Page 113 of Clive Cussler's Quantum Tempest

Her plan had worked perfectly, and Eidolon’s stolen secret was safely on its way.

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Mongolia

The base camp was located in the Baga Oigor Valley, famous for its twelve-thousand-year-old petroglyphs and other archaeological treasures. The camp was organized around a series of ancient Scythian burial mounds known as kurgans. Like many other scientific expeditions in the region, this camp was comprised of temporary but comfortable housing, satellite dishes, computers, radios, and a steady supply of food and other necessities to service the five-person team of scientists.

Located in the far western reaches of Mongolia near the borders of Russia, China, and Kazakhstan, the remote high-altitude valley hidden deep in the Altai Mountains was about as far away from civilization as one could get. The UNESCO World Heritage Site was also protected by international treaty obligations and was totally off-limits to national military and police intrusions.

In short, it was the perfect place for the Guardian leadership to both hide and operate. “Leadership” was too strong a term for the small band of committed techno-warriors who referred to themselves as the Nexus. Their primary tasks were gathering and synthesizing intelligence, communications, setting objectives, and coordinating attacks.

The “first among equals” within the Nexus was a Scottish national by the name of D’Arcy Falconer, who taught himself Latin at the age of five in order to read Newton’sPrincipia Mathematicain theoriginal. The mathematical prodigy mastered the intricacies of computer programming before he could grow the voluminous red beard he now wore like a Pictish berserker.

Falconer was recruited into the Guardians by one of its founding members, a Japanese national named Takai. Falconer then arranged his own mysterious death in a supposed mountaineering accident in the Andes, his body never recovered from the fall into the deep crevasse. His technical knowledge combined with his preternatural tactical and strategic acumen catapulted him into the nomadic Nexus in short order.

The Guardians were a vast international network of crusader scientists animated and unified around the singular idea that artificial intelligence was an extinction-level threat to the entire human race. Their devotion to this idea generated a self-sacrificial loyalty both to the cause and to each other, though the scope of that human loyalty extended only to the small three-person cells in which they were each contained. Replicating like superintelligent bacteria, the Guardians exponentially increased their power and effectiveness through the swarm-like coordination of the Nexus.

The Nexus had provided timely and effective guidance to the rest of the Guardians, all organized within the tightly contained cell structures. The lack of communications between each cell protected the larger organization from disruption. It also minimized the strategic effectiveness of any individual cell.

The Nexus was necessary for coordinated action, but it was also the organization’s weakest link. Each member of the Nexus could communicate with every cell in the Guardian body, though that communication was all top-down. If an enemy ever captured one or more of the Nexi (as they called themselves) the entire organization would be put at risk. This was the reason they maintained a nomadic lifestyle in the farthest reaches of the planet. It was also the reason why they had tooth implants loaded with four nanograms of botulinum toxin type A—more than enough for a near-instantaneous death.

Falconer sat at his laptop inside of his tent, the walls whipping in the frigid high winds sweeping the valley.

“You sent for me?” the woman said. Her cheeks were red with cold. The sixty-year-old ethnic Russian was in better health than women half her age. She climbed these rugged mountains with the agility of a Siberian ibex and was the only trained archaeologist on the Nexus team.

Falconer handed her the printout, his face lacking all emotion.

She scanned it, her jaw dropping farther with each word.Baktun.AGI.Organoidcomputing.Fierro.Bose.

“You think it’s really possible?” She handed the paper back to him.

Falconer struck a match and lit the corner of the flash paper. It disintegrated into ash in seconds.

“We can’t afford to take a chance it isn’t.”

“But we thought this was still years away.”

“Singularities in science are notoriously unpredictable,” Falconer said. “The Indian report seems to confirm it. Looks like Bose will cross the finish line before everyone else and in very short order.”

“Not if we can stop her.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

The Russian fell into a camp chair. “What if that message is a trap? Some kind of lure?”

“Highly unlikely. My source is impeccable.”

“Who?”

“Our Swiss friend.”

The Russian nodded. “He’s never failed us yet. Did he say where he got it from?”

“No. But that’s the point, isn’t it?”

The Russian bolted out of her chair. “If the information is correct, we haven’t much time. We’ve got to find a way to destroy that ship.”

Falconer tilted his head, fingering his thick beard. He’d long feared this moment. Humanity now stood on the edge of the abyss. The Russian was right.