Extinction

“Ja, of course.” He squinted at the fly inside the jar. “What on earth is that thing?”

“It’s a microdrone. Apparently developed by the Chinese. We need to photograph it and post the pictures on the Web site. But tell your people to use tweezers when handling it. The bug is dead, but it has a mechanical stinger that still works.” She handed the jar to Schroeder, then gave him the flash drive. “And we need to translate these two Mandarin files into English. One of them seems to be a technical document describing the electronics implanted in the fly. The other file I can’t make heads or tails of.”

Schroeder smiled. “As always, you’re very efficient, Fraulein Pierce.” He gave her an admiring glance, his eyes roving up and down her body. Then he pointed to the brunette on his left. “As it turns out, we have a Mandarin speaker right here who can translate the files. Let me introduce you to one of my assistants, Angelique Laplace. Her father is French and her mother is Chinese.”

Angelique had a figure that belonged on a magazine cover. She nodded at Layla, then took the flash drive from Schroeder. “I’ll get right on it,” she said, her face serious. She turned around and headed for the lower decks, where all the computers were.

Layla frowned. She had a prejudice against beautiful women. Schroeder turned to the other one, the blonde, and told her to take the specimen jar to the Web site manager’s cabin. A moment later, the Athena’s turbojet engines started up with a roar. The boat began to skim over the Pacific, heading south.

Schroeder turned back to Layla, his eyes running over her body again. “You arrived just in time. We need to make a quick getaway.”

“What do you mean? We’re being pursued?”

He pointed toward the yacht’s stern. “Two U.S. Navy warships are shadowing us. One is a destroyer, the U.S.S. Dewey. The other is the U.S.S. Freedom, a coastal patrol boat.”

Layla craned her neck, scanning the horizon behind the boat. “I don’t see anything.”

“They’re sixty kilometers away. We see them on the radar and in the satellite photos.”

“They wouldn’t intercept us in international waters, would they?”

“The rumor we’ve heard is that they’re planning to accuse us of drug-running. They’re probably fabricating the evidence right now, so it’ll be ready by the time the Pentagon holds its press conference.” He frowned. “But they’re in for a surprise. The Freedom is one of the fastest ships in the navy, but the Athena is faster.”

As if to back up Schroeder’s words, the boat’s engines throttled up to a higher pitch and the twin hulls leaped over the waves. The wind on the deck grew so strong that Layla had to grab the railing. Schroeder led her to a sheltered spot behind one of the Zodiac lifeboats. “Unfortunately, we have another problem,” he said. “The satellite photos show two more warships in this part of the eastern Pacific. They’re a thousand kilometers southwest of here and moving rapidly in this direction. They appear to be working in concert with the Dewey and the Freedom, trying to trap us.”

“What kind of boats are they? Destroyers?”

“Yes, but they’re not American. They’re the Lanzhou and the Haikou. From the Chinese navy.”

Shit, Layla thought. This was bizarre. She could understand the Chinese government dispatching a few agents to America to stop her from revealing their secrets. But sending warships? And cooperating with the U.S. Navy? They must have one hell of a motivation.

“I don’t get it,” she said. “What do they want?”

“Both the Chinese and the Americans seem determined to shut us down. But we still have a chance. Our captain came up with a plan to slip out of the trap. We’re going to cruise south for four hundred kilometers, then turn to the southeast. Then we’ll make a dash for the Panama Canal. If we’re lucky, we’ll reach the Pacific entrance to the canal by tomorrow afternoon, a few hours ahead of the American and Chinese ships.”

“But we’ll have to slow down at the canal’s locks. They’ll catch up to us.”

Schroeder shook his head. “The U.S. Navy would have no qualms about intercepting us on the high seas, but there are international treaties assuring free passage through the canal. They won’t attempt to board us there, and they won’t let the Chinese warships stop us either. Once we reach the Caribbean side of the canal, they’ll be able to chase us again, but we’ll have a better chance of shaking them off there.”

Layla looked askance. “I don’t know. It sounds desperate.”

“I’m willing to consider alternatives, fraulein. Do you have any?”

She turned away from him and stared at the ocean. Creating a map in her head, she pictured the U.S. ships to the north and the Chinese ships to the southwest. Meanwhile, Schroeder waited patiently beside her, sneaking looks at her ass. In the end, she concluded he was right. She couldn’t see any alternatives.

She was just about to admit defeat when Angelique suddenly reappeared on the top deck. Breathless, she ran to Schroeder. “Gabie, you have to see this.”

Layla was surprised. “You finished translating the files already?”

“No, no, I just skimmed them. But I think I found what the Chinese are so worried about.”

“Is it in the document about the cyborg insects?” Layla asked.

Angelique raised her hand to her chest and took a couple of deep breaths. “No, that file has nothing but engineering details. The only interesting thing about it is the file’s distribution list. A copy of the document was sent to a CIA agent with the code name ‘Hammer.’” She unfolded a piece of paper with some scribbled notes on it. “But the second document is different. It lists the names of twenty-nine Chinese dissidents who’ve been detained by the Guoanbu over the past year. They were pro-democracy activists, mostly from Xinjiang and the other western provinces.”

Layla felt a rush of adrenaline. This was the reason why she’d pursued the Guoanbu network in the first place, because of the rumors about the mistreatment of dissidents. “What happened to them? Were they executed?”

“No.” Angelique looked sick to her stomach. “They were lobotomized.”

NINE

Jim and Arvin stood in the auditorium at the Singularity headquarters, staring at each other. Arvin put on a smile. “Good to see you again, Jim. Sorry I’ve been out of touch, but as you can see, I’m quite busy.”

He tried to pull his arm out of Jim’s mechanical grip, but Jim didn’t release him. Instead, he moved closer and whispered in Arvin’s ear. “Let’s go someplace where we can talk.”

Arvin shook his head. “No, I’m afraid that’s impossible. But I can schedule an appointment for early next week. How’s that?”

Jim frowned. He didn’t want to hurt Arvin. Despite all their disagreements, he owed a debt to the man. By accepting Jim as a student fifteen years ago, Arvin had given him the opportunity to remake his life. And Jim was still grateful for that. But then he thought of his daughter, and his resolve strengthened. The danger to Layla outweighed everything. “Don’t fuck with me, Arvin. You know what I can do.”

The old man glanced at his bodyguards. “I can have you arrested, you know.”

“Sure, go ahead. But before your men pull me away, I’ll transmit a radio pulse that’s three times as powerful as the last one. At this range, it’ll fry your retinal implants to a crisp.”

Arvin let out a sigh. Nodding in surrender, he waved off his bodyguards. Then he walked with Jim out of the auditorium and down the corridor that led to his laboratory.

Jim knew the way. He had fond memories of the lab from the ten years he’d worked with Arvin. The room was huge, the size of a school gymnasium, and as they walked through the doorway, Jim noted with satisfaction that the place hadn’t changed a bit. The walls were still covered with old-fashioned blackboards, and the lab tables were still loaded with machine tools and prototypes. As Jim surveyed the place, he saw many of the inventions he helped to develop: prosthetic legs, mechanical arms, neural control units, eyeglass-cameras. But the room was devoid of people. Maybe Arvin had given all his lab assistants the day off. Or maybe he’d become even more