She nodded. "Yeah, Kade. Of course. We've talked about this. Everything gets misused, sometimes. People will do all sorts of nasty shit with transhuman tech. But through history, when people have had the chance to use technology to improve their own lives, they've done a lot of good along with the harm. The good has more than outweighed the bad. Dramatically so. That's the only reason we're here today."
Kade nodded. "Yeah."
He wanted to ask his friend directly what he should do. He couldn't do that. Couldn't give any of this away. Not with Sam right there. Not over an ordinary video call over an ordinary slate.
"What about… what if only a few have it?"
"You mean if only the rich have a technology? Only the powerful? Or only the elites?"
Kade nodded.
"Broad dissemination and individual choice turn most technologies into a plus. If only the elites have access, it's a dystopia. The worse events in history… The worst atrocities… Maybe half of them arose directly because the powerful had a monopoly or a near-monopoly on some key capability."
Kade nodded. "Yeah. That's what I thought you would say."
She peered at him. "You sure you're OK, Kade?"
He smiled. "Better all the time, Ilya. Thank you. Thanks for calling."
She smiled at him. He could see the worry in her eyes, but she did her best. He wished he could touch her mind.
"I love you, Kade." She smirked at him. "Like a brother, I mean. I know Rangan loves you too."
Something relaxed inside him. Some tiny fraction of the tension in his body dissipated.
"I love you too, Ilya. Both of you. Tell Rangan I said so."
She smiled. The call ended.
Kade lay back in the bed. He had known what Ilya thought, but it was good to hear it again. He would follow the path she would choose. As soon as he figured out how.
He heard Sam resettle herself into her bedroll on the floor.
"Kade?" she said.
"Yeah?"
"Don't get any stupid ideas."
Wats slid the probe into his own terminal, opened the files to view them. Encrypted. The data from Tuksin's phone and terminal were completely encrypted. He'd expected that. He inputted the print pattern he'd lifted from the scanner. Still encrypted. A password required in addition. He frowned in annoyance.
He connected to a site he knew in Mumbai. He spent a moment specifying what he needed, entering in the parameters of his problem, and then submitted the request for a bid.
A few minutes later the bid came back. He whistled softly. It was high. He had the funds to pay it, but it was a non-trivial amount of money. This trip was rapidly exhausting the remaining balance of the settlement the Corps had given him. He paused for a moment, weighing his options. It was really no choice at all. He was committed to this course of action. More money could always be found later.
He accepted the bid, uploaded the data.
Two thousand miles away, a server in Mumbai received the data he transmitted. It analyzed the problem, broke it down into pieces, broke the pieces down into fragments, broke the fragments down into shards, and then distributed those shards to its worker devices.
Around the world, a network of more than two million compromised computers, slates, phones, gaming rigs, VR booths, and other devices, all operating unbeknownst to their owners, received their instructions, and began to explore the space of possible passwords, searching for the single pattern that would unlock Cham Phrom Tuksin's encrypted files.
31
FROM A FRIEND
Thursday dawned slowly. The alarm was beeping again. Kade slapped it off. Sam was in the shower. She felt pensive.
Kade felt numb. He'd left the serenity package on overnight. Everything about his situation felt distant, unreal.
He could see no way to avoid Friday without harming others he felt responsible for. The best he could do was play along with the ERD, and hope that nothing bad came of it.
The time would come when he would break free. He wasn't sure when or where or how, but it would come. He would bide his time, and watch, and wait, and be ready when the opportunity arose.
Sam came out of the shower, clothes already on. "Your turn."
He showered. His bruise was fading. He dressed. They ate in silence. A taxi driven by one of their escorts drove them to the conference. He attended sessions. Sam was with him constantly. One of their escorts was always in sight. When he went to the restroom, an armed man followed him in.
At 2.58pm, between sessions, Kade saw Somdet Phra Ananda approaching him. He felt Sam tense through the link, felt her awareness of the pistol concealed in the small of her back, the knives in her boots, the positions of their two support shooters, the ceramic guns loaded with graphene-tipped rounds concealed under their blazers.
He pushed her paranoia out of his mind, met Ananda's eyes with his own. Sam dropped the link. The senior monk and professor came close, nodded to him. Kade nodded back. He couldn't feel Ananda's mind. He had his own Nexus pulled in tight. He had no idea what the ERD would pick up on and what they wouldn't.
"Kaden, would you walk with me?"
"Of course, sir."
He felt Sam go even more alert.
"It's a beautiful day outside. Would you like to walk in the garden?"
It was incredibly hot and muggy outside. The rain had been on and off all day. It was anything but Kade's idea of beautiful.
"Wherever you'd like to go, Professor."
Ananda nodded again, then led the way. Kade imagined the Thai mercenaries rushing to keep him in their sights.
"I was sorry to hear about your mugging, young man."
"Thank you, sir."
It was drizzling outside. Kade felt damp and sticky instantly. The garden was a web of interconnecting stone paths winding around green ponds. Low bridges crossed streams. Small stone statues of Buddhas, demons, and gods flanked the paths. Lush green tropical plants filled all empty space.
Ananda pointed things out as they walked. A bio-engineered carbon sink species that provided ground cover. The symbolism of the patterns the paths made. A seven hundred year-old statue of a bodhisattva, carved by a fallen dynasty.
"Do you know the bodhisattva vow?" Ananda asked.
Kade shook his head.
"It's from the Mah y na school of Buddhism," Ananda said, "different than my own, but still beautiful. The most basic ex pression of it is 'May I attain Buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings.' It's a pledge to keep being reborn into the material world of suffering, to put nirvana off indefinitely, until all beings in the universe have attained enlightenment and can also enter nirvana. It's perhaps the ultimate vow of placing others before oneself."