Content Warning: This section depicts death by suicide.

More than 40 years pass. A nanotechnology expert named Professor Wang Miao is questioned by four men—two police officers and two officers from the PLA. They ask about the Frontiers of Science, a global group of notable academics and intellectuals. One of the cops is named Shi Qiang. More forceful in his questioning, he’s “exactly the sort of person Wang despised” (51). The officers invite the scientist to “an important meeting” (53). As they leave, they cryptically refer to the Battle Command Center. Wang is confused. The next day, he travels to the place where the meeting is scheduled to take place. He finds a messy room, filled with tired, uninterested people. The people are generals, police officers, and “academics like him” (54). Some of the generals, he learns, are from NATO. They’re led by Chang Weisi, a Chinese general. Shi Qiang is also present. He asks about Wang’s field of expertise. Wang discusses nanomaterials, his exciting new research project that aims to create a “really strong” material that might be able to slice apart a car with just a single strand. Shi wonders whether criminals could use such technology, which annoys Wang.