He nodded.
“Are you shocked?” she teased.
“No, I’m not, not at all.” In fact he was nonplussed. He had heard stories about the children of progressive Europeans.
“Ah, I see. You guessed layers of complexity. I do not fit your preconceptions?”
“No, they are not my preconceptions. There was concern expressed over your age, yet I sensed a precocious maturity, which can only be a result of your upbringing and being exposed to a wide variety of experiences. I just wanted to be sure of my intuition.”
It was her turn to be impressed. “So, you are not a typical mathematics genius with poor social insight as I had feared?”
He laughed. “Nor are you a one-dimensional, naïve Chinese biology nerd.”
She laughed. “Ah, non, I am boringly well adjusted with a high emotional intelligence. I am most certainly not an idiot savant,” she said with a sweet smile. “So tell me your story. I suspect your mother was important to you?”
He told his story as they walked along the stony riverbank, especially his connection to the Himalayan tantric tradition, which she listened to intently, simply commenting that her adoptive mother had once met the Dalai Lama.
When they came to a section with small rapids she paused to take in the view, looking back to the restored monastery and the tree covered mountains rising steeply behind.
“Magnifique,” she sighed. She turned and looked at him with a serious expression. “A perfect place for secrets, non? You have chosen well.”
“Yes. No one is interested in Bhutan.”
“And just how extensive is your intelligence? I assume you have a more than competent corporate intelligence unit given the nature of your business. I might even assume that you have been smart enough to build a back door into Shunyata’s quantum computers?”
He raised his eyebrows. “Very impressive. Yes, undetectable obviously. They’ve checked of course, as they must, but it is new technology and they do not know it. We like to keep several steps ahead.”
She nodded and looked him directly in the eyes. “And have any of your intelligence briefs mentioned the Huxley Cricket Club?” She watched his expression carefully, looking for any hint of discomfort.
“No, but I must now assume that this is the reason you suggested a walk to the river. No chance of people listening in.”
She smiled. “Bon, oui, we are alone, the sound of the river would make overhearing difficult…”
“This must be serious then, and a bit over cautious…”
“Perhaps, but when you hear what I have to say you will understand that your intelligence has missed a piece of the puzzle.”
“Okay, go on, please…”
She hesitated, betraying a moment of doubt. “Well… One good secret deserves another as they say. As you may have guessed the Huxley Cricket Club has nothing to do with English county cricket.”
“I wouldn’t know. I may be Indian but I know almost nothing about cricket.” He attempted a small smile to indicate it was a joke.
She ignored him. “It is a silly name invented over too many beers at a genetics conference held at Cambridge in ‘91, a year after the first gene therapy was successfully applied to a young girl called Ashanti De Silva.”
“That early?”
“Ah oui, it was for ADA-SCID, an immune system disorder. It was temporary, somatic, but it worked and it opened the door. Naturally it was the hot topic at the conference and as these things happen, like-minds found each other. My genetics professor Hugo Sauveterre was there. After the final session they met at a pub called the Cricketers.
“Seriously?”
“Ah oui, the pub is real. They have irregular reunions. I have been. It is a group of radical transhumanists and gene hackers…”
“Gene hackers?” he asked rhetorically.
“Oui, they were concerned about corporations influencing research and patenting genes…”
“I see, so they have been hacking proprietorial information, with help from Matrix?”
“That is part of it. They have, that is to say we have created a database. We have also sabotaged some dangerous experiments.”
“Sabotaged?”
“Falsified results. Perhaps the proper English word is frustrated.”
“Sounds like standard corporate espionage.”
“Oui, but again, there is more to say. The name cricket comes from Francis Crick…”
“Of course, of Watson and Crick... Ah, I see, hence the choice of the Cricketer… And of course they were at Cambridge. Sounds like the type of coincidence that would appeal to undergrads,” he agreed, remembering well that it was the type of geek humour he had once indulged in.
“They had wanted to call it the Cavendish Cricket Club after their laboratory, but that was taken by the Cambridge physics department cricket team. So they chose Huxley, after the biologist Julian Huxley and his grandfather TH Huxley, who was a friend of Darwin. They called him Darwin’s bulldog because he defended natural selection and attacked the religious critics.”
“Huxley? I’ve heard that name recently,” he said shaking his head, trying to remember where.
“Maybe you have heard of his brother Aldous, the writer?”
“Yes, didn’t he write a dystopian novel?”
“You haven’t read Huxley?”
“No, I haven’t had time.”
She shook her head condescendingly. “Well, no matter… Well, no, it does matter. Both Julian and Aldous are critical to the philosophy of the cricket club. You see, it was Julian who coined the term transhumanism.”
“Well I am at least familiar with that, in fact it has come up for discussion recently.”
“Only recently? But interplanetary travel is part of the transhumanist platform, that humanity will one day transcend its limitations, including being earthbound.”
“You mean a wish list. It was never guaranteed that we could…”
“Bah, listen to yourself. You have done it have you not? This wasn’t idle speculation. Some very clever people have thought it was merely a matter of time.”
It was then he connected the dots. “Isn’t another part of the agenda genetic engineering?”
She allowed herself a moment of exasperation. “But of course, surely you can now guess my secret.”
He looked at her with new eyes. “You? It’s been done hasn’t it?”
She took a bow. “Oui, bien sûr… It’s in the early stages, but my intelligence has been boosted, as well as some aspects of cardio-vascular efficiency and my immune system, plus a few unwelcome sequences that cause Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s have been removed. It is permanent, germ-line, not somatic. The differences are not large, only a ten point increase in IQ…”
“But how, I thought there were…”
“Ethical concerns?” she sighed, “legal restrictions?”
“And limitations – Algernon’s law. Intelligence is complex.”
“Things are moving fast: several barriers have been broken, including Algernon’s law. There are many teams examining the human genome, most hope to cure this or that disease, many teams. The first task was mapping the human genome and now the main task is synthesising all the data, how it all works, the big picture.”
“And Huxley are synthesisers?”
“Oui, most researchers are focused on their narrow area of expertise, a single piece of code… The core problem is corporate patent control; we hack a little bit here, a little bit there. The genome belongs to humanity, not greedy corporate elites.”
“Hence the database?”
“We collect the pieces and release them to members, some of who are working on the interconnections. Your supercomputers have helped enormously, when we can book time. In the case of intelligence we have collated data from some breakthrough research into autism, hacked into the Chinese government program and linked all of that into other research into Alzheimer’s and Motor Neuron Disease. We now have a good understanding of the complex
codes that effect intelligence - neuron density, neural connections, oxygen flow, certain neurochemicals, that sort of thing. This is all hardware, but naturally, if the software is no good it doesn’t matter. It is like a computer non? If the program is merde, the computer is merde. This is why the Chinese program has a fatal flaw. Why boost intelligence if you do not give people the freedom to think? And what happens if you create people who are smarter than you?
“Yes, it is something we had to consider in picking our teams – the fact that they might question everything.”
She smiled. “But it couldn’t be any other way, otherwise you could send monkeys. As for the ethical concerns, that is a dead issue. I can assure you that certain corporate and military interests have been pursuing this for decades – it is the old super soldier shit, and of course greed - the ethical argument has been used to block the free development of genetic technology to keep it out of the hands of the public so it can be privatised or used in secret by the military. The religious groups are the useful idiots. They complain because they believe humans have an unchanging, god-given soul. Who are we to interfere in God’s design? They are fools because they merely distract the public whilst the militarists and corporates continue the research. Or perhaps they are not so foolish and know that the more intelligent a person is, the more they will question their religious doctrine. We must not ignore the fact that the powers that be might want to keep people stupid. We want to give this to everyone, to make everyone smarter.”
He nodded. He understood very well that the Judeo-Christian mindset was a major barrier to science in the West. “Obviously there are labs…”
“Some national laws create problems, but yes, I went to Seoul. They have a big cosmetic surgery industry and they are investigating the possibility of genetic cosmetics.”
“And are there more like you?”
“Oui, we call ourselves Crickets, but we are just a handful. I am telling you this because Shunyata now needs to know. Isn’t it obvious?”
“But this opens the eugenics can of worms.”
She scoffed. “You are too late. It is well and truly open. The only sensible question now is who gets to control the human genome.”
“Right, I see. Yes.” He was flummoxed by this sudden revelation and realised he needed to speak to Aviva immediately. “Um, so, I didn’t have breakfast and I’m feeling hungry, shall we return?”
She laughed. “You really are transparent. No, you go ahead. Contact your Aviva. Do what you need to do. I’m going to take a walk. Looks like it’ll be warm. Somehow I expected it to be cold and I much prefer the heat, it suits my southern Chinese genome.”
She turned and walked away. He couldn’t return to his office fast enough.
37
Akash
Li Li made no further mention of their conversation. It was clear she understood it would take Aviva some time to make inquiries. He marvelled at the way she was able to calmly ignore him and focus on the day’s activities: a detailed session in the morning on what was known about Eden and in the afternoon an inspection of the jumpers. He watched her carefully spend time with each of the team, showing remarkable insight into their personalities. She had even made Akoi laugh as the doors to the nondescript hangar were rolled opened and the rather drab spheres of the jumpers were revealed. She pushed David and exclaimed, “Dude, weren’t you hoping it’d be the Millennium Falcon?” Which masterfully calmed people’s nervous expectations. As the mechanics of the jump were explained and people poked their heads into the compact interior, he noticed that she was carefully looking to see who was struggling. He had no doubt that she understood the physics clearly and would find the time to explain it to them at the appropriate time.
In this he understood that she was demonstrating not just a high cognitive capacity, but also several types of intelligence. By the end of the day it was obvious she had become the unelected leader. He also noticed she seemed quite fond of David’s irreverence.
After a traditional Bhutanese meal at a restaurant in the town centre he went back to his office to check his messages. It was morning in California and as he expected Aviva had left a message. He sent a video call immediately and Aviva responded almost instantly.
“Hi Akash,” she smiled.
“So what did you find?”
“Well a hello might be good.”
“Sorry…”
“I can tell you are excited. It’s certainly an unexpected development. Well, maybe not so unexpected. You wanted the best and brightest so perhaps it was just a matter of time before you caught one in your net. So, what can I say? The basic details check out. She went to Seoul last year; there was a conference at Cambridge; Sauveterre is real; he has written articles on transhumanism; there is a Cricketer’s pub, but I can find no mention of a Huxley Cricket Club. We ran a substantial search on some key words. There was a statistical anomaly with the word cricket in email exchanges in the genetics community, but nothing that would alert the wrong people. When you read those exchanges all you get is the occasional reference to a cricket match, or “did you enjoy the cricket?” or “up for another match”, “did you watch the test?” If you didn’t understand the reference you would think that certain members simply shared a love of cricket, but clearly they are talking about meetings. There is evidence of encrypted attachments, but again, nothing out of the ordinary. I would think they have a friend or two who are cyber security experts and hackers. It is a sophisticated operation.”
“Names?”
“Yes, some, we were able to cross reference emails. There seems to be an original founding group of six who call themselves the top order, then there are newer members, many of them students of the original six called the middle order, Li Li is in the middle order.”
“And the term Cricket?”
“No, although there is cricketer. Maybe it’s just a name they call themselves. One of the middle order specialised in the Hawaiian cricket genome. It may just be an in-joke.”
“Any idea how many Crickets?”
“I’m not certain, possibly six or seven.”
“Names?”
“Possibly, but shouldn’t you ask Li Li? After all, this is just a test.”
“A test, of what?”
“Come on Akash; catch up. She could have told you all this herself. She just wanted to test our capability. You realise you may have met your match. Challenge her to a chess game. I’m betting she’ll wipe the floor with you.”
He ignored her jibe. “Should we invite them into the fold? Do they represent a risk?”
“Everything represents a risk, but no, they pan out. It’s up to you and Li Li, but my advice is to go ahead, see what comes up. They could be a valuable addition. Oh, and I’d like to meet Matrix, if that’s possible.”
He got up from behind his computer screen the moment she walked in. He grabbed the documents he had printed and she smiled. “That was quick,” she said as he offered them to her.
“Aviva wanted me to ask you if we passed the test?”
She laughed and had a quick speed-read, flicking through the photos and biographies. “Impressive. You got most of the names. There are a few mistakes. You’ve missed Ingrid Sigmundsdottir from Iceland, Andrew McFarlane from St Andrews and Misty Morning from Cornell…”
“Misty Morning?”
“Oui, it was her parents” sense of humour; she has a brother called Sonny.” She frowned at his interjection and continued. “I can see you have not cracked our secure site, only email and SMS traffic. I can only assume you have some pretty powerful search engines and back door access to the NSA database?”
He shrugged his shoulders not wanting to confirm that her guess had been correct.
“I needed to know if the cricket team would be safe, that you had the capacity to protect them. Things can move quickly now. If you will allow me to contact them that is.”
“Of course, I’ll give you access to an open channel, but what exactly are we talking about?”
/>
“Full access and in return, your support and resources. The team are scattered amongst many different research groups. They must follow the research projects that employ them and work on the database in their spare time. Shunyata can set up its own laboratory. It is actually surprisingly cheap - a few million dollars. If you set it up within the Royal Bhutan hospital – I took a look yesterday – then you can provide state of the art gene therapy to the Bhutanese. I understand they are reasonably open to modern methods. This will then provide Shunyata the opportunity to apply gene therapy to the new colony.”
He shook his head in amazement. She had really thought this through. “How long?”
“A few months to get the equipment and people together, if we can smooth any bureaucratic obstacles at this end.”
“Right then. You contact your people and I’ll get the wheels in motion.”
“There is one other thing…”
“Yes?”
“Our mission will leave before the clinic will be functional. The others should have the opportunity.”
“But we plan to bring you back.”
“Why? If there is a food supply some may decide to stay. This planet is going to hell anyway. Isn’t this what this is all about? And if they decide to stay, who will be there to force them to return?”
Again she surprised him. He hadn’t thought people might opt to stay. “I gather you have also thought of a plan?”
“Seoul is just over four hours away if we use your corporate jet. We can turn it around in twenty-four hours, provided I take the samples here, just a swab of the mouth cells and presto, we have your genome. A week to analyse the sequence and then a few hours in the clinic.”
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