The Immortality Code

by Douglas E. Richards

  “I was going to ask you about where you got so much octa,” said Reed. “The Chinese had a few octa drones, but from the aftermath I saw, your supply was nearly endless. I figured tens of millions of dollars’ worth.”

  “What’s octa?” asked Allie.

  “Short for octa-nitro-cubane,” said Reed. “The most potent non-nuclear explosive there is. And also the hardest to make.”

  “Not anymore,” said Hoyer gravely. “And that’s just it. Aronson could have gotten rich copying diamonds and gold. But by becoming a sole-source supplier to the military, he got a huge injection of money all at once, with less effort, and put the military under his thumb.”

  Reed nodded. “Quite the savvy move.”

  “So I attacked Aronson and failed,” continued Hoyer. “I was lucky to get out of it alive. I lost almost all my men. Not that the attack troubled Aronson in the slightest. He packed up and vanished into thin air. And he’s being even smarter this time. I haven’t found him to this day.”

  The major sighed. “Not that he’s found me either. Now that he knows I’m gunning for him, he wants me dead just as much as I want him dead. We’re playing a game of mutual hide-and-seek for the ultimate stakes.”

  Reed rubbed his chin in thought. “How is it that he hasn’t found you?” he asked. “Can’t he detect nanites with his FTL communication system? Why aren’t yours lighting up like a neon sign and giving him your location?”

  “Great question. During my days looking over his shoulder and reading his notes, I learned some additional odds and ends. Apparently, his FTL system can only detect nanites in their inactive state. Once they’re activated, he doesn’t get a homing signal. It’s almost like the nanites have a find my lost phone feature that only works when the phone is actually lost. Maybe the aliens figured there was no way you could lose the nanites while they were actively in use.”

  Allie considered. “I guess that’s as good a guess as any,” she said.

  “Which reminds me of a few other odds and ends I discovered,” said Hoyer, leaving his chair and sliding open a drawer built into the coffee table in front of him. Inside were five pairs of plastic glasses, with surfaces that seemed to blur the light that hit them. “I found the specs for these, well . . . specs, on Aronson’s computer. He figured out a way to see the nanites even when they’ve turned invisible. I had my nanites whip up hundreds of these glasses. I keep multiple pairs handy wherever I stay.”

  “How do they work?” asked Allie.

  “I never bothered to look into it. The fact that they work and I can make as many copies as I need is good enough for me.”

  Hoyer handed both of his guests a pair of glasses and ordered the nanite cube to go invisible. Sure enough, with the glasses on, they returned to their silvery state, although everything else was distorted and blurry—not the ideal trade-off.

  “I also learned of another invention of his,” continued Hoyer after the quick demonstration. “He spent time studying how the nanites can read weak telepathic signals from extraordinary distances. While performing his experiments, he identified a composite mesh that can block these telepathic signals. Like a Faraday cage blocks EM, or mu metals block magnetic fields. I’ve used the recipe to make helmets out of it. Light and air can go in and out, but not brainwaves. This guy might be pure evil, but as they say in Boston, he’s wicked smart. To be on the safe side, in case he ever finds me, I keep a dozen of these helmets readily available inside every one of my safe houses.”

  Reed and Allie handed their glasses back to the major, who returned them to the drawer.

  “But you leave your nanites invisible,” said Allie. “In the configuration of a sizable cube. Aren’t you worried that someone might barrel right into them, having no idea they’re even there?”

  “You couldn’t slam into the cube if you tried. They’re too fast. They’ll sense you coming and scatter so you have a path. Like the parting of the Red Sea.”

  Allie nodded approvingly. “Very sensible of them,” she said with the hint of a smile. “A standard feature that every invisible item should have, I suppose. Seems like the aliens thought of everything.”

  “Absolutely,” agreed Hoyer.

  “Thanks for the overview,” said Reed. “We really appreciate it. I know you’ve only scratched the surface. And I guess I can’t fault the military for cozying up to Aronson. Carbyne has already saved numerous lives. Including mine and Allie’s. I never thought I’d solve the riddle of where this material came from. Especially not today.”

  He paused. “You’ve also explained how and where the nanites were found. How they work. And how you came to have a supply.”

  The commander stared at Hoyer with unblinking eyes. “But we still don’t have an answer to the trillion-dollar question—what does this have to do with Allie Keane?”

  “You keep asking that question, Commander. But there’s a more fundamental one you’ve failed to ask. One that would lead you to the answer you’re looking for. So I’ll ask it for you. If biological cells can make exact copies of themselves, why can’t nanites?”

  Reed thought about this for several seconds and then shook his head. “I don’t know.”

  “It’s a trick question. Because of course they can. If they can replicate anything, they can replicate themselves. At least Aronson’s nanites can.”

  “Implying that yours can’t,” said Reed.

  “I’m afraid not. Which is why I haven’t given them to the world. Right now, they can’t be reverse engineered. We can’t even scratch the surface. Where would we even begin? Aronson tried to understand the tech, and wrote in his notes he felt like a Neanderthal trying to reverse engineer a computer chip with stone tools. It can’t be done. So my nanites are a useful and interesting novelty. But they can’t revolutionize the world. They can’t usher in the glorious future I was talking about.

  “But imagine if they could make unlimited copies of themselves,” continued Hoyer. “Then everyone on Earth could have a set to match mine. There would have to be safeguards built in, of course, and it would be a process, but humanity would quickly transform into a post-money civilization. We’d have infinite wealth. Infinite energy also, since the nanites can copy solar panels for free, or even full-blown power plants out of dirt.

  “Everything would be abundant—and free. Energy. Clothing. Food. Believe me, the nanites can build a killer steak from the ground up. I have one in its memory that would make a vegan drool. I’ve eaten the same steak dozens of times, and every one tastes just as amazing as the one before. They can fabricate diamonds and cell phones. Carbyne and gold. Homes, skyscrapers, and city streets. It would be Heaven on Earth. As I said, money would become obsolete.” Hoyer smiled. “And even if it weren’t, you could mint your own, making perfect copies of whatever bills were in your wallet.”

  He paused. “Bottom line, there would never again be the need for war. For theft. Poverty would vanish, to be replaced by unlimited wealth for all. No one would ever need to work again. Everyone could pursue their passions. Have their own yachts, or Gulfstream jets. There would be a chaotic adjustment period, no doubt, but this would change society far more profoundly than anything else ever has.”

  Reed shook his head. “Why would Aronson not want to be responsible for bringing this about? He’d go down as the most consequential figure in history. You’d think even a psychopath would want that.”

  “I’m sure he would,” said Hoyer. “But it’s a trade-off. And like I said, a psychopath of his genius is looking for epic challenges that can stimulate and adrenalize him. Besides, fame is one thing, power is another. And it’s relative. If everyone has money and power, no one has money and power. Aronson can be the richest, most powerful man on Earth. Or he can be identical to eight billion others. All with the exact same power and wealth that he has. He chose the former.”

  Reed nodded grimly.

  “Not that this choice is unprecedented,” said Hoyer. “Even God made the same call.”

&nbs
p; “What do you mean?” asked Allie.

  “God can do anything, right? He’s all powerful. So he could have created a species of gods. He could have filled the universe with his equals. But instead, he created an inferior species to worship him. Aronson obviously prefers to do the same.”

  “Are you suggesting God is a psychopath?” said Reed.

  “Of course not. It’s just an interesting side note. Not that wiping out nearly every living creature on Earth in a flood doesn’t make one suspicious.”

  “An interesting theological discussion for another time,” said Reed. “But getting back to the nanites, why can’t yours reproduce? Did you get a faulty bunch? Too few?”

  Hoyer shook his head. “No. A suitcase worth has enough distributed intelligence to orchestrate self-replication. But Aronson was even smarter and more paranoid than I knew. He realized that if someone stole just a fraction of his nanites, they could make an unlimited supply of their own. So he telepathically added a firewall, so that only he can order them to reproduce.”

  The major paused to let this sink in. “Any guesses what it would take to remove this limitation?”

  Allie sighed loudly. “A decryption algorithm that only a quantum computer can run?”

  “You got it,” said Hoyer. He turned to Zachary Reed and raised his eyebrows. “You asked how Dr. Keane plays into this?” he continued. “Simple. She’s perhaps the most important person on Earth. At the moment, I have all the nanites I’m ever going to have. I use them sparingly, because if any are lost, I can’t replace them. I’d love to capture Aronson and get him to provide the decryption key. But that’s unlikely. So I’ve been focusing on finding a way to break the encryption on my own.

  “And not just for the nanites to be able to reproduce,” he continued. “Also so I can have a real conversation with the alien AI. Aronson encrypted that also. Apparently, the distributed intelligence has at least two levels of functionality. A basic state, in which it can carry out orders, hold the structures of unlimited items in its memory, use telepathy, and understand language. But that’s all. No back-and-forth conversation, which is possible in its higher order state.”

  Hoyer paused. “My guess is that he leaves his entire supply encrypted at all times. Unless he wants them to whip up more of themselves.”

  “Or chat with the AI,” added Reed.

  “Exactly. In these cases, he just uses a decryption key to unlock them temporarily. I’ve spent over a year scouring the globe for a breakthrough in quantum computers, so I can unlock them on my own. So they can make unlimited copies of themselves and bring about a utopia. So I can ask the alien AI questions, even if it’s cagey. And so I have a chance of countering whatever Aronson has up his sleeve when he finally stops biding his time and reveals his endgame.”

  Hoyer paused and nodded solemnly at Allie. “And you’re the key to all of it, Dr. Keane.”

  The slender twenty-eight-year-old physicist blew out a long breath. “Awesome,” she said wryly. “I mean, as long as there’s no pressure on me or anything.”

  Hoyer laughed. “Think of it this way,” he said. “This is the ideal partnership. I can make unlimited copies of the molecule you need—right now! Even though my nanites are operating at a basic state, their distributed intelligence still knows English. And the English language is quite capable of describing your molecule down to the last atom. So the nanites can assemble your molecule without needing to digest one first. In whatever quantity you desire.”

  Allie brightened. “I’m not going to lie, that could turn out to be . . . helpful,” she said, smiling at the magnitude of her own understatement.

  “You’d still have to figure out how to integrate your biomolecule into qubits,” noted Reed. “And the exact way to configure the qubits to get a working computer. Neither of which are simple matters.”

  “True,” said Allie, “but instead of getting to the ultimate quantum computer in five to ten years, I could probably get there in one or two.”

  “And think of what it will mean when you do,” said Hoyer. “A better computer, yes. I’m not trying to minimize the importance of just that. But also nanites unleashed. Fully unleashed. Enough to supply the world.”

  “How do you envision this collaboration working?” asked Reed.

  “Dr. Keane comes to work with me. But her official status has to remain missing, or presumed dead. If Tech Ops becomes aware of her, so does Aronson.”

  “Are you certain he’s infiltrated my group?”

  “I’m not saying he has a mole in Tech Ops, if that’s what you’re asking. But he doesn’t need one. Nanites make spying easy. You already know they can basically make themselves invisible. They can go through drains, squeeze through microscopic gaps under doors, and so on. And once they’re in, they can fabricate listening devices on site. Or even well-concealed wired connections to the outside. Which gives whoever controls them the ability to listen in to classified meetings, and look over shoulders to get computer passwords. With Aronson’s genius, and the nanites at his disposal, he has his fingers in every pie. And what better group to keep an eye on than Tech Ops?”

  Reed swallowed hard. “Understood.”

  The room fell silent for several long seconds.

  “So what do you say, Dr. Keane?” asked Hoyer, breaking the silence. “Are you in?”

  “First of all, call me Allie,” she replied. “And second . . . yeah, I’m in. Absolutely.” She nodded at the major with a steely intensity. “An army couldn’t stop me.”

  “Good thing,” said Reed with a wry smile. “Because one has already tried.”

  30

  Allie Keane felt like she had been riding a perilous roller-coaster continuously for days. She had innocently posted a pre-publication review of her qubit theory and results. And just like that, she was now critically important in bringing about a Heaven on Earth, and trying to stop a brilliant scientist she had thought was dead from having his way with the planet.

  Really? It was so impossible to conceive that she vowed to stop trying, and just take things at face value.

  “So how did you find us in Utah?” asked Zachary Reed. “Well, I know how you found us. You had access to the homing beacon and listening device implanted in Allie’s shoulder. But how did that come to be?”

  “What makes you think I had access to the Chinese bug?”

  “It’s obvious. When you first gave me instructions in my holding cell, you had information that you could have only gotten if you’d been listening in to the proceedings. And to my earlier conversations with Allie. You even referenced the nanites turning me into Superman, a reference Allie and I had used earlier.”

  “Very good, Commander. You’re correct. As to the how of it, I’ve made it my mission to keep tabs on breakthrough quantum computer research. I already had access to Tech Ops intel as part of my groups’ purview. But I was able to spy on China’s Tech Ops equivalent. As I said, the nanites make spying almost too easy. The Chinese divvy up responsibilities differently than you do. Your people work across technologies. The Chinese specialize. Each department focuses on a specific technological area. Colonel Chen, whose first name is Sun, by the way, was in charge of their quantum division.”

  “I see,” said Reed. “So you focused most of your spying on him?”

  “Correct. Which is how I learned about their undetectable bug, and how to patch into it. Lucky I did, because when this story broke, it broke fast. Allie came out of nowhere. Caught everyone off guard. By the time I clued in, Chinese forces had already beaten me to her.”

  “Well, I’m glad you managed to assemble a team and catch up,” said Reed. “Better late than never.”

  “If they had managed to get away cleanly from the start,” said Hoyer, “she’d be in China now, and I’d have a much harder time getting her back. I have you to thank for that, Commander.”

  Reed nodded but remained silent.

  “Allie was an unexpected development,” continued Hoyer. “But so were you,
Commander. Remember, I was able to listen in to what was being said around her the entire time. You were driving the Chinese crazy. They couldn’t shake you off. And they couldn’t beat you. They were almost in awe of your abilities. I have to say that I get it. Even after you arrived at their underground site in Utah, you made the perfect move, getting them to remove the bug and homing device. We could have removed it ourselves later, but it was a big help to have her untraceable from the start.”

  “Glad it worked out,” said Reed.

  “I’m not just blowing smoke up your ass, Commander,” said Hoyer. “You aren’t as unexpected and vital as Allie here, but you could well be the best operative I’ve ever seen. I could use a man like you. If anyone can find Bryce Aronson, it’s you. You could go back to Colonel Hubbard and invent a tale of how you escaped, but Allie was taken from the Chinese by an unknown party. I’m sure you could arrange to spearhead the search for this unknown party. You couldn’t mention Aronson by name, of course, because of his protected status. But with your innate skills, and the ability to tap all the resources of the US military and government, you’d have a real shot.”

  “Interesting proposition.”

  “I’ve tried tracking carbyne shipments back to their source,” added Hoyer. “But he’s too smart. I tried following the money from government accounts to his, but again—”

  “Alert! Alert! Alert!” blared Hoyer’s security AI through speakers in the ceiling. “We’re under attack. Repeat, under attack.”

  Reed jumped to his feet with his gun drawn, pushing Allie behind him and swiveling to face the door. Hoyer’s gun appeared magically in his hand as well, and he joined Reed in front of the indispensable young physicist.