Red Flag: The Brightest Future Under the Long View

Moscow, 1936. Beneath the gallows, mathematician Vasily coughs up blood as he calculates the formula that will decide his fate. A 91.7% probability is his only chance of survival. When Anna, his sworn enemy’s daughter, cuts through the steel cable with her welding torch, the two are forced to commandeer a maglev train and race into the frozen wilderness. There, a city of quantum computers is rising from the permafrost, humanity’s final card in the fight to avert extinction.

Sound waves dismantle tanks; arrays of light tear open the heavens. And he rips up his diagnosis and sets the endgame in motion: “Trade my lungs for humanity’s journey among the stars. Deal probability: 91.7%!”