Collective Mind (33 page)

“After
that, consider me your hostage until the end of my life. If anyone ever finds
out that I gave you the passwords, I am history. They would have shot me for
that before. But even now it’s a sure court-martial. And the sentence will be
downloading for treason.”

“Very
convincing. Just one question. How can we check that the 24-digit isn’t a false
one and an alarm signal?”

“There’s
no way. But then, you can do all of this when you are already in America. And
if you fly out tomorrow, we will have enough time.”

Despite
Bikie’s protests, he did not get a chance of flying a private jet. They decided
that it would be too risky for everyone to travel together. So Isaac and Bikie
will take a passenger flight two hours after the private jet carrying Link and
Pascal will have left.

Still
the passenger flight to New York’s John F. Kennedy airport would arrive
earlier. They had only a brief connection in Paris, whereas Link and Pascal
were going the long way via Miami. Not to mention that the most time gained
would come from Isaac and Bikie taking the brand-new supersonic Concorde-100
between Paris and New York, an upgraded version of the famous old Concorde that
was in service in the late 20th century. Thanks to UNICOMA, the shortcomings of
the previous version have been eliminated, and three hour long transatlantic flights
again became a reality.

Michelle
had to stay in Monaco. Someone had to make sure that Pellegrini would indeed
cancel the request. She promised not to fly to America, but Isaac didn’t
believe her. He suspected that she wouldn’t keep her word. He was worried about
it, of course, but on the other hand, he felt glad.

“We’ll
be in the US tonight, the homeland of Harley!” Bikie exclaimed, interrupting
Isaac’s train of thought. “I’ve waited so long for this!”

“Me
too,” Isaac said with a smile. “We’ve almost reached the goal.”

In
consideration, Pellegrini offered to follow them to America, a major
breakthrough. He would help avoid suspicion in the US. They had very little
information about the New York storage facility; a lot of things would have to
be assessed on the spot. Pellegrini promised to arrange an official visit for
himself to the New York branch of the Agency within a couple of days, and that
would give him an opportunity to examine the building from the inside.

“Well
done Link,” Isaac thought. “What a brain!” Isaac himself had been going through
an agony, trying to think of how to break away from the policeman’s pursuit,
but the professor succeeded in turning him into a team-mate.

“The
former enemy is now an enlightened ally,” Link announced triumphantly as he
shook Pellegrini’s free hand in farewell. “And ‘former’ is the important word
here. The fact that the commissioner has come over to our side is a message to
the world. We are on the right road, my friends. If the system is overthrown,
no one will ever want to download OE again. The Veggies look happy and
satisfied, they are often rich, and so people got confused. But it’s a
deception, isn’t it, Pascal? You are also a vivid example testifying that the
system must be destroyed. The world will be grateful to us for what we are
about to do.”

On
the Paris-New York flight, they managed to get a couple of hours of sleep in
comfort. Pascal was generous enough to buy business-class tickets for his
rescuers. They didn’t run into any storms or turbulence and were able to get
some rest and put their thoughts in order. Before they found themselves working
together, each of them was used to being a loner in his own way, Isaac thought.
During the three months together they had too much of each other and some
tension was creeping in, despite the high spirits. Bikie was absorbed in his
own thoughts, too. Each of them felt like resting alone.

Isaac
was pretty exhausted by Vicky’s illness and the search for Link; the dangerous
operation to return Pascal’s creativity felt like the final straw for him. But
then it continued: the police interviews, the undertaking not to leave the
area, the need to make quick pivotal decisions. Even the relationship with
Michelle didn’t make it any easier, positive emotions are still emotions and
thus a portion of stress exerted on the nervous system. Three months of regular
exercise had shaped him up; he looked trim and fit, but at the same time he had
bags under his eyes indicating his fatigue.

Isaac
has assembled the team, they all saw him as a leader and that was far from
being simple. They were all temperamental, self-assured and egocentric. He
thought, it was hard to carry this weight, when each of them had his own
opinion and sometimes didn’t actually regard him as the boss. They were all
equal: Bikie totally independent, Link a genius, not accepting any authority
over himself. Pascal had come from the past, when they were friends and on
equal footing. He was not disposed to appreciate the subtleties of a command
hierarchy; he was too often immersed in grief over loosing Eva “just
yesterday”. And now he was the source of the team’s funding, which had put him
in a privileged position, too.

To
be quite honest, Isaac was looking forward to going to America also in order to
zone out and unwind a bit, not just urgently save the world. Vicky’s operation
has now been paid for, so why should he be in a hurry?

In
the meantime, Link and Pascal have also done their part of the work: they
combined the hacking device with the amplifier, so that OE could be now be
returned to all Veggies within a radius of thirty to forty kilometers. In
densely populated New York, that ought to be enough for thousands of people to
get their former creativity back. And that would be enough to spark off a
massive wave of protest.

Focusing
on his own condition, Isaac was surprised that he had absolutely no fear of
failure, probably because he was so tired. “Don’t relax, just a bit longer
now,” he told himself in an effort to lift his spirits up. “Get a grip on
yourself, pay attention and be cautious! The last thing you want is to wind up
in jail right at the finish.” Of course, America was not China, where even
relatively minor crimes were punishable by compulsory downloading, but they
were not particularly fond of terrorists here, too.

The
John F. Kennedy Airport looked different from the European ones. A bit on the
dirty side, without superfluous luxury, but very functional. It had impressive
dimensions: before reaching passport control, he and Bikie walked at least two
kilometers. The flow of passengers was immense, with flights coming in from
almost every corner of the world. They could see crowds of Asians, Europeans
and Latin Americans. Judging from the tags on the hand luggage, there were arrivals
from Tunisia and Kenya. Everyone was eager to come to America. And a whole heap
of automated systems was used in the airport to process these crowds rapidly.

The
corridors were full of cameras, detectors and scanners with red crosses
measuring passengers' temperature for signs of infection; the scanners often
blinked green. A monitor responded to Bikie with a yellow signal. Paramedics
immediately approached him and asked to walk through a glass door into a
parallel corridor.

“Why?”
Isaac protested. “What happened?”

“Everything’s
alright, sir. The sensor indicated that your friend has a high temperature. We
have to carry out an additional minor check,” a paramedic replied politely.

“Can
I go with him?”

“No,
sorry, you’ll meet up again later at the meeting point after the customs check.
He’ll be just fine, I assure you.”

“Everything’s
OK, Isaac, I really am feeling a bit funny,” Bikie muttered morosely. I’ll call
you when I’m out.

They
led him away.

Isaac
started walking faster. He wanted to get out of this airport with all its bells
and whistles as soon as possible. After a hundred meters, the corridor widened
out and everybody walked, one at a time, into the gateway for hand luggage
check. There were several dozen gates. “Exactly like a highway toll terminal in
France,” thought Isaac. Hanging on the walls were numerous posters warning of
things that couldn’t be brought into the USA.

 Isaac
joined one of the lines, with about ten people ahead of him. While he waited he
could watch the way the gateway worked. The booth was made completely of glass
or some transparent plastic. A newly arrived passenger went in at one side, the
door closed and some kind of scanner swiveled around him. If everything was
alright, a door opened at the other side and the person could walk in.
Occasionally a light on the booth started blinking, and police officers walked
up from the other side. In the next channel, a passenger was found to have food
products that were illegal to import. They confiscated them and led the poor
wretch away to file a report. The next passenger also turned out to be an
offender: the gateway sounded a piercing and revolting alarm. Half a dozen
police officers rushed to him from the exit side. Another two elbowed their way
through the crowd from Isaac’s side.

The
young guy in the gate started thrashing about and cursing hysterically, trying
to break out. He pounded on the glass with his fists and kicked it, but it
didn’t even shake.

The
policeman standing beside Isaac giggled fiendishly. He and his partner were
talking quietly and Isaac tried to listen in, but he couldn’t make anything out
properly, except for the word “cocaine”. The policemen were absolutely calm,
and it was soon clear why. Gas was fed into the gateway through an opening from
above. The criminal jerked a couple of times and rapidly went limp. The gas was
immediately pumped out, the door was opened and the body was carried off along
that parallel corridor. The policemen went back to their places. The entire
operation had taken no more than five minutes, right before the eyes of the
astounded public. “Mmm, yes,” thought Isaac, “rapid, effective and very
instructive.”

Having
successfully passed through the gate, Isaac joined the line for passport
control. After that, all he had to do was collect his baggage, which he brought
along more in order to avoid looking suspicious by traveling light than for any
real need. Standing there on his own, Isaac felt nervous about Bikie. Sunday
was not over yet, in theory Isaac could not be put on the wanted list until
Monday. Pascal and Link texted him that they had successfully crossed the
border in the VIP hall for private flights in Miami – everything was just as
Michelle had said it would be – and were waiting for a flight to New York.

At
last it was his turn.

“What
is the purpose of your visit to the USA?” the border protection officer asked.

“I’m
going to take a look at New York. The museums, the city. Tourism, basically,”
Isaac replied politely.

The
officer twirled the passport in his hands and read the form that Isaac had
filled in. He was in no hurry.

“What
a job! This could drive you crazy!” Isaac thought. “The speed you work at makes
no difference to your chances of getting the job done more quickly and going
home earlier. Flights are coming in every minute, and people just keep on and
on arriving. Just sit here as if you are chained to your seat until the shift
is over. And it doesn’t matter how many passports you’ve looked through. A
thousand or ten thousand. At least in the bar I used to get tips…”

“Place
your palm on the scanner…”

Isaac
patiently set his palm on the transparent little window that glowed blue. It
felt as if someone gave his palm a gentle pinch. The officer looked at his
monitor, then at Isaac’s face and stamped his passport with a loud thud.

Bikie
was alright. They took a couple of tests and gave him an injection that rapidly
relieved all the symptoms. He was waiting for Isaac at the entrance and already
had his suitcase.

“Whoa!
You were even quicker than me! I was worried.”

“Yeah,
they did everything pretty quick. I’m actually glad they hooked me out and
cured me so efficiently.”

“So
it’s Hail America, then?”

“Precisely!
The future cradle of liberty!”

The
USA held the first place among countries for the number of OE downloads. And
also, interestingly enough, the average level of creativity was higher there
than in other countries. The answer to the question of why the Americans were
the leaders in the amount of creativity per person was fairly obvious.

Ever
since WWI the U.S. has imported brains. They came dashing during WWII as well,
and many more afterwards. In the States, they created good conditions for
qualified specialists, so talented scientists from various countries yearned to
come here. They knew there were laboratories, grants, abundant opportunities
and decent money waiting for them. The perspective of fulfillment and
advancement prompted people to make the move. The more lenient tax regime was
also a powerful stimulus for European entrepreneurs, while the strong legal
framework protecting private property attracted businessmen from Latin America,
Africa and Asia.

Nowadays
the Agency has grabbed the lead here and there, but not so long ago everything
was simple: if you’re a talented programmer, then welcome to Silicon Valley! An
artist? Go to Miami or New York! A hot-shot actor? Go and try your luck in
Hollywood, which has the most prestigious studios in the world and pays the
highest money.

America
posed a choice of two options before a gifted individual. Option one: stay in
your own country and vegetate in half-empty laboratories, struggling to find
financing, sometimes living in poverty and maybe even dying in some military
conflict. Option two: Immigrate to America and take advantage of the new
opportunities, feel that you are needed, and become a US citizen.

No
doubt this was a cunning policy. The best minds produced the best technologies.
The best technologies produced the best economy. The American dollar, backed by
minds and technologies, is a symbol of stability and a universal reserve
currency.

Like
a cheapskate who ends up paying twice, the generous America often earned a
double profit by eagerly exporting arms and offering refuge to the finest minds
of the warring countries. Of course, wars were not permitted in or around
America itself.

The
result was that until the downloading of OE has been invented, the whole world
said that if you did not know where to find the latest cutting-edge
developments in one field or another, you should look in the States. Now the
brains that had flowed into the USA were benefitting the country’s image. The
Agency was growing more and more powerful, but in the States they had not
really felt that yet.

“I
think I’m going to love this country,” Bikie declared when they walked out of
the airport building. “I’ll just get a breath of the air of freedom and
rock’n’roll and fall in love immediately.”

Bikie
theatrically filled his lungs and held his breath.

“Try
not to burst with delight! We haven’t even reached Amsterdam yet!”

“What
do you mean, Amsterdam?”

“New
Amsterdam.”

“And
what’s that?”

“New
Amsterdam. That’s what Manhattan used to be called. The first European
settlement on the island was founded by the Dutch. Then the English pushed them
out and renamed the town New York.”

“Freaking
awesome! Why didn’t you tell me sooner that we were flying to Amster? I
wouldn’t have brought any grass with me.”

“Get
out of here, you joker! Let’s get moving. I can’t wait to see the city. We’re
staying only three blocks away from Broadway and Times Square!”

The
guys loaded their suitcases into a yellow cab and stared out the window, each
on his side. At first there was not anything special to look at, but in less
than half an hour, the glow of the megalopolis appeared up ahead. They had
picked up an old taxi, from the times before crime was eradicated and a
semi-transparent screen separated passengers from the driver. Bikie was annoyed
that he couldn’t stretch out his legs; space being too small for his
dimensions. But the moment the Empire State Building became recognizable up
ahead, he immediately forgot the discomfort.

“Can
we drive over the Brooklyn Bridge?” Isaac asked.

“That
will take a lot longer and cost more,” the taxi driver replied.

“That’s
okay. Take us anyway. This is the first time we are in America.”