“Maybe,” allowed van Hutten, but he still seemed unconvinced. “And sorry to be diverting the conversation,” he added. “I’ve just always been fascinated by the philosophical implications of immortality.”
Matt Griffin rolled his eyes. “you’re really gonna fit right in here, aren’t you?”
“I have to admit, I enjoy kicking around big ideas. And since this group has the chance to turn just about any big idea into reality someday, it’s even more intriguing.” He motioned to Kira. “But let me circle back to something you said earlier, if I may. You’ve really found a way to double the span of human life? Why haven’t I heard about this?”
Kira described her longevity treatment further, and then the subsequent analysis that convinced her its release would lead to disaster. “Since this time, we’ve been careful to examine any major breakthrough we come up with to see what impact it might have if unleashed. Unintended consequences. As you pointed out, even immortality has them.” She sighed. “But I have to say we’ve been rethinking this position.”
“Why? It seems like a reasonable one.”
“Centralized planning doesn’t work,” replied Desh. “History has demonstrated this over and over, although many refuse to accept the evidence. Besides, in any advance there are winners and losers. If we had invented the car in the nineteenth century, would we have released it? Or would we have concluded it would be too big a blow to the thriving horse industry? Too radical a change for society to digest?”
“Think The End of Eternity,” said Kira, raising her eyebrows. “By your favorite author.”
In The End of Eternity, Asimov envisioned a huge bureaucracy existing outside of time, which could make changes to the time stream wherever it wanted. The group was genuinely devoted to ensuring the best outcome for the most people, and so would change history away from wars and other disasters. It would eliminate risky discoveries and innovations. It opted for the status quo, for not upsetting the apple cart. But this benevolent intent ended in disaster.
Progress and evolution, by their very nature, could be painful and cause upheaval. A sober, safe analysis would often steer civilization away from dramatic advances. Yet sometimes the birthing pains of a revolutionary advance were the price of survival and advancement of the species.
Van Hutten rubbed his chin thoughtfully. “Interesting. Haven’t thought of this book in ages. But I understand what you’re saying.”
“We’re smart enough while enhanced to realize we’re not smart enough to be central planners,” explained Desh. “Still, we’re clinging to our paranoia just a little longer. And as far as doubling the span of human life, this is too far beyond the normal progression to be absorbed, even in a traumatic way. Doing this in one fell swoop will break civilization’s back.”
“That’s why you’re so important to our efforts,” said Kira. “You could be the key that allows us to disclose this discovery—and all others as well.”
Van Hutten tilted his head in confusion. “I’m not sure I understand.”
“The bottom line is this,” said Kira. “Inexpensive and efficient faster-than-light travel makes all of these problems go away. Right now, humanity has all of its eggs in one basket. As a species, we’re exceedingly vulnerable to catastrophe. If Earth gets hit by a meteor—we’re done. If we blow ourselves up—we’re done. But if we colonize the cosmos,” she said, her voice becoming passionate and her eyes more alive than ever, “even if the Earth is destroyed, humanity lives on. We can extend our lives as long as we can manage without fear of overpopulation. No invention would ever have to be withheld. Humanity’s place in the universe and continued growth would be assured.” She paused. “But it all hinges on our ability to rise from our planetary cradle and put our eggs in many other baskets.”
Van Hutten nodded vigorously, dazzled by the vision Kira had laid out in her typical, mesmerizing fashion. “It’s obvious once you point it out,” he said. “Truly a cause worth believing in. It goes without saying that I’m at your disposal.”
“You’re not making that offer just to Kira, personally, are you?” asked Griffin playfully.
Van Hutten chuckled. “I meant the entire group, of course,” he replied innocently. “I’m at the disposal of the Center for Research Excellence.”
“Actually,” said Griffin, “there is no such thing. We make up a different name for our fictitious think tank for every recruit.”
“The true name of our organization is Icarus,” said Kira.
“ Icarus?”
“Yeah,” said Desh with a grin. “We figured every good radical, covert organization should have a name. And Al-Qaeda was already taken.”
Van Hutten laughed.
“Jim Connelly and I wanted to go with something less symbolic, less comic-booky,” continued Desh. “But the geeks are in the majority here, so we were outvoted.”
“I see,” said van Hutten. “I have to admit, it is a geeky name. But once you think about it for a second, it’s a good one. Icarus. The Greek who flew too close to the sun. A cautionary tale of the dangers of hubris.”
Kira nodded. “We thought it was appropriate,” she said. “A reminder not to get carried away with ourselves. And given that hubris becomes overwhelming when we’re enhanced, not a bad thought to keep in the back of our minds.”
“So welcome to Icarus,” said Griffin. “It’s great to have someone of your caliber join our efforts.”
The other three members of the group nodded their agreement.
“Thanks,” replied van Hutten.
The physicist turned to David Desh with a more sober expression. “You said earlier things weren’t going so well. What did you mean by that?”
Desh paused for a moment as though deciding where to begin. “Recruitment has gone slower than we anticipated,” he replied. “Finding accomplished scientists who can pass our screens has proven more difficult than we had thought. We could lower our standards—after all, the four of us couldn’t have passed—but the danger of a single mistake is greater than you might imagine.”
“And cheap, efficient faster-than-light travel is proving far more intractable of a problem than we had guessed,” added Griffin.
“Yeah,” said Desh in amusement, “even expensive, inefficient FTL travel is proving impossible.”
“We naively thought that if we enhanced any good physicist a few times,” said Kira, “they’d come up with revolutionary solutions. But this hasn’t been the case. The few physicists who’ve joined us have made remarkable advances in many areas. But as far as FTL is concerned . . . not so much.” She frowned deeply. “And everything—everything—depends on us solving this problem.”
“What makes you so sure I can do it?”
“We’re not. But in this area, you’re in a league of your own. So we are hopeful.”
“Thanks for the compliment. But what if I strike out as well?”
Kira sighed. “There is one other possibility I’ve been working on,” she replied. A pained expression crossed her face and she looked as though she wasn’t eager to elaborate further.
Van Hutten waited patiently for her to continue.
“There is a higher level of enhancement,” she said finally. “Far higher.”
“Far higher?” repeated van Hutten dubiously. “I don’t believe it. Hard to imagine how what I just experienced could possibly be surpassed.”
“Not just surpassed. Blown away. The first level is impossible to imagine, also, unless you’ve been there. But the second level . . .” Kira’s eyes widened and she shook her head in awe. “I was there for five minutes. But my mind was moving so fast it felt like five days. I can’t recall most of the thoughts I had, but I do know this: this level was as far beyond what you just experienced as this level is beyond normal. And it came with the greatest bonus of all: it was so transcendent that the pull of sociopathy and megalomania was totally gone.”
“That’s fantastic,” said van Hutten.
Kira’s eyes fell and she t
urned away.
“Something went wrong, didn’t it?” said van Hutten softly.
Kira nodded and she wore a pained expression. “I barely survived it,” she replied. “The first minute or two afterwards I felt great, but my body crashed almost immediately after that. At this level your mind burns too brightly. You saw how starved you were for glucose after being enhanced. This was worse. It was complete depletion of, well . . . just about everything.”
“We rushed her to the hospital,” said Desh. “Just after we arrived she lapsed into a coma. It lasted for almost two weeks.” He looked deeply troubled, as though it were happening right then. “She pulled through at the end, but it could have easily gone the other way.”
There was more to the story, but it was something that only she and David Desh would ever know. While at this transcendent level of intelligence, when she had perfect knowledge of every cell in her body, she had discovered that she was newly pregnant, long before this would have shown up on any diagnostic test. But the drain on her body had been too much for this new life to continue. And afterwards, she and David had reluctantly come to realize they should wait to have children. It had been a painful decision, but she knew it was the right one. With all due modesty, she and David would likely play a pivotal role in human history. No matter how badly they wanted to be parents, their responsibilities were too great to allow themselves the luxury.
“What if someone was preloaded with nutrition and anything else that might get depleted?” asked van Hutten. “You know, hooked up to an IV for a few days before undergoing this second level of enhancement. Isn’t it possible that this would make it feasible?”
“We had the same thought,” said Griffin. “And given the importance of FTL propulsion, and the lack of real progress, a physicist on our team volunteered.” He paused. “We did our best to talk him out of it, just to make sure he was absolutely certain. But he insisted that having the chance to glimpse the mind of God, as he put it, was worth the risk.” He shook his head somberly. “He didn’t make it. Despite intravenous preloading. Despite the advanced medical equipment on site. When he returned to normal, his eyes went wide, he whispered, ‘the answer is obvious,’ and then he lapsed into a coma from which he never recovered.”
The incandescence left Kira’s eyes and her expression left no room for doubt that she blamed herself for what happened.
“I’m so sorry,” said van Hutten. “But it wasn’t your fault, Kira. He knew the risks. And after having been at the first level, it’s easy to see why he was willing to volunteer. His death couldn’t be more tragic, but during the last five minutes of his life . . .” He shook his head. “I can’t even imagine the insights into the nature of reality he must have had.”
“That’s at least some consolation,” agreed Kira, but she was clearly unconvinced. She visibly gathered herself and continued. “I’ve been working to understand what happened and perfect the therapy. I’ve also been trying to modulate it. If the first level is ten and the second is one hundred, maybe I can engineer a setting of fifty or sixty. Something transcendent, yet survivable. This is what I’ve been spending most of my time on.”
“Any progress?
“Some, but not enough. It’s a neuronal chain reaction. A crystallization process that has discrete endpoints. There doesn’t seem to be an intermediate setting.”
Desh glanced at his watch. “I hate to say it, but I’m afraid we need to start wrapping things up.” He gestured to the Stanford physicist. “We wouldn’t want you to be late for your flight.”
A delighted smile slowly spread across van Hutten’s pink, cherubic face. “At this point I’m so euphoric I could probably float home. This has been the most remarkable day of my life.”
“Well, there’s a lot more going on,” said Kira, “but we can bring you more fully up to speed next time. The good news is that we’ve managed to hit all of the highlights.”
Desh shot the physicist a troubled look. “Well, almost all,” he said.
Van Hutten raised his eyebrows.
“We can’t let you leave without making you aware that there are dangers associated with joining Icarus.”
Desh recounted what had happened with Ross Metzger. How they had purchased a private physics company, Advanced Physics International, about two years earlier while the current facilities were being built, and how the lab was raided by mercenaries, with Ross being killed. Someone out there knew of their existence. Someone who was lethally competent.
Van Hutten rubbed his chin in thought. “I take it the cold fusion reactor hasn’t turned up, or it would have been all over the news.”
“That’s right,” confirmed Kira. “But this isn’t surprising. The energy it produced was barely above break-even. Enhanced Ross was convinced it could be dramatically improved, but whoever took it would have no idea how to do this.” She shook her head and a grim expression settled over her face. “To be honest, I think the raid was more about sending a signal to us than about stealing this particular invention.”
“Do you have any leads?”
“None,” replied Desh. “And the only suspect we came up with was Ross Metzger himself. But we quickly ruled him out.”
“The guy who was killed?”
Desh nodded. “The raid was nearly flawless. So good I can’t help but think it was the product of an enhanced mind or an insider,” he explained. “In either case this would point to Ross. But Ross was the most stable among us. The one who handled the therapy’s ill effects on his personality the best. He was enhanced over and over and his personality was largely unchanged, unlike the rest of us. He’d be the last of us to go rogue.”
“And this was what ruled him out?” said van Hutten. “Not the fact that he was killed during the attack?”
Kira smiled. “You’ve experienced how easy it would be to fake your own death while enhanced. You have absolute control of your autonomic nervous system. You can see to it you don’t have a pulse whenever someone is checking for it. If Jim Connelly was in the room he could tell you all about it.”
“Like we mentioned earlier,” said Griffin, “it’s our best trick. Everyone you’ve met today is thought to be dead. If Ross had decided to go rogue and remove himself from the board, it’s the first idea he’d have.”
“But in this case, Anton, you’re right,” said Kira. “His death did rule him out, because he couldn’t have faked it. He would have needed a gellcap, and he didn’t have one. I produce them and keep meticulous inventory. They couldn’t be more secure, and there’s never been one that was unaccounted for.”
“So the short answer,” said Desh, “is that we have no leads or ideas whatsoever.”
Van Hutten paused to digest this. “So you have an unknown but powerful enemy out there gunning for you. Have you ever considered coming out of the closet? Maybe not to the public at large, but at least to the government?”
Griffin laughed and then immediately looked guilty about it. “Sorry,” he said. “I don’t mean to make light of your idea. And it’s not as though we haven’t discussed it now and then ourselves. But Kira’s therapy offers absolute, unlimited power to whoever controls it. Along with a side effect that can gradually turn even a Gandhi into a selfish, power starved dictator. Would you really want our government and military to have knowledge of this particular golden egg, and with apologies to Kira, the goose who lays them? Can you even imagine?”
“Yeah,” said van Hutten sheepishly. “I clearly hadn’t thought this through. But after hearing your argument, the image that comes to my mind is a huge bloody carcass in a steel cage being lowering into the world’s most shark-infested waters. It would be the feeding frenzy to end all feeding frenzies.”
“Now we’re on the same page,” said Griffin in amusement. “Take away the steel cage and I think you’ve got the picture exactly.”
11
“Arm the JDAM, Lieutenant,” ordered Jake as the chopper he was in settled down for a landing several miles from the target.
A car would be picking him up momentarily to drive him to the site.
“Roger that,” came the response from the bomber pilot. “JDAM is armed and ready.”
“Captain Ruiz, how is the perimeter looking?”
“The perimeter is clear, Colonel. I repeat, the perimeter is clear. You are good to go.”
Jake took a deep breath and held it. “Engage target, Lieutenant,” he said.
“Target engaged,” came the reply.
And six miles above Colonel Morris Jacobson, a five hundred pound bomb streaked angrily away from the jet that had restrained it, like a rodeo bull when its gate was pulled open. The munition hovered for just a moment as its onboard computer got its bearings from the continuous stream of GPS data being fed to it. Then, satisfied that it could achieve its mission parameters and arrive within ten feet of dead center of the mirrored glass building, and only then deliver its devastating payload, it made a slight turn and accelerated downward.
12
Madison Russo finished making love to her boyfriend of four months, Greg Davis, and a warm sense of both physical and emotional contentment settled over her. Only two days earlier he had said “I love you,” to her for the first time, and given that this same sentiment had been threatening to burst from her for weeks, this was a very good thing.
Her life couldn’t be going any better, she decided. And falling in love was only partly the reason.
In high school she had been socially awkward, and while her figure and looks were slightly above average, her confidence was well below. And winning the state science fair hadn’t exactly cemented her reputation as one of the cool kids. Given that her intelligence was already intimidating to almost every guy her age, she could have bottled her science fair victory and sold it as male repellent. Upon graduation from high school she had yet to be kissed.
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