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The green and yellow taxi dropped them off at the top end of The Bund, Shanghai’s two kilometers of European brownstone buildings that harked back to the city’s ial past. Zhongshan Lu, the road that was sandwiched between the neoclassical fa?ade of The Bund, the Huangpu River and the stantly giropolis of Pudong, was a maelstrom of neon, vehicle lights, myriad flyovers and the buzz of a city alive. The view was so breathtaking that Caldwell just stood on the pavement in front of one of the European-style buildings and stared at the Pudong skylihey’d decided to e here first to test run Kenzo Yamamoto’s sole before dealing with the problem of the AI. Mei Lin had also reasohat following the PLA all the way to the hospital was too dangerous. It was much better to sneak in and catch them by surprise.Gleaming towers of steel and crete disappeared into a smog-filled sky, their neons screaming to be noticed. Giant robotic es moved slowly between the buildings giving the impression that they were going to crash through the shiny edifices. The logos of tless ese, Japanese and global glomerates pulsated in the night, the horns of shiny cars blared and an ultra-modern version of humanity weaved its way among the buildings. Caldwell reed that if you pointed an augmented reality unit in any dire it would be overwhelmed with data. As he took in the views, the time capsule of The Bund, the crazy pedestrian and vehicular traffic of Zhongshan Lu, the nautical traffi the Huangpu river, the fiery neon and light-refrag steel and glass of Pudong, and the numerous helicopters and other aircraft traversing the sky, he found it difficult not to be overwhelmed. And all the while haunted by that unmistakable feeling of déjà vu.
“I have been here before,” Caldwell said finally.
“Hardly surprising Cad.”
“But I have no memory of it at all, just this overwhelming feeling that I have been here before.”
“Let’s cross over to the banks of the Huangpu. There’s a nice elevated riverside promenade.”
“Yes, let’s see whether this Wang Lin character was just boasting idly or there really is something else out there.”
They crossed Zhongshan Lu via an underground tunnel and emerged oher side. There was a small crowd of people admiring the night view of Pudong and ?from this side of the road, with the undulating black expanse of the river in full view, the vista really was breathtaking. They found a park ben a more secluded spot close to the river tour ferry piers and Caldwell removed the sole from his knapsad placed it on the bench. Mei Lin looked on as he dohe goggles and switched the sole on.
“What you see?” Mei Lin asked with mountiement. Caldwell’s heart was beating fast too. This could be the most exg thing he’d ever set his eyes on.
“Em, nothing, just the and line and the view of The Bund outside.” He turned his head towards Pudong. Nothing. The sole was not pig up aworks.
“Maybe you are supposed to issue a and or something,” Mei Lin suggested. The night was a bit chilly and she had her arms folded across her chest and her head hunched into her shoulders.
“Maybe. Augmented Reality Mode,” Caldwell said into the microphone embedded in the goggles.
“What?”
“Nothing. Just issuing a and to the sole. OK, we have an AR overlay.”
The goggles’ display ig up some sophisticated augmented reality data. The buildings in Pudong had ged color and bee transparent, showing the various floors and internal structures. Text labels described the corporations in the buildings and logos appeared where they did in real life. Virtual advertising.
The system notified Caldwell that the word “Bund” was of Anglo-Indian in and described an emba along a muddy waterfront. For a while, the Bionic Tower in the Pudoropolis had been one of the tallest buildings in the world and provided work, living and recreation spaore than one huhousand Shanghai residents. There were several other arcologies that had sinpletely dwarfed the Bionic Tower and the AR had detailed information about the stru of those monoliths. With the gloves on, Caldwell guessed that you could manipulate these intelligent buildings in three dimensions and break them apart like Lego to uand their ecology, how they funed.
“Anything iing?” Mei Lin asked again. A note of impatience was growing in her voice.
“Standard AR stuff. Wait a minute.”
Caldwell peered through the goggles at the amber-lit exteriors of the buildings on The Bund. He had not been paying attention to the bottht er of the s but it appeared that the sole was deteg several works in the surrounding area. Most of them seemed to be corporate works.
“You have something?”
“Yes, the sole seems to be cyg through all the works it has detected in the viity. There are many, as you’d expect given the density of this place, the sheer number of skyscrapers.”
“Well, that’s good.<samp>?９9liｂ.</samp> At least if there is a work it would be picked up.”
“Exactly. It seems to be giving the works some kind of green light. Probably means it access them. There are one or two reds in there but most are green.”
“Maybe the PLA work is one of the red ones. Inaccessible.”
“Let’s wait till it loops through all of them. Hey, what if it is actually not simply deteg available works but actually looking for the work?”
“That’s possible.”
“Which means that ... holy shit ...”
“What?”
“It’s there,” Caldwell shouted. The display had ged. The cross-seed skyscrapers in Pudong had been replaced by the real images of the buildings but superimposed on top of the panorama was a totally new skyline and above that the gray smog-laden sky had disappeared, replaced with a crystal-clear gray sky with brightly-lit stars twinkliween fluffy slow-drifting white clouds. Aircraft itently criss-crossed the sky leaving white streaks in the gray expanse.
Caldwell couldn’t believe his eyes. In the distance, on the gently undulating surface of the Huangpu river, the boats had been transformed into beautiful marine craft rendered in stunning three dimensions. He could make out people on the promenade in the distance. He turned round to face The Bund. It was still there but the crowds, the lights, the cars and the myriad flyovers had all disappeared. He turo where Mei Lin was standing. She’d vaoo. Caldwell took off the goggles and found himself staring into Mei Lin’s dark eyes. Caldwell’s face was flushed with excitement.
“You look like you just became a father for the first time.”
“Close, Mei Lin, close. Take a look at this,” he said handing Mei Lin the goggles. She put it on and her mouth opened in disbelief.
“o,” she exclaimed. Her body was rotating through three hundred and sixty degrees as she took it all in.
“Impressive isn’t it?” Caldwell said, smiling.
“Sure. You think those are real people? They could be bots but I’ve never seen bots move like that. Avatars. They seem to be actually doing something useful. They have a sense of purpose.”
“Yeah.”
“They are heading towards those virtual buildings in Pudong. I don’t think they see us.”
“I guess this is just like an observation window. You see them but they ’t see you because we are not actually part of the work,” Caldwell said.
“I am going to take a closer look,” Mei Lin said, walking towards the edge of the river.
“No. It’s too dangerous. What you are seeing may not be a match of the physical enviro. We don’t want you in the river now, do we? Look at The Bund, it is empty. This park too. Imagirying to cross that road with the glasses on. You’d be road kill in seds.”
“I see where you are ing from. This is so beautiful it makes me wonder why we are here. Why destroy something like this?”
Caldwell thought about the question for a while but couldn’t find a suitable answer. It seemed a shame that the Union would want to destroy or booby-trap the teology just because it wasn’t ied there. Caldwell had seen elaborate virtual reality systems before but not ohat overlapped the real world with this kind of precision and high resolution graphics. The fact that the sole could view it at all, without any disable lag, was testament to its puting power. He reed that if he ever mao open the impregnable chassis, he’d find a processor unlike any he’d ever seen. In fact that robably why the sole’s creator had built the chassis as an elaborate work ami. So that it could never be opened, his opus would be interred within the black g forever. Then a possibility dawned on Caldwell. He wondered why he had hought about it before.
“The work, I know what it is all about.”
“What?”
“It’s nothing but an elaborate testing ground. I bet this work actually has an ey. It is some kind of digital ey with stock markets, electricity grids, air traffiavigation systems and puter-trolled industrial plants. Those bots we saw are on their way to work.”
“Testing ground for what?” Mei Lin asked, a distinote of apprehension creeping into her voice.
“For the AI. Iing the AI into the work is a preliminary step to making sure it does what it is supposed to do.”
“And what is that? Don’t say wha<bdo>.9９liｂ?</bdo>t I am thinking,” Mei Lin implored.
“The AI is going to trol cyberspace.”
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