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Caldwell and Mei Lin were just three blocks away from the No. 455 Military Hospital at No. 388 Huaihai Road. They had rushed to the Peace Hotel on The Bund, checked in and deposited their luggage. Caldwell had spent a long time looking at his fa the bathroom while Mei Lin made some phone calls. He looked much healthier even though he was tired. He longed for the familiarity of capsule memory foam. Some of the lines on his face were gone and the bags below his eyes had dimio shadows. He almost looked normal. He had returo the room to find Mei Lin cheg the Glocks they had bought from the obnoxious kid Mozi in Zhongguan. That was the beauty of diplomatic bags. You could bring practically anything you wanted into the try, short of an armored tank.“Do we really hese?” Caldwell had asked.
“Let’s hope not. Yet, if you are right, this AI has to be stopped at all cost. You hato the system aransmit the hack to Fouler. Then it’s up to him. You would have fulfilled your end of the bargain and you get your past back. He decide what he wants to do at that point and aggregate the resources to do it,” Mei Lin had said looking at him intensely.
“Sure.”
In the ret excitement Caldwell had all but fotten about that. He was very close taining that which had been unfairly taken away from him and he wasn’t anywhere near cutting Fouler any slac<tt>?t>k for what he had doo him. Caldwell thought about Kat, all the way back there in London. The Union, Angel and Waterle seemed like a distant memory. He wondered what Kat was doing at this moment. She had probably spent most of her time in Glyph’s trailer overdosing on movies.
They walked purposefully down tree-lined Huaihai Road. It was close to midnight. The department stores and shops had long closed and the daytime crowds had thio a trickle of mostly young people heading home from late dinners or karaoke and night owls heading out for a night oown.
“Be careful in there Cad. This is very likely a rogue outfit of the PLA we are dealing with and they’d probably stop at nothing to protect their secret,” Mei Lin said, giving him that funny look again.
“Yes. You too.”
“So, what’s the plan of a once we get in there?” Mei Lin asked.
“We somehow have to find those servers. I am sure we’ll reize them when we see them uhey have some kind of server farm made up of identical Sun maes. Given the fact that this is so top secret, it is very likely that if there is a backup of the AI, it is located oher server. We o somehow gaior access to the work and relay that to Fouler.”
“You make it sound so easy.”
“That’s the easy part, relatively speaking.”
“The parameters have ged somewhat since we last had a long talk,” Mei Lin said seriously.
“What do you mean the parameters have ged?”
“I spoke to Fouler briefly back at the Peace Hotel. He wants the AI code and the processor.”
“What?” Caldwell couldn’t believe his ears. “You want us to steal from the PLA?”
“Well, hag is stealing anyway and we will be trespassing on military property which is just as bad. Fouler res that if we are going iter get our hands oeology as a safeguard. In case anything goes wrong and the AI is released into cyberspace.”
“OK, if we do mao get our hands on it, how do we spirit the processor and the AI out of the try?”
“Leave that to me,” Mei Lin said with a wink.
They were almost there. They could see the gates to No. 388 up ahead.
“OK, ast casually and try to see if there are any PLA guards on duty. My guess is the place would be crawling with PLA but they won’t be visible from the street. There’s a Southern-style mansion on the grounds not far from the hospital buildings. We ehe pound from behind the mansion. There is a backdoor, if I remember the plan from the search correctly. I would have liked to case the joint in more detail but we may already be too late.”
Caldwell was amazed at how effortlessly Mei Lin was able to switch from charming young woman to steely-resolved professional. She had timed the bombshell about stealing the AI’s processor and its code perfectly, inf him just when he was so close that he could almost see the end. She was just doing her job, he thought. He just wao get out of the pound alive, to live to see another day and to have his fifteen minutes with Fouler afterwards. The fact that either of them could be dead in a matter of minutes was not lost on him. He recalled Kat’s warning. He’s probably granting you your dying wish.
“I have another idea,” Mei Lin said looking at the perimeter wall surrounding the hospital. “Hope you are not scared of heights.”
“Not really. What do you have in mind?”
“It looks quite dark in the pound. There is not a lot of light beied from inside. I re we gain access to the wall from that KTV building over there with less ce of dete. They may be monit all the entrances from the i they ’t monitor every se of the wall and they are w in the dark.”
“Sounds like a plan.”
Mei Lin dragged Caldwell into the lobby of a nearby building that read KTV in giant purple characters. A small crowd of stylishly dressed young people sat around on impossible-looking designer chairs waiting for their o be called. It appeared that the karaoke was full. Mei Lin was leading him up the stairs to the karaoke rooms when a bow-tied waiter tried to stop them.
“The karaoke is full you have to take a number,” the bow-tied waiter shouted after them.
“We already have a room asshole,” Mei Lin said with feigned arrogand tinued pulling Caldwell after her. The waiter was used to such outbursts of rudeness from the KTV’s drunken tele and decided to let the matter rest.
They walked up the carpeted stairway to th<df</dfn>e sed floor and corridors of steel, designed and lighted to resemble some high-tech fabrication unit. The discordant sounds of people warbling over loud mandarin and tonese pop music surrouhem. There were a few smartly-dressed people in the corridors talking on mobile phones. A small army of waiters hovered around, waiting for the octs within the rooms to order more drinks, food, playing dice or whatever else people at karaoke felt a craving for. There seemed to be a dis the floor above as Caldwell could hear heavy bass pounding through the ceiling.
Mei Lin pulled Caldwell into the ladies washroom before he could protest. Fashionably-dressed Shanghai girls atteo their makeup in front of giant mirrors, while others washed their hands or adjusted their miniskirts. Before Caldwell could avert his eyes he caught sight of a girl squatting down in a half open cubicle doing her business.
“What the hell?” a female voice protested behind them.
“Give me a break. Haven’t had a shag in twelve months,” Mei Lin rbbr></abbr>eplied as she dragged Caldwell into ay cubicle and locked the door.
“Way to go girl,” another voiced.
Mei Lin bolted the cubicle door shut and opehe toilet window. A cool breeze blew into the cubicle, washing over Caldwell’s face. He peered out of the window. The window gave out to the hospital pound. A dilapidated mansion stood nearby. There were lights on iop floor windows and Caldwell thought he saw heads moving about. About six feet below he could just make out the top of the perimeter wall. Caldwell could swear he saw a rat with a human ear attached to its back scurry along the wall and disappear into the darkness.
“How did you know that this cubicle on this floor overlooked the pound?” Caldwell asked, impressed.
“When you’ve staked out as many buildings as I have, especially in high-rise Hong Kong, you develop an instinct for building plans.”
“If you say so,” Caldwell ceded.
The hospital pound was dark except for the lights from the mansion windows. There was a much bigger cluster of buildings a few hundred meters away. The top floor of the largest of them also had lights on but they could barely be made out. Mei Lin fumbled in her rucksack for a pair of binoculars. She traihem on the house.
“There’s activity in one of the upstairs rooms. Uniformed PLA. There are PLA patrols in the grounds. It’s dark but you just about make them out, maybe about twelve or so. Their level of alertness suggests they are expeg pany,” Mei Lin informed him matter-of-factly. There was a otion in the washroom as a group of girls speaking the Shanghai dialect came in giggling hysterically. Caldwell could catly a few words and that was because they’d obviously had one drink too many and were speaking at high decibel.
“Is that good or bad?” he asked.
“We should be able to ha. There is a blind spot behind the house. They seem to be fog their attentions on the areas around the gates. There’s a bunilitary 4x4s in front of the house. I’d wager that’s were the servers are, in the mansion. There’s a heavyset older man in there.”
“The majeneral?”
“Could well be. Ok let’s go. Wait ...”
“What?”
“They are leaving.”
“Leaving?”
“Yes, some of them at least. Take a look.” Mei Lin hahe binoculars over to Caldwell who traihem on the mansion.
“Yes, I see them.” He had the binoculars aimed at the front of the mansion. Half a mier a group of about ten men walked out the front door. Instead of climbing into the 4x4s, they moved straight past the vehicles towards the main group of hospital buildings. Some of the PLA men were carrying ons.
“They are not leaving. They are heading to the other building.” Caldwell kept the binoculars on the PLA men. He could see the heavyset older man. He was smoking a cigarette, the glowing end of which was dang in the darkness. The authority of his walk, the elaborate military uniform with the decorated epaulettes and the way the other men surrounded him suggested that he probably was the majeneral the PLA on the plane had been talking about. Majeneral Wang.
There were four men walking in front of the maj<u></u>eneral but Caldwell couldn’t make them out properly. Two of them looked like they were limping. Theight formation of the group dispersed a little and Caldwell realized that three of the men were not wearing military uniform at all. They were being held, or rather pushed along, by two uniformed PLA. They were wearing business suits.
“Oh my God!”
“What?”
“The Japahey’ve been captured by the PLA. I reize those two anywhere.” Caldwell hahe binoculars baei Lin.
“Shit, they are going to be killed. Let’s move.” Mei Lin said, plag the binoculars in her rucksack. She slipped backwards through the open window, suspended her body on the window sill and jumped on to the perimeter wall, croug like a cat. She signaled for Caldwell to follow. He went through legs first, using the toilet’s flush tank for support. Caldwell felt Mei Lin’s hands grasp his legs a himself fall, trusting her. He was on the perimeter o her. She paused and waited. There was nothing but silehey hadn’t been spotted. Mei Lin started crawling along the perimeter towards the back of the mansion.
A few minutes later they could almost look through the upstairs French windows of the mansion. There were a couple of PLA in there with their backs to them, w at puter terminals. Mei Lin jumped down into the undergrowth behind the house and Caldwell followed. The backdoor to the house was locked. Mei Lin fished in her pocket and removed a lock pick. She started pig the lock. Seds later, they were inside what looked like a disused ste room illuminated by light from the front foyer. Mei Lin peered round the inner door and sighat all was clear. They emerged into the empty foyer. Above them an oraircase with peeling paintwork coiled upwards.
“We o be quick. Those guys could be back at any time,” Mei Lin whispered. They walked gingerly up the staircase to a carpeted landing. The door to the room they had been looking into en. Caldwell could hear the whir of puting equipment. Before he could gather his wits about him,<mark></mark> Mei Lin was already inside. He peered into the room. There were two PLA in the room. One of them was sitting at a terminal. The other was standing nearby with his back to them, his head partially covered by a virtual reality display. Mei Lin was o be seen. Caldwell was about to retreat when he saw the goggled PLA suddenly collapse. The other PLA’s head sowards the before his mouth could open Mei Lin had almost reached him. The man started to rise but Mei Lin’s right hand was already in motion. Caldwell heard a snap and the man slid to the floor.
Caldwell moved into the room. To the right, on a worktop, sat the two servers from Tsinghua Uy. Protective foam still covered the edges of the servers. Caldwell checked the ss while Mei Lin looked around the room. The monitor attached to one of the servers read: TRANSFER PLETE. The AI had been transferred to the work. Caldwell sat in front of the servers while Mei Lin perused the plasma monitors set in the wall. He jumped from one keyboard to the in an effort to save time.
“This is it all right. These monitors up here show the status of the work,” Mei Lin said.
“Yeah. The AI seems to be gone. Just cheg the logs and the other server.”
“It says population is 2011. And these dots I am guessing are the population. Bots? AIs?” Mei Lin asked.
“AIs probably but why have 2011 of them. Seems a bit like overkill to me,” Caldwell said as he pulled up the servers logs. Mei Lin tinued looking at the monitors.
“But why would AIs have vital signs? Heartbeats, blood pressure etcetera?”
“Could just be the way they have been labeled.”
“I don’t think so. I think these are real humans. Those people we saw in the virtual Pudong,” Mei Lin observed.
“Why would they be monit vital signs? Unless ... shit ... That’s why they chose a disused hospital,” Caldwell speculated.
“I am listening.”
“There are lights on in one of the main hospital buildings. I bet there are real subjects in there. Humans, people, wired to the work indefinitely. That’s where that group of PLA have taken the Yakuza.”
Caldwell couldn’t believe what he was saying but the beauty of the plan made perfect sense. How better to test the AI than to pit it against real humans? Real people, experts, who were runniime simulations in this virtual ey and could react to any attempts at trol in the same way humans would. They’d have to be jacked in full time for the test to be realistic. They were probably in that hospital, attached to intravenous drips, spending weeks if not months online. But they’d have to be biologically ected, a bio interface of some kind or something that inputted straight into the retina, interfag directly with ... the brain. They’d be seeing what the puter saw aing as though they were part of the work. Human input systems.
“There’s someone ing,” Mei Lin hissed.
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