Chapter 14
CHINA
The smog was dense and charcoal gray, the sun hidden behind a permanent cloud of particle air. The eighteen-foot-long black Hongqi presidential limousine and its motorcade rolled through the city flanked by the Chinese military on motorcycles. Helo-gunships kept pace overhead, guarding the air. Military snipers were on every rooftop, keeping watch over the pedestrians. At the front of the motorcade, trucks with snowplows deflected citizens who got too close.
In the back of the car, Meng Wangwei, the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, was reviewing his daily security briefing, which started with a summation of the previous day’s progress of super-AI development by the state. He clicked a link in the report, and a hologram launched. It was the last few min
