Chapter Three: The Price of Match Four

Seven young athletes wearing sensor helmets stood around a computer in a laboratory. A younger Xu Zhiwei was in the back row. On the monitor was a symbol Jianxia knew: a zero crossed by a waveform. “Project Echo,” Xu murmured. “Twelve years ago. It studied whether decisions under pressure could be modeled. The director believed strong emotion left recoverable information in neural activity. The project ended after a test subject forgot her own daughter.” “You said this was salvaged equipment.” “I hoped that was all it had become.” “Why does the program know me?” Xu looked out the window. “Because your father wrote its first learning module.” The bus entered a tunnel. Alternating light and darkness struck Jianxia like a fist to the chest.