The last thing he did before the jump was warn the dog to be ready to shoot or discharge its capacitor in close combat.
The foam wall gave way with an enormous tearing sound. Feng thought he may also have heard some shouts and verbal expressions of astonishment. The foam wall stayed mostly in one piece like a punctured automobile windshield. Feng saw the other dog, facing the door. He couldn’t let go of his own dog in time to use his rifle. The machines turned towards each other, then his dog reared up and slapped its front feet across the body of the other dog.
Snap!
Feng watched the other dog wobble for a second. His own dog trained its head mount on the guard dog. Finally, Feng gained control of his own rifle and logged a mock shot. He cursed himself for being so slow.
“You got it!” came Wenbo’s exalted message over the link.
Feng checked his legs. They weren’t in the way of the canister launchers. He’d been holding on so tight that his body hadn’t shifted forward, even when the dog had landed from the jump through the wall.
The officers flooded in started to congratulate Feng. Even Zhengqing seemed to appreciate the achievement rather than show jealousy of it.
None of the others complained about the oddity of the plan after that. They worked for the rest of the day on splitting up the teams and practice riding the dogs.
“We can disperse and work on the details for the rest of the day,” Zhengqing said.
“I’m glad there’s enough time for us to sleep before the test,” Feng said. Despite his nerves, he felt certain he would be able to achieve sleep.
“Do you think the trainers will learn of our plan and take moves to defeat it?” Zhengqing asked quietly, within earshot of only Feng.
“We’ll know by the end of tomorrow,” Feng answered.
***
Feng led one pincer of the assault force. Zhengqing had given him that, had had to give him that, after his pivotal role in the planning stage.
This time Feng’s first assault wouldn’t involve flying through any walls or doorways. They would enter section C, their objective, through a wide cargo corridor that led into a loading bay that dominated a third of the section. Zhengqing would arrive from the opposite direction, but after a minute’s delay. His plan called for allowing the guards some time to react to the first force before the second pincer arrived, in hopes that more dogs would be facing the direction of the first wave, making the second wave from the other direction more effective.
A cavalcade of junior officers atop their war dogs stood in rough formation on the cargo runway. Feng was supposed to be at the rear of the group, but he couldn’t bear to lead from there, not after his stunning success yesterday. He had put himself into the second row of five dogs each.
It is time, came the message from Zhengqing. Force one, attack.
Feng sent his dog into motion. Together, the squadron trotted down the wide conveyor corridor. Feng resisted the urge to spur his dog faster, pass the first rank and charge recklessly ahead. He’d already been too brazen in putting himself into the second rank.
The first couple of rows moved out into an open bay in section C. Six enemy dogs were immediately trained at him and his fellows. They didn’t fire. Feng’s dog shot at one. Feng heard more shots ringing out through his ear guards. Feng could feel the cannon through the frame of his dog. Feng pointed his rifle and started to fire. Three immobilizers went out, then it was over. They’d neutralized the defenders without taking any fire! Just like in the simulation.
“It’s working!” he transmitted and yelled simultaneously. “Keep clear of the launchers!”
Feng snatched his own hand away from the leading edge of the gas grenade launcher as he sent the message.
He heard a clang and turned to see two more dog machines running into the bay. His own machine turned to engage them, but it had been facing the wrong direction. Feng heard one of the machines near him fire a round. Then came the thwump of a launcher.
The next instant, the world went black. Feng clutched to his dog. He realized he had been glued, across his face, across half his body. Feng told his dog to react on its own.
It moved and he felt it fire a rifle round. Then it calmed down. Feng began to realize that he wasn’t getting enough fresh air in his cocoon of rubbery glue. He probed with his free arm, wondering if it would be torn off by something he couldn’t see.
Feng. Stand down. Stand your dog down. We have the bay.
Feng didn’t know the identifier of the soldier advising him, but he obeyed. He couldn’t see anything, could hardly breathe, so what choice did he have?
Feng started to grow dizzy. His breath was hot in his dark trap. His free arm tapped the outside carefully as he’d been trained, to see if the glue remained sticky or if it hardened up. He felt a cold, rubbery surface, but it wasn’t too sticky. He started to pry his hand in along his torso, trying to open an air gap from his rib vents up to his head.
He ground his chin into his combat suit’s collar, then finally got a small taste of fresh air. His free hand grabbed his rib vents and pulled the suit outwards then inwards, trying to encourage air flow.
The sounds of weapons fire erupted again from the outside. Feng felt his machine shift and fire again.
They’re counterattacking, Feng heard over the channel.
Find cover! Counterattack from section C! said Zhengqing to his men over the links.
Feng thought about the dog machines. Under all this glue, would he be recognizable as a human? Would another dog machine shoot him dead now, trying to immobilize his own dog?
File that idea away, if you live, Feng told himself. We could use glue to hide things, confuse the enemy, even put live soldiers inside fake glue camouflage. The glue is an expected part of the battlefield.
He forced his fear aside and kept trying to open a route for more air. The sounds of shooting continued. Feng couldn’t get the glue off his suit, but he managed to keep pumping air through his suit and out of his collar, using his rib vent like a bellows.
Suddenly someone gabbed his arm. He tried to yell or make some noise, but he wasn’t sure it worked. He felt a warm sensation across the front of his body and face.
Solvent. It heated up slightly as it ate away at the glue. Feng’s arm slipped free. His hand immediately went to his own face, but someone else’s hands were already working there to detach the glue.
Finally, Feng saw light. Air moved across his face. Feng took a deep breath and then coughed.
The solvent smelled bad. Feng coughed again and spat. But after a couple seconds he felt more glue give way. He could move his other arm again.
“My rifle,” he croaked.
“Here it is,” someone said. “Make sure and check it for obstructions.”
Of course. I’m not that rattled. Or am I?
“Thanks.”
Feng folded the barrel sensor out and let it test his barrel. The diagnostic took less than a second. The sensor lit up green and Feng replaced it.
A huge slab of glue fell off him to the ground. Feng considered getting off his dog but decided to stay mounted. He looked around and saw a few dead dogs, piles of glue here and there with many unmounted soldiers moving about to help each other.
“What have I missed?” Feng transmitted privately to Zhengqing. “I was glued up early on.”
He could feel his face turning red. He hoped that the others would think it was the glue, or the solvent.
“The second force was even more effective when we arrived from the other direction,” Zhengqing said. “The dogs counterattacked us in the loading bay, however. Fortunately, the rate of attrition was still in our favor, since most of us were still on our dogs.”
Feng looked up onto the loading platform, which rose about a meter higher than the ramp on which they had charged. He saw many more damaged and destroyed dog machines lying there, some even stacked up in places.
“We need to regroup and complete the capture,” Feng said.
&n
bsp; “Not so!” Wenbo interjected. “The enemy dead count is at precisely 200.”
“We’ve done it!” someone broadcast.
“Success! Victory!” the messages started crisscrossing the channel.
Feng could hardly believe it. The entire battle had concluded so quickly, and he’d spent it covered in glue. Served him right, he decided, for going in on the second row.
“The simulation is terminated,” came a new voice broadcast on the channel. “Congratulations to the junior officers of Ascending Dragon on the success of the mission. You will be guided to the prep bay for debriefing.”
A green line and a destination package showed up in Feng’s link. He dismounted carefully. Some glue remained on his right side, but he ignored it.
Feng followed the green line to a small meeting room. He saw two officers there, awaiting his report.
“Sit down, Junior Lieutenant,” one of them said.
Feng sat down in the cool square room, across a thin table. He checked their ranks. Both were kong jun shang xiao, DSF colonels.
His link received a battle data upload request and he immediately granted it.
The men before him didn’t spend much more time analyzing the additional data. Feng presumed they already had plentiful sources of information on the exercise since it had occurred on home territory.
“You rode into the assault in the second rank. That showed poor judgement.”
The two men looked at Feng expectantly. He sat straight and didn’t speak.
“You may speak freely, kong jun shao wei.”
“I severely regret that decision, sir,” Feng said. “I assure you, I won’t let my zealousness affect me so greatly in the future, should you decide to allow me to remain an officer in the Divine Space Force.”
The men stared at him again with flat faces, but Feng could tell they approved of his agreement with their criticism.
“That bad decision has cost you. I would have put you at the top of the class up until that one. As it is, you’re behind Zhengqing for now. He wasn’t as inspired as you, but he’s showed a more level head.”
Feng felt his jaw clench. He didn’t dare say anything. He knew the man was right.
“You made a mistake, but you’ve still come out ahead, today, I think,” he said. “We are promoting you to kong jun zhong wei.”
First lieutenant. Feng felt relief.
“Thank you, sir,” Feng said.
The other officer spoke.
“You’ve engaged the dog machines and you know what they can do. At least you think you do. You know their weakness is a lack of flexibility. Their inability to think through consequences of actions as humans can. Thus far, you have only defeated a handful of dumb dogs. Fortunately for us, the greatest scientists and engineers of the PRC have solved the dumb dog problem for you. But that’s a lesson for another day, Lieutenant.”
Two
Sun Xinmei shot like a star through the curriculum at her college and mastered all her classes... at least those involving computer science. Her close encounter with the Ministry of State Security inspired her to work harder than ever before. During her scarce downtime, she daydreamed about what challenges awaited her in her future career.
Li Feng shipped out to begin his training as a space force officer a semester before she had finished her own curriculum. She read his letters about the hardships of his physical training on Earth before his duty would take him to space. She was surprised to discover she didn’t miss him too much— they’d both been working so hard, they barely had time to see each other anyway.
Graduation day came and went. Xinmei wandered about aimlessly for a week before she received a packet from the ministry. Air tickets and identification codes downloaded to her link along with instructions to report to a training facility outside Beijing. She packed in a flurry and left that very same night for Changchun.
She arrived on a much smaller, remote campus and was assigned a new room similar to her previous dorm room. Xinmei had very few physical artifacts to unpack other than her clothes. All her most valued possessions were pieces of digital data: pictures, songs, books. Registered as a cadet in the MSS, she settled in and became familiar with a new set of faces and classrooms. Xinmei made friends easily enough, but close connections were few and far between.
The training focused on covert communications, physical training, and self-reliance. Xinmei suspected the physical training had as much to do with discipline as anything else. The MSS was run like a branch of the military. The recruits were subject to mild abuse by their seniors, and if Xinmei made it through the program, she’d be in a position like that of an officer, similar to Li Feng. Many times she silently thanked herself for being an active dancer during her college career. Without that groundwork of conditioning, she might have been unable to keep up with the physical training.
Xinmei focused on her work as she always had and learned quickly from the new program, especially in the communications education, where she had a head start and a large body of knowledge already built up. She read through the classes in advance and absorbed a great deal of knowledge from the MSS study archives.
Six months into her training, Kuo Chien sent for her from his office. Her link guided her to him, and after a short wait, she was allowed in to see him.
He looked just as she’d remembered him. His flat nose was the most memorable aspect of his swarthy face. She idly thought it may have been broken in a fight. He looked calm.
“I have an assignment for you. It’s no training exercise, either. We need you in the field right away.”
Xinmei could hardly believe her ears. She’d only been in MSS training for sixth months.
“The MSS has many ways of obtaining information from outside our sphere of influence,” he began. “As you know, we can pluck out conversations occurring all over the globe. But the most sensitive of data is often protected from such eavesdropping. So we have other ways.”
Chien indicated the chair across from him. Xinmei realized she’d been standing rock still. She slid into the chair across from his metal desk.
“One simple way into the nest of our enemies is the slave trade,” Chien said. “At first glance, this might appear ridiculous. How can a slave, recruited from the masses at subsistence, possibly learn of the secrets of the most powerful governments and companies in the world?”
“It does sound odd,” Xinmei said. “Slaves don’t even have links. And they don’t work in high positions that are trusted for such data.”
“Yes. But the truth is quite a bit different. You see these perceptions are actually vulnerabilities. The big corporations of the West are corrupt. The elite class do whatever they wish. To a large extent, they drive the slave trade. A slave works for these powerful men and women. And even though slaves aren’t trusted with data of any kind, a slave with a hidden link is in a position to learn a great deal from his or her masters. The slave is considered to be ignorant of complex matters, so security becomes lax. It is all based on the assumption that the slave is recruited from the populace living at subsistence.”
Xinmei nodded.
“You will pose as such a slave. A girl from Asia, who grew up at subsistence level with no link. Captured and sold by gangs who provide this resource to the rich and powerful of Africa and the Middle East. They won’t think you pose any threat at all. But with your expertise in hacking and covert communications, with the tools we’ll provide you, you’ll be a huge asset to us.”
“What tools are you speaking of?” Xinmei couldn’t stop herself from asking.
Chien smiled. “Operatives are provided with special yin xing ji. We’ll put one in your head and remove your old link.”
Invisible machine. A kind of stealth link. Xinmei had heard of such things but never thought she’d actually get one. She liked the sound of that. But posing as a slave sounded very scary. What would she have to do? What if she became trapped and could never get back?
“I’m very surprised. I had
imagined... I guess I hadn’t thought through exactly how I might be doing my job.”
“I’ll send you more details. I know you’ll do exceptionally well. You’re too smart and too strong to waste here anymore. We need you out there, finding things for us.”
“You said I’ve excelled. Yet you’re going to send me off to be sold? It’s so random. You’ve invested a lot in me. Why risk throwing it away?”
“It’s not random. You’ll be sold, but we know you’ll end up in the hands of Vineaux Genomix,” Chien said. “Of course, we don’t control the entire slave trade. But we have infiltrated it in certain places, and with the proper timing, we have reasonable assurances. If you end up in some unproductive place, we’ll retrieve you.”
But I could be dead in a day, she wanted to say. But she didn’t, because if she complained incessantly they’d deem her incapable of handling important assignments. And if she was going to go through this hell, then it had better be for something important.
“So I’m spying on VG? What do you need me to find?”
“You’ll be a servant to the company elite. They’ll prove to be a rich source of information. That conglomerate is a major competitor to us in Africa and the Middle East. Of course we can’t touch their hold on Europe, but their secrets might benefit us here at home, too.”
“I thought we’re more advanced than they are,” Xinmei said.
“China has made wiser decisions than the West in terms of where to invest our research, it’s true. But we can still benefit from research conducted in other areas just the same. And if not, well, sometimes it helps to know your competition’s capabilities. Even their interests could be useful for future manipulation. You’re doing a great service for your country. Your sacrifices will make China a greater nation,” Chien beamed.
Xinmei thought about being powerless in the hands of the enemy. As a slave, her beauty would be noticed. She would be abused. She might be raped. How could a slave keep from being raped?
Synchronicity Trilogy Omnibus Page 33