too short. Not enough time to convey everything. How to survive or how to forage for food was one thing. But other things, like what not to eat, were just as important. Yet how could a parent teach and warn for everything––let alone how to mate or how to raise their own young? Because with or without parents, even a newly born animal still managed to figure most of it out. There were just so many tiny but critical lessons to ensure the continuation of their own species. What made it all possible, especially with some brains possessing only the tiniest capacity?
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