Li Jin walked over to the water dispenser and filled his vacuum flask with hot water. He watched the leaves oea swirl around c the water as the flask filled up. He was alone in one of the most secret of Tsinghua Uys puter labs, a facility for whily he, Professor Yao and a handful of others had regular clearahe lab was hidden deep within the gleaming glass and e Nanoteology Research building. The small research facility was a subse of the State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Teology and Systems and could also draw on the resources of the State Key Laboratory of Molecular and Nano Sce. State Key Labs were gover-funded research anizations affiliated with New a』s top uies. The lab』s size belied the importance of the research being carried out within.
Li Jin was worried. He was worried about Professor Yaos destirip to New York, the implications for their work and his future on the research program. Was the professoing to sell the design for the quantum chip to the Ameris? It didn』t sound like the professor at all but still the suspis refused to go away. Yet, he was determio follow the professors instrus to the letter. Li Jin, if I am not back by Friday m I want you to release Black Jade into cyberspace. Then I want you to remove the quantum neuroprocessor aroy it.
It was Friday m and any minute now Li Jin expected the professor to e through the security doors ecstatic that his trip had been a success. Was it wishful thinking on his part? It was best to be practical. The air ditioning in the lab too high but he had his favorite black Giordano auto-weave jacket on with the hood up. It was the oh the solar panels on the sleeves that he hardly ever used.
Li Jin took a sip of the yellow-green tea, sav the mellow but sophisticated taste that made this one of as most well known teas. Hailing from the Tieh Mu Mountains of Zhejiang Province, Dragoea, also known as Long Jing, was famous for its cooling effed its ability to remove harmful free radicals from the body. Li Jin savored the sweet chestnut aroma a his muscles relax as the alkaloids iea started to take effect.
What if the professor did not return? He had prepared for this eventuality by readying a standalone cyberspace terminal that he would hook up to Black Jade at precisely 10.00AM. Professor Yao was never late and if he had another appoi he would always ring in advao let Li Jin know. A strange sense of foreboding began to grow in his mind like mould on a stale sponge cake.
Li Jin appreciated spending time in this lab and the others. He roud of the cutting edge research he was carrying out with Professor Yao. He was one of a chosehe envy of his classmates. He had been handpicked by the professor to work with him oain top secret projects for a unit of the People』s Liberation Army. That in itself was an honour. The work he was doing was for the betterment of his try, no more, no less. Sedly, whiputing postgraduate didn』t enjoy w with cutting edge software and hardware? Li Jin got to be hands on with massively cross-disciplinary stuff on a daily basis, nanoteology, quantum physieural s and artificial intelligehey were multi-tasking and Li Jin relished the variety, the required mastery of diverse, though by no means mutually exclusive, fields of teology.
There was audent in the Virtual Reality Labs, another one of the professor』s protégés who had worked with the professor and Li Jin on the geion cyberspace prototype. Li Jin despised him with an iy b on p