Authors: David Wingrove
‘Shit…’
There were no guards on this part of the wall, but overhead an automated gun followed Jake’s every move, its infrared tracker seeing him as clearly as in the daylight.
For a moment his disappointment stopped him thinking.
Where there was an automated gun, there would be a man at a board, supervising it, looking at a screen. If he could speak to
him
…
Jake raised himself on his toes, waving his arms in the air and shouting, praying that no one was close by, that they wouldn’t see him, and that the noise of the mob would cover his own
yells. There was only one person he wanted to know he was there – the guard at the board.
‘I’m stranded!’ he yelled. ‘I’m a citizen… You’ve got to help me!’
He looked round. If they saw him now…
‘He-elp!’ he yelled again, waving his arms frantically. ‘For god’s sake help!’
The gun jerked. Jerked again, as if focusing on him, then lifted a fraction.
The sudden chatter made him jump. He could hear the bullets whistle overhead, missing him. Heard a howl, the clatter of disturbed brickwork as someone fled.
Jake closed his eyes. For a moment he had thought he was dead.
And then, suddenly, there was another noise in the air. The pulse of engines.
Jake whirled about. Over to his left four big Security hoppers had swung in over the gate and, spreading out in a half circle, had begun to fire on the mob below. As he saw the mob begin to
scatter, one of the craft rose up over the others, heading directly towards him.
Jake stood there, picked out by the searchlight on the side of the craft, as it slowly drifted in. He still wasn’t sure. Still thought that any moment might be his last. But now someone
was hailing him, telling him to get his arse across and fast.
Safe
, he thought, as the guard’s hand gripped his arm and pulled him onboard.
Safe
. Only his problems were just beginning.
Jake stared back at the Security captain, then shook his head in disbelief.
‘What do you mean I don’t exist? Of course I fucking exist.’
‘Oh, you exist… as far as you’re sitting in that chair facing me. Only Jake Reed doesn’t. Never has, and probably never will.’
Jake shook his head. ‘I’m a
login
. I work for Hinton. The pilot… the guy we pulled out of there just now. Sam… He’ll tell you.’
The captain sat back. His grey eyes looked sceptical. ‘Unfortunately he’s unconscious. Took rather a heavy blow to the head.’ He paused, then, ‘Listen, you may have been
dressed like a citizen and cut your hair like a citizen, but there’s not a single mention of you in our records, so…’
Jake looked up, met the captain’s eyes again. ‘There’s got to be some mistake. Check again. Or phone George Hinton, he’s my line-boss. He’ll…’
‘George Hinton is dead.’
The news stopped Jake in his tracks.
‘Fuck…’
‘Yes, as in fucking-outta-luck, eh? Now tell me who you
really
are and who sent you.’
‘No one sent me. My hopper got shot down…’
‘Yeah? So why is there no report of that?’
‘I don’t know, I… Look… contact Hinton… get them to send someone who knows me. Joel Haslinger, maybe. He’s known me years. He’s chief tech
there.’
The captain looked tired. He was clearly fed up with this charade. But he was going to do his job.
‘Okay. Last chance, though. This Joel guy doesn’t ID you, then I’m throwing you in a cell until you tell me who you are.’
Jake looked straight back at him. ‘I’m Jake Reed and I’m a
login
for Hinton… a web-dancer… and I’m engaged to Kate…’
‘Enough…’ The captain stood. For a moment he stared at Jake silently, as if trying to fathom him, then he turned and left the room.
Sitting there, his hands and feet restrained, Jake could tell what had happened. It was the Chinese. It had to be. Who else would take such care to erase him from the records. And others, too.
Just in case they survived the attack.
Thinking about it, Jake was almost in awe of the mind behind this. He could almost imagine that an AI – some new super-intelligent breed of AI – had done this. Only no. This was too
good. Too human. There was a man behind all this. One single mind. A subtle, clever mind bordering on genius. And that mind had a face. He existed… somewhere.
It came back to him. The name he’d been trying to remember. The Han he’d seen on the TV. Tsao Ch’un. That was his name. Tsao Ch’un.
Jake smiled. Realizing just how simple it actually was, he said the words quietly to himself.
‘Just find Tsao Ch’un and you find him. Whoever he is.’
‘What’s that?’
The captain had returned. Jake looked down.
‘Bad news,’ the captain said. ‘Everyone you know seems to be dead.’
Jake looked up at him, shocked. ‘You’re kidding me…’
‘Would I joke about this? No. It seems they killed your friend Joel outside his apartment, an hour back.’
‘Fuck…’
‘However…’ The captain paused. ‘I did check on the hopper. Seems that one
has
gone missing, only they had no record that it was going to pick you up. Only that
its pilot was your friend Sam in there.’
‘So what does that prove?’
The captain smiled. ‘I’m fucked if I know. Only…’
Jake stared at him. ‘What?’
‘The guy at the hopper place… when I mentioned your name, he said he knew you. Said…’
‘Go on…’
‘It’s just that I checked his records and there’s no mention of you as a client. So either you
weren’t
a client, or…’
‘Someone’s erased me. All traces of me.’
The captain nodded. ‘Do you want to try someone else? Someone who might still be alive, that is.’
Jake had been thinking about that. ‘Harry Lampton… that is, Sir Henry Lampton. He’s Head of Security for Hinton.’
‘And he’ll know you?’
‘He’ll know
of
me.’
The captain stood. ‘I’ll give it a try…’
Jake watched the man leave, then sat back.
So what do I know?
He knew this much. That he’d been targeted, both inside the datscape and out here in the real world. They had tracked him down and tried to kill him, like they’d killed George and
Joel. Yes, and others. Not only that, but they had anticipated possible failure; had taken the secondary measure of erasing him from the records, and that was no mean task when you considered how
much personal information a person accumulated in the modern world.
Or
was
that what they’d done?
He sat up, alert suddenly.
It looked like an erasure, sure… but what if all of that information had not been erased but
moved
, ‘shifted’ sideways somehow. Shunted off into the sidings, so to
speak.
It made a lot more sense. To trace all of that information and erase it would have been a gargantuan task even for a highly-discriminating supercomputer, whereas to modify where it was all
stored…
Jake was beginning to understand. Their security had been breached at not one but numerous levels. Their encryptions – which they had thought were absolutely failsafe – had been as
much use to them as a piece of string to secure a gate.
Jake shivered, thinking about it.
The man anticipates. He leaves nothing to chance. Not a single detail escapes him. An imagination that wide, that precise and yet that flexible.
It was impressive. No. More than impressive. Awesome.
He smiled, trying to picture in his mind what kind of man this other was. His antagonist.
You play wei chi, don’t you? You’re a master of Go. These moves. You see the small patterns and the large. You’re watching the board all the time, placing a white stone here,
another there, waiting for us to make a mistake.
The captain returned, this time with the duty sergeant. He bowed, then looked on as the sergeant removed Jake’s restraints.
‘I take it Lampton’s vouched for me.’
The captain lowered his head, respectful now. ‘He’s sending his private craft.’
‘I don’t blame you,’ Jake said. ‘I’d have done the same. The man we’re up against…’
The captain met his eyes, surprised. ‘You think this is a single man?’
‘Pulling the strings? Yes. It’s all of a piece. He’s outwitted us. Made us chase shadows.’
‘But why?’
Jake hesitated. Did he really want to say? After a moment he shook his head, then lied.
‘I don’t know why.’
Only he did. Sat in the back of Lampton’s private hopper, swinging back over the river, he saw it all clearly for the first time; pictured the man sat at his computer, moving the pieces
while his ‘Master’, Tsao Ch’un, looked on.
Young or old?
Old, surely, for such wisdom; such insight didn’t come to the young. And yet young, equally surely, for such invention; such originality was not a trademark of the elderly.
Whichever, their foe had not beaten them. Not yet. They had been savaged, certainly, but a war was not won with a single battle. A genius he might be, but he was still a single man, capable of
being killed.
And maybe that was what he should suggest to Lampton. To track Tsao Ch’un down and deal with him. Because wherever Tsao Ch’un was, this one would be with him.
Yes, send an army. Two armies. Maybe ten. But get him. Make sure the bastard’s dead. Then reconstruct. And build it better next time. Stronger.
The hopper flew on, as daylight leaked into the world again.
Yes, we have to kill the fucker. Before he kills us all.
Lampton was waiting on the pad for him as the craft came down.
It was a beautiful house, more country estate than London home, its broad lawn sloping down to the river. But what impressed Jake most were the massive walls that surrounded it, the guard towers
and the endless armed security. This wasn’t just Lampton’s home, it was his fortress.
As Lampton looked on, Jake was searched and scanned. Only then was he allowed to move down, through the cordon of guards, to shake Lampton’s hand.
Lampton was a big man in his fifties. An ex-mercenary and SAS man. But Hinton had hired him for his brains not his brawn.
‘Jake… sorry about the fuck up… seems the thieving bastards have been plundering our data base. You’re not the only one who “went missing” from the
records.’
They were making their way down the steps into the main courtyard. Guards were everywhere. It felt like they were under siege.
‘It’s the Chinese,’ Jake said.
Lampton glanced at him. ‘How’d you make that out?’
‘Who else could it be? There’s been a coup, right? Tsao Ch’un is in charge?’
‘We don’t know who’s in charge. But Tsao Ch’un would be a good candidate.’
‘And towards the end, as we were about to get out of there… I saw a face… a Chinese face. I think it was Tsao Ch’un’s.’
Lampton laughed. ‘A bit egotistical, wouldn’t you say? Besides, it doesn’t mean it is them. What if someone wanted us to
think
it was China?’
‘Why would they do that?’
‘I don’t know. But why would the Chinese – why would this Tsao Ch’un – kick away the supports?’
‘So that he doesn’t have to fight a nuclear war against the USA.’
That stopped Lampton dead in his tracks. He stared at Jake for a full ten seconds, as if slotting that in to his mental picture of events, then he nodded.
‘You know what, Jake? That makes a kind of sense.’
Inside the main building, in what was a huge conference room, the others were waiting for him. Some he recognized, others were total strangers. One thing he did notice, however, was the absence
of any Chinese faces.
There were roughly sixty or so of them, mainly men, but with a handful of women, their Savile Row suits marking them out as ‘execs’.
‘Ladies… gentlemen,’ Lampton said, introducing him from a platform at the front of the room. ‘This is Jake Reed, Hinton’s principal
login
. Jake’s just
had the pleasure of being a guest of our Security services. It seems he doesn’t exist. He’s been erased.’ Lampton smiled. ‘Fortunately for us, that’s not true.
Jake… tell them what happened.’
For the next half hour Jake told his tale. As he ended, Lampton took the stage beside him again.
‘Friends… I’m sure you’ve got plenty of questions you’d like to ask, but time is pressing and you all know precisely why we’re here… So let’s
get on with it, eh?’
Outside, in the corridor, Jake turned to Lampton. ‘My fiancée…’
‘Kate?’ Lampton smiled. ‘I’ve let her know you’re okay.’
Jake smiled. ‘Thanks. So what now? Are we going back in?’
Lampton nodded. ‘We weren’t sure we could, but now you’re here… Well… we’ve got everything we need; board room, Wiring Room, drying room, skins, the lot.
Hinton had it built here as a backup against possible terrorist activity. You’ll be on your own in there, I’m afraid, but we’ll be ready to haul you out of there the moment you
yell!’
‘I understand, but… look, I took some damage. My communicator…’
Lampton had a look at the damaged implant. ‘Hmm… Was it hissing at you?’
Jake nodded.
‘Yeah, we’ve all had that. The communications web is patchy to say the least. There’re disruptive bugs in the system. They keep having to shut it down and reboot, but it
shouldn’t affect the datscape. We’re running on an entirely different circuit, isolated from the rest.’
‘Are we still spinning data?’
‘Barely. We’re running a skeleton crew under strict MAT supervision, filtering everything that goes in for bugs and viruses. MAT have sent us six of their best men to
help.’
‘By skeleton, you mean…?’
‘Twenty men… barely enough to maintain the semblance of the Market. But we can’t risk anything more than that just yet. And as far as the rest of the world’s concerned,
we’re not even running that.’
‘So what are we looking for?’
‘Some indicator as to how and when we can get functioning again. Three days will cost us, but any more than that and we’re in trouble. We’ve got to get up and running again,
Jake. If we don’t…’
But he didn’t have to be told. He knew. They had to make this work, or watch it all fall down.
Like Babylon the Great
…