Wired (30 page)

Kira
gasped in shock. The shot had missed her by the thickness of a piece of paper.

No
one moved. No one even breathed. All eyes were on Ross Metzger.

The
major calmly lowered his gun. “Sorry about that, Kira,” he said
matter-of-factly. “You were in the way of a clean shot. I calculated that if I
shouted a curse at you, your head would twist just enough for me to kill him.”

Kira
stared at him in bewilderment, her eyes blinking rapidly. She glanced at her
brother on the floor and then turned her head to take in as much of her surroundings
as she could. All was quiet.

Could
it be? After all this time, was it now really over? It had happened so fast. Metzger’s
actions had been so decisive; so final. The immense pressure that had been
bearing down on her psyche for so long was so crushing that its sudden removal
was surreal; disorienting. She took a deep breath and let the reality seep into
the deep recesses of her consciousness: her interminable waking nightmare had
truly ended. It had ended with a venomous curse, and a single shot delivered
with superhuman accuracy. Several tears escaped from the corners of her eyes
and raced down her cheeks.

The
major turned to Desh. “David, while I am more ruthless than I was, I’m not like
Griffin or you. It isn’t testosterone related. I believe I’ve come through the
transformation with more of my soul intact even than Kira did the first time. I
have some theories but you wouldn’t understand.” He paused; or had his
simulacrum pause at any rate. “Kira, I’m sorry about your brother.”

Kira
Miller took a long, hard look at the body lying on the floor and then firmly
turned away, as if determined to close the book on this part of her life
forever. She turned to Metzger and shook her head resolutely; only her eyes
betraying her deep pain. “That’s not my brother,” she said bitterly, drying her
tears with the back of her hand. “My brother died in a fire a year ago.”

50

The
grounds were still smoking from the carnage that had taken place there, and the
outside world was now eerily silent, as if even birds and insects had been
cowed into silence by the bloodshed they had witnessed.

“I’ve
got to hand it to you David,” said Kira appreciatively. “You’re certainly full
of surprises.”

“Sorry
about that,” he replied guiltily.

“Don’t
be. I understand why you made the choices you did, and your plan was flawless.”
Her gaze shifted to Connelly and Metzger. “Gentlemen, I can’t thank you
enough.”

The
colonel smiled warmly. “No need for thanks, Kira. We’re a team now, after all.”

“Judging
from the past twenty-four hours,” said Desh, “we’re about as formidable a team
as you could want.”

“Hard
to argue with that,” said Connelly cheerfully. “But it does help that your
alter ego had it all figured out ahead of time,” he said to Desh.

As
Metzger freed the two prisoners and tore a piece of Alan’s shirt to wrap around
Kira’s arm where the letter-opener had entered, Desh reflected on the enormity
of all that had happened.

The
colonel was right—for the most part. Desh’s enhanced mind
had
solved the
puzzle. He had correctly guessed what had happened in Iran and why. He had
guessed Alan Miller was behind it all, and that he had chosen Desh because he
was someone whose integrity his sister would respond to, and who she would
therefore attempt to recruit.

But
ironically, even after having realized the nature of his own feelings for Kira,
his enhanced self had completely missed that those feelings were
reciprocated
. A warm glow came over him at the thought, along with a smile
that refused to leave his face.

Desh
wished he could freeze this moment forever. He had never felt this way about a
woman before. And never in his life had he felt so relieved. Or triumphant. Or
hopeful.

They had done it
. Against incredible
odds they had prevailed.

They
had been charging ahead at a dizzying pace; so busy fighting for their lives
and struggling to peel back the onion it had seemed as if this state of affairs
would never end: or would end, inevitably, with their deaths. But they had
battled their way to victory, and in the process they had earned themselves a
future. A future in which Kira’s discoveries could be harnessed to better
mankind, rather than being used by a psychopath to become the most powerful and
dangerous man in history.

Desh
could only imagine the elation Kira must be feeling now that her long ordeal
was finally over. She had faced these powerful, shadowy forces for an eternity
longer than he had, and utterly alone.

Desh
pulled himself from his reverie. He was now standing beside the steel gurney to
which he had been strapped, and Metzger had just finished wrapping Kira’s arm. “Is
Matt okay?” he asked.

“He’s
fine,” said Connelly. “I gave him the keys to the RV and told him we’d meet up
with him later at a location I gave him. After the fireworks at Putnam’s house,
when I took out the men who were holding him and the major hostage, he didn’t
look so hot.” Connelly smiled. “Not that we would have brought him on this
little raid anyway,” he admitted.

“How
are
you
doing, Colonel?” asked Kira in concern.

“Great,”
he said happily. “Your treatment is unbelievable. I was able to direct my
body’s autonomous functions and greatly accelerate the healing process.”

“I
hate to spoil the party,” said Metzger soberly, “but we need to go. As isolated
as this place is, we have to assume we attracted some attention. We need to lay
low for a while. As soon as Matt is up to it, we can give him a gellcap and let
him clean up behind us.”

Desh
raised his eyebrows. “Can I assume you have a strategy in mind?”

“Of
course,” said Metzger. “Step one: Enhanced Matt alters secure military
databases to show that Alan Miller was in league with terrorists on an imminent
attack. Step two: he plants secret orders, backdated to yesterday, calling on
me to take out Miller using any means necessary.”

Desh
was impressed with the simplicity but effectiveness of the plan. This would
instantly legitimize Metzger’s appropriation of the helicopter from Bragg and
the carnage at the mansion. “That should do it,” he said. “You’ll probably earn
a medal.” Having a member of the team capable of subverting the most secure
computer systems in the world did have its advantages.

“Kira,”
said the major, “you and David stay here for a few minutes. The colonel and I
will make certain we didn’t miss any hostiles and start the chopper.”

Connelly
looked puzzled. “Shouldn’t we all leave right now?”

“They’ve
been through a lot,” explained Metzger. “Let’s give them a few minutes alone.”

The
colonel still looked confused, but didn’t argue.

Desh
knew that Metzger was still in the thrall of Kira’s treatment, which meant he
was undoubtedly focusing on ridiculously complex problems at the same time his
avatar personality was speaking with them. And he must have also read their
body language like a neon sign, picking up on their mutual infatuation and Desh’s
desire to have a few minutes alone with Kira. He would have to remember to
thank the major later.

Metzger
turned back toward Desh as he and Connelly reached the front door. “You’re
welcome,” he said knowingly, and then, guns drawn, both men cautiously exited
the mansion.

The
corners of Desh’s mouth turned up into a wry smile in response to Metzger’s
words, but his smile quickly vanished as he made a visual inspection of Kira’s
arm. “Are you all right?” he asked softly.

She
smiled, almost bashfully. “Never better,” she said simply.

Desh
paused awkwardly. “Kira,” he began. “About this whole being in love thing—” He
looked at her uncertainly. “I feel a bit silly. I never believed it could
happen so suddenly.”

She
nodded. “Me either.”

“We’ve
been through hell together,” he continued, “and we’ve bared our souls to each
other. We know more about each other than couples who have been together for
months.” He sighed. “What we
don’t
know is how we’ll be together when
the pressure is
off
. So I was thinking—even if it might seem a bit
ridiculous at this point in our relationship—maybe we should go on an
old-fashioned, boring first date. No commandos or adrenaline allowed.”

“A
first date, huh,” said Kira, considering. “Not a bad idea.” She grinned and
then added playfully, “But I should warn you, I don’t kiss until the
third
date.”

Desh
laughed. “In that case,” he said, “I’m prepared to call our time together at
Montag’s Gourmet Pizza a date.” He raised his eyebrows. “And you did take me to
a motel and tie me to the headboard of a bed. Does that count?”

“Nope.
I’m afraid not. Normally it would, but given that I brought you there in the
trunk of a car, I have to disqualify it.”

“Okay,
then. What about the nature hike we shared together?”

“We
weren’t alone.”

“Damn,”
said Desh. “Your definition of a date is awfully picky. You also took me to
your place for the night, but since we weren’t alone then, either, I suppose
you won’t count it.” Desh shook his head. “If I had known,” he added wryly, “I
would have ditched the major and the colonel at the baseball stadium when we
landed.”

Kira
laughed and leaned closer to him, well within an inescapable gravity well that
was impossible for either of them to resist, even had they wanted to. They
kissed hungrily, and only the sure knowledge that they wouldn't remain alone
for long in what had become a war zone enabled them to, finally, separate.

Kira
sighed dreamily. “I’ll tell you what,” she whispered with a contented smile. “I’m
prepared to count our entire time together as the equivalent of two dates.”

“Two?”
whispered a euphoric Desh, who felt as though he surely must be floating. “I
thought you didn't kiss 'till the third.”

“That
was just a sample,” she said.

“An
incredibly effective one,” he said contentedly.

“Good.
Because after we’ve showered and gotten some sleep, I’ll be ready for that
third date. We can go out to dinner.
I’m
buying.”

“
Really
,”
said Desh, amused. “That sounds like too good of a deal to pass up.”

“Well,
you did bring Matt Griffin to the team. And he did just deposit half a billion
dollars in my account. So I suppose I owe you a nice dinner.”

“A
half billion dollars only gets me dinner?”

Kira
flashed an incandescent smile. “That remains to be seen,” she said, her eyes
dancing.

Desh
grinned. There was a long silence as he gazed deeply into her eyes. As he did
so, he couldn’t help but feel they were truly in love. But he knew this could
well be an illusion. It could prove to be nothing more than a passing
infatuation, catalyzed by their being thrown together in desperate
circumstances and forced to fight for their lives side by side.

If
only emotions were as simple as pure reason, he thought. But they weren’t. They
were primal, and often incomprehensible.

But
that’s what made emotion the most critical part of being human, Desh realized. If
life could be reduced to the purely rational, to a solvable equation, there
would be no mystery, no excitement. Life would become utterly predictable; a
tedious movie that could never surprise. The truth was that neither he nor Kira,
normal or enhanced, could know for sure if their feelings for each other would
diminish or grow as time marched on.

Desh
knew that Connelly and Metzger were waiting for them. “We’d better go,” he said
softly, pulling his eyes away from Kira’s and nodding toward the oversized
front door of the mansion. “Our chariot—and our future—await,” he added.

“Gallantly
said,” noted Kira with a smile. She raised her eyebrows. “Any guesses as to
what that future might hold?”

Desh
shook his head. “Not a one,” he replied. “But I can tell you this,” he added
happily. “I suddenly can’t wait to find out.”

EPILOGUE

“The
brain is the last and grandest biological frontier, the most complex thing we
have yet discovered in our universe. It contains hundreds of billions of cells
interlinked through trillions of connections. The brain boggles the mind.”

—James
D. Watson, Nobel Laureate and co-discoverer of the structure of DNA.

“Anyone
who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood a single word of it.”

—Niels
Bohr, Nobel Prize winning physicist.

David
Desh studied his wife through the thick Plexiglas barrier as anxiety ate at his
stomach. Jim Connelly, Matt Griffin, and Ross Metzger stood quietly beside him,
each lost in their own thoughts.

The
core team had debated taking this step for the better part of a year and had
finally reached a decision. They had to know. Even if it cost them everything. They
had to know what might await human consciousness at the next level of
optimization, a level Kira had experienced for all of two seconds: long enough
to understand that she had achieved intelligence as far beyond her first level
of optimization as that level was beyond normalcy.

If
anything was universally accepted as the hallmark of humanity, it was the insatiable
curiosity at the heart of the species. But would this insatiable curiosity cost
them everything?

It
was impossible to predict.

Kira
had extended the effect of this second level of enhancement from two seconds to
five minutes in duration. For five minutes she would exist in a realm that
approached the theoretical limit of thought that could be achieved by one
hundred billion neurons; a level staggering in its power. If the sociopathic
tendencies scaled up as well, and they failed to contain her, the consequences
would be unpredictable and potentially disastrous—even given the limited
duration of the effect.

So
they had taken precautions. A steel chair had been bolted to the floor, and Kira
was immobilized in it more securely than any human had ever been immobilized in
history. She sat in the middle of a thick plexiglass cube that looked like a
transparent racquetball court, with enough sleeping gas to tranquilize a herd
of elephants poised above her head, ready to be triggered by any of her observers.
In case her enhanced mind was able to direct her body’s enzymes to metabolize
the gas before it could affect her, the chair was rigged with plastic
explosives that were also controlled from the outside. She had insisted upon
this herself.

In
the past year they had recruited dozens of top people from every field,
carefully vetted according to Desh’s plan, who had made breathtaking
discoveries that would soon transform the world. But the original five who were
gathered together now still formed the core leadership, and it seemed only fitting
that they be the sole witnesses to the greatest experiment of them all.

Inside
the plexiglass enclosure, Kira gasped. She clenched her teeth in agony. The
transformation had begun.

David
Desh watched his wife helplessly as her agony intensified for almost thirty
seconds.

Just
as suddenly as it had begun, the tortured expression left her face and was
replaced by a look of serenity more complete than any Desh had ever witnessed. There
was a radiance to her now; an ethereal glow. Desh knew that while her outer
demeanor was utterly peaceful, her mind was now churning at an inconceivably
furious pace. He shook his head in awe and trepidation. Through what new
galaxies of thought was she now traversing?

The
five minutes ticked by with agonizing slowness. Kira’s vital signs were being
monitored, and her breathing and heartbeat had become as steady as an atomic
clock; a sure sign she was in the enhanced state. Her eyes had been closed
since the transformation had begun, and she hadn’t moved a centimeter; nor had
she uttered a single word.

Without
warning her vital signs lost their perfect rhythm.
She was back
. She had returned from her extraordinary voyage.

Desh
blew out the breath he had been holding for some time now, relieved.

The
countenances of his three friends all brightened beside him as well.

But
there was a hurdle yet to jump, Desh knew. Would she be the same woman with
whom he had fallen in love, or would this experience, this new reordering of
her neurons, change her in unpredictable ways?

Forty
seconds passed and her eyes remained closed. David Desh suddenly found it hard
to take a breath. Had something gone wrong?

He
checked the digital clock counting down on the monitor next to her still-strong
vital signs. They had agreed not to enter her cell until a full ten minutes
after the effect appeared to have reversed, just to be sure. Desh’s desire to
rush in and hold her, and confirm that nothing was amiss, was so all consuming
it took every ounce of his will to suppress it.

He
stared at the digital clock as the seconds continued to pass; willing them to
go faster.

Kira
slammed into normalcy like a starship traveling at warp speed crashing into an
immovable object. The return to normalcy had been jarring before, but nothing
could compare to
this
.

She
shook off the shock of it and hastily searched her mind. Had she contemplated
evil acts while on this transcendent plane of intelligence? Had she found
Nietzsche’s will to power even more difficult to resist than before? Had she
been even more contemptuous and dismissive of the species Homo sapiens?

Memories
flooded back to her. They were but a pale shadow of a shadow of a shadow of her
thoughts during the five-minute period—which had seemed to her to last for many
hours—and the memories were in clumsy English rather than the precise and
expansive symbolic logic her mind had been able to effortlessly manipulate
while transformed.

But
these wisps of memory were enough.
She
knew
. Their greatest hopes had been realized. Their greatest fears put to
rest. David had been right. Compassion and pure intellect were
not
mutually exclusive. And as her normal mind brushed over the faint echo of the
conclusions she had reached while transformed, feelings of profound joy and
contentment surged through her.

The
baseline level of human thought was so plagued by emotion and instinct, so
limited in power and rationality, that individuals could be readily fooled into
believing almost any conjecture. At the first level of enhancement with which
she and her team had become familiar, faith did not exist, and any logic that
called for the existence of a deity was quickly seen to be fatally flawed. At
this level of thought it became clear that existence was without meaning, and
selfishness became an imperative.

But
now, having achieved a second level of optimization that was truly staggering,
she had gained a perspective far different from that she had achieved at the
first level. She marveled at the preposterous hubris she and the others had
exhibited at this level. Incredible. Now that she had achieved a truly
transcendent plane of thought she was sure of only one thing:
she understood
absolutely nothing!

The
universe was infinite, and there were most likely an infinite number of
universes. To sit on one tiny planet in an ocean of infinite infinities and
believe you understood
anything
about the true nature of existence and
reality was absurd. The convictions of the arrogant minds of those at the first
level of enhancement were just as flawed as any they had replaced.

Was
there an afterlife? Maybe. Perhaps there wasn’t even a need for one. Perhaps
all consciousness was
already
immortal. The widely embraced Many-Worlds
interpretation of the bizarre experimental results found in quantum physics suggested
that whenever different possibilities for the future existed,
all
of
them
were
realized
. The universe was constantly splitting
into multiple universes, like branches on a tree, with each branch continuing
to branch an infinite number of times.

In
the past a bullet fired from a helicopter had been hurtling toward Jim Connelly
as he stood in a clearing. In this universe it had missed killing him by a few
inches. But as the bullet was hurtling toward him the universe had branched. There
were now an infinite number of universes in which the bullet had killed him,
and an infinite number in which it had missed entirely. But within these
infinities going forward, until the end of time, there would always be at least
one universe in which the colonel’s consciousness survived.

The
possibility of quantum immortality was accepted by a number of mainstream
physicists as they used their normal human faculties to understand the
fantastic implications of quantum effects. But there were possibilities her
alter ego had glimpsed that human scientists had not even
begun
to
suspect. There were at least as many reasons to believe in the existence of
immortality or an afterlife as there were not to.

Was
there a God? It was impossible to answer this question for sure, but the level
of human understanding was so insignificant it was the height of arrogance to
rule it out. She had posed the question: if God could exist without need of a
creator, why couldn’t the universe? But the converse was also true. If the
universe could exist without being created, why couldn’t God?

But
even if God existed, there was no guarantee this being would have all the
answers; would fully understand the nature of reality. An omniscient being
could be all-knowing and yet have far more to learn. Infinite infinities yet
again. Even if God’s mind could grasp and contain within it the infinity of
numbers between 0 and 1, there were still an infinity of numbers outside of
this set.

But
if
God
might be unable to fully comprehend the true nature of existence,
where did this leave poor humanity? To what end should this lowly species
aspire?

Miraculously,
Kira’s alter ego had come up with an answer to this question: one she found
immensely satisfying.
The purpose of consciousness—any consciousness—was to
achieve infinite comprehension
. It was as simple as that. If a God existed,
humanity must strive to discover this God and help this deity become
omniscient, not just in one infinity, but in an infinity of infinities.

This
was one possible purpose for her species. But her alter ego, using symbolic
logic, had arrived at a possibility she considered much more likely: that
humanity’s purpose, together with all life across all universes, was not to
discover
God
—it was to become God.

If
a single human egg could possess consciousness at the instant of fertilization,
how would it view itself? It couldn’t possibly predict or comprehend the
multi-trillion-celled being it would ultimately become. The entirety of
humanity could well be that single, fertilized cell, unaware that it would grow
a trillion-fold more complex and eventually become God,
perhaps had already
become God,
in a universe in which all pasts, presents, and futures existed
side by side.

Humanity
was composed of separate individuals now, but an embryo at early stages was
also nothing more than a ball of separate cells. But these separate cells would
ultimately become connected in wondrous ways to create something unimaginably
greater than themselves.

And
seen in this light, altruism and sociopathy were far from straightforward
concepts, beyond even the complexities that Abraham Lincoln had revealed. Absolute
altruism on one level could be absolute selfishness in disguise on another, and
vice-versa. The cells making up the human body were selfless; gladly sacrificing
themselves when necessary for the good of the organism. On the microscopic
level they were being foolishly altruistic, foolishly suicidal, but on the
macroscopic
level they were being purely
selfish
—
ensuring the survival of the body. And what happened when an
individual cell became selfish and exhibited Nietzsche’s will to power? It
became a cancer. The cell would break free of the restraints on its own
division and become immortal—for a while—until its very immortality choked the
entire organism to death, killing the selfish cell in the process.

Humanity
had no choice but to assume that it would evolve into God, either alone or in
combination with all other conscious beings and all other life. The stakes were
too high to assume anything else. Life would evolve into God, and then God
would create the multiverse and all life, in a circular process extending
through all of space-time, with no beginning and no end, which only this
ultimate intelligence could comprehend. Some forms of life would play starring
roles in this process and some would play lesser roles—which might even call
for their extinction. Yet the purpose of all life would be to foster a healthy
God; just as the purpose of all human cells was to enhance the health of the
entire organism, even at the cost of their own survival, if necessary.

In
this case, the questions posed by Nietzsche would be answered in a far
different way than this philosopher had answered them. What is good? All that
fosters life in its myriad forms, subject to the overriding needs of emerging
Godhood. What is bad? All that stands in the way of life and its struggle to
become God.

So
now their fledgling team would have a clear purpose. And the means to enhance
themselves to a previously unimaginable level of thought, without fear of
sociopathy. Kira realized that this wouldn’t make their problems disappear, it
would only expand them and increase their difficulty. A myriad of tough
questions and challenges remained, even in the near term. Could this
transcendent transformation be made permanent? Should it be? Should mankind
take a hand in its own evolution? If so, could the essence of humankind be
preserved?
Should
it be preserved? What if some wanted to make the
switch and others didn’t?

There
would be no easy answers. But these were questions for another day.

Right
now, it was time to report the phenomenal success of the experiment to the
team, and describe the profound new vistas of thought this second level of
enhancement had opened.