Read Online Engineering Infinity by Jonathan Strahan - Free Book Online Page A

against the Tata’s low ceiling. Gennady shot him a look, but
did as he’d asked.
    “Shit. They’ve found me.”
    “Who? Those are police cars. I’ve
been with you every minute since we got here, there’s no way you could have
gotten into any trouble.” Gennady shook his head. “No, if it’s anything to do
with us, it’s probably Kyzdygoi’s people sending us a message.”
    “Yeah? Then who are those suits
with the cops?”
    Gennady thought about it. He
could simply walk up to one of the cops and ask, but figured Ambrose would
probably have a coronary if he did that.
    “Well... there is one thing we
can try. But it’ll cost a lot.”
    “How much?”
    Gennady eyed him. “All right, all
right,” said Ambrose. “What do we do?”
    “You just watch.” Gennady put on
his glasses and stepped out of the car. As he did, he put through a call to
London, where it was still early morning. “Hello? Lisaveta? It’s Gennady. Hi!
How are you?”
    He’d brought a binocular
attachment for the glasses, which he sometimes used for reading serial numbers
on pipes or barrels from a distance. He clipped this on and began scanning the
small knot of men who were standing around outside the hotel’s front doors.
    “Listen, Lisa, can I ask you to
do something for me? I have some faces I need scanned... Not even remotely
legal, I’m sure... No, I’m not in trouble! Would I be on the phone to you if I
were in trouble? Just - okay. I’m good for it. Here come the images.”
    He relayed the feed from his
glasses to Lisa in her flat in London.
    “Who’re you talking to?” asked
Ambrose.
    “Old friend. She got me out of
Chernobyl intact when I had a little problem with a dragon - Lisa? Got it? Great.
Call me back when you’ve done the analysis.”
    He pocketed the glasses and
climbed back in the car. “Lisa has Interpol connections, and she’s a fantastic
hacker. She’ll run facial recognition and hopefully tell us who those people
are.”
    Ambrose cringed back in his seat.
“So what do we do in the meantime?”
    “We have lunch. How ‘bout that
French restaurant we passed? The one with the little Eiffel Tower?”
    Despite the clear curbs
everywhere, Gennady parked the car at the shopping mall and walked the three blocks
to the La France. He didn’t tell Ambrose why, but the American would figure it
out: the Tata was traceable through its GPS. Luckily La France was open and
they settled in for some decent crêpes. Gennady had a nice view of a line of
trees west of the town boundary. Occasionally a car drove past.
    Lisa pinged him as they were
settling up. “Gennady? I got some hits for you.”
    “Really?” He hadn’t expected her
to turn up anything. Gennady’s working assumption was that Ambrose was just
being paranoid.
    “Nothing off the cops; they must
be local,” she said. “But one guy - the old man - well, it’s daft.”
    He sighed in disappointment, and
Ambrose shot him a look. “Go ahead.”
    “His name is Alexei Egorov. He’s
premier of a virtual nation called the Soviet Union Online. They started from
this project to digitize all the existing paper records of the Soviet era. Once
those were online, Egorov and his people started some deep data-mining to
construct a virtual Soviet, and then they started inviting the last die-hard
Stalinists - or their kids - to join. It’s a virtual country composed of bitter
old men who’re nostalgic for the purges. Daft.”
    “Thanks, Lisa. I’ll wire you the
fee.”
    He glowered at Ambrose. “Tell me
about Soviet Union.”
    “I’m not supposed to -”
    “Oh, come on. Who said that?
Whoever they are, they’re on the far side of the planet right now, and they can’t
help you. They put you with me, but I can’t help you either if I don’t know
what’s going on.”
    Ambrose’s lips thinned to a white
line. He leaned forward. “It’s big,” he said.
    “Can’t be bigger than my
metastables. Tell me: what did you see on Mars?”
    Ambrose hesitated.