The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.: A Novel

by Neal Stephenson

  “It’ll be fine,” said Tristan, still working on the package in the kitchen. “We’re not trying to launch any new campaigns. We’re not being proactive. We’re being reactive now—reactive to Gráinne. We wait for her to make the first move, by sending DOers to the DTAPs we know so well. Then we go to those same DTAPs and stop them.”

  “Fuckin’ A!” Mortimer said.

  Tristan came in from the kitchen carrying a white plastic bag that he had extracted from the package. He continued, “We start by going back and talking to our KCWs, explaining how it is, asking them if they are willing to come over to our side. I think many will say yes. So we can develop our own witch network, our own system of safe houses. And in the present day, we still have friends within DODO.”

  “How can you be so sure?” Erszebet demanded. “Gráinne is subtle. These people who claim to be your friends may in reality be her agents, trying to win your trust.”

  “Then explain this,” Tristan said. He reached into the plastic bag and pulled out a dingy, tangled jumble of yarn, which I did not immediately recognize because I hadn’t seen it for years. Erszebet knew it before it was half-revealed.

  “My számológép!” she cried, with the wide-eyed wonder of the girl I’d only ever seen in 1851. She began to scramble to her feet, but Tristan saved her the need by tossing it to her over the table.

  “Merry belated Christmas! It occurred to me you might need something like this. I’ve spent the past month tracking it down.”

  “How?” I asked, amazed.

  “Classified,” Tristan said. “All bureaucracy, no cloak-and-dagger. It’s been stuffed in a filing cabinet for five years.”

  “You are a good man,” said Erszebet almost tearfully. She clutched the számológép to her, cradled it against her heart as if it were a delicate pet. “Thank you. Thank you.”

  “Ask and it shall be given!” said Julie. “Tristan, your timing rocks.”

  “Do you know how to use one of those?” asked Rebecca quietly, to Julie. “I have no idea.”

  “Mortimer and I can work together to rebuild the app,” Frank assured her. “It will never be the Chronotron, but it will be more powerful than the számológép and easier for those of us not used to the analog models.”

  “Is there enough room left in the cellar for that project?” asked Tristan, wresting his attention from the cooing Erszebet.

  “We have a guest room upstairs,” said Oda-sensei.

  “You’re all fools,” said Rebecca. “This cannot be the headquarters for a new diachronic endeavor. Besides the fact that I want it to be safe for family to visit, Blevins will be after all of us. I’m surprised they haven’t already knocked our door down.”

  “Actually, I’ve been thinking about that,” Tristan said, and finally sat down again. “It’s the dog that didn’t bark. Why hasn’t Blevins sent a DOSECOPS squad to knock the door down? What’s holding him back?”

  “Probably not Gráinne,” I said. “Gráinne’s pretty hawkish.”

  “Let’s cut to the chase: it’s the Fuggers,” Tristan said. “They made sure we could build an ODEC in the basement here. They’ve obviously made a decision that it’s better to have us around as a counterbalance to Gráinne than to cede total control of history to her and her minions. And so we are protected, somehow. We can stay here as long as we want.”

  “Until the Fuggers change their minds,” Rebecca said, in a tone that made it clear this wasn’t good enough.

  “I don’t think they’ll do that, though,” Tristan said. “They’ll protect us—they might even fund us, indirectly, untraceably—as long as we’re holding up our end of the deal.”

  “Which is . . . ?” I asked, although I already knew the answer.

  “To figure out what Gráinne’s up to, somehow—then go wherever she’s sending her DOers, and fight them. With wit and words when we can, with swords when we have to.”

  “Yesss!” Mortimer said

  “Works for me,” said Esme instantly.

  “Me too,” said Felix.

  “I’m in,” Julie said.

  “Excellent,” said Frank, looking pleased, as Rebecca made a well-fine-be-that-way gesture of allowance.

  “I have already agreed,” Erszebet contributed moodily.

  Tristan glanced at me. “Stokes?”

  “As if I had a choice,” I said. “Of course I’m in.”

  And that, dear reader, is who we are, and what we now are doing.

  THE END

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  The authors would like to thank Ed Allard, James Gwertzman, Karen Laur, Sean Stewart, Ned Gulley, Professor Natasha Korda, Billy Meleady, Chrysal Parrot, George Fifield and Lynne Adams, Janice Haynes and Beckie Scotten Finn, the Gorgeous Group, Liz Darhansoff, Jennifer Brehl, and Marc H. Glick, Esquire.

  CAST OF CHARACTERS

  WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS

  (* = historical figure)

  Twenty-first-century Cambridge, MA (or DC)

  Tristan Lyons, Major (later Lieutenant Colonel) in the U.S. Army; founder of DODO

  Dr. Melisande Stokes, initially lecturer in Harvard’s Department of Ancient and Classical Linguistics, then Tristan’s first recruit to DODO

  Dr. Frank Oda, retired MIT physicist, husband of Rebecca East-Oda

  Rebecca East-Oda, his wife; a witch

  Erszebet Karpathy, a Hungarian witch

  Dr. Roger Blevins, chair of Harvard’s Department of Ancient and Classical Linguistics, later head of DODO

  Lieutenant General Octavian Frink, Director of National Intelligence and Blevins’s eventual boss at DODO

  Dr. Constantine Rudge, head of IARPA, advisor to DODO, intimate of the Fuggers

  Brigadier General Schneider, Tristan’s initial boss at IARPA

  Lieutenant Colonel Ramirez, Schneider’s aide

  Les Holgate, Blevins’s nephew and Frink’s protégé, appointed advisor to DODO

  Mortimer Shore, MIT student, systems administrator, swordsman, and general geek at DODO

  Julie Lee, classical oboist, waitress, DODO agent, and witch

  Macy Stoll, head of C/COD at DODO

  Chira Yasin Lajani, DOer, Lover class

  Felix Dorn, DOer, Strider class

  Dr. Esme Overkleeft, DOer, Sage class

  Major Isobel Sloane, officer in command of DOSECOPS, DODO’s security force

  The Maxes, ODEC builders

  The Vladimirs, ODEC geeks

  Frederick Fugger, a man of business

  Senators Hatcher, Cole, Effingham, and Villesca, and Chairwoman Atkinson, members of the secret Senate committee overseeing DODO’s budget

  Gordon Healey (offscreen), a Chronotron nerd

  Mei East-Oda (offscreen), daughter of Frank and Rebecca

  Darren (offscreen), theatrical swordfighting instructor

  Tanya Wakessa Washington (offscreen), DODO witch recruit

  Dr. Eloise LeBrun, HOSMA

  Dr. Stephen Moore, HOSMA

  Dr. Hilton Fuller, HOSMA

  Nadja, witch recruit

  Dr. Srinavasan (offscreen), in-house physician

  Sundry DOSECOPS and Secret Service officers

  Constance Billy, Anachron witch from fourteenth century

  An unidentified witch in collusion with the Fugger Bank

  (In France) Anne-Marie, proprietress of Collinet B&B

  1640 Cambridge, America

  Goody Mary Fitch, a witch

  Elizabeth Fitch, her young daughter

  Goodman Griggs, their neighbor

  Ferrymen (brothers)

  *Hezekiah Usher, merchant and bookseller

  *Stephen Day, printer

  A cooper

  1560s Antwerp

  *Winnifred Dutton, witch

  *Thomas Dutton (offscreen), her husband, factor to Thomas Gresham

  *Thomas Gresham (offscreen), banker, Winnifred’s paramour and father of her child

  *Anne Dutton, twelve-year-old child of Winnifred Dutton and Thomas Gresham, witc
h

  1601 London

  Gráinne, an Irish witch, spy for Gráinne Ó Máille

  *Grace O’Malley (Gráinne Ó Máille), “Pirate Queen of Connacht” (offscreen, Ireland)

  Athanasius Fugger, banker

  Sir Edward Greylock, courtier

  *Queen Elizabeth I (offscreen)

  *William Shakespeare, playwright (offscreen)

  *Christopher Marlowe, playwright and spy, believed deceased

  *Richard Burbage, actor

  *Edward Alleyn, actor (offscreen)

  *George Clifford, Earl of Cumberland (offscreen), cofounder of East India Company

  Pym, proprietor of Tearsheet Brewery

  Morag, wench at Tearsheet

  Mary, wench at Bell Tavern

  Rose, an English witch

  Herbert, a handsomely armed young nobleman

  George, his not-so-handsomely armed older friend

  The Constable of Southwark

  Lord Simon Beresford, Sir Edward Greylock’s intended father-in-law

  *Sir Francis Bacon (offscreen)

  Jacques Cardigan, one of Sir Francis’s “Good Pens” at Greyfriars (offscreen)

  *Nathaniel Bacon, Sir Francis’s half brother, married to Anne Dutton (offscreen)

  *Three daughters of Nathaniel and Anne, all witches (offscreen)

  1203–4 Constantinople

  Magnus of Normandy, Varangian Guard

  Basina, out-of-wedlock member of the royal family

  *Alexios III Angelos, Byzantine Emperor

  *Euphrosyne Doukina Kamatera, his Empress

  Avraham ben Moises, a Jew of Pera

  Rachel, his eldest daughter, a witch

  Sarah, his wife, a witch

  Bruno of Hamlin, a crass Varangian Guard

  *The Crusaders: European warriors, Venetian sailors, churchmen, camp followers, etc. Underfunded and undermanned, but sailing first-rate ships with ample armaments, this army had been called to liberate the Holy Land by way of Alexandria in Egypt; political and financial manipulations resulted in its detouring to Constantinople, to replace Emperor Alexios III with his nephew, Alexios IV (who’d offered to pay the cash-strapped army for this service—but then failed to follow through, leading to the eventual rape of the city).

  *Marquis Boniface of Montferrat, leader of the crusading army (offscreen)

  (In Collinet, Normandy) Imblen, a witch

  1850 San Francisco

  Xiu Li, Chinese witch

  *Celestial Jong Li, her paramour

  Francis Overstreet, proprietor of the St. Francis Hotel

  Mr. Fugger, a banker

  1851 London

  A physician and his wife, Mel’s self-appointed guardians

  Mr. and Mrs. Karpathy, and the young Erszebet

  Mr. Fugger, a banker

  (In Prussia) *Berkowski, daguerreotypist of the fateful solar eclipse (offscreen)

  1045 Normandy

  Thyra, witch of Collinet

  Vikings

  Tóki Olafsson, skald from tenth-century Svelvik

  Ingibjörg, witch of tenth-century Svelvik

  Twenty-two Vikings, including Storolf, Brand, Halfdan, Thorolf, Bild, Glama, Heid, Asmund, Hrani, Arngrim, Hjordvard, Yngvar, Snorri, Hunfast “the Hapless,” Saemundr, and Thord

  GLOSSARY

  Acronyms

  ATTO

  Ambient Temperature Tactical ODEC

  CHRONTEL

  document label; intelligence gathered by DOers

  C/COD

  Conventional/Contemporary Operations Department

  CRONE

  Chronodynamic Research for Optimizing Next Engagement

  DEDE

  Direct Engagement for Diachronic Effect

  DNI

  Director of National Intelligence

  DODO

  Department of Diachronic Operations

  DOer

  Diachronic Operative

  DOOSH

  Diachronic Operative Occupational Safety and Health

  DORC

  Diachronic Operative Resource Center

  DORCCAD

  DORC Cartographic and Architectural Database

  DOSECOPS

  Diachronic Operations Security Operations

  DoVE

  Department of Violence(s) Ethnology

  DTAP

  Destination Time and Place

  EFOT

  Extra-Facility Operations Team

  GLAAMR

  Galvanic Liminal Aura Antecedent to Manifold Rift

  GRIMNIR

  neo-ragtag successor to ODIN; not an acronym

  HOSMA

  Historical Operations Subject Matter Authority

  IARPA

  Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency

  IPOPWI

  Infinite Pasts, One Present, Weighted Influence

  KCW

  Known Compliant Witch

  MAGOPs

  Magical Operations

  MAGSEC

  Magical Security

  MARS

  Martial Arts Research Summary

  NEER

  Northern Europe, Early Renaissance

  NELM

  Northern Europe, Late Medieval

  NOCHRON

  document label; not to be viewed by Anachrons

  ODEC

  Ontic Decoherence Cavity

  ODIN

  Operational DODO Intranet

  OPIFDI

  One Present, Infinite Futures, Diffuse Influence

  PEP

  Performance Enhancement Plan

  POOJAC

  Policy on Official Jargon and Acronym Coinage

  QUIPU

  Quantum Information Processing Unit

  RAFSTIQUORDOT

  mnemonic for what to do during/after Diachronic Shear

  SARF

  Supervised Anachron Residential Facility

  SLIT

  Something Less Than Infinite Time

  UDET

  Unity of DOer-Experienced Time

  Terms

  áireamhán

  Irish name for broom-quipu object used like abacus by witches

  Anachron

  historical person brought forward in time to modern day

  Diachronic Shear

  infernal, catastrophic response of the universe to too-extreme changes being wrought as a result of diachronic activity

  diakrónikus nyírás

  Hungarian term for Diachronic Shear

  lomadh

  Irish word for Diachronic Shear

  Shiny Hat

  ultra-paranoid secure operating system

  Strand

  parallel universe

  számológép

  Hungarian name for quipu-like object used like abacus by witches

  Wending

  witch practice/superpower of jumping sideways between Strands

  ABOUT THE AUTHORS

  NEAL STEPHENSON is the author of Seveneves, Reamde, Anathem, the three-volume historical epic The Baroque Cycle (Quicksilver, The Confusion, and The System of the World) as well as Cryptonomicon, The Diamond Age, Snow Crash, and Zodiac. He is (with Nicole Galland) one of the seven coauthors of the Mongoliad Trilogy. He lives in Seattle, Washington.

  NICOLE GALLAND is the author of six previous novels: The Fool’s Tale; Revenge of the Rose; Crossed; I, Iago; Godiva; and Stepdog. She is (with Neal Stephenson) one of the seven coauthors of the Mongoliad Trilogy. She lives on Martha’s Vineyard.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  ALSO BY NEAL STEPHENSON

  SEVENEVES

  SOME REMARKS

  REAMDE

  ANATHEM

  THE SYSTEM OF THE WORLD

  THE CONFUSION

  QUICKSILVER

  CRYPTONOMICON

  THE DIAMOND AGE

  SNOW CRASH

  ZODIAC

  ALSO BY NICOLE GALLAND

  STEPDOG

  GODIVA

  I, IAGO


  CROSSED

  REVENGE OF THE ROSE

  THE FOOL’S TALE

  COPYRIGHT

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.