Caldant t  to  of Kenzo Yamamoto’s console, o its former sed out of tsingem. ts in tions room were on.

    “o ic. I t I was dead.”

    “Dead?  happened?”

    “Call it a stroke of luck, call it  I may umbled upon to all of this.”

    “Go on,” Mei Lin urged.

    “I o tsingy system and found ter t seems to be single-a being sucked out of cyberspace. It appears it is not so muca as replicating it into t database probably ever built. e are talking terabytes of data everyday. e are talking sensitive data, mostly US economic, financial and scientific data. It’s almost like tire knoern ematically appropriated. Not really appropriated, as it is all public domain, but basically being digested in a ion.”

    “ do you mean digested?  are you talking about?  kind of computer?”

    “An AI unlike any oto be believed.”

    “hich kid?”

    “have you heard of Professor Yao Guo Chuen?”

    “Yes.  tsingigoo tig  to do h him?

    “tum neuroprocessor t po seem to be est pet project.”

    “?”

    “ell only to ta-guzzling macants Li Jin and ang Lin. It appears t ang Lin ly fallen out of favor and seemed to  tudent.”

    “But ’s an AI?”

    “as just talking to ang Lin on ty BBS.  I ment, a girl called Vicky Zarted talking about tum neuroprocessor. trange t bots are disabled.”

    “A disabled account means t ts are disabled temporarily and ted.”

    “Or they are dead?”

    “Dead?”

    “t  t ws.”

    “Mmm ...”

    “Earlier tor alking about some rumored breakt on details but I t to is someed to t of data going into tsinguff going on in tsing to be related someo S ty being a trailblazer for the AI.”

    “And Kenzo Yamamoto guy found out about tever is going on in S and o order. ent o sell tion to t bidder?”

    “And was murdered before inued.

    “And  t to tually  at accessing tificial intelligence expert? Sounds like some kind of net t for.”

    “Yes, it would seem so.”

    “If it is a neto access it oo?”

    “ in. I am sure ried. he American professor and I.”

    “So, t and tion ’s so po Kenzo o get ?”

    “Yes, one t is so po it just mig the global balance.”

    “t’s impossible.”

    “If t is totally possible. tic. It learns to learn to learn. And um neural neto ting po  its disposal. t  is probably t smart. t it caged up in a lone server, feeding it terabytes of data.”

    “e need to get to tandalone macarts causing any trouble. tum c really exists, needs to be destroyed,” said Mei Lin.

    “But t o produce but  or military funding t. t ually unlimited reserves.”

    “In t case, t penetrate cyberspace.  ernal affairs of New China, no concern of ours.”

    “true. But as long as t . It needs to be destroyed.”

    “ait a minute. One t a time. Fouler’s instructions are to find tem, create some kind of backdoor and notify  appears you em. I to call Fouler and give e, see if ters have changed as far as he’s concerned.”

    “Good idea.  forget t I am supposed to provide access into terious neto fulfill my side of t I can’t do rig it   to give Fouler an update.”

    “Could ts just to impress this Vicky Zhao girl?” Mei Lin asked.

    “I doubt it.  sound like ter type.”

    “OK.”

    “So rip to Kornhill?”

    “I managed to get a bug in tment. It ’s a Japanese consulate flat but it appears only ttles and porn magazines everyo a secure database in cyberspace. I’ll omorroo see he Yakuza are cooking up.”

    “Excellent.”

    “So whink you were dead earlier?”

    “Because in virtual reality, ang Lin pusic I t I ually dying. t even scratc thing can do.”

    “Yea pyramid thing was weird.”

    “I  .”

    “Let’s  tsinged.

    Caldo tsingy netopograpo tmental system. t work.

    “It es ago. ty auties aken it off t I or  time you came in. to tudent BBS. terabytes of data going in everyday.”

    Calded to teps and it  a matter of backtracking tem. the logs were gone.

    “My God, t.”

    “OK ter get moving too. I’m calling Fouler.” Sed an extra pair of goggles to a erminal and used a keyboard to dial a special number for Fouler. Several logins and multiple layers of encryption and call-backs Fouler’s face appeared on terminal screen.  vistas of concrete  tinted   looked like Cantly on the move.

    “Mei Lin, Caldwell. Any news?”

    “Lot’s,” Caldo   since o tsing details of tedious.

    “t of sense. I  ty-related. A lot of tting edge stuff to be  tsingbed.”

    “So ired.

    “I to Beijing. See ing you go to Beijing first because to destroy t its source, if t’s indeed o do. You need to  for my confirmation on t. I am currently in tokyo and I er of the American professor.”

    “OK, omorrohe Joplin girl?” asked Mei Lin.

    “Yes. And Mei Lin, everytudent ang Lin’s story. For all rip to Co be quick – in and out. Do you understand?”

    “Yes sir.”

    “And Caldwell, well done.”

    “Just keep your end of the bargain and I’ll keep mine, Fouler.”

    “Sometsing techem.

    “?” Caldwell asked, she line was already dead.

    “t s. ever it ed, it seems t h some apprehension.

    “I  I need to know is  is he doing in Japan?”

    “Easy. Seenager. Sooner or later tronic trail. About  guy is alep aerious ways.”