Game Changer (46 page)

78

Two days later Prime Minister Ori Kish sent a
private plane to transport Quinn, Regev, and the esteemed Professor Rachel
Howard to the Holy Land.

Carmilla had steadily improved. She had become
fascinated by the application of advanced DNA synthesis techniques to
neuroscience, which helped occupy her attention.
 

Her strength of will and level-headedness also
allowed her to counteract the damage Kovonov had done better than most would
have managed, and while still suffering from loss and depression she was
holding up well. Her husband, Miguel, was now staying with her on the island
for an indefinite period, although not permitted to venture into secure areas.

She had told him how her mind had been
tampered with, how memories of an infidelity he hadn’t committed had been
implanted, and how intense feelings of depression had been triggered. But she
had left out her physical encounters with Kovonov. She had been manipulated
into sleeping with him, mentally raped, and saw no reason to burden her husband
with this knowledge, especially now that the prospects for their marriage were
stronger than ever.
 

Eyal Regev was recovering, but would need to
use crutches for some time to come, and Quinn’s arm would take time to fully
heal as well. The two men, who had hit it off so well and so quickly in
Waltham, continued to grow even closer, and were well on their way to building
the strongest friendship either had ever experienced.

During the flight to Israel, Rachel completed the
programming for a new set of implantable memories, tailored to Avi Wortzman’s
specifications. The Mossad leader then used these false memories to cause four
moles that Kovonov had manipulated to self-identify, so he was now confident his
organization was clean once again.

The morning after Kovonov had bolted out of
the back door of his cabin, Wortzman had alerted the American team hunting for him
that a Mossad agent, now injured, had located Kovonov in the woods of
Pennsylvania, and had given them exact GPS coordinates. To prevent additional
lives from being lost, he had made sure they were also warned to be wary of a
new automatic perimeter protection technology that Kovonov had been rumored to
have developed.

Wortzman would have liked to wait until he
could have had a team retrieve this technology, but Kovonov’s elimination was
too important for any further delay. Even so, somehow,
inexplicably
, the Americans had failed to find him. Wortzman had
been furious, not understanding how they could have possibly let Kovonov slip
through their net, but there was nothing he could do about it.

Seven days after al-Bilawy had been stopped,
Ori Kish, Avi Wortzman, Greg Henry, and Matthew Davinroy met around a virtual
conference room once again, at the request of the president.

 
“How
goes the hunt for our Russian-born rogue?” said Wortzman when pleasantries,
brief as they were, had been dispensed with.

 
“Not well,”
said Henry. “It’s possible he never made it out of the woods alive. He could
have gotten hopelessly lost and starved to death. He could have fallen over a
cliff or into a river. Or maybe he lost a skirmish with a wild animal. We don’t
know. All we know is that we haven’t found him.”

“Well, thanks for the effort,” said the head
of Mossad. “Keep us posted if anything turns up.”

“I will,” said Henry.

“I trust our fly-drone experts have all now arrived
in America and are bringing your scientists up to speed,” said Prime Minister
Kish.

“As far as I know,” said Davinroy, clearly not
intending to elaborate further.

“Any word on your team’s assessment of the
technology?” pressed Kish. “Do they seem enthusiastic?”

“Not really,” said the president. “But I’m
sure they’re learning a few new tricks.”

A few new tricks?
Wortzman wanted
to strangle the smug bastard, but he decided he shouldn’t be surprised by how
far Davinroy went to downplay what Israel was providing. The tech was five to
ten years beyond what the American team could do. And as far as not being
enthusiastic, Wortzman’s people had reported that the American scientists were
wetting their pants, in awe of the breakthroughs his scientists were sharing.
 

“How goes the initiative that your Agent Regev
is leading?” said Greg Henry. “Any progress in understanding how false memories
might have been implanted in Special Agent Quinn? Or who might be responsible?”

“Professor Howard has made excellent progress,”
said Wortzman. “Special Agent Quinn has been key, as well. Thank you again for
loaning them to us. I’d like to schedule another meeting very soon so they can present
their findings to you.”

“We’ll put something on the calendar,” said
Henry.

“I don’t know if Special Agent Coffey has
mentioned it,” added Wortzman, “but since this is a joint US/Israeli operation,
he’s shared some research from one of your Black Site neuroscience teams. He
didn’t disclose its location, of course.”

“Of course,” repeated Henry.

“Rachel Howard was very impressed with the
work of the head of this lab, a Dr. Karen Black. Apparently there is another
woman who is consulting there, Dr. Carmilla Acosta. Anyway, we probed to see if
they might be amenable to being part of the Regev task force, and they seemed
eager to join up. I assume you’re okay with that?”

This time the president fielded the question. “If
Professor Howard is happy,” he said, “and the scientists in question are happy,
I can’t imagine why they shouldn’t all work together.”

“Excellent,” said Ori Kish. While he had been
content to let Wortzman respond to Henry, he preferred to respond to Davinroy
himself. “I know Rachel will be excited to hear the news.”

“Speaking of Rachel Howard,” said the
president, “has she left Israel at any time during the past few weeks?”

“She hasn’t,” said Kish. “Why do you ask?”

“I’m sure you’re aware we had a scare a week
ago today, and were forced to briefly board our command and control aircraft.”

“Yes, we had heard, ah . . . rumors to that
effect,” said Kish. “I don’t suppose you’d care to share what that was all
about?”

Davinroy smiled humorlessly. “Not really, no.
But it was a very strange night. You know we found a cabin, dead bodies, and an
automated laser defense system very near where your man spotted Kovonov. But later
it came to our attention that a woman had broken into a grocery store on the
night in question, very near this location.”

He paused and searched the two Israelis for
any reaction.

“Go on,” said Kish evenly.

“Apparently the woman and two wounded men flew
off in a helicopter,” said Davinroy. “The thing is,” he added, raising his
eyebrows, “no one seems to know whose helicopter it was or what it was doing
there.”

“That is strange,” said Kish.

The president’s face flashed his hatred of the
Israeli Prime Minister for just a moment before becoming neutral once again. “Our
people ran the store’s video footage of the break in,” he said. “The woman stole
a single roll of aluminum foil. That’s it. The footage wasn’t as clear as we
would like, given it was very dark and the camera didn’t have high-end
nighttime imaging, but we ran it through our software anyway. Came back with an
eighty-seven percent likelihood of being a match to Rachel Howard. ”

“Wow,” said Wortzman, “that’s even stranger.
Wasn’t her though.”

“Right, because she’s been in Israel the whole
time?”

“Exactly.”

The president studied the Mossad leader for
several seconds. “Then another strange thing,” he added. “That very night, our nation’s
cell phone grid was taken over for a few minutes. Just before midnight.”

“Your entire grid?” said Kish in apparent alarm.
“Do you think the Chinese were testing their capabilities?”

Davinroy glared at him. “No, my best people
tell me the signature of how this was accomplished was wrong for the Chinese.
They told me the approach smacked more of being something the
Israelis
might do.”

Kish shrugged. “That is odd. It wasn’t us, of
course, but if you send over the data, we’ll be happy to help you identify who
it might have been.”

“No need,” said Davinroy caustically, “I wouldn’t
want you to go
too
far out of your
way to be helpful.”

“Let us know if you change your mind,” said
Kish. “Anything else?”

“Yes,” said Greg Henry. “We also found an ISIS
soldier. High level. Name of al-Bilawy. He was in a home outside of Knoxville,
Tennessee, with an airtight communications firewall. Turns out he had suffered
a seizure the likes of which our doctors had never seen before. Massive. His
brain was fried from the inside, and his body didn’t make out all that well
either.”
 

“Difficult for me to grieve too hard for a man
like that,” said Kish. “There are those who might argue that his death is
probably for the best.”

“
Definitely
for the best,” said Henry. “But due to some circumstances we don’t want to get
into, we can pinpoint the time of his death very accurately. We know he was
alive at 11:49 and that he died before midnight. We believe he died right within
the narrow window that our cell grid was seized and used by some other party.
We’ve studied the signal that was broadcast during the siege, but it’s nothing
but harmless noise.”

“Very bizarre,” said Wortzman.

“And you know nothing about this?” said the president
dubiously.

“Should we?” said Kish with a shrug.

Wortzman knew the Americans were almost
certain they were lying, but he was confident they wouldn’t push it. Israel was
transferring game-changing technologies to them, useful for much more than just
drones, and their crisis had magically resolved.

To borrow an American idiom, Wortzman felt sure
they weren’t about to look this gift horse too hard in the mouth.

“Getting back to the emergency you had that
same night,” continued the prime minister, “I trust everything turned out okay.
Whatever it is that had your top people so . . . excited.”

“It all turned out very well,” said Davinroy.

The president paused and glanced at Henry,
seemingly reluctant to continue. “But I should tell you that I’ve decided to
use the bully pulpit to drum up greater public support for a more aggressive
anti-terror campaign. I plan to lean hard on ISIS and other jihadist movements.
This will consist of a far greater deployment of resources, looser rules of
engagement, and even boots on the ground. It’s time to clean out the swamp.”

The hint of a smile passed over Ori Kish’s
face. “I consider this very good news,” he said. “As you know, Mr. President, I
have long advocated for this type of strategy. Israel will, of course, support
this effort with intelligence and in any other way that we can. You can count
on us.”

“Good to know,” said Davinroy dryly. “I had a
feeling that I could.”

79

After the meeting with Davinroy and Henry
ended, Rachel Howard, Eyal Regev, and Kevin Quinn were escorted into the
conference room. A selection of ice-cold drinks was brought in, including
several bottles of Snapple peach tea, Rachel’s favorite, which was no accident.
 

Wortzman quickly described how the call with
the president and the secretary of DHS had gone, including the latest on the
hunt for Kovonov, and answered their questions.

When this was done, the prime minister got
down to the most important business he had ever conducted. He locked his gaze on
Rachel Howard as though she were the only one in the room. “So you’ve now had several
days to meet the key players on our neuroscience team,” he said to her as she
swallowed a mouthful of peach tea. “How has that gone?”

“It’s been great,” she replied. “You have some
wonderfully impressive people, and they couldn’t have been nicer.”

Kish laughed. “Good to hear. They really are
nice. Truly. But they’ve also been told to treat you like royalty. To throw
themselves on broken glass and let you walk on their backs so you don’t scuff
your shoes.”

 
Rachel
smiled. “You’ve definitely made no secret that you want to keep me happy,” she
said. “I’ll give you that. My quarters are spectacular. The personal shopper,
maid, and chef are nice touches also. And the freshly cut flowers every
morning. But none of this is necessary.”

“It is,” said Kish. “You know we’re doing it
for selfish reasons. Well, not entirely selfish. As Eyal explained, having our
top people go mad will have worldwide repercussions.”

“You mean many hundreds of additional Kovonovs?”
said Quinn wryly. “Yeah, I think we get how the possible repercussions could
spread beyond Israel’s borders.”

Rachel swallowed hard. Even
one
Kovonov had almost proven too many,
although he was especially talented, even among the talented bunch to come. He
was also potentially still at large.

The last Korean nuke left in America had now
been removed and defused, and Kovonov no longer had his virus, but it was still
unsettling to know he might be out there somewhere.

“The upcoming crisis will be bad,” said
Wortzman, “but it won’t be like having multiple Kovonovs running around. We’re now
fully prepared for the personality changes that will come over our people. We
aren’t about to let those affected out of our sight. And we’ll most likely put
them under house arrest when they’re approaching their sell-by date. But there
are many powerful people involved, and this will be a disaster no matter how
you slice it.”

Rachel nodded. Regev had already told her that
two of the people who would be affected were sitting right in front of her, the
prime minister and the head of Mossad. Both had found the use of Matrix
Learning too tempting to resist, although, according to Regev, neither had indulged
all that much, meaning both would retain their sanity for at least the next
year.

“But let me get back to why we feel it’s
necessary to pamper you,” continued Kish. “While the tipping point of this
crisis is still a ways off, every second counts. We know you need rest and
recreation. But our goal is to see to it that you’re either working on solving
this problem, resting, or enjoying yourself. We want to take every chore off
your hands. Anyone can cook and clean and do laundry. Only
you
can get us out of this mess.”

“I’m flattered,” said Rachel.

“As I told you before,” said Regev, “it isn’t
flattery. It’s honesty.
Reality
. I
know
you can solve this,” he added with
such conviction it was as if the matter had already been settled.

“Several of the scientists I’ve met this week
seem to me to be more capable than I am.”

“I explained why that might be the case in
Waltham,” said Regev.

Rachel smiled. “I know you did, Eyal. And I
wasn’t pointing this out because I lack confidence. I was pointing it out
because it demonstrates the truth of what you were telling me.”

“I’m not sure I’m following,” said Wortzman.

“I told her that far lesser scientists than
her had made major breakthroughs after undergoing Matrix Learning,” explained
Regev. “After loading several other disciplines into their minds.”

“Which brings us to the crux of the matter,”
said Rachel. “The elephant in the room. What you really want to know. Am I
willing to undergo Matrix Learning myself? For the cause?”

“Yes,” admitted Kish. “Knowing that if you
don’t solve it in time, you’ll follow the rest of us over the cliff.”

This was something Rachel had been pondering
since Regev had first proposed it back in Waltham.

“My interactions with your people have been
eye-opening,” she said. “I’ve been able to witness just how much of an advantage
an encyclopedic working knowledge of neuroscience and all related fields can
give someone. Your scientists possess knowledge it would take me thirty years
of study to learn on my own.”

Rachel decided that Matrix Learning truly was
the ultimate capability. She had familiarized herself with the work of the scientists
she had met, before and after their use of this technology, and it was night
and day. The tremendous additional working knowledge they had downloaded allowed
them to catapult beyond her current capabilities. She had been five lengths
ahead of the pack, and now they were one length ahead of
her
.

But if she were to undergo this flash
education, she could only imagine where she might end up, what she might be
able to accomplish. If it had even half the effect on her that it had on the
others she had met, she was as confident now as the Israelis that she could
solve their problem. She wondered what problems in neuroscience she
wouldn’t
be able to solve.

Rachel had known that if Matrix Learning could
give her any added chance to avert the coming disaster, she had to undergo the
procedure no matter what. The stakes were too high to worry about her own
future. And how could she not try it out, anyway? She had spent the bulk of her
career working toward this technology. You didn’t spend your life designing rockets
only to refuse to travel in one because of the risk.

But the past few days had impacted her
attitude dramatically. Having the chance to meet those who had benefited from
this technology had changed everything. Where she had been reluctant to go
forward, even fearful, she was now giddy at the prospect. The potential of
Matrix Learning was greater even than she had imagined. Rachel was now eager to
see what she could accomplish, convinced she could find the antidote to the
poison she was choosing to ingest in time to save her sanity.

She had discussed her decision with Quinn prior
to the meeting, and his reaction had surprised her. He told her he believed their
relationship was evolving into something special. And while he agreed she had
no choice, he feared what might happen to their relationship if the knowledge
gulf between them grew even larger.

So if she was going to take this risk, he
insisted on doing so as well. He would see to it he was programmed with a PhD
level of neuroscience education. This would still leave a massive gap between
them, but at least it wouldn’t be the size of the Grand Canyon.

Rachel was optimistic by nature, but she felt
more hopeful about the future course of her life than ever. If a genie had offered
to conjure up her ideal man, she would never have been so audacious as to ask
for a handsome Secret Service agent who could be her close friend, confidant,
lover, and protector, and who also possessed an advanced knowledge of
neuroscience—not to mention having technology in his head she couldn’t wait to
study further.

There had been a long silence in the
conference room as everyone waited for Rachel’s next utterance. She decided she
had made them sweat long enough. Now it was time to use her power to do a
little arm twisting.
A lot
of arm
twisting.
 
 
 

She faced the Israeli prime minister. “You’ve
said you think I can avert your crisis if I cram more knowledge into my brain,”
she said. “Well, with all due modesty, I’ve come to believe you’re right.”

The three Israelis in the room brightened
enough to light a cave. “Does that mean you’re in?” said Kish excitedly

Rachel nodded. “I’m in. But I do have some
conditions,” she added quickly. “Maybe
demands
would be the better word.”

“Anything,” said Kish, his enthusiasm not
diminished in the slightest.

“We’ll see. I plan to drive a hard bargain.
And this isn’t about me. I won’t be asking for something easy like having a
chocolate placed on my pillow each night.”

“Which we’re glad to do also,” said Kish with
a smile. He quickly became serious once more. “All right, then. Tell me what
you want.”

Rachel decided to start with a demand she knew
Kish would meet. They had already assured her she could choose her own team,
from both the Mossad group and the group on Plum Island, and that Regev and
Quinn would be key players, in security and other capacities.

But Quinn felt they owed their favorite
Israeli even more.

“I want Eyal Regev promoted,” she began. “Without
him Kevin and I would be dead several times over and San Francisco would be devoid
of all life. He performed brilliantly and heroically. I want you to award him
your country’s most prestigious medal, whatever that is. And I want his salary
doubled.”

The blood drained from Regev’s face and he held
out his hands helplessly. “I didn’t put her up to this,” he said to Wortzman
and Kish, clearly embarrassed. “Honestly.”

Wortzman looked amused. “First of all,” he
said to Rachel, “we’re well aware of Agent Regev’s contributions. His skills
have not gone unnoticed. Which is why he was sent on a mission to recruit you
in the first place. His promotion and medal are already in the works. I was
going to tell him about them by the end of the week. Thanks for ruining the
surprise,” he added with a smile. “The salary thing we weren’t planning on, but
consider it done.”

Regev looked like he wanted to crawl under the
table. Quinn had told her he wouldn’t be happy about being part of her
negotiation, but she felt confident he’d get over it when the first of his new
paychecks arrived.

“What else do you need?” said Kish.

“I need your word that once I’ve solved this
problem, you’ll put Matrix Learning in the private sector, agree to disclose it
to the world.”

Kish’s face fell. This one wasn’t so easy. “You
know we can’t do that. And why. You better than anyone.”

“I’ve given this
extensive
thought,” replied Rachel. “In fact, I’ve thought about
this—lectured about this—for many years. Eyal was in one of these lectures, and
I understand that Avi Wortzman was attending . . . remotely. Here is the bottom
line. This technology is disruptive. No doubt about it. And I know the dangers
as well as anyone. Dmitri Kovonov provided quite a case study for what bad
actors can do with this capability. But while I’m working to reverse the
insanity effect, I want to direct half of the vast neuroscience team you’ve assembled
to come up with countermeasures to
prevent
this misuse.”
 

Wortzman nodded slowly. “Yes, I remember these
discussions from your class.”

He turned to the prime minister. “It was an
impressive lecture. She pointed out that for too long scientists have failed to
prepare for the misuse of transformative technologies. Early computer
scientists not only didn’t spend any time trying to prevent the future use of
computer viruses, they never even considered these might come into existence. She
urged her students to consider tackling this end of the spectrum, which she
argued might be even more important than the innovation itself.”

“We happened to discuss Matrix Learning during
the class,” said Rachel. “We explored any number of ways this technology could
lead to trouble. But if we can find a way to ensure brains are protected from
unwanted memories, unwanted tampering, this alone would be enough to warrant
giving this to the world.”
 

“I have no problem working to counteract
possible misuses,” said Kish. “It’s an excellent idea. And of course you should
be in charge. I’m happy to let you control the most highly resourced program in
my country, Rachel. You can deploy our scientists—
your
scientists—any way you like, and I can promise you a nearly
unlimited budget for additional people and equipment.”

The prime minister shook his head. “But we really
can’t give this to the world. No matter how many countermeasures we come up
with, there will be misuses we can’t predict, disruptions we can’t predict.”

 
“As
long as we’re able to develop countermeasures against the most severe misuse of
the technology,” said Rachel, “we have to just let the cat out of the bag and
let the chips fall. Let’s face it, these capabilities will be developed someday
soon, somewhere, by some person, or group, or country. It can’t be stopped. At
least this way Israel can reap the credit and the financial rewards.”