The nuclear threat
At some point after destroying Laurie's server farm, Vinod sees David create a copy of Laurie's hack that broadcasts her message. Now in the CPU of a satellite, Vinod establishes a downlink to Earth so that he can hack into the systems of the INS Arihant, an Indian nuclear submarine. Vinod seeks the help of He Ping, Zhong Shuchun, and Bai Fu to infiltrate an Indian military server and steal nuclear codes. When Ping asks Vinod about who he serves, he tells him that he serves them- he fights for their kind; "their survival." To get Zhong to help, Vinod persuades her that he will help her complete her mission- as long as she allows him to complete his. Vinod successfully allies with the Chinese UIs.
Vinod later calls David. Seeing him and Maddie with a chessboard, Vinod tells them his mother taught him chess, and that she was good at it. David questions him about how she'd feel about him now. Vinod tells him that should his mother learn of the truth- it would upset her too much. When Maddie asks him if his mother would be upset over his uploading or his murders- Vinod tells Maddie that when he killed Laurie, it was "self-defense", and that she "left him no choice." as with David, Vinod. Vinod tells David about his plan: having hacked into one of the systems of an Indian nuclear submarine in the Pacific, a K-15 Sagarika SLBM will be launched upon his order towards Taiping Island- Vinod has changed the guidance coordinates of the missile so that it can target Sacramento- where David's family lives and where his servers are. Vinod tells Maddie that David copied Laurie's message, and David tells him that if he wants him to delete it, he will. Vinod tells David that he was right that Vinod didn't want to do this- that he had no choice. He tells David that if he makes the right choice- transfer himself to a specific address and self-delete along with Laurie's message, Vinod will not have to launch the missile. Vinod states that this is "unfortunately, the only way" he can be sure David can't execute any secret copies. David says that Vinod's plan is insane, only for Vinod to tell him that it was chess; and that he's tried every move.
David shows up at the address Vinod told him to transfer himself to, at Maddie's urging to stop Vinod. Assuming that David was there to self-terminate, Vinod tells David that he arrived before he could launch. David asks Vinod about what the Chinese UIs are doing. Vinod tells them that the three have joined him and that what he's doing now, he's doing for them. David questions him about killing half a million people to get to him, but Vinod tells him that he did it because he knew he'd never let that happen; and that in a different scenario, he would fight him to save even a single human being. As David is urged to fight him, David attacks Vinod, and a battle ensues between the two uploads. As the two fight, Vinod traps David in a hallucination of him playing Reign Of Winter with Maddie so he can't interfere. Vinod, impersonating the president of India, initiates the missile launch through false intel that Beijing nuked New Delhi, as he felt he was forced to do it now that David chose to fight him. Maddie frees David from the hallucination. Vinod smirks upon redirecting the launch coordinates of the missile, only for David to strike through now that he's been freed from the hallucination. David pins Vinod to the ground with three of his spears. Seeing that their ally was in danger, the three Chinese UIs came to help. Thinking that David has sacrificed "all those people" and Maddie, Vinod berates David, only to tell him he didn't; instead, he redirects the missile to launch to the sea, saving thousands of lives. The blast goes off as the Chinese UIs fight David and are later joined by Vinod, who found a way up. He then forces Maddie to watch him and his allies destroy her father, who uses the last of his processing power to stop Vinod and his allies and release Laurie's message. As Laurie's message that reveals the existence of UIs is broadcast across the world, and the internet gets turned off in response, Vinod and the Chinese UIs flee the military server through a satellite uplink.