一场风暴在上海酿造时，雨水经过纤细的椭圆形窗户。新闻报道片段标记为有史以来最糟糕的袭击这座城市。艾伦·张（Alan Zhang）看到他的飞机正靠近朴区域的摩天大楼灌木丛，烟雾笼罩着烟雾和巨大的暴风雨。长江通常被货船和渡轮堵塞，是空的。飞机越近，艾伦感到不安。这个地方看上去已经死了，一个幽灵小镇。

这次旅行的噩梦始于他那天清晨收到父亲的神秘信息。当他听到牢房上的语音邮件时，他刚刚完成了他在旧大学的建筑工程演讲的马拉松演讲。“立即来上海。我们的生活取决于这一点。”就是这样。从那以后，艾伦就一直无法联系父亲。疯狂地，他从旧金山的酒店退房，打电话给他的助手告诉她取消其其余的约会。父亲害怕的任何东西使他绝对恐惧。

艾伦现在环顾飞机。他是飞行中唯一的乘客。当艾伦（Alan）看到机场空着的雾气时，飞机正在向跑道倾斜。只是空中交通管制和闪烁的红灯散发出跑道的两侧。这里发生了什么？他知道一场风暴即将袭来，但这是精神错乱。这就像介入后世界末日的城市一样。这架飞机猛烈跌落，板上的灯闪烁了一会儿。

Alan took out his cell phone and watched its screen load. No service. The plane halted. He looked out of the window to see the terminal was just a vague shape at the edge of his vision.

No service, no traffic whatsoever. It couldn't be. Not now. Not at this crucial stage. Those years of work. If this was what Alan feared, the city was at risk for billions of dollars in damage.

去年，2058年10月6日，上海以艾伦（Alan）和工程师团队开发的“菲比（Phoebe）”形式推出了其宏伟的技术飞跃。该网络实质上运行了所有内容：电源，沟通，运输，交通管制 - 它的手在每个关键系统中，它的构建是坚不可摧的。如果现在失败了，他的职业生涯，他的钱，尊严 - 吉。一切都结束了。座带标志缠绕。艾伦（Alan）站起来，长途飞行中的双腿麻木。飞机的出口坡道开始从后部突出，露出雨水跑道。艾伦（Alan）看到一辆黑色SUV正在等待。驾驶员俯身从窗户倾斜，在将香烟甩开之前，将其拖走。

Once Alan was in the car, the driver sped away, leaving the plane in its own ring of light, surrounded on all sides by thickening fog.

They had just left the deserted landing strip when Alan saw all the evidence he needed for his failure to be certain. It was the highway—stretching far into the hazy distance were empty cars. "Driver," he said, leaning forward. "What happened here?"

“我不知道，”他说。“一会儿，一切正常，或者像在这里一样正常，然后。”他打了个方向盘。”混乱。火车不奔跑，电源熄灭，汽车停止工作 - 每个人都感到恐慌。你只等待一个小时不过，也许两个，情况会变得更糟。有一场风暴即将来临。我听说一百年来最大的一场。

"Where are we headed now?" Alan asked.

“ Zhenzhu，”驾驶员回答。“不确定为什么。如果这取决于我，我会把这辆车带到这座城市的远处。”

所以他们前往珍珠:珍珠。菲比's first major project utilizing a fully automated crew of machines controlled through its 3D mapping software. It was supposed to revolutionize the industry through its maximum efficiency. How fitting, Alan thought, for his career to end where it started.

他们进入了上海市中心。艾伦（Alan）开始看到数字在汽车之间编织，一半被遮盖了。他们是piaobó，漂流者。许多人是从农村家乡带走的农民，并将其推向城市，以供更大的劳动力。对于所有关心的人来说，他们也可能是幽灵。他们甚至现在看起来像鬼，灰色和弯曲。“这些人中有多少人在这里？”他问司机。

“成千上万。”他回答。

The car stopped. They had arrived. "Listen," Alan said. "I need you to round these people up, try to find a higher elevation. I'll try to help, but, well, there's only so much I can do." He didn't wait for an answer, popping the car door open and running for the lobby of Zhenzhu. He knew exactly where to find Father.

地下室是昏暗的,一排排的桌子cluttered with computers led to a wide bank of monitors. Pale-blue images showed an eerie view of Shanghai's streets. Alan could already see sewers overflowing and the banks of the Yangtze swell. Father watched this display like a priest at his altar serving mass to an empty church. "They are calling it a freak of nature." Father turned toward him. "An unalterable twist of fate. You know what I call it? Virtual espionage so precise, so deadly, it will not only cost me this," he said, raising his arms to encompass all of Shanghai, "but the lives of thousands. Can you imagine? We have given ourselves the power of gods, but we remain so unfailingly human. Animals that have exchanged the bow and arrow for tools that exist outside of our physical perception." Father turned back to the monitors, his body only a blue-tinged silhouette. "Beautiful."

艾伦的手很糊状。他的思想拒绝相信这正在发生，他本来可以在那天早上观看旧金山湾的日出，然后看着父亲在上海的破坏中生气。它只是拒绝计算。“父亲，我需要主人解锁。”这是为紧急情况设计的最后一个度假胜地，后门进入系统。如果艾伦（Alan）可以检测到黑客注入网络的病毒，他可能会挽救在菲比（Phoebe）下运行的一些服务。

“这是你的左边，但是……剩下什么可以保存？”

艾伦（Alan）在文件和电子表格散布的桌子上找到了一个细长的触摸屏平板电脑。他登录并开始运行软件以追踪来源。他说：“那里的那些人无处可去。”看着一个屏幕，上面显示了一群破烂的男人和女人在公交车站的屋檐下。“如果我不做任何事情，他们就完成了。”

"Them," Father said, flicking a hand back at the monitors showing growing numbers ofpiaobó。"I believe the expression is two birds, one stone." He began walking toward Alan. "It was not hard drawing them here … a whisper of help planted here, there," he released his balled-up hand with a wave, like a magician conducting a trick, "and they are like flies drawn to light. Creatures who know it is all an illusion, yet accept it, for what else do they have in the darkness? What do they find there, really?" He shook his head. "If I am to fall with this city, I will cleanse it of the filth in the process, remove the useless waste that clings to the soul of a great nation." Every word was like a direct blow, hammering in a buried hate that Alan had only seen glimpses of before. This was the mentality that built an empire spanning dozens of countries, a construction corporation that was the future, the culmination of years of work. Would this be Alan's legacy? A man that would sacrifice thousands of lives for a footnote in the history books?

他的扫描完成了，他插入的代码擦拭了病毒系统。父亲说：“你一直是一个如此聪明的男孩。”“不要让我失望。放开他们。”

A moment. That was all it took. Alan tapped the screen.

一块深沉的颤抖穿过建筑物。“你做了什么？”父亲抢购一空，从艾伦那里拿起平板电脑。Zhenzhu周围的众多红色点突然出现。父亲困惑地抬头。

艾伦说：“这些人被抛弃。另一个颤抖的人，房间远端的屏幕岸上散开了片刻，然后空白了。“菲比的最后任务是建造一个大坝。希望您不要介意我是否使用这座建筑物？”

父亲站在那儿，双臂li行，他的脸在最后一次背叛时退缩了。

"Why?" he said. Then, darkness.

Conor McFadden正在芝加哥洛约拉大学攻读新闻学位。他对写作的兴趣始于很小的时候，并受到作者斯蒂芬·金（Stephen King）和戴维·米切尔（David Mitchell）的影响。他曾在福特汉姆准备学校的文学杂志迷宫中担任编辑，其中一些作品被出版了。McFadden还在Loyola Phoenix发表了工作。当他在2013年夏季特纳建筑公司（Turner Construction Co.）担任实习生时，他对建筑行业及其对世界的影响。

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