Singularity Sunrise 1: Edenet by Cheah Kit Sun

Author:Cheah, Kit Sun
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2020-07-31T00:00:00+00:00

14

Escape and Evasion

They’d parked their rented skycar in the company’s parking lot. Ogrod took the driver’s seat, Morgan slid in next to her. As the car rose off the asphalt, Morgan grabbed his messenger bag from under the dashboard and placed it on his lap, then hit his Buzz app, selected machine telepathy, and called Iwan Kowalski.

“We need to leave China immediately,” Morgan said. “How long do you need to set up?”

“Four hours.”

“So long? Why?”

“I need to gather the crew, liaise with Customs, inflate the gas bags, run pre-flight checks… If you show up early, you’ll have to wait in the departure lounge.”

“Any way to speed things up?”

“I can’t. The airport requires a minimum of four hours’ advance notice of any airship departure. Even if we complete our pre-flights ahead of schedule, they won’t authorize liftoff until the clock runs down.”

Morgan sighed. “Alright. See you in four hours.”

“Wait. I need to file a flight plan. Where are you going?”

“The nearest country that isn’t China.”

Morgan hung up and called Ogrod.

“Did you get what you need?”

“I have uploaded the malware suite to ZWG’s central server, but the data dump was interrupted halfway through.”

“What are the operational implications?”

“The malware will seek out and delete all of Anatol’s proprietary data without further input. However, we may not have a complete picture of ZWG’s plans and how they intend to integrate Dr Cheung’s research.”

“At least we completed the most important objective.”

“There is a way to further enhance our understanding of ZWG’s goals.”

“Tell me.”

“Prior to the twice-daily data update, ZWG’s departments send their data to Technical Services. Technical Services is supposed to delete the emails after they transfer the data to the server, but we disrupted their operating procedures. I can remotely download and analyze the emails.”

“How long do you need?”

“I’ve been downloading their content since we left. It will only take approximately three minutes and forty seconds to complete. However, the emails are encrypted. Decrypting them with our supercomputer will take a substantially longer time. I cannot provide an estimate until I examine them.”

“We’re stuck in China for at least four hours. Do what you can.”

“Understood.”

Ogrod landed the skycar outside the Luohu Golden City. Shenzhen’s first and oldest arcology, it was a residential tower built atop an old shopping plaza, just by the Shenzhen River that divided Hong Kong from the city.

Nestled in the underground parking lot, Morgan retrieved his neural band and his exocortex. Syncing both devices to his glasses, he activated an app labeled ‘Broom’.

The devices went dark. A moment later, they rebooted. The app had scrambled and overwritten their identification modules, effectively granting them new identities. Here, in the city’s most popular shopping center, the appearance of two brand-new devices on the cellular network would be lost amidst all the other new devices being activated.

“You’ve scrambled your IMs?” Morgan asked.

“Yes,” Ogrod replied.

“Change your clothes. But keep the ring.”

She unceremoniously unbuttoned her jacket and shrugged it off. Morgan looked away and hurriedly stripped off his clothing. A hint of an emotion—maybe shame, maybe guilt—crept into his mind.

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