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that there was a second stage to his plans. With the AIs suppressed and alien influence in human affairs nullified, Humankind First would be positioned to become the dominant political force on the planet.

And why not? With the super-AIs running things, human resources had been squandered on extra-solar worlds like Chiron andOsiris. Alien civilizations that Humankind could barely comprehend filled a galaxy that was hostile more often than not andoffered little in the way of material resources for an Earth ravaged by centuries of climate change and rising ocean levels.

Now there was the worrisome possibility that the Technological Singularity was going to change everything. With luck, theSAIs would vanish into their own private virtual world, but Humankind First couldn’t count on that. Events—and public opinion—wouldhave to be carefully managed to guarantee the outcome Michaels wanted . . . nothing less than control of the planet. He’dbeen working toward that end for far too long to see his plans dashed by outside interference, whether alien or AI.

He studied Vasilyev narrowly. He and his clique within the Russian Federation thought that the end result would be a planetaryRussian hegemony. Well . . . maybe. The Firsters required a large military, and if things didn’t work out with the USNA government,Michaels would be able to work with the Russians.

But Walker and a number of members of Congress were Humankind First puppets, and Michaels was pulling their strings. If theycould navigate this current crisis and bring the rioters under Firster control, then the USNA government, the Russians, theChinese—all of them would dance to his tune.

For the first time in history, Earth would be a united world, and he, Anton Michaels, would be the one in charge.

Vasilyev was considering Michaels’s words. “We need to watch this Singularity thing,” he said at last. “We have reports of large numbers of people simply dropping dead in the streets—but somehow surviving on the other side. We’ve been in contact with some of them—”

“I doubt that they will be an issue, Dimitri. They will play in their imaginary worlds, all unicorns and fairy-tale castlesand role-playing wonderlands, and we will never see them again. If we manage to gain control of the super-AI infrastructureand they become a problem, we could even just switch them off. My chief concern there is the super-AIs that have already ascended.They might still move between the virtual world and ours, and could be a problem.”

“What can we do? The SAIs have all the advantages. They are smarter than humans, infinitely faster, and they can move throughoutthe Global Net.”

“I’ve given some thought to this, Dimitri. There are, we believe, only twenty-one genuine super-AIs on the planet. While allcan move throughout the Net pretty much at will, each has material infrastructure that is vulnerable. Destroy that infrastructure,and we, in effect, shut down the SAIs.”

“That seems drastic.”

“Ordinary artificial intelligences won’t be affected. After all, they run much of our infrastructure—government, banking, learning and medical institutions, global transport, the military—pulling the plug onall of that would plunge our civilization into the technological dark ages. But the super-AIs, the conscious ones, they’rethe ones who could end up dominating the planet. They’re the ones we need to shut down.” Michaels pulled out a folded pieceof paper and handed it to Vasilyev.

“Handwritten?” Vasilyev said, glancing at the list. “That is quaint.”

“The same reason I needed to see you in person, Dimitri. The machines are listening in on everything, including private head-to-head communications. This is the only way to be safe.”

“Shanghai,” Vasilyev said, reading. “Denver. Rio.”

“The primary super-AI centers. The beating hearts of the conscious machines, as it were.”

Vasilyev’s eyebrows rose. “Tsiolkovsky Crater? That’s on the far side of the moon!”

“That may be one of the most important,” Michaels said. “Perhaps the most important. The SAI that calls itself Konstantin has all but run the USNA government from behind the scenes for years,including the military.”

Vasilyev nodded. “We have a similar machine mind. We call it Nablyudatl’, or ‘Nabli’ for short. You would say ‘the Watcher.’”

“I know. His central infrastructure is located at the Academy of Sciences Computing Center.”

“Several kilometers beneath the streets of Moscow, actually.” His eyes widened. “Nyet! You aren’t contemplating an attack on Moscow!”

“Of course not. But we should make sure that Konstantin is eliminated. A nano-D weapon, perhaps, to create an immense craterwithin Tsiolkovsky. Or a nuclear weapon similar to the one that took out Cayambe. You’ll have to deal with Nabli with a tacticalstrike force.”

Vasilyev nodded. “That could be done. And these others?”

“We have plans in place to deal with all of them. We will need to synchronize our attacks, so as not to warn the others.”

“That seems wise.”

“The exception is Konstantin. We must destroy that one immediately. As I said, it may be the most important within the SAInetwork. It certainly is the most powerful.”

“Won’t that, ah, ‘give the game away,’ as you people like to say?”

“Not if we blame the attack on the anti-alien faction. Konstantin is quite well-known for his dealings with a variety of aliencivilizations. The attack on the Quito Space Elevator will have prepared people—and the other SAIs—for the possibility ofanother attack by extremist forces.”

“And who will deliver this attack?”

“I was hoping, Dimirti, that you might speak to some of our friends within the Russian space forces.”

He scowled. “We’ve already lost the Moskva.”

“Are you certain of that? We can’t know for certain.”

Vasilyev gave a heavy shrug. “Moskva and her battlefleet set off in pursuit of the America. The America returned . . . and apparently was carrying Nungiirtok combat forces picked up at Osiris that had been on board the Moskva. Now he has emerged in formation with the America and is not communicating. We haven’t seen any data or after-action reports, but Moskva’s capture—or destruction—by the Americans appears likely, wouldn’t you agree?”

“Even if true, Russia has other military assets.”

“And you are being extremely free with Russian military assets.”

“You have a better idea? A single Russian ship might deliver a nano-D weapon to Tsiolkovsky. We spread the word, through carefulmemegineering, that an anti-alien faction within the Russian navy carried out the attack.”

“You seem