The lab space we walked through was an engineer’s dream, a playland of the most advanced scientific technology on the planet. I noticed alarm panels on nearly every wall, motion sensors, and dozens of closed-circuit cameras. The place was as protected as a maximum-security prison.
Kiran showed me things that wouldn’t have seemed impressive to the average person—like graphene transistors to replace silicon ones—and devices that would make the average scientist drool with anticipation of the future when they’d be commonplace, like a screen that felt and moved just like silk but was impossible to tear.
“You could scrunch your cell up and put it in your pocket,” Kiran said. “Can you imagine a world where you could air-drop these to anyone, even people in a remote mountain village, and give them access to the Internet?”
“Very cool. Seems a little far from search engine technology, though.”
“Ah, that just brings in money. I’m looking for the next level.”
“You’ve told me.”
Kiran seemed anxious, a little tongue-tied. On his home turf, away from his entourage and the spotlight, he was different. He wasn’t bulletproof.
“You go home often, Kiran?” I asked.
“Not as often as I should.”
We stepped through a series of double doors.
“Call me sheltered, but I can’t imagine being far from home for anything more than a few days, a week,” I said. “It’s not that I’d miss my parents, it’s that home is where I do my best thinking.”
“You’re lucky. I never had that.”
He wasn’t fishing for sympathy, he was being sincere. A lot of important people, or people who think they’re important, exaggerate certain aspects of their childhoods. They want the struggle to be the story. Kiran certainly had a dramatic and inspiring backstory; I doubted he’d exaggerated any of it.
We stopped at another door.
Kiran grabbed the handle, but hesitated.
“Everything I’ve shown you, all the gadgets and tools, even the ones behind this door, they’re just that: tools. Their purpose is dependent on who’s using them.”
“Sounds like you’re worried about what I think of all this stuff.”
Kiran chuckled. “I suppose I’m a little self-conscious around you.”
He opened the door and ushered me through. We made our way into a narrow room where he showed me some of OndScan’s “touchier” technology. There was a sonic weapon that would fry all electrical equipment within a two-block radius and a Web-connected prosthesis that allowed the user to broadcast his movements. It sounded very strange at the time and I couldn’t imagine why anyone would want something like that. What purpose could it actually serve? It seemed as though most of Kiran’s projects were similar: inscrutable, puzzling, and almost arbitrary.
I noticed an office at the back of the room.
“So what’s in there?” I asked, trying to peer in the windows.
“I call it the Quartermaster room.”
“Ooh, ominous,” I said, and though it did sound somewhat ominous I said it more to read Kiran’s reaction. A quartermaster is a navy soldier, usually one of high rank. If Kiran smiled at my reaction, that might suggest he got a thrill out of the whole mysterious sound of the word. If he frowned, that told me he was a bit embarrassed by the somewhat childish name of the room.
He did neither. His face remained pleasantly relaxed.
That told me everything: Kiran didn’t call it the Quartermaster room because he wanted to shock or test people; he called it that because he believed it. He was the superior officer and he was engaged in battle.
Kiran moved me along quickly. He seemed a bit cagey.
Ah, there was something here.
“This is just a small glimpse of a years-long project,” he said, reading my reaction. “Inside this room are the means to transform the world.”
As we walked past, I could see inside the Quartermaster room. There were maps of the Middle East and Africa on the walls. Dizzyingly complicated charts of companies within companies within companies. Labeled photos of Kiran with military men and even a few people I recognized as sitting presidents.
“Interesting folks you hang out with,” I said.
“Movers and shakers,” he replied.
“Could be good … could be bad.”
“Mostly good,” he said. “Mostly.”
Though I wasn’t able to take in everything in the room, I did catch sight of a photo. It was of Kiran and a man I was sure I recognized. They were shaking hands and smiling for the camera. In the background I could make out a city skyline, and to their left, a distinctive fountain in a park. I stood as still as I could for as long as I could so my cameras could capture a clear image.
Seeing a picture of this man meant Kiran was lying to me.
Kiran might have been a visionary. He might have been a guru. But there was no way a person with good intentions would shake hands with a monster and smile. Whatever I had stumbled onto, it was much bigger than my father and the Game.
Kiran was hiding something.
Something terrible.
I wanted to leave, to run. I wanted to scan the footage I’d shot. But I couldn’t. I had to know what he was doing. So I hid my concern as Kiran closed the door and led me upstairs via an impressive circular glass staircase at the end of the lab.
Less a lab than an office, the upper floor was filled with desks and cubicles.
In stark contrast to my increasing tension, Kiran rolled up his sleeves and relaxed even further. He actually took off his sneakers and socks, placed them on a desk, and padded around barefoot on the cold tile floor.
“I’m more comfortable with my feet on the ground,” he said. “Research shows that walking barefoot improves your health. Think of all the static electricity you create; with shoes it goes right back up your legs. That’s unhealthy. Without shoes, it goes into the ground, where it’s meant to be.”
“Seriously?”
“Of course.”
Uncomfortable, I said, “I couldn’t walk in public without shoes.”
“You should try it,” Kiran said. “I’m sure you’ve got beautiful feet.”
“Thanks,” I said hesitantly.
How was I supposed to respond to something like that? But then, even though my stomach was turning, I flashed as bright a grin as I could muster and relaxed my shoulders. Kiran couldn’t know how worried I was. He needed to see Painted Wolf as unflappable. And that’s exactly what I was going to show him.
We wandered through the office slowly until Kiran motioned to a large steel door at the back of the room. “And here we are, the final stop on the tour. Any guesses at what’s behind door number one?”
“A buffet? I’m starving.”
Kiran laughed. “I wish. Sorry, no, although I’d be happy to take you out for a meal afterward. There’s a great pizza place across from campus.”
“That’s okay,” I said, walking up to the door. “I need to get back to my team soon. We’ve got a lot to do.”
“Of course. So, no guesses?”
I ran my hands over the steel door. It was surprisingly cold to the touch. Slightly menacing. “Is this the refrigeration room where you keep your clones?”
Kiran laughed again. “You’re good. Quick. But no. No clones. It is a special room, though. Had a tough time finding the right people, the right companies, to design what’s behind this door. Traveled the world to find them, in fact.”
“Is that why you were in China?”
Kiran smiled. “You are tenacious. What do you want me to tell you?”
“Your game plan.”
“Haven’t I already?”
“You’ve told me the broad strokes. Painted a nice picture. But I want to know what you do outside of here.” I motioned to all the gadgets and gizmos. “What are you doing in the real world? What are you doing meeting with corrupt businessmen in China?”
Kiran walked up to me and held a silver bracelet on his right
wrist up against the door’s shiny surface. A clanging of metal rumbled from inside the door as it unlocked and swung open.
“After you,” he said.
15.3
“I didn’t just bring you here to show you all those gadgets. I also wanted to give you answers.”
We stepped through the steel door into a dark room. The overhead lights flickered on, one by one, row by row, to reveal an almost entirely empty room. Empty except for one massive red cube sitting in the middle of a completely transparent floor.
Yes, transparent.
The floor was entirely clear. I could see through it to several floors below. There, I noticed cubicles and labs, but on the floor just beneath us was a large rectangle covered by a black cloth.
“Metallic glass,” Kiran said behind me. “It’s made with palladium and it’s the strongest glass on Earth. You could drop an elephant on this floor and it might have a few hairline cracks.”
I walked up to the red cube. There were dozens of thick cables snaking their way into its top from the wall behind it. There was a thick glass window in the cube’s side; looking in, I noticed that whatever was inside was submerged in a tank of cooling fluid, like an atomic reactor. It was clearly a machine. A quick scan of its features told me it was … Wow. I knew exactly what it was.
“This what I think it is?” I asked.
“Yes,” Kiran said, as in awe of the machine as I was. “This is the most powerful quantum computer in existence.”
The red box hummed and the room vibrated with an electrical current.
The quantum computer looked like something designed for space exploration or a film set. For the first time in my life, I felt as though I was standing face to face with something that could change the course of human history, for better … or for worse.
“Why are you showing me this?” I asked.
“I’ll explain in a minute. Take a look below your feet. See that covered box? It’s a safe, and inside the safe is a laptop computer. You and your chosen team will need to build a machine to get into that room, open the safe, and hack into the laptop.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I had to actually focus to keep my jaw from dropping and my expression from going sideways.
“The next stage of the Game … You’re cheating.…”
“A little. I want you to win.”
“Why?”
“So you’ll join me.” Kiran walked around the quantum computer, eyes locked on mine. “What if I told you there was a cure for cancer? That right now, there’s a molecule sitting in a lab at a pharmaceutical company in Europe that can effectively cure most gastrointestinal cancers? Thing is, the company won’t release it. Why? Because they also manufacture chemotherapy drugs, drugs that make them billions of dollars a year.”
“I’d say you’ve been hanging out in too many conspiracy theory chat rooms.”
“It’s true. I know because OndScan partnered with the pharma company to run the clinical trials. I’ve seen the data.”
“I don’t understand. If you know, if you paid for that data, why aren’t you releasing it? Why aren’t you shouting from the roof about it?”
Kiran nodded sagely. “You know why. It’s everything you’ve spent your life fighting against. Red tape. Injunctions. Corruption. Graft. Lies. I would love to just dump the data onto the Net and see where it goes, but that won’t work. The freedom of the Net is just an illusion. It’s as heavily monitored and locked down as a supermax prison.”
“So what then?” I asked. “You’re clearly trying to recruit me. What for?”
Kiran patted the top of the quantum computer.
“I call it Rama. It’s going to power a new Internet, a Web beneath the Web. New protocols. New ports. Run on quantum machines. It will be free to access from anywhere in the world via equipment OndScan will distribute without charge. There will be no restrictions or regulations. Even better, Rama is designed to pull information from the existing Net. No firewall can stand up to it. No security protocols can stop it. All information will be liberated. From every government and every corporation. That cancer data, it’ll be out. Think of it, no more secrets. No more lies. No more corruption.”
Kiran had narrowed his eyes and his intensity was hypnotic. The seriousness of his tone and the force of his voice gave me a tingle that moved like light fingertips up the nape of my neck. I scrunched up my face as the feeling washed over me.
It was the signal.
“You said Rama is the answer. How do we get there?”
“Shiva,” Kiran said. Then he sidestepped the question. “I’m going to give you everything you ever dreamed of, Wolf. You know governments are evil. They’re corrupt. You and me, our final team, we’ll bring them down. We’ll free all the data and stream it into every home. Together we can help Rama end poverty, end illness, and truly, once and for all, change the world.”
It sounded crazy. It sounded insane.
From anyone else, I would have loved every word of it.
From Kiran, it sounded like history’s biggest lie.
16. REX
02 DAYS, 01 HOUR, 14 MINUTES UNTIL ZERO HOUR
It was lunch and it took only two bites of chicken for me to realize I hadn’t eaten actual food in what felt like days.
I’d picked up a few candy bars in passing and drank some white chocolate vitamin supplement that Norbert had handed me, but mostly I’d been consuming adrenaline. I devoured the sub and went back to the cafeteria for more.
Tunde was in line ahead of me for pizza. He’d never had it before and his first bite was something like a religious experience. I warned him that his gastrointestinal system might punish him later, but he was dismissive.
“How can food this good be bad?” he asked me.
I didn’t want to let him know.
I joined Tunde, Anj, and Norbert at a table in the back of the dining hall, by a window. Kenny chose not to join us. He sat by himself a few tables over. He devoured a few bowls of sugary cereal and drank a soda. When he was finished, he pulled a notebook out of his backpack and started drawing.
After my third piece of chicken, I was feeling satisfied and sat back in my seat. Anj noticed me relaxing, and smiled. “You finally look like you might be enjoying yourself.”
“Do I?”
It was funny because I wasn’t relaxing so much as taking a moment to assess the current situation. With Phase One over, the real purpose of my being at the Boston Collective suddenly crashed back in like a train wreck. I had things to do. We needed to find the building revealed in the electronic map. I needed to get into the OndScan building, find the quantum computer, and run WALKABOUT. Tunde needed to win.
Anj immediately noticed my face twist back into stress mode.
“That was short-lived.”
“Yeah, we got to get going.”
Tunde agreed. “Time is running out, friends. The general cannot wait.”
Anj looked at her watch. It was wooden, chunky. “We’ve been here only seventeen minutes! Besides, I think we should wait until Painted Wolf is back.”
That made the already significant lump in my throat even bigger.
What was she doing?
Why would Kiran want to see her alone? A private tour?
Kiran stressed me out. The thought of Painted Wolf hanging out with the King of Tech, a genius with money, good looks, and charisma to burn, made me uneasy. Worse, I had the feeling Kiran knew I wasn’t supposed to be at the Game. Maybe he knew I’d hacked his system. Dude that regimented and self-controlled must hate party crashers, and I was certain it was only a matter of time before he’d say something, make a move. He was just playing with me. Toying with me like a cat with a mouse.
And now Painted Wolf was going on private tours with him?
I startled when my cell phone buzzed.
It was a text and photo from Painted Wolf.
* * *
Painted Wolf: That machine you’re looking for? I found it.
*
* *
Surveillance image of the quantum computer
I couldn’t help but gasp.
“Are you okay?” Anj asked.
No way I could answer her, I had to text.
* * *
KingRx: are you kidding me? quantum computer?
* * *
* * *
Painted Wolf: Yes. Kiran just showed it to me. It’s on the fifth floor of the OndScan building, a private research facility on campus.
* * *
* * *
KingRx: Wait … showed it to you?
* * *
* * *
Painted Wolf: Yes. Where are you? We need to meet.
* * *
* * *
KingRx: Dining hall. How about fifteen minutes, library?
* * *
* * *
Painted Wolf: I’ll be there. Get everyone else.
* * *
I put away my cell phone and Anj, Norbert, and Tunde just stared at me. Tunde was slowly chewing his last bite of pizza, hanging on the moment, waiting for me to speak. My mind was racing. Painted Wolf had found the machine and if I could get to it, I was only hours away from finding Teo. But one nagging thought kept spinning through my mind:
Why would Kiran show her where the quantum computer was?
“What’s going on?” Anj asked.
“Tunde and I have to leave. We’ll meet up with you guys in a little bit, okay?”
Anj looked suspicious.
On our way out, Kenny grabbed me and asked where we were going in such a hurry. “We’re late to meet up with Wolf. We’re the LODGE, man,” I said.
He gave me a quizzical look but let it go.
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