~ ~ ~
Simon pulled the SUV into his driveway and was in the process of closing off his conversation with Lionel when another call came in. He waved at his neighbour, Mrs. Shields. In addition to gardening, Simon had enlisted her to keep an eye on the house.
“Hey there,” Simon stated, answering his phone. He quickly added: “would you mind if I put you on hold for a moment?”
“Sure,” the voice replied.
Jennifer also noticed Mrs. Shields and was the first to pop her door open. The elderly lady’s sunhat appeared as attractive as her welcoming smile. “Don’t be long, eh?” Jen asked her father, while getting out of the car.
“Speaking of communication skills,” Simon added. “I’ve got a few things I’d like to explain inside.”
“Alright,” Jennifer responded. Her expression reflected an ambiguous set of expectations. “I’m up for that,” she said, before circling the front of the car. After embracing Mrs. Shields, she continued with introductions, while helping Marcus lower Tanya into her wheelchair. When the door finally closed, Simon resumed his call. Pleasantries were dispensed with in short order.
“I thought I’d be the one making the call to you today,” Simon stated.
“Well, it pays to have people in the know, doesn’t it?” the voice said. It was Colonel Gerald Dynes, from DARPA. The Colonel was in uniform and calling from the back of a chauffeur driven car. “Look, I’ve got some good news for you.”
“And I for you,” Simon stated. “I’m expecting a call at any moment. The loose ends should be tied off soon.”
The conversation between Simon and Dynes unfolded naturally, as if each party understood what had really taken place last night; that the XNA molecule had not really been stolen, and that Prav Gill’s plan was in turn part of a larger design. Sophia had remained one-step ahead of Gill all along. Simon sat in his SUV, presuming few details were beyond the scope of his understanding.
“You know,” the Colonel stated, “I never underestimated your willingness to cooperate, but the idea using fake EMPs, that’s something I’ll need to add to the DARPA manual.”
Simon looked out his windshield and watched Jennifer, Marcus, and Tanya part ways with Mrs. Shields. Simon could only exchange a wave as she proceeded toward the end of the driveway. “Yeah, well, if you remember, that was Sophia’s idea.”
Simon lowered his window when Jennifer came alongside. “You never gave me the key to the house,” she said.
“It’s open, Honey,” Simon replied, through his half-opened window.
Jennifer turned toward the front door after being prompted Marcus. “It’s open.” He said, motioning for Jennifer to come ahead.
Simon resumed his conversation with the Colonel. “You said you had some good news.”
“Yes. I was calling to congratulate you. The Xavior Project has successfully been taken underground. As far as the public is concerned, the XNA helix was destroyed last night.”
“Susan Frost helped immeasurably with that, didn’t she?” Simon replied.
“The loose ends you were worried about, they’ve also been tied off.”
“Sorry?”
Colonel Dyne’s car descended into a parking garage of some undisclosed location, possibly the one out of which the Xavior Project would be managed. He stepped out of his vehicle after the door was opened by his driver. The building was indeed nondescript and in plain sight, yet it would conceal the root from which an entirely new Tree of Life would spring. The XNA molecule would become the foundation of something truly remarkable, a synthetic lifeform whose potential seemed limitless.
“Humanity’s greatest achievements rarely go unnoticed, Simon. In the spirit of full disclosure, we have people everywhere … on the inside, if you know what I mean.”
“At PurIntel?” Simon asked.
“We do now, don’t we? You might also be interested in knowing that Decker and Connor work for me. They have all along. Sims as well.”
Simon shook his head and thought about the government logo on Decker’s paycheque, the one to which he was truly loyal. “Then it’s you I owe a debt of thanks … for finding my daughter, I mean.”
“Decker easily convinced your friend, Saunders. I just couldn’t let those assets fall into the wrong hands, you understand.”
“Thank you just the same.”
Colonel Dynes reflected further, before entering DARPA’s most
secretive location. “Why don’t we talk again in a couple of weeks? I think we could all benefit from a few days off, couldn’t we?”
By the time Simon entered his summer home, Jennifer was in the middle of the main room looking back at him. The window’s automatic blinds were on the way up, the center propane fireplace had been lit upon entry, and his stereo had already clicked on. It was playing ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ by ELO. Jennifer smiled, realizing that Sophia wasn’t gone after all.
At his own home, Richard was taking care of something he’d been putting off for too long – talking to his wife, Leslie. As he sat down, turned on the monitor in front of him, he opened the app that allowed Leslie’s legacy essence to come alive. He greeted her with somber introspection before their conversation animated a man who was all too lonely for his wife’s company.
As Simon’s parents embarked on a new journey together, Rose was ready to embrace a path toward her own redemption. Standing in line to board an Air India flight, she was ready to head back home, take control of what remained of Indi Pharm, and begin the long and arduous task of rebuilding not only the family-controlled corporation, but her relationship with her mother and father as well. The person she was destined to be finally lay within reach.
Derrick was motoring northward along the Palisades Parkway in his convertible R8. The night had allowed for little sleep, but he felt strangely invigorated. The twisty roads of Bear Mountain awaited. They were a place where, ironically, he did some of his best thinking.
And when Simon joined Jennifer at his cottage’s glowing fireplace, he took his daughter’s hand and led her outside onto its expansive deck. Sounds of ‘Mr. Blue Sky’ accompanied them to its railing.
He explained why he had agreed to take the XNA program underground; that he did it so they would never have to go through what originated on the very grounds before them. The sun was indeed shining, the air was warm, and they agreed their lives would ultimately benefit from the decision. At times, Xavior’s potential seemed overwhelming, even to Simon.
Colonel Dynes, on the other hand, interpreted the Xavior Program in different ways. After all, he had the subterranean Command Center that he just walked into at his disposal. Dozens of surveillance operatives, who presided over a multitude of flat-panel monitors, were fully involved in DARPA-related tasks. He looked around from the center of the room and marvelled at the technology available to him.
“Bring up X1 and 2 for me, will you,” he ordered, referring to Simon and Jennifer.
“Organics coming up on the center screen, Sir,” a voice stated.
One of several large screen displays at the front of the theatre came alive with a high-resolution video of Simon and Jennifer standing on their deck. Several of the drones that had located Jennifer and her kidnappers were obviously deployed in the property’s surrounding trees. Simon had agreed to an increased level of surveillance on the condition that Jennifer’s every move be followed. Dynes watched as Lionel joined his brother and niece at their side. Dakota wasn’t far behind.
“How good is the audio?” the Colonel asked.
“Overwhelmed by loud music coming from the house, Sir.”
“And our transition to satellite?”
“Seamless, Sir,” a different operative added.
“Would you mind indulging an ex-NASA man?”
“Any particular altitude, Sir?”
“Take us all the way out, son. And put that music on speaker, will you?”
As the DARPA operative slowly zoomed his satellite perspective o
utward, and Simon’s music accompanied the upward journey, Colonel Dynes smiled, crossed his arms, and appeared eager to relive the experience of seeing his world from above.
Simon, Jennifer, and Lionel were soon lost in the declining resolution. Everything that dwelled on our planet’s surface was made inconsequential in turn. Roads faded from view, while rivers undulated their way into the same obscurity. Shorelines gave way to their expanding bodies of water, until they too were lost within the clouds, both cumulus and cumulonimbus.
Emerging from their cloak, into the atmosphere above, the curvature of the earth portended of larger perspectives. Transitioning through the troposphere, the stratosphere, the ozone layer and beyond, perceptions seemed at odds with reality; that all life was ultimately beholden to this unseen, fragile layer. The Earth’s atmosphere as well as its invisible electromagnetic field was essential to the survival of everything below.
Still ascending, the boundaries that delineated countries, territories, states and provinces had long lost their discriminative value. Within their larger continents only the repercussions of terrestrial forces exerted any reference now. The ageless impact of wind, water, ice, and friction overwrote the narrative of any single species. The Karman Line was surpassed next, the one hundred kilometer threshold through which humans make the transition from traveller to astronaut. Its juncture came and went as seamlessly as did the stage on which the Aurora Borealis dances. Then finally from its distant, non-synchronous orbit, the blue sphere below appeared poised to embrace everything and nothing at the same time. Its expectations resounded similarly.
The surveillance satellite soon plunged into darkness and then was, in turn, bathed by the light emanating from a distant, yet familiar star. Though gravity was the weakest of the forces that governed the cold universe, both here and beyond, its planetary influence was brought to bear on the intangible as well, even on time itself.
As the DARPA device orbited the Earth, and North America came into view a second time, Colonel Dynes couldn’t help reflecting on the land mass’s most significant feature, the omnipresent Great Lakes. He imagined Simon and his family enjoying their little corner of the world before him, the northeastern tip of the most easterly lake, Lake Ontario. He also envisaged an entirely new lifeform, a malleable synthetic entity struggling to find its place, taking cues from its environment, from its earthly peers. Was humanity prepared to share its world with Xavior? Would the human race be willing to adopt the benefits locked within its own genome? Or would the evolutionary forces that govern every other lifeform on the planet wage their unending influence? Only the most sophisticated of computers could quantify those probabilities, the Colonel thought.
As for Sophia, Dynes agreed she had earned some down time. The Halo would be brought back on-line and be fully operational within days. However, when Sophia 2.0 was ready she would re-emerge with software upgrades designed by her, with applications spec’d by Derrick, and a deployment strategy presented to the world by Simon. Sophia would define the new era by offering an age-old, timeless commodity: the prospect of a brighter future ahead.
The Human Continuum
Teaser Chapter
Five years later,
Somewhere over the Arabian Sea
SOPHIA - Age of Intelligence Page 57