The Immortality Code

by Douglas E. Richards

  He paused to let this sink in.

  “It’s also possible that she and I will want to share some intimate moments going forward,” said Reed. “Which is the real reason you want us to room together, right? So you can play matchmaker, ensuring she’s as content as possible, and that you can use me as maximum leverage against her. But nothing inhibits intimacy like surveillance devices, huh, Colonel?”

  Reed stared up at the Chinese colonel defiantly. “But regardless of how she and I end up interacting,” he continued, “if you really want her cooperation and best work for an extended period, she’ll need a refuge where she can find privacy. Where she can let her hair down. Her sanity might depend on it.”

  Chen pondered this for several long seconds. “Okay, Commander,” he said finally. “I suppose your request isn’t entirely unreasonable. I’ll have a doctor join you in this room within the hour. The bug is about the size of a thumbtack, held in place on her right collarbone, just below the skin.”

  Reed nodded, having guessed as much. It was the kind that could be punched through the skin before expanding and latching on to bone. Likely implanted with a specialized device that first applied Novocaine to make the insertion painless. While the bug could be injected into place in seconds, it was more of a challenge to remove.

  “The doctor will administer a local anesthetic,” continued Chen, “and he’ll have it out in less than ten minutes. Satisfied?”

  “It’s a good start,” said Reed.

  “Just understand this, Commander. The more cooperative I’m being now, the more cooperative I’ll expect Dr. Keane to be later.” His features darkened. “And the angrier I’ll be to learn I’ve been had,” he added with an ominous scowl. “So if she crosses me after I’ve been accommodating, the penalties will be much worse than they would have been otherwise. I’ll demonstrate tortures she’s never imagined in her worst nightmares. But I won’t torture her. She’s too important. Any idea who will be the star of my show?”

  “Let me guess,” said Reed with a wry smile. “Tom Hanks?”

  Chen shook his head in contempt. “I almost hope she doesn’t cooperate,” he said, “so I can tear the smugness from your face. Along with most of your skin.”

  He nodded at Allie. “I’m sorry for this unpleasantness,” he said. “But I just want to be sure that I’ve made myself clear.”

  The physicist swallowed hard. “You have.”

  “Yes,” said Reed, “you have a gift for expressing yourself, Colonel. Even in a second language.”

  “I also have access to state-of-the-art lie detection equipment, Commander. So please explain to Dr. Keane that after we make nice, if she gives us anything but the accurate molecular structure, down to the atom, you’ll pay a price that she’ll never forget.”

  22

  The door to the room closed and the dead bolt locks were restored, leaving the two Americans alone once again. Allie Keane nodded toward her fellow captive. “Well, that was—”

  “Quite the introduction,” interrupted Reed. “I know.” He shook his head and warned her off with a stern expression. “But I’m tired,” he added. “I’m not sure why. I think there’s still some of the tranquilizer they used in my system. In any case, I’m all talked out for now. We should just close our eyes and try to relax until the doctor arrives.”

  Allie shot him a look of dismay. What? her face said. Relax? Now?

  He couldn’t blame her. The tranquilizer had worn off long ago, so she knew he was lying. And closing her eyes and relaxing was probably the last thing she wanted to do. Still, he nodded at her to encourage her to go along with his suggestion.

  Allie closed her open mouth. “Good idea,” she said, taking his lead. “This will give me time to digest everything we heard.”

  Reed was being overly cautious, but they had won this round with Chen, so why risk a conversation that might spark the man to change his mind? Reed had learned long ago that once you’ve talked someone into doing something you want, stop talking. So it was best to remain silent for an hour until the doctor came to remove the bug.

  He closed his eyes to further his point, and Allie soon did the same.

  All in all, Reed was well pleased. Their initial meeting couldn’t have gone better. He had bought some time, and perhaps some privacy, although he would need plenty of convincing that Chen was honoring his word. Still, he would remain opportunistic, ready to take advantage of any escape possibility at a moment’s notice. If he found an opening before Allie gave up the structure of her miracle molecule, that would be ideal, but also exceedingly unlikely.

  Assuming this didn’t come to pass, his plan was simple. He and Allie would cooperate fully. Gradually pretend to enjoy the life here. Appear to be falling in love with each other—or actually fall in love—either way would work. Their attitudes toward their jailers would morph from hostility and contempt to friendliness.

  They would do everything possible to appear to be model prisoners. To come across as ever more grateful for being treated well and being given necessary resources—poster children for the Stockholm Syndrome. And Reed would pretend to be ever more hostile to his own nation, decrying the many sacrifices he had made in the name of patriotism with nothing to show for it.

  In short, they would pursue a relentless campaign to lull Chen and his minions to sleep. Get them to lower their guards. He and Allie would bide their time, give the enemy no reason to mistrust them, month after month, and wait for them to get sloppy. Reed would spend every waking moment learning the security here, squirreling away items they would need to escape and survive, and waiting for an opening—the star of a devious prison-break movie of his own design.

  If he succeeded, they’d do everything possible to get a message back to Hubbard with the structure of Allie’s molecule before they were recaptured or killed. Even if it took them a year to escape, even if they gave China this much of a head start, America could still win the race to synthesize the molecule, and then perfect a quantum computer. The US was fully capable of catching up from behind. In Reed’s view, free societies, whose people were raised with a can-do attitude and whose culture embraced individualistic, maverick approaches, could outpace scientists raised in tightly controlled totalitarian societies every time.

  He would find a way to put this to the test—or die trying.

  Not that dying would be his first choice. With luck, after delivering the structure to Hubbard, she could arrange to have an in-country team of operatives help them escape back to America. If he could get Allie back to The States, they were almost guaranteed to win the race. With a working quantum computer in hand, they could cripple China’s quantum computer efforts, along with their military and economy if they chose to do so.

  Reed was jolted from his reverie by a mild, almost undetectable sensation in his ear canal, unlike anything he had ever felt, and his eyes flew open. It was the gentle caress of something liquid, but soft and silky-smooth. He tilted his head to try to shake out whatever had entered, trying not to panic, when a deep, unaccented male voice, almost certainly American, whispered from deep within his inner ear.

  “Commander Reed, don’t say a word,” said the voice, which was not emanating from his comms. “My name is Major Tom Hoyer, and this is a rescue mission. A vast number of microscopic robots have entered your ear. Nanobots. Nanites for short. These operate using a distributed intelligence well beyond anything you’ve ever encountered. You’ve probably seen programmable matter in science-fiction movies. Matter that can instantly morph into any shape or structure. Well, these nanites can do that and so much more, including generate sound waves to transmit my voice. I’ll provide a thorough briefing on all of their capabilities once you’ve escaped.”

  The voice paused to let Reed get over the shock of it all and then continued.

  “The nanites can camouflage themselves to the point at which they’re basically invisible, which they’re doing now. So there are far more in the room with you now than you know. Enough t
o eat through your restraints and provide a weapon made of many trillions of their microscopic bodies linked together.

  “The nanites are constructed of a material dozens of times stronger and more flexible even than carbyne. There are also enough of them to coat you, providing an invisible body armor that will make you all but invincible. But there aren’t enough for Dr. Keane, who will remain vulnerable. Still, since you’ll be the equal of Superman, at least when it comes to being bullet-proof, I’m counting on you to protect her.

  “You’ll be thrilled to know that you aren’t inside China. Chen was lying to you. You’re in a large underground facility, carved out below a farm in Utah. I had no idea this place existed until I tracked you here. My guess is that they didn’t want to risk going straight to China while the US is in a heightened state of alert. One triggered by Dr. Keane’s disappearance. I suspect they plan to lie low here for a month or two, until US hyper-surveillance settles down, and then waltz you into China after the US is no longer paying attention.”

  Reed continued to listen with his jaw open, glad that Allie’s eyes were still shut, or she would have seen his stunned expression and would have been forced to ask questions. Questions he couldn’t answer while Chen was listening in.

  “I’m on the ground nearby with a team of eight commandos,” continued the mysterious major named Tom Hoyer. “We’ve been scrambling to do as much recon as we can without being detected, and I’ve contacted a high-ranking Chinese intelligence asset I’ve been blackmailing. He was able to provide more information on this site. It appears this is a base for Chinese operations west of Colorado. A place to consolidate intel gathering functions, a refuge for their operators between assignments, and a center for planning and staging all clandestine operations within the Western US.

  “I, for one, never imagined that China would have the balls to plant a major base in the heart of America, but I now believe this is one of several. Their audacity is off the charts. Outside, it’s a harmless farm, with more than the usual number of farmhouses, storage sheds, and silos. But we’ve managed to get some fly-sized drones to do a pass-through, and while these structures appear harmless on the outside, they house sophisticated surveillance and sensor technologies, dozens of men, heavy armaments, a supercomputer center, and so on.

  “The underground section you’re in is spacious, but houses less than fifty men. It’s heavily fortified. Enough to survive sustained bombing on the farm above it. It houses additional computers and equipment, but is mostly used for quarters, offices, meeting facilities, and so on.

  “That’s all I can tell you about it. I wanted to get these nanites to you right away, rather than wait to use them to do an extensive recon of the facility. I’m afraid you’ll have to discover the layout for yourself. Since you’ll be protected by nanites, this won’t be the suicide mission it would have been otherwise.

  “So here’s the plan. For obvious reasons, we’ll wait to begin until after the bug/homing beacon has been removed from Dr. Keane’s shoulder. As soon as this happens, the nanites will cut your bonds and assemble themselves into an exact replica of the .45-caliber Glock that you’re known to favor, made from their microscopic bodies rather than steel, and firing bullets also made of countless nanites. Use the Glock only to acquire other weapons, and then be sure to hang on to it. The nanites are a scarce resource, and I’d prefer you leave as few behind as possible when you join us outside.

  “The rest of the microscopic army I sent will self-assemble into a shield around you. The ultimate protective bubble. The rest is up to you. I expect you to clear all hostiles from the facility.

  “I could use the nanites to clear the site, but I’m afraid I need to ask you to do the wet work yourself. If the nanites did the killing and not you, we’d risk the existence of this technology getting back to Chinese Intelligence via a video feed or survivor.

  “I assume that you, of all people, can appreciate the importance of not revealing these nanites to them, which represent a technology advanced enough to make a quantum computer look like an abacus. If China had any inkling of what this tech could do, they’d come after it with enough men to fill a stadium.

  “Even so, if for some reason you get squeamish about the need to clear the entire facility of personnel, I’m prepared to have the nanites finish the job for you—whether they’re discovered or not.”

  There was a long pause. “I’ve skimmed your file, Commander. I know you hoped Tech Ops would allow you to avoid spilling the kind of blood you spilled in your past life. I’m afraid you won’t have that luxury today. But these are spies, enemy combatants hidden on US soil. And this is necessary. You didn’t force them to kidnap you and Dr. Keane, nor kill the general. And given what I’ve told you about the nanites, I’m sure you can appreciate that this is bigger than just qubits and decryption. Much bigger. I look forward to telling you and Dr. Keane all about it shortly.

  “Finally, as soon as you engage down below, we’ll engage up above. I’ll be wearing a nanite suit of my own, so I should be able to cut quite a swath through their ranks. And we’ve brought enough heavy munitions and hornet drones—with octa-nitro-cubane payloads—to stop an army, so we should be able clear all aboveground hostiles to pave the way for your emergence.

  “The bunker facility you’re in is presently jamming all traditional signals, but as soon as you get topside, your comms will work again. I’ve modified ours so you’ll be able to communicate with me and my team when you’re free. All I ask is that you not contact Colonel Hubbard or anyone else until we’ve had a chance to talk.”

  Hoyer issued an audible sigh. “I can’t tell you how much I wish I could provide a protective body suit to Dr. Keane also. But I only have enough nanites for two of them. I’ll be wearing one up here, as I said, which will be critical to ensure we clear the site. The second suit has to go to you, a warrior, for obvious reasons.

  “But Dr. Keane must be protected at all costs. It isn’t an overstatement to say that she’s more important to the fate of humanity than anyone on the planet. She holds the key to a future that is glorious beyond imagining. A key that goes far beyond just quantum computers.”

  Reed blinked rapidly. What did that mean? A key that went far beyond quantum computing? If only he could ask questions.

  “So I’m placing considerable faith in you, Commander,” continued Hoyer. “Nothing is more important than getting Dr. Keane out of there in one piece. Nothing!

  “I trust you won’t forget that.”

  23

  Zachary Reed thought he might explode from anticipation while he waited for the Chinese doctor to finish the three stitches needed to close the small incision in Allie’s shoulder after the bug had been removed.

  Had he just dreamed up the sensation in his ear and Hoyer’s words? How could he not have?

  Room temperature qubits and carbyne manufacturing were advanced, but at least within the realm of imagination. Hoyer’s tech was far too advanced to be real. Something that shouldn’t be available for decades, maybe centuries.

  So would fireworks ensue the moment the doctor finished? Or would it become clear that this had been nothing but a vivid hallucination? If so, it would mean that Reed had been drugged with more than just a simple tranquilizer, or that his mind was beginning to break.

  If there had been a clock on the wall, Reed was certain the second hand would seem to be moving in slow motion, and the sound of the ticks would blare from the clock and reverberate around the room, growing louder and louder with each one.

  He couldn’t risk giving Allie the slightest hint of the battle Hoyer claimed was coming. She’d have no warning, no chance to brace herself for what no civilian should ever have to witness. Reed had killed the Chinese captain in the woods, but Allie had been unconscious at the time, so had yet to see a combat death firsthand.

  That was about to change in dramatic fashion.

  The doctor tied off the last suture and snipped away the excess with a satisfied expression,
as Colonel Chen looked on with great interest.

  “All done?” asked Reed as calmly as he could manage.

  The doctor nodded. “Yes, all done,” he confirmed, his accent much thicker than Chen’s. “She’ll want to take pain pills when the local anesthesia wears off in a few hours.”

  “Thank you, Doctor,” said Allie.

  Chen’s steely eyes bored into Reed’s. “Consider this a major step in our little courtship ritual, Commander.”

  “I do,” said Reed, suddenly experiencing the same silky-smooth sensation he had felt in his ear, this time flowing against his wrists. He realized that the zip-ties binding his hands to the chair behind his back had been cleanly severed. As if this wasn’t extraordinary enough, he moved his right hand a few inches and felt the presence of a familiar Glock, which had magically materialized in the waistband of his pants, as promised.

  The American commander barely managed to prevent a look of bewilderment from crossing his face. Either he hadn’t been hallucinating, or he was still hallucinating now. Either way, he had no other choice but to operate as if this was real.

  Zachary Reed stared at Allie, his eyes bulging, and issued a sharp gasp. “Her shoulder is gushing blood!” he yelled out in a panic. “Do something!”

  As Chen and the doctor both swiveled to check on their prize prisoner, Reed pulled the Glock from his waistband and got off two clean headshots, killing both men. Allie screamed in horror as they fell to either side of her.

  The young physicist began shuddering as Reed rushed over to her and held her close. “Don’t look,” he whispered. “It’s going to be okay.”

  “But how?” she croaked out after the commander had comforted her for several long seconds. She managed to regain a semblance of composure and separated from his embrace. “How did you free yourself?” she continued, tilting her head to look deep into his eyes. “And where did you get a gun?” she added incredulously.