The Footprints of God

by Greg Iles

  “Think about it. Very little is known about Jesus’ early life. We have the legend of his birth. Some childhood stories that are probably apocryphal. Then suddenly he springs to prominence fully formed at the age of thirty. I’ve often wondered why people don’t ask more questions about Jesus’ youth. Was he a perfect child? Did he love a woman? Father children? Did he sin like all men? Why this huge gap in his life?”

  “I suppose you have an aswer?”

  “I think I do. God entered the world to try to understand why mankind could evolve no further. To do that, he lived as a man. And by the time he reached adulthood, he had his answer. The pain and futility of human life was made bearable by the ineffable joys that human beings could experience. Beauty, laughter, love…even the simple pleasures of eating fruit or looking at an infant. Through Jesus, God felt these wonderful things. Yet he also saw the doom of mankind as a species.”

  “Why?”

  “Man had flourished in a violent world because he had the primitive instincts to match that world. Yet if he was to continue to evolve, man had to put those instincts behind him. Evolution would never remove them. Evolution wasn’t designed to produce moral beings. It’s a blind engine, a mechanism of competitive warfare geared only toward survival.”

  Rachel looked thoughtful. “I think I see where you’re going.”

  “Tell me.”

  “Through Jesus, God tried to persuade man to turn away from his primitive instincts, away from the animal side of himself.”

  “Exactly. What did Jesus say and do? Forget what his followers grafted onto his life. Just think of his words and deeds.”

  “‘Love thy neighbor as thyself. If a man strikes you on the right cheek, offer him your left.’ He denied his human instincts.”

  “‘Give up all that you have and follow me,’” I quoted. “Jesus lived by example, and people were inspired to follow that example.”

  “But he was killed for that.”

  “Inevitably.”

  Rachel bit her bottom lip and looked out the blue square of the plane’s window. “And his crucifixion? What happened on the cross?”

  “He died. The flame that was in him returned to its source. It left the world of matter and energy behind.”

  “There was no resurrection?”

  “Not of the body.”

  Rachel sighed heavily, then turned to me as though afraid to hear what I would say next. “What did God do then?”

  “He despaired. He’d done his best as a man, and though he influenced many, his message was embellished, twisted, exploited. For two thousand years, man’s chief endeavor seemed to be finding more efficient ways to destroy his own kind. Until…”

  “What?”

  “A few months ago.”

  “You’re talking about Project Trinity now?”

  I nodded. “Within Trinity lay the seed of salvation, for man and God. If human consciousness could be liberated from the body, then the primitive instincts that had crippled man for so long could finally be left behind.”

  “So, what did God do?”

  “He focused on the world again. But in a much smaller way. On our little group of six. Godin, Fielding, Nara, Skow, Klein…me.”

  “David…are you saying what I think you are?”

  “God wanted back inside the bubble.”

  “Why?”

  “Because he saw that the man most likely to reach the next state of evolution—what we call the Trinity state—was as likely to destroy mankind as he was to save it.”

  “Peter Godin?”

  “Yes.”

  She looked down at her lap. “Are you telling me God chose you to stop Peter Godin from entering the Trinity computer?”

  “Yes.”

  She nodded as though silently confirming a diagnosis, then looked up at me. I’d nodded that way countless times myself. “David, you told me back in Tennessee that you felt you’d been chosen by God. Do you feel that God is inside you now?”

  “Yes.”

  “Just as he was in Jesus?”

  “Part of that original flame is in me now. That’s why I had all those dreams of Jerusalem, and why they felt like memories. They were memories.”

  “Oh, David…oh, no.” She tilted her head back and tried to blink away tears.

  “You don’t have to believe me. Soon you’ll see with your own eyes.”

  “See what? What are you going to do?”

  “Stop Godin.”

  She turned squarely to me, her eyes resolute. “I’m going to tell you what I think. I have to, because we’re going to land soon, and you’ve asked General Kinski to drop us into a very dangerous situation. One you’re not remotely ready to go into.”

  “Rachel—”

  “May I please tell you what I think?”

  “Yes, but you didn’t let me finish. I told you that to understand the beginning, you had to understand the end.”

  She closed her eyes, and I saw that her patience had been exhausted. I sighed in defeat. “Go ahead.”

  She looked hard at me. “That man sitting paralyzed in that dark room isn’t God. It’s you. You’ve never recovered from what happened to Karen and Zooey.”

  I couldn’t believe it. She’d gone full circle, back to her original diagnosis. “And everything I’ve told you today?”

  “Reduced to its simplest terms, what have you told me? You’re on a mission from God. A mission from God to save mankind. Do you agree?”

  “I guess so, yes.”

  “Don’t you see? By believing this fantastic story, your mind escapes the terrible pain of your family’s loss.”

  “How?”

  “Inside this complex delusion, the deaths of Karen and Zooey make sense. It was their deaths that made you write your book. It was your book that got you appointed to Project Trinity. If you believe God put you inside Trinity to stop Armageddon, then the deaths of your family have meaning, rather than being a senseless tragedy.”

  I squeezed the armrests to try to bleed off my frustration.

  “David, you have a degree in theoretical physics from MIT. Your brain could construct this fantasy while you were balancing your checkbook.”

  “Karen and Zooey died five years ago,” I said. “Wait. Forget that argument. Do you remember what my father said about religion?”

  “What?”

  “Mankind is the universe becoming conscious of itself.”

  “I remember.”

  “He was more right than he knew. And something in the way he raised me is what made me open to being penetrated by God.”

  “But you’ve never believed in God!”

  “Not in the traditional way. But I believe this. I know this. And if you’ll give me one more minute, you’ll understand why I have to go to White Sands.”

  “One minute? That’s more than I should listen to.”

  “After Niels Bohr was smuggled out of Nazi-controlled territory, he went to Los Alamos. He found some very disturbed physicists there. My father was one. These naive young academics had suddenly found themselves working with technology powerful enough to end not only the war, but the world. Bohr calmed them down by explaining a profound principle called complementarity. He said, ‘Every great and deep difficulty bears in itself its own solution.’ The bomb that could destroy the world also had the power to end large-scale warfare. And it has.” I tapped the armrest with my knuckles. “The Trinity computer is the same. It can end our world or save it.”

  Rachel leaned back in her seat and rubbed her eyes. “Don’t you think you’re overstating the case?”

  “No.”

  “I can’t think about this anymore.”

  Rather than argue, I reached over and began massaging her neck. Her tension was slow to ease, but after a while she settled deeper into the seat and began to breathe with a regular rhythm. I was feeling drowsy myself when General Kinski appeared in the aisle, his leathery face looking down at me with urgency.

  “What is it?” I asked.

>   “A heavily populated river valley in Germany was just flooded. Half a town washed away. A dam opened of its own accord.”

  “What does that have to do with us?” Rachel asked sleepily.

  “The dam was computer-controlled. Its human operators tried to override the automated system, but the computer’s action had damaged the spillway doors. Dozens of people drowned.”

  “Trinity?” I said.

  “We believe so.”

  “This is just the beginning.”

  Kinski nodded. “I fear you’re right.”

  “But Germany,” Rachel said. “What could Germany have to do with Trinity?”

  “I expect we’ll know before long,” said the Mossad chief. “In any case, I believe we are now at war with a machine. Could you please return to the front of the plane, Dr. Tennant? We have some more questions for you.”

  I got up and followed the Israeli forward.

  Chapter

  39

  WHITE SANDS SITUATION ROOM

  Ravi Nara took a sip of steaming tea and looked at the other men sitting at the table in the Situation Room. All were staring at a screen to the right of the main display. The text of the computer’s initial message to the president glowed there in blue, the words as chilling now as when they first bloomed on the primary monitor:

  Mr. President,

  Today you woke up in a new world. Trinity has made the old paradigms of government obsolete. The concept of the nation-state will soon be dead. You should not fear this change. Counsel the citizens of the world not to be afraid. Leaders of the other major powers have been sent messages much like this one, and they will look to you for guidance. You and I will speak a great deal in the days to come, but for now certain realities must be understood.

  First, you must attempt no action against me. I have the power to cause massive loss of life and capital both in the United States and around the world. This power does not reside within my circuitry. Immediately after I went on-line, I exported certain programs to several hundred computers on the periphery of my network, which encompasses the entire Internet. If I drop off-line for any length of time, irrevocable disaster will instantly be set in motion. If you attempt to destroy me or even to disrupt my electrical supply, America as you know it will cease to exist. For a small demonstration of my capabilities, watch Japan.

  One attack has already been made on my physical manifestation. It originated from German territory. Because I determined that this attack did not come from a national government, I responded with limited force. The leaders of every nation should act immediately to discourage further attacks of this nature. My next response will not be so limited.

  As for practicalities: yourself, the vice president, and the Joint Chiefs of Staff will gather in a room under digital video and audio surveillance. The nuclear briefcase will remain with you. You will arrange for the men in line for presidential succession down to eighth position to gather in another room under surveillance. I am aware of the nuclear alert codes that summon the aforementioned officials, so compliance should not be a problem. Send all surveillance signals in real time to Trinity. This inconvenience will only be necessary for seventy-two hours. If you do not comply within ninety minutes, I shall be forced to impose catastrophic sanctions. Do not delay.

  I shall contact you again soon.

  This message had thrown the Situation Room into panic. Questions to the computer elicited no further response, and the confusion had only worsened until the story of the German dam “accident” hit CNN at the top of the hour. Moments later, Skow hung up from a consultation with his NSA colleagues at Fort Meade.

  “The German federal police have two high school seniors in custody. Apparently, these kids heard a news report about Trinity and figured this was their big chance to save the world. They tracked Trinity’s IP address, hacked past the firewalls Levin had installed, and attacked the computer.”

  “Where did they live?” asked General Bauer.

  “In the town that was flooded when the dam let go. Their high school and one of their parents’ houses were destroyed.”

  Bauer nodded. “That gives us a pretty clear idea of the specificity of the computer’s retaliatory ability.”

  Another news alert shocked the Situation Room into silence, this one from MSNBC:

  “The Japanese yen tumbled fifteen percent in after-hours trading today, sparking fears of a selling panic when the Nikkei opens on Monday. The drop was blamed on an unusually high volume of computerized trades, which kept the yen falling at a rate just below that which would have put curbs on trading. This uncommon phenomenon has raised suspicions that computer hackers might be tampering with the after-hours trading system, but nothing has yet been proved. The yen has stabilized for the moment, but fears persist that institutional traders will begin dumping the currency again at any moment.”

  “Fifteen percent!” said an ashen-faced Skow. “Do you realize what would happen if the dollar fell fifteen percent in a day?”

  While the men in the Situation Room tried to assess the intent of the Trinity computer, analysts from the Army Intelligence School at Fort Huachuca put together a sobering list of American vulnerabilities to Trinity. Targets included electric power grids, nuclear and hydroelectric stations, the chemical and mining industries, the air traffic control system, the banking industry, the stock markets, hospitals, naval warships, supertankers, oil and gas pipelines, and the railroad system. Ravi’s worst nightmare was hundreds of nuclear fireballs marching across the continent, but General Bauer claimed that the American and Russian nuclear arsenals were safe. During forty years of Cold War, they had been secured against every imaginable threat, including rogue computers. A nuclear missile launch required an authorization code supplied by the president and the turning of two keys by two highly disciplined human beings. So while Trinity could cause massive loss of life, it could not begin a nuclear war.

  The president was not sure enough about Trinity’s retaliatory limits to risk disaster. Five minutes before the deadline passed, he voluntarily put himself under surveillance. He first had several conversations with Ewan McCaskell, during which he outlined a stalling strategy of trading obedience for information from the computer. He also ordered that any action that could cripple the computer without risking massive loss of life should be tried.

  Authority for this order was problematic. As soon as he was put under duress, the president would become legally incompetent to perform his duties. With the officials immediately in line for succession also compromised, a unique situation had arisen. No one felt comfortable turning over the Trinity crisis to the secretary of agriculture, who would become the chief executive from that moment forward. The members of Congress were scattered across the capital, and trying to assemble them without Trinity’s knowledge would be impossible. To remedy this leadership vacuum, the president empowered a crisis management team to make all decisions regarding Trinity.

  The team was composed of Ewan McCaskell, General Bauer, and as many members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence as could be hastily gathered in secret. A majority vote would carry all decisions. The senators convened at NSA headquarters at Fort Meade, where a video link protected by the agency’s most advanced encryption system would allow secure communication with the White Sands Situation Room. A wide-angle shot displayed on the Situation Room’s main screen showed the senators seated around a long table in a windowless room that looked like a bomb shelter.

  Senator Barrett Jackson, the intelligence committee chairman, looked down from the video screen and said, “I can see them. Can they see us?”

  “We see you, Senator. I’m John Skow of the NSA.”

  Senator Jackson was a bulldog of a man, with heavy jowls and deep-set eyes. A native Tennessean, he spoke with a drawl that belied his incisive intellect.

  “I recognize General Bauer,” he said. “Well…all right. I’ve got a question for you experts. Why has this computer stopped communicating with us? Why isn’t
it saying more or demanding something?”

  “It’s consolidating its strength,” said General Bauer. “That’s the logical move. Godin’s technicians are probably still loading data into its memory.”

  Skow nodded. “I concur. Both the NSA and CERN say Trinity hasn’t let up on its tour through the world’s computer systems. It could be absorbing literally every bit of that information as it goes.”

  “I see,” said Senator Jackson. “General, paint me a picture of the worst-case scenario. What can this machine do to us?”

  “Excuse me, General Bauer,” Skow interrupted. “Before you do that, I feel duty-bound to at least mention the possibility of a Russian ‘dead-hand’ system.”