The Infinity Program

by Richard H Hardy

  At ten a.m., he was still plugging away on the document when there was a knock on the door. Ted Blume entered the office, looking even more dispirited than normal.

  “Good morning,” said Jon.

  Ted did not reply in kind. He sank wearily into the chair in front of Jon’s desk.

  “Jon, we’ve got big problems,” he said. “This asshole Eric Meyers is really tearing it up. He went to John Balis and complained about both of us. He says he’s got to have some kind of overview of Harry’s new operating system by today or the deal’s off. They won’t sign the contracts.”

  Ted Blume paused to swallow hard.

  “Balis was in my office not five minutes ago, shouting and screaming and making all kinds of threats,” he continued. “It’s not for nothing they call him ‘The Hatchet.’ We’ve got to do something, Jon. And we don’t have much time left.”

  “I’m working on the overview right now,” said Jon. “If all goes well, I’ll have it ready in another hour or so.”

  Ted Blume looked stunned. “You what?”

  Jon repeated what he had just said but Ted still gazed at him in disbelief.

  “How could you possibly get it done so quickly?”

  His weariness catching up with him, Jon raked a hand through his hair. “Well, I stayed late last night and got all the dope from Harry, then came in early this morning to get started. It’ll be about a twenty page document. I’m going to use Harry’s equations as the appendix.”

  Ted Blume shook his head in disbelief. “Jon, you’re an absolute wizard.”

  “It’s not an easy document. When you’re dealing with the quantum implications of magnetic field gradients, it’s obviously going to be kind of abstract. But I’ve tried to approach it in such a way that even a layperson will get something out of it. I’ve put in a number of diagrams to illustrate some of the concepts.”

  “Jon, you’ve really pulled the bacon out of the fire. I have a meeting with John Balis and Eric Meyers at one today. Do you think you’ll have it ready by then?”

  Jon glanced at his watch and saw that it was twenty minutes past ten. “I’ll work straight through until it’s ready. I should have it done by twelve-thirty.”

  Ted rose to his feet, a broad smile on his face. “Will you email it to me as soon as it’s done? If you can send it by twelve-thirty, I’ll actually have time to check it out before the meeting.”

  “Sure thing,” said Jon.

  “You’re the best, Jon. To be honest, I had some concerns about you when Lettie left. But I can see you’re definitely up to the job. I can’t wait to see the look on Meyers’ face when I hand it to him.”

  After Ted Blume left his office, Jon felt the usual stab of guilt. I have to do something to make things right with Lettie, he thought. But when he tried to think of a solution, he could not come up with a single idea. He shoved his frustration and disappointment aside. There was no time now to fret about the problem.

  Jon returned to the task at hand. He had already assembled the spine of the document. Only editing and revisions were required at this point and he knew exactly what they should be.

  When Jon finally finished proofing the document he checked his watch. It was twelve-fifteen. He was fifteen minutes ahead of schedule. He emailed it to Ted, who sent an immediate reply: “Thanks!”

  It was early for lunch, but Jon headed to the cafeteria. Lettie was sitting at a table in the far corner by a window, alone, the food on her tray untouched. As he glanced at her, Lettie looked up at him across the cafeteria tables. Even at a distance Jon could tell that she was startled. A troubled expression flashed across her face and she quickly averted her gaze.

  Jon went through the cafeteria line quickly, grabbing things by rote. He had decided to risk all and approach Lettie at her table. But in the two or three minutes it took him to get through line, Lettie had left. Great! he thought, I’m about as popular as the plague.

  The food seemed even blander and less appetizing than usual. The chicken in his sandwich was dry and the rice pudding tasted like sawdust. He ate perfunctorily and left a lot on his plate. The look on Lettie’s face was stuck in his mind. The more he thought about it, the more it seemed like panic. Why on earth would she react that way to him? During their last phone conversation, she had said she no longer blamed him for taking her position. Her change in attitude was a complete mystery. Was there something else she hadn’t told him?

  He took a roundabout way back to his office so that he could think things through. As he walked the halls he recalled the extraordinary feeling of possibility Harry had given him. Was that only this morning? It seemed ages ago. Harry had proven to him beyond the shadow of a doubt that the limits of reality are far less restricted than any of us could have imagined.

  “Any problem can be worked out!” he said aloud to himself.

  Just as he said this, an older woman he did not recognize passed him in the hall. She had heard him speak and looked at him as if he belonged in an asylum. Jon could not help but smile. I’ve been spending too much time with Harry! he thought.

  At shortly past two in the afternoon, Ted Blume stopped by his office again. This time his mood was positively jubilant.

  “They’ve signed the contracts!” he bellowed. “We’re in like Flynn!”

  Ted lowered his considerable girth into the chair in front of Jon’s desk. “They’ve bought into Harry’s new operating system one hundred percent. But we may have a problem, although it is the right kind of problem. It’s the decryption programming. They want it handled as a separate package. They’ve told Balis that they are prepared to pay a huge bonus if Harry can complete a working version of the public key decryption software within thirty days.”

  Jon blinked several times in disbelief. He craned his neck forward and said in a voice that was louder than intended, “Thirty days aren’t nearly enough for something of this scope. The whole idea is ridiculous!”

  “I agree. But that’s not all. It seems that we’ve opened Pandora’s Box. They think that if Harry can implement Shor’s Algorithm, he should also be able to decrypt other codes such as the DES and AES encryption schemes. They’ve put together a wish list for a number of the different coding schemes they want to crack.”

  “Wow!”

  “We’re talking about some major revenue here, Jon. This could be the biggest bonanza in the company’s history. John Balis won’t even hint at the figures involved, but I can see the look in his eyes. After the meeting I saw him talking to Benton Reeves in the hall. The old man was about ready to pee his pants. I’ve never seen him so excited.”

  “This is putting a whole lot on Harry,” said Jon.

  “I know, I know. That’s the scary part. That’s where you come in, Jon.”

  Ted Blume paused, waiting for the weight of his words to register. For a moment he looked uncomfortable, as though fearing a negative response from Jon.

  “Well, you know, Jon,” he continued, “There’s an old nautical saying, ‘A high tide floats all the boats.’ There could be a lot of money in this for you personally. And I’ll be honest … for me too.”

  Ted paused and smiled at Jon. It was an expression Harry often referred to as a salesman’s smile.

  “You seem to be able to work with Harry better than anyone else here, including Lettie. If you could get the ball rolling with Harry, it would be huge—just huge.”

  “Exactly how do you mean?” Jon asked.

  “Well,” said Ted, “First we need an estimate of how long it will take to get the Shor’s implementation. Then we’ll need estimates for the other encryption schemes that they want to crack.”

  “You said you had a wish list. Could I get a copy to show Harry?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “I’ll meet with Harry at the end of the day and try to run all this by him.”

  “Great, Jon. You’re the man.”

  “Could I ask you a question?”

  “By all means,” Ted replied.

&nbs
p; “Did you get the reaction you were hoping when you gave the document on Harry’s OS to Eric Meyers?”

  Ted paused. “Well, yes and no. I think he was surprised that we had it ready so soon. But to be honest with you, Jon, he seems to think Lettie should be the one doing the documentation for this project.”

  “That’s curious.”

  Ted Blume stood from his chair and glanced at his watch. “Is there anything else, Jon?”

  “I think that about covers it,” Jon replied.

  “Thanks,” said Ted. “I’ll stop by tomorrow morning and we can take it from there.”

  As soon as the door closed, Jon began to process their conversation. He could not help but think how prescient Harry had been. He recalled in particular how Harry had said that offering the Pentagon people the public key decryption was like waving a piece of raw meat in front of a pack of wolves. There would be no end to the additions on their wish list now. Jon did not expect Harry to be pleased at this turn of events.

  Jon tried to get back to work, but with nothing urgent pressing down on him he found it hard to concentrate. The enormity of what Harry had shown him that morning kept running through his mind. He thought of the famous quote by the Greek mathematician Archimedes: “Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the world.” Harry had found the place to stand. Jon was certain of it.

  At four-thirty in the afternoon his phone rang. It was Harry.

  “I just got back,” he said. “Have you got a moment?”

  “I sure do, Harry.”

  “Come on down.”

  Jon was surprised to find that his friend seemed completely recovered from his all-nighter. The red was gone from his eyes and he was relaxed and rested. Jon hadn’t seen him so cheerful for a long time. He had shaved, showered and was wearing fresh clothes. Even his hair was combed. The wild look was completely gone. Jon didn’t know why this scared him, but it did. Even the office had been cleaned. The army of empty soda cans lined up on the desk had been removed and the wastebasket and surrounding area were no longer littered with candy wrappers. With Harry absent in the morning, the custodian had finally had a chance to do his job.

  “Have a seat,” said Harry. “I need to talk to you.”

  Jon laughed. “Well,” he said as he sat down, “I guess there’s a first time for everything.”

  Harry grinned. “I’m serious. I need to know something.” He gave Jon a penetrating look and waited for a reply.

  “Okay, shoot,” said Jon.

  “Are you in or are you out?”

  Jon crossed his right leg over his left and smiled. “If I asked you an open-ended question like that, you’d shoot me down in flames.”

  “You’re right, I would,” Harry said and laughed again. He shifted uneasily in his chair, as if stalling while he considered what he had to say.

  “You saw the Studebaker this morning. What would you say if I told you that in six weeks’ time I will have an industrial capacity at my disposal exceeding that of all the developed nations put together?”

  Jon let the magnitude of Harry’s statement sink in. Yesterday he would have dismissed such a statement as the raving of a megalomaniac. But now ….

  “I’d say I believe you, Harry.”

  “It’s the truth. It’s gospel. And you gave me the key when you pointed me to prime numbers. What I’ve found in the root directory is absolutely unbelievable. The technology must be ten thousand years ahead of us. And I know I’ve only scratched the surface.”

  Harry leaned forward in his chair and stared directly into Jon’s eyes. “I’m not going to just sit on it,” he continued. “You, better than anyone, know what I’ll be aiming at.”

  “You think you can do something about global warming?” Jon asked. His voice was hushed and his shoulders were hunched. It was just too much to hope for.

  “I know I can. I can go right after the root causes. But that’s not all. For the past 5,000 years the human race has been turning the world into a toxic waste dump. Remember how we used to talk about that down at Miller’s?”

  “Yeah,” said Jon. “At the end of those discussions, we always said, ‘If only there was something we could do to stop it.’ ”

  “Well, now we can,” said Harry, emphatically pounding his palms on his desk before leaning back in his chair to wait for Jon’s reply.

  It didn’t take Jon long to answer. He had anticipated that Harry had something like this in mind. In fact, he had thought long and hard about it most of the afternoon. “Count me in,” he said. “But ….”

  Harry jumped in before Jon could finish his sentence. “Good man! Good man!” he shouted and gave Jon a high five.

  “But there is one condition,” Jon persisted. “You’ve got to keep me filled in more.”

  “Absolutely. What do you want to know?”

  “Well, the first thing is this quantum computer. You said that it’s sixty million years old. Who put it here? Why did they put it here?”

  “You would pick the hardest thing to explain,” Harry said. He chewed on his lower lip for a moment as if struggling to find the right words. Finally he continued, “It was put here by our progenitors. They were one of the first intelligent races to evolve in the galaxy. We owe our existence as a species to them. They seeded our world for life. Sixty million years ago, they placed an automated system here to nudge evolution in the direction that would lead to a species similar to their own. Their system was programmed to intercede at critical junctures in our development.”

  Jon figured that the explanation would run close to the outside edge, but Harry’s answer exceeded his expectations. He could only sit for a time in stunned silence.

  “And this automated system has picked you to be its agent?” he finally asked.

  “Correct.”

  Jon was at a loss as to what to ask next. He had hundreds of questions but he didn’t quite know where to begin. Before he could go on, a series of bell tones rang out from Harry’s terminal.

  “Hex 07—I used them for my error return code,” Harry said. He turned his chair around to face the monitor. “Shit,” he said under his breath, “there was a compile error. Jon, I’ve got to finish up on this. What do you say we get together down at Miller’s just like the old days? I’ll fill you in and we can discuss strategy. We’ve got a lot of shit to work out.”

  Jon stood from the chair. “Sure, Harry. What time?”

  “How about seven?”

  “I’ll see you there,” Jon replied. Harry did not say anything more. His attention was riveted to the monitor. For a moment Jon stared at his back and shook his head. I can’t believe it, he thought. I just can’t believe it!

  But he did believe it.

  From now on there would be no turning back.

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Jon woke with a start, almost jumping out of bed. He had been dreaming about Lettie. In the dream he had been in his office, standing in front of the window. “I don’t ever want to see you again!” Lettie had yelled at him. He tried to respond but could not open his mouth. He had just stood there, mute and immobile, while Lettie glared at him.

  He blinked several times, but the distress he felt in the dream stayed with him. Rather than stay in bed, he swung his legs out from under the covers and glanced at the clock. It was five-thirty a.m. He felt wrung out and tired and could tell he had a headache coming on, but there was no point in trying to go back to sleep.

  Twenty minutes later he was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking his first cup of coffee of the day. He glanced at the morning newspaper but could not concentrate on it. Images from the evening before kept running through his mind—especially an image of Harry with tears streaming down his face.

  Harry had been talking about a whale watch cruise he had taken in Maine a few years back. He described how a humpback whale had breached the water very close to the boat. The tears had come when he expressed his horror at how these incredible creatures were being hunted down and destroyed by whalers. �
��I just can’t believe it,” he said. “How could people be so absolutely mindless?”

  The action had seemed so uncharacteristic. The Harry he knew was dispassionate, completely rational, incapable of sudden emotional displays.

  At first Harry’s outburst seemed disconnected from the main stream of their conversation, but in retrospect it fit the general pattern. Throughout the evening Harry had kept returning to the outrages against nature that were such an integral part of human history.

  More than once Jon had told him, “Harry, you can’t take it all on. You have to focus on just one area first.” Harry did not reply to this warning, but his patented half-smile did take on a twist of skepticism.

  They had stayed at Miller’s until ten p.m., discussing the strategy Harry would need to follow in order to move forward. Jon was worried about the wish list Ted had given him to run by Harry. But he needn’t have worried. Harry glanced at the list for about ten seconds.

  “What a bunch of shit,” he said. And then he broke into hysterical laughter. People at a nearby table glared at them like they were lunatics.

  “What’s so funny?” Jon asked.

  “This is perfect! Our whole strategy in a nutshell. I could write a program in no time to handle all these encryption codes, and all the I’s would be crossed and the T’s dotted. Nothing to it with the tools I’m using.”

  Jon rolled his eyes. His friend certain knew how to scramble a metaphor.

  Harry made notations in his small, precise script next to each item on the list and then passed the list back to Jon. He had written estimates for the various AES and DES decryption codes. According to his notations, he could accomplish the programming in approximately three months.

  “I’m making it twelve weeks,” Harry said, “since I know damn well that when they see this they’ll come back and say they need it in six weeks. Six weeks is what I require to set things in motion. Once I’m that far along there’ll be nothing they can do to stop me.”