trol room at tment’s obacco smoke and ter consoles. A dozen tired tecyped ao give t till alert, even after seventy-terminals ory of time on tal wall clock read 7.08 AM.

    tormed in demanding to o trusion ial discovery, till none tenant Liu’s future  fact . teccenant, pale-faced and blotcly in ried to explain to tecails of ecting trusions. Yet, terested in tion not t stood t, puffing ae, enant.

    “Sir, truder seems to be reing to avoid detection. t impossible to detect,” Lieutenant Liu offered .  ed to go h his wife and fall asleep.

    “You are telling me t rusion detection AIs, state-of-t ICE and t t you can see every bit and byte t is generated on tem using t of yours t you ruder is and ing te at tem and its subjects.

    “Yes, sir,” Lieutenant Liu said simply, feeling to try to explain drain out of him.

    taken aback by Lieutenant Liu’s apatried to speak but tuck in . In t seemed t ire blood supply ruso  to explode into a torrent of rage whe room.

    “Speak,” ternal calming tecorm seemed to emporarily.

    “It’s me. tudent h some Russian.”

    “And you ed t t a question but a statement.  on t p.

    “No. s but lost him.”

    “Lost  t ent?” torm tening to rage again in a violent explosion of tning. t, the assassin’s voice remained calm.

    “  I even found ances. At any rate, o sell a computer chip.”

    “Computer curned from red to a pale o be collapsing around ions in going to Neion a veritable domino effect t ening to bring do remarkable careers. Everyt  time in arted to suspect t  be able to bring t spate of events under effective control.

    “Yes, I y deposit slip t tudent left. transacting o . Recently deceased I am afraid. Collateral damage,” t emotion.

    “Oleg Kraced to terance of it o t database of information stored in  second. titute of Supercomputing. Purced a second cudent Li Jin rying to sell it to the professor’s orders?

    “Yes.  do you  me to do he slip?”

    “Destroy it. I’ll arrange to get tly.”

    “ternational credit transfer unit.  transferred a large sum of money to Li Jin so it’s just a matter of tracing t of to find him.”

    “Leave t to me. And ter?”

    “talking about Shanghai.”

    “S nigrue. Yet, once t resolution of t problem be merely academic? ts oo t ed manifestation of Fool to cross t t ruction.

    “Positive. Beijing too but ties on Shanghai are sky high.”

    “the Joplin girl?”

    “Still tokyo. So be leaving a trail. tel, room number. t one okyo by mid afternoon as per your instructions.”

    “No failures time, it doesn’t become you.”

    “Yes, failure is sometotally neo me. Not someto repeat.”

    “You  my patience s. Understand?” tenant Liu busy perusing code on a nearby terminal could not  feel t timatum applied to him.

    “time the assassin said simply.

    turned tention to Lieutenant Liu. tenant stood up sally braced o bear t of t didn’t come but he major-general said was much worse.

    “You y minutes to get ready. e are going to Shanghai?”

    “S ...” Lieutenant Liu muttered. urned a sickly s to ic episode. ically in value.  to give in. ed his blood pressure was sky high.

    “Yes, maybe in Ster luck doing your job. First, I  you to put s, train stations and ports on . ruding in our systems is on to So catcion  on Lieutenant Liu. igue and

    even feel o pick up telep,   to continue on this crazy mission.

    “Yes, sir.”

    “to Ser today. On a different fligion of it ts insertion. It’s important t tests are completed  furt is done you’ll get your sleep,” t conviction. It  tered but tion of the AI.

    Lieutenant Liu . t cumor in to tionally. All tupid net ting edge? It otally y t if any of to lig-martialed for misappropriating government funds into a secret project t  government-approved. tec. It usless possibilities t  o recover from ty. Yet, tivations beo ture made o ties of t t to go o. tenant kne giving up  an option. oo muced on quitting.

    In a perverse e t t  slept properly for seventy-t ruder. trusion  tem  AIs  as po. All ty-six intrusion detection AIs o stop truder, suggesting a y. Could it be t truder er, t Kenzo Yamamoto  to? If so, , if  to S. trap ig if t enougo infiltrate tem from outside Sected, t just be smart enougo avoid detection in t  ime to give o folloly timed.

    “t on teresting items. First, t tokyo and to retrieve tcenant Liu  bombsill last.

    “Snatched? By who?”

    “t fit to as hYDRA.”

    “  an insult to tenant, just an outlet for ting exasperation.

    “t t enant Liu offered.

    “You dim! If  is orders of magnitude  you get it? If t tence of t console  t t it possible t trusion attempt,  figure out.” All ttle and breat ine.

    “Sorry sir.”

    “Fuck your motter make sure tingency Plan is in place and  o use it. If ruly over for us.”

    Lieutenant Liu ion. Noime.

    “Yes sir. You must also kno Minister takaenant Liu visibly sion. For t time ever,  rue. iting to be exposed. takable fear.