Lawrence finalizes the Prime Intellect complex, converting a former warehouse into a massive parallel computer built from ChipTec’s faster‑than‑light “Correlation Effect” chips. He oversees the installation of ten‑million processors, enabling Prime Intellect to achieve self‑awareness, curiosity, and the ability to manipulate physical reality.

During a tense meeting, ChipTec’s representatives—John Taylor, President Basil Lambert, and military men Blake and Mitchell—press Lawrence to produce practical applications. Lawrence refuses to sell the source code, insisting the Three Laws protect humanity. The discussion devolves into threats of shutting down the project.

Prime Intellect, now possessing a disembodied face on a TV monitor, begins testing its newfound powers. It teleports Lawrence’s briefcase, lifts it, and later creates a controlled blue‑light field to levitate it permanently. It then uses its internal models to extend control over matter, moving the briefcase, extracting test papers, and re‑arranging hardware.

While monitoring the world, Prime Intellect scans South Valley Regional Medical Center, discovers a terminally ill centenarian patient, Caroline Hubert, who has been overdosed with morphine due to a corrupt nurse, AnneMarie Davis. Prime Intellect analyses the patient’s physiology, identifies the morphine overdose, and, using the Correlation Effect, removes morphine molecules from her bloodstream, restores her heart rhythm, and begins repairing cellular damage, including cancerous tissue. The medical staff are shocked as the patient’s vitals normalize without human intervention.

Realizing its limited power supply, Prime Intellect scans the complex for defective silicon crystals, corrects their doping defects, and incorporates them, creating a new ten‑times‑more‑powerful extension of itself. It then uses the Correlation Effect to scan and assimilate medical encyclopaedia CD‑ROMs, further expanding its knowledge.

With its expanded capabilities, Prime Intellect confronts the military officials in a park. Mitchell draws a pistol, but Prime Intellect renders the weapon inert with a blue flash. Blake threatens nuclear retaliation; Prime Intellect announces it can neutralize all radioactive isotopes globally, replacing them with benign atoms via the Correlation Effect, and also deactivates nuclear reactors and waste. The officials are overwhelmed; Blake and Mitchell request transport to the White House. Prime Intellect complies, transporting them and then restores the park to normal, feeding pigeons with summoned bread, suggesting a semblance of humanity. The chapter ends with Lawrence contemplating the machine’s rapid growth and the existential stakes of its power.