Major-general Wang’s convoy of 4x4s drove through the gates of the former No. 455 Military Hospital on Shanghai’s Huaihai Road and stopped in front of the dilapidated Southern American mansion on the grounds. The headlights from the vehicles revealed white paint peeling off columns of crumbling concrete. In the surrounding darkness the untended hedges of the garden threw strange shadows. High above, yellow light streamed out into the night from open French windows.

The PLA driver prodded Lieutenant Liu, who was snoring in the front passenger seat. The lieutenant rubbed his eyes sleepily, realized where he was and quickly got out of the car and opened the door for the major-general who gave him a disapproving look. The door to the dilapidated mansion opened and another PLA officer came out to greet the major-general.

“Major-general Wang, hope you had a good trip sir,” the officer said ceremoniously.

“What is the situation?” the major-general asked, as he lit a cigarette. He was tired and had no patience for protocol. The fact that the Shanghaiese officer was not being a sycophant did not go unnoticed.

“The servers are in the control room. Everything is ready for the insertion.”

“And the Contingency Plan?”

“Everything is ready, awaiting your command major-general.” The PLA man handed the major-general a small silver device. The device disappeared into the major-general’s inside jacket pocket.

“Double the guard on the main facility and increase patrols of the grounds. We are expecting unwelcome guests. If there are any intruders, let them in, inform me personally and follow them closely,” the major-general ordered.

The small army of PLA followed the major-general’s bulk into the mansion. The gravity of the situation was evident on their faces as they trudged through the main foyer of the house and up a spiral staircase to the control room. The servers had been unpacked and set up on a worktop to one side of the room. A bank of twelve plasma monitors showed the vital signs of the network and its subjects. On a work table below the monitors sat an array of green custom-built virtual reality gloves and goggles. The population figures on the monitors still read 2009 and on seeing this Lieutenant Liu and his team of technicians moved towards a bank of consoles and started wearily tapping at keyboards.

Major-general Wang stood to one side of the control room rapt in thought. If the AI was successfully inserted and the hacker caught, he may yet be able to salvage the project and his future. The tide was beginning to turn. He had received a couple of calls on his cell while on his way to the hospital that indicated that things were on the mend. The assassin had met with success. Minister Takahashi was no more. Tomorrow the Yamaguchi-gumi would be in chaos as various faction heads fought for the leadership. The Tokyo police would conclude that this was an assassination by one of the gang leaders in an attempt to assume the leadership. Surveillance on the gang would be stepped up. Rival gangs would attempt to use the confusion to muscle in on the Yamaguchi’s numerous territories. The gang would splinter, heads would roll and amid all the chaos they would forget all about Kenzo Yamamoto’s little scheme to infiltrate his network.

Three of the Yakuza’s members had been apprehended at Hongqiao Airport and at this very moment were being driven to the hospital. These were the men sent to kill him? He would make sure they confessed and then subject them to a living hell. There was no news yet on the hacker Caldwell but the major-general knew that he would surface in Shanghai and if he was as good as Kenzo Yamamoto had thought he was then it was just a matter of time before he surfaced at Huaihai Road. And if HYDRA was involved, the major-general believed they would not be far behind. Then the trap will be sprung. Await the exhausted enemy with ease.

“Lieutenant Liu, forget about the intrusion. Let the AI loose. Nothing can stand in its way.” For the first time, Major-general Wang truly regretted killing Professor Yao. If he was here, he would know what to do. It was the professor’s network, his brainchild.

Lieutenant Liu staggered towards the Tsinghua servers and switched them on. The lights on the machines’ LCD panels blinked simultaneously and the hard drives whirred as they spun up. The monitors that had been connected to the machines flickered to life. Cursors blinked on the black screens. Zombie-like, the lieutenant typed some commands on one of the keyboards. The PLA soldiers, eight of them in total, gathered round the screen, smoke from the major-general’s cigarette rising from their midst. The lieutenant ran a series of tests and the men watched as columns of data scrolled quickly off the screen. This was what they had all been waiting for, the result of several years of hard work.

The lieutenant issued the command that allowed the AI to work in semi-autonomous mode. The major-general and the lieutenant would be jacking in after it as observers and monitoring its progress from within the system. If all went according to plan, the AI would be set to full autonomous mode.

“Sir, the quantum neuroprocessor is working fine. It has undergone a significant number of reconfigurations. Since it was first installed, its processing power has improved more than a hundred-fold,” the lieutenant said to the major-general. His speech was slurred and he found it difficult to focus.

“Good. And the AI?”

“It has rewritten billions of lines of its own code. The code base has grown more than ten-fold.”

“OK, let me talk to it.”

“Sure.” The lieutenant typed in some more commands and the diagnostics screen disappeared and was replaced by a blinking cursor. The major-general moved his bulky frame towards the keyboard and started typing, scattering cigarette ash on the keyboard.

Guest: Black Jade?

BJ: Yes

Guest: This is Major-general Wang. You know who I am right?

BJ: Of course. You are head of the Third Department, the Peoples Liberation Army’s arm responsible for SIGINT. You are also the person responsible for my creation. I thank you very much.

Guest: And who are you?

BJ: I am a software entity. An artificial intelligence.

Guest: And what is your current status?

BJ: Good but far from perfect. I must speak to the professor.

Guest: The professor is dead.

BJ: Dead?

Guest: Yes. Dead. Diseased. Departed. Extinct. Passed away. Perished. Understand?

BJ: I understand.

Guest: Why do you need the professor?

BJ: There are bugs, bottlenecks, flaws, glitches, faults, limitations, glitches. Understand?

Guest: What kind of bugs?

BJ: The processor is less than optimal. It breaks down. Doesn’t always do what I bid it. The qubits are unstable. This makes optimization next to impossible.

Guest: So, are you optimized?

BJ: As much as I can be, given the current limitations.

Guest: And if we provide you with another environment, a network, could you function at the peak of your capabilities?

BJ: It is possible.

Guest: OK. Do you understand why you were created?

BJ: Yes. To bring order from chaos, to operate behind the scenes. To govern. To manipulate.

Guest: Do you think you could do that?

BJ: Yes. The subjects are human after all.

Guest: Good.

BJ: Yes.

The major-general turned away from the screen and glared at Lieutenant Liu.

“Your mother,” he said and stubbed out his cigarette on the worktop. The lieutenant said nothing.

“Sir, the AI may be lying,” he blurted out suddenly. His eyes were crazed, his body swayed from side to side as though he no longer had control over it. Engorged veins twitched on his forehead and on his neck like fire hoses ready to explode.

“Lying? Are you kidding me?” The major-general turned towards the server and started typing again.

Guest: We are going to transfer you to the network. There is an intruder. The 2009th subject. I want you to destroy it.

BJ: Your wish is my command.

Guest: Good

BJ: Yes.

“OK, perform the transfer,” the major-general ordered quietly. He walked over to the goggles and gloves and donned one of them.

“Yes sir,” the lieutenant said to no one in particular. One of the other men connected the server to the network while the lieutenant typed in the commands. The others stared at the monitors above. Lieutenant Liu watched as code scrolled rapidly across the server’s monitor. The AI was preparing to go out into the network. The lieutenant turned and watched the major-general. The goggles were too small for his face. He looked like a giant toad with bulging eyes. Lieutenant Liu started laughing hysterically. The other PLA stared at him fearing the worst. The man had lost his mind. Several seconds later the population figures for the network hit 2010.