“Or a threat…” he mused out loud.
“Yes, unfortunately we cannot assume such individuals will cooperate or share our vision. They may suffer from some psychopathology or simply be influenced by a pathological belief system. If we can get to them, we may be able to alter the diseased sequences.”
“And this girl in the NS?”
“Her name is Maria, although we don’t know her given name. It is good you mention this now; it was to be part of your secret commission…
“Secret commission?”
“But of course, no one must know, not Robert Wolf and most certainly not Degas. I want you to rescue Maria and get her here for evaluation. I understand she is quite troubled. Degas is of the opinion that she was abused when she was quite young. She does not speak, perhaps because of trauma.”
“Do we know any more about her circumstances?”
“Very little. She is Mextex…”
“Mextex?
Tshentso seemed annoyed that he had asked. Perhaps she had expected him to remember the history of the entire region, but his focus had been mainly on the north.
“During the Second Civil War, the Mexicans successfully realised the Reconquista, re-annexing the state of Texas, which had been lost to the US in the nineteenth Century…”
His memory was jogged. “Ah yes, I recall now. There was a land grab by Anglo-Americans. Anglo immigrants entered illegally and when the population had reached a tipping point, they agitated to secede and become part of the US. The core group was made up of mostly ambitious, southern, pro-slavery landowners. It was a simple land grab. The Mexicans had banned slavery…”
“And increased taxes, sought to control illegal Anglo immigration… A situation that became ironically reversed in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries with waves of illegal Latino immigration in the opposite direction… A fact of human history is that any loss of territory by aggression remains locked in the cultural psyche as a sense of deep, unresolved injustice, which remains a source of resentment. The Mexicans never forgot their humiliation, just as the former Confederate states never forgot their loss to the Yankees. Texas eventually came under Mexican control after a series of immigrant riots and the strategic retreat of Anglo-Americans back across the old border to defend the old Confederate states against the Yankee-Canadian coalition. It seems Maria may have been born in what became known as Mextex. Her genome will tell us more, but my suspicion is that her genome may be the remnant of an enhancement program conducted by the military, either through intentional parentage or accidental.”
“Accidental?”
“We don’t know her exact circumstances – perhaps she is the result of unintended conception – sexual violence, an uncontrolled casual encounter. They weren’t very good at controlling conception at the time.”
“I see… And how did she make her way north?”
“Again, this is speculation, but it is believed she was kidnapped and placed in bondage - the Kingdom has re-established slavery and bandits regularly raid the south. As I said, some memes refuse to die and there were those in the old Confederate states who held on tight to the idea of white Christian supremacy, of some kind of manifest destiny. Apparently Maria looks like she might have a strong indigenous genome; perhaps one of the regional tribal groupings, Apache, Navajo, Comanche…”
He understood now why Tshentso had mentioned Native American traditions.
“I believe these tribes sided with the Latinos. The Kingdom regards them as savages, lesser humans irreversibly corrupted by the devil, and therefore ripe for the picking, as it were. Again, tests will tell.”
He was shocked to hear that slavery had been reintroduced and he remained thoughtful for a moment. Tshentso was able to read every emotion easily and offered him a reassuring smile and comforting touch of her hand. “And the story that she had been accused of being a witch?” he asked.
“The details are unclear. She found herself in a deeply superstitious enclave within the Kingdom – which seems to be a loose confederacy of various sects. Perhaps she began to reveal some of her talent. It’s not like this hasn’t happened before in human history.”
He nodded. He understood that the gifted had been persecuted, and non-conformist women burned as witches.
“This is why we must prioritise the rescue of the gifted. They would seem to be most at risk. You will have an important decision to make my friend. It is possible they may let Maria go, but it is also possible they may refuse. In which case, I ask that you make it a priority to get her to me.”
“You mean kidnap her again?”
“She may choose to go with you of her own free will, but if she refuses, then I’m afraid you must use force. I understand it might re-traumatise her, but the thera can fix that. I have a feeling that she may be too important a key. If she is the result of enhancement, there may be others like her, a cluster. As you know, in the days leading up to the last jump, the Founder had been getting disturbing reports that several military-industrial cohorts had made considerable progress in genetic engineering, void technology, bioengineering, nanotech…all of which had been militarised. They had uncovered a corporate military program under control of the Texans based in Austin…” Tshentso paused and held his gaze. “There are huge pieces of the puzzle missing my friend, many unknowns that may impact operation rescue and pose a threat to Eden. To keep with the regional imagery, I may be asking you, and Biyu and Nuku, to kick a nest of rattlers to see what emerges.”
“Rattlers?”
“Rattlesnakes: very deadly and very quick.”
110
Akash
Despite the wine consumed with the meal, his mind was fully alert. The others had gone to bed and he was sitting at the desk reading Aviva’s rushed report (he was no longer concerned that he was being monitored). It was much as he expected. Rhinegold, Eisenbach and Co were respected private bankers involved largely in asset management and modest speculation. It was the type of bank designed to protect existing capital rather than seek to exploit it through high-risk speculation. It had guided several European fortunes through many wars and speculative bubbles. It was by invitation only and it zealously guarded its client base and asset list. There had been some minor scandals but for the most part it had managed to keep out of the news.
Given this, it was difficult to understand why they were interested in Shunyata. He certainly didn’t need them. He was hardly short of capital. His only thought was that Shunyata posed some sort of threat to their portfolio. Willy had mentioned Arab money. That meant oil. Perhaps they were worried that Shunyata had developed technology that might reduce the need for oil. Another alternative might be that they saw Shunyata as the future and wanted to invest. Opportunity or threat? He would have to wait to find out.
He looked at the time: one in the morning. He was still hungry. Dinner had been delicious and inventive, but modern cuisine was hardly filling. Willy had said to make himself at home, so he decided to raid the pantry.
He could smell the food wafting up the stairs. The kitchen light was on. It was Angelika. He had obviously caught her unawares because she was dressed in what he assumed were her nightclothes: an oversized black t-shirt that fell off her shoulders and barely covered her hips.
“Ah, seems we can’t escape each other,” she said as she saw him. “Let me guess, haute cuisine does not sate your hunger? Me neither.”
“I thought everyone would be asleep.”
“They are, except for Christian. He and Izzy are still fucking. They’re like rabbits.”
He blinked at her casual use of a vulgarity but assumed she was showing off, pretending to be more mature than her age. He was not impressed. “Izzy?”
“His Italian girlfriend, you’ll probably meet her in the morning…”
“From a noble family I suppose?”
Angelika frowned. “Yes, the Contessa Isabella Maria Lucrezia di Bortoloni. She has both Medici and Sforza blood. A very distant relative was Lucrezia Borgia
. Izzy’s mother used to model with mama. Why, does it trouble you that many of our friends are from old noble families? These things no longer matter you know. The titular system has been abolished. You will find many people with aristocratic relatives in Europe.”
“I’m sorry, but I’m trying to understand who you all are.”
“Just people. Izzy is a student, art history. She has a part time job at the tourist shop at the Brera in Milano. She would never admit that her father is an hereditary Count.”
At that point he wondered if this Izzy had also benefitted from genetic enhancement. They would be prime candidates. Clearly the aristocrats of Europe were boosting their children.
Angelika turned to reach for something in the cupboard, unconcerned (or just eccentrically oblivious) that it pulled her t-shirt up to reveal the cusp of a perfectly tanned, if skinny, derriere. But that was not what caught his attention; her t-shirt was decorated with a mathematical formula he recognised.
“If I’m not mistaken, that’s Noether’s first theorem.”
She turned, placed a packet of couverture chocolate on the bench and smiled with pride. “I am pleased you recognise it. She is a personal hero of mine. She is the reason I decided to study mathematics. I have a photo of her when she was just a girl in my room, as a reminder.”
“It resolved a paradox in general relativity…”
“Yes, and yet she has been largely forgotten, along with other female mathematicians.”
He nodded in agreement. He thought she might expect him to make a statement in sympathy but she was not making a political point. Her look assumed he would be sympathetic and he wondered if she had worn the t-shirt to test him in some way. “Where did you get the t-shirt?”
“It’s a little hobby of mine. I design t-shirts featuring famous equations from physicists and mathematicians. Mama gets them printed. They sell quite well in the markets. Germans mostly. I am very proud of our country’s contribution: Gödel, Einstein, Heisenberg, Hilbert, Pauli, Reimann, Leibniz, Gauss… And of course women: Ada Lovelace, Sophie Germaine, Hypatia…”
“Yes, an impressive list. I was inspired by the ancient Indian mathematicians as a child.”
“Brahmagupta, Aryabhata, Baudhyana… I read up on Indian mathematics after I saw the Shiva Nataraj at CERN when I was seven. I wanted to know all about it. So you understand, you and I are alike, at least in the sense that we see the beauty in mathematics.”
He nodded that he did indeed understand. It was clear he was talking to an exceptional prodigy. “So, your work on fusion… What is your interest exactly?”
She walked to the fridge and pulled out some milk then bent over to pull a small pot from a drawer, as she leant forward her loose t-shirt fell open to briefly reveal the small buds of tanned breasts, again she was either unconcerned or just innocently unaware. “Fusion is so yesterday. It is now an engineering problem. Commercial fusion will be a reality in maybe five years. I’m interested in limitless energy.”
“Limitless?”
“You know exactly what I mean Akash. Tesla’s dream,” she said as she put the pot on an electric stovetop. “Fusion tries to replicate the physics of stars, but there are trillions of stars in the universe and possibly even multiple-universes. Where did all that energy come from? If we assume a singularity, then all of that energy once existed as uncreated potential. I am of the opinion that the visible universe represents just a fraction of that potentia. I am not talking about dark energy. I am talking about the substratum, Bohm’s implicate universe.”
“Energy out of the ether?”
“When you think it through, all technological societies must reach a natural limit in energy production. We are at that limit. The next technological leap will require a new source of energy. Otherwise it becomes a very dystopian universe in which all civilisations reach a natural planetary limit and then collapse - entropy.”
“And are you close?”
“It’s just speculation. My masters is a necessary distraction. Schwartzmann is too conservative for my liking. Ideally I’d have someone of your calibre supervise my doctorate, whatever it is you are up to.”
“Unfortunately I’m not taking students.”
“Then what was Zhang Li Li doing at your hotel in Bhutan?”
He was startled by her accusation, had they been spying on him or had they discovered this by chance? “Probably doing what everyone else was doing. A tourist I suppose. How do you know this Zhang Li Li?”
“I have not met her, but a friend knows of her. She saw her when she was on a trekking holiday in Bhutan. Surely you must understand that there is rivalry between the various cohorts of gifted students. Which institution has the brightest group? Who is the most accomplished? Who is doing the most exciting work? Who is the most fuckable? Who has the superior genome? The Zhang girl is highly rated on all counts.”
“I see, and I suppose also: who has been enhanced?”
It was a risk to reveal this information but it seemed inevitable.
“Ah, so you have guessed my secret? Which means that the Sauvaterres are not just in Bhutan for standard medical gene therapy after all. You also have a secret program.”
“I’m not admitting anything.”
“How did you know about me?”
“You are a little too perfect. Nature rarely combines all the perfections. She needs help, a little push.”
“Well, that explains why you have been somewhat immune to my precocity. Most people can’t handle me. It suggests you must know quite a few enhanced brats like me?”
“You could say that… Word is that there are several programs underway. So how many of you are there in your cohort? Karolin, Christian, Izzy…”
He heard soft footsteps. “Well, I timed that well.” He turned to see a beautiful, curvaceous girl of around seventeen with long tousled black hair, penetrating brown eyes, thick eyebrows and a dark olive-brown complexion. She was wearing a blue striped man’s shirt with just two buttons fastened to barely protect her modesty, although he guessed by her relaxed demeanour that like Angelika, this was hardly of concern to her. “I was thirsty and thought I’d come down for some soda. I assure you it was pure coincidence. I’m not psychic.”
“So Izzy, this is our guest, Dr Akash Jayarama, founder of Shunyata. Where’s Christian?”
“Asleep, you know what men are like. I’m still wide-awake. I’m afraid I just caught the tail end of the conversation.” She walked toward Akash to shake his hand. “I hope I haven’t embarrassed you with my appearance. I would have been naked if I hadn’t heard a male voice I didn’t recognise. I went back and grabbed the first thing, one of Christian’s shirts… Out of politeness…”
“It’s fine, believe me, I’ve gathered things are rather informal around here.”
“It’s all right Izzy. He passed my test. He’s cool. And he knows about us.”
“So it’s true. There are others. Do we get to meet them?”
“He’s being very coy. He doesn’t trust us yet, or papa.”
“Well that’s understandable Angel,” Izzy said as she opened the fridge door to fetch a bottle of Chinotto. Angelika handed her a glass. “How does he know we are on the same side? He will know he is being tested. Clearly he has passed the first few hurdles but maybe we haven’t passed his tests? Maybe he thinks we are freaks like the Chinese and Russian cohorts? So Akash, how many others do you know of exactly?”
“I asked first.”
She nodded. “Fair enough. Amongst the Laurels…”
“Izzy…” hissed Angelika.
“He might as well know Angel. We can’t both be standing at the door saying: you go first, no you, I insist, no, after you.”
“But papa…”
“Will have less explaining to do. It’s a silly name Akash; that is all. There are a group of families linked to the bank that form a kind of inner circle.” She gulped down some Chinotto a little too quickly and burped. “Excuse me… It’s nothing sinister, but it is a
sort of private rich man’s club, a benign conspiracy if you like, a meeting of like minds. As you may know the crown of laurels was an honorarium bestowed in ancient Greece, a symbol of the god Apollo. The Laurel Group invests in excellence in the arts, humanities and sciences.”
“Yes, of course, silly of me… A common symbol, Nobel laureate, the international baccalaureate, the UN symbol…”
“Except we do not bestow public prizes like the Nobel Foundation. We act behind the scenes. We only fund substantive projects, ones that might return either a cultural or monetary benefit. We are not foolish. We can only give away significant funds if we also earn significant funds. We expect to make a profit and we don’t mind waiting a few generations. A good example might be the art market. Van Gogh’s paintings were considered worthless during his lifetime, but a wise person would have recognised his talent and bought one or two for a pittance. With each generation they gained value and now they are worth tens of millions.”
“And to do that you would need to understand art history, understand science?”
“Yes. We still follow our interests and inclinations but our biggest asset is knowledge. After my studies I will work for one of the established private galleries, maybe in Paris.”
“And getting a little boost in IQ doesn’t hurt?”
“Our parents naturally want us to have every advantage. The world is getting more complex. It takes exceptional abilities to understand it all. How can you invest in either art or science if you do not understand them? The world faces a crisis of comprehension. Everything has become too complex for the average mind. In the past we maintained the advantage through careful breeding and the best education. Would it shock you to learn that some of our families deliberately sought out affairs with the talented to introduce new blood into the family line? A strategic affair generated a child who was then raised legitimately, although there were also a few openly recognised bastards. Aristocratic men have long had a tradition of mistresses, but the women also took lovers. There is an unfortunate tradition of inbreeding amongst some of the more traditional, religiously minded aristocracy, including cousin marriage. This produced idiots and madmen and caused the collapse of many a family. The Laurels understood long ago that survival meant improving the stock.”
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