AMPED (7 page)

Van Hutten’s eyes narrowed as he considered this argument. He tilted his head and his expression became slightly less skeptical; slightly more thoughtful. “Go on,” he said.

Connelly and Desh excused themselves from the room as Kira forged ahead. She described how she had experimented on animals before eventually turning herself into a human guinea pig. She described the enormous plasticity of the human brain, which allowed for a ten-fold range of human intelligence, from an IQ of twenty-five to above two hundred, even without being engineered to optimize the potential of what was basically an infinite number of neuronal connections. She explained how she had ultimately developed a cocktail of engineered viruses contained within gellcaps, which delivered a genetic payload that rewired the brain in minutes—in a chain reaction that ordered neurons in a way that random evolution never could. And she explained that they were telling him all this because they wanted to recruit him to their cause, which they would elaborate upon later.

Along the way van Hutten began asking questions and making comments, seemingly unable to avoid becoming intellectually engaged by the discussion, despite himself.

Finally, Kira presented video footage of early experiments she had done on lab rats, who unlike the repulsive sewer rats of horror movie fame, were gray faced and had pink, Mickey Mouse ears that made them look almost cute and cuddly. The footage showed the rodents learning a classical water maze, swimming in a panic inside what looked like a rat hot tub, the water made opaque with powdered milk, until they found the quadrant with a submerged platform. While natural swimmers, the rats always looked to be on the verge of drowning. Many repetitions were required before the test subjects spent most of their time searching for the platform in the correct quadrant.

The video then showed a rat that had just arrived at the facility, one that had never been trained. This rat was injected with Kira’s virus cocktail and twenty minutes later placed in a cage overlooking the water maze, able to observe an untreated cousin flail around in the water until it finally, randomly, found the platform.

The moment the cocktail treated rat was placed in the water maze it swam straight as an arrow for the platform.

Kira explained how stunned she had been the first time this had happened. The rat had learned how to beat the test just by
watching
a single one of its brethren. A single time. It was unheard of.

Toward the middle of the video, Desh and Connelly had returned to the meeting carrying water, soft drinks, and a tray of heaping roast beef, chicken club, and tuna salad sandwiches, which had undoubtedly been prepared ahead of time and stored in a nearby refrigerator. By the time the video ended and Kira had finished her narration, the men had eaten their fill.

Kira clicked off the screen with a small black remote and turned her attention to van Hutten. He was deep in thought. She sensed from his questions and reactions that he wanted to believe, but her claims were so fantastic, so audacious, that he couldn’t get beyond his last shred of skepticism. She was no stranger to this reaction.

“Now we all know that everything I just told you could be an elaborate hoax,” said Kira. “And the rat footage could have been faked.” She paused. “I could also go on to show you discoveries and inventions that are clearly beyond the current state of the art. We’ve done this before as well, with mixed results. Some who’ve been where you are, Anton, believe us and let down their guard, while some continue to be skeptical. Once you’ve seen a few Vegas magic acts, you believe that anything can be faked in close quarters. Inventions, videos, what have you.”

Van Hutten allowed himself a shallow smile. “True. But at least I’m convinced you’re a molecular biologist. Your knowledge of the brain and genetic engineering is impressive. And I have to say your arguments make the impossible seem almost reasonable.” He paused. “But you’re right. I still can’t help but think this might be nothing more than a magic act—although admittedly a dazzling one.”

The room was totally silent for several long seconds. Kira removed a roast beef sandwich from the tray and caught Griffin’s eye, giving him an almost imperceptible nod. Her part of the show was now over. Desh had insisted long before that she not be involved in the part of the discussion that could often get unpleasant. Not because she was a woman and they were men, but because she was the unanimously acknowledged leader of the group and they all thought it important that she stay above the fray.

The giant blew out a long breath. “The only way you’ll believe us the proverbial one hundred and ten percent,” he said, “Is if you take a gellcap and see for yourself.” He paused to give van Hutten time to digest this statement. “I promise you that the effects are not dangerous. And they only last for about an hour. You’ll be famished afterwards, but we’ll supply you with plenty of high-glycemic-index food.” Griffin smiled. “For those of us who experimented a little in college with cannabis sativa,” he added, “these are better known as
munchies
.”

Desh fixed an intense gaze on van Hutten. “Are you willing to try it?” he asked.

The physicist removed his black framed glasses, rubbed his eyes, and placed them back on his face. “And if I’m not?” he said finally.

“We can respect that,” replied Desh. “I was reluctant myself. It’s as if you’re being pushed to take LSD. We’re telling you it’s harmless, and there are no after effects, but this requires you to trust us implicitly. And it
is
mind altering. No one could blame you for not wanting to rush into something like this.”

“Then you’re okay if I pass?”

Desh grimaced. “Actually no,” he said. “I’m afraid we’d have to insist. We know that forcing this on you couldn’t be more unethical. We try to make ourselves feel better by using the ends justify the means argument, but we know this argument is the last refuge of the incompetent. But I also know you’ll be thanking me when this is all over.”

“For forcing me into something I don’t want to do?”

Desh nodded. “Unlike you,
we
know it won’t have after effects.” He tilted his head. “Suppose you come across a man from a primitive culture dying from a bacterial infection and you have penicillin. Suppose this person believes he can get better and refuses to take the penicillin, knowing nothing about it and not certain he can trust you. But
you
know this antibiotic will cure him, and he’ll die otherwise. Do you force him to take it?”

“Yes,” replied van Hutten with only a moment of thought. “Some wouldn’t, I suppose, but I would.” He shook his head. “But this is the most strained analogy I’ve ever heard. I’m not a primitive dying of a bacterial infection. This is far from life and death. The comparison you’re trying to draw couldn’t be more flawed.”

Desh grinned. “Quit beating around the bush, Professor, and tell me what you really think.”

Griffin smiled as well. “Can’t say you don’t have a point, Dr van Hut . . . um, Anton,” he added. “The problem with recruiting brilliant people is that they’re so damn . . . well, brilliant. Not easy to persuade.”

“Look,” said Desh, “we’re asking you to do this voluntarily. But again, we’re prepared to make this happen by force if necessary. Even knowing we have no ethical ground to stand on. We’re not proud of it. But we can’t let you leave until you’ve been what we call
enhanced
.”

“Why? Why is this so important?”

“Because no one who has been enhanced even a single time has not joined our efforts,” said Connelly, who had remained largely quiet throughout the proceedings. “If you don’t experience this for yourself, realize that everything we’ve told you is true, the security risk is too high. You know too much about us.”

“Will you volunteer?” pressed Desh.

“I’m not sure we have the same definition of
volunteer
,” responded van Hutten. “Basically, my
voluntary
choices are to take the gellcap myself, or be manhandled and have the pill forced down my throat. Is that about right?”

Desh frowned. “I’m really very sorry about this. You’re a good man and a brilliant scientist. We’ve studied you closely, and we’ve all come to admire you. The thing is, I’m certain you’ll forgive me once you’ve experienced what
we’ve
all experienced. And you’ll understand the tradeoffs we felt we were forced to make.”

Van Hutten sighed and then nodded. “Okay,” he said in surrender. “Let’s do this thing. Since it’s clear I’m getting a dose of this no matter what I say or do, I might as well take it, um . . . voluntarily. I do have to admit to being intrigued. And if you
are
a group of dangerous lunatics, you have to be the most reluctant and respectful group of dangerous lunatics I’ve ever seen.”

“Thanks,” said Desh with a wry smile. “I think.”

Desh and Connelly remained in the conference room while Kira and Griffin led their visitor to a spacious room nearby, completely transparent, with a single steel chair bolted to the ground in front of a mouse and a laser generated virtual keyboard. Four computer monitors were hung just outside the room, but all were easily visible from the chair through the thick Plexiglas walls.

“This is our enhancement room,” explained Kira. “Once you’re locked in it’s escape proof. Even for someone as brilliant as you’re about to become.”

Kira waited while van Hutten surveyed the room.

“The keyboard and mouse are connected to a supercomputer outside of the room,” she continued. “Which is connected to the Internet. But only in such a way that you can access the web for informational purposes. An even
more
powerful supercomputer monitors your activities, and if it detects any attempt to hack into a site, or affect outside computers in any way—unless these activities are preapproved—it will block them. You’d be smart enough to get around any firewall built by a normal programmer, but Matt put this in place while his IQ was amped.”

Kira paused for breath. “When you make breakthroughs, you should enter them into the computer as fast as you can. The good news is that you’ll be able to type at many times your normal speed with perfect accuracy.”

Kira was working on a brain/computer interface, and after a few more sessions with a gellcap she was confident she could come up with a system that could send human thoughts directly to a computer, eliminating the need for typing and facilitating the transfer of gellcap induced breakthroughs a hundred fold.

“We’ll be monitoring you,” she told him, “but we won’t try to communicate. For your first time, we want you to be able to soar without having to divert even a fraction of your attention to converse with dullards like us.”

“Very considerate of you,” said van Hutten drily.

“Are you ready?” asked Griffin.

Van Hutten nodded.

Kira handed him a gellcap and a bottle of water, and after taking a deep breath, the Stanford physicist downed the pill without ceremony.

Kira recovered the bottle and she and her colleagues retreated to the thick door, which they would lock behind them tighter than a vault.

“It will take a few minutes for the effect to kick in,” said Kira. “But when it does. . . Well, let’s just say that you’ll know it right away.”

7

Jake weighed possibilities from within the cocoon of the helicopter as it darted northward. The cleanest and most obvious choice, he knew, would be to breach the facility with overwhelming numbers and take them out at point blank range, bin Laden style. It was the surest, most direct route.

But it was far riskier in this case than it would have been if this were any other group. If one of them could elude his men long enough for a gellcap to take effect, the odds could well turn in their favor. Their minds would then work too quickly—their reaction times would be too fast. He had seen footage of this in action, and it was truly impressive.

There was far too much at stake for him to take any risk at all. He could leave nothing to chance. He lifted the right side of the heavy black headphones he was wearing just long enough to slide an earpiece into his right ear, connected by a thin cord to his cell phone. A small microphone attached to the cord hung near his mouth.

“Captain Ruiz,” he said into the mike, “what have they been doing in there?”

“It’s impossible to know for sure just from heat signatures, but they’re mostly seated. Over several hours they’ve gotten up to move around, separated for brief periods, and fidgeted. In my experience this looks like a very long meeting, with occasional bathroom and drink breaks.”

Jake nodded. “Are they together now?”

“They are, sir.”

Desperate times called for desperate measures, thought Jake. This was why his group existed in the first place. Sure, he would get second guessed by those judging his actions. The threat wasn’t a nice tidy nuke wrapped up in a bow. Unlike a nuke, it could be argued that the threat presented by Miller and crew was overblown. If he wasn’t steeped in knowledge of their activities and their potential for destruction, he might think so himself. But there was no turning back. He knew what had to be done.

“Okay then, Captain,” he said. “Here’s the plan. I’m going to scramble a bomber to fly overhead at an undetectable altitude and drop a five hundred pound JDAM down their throats.” This would vaporize every living thing inside the building, right down to the cockroaches.

“A JDAM, sir?” said the captain in disbelief.

Jake couldn’t blame him for reacting this way. It didn’t get more unlawful than dropping a smart bomb on a civilian building sitting on U.S. soil. But the situation was perfect for it. Their target was a building not too close to any others. And there was little traffic in the neighborhood.

“You heard me, Captain,” responded Jake. “We’ll set it so it doesn’t explode until it’s entered the building. Miller and Desh won’t have any warning, and there won’t be any chance it will be seen by anyone in the vicinity.”

This would reduce the building to rubble with such accuracy that there should be no collateral damage—not unless someone was within fifty yards of the building. But even so, he wanted to be absolutely certain. “Have some of your team set up unmanned roadblocks at major points of ingress to the target. Make sure no friendlies get inside your current perimeter. I’ll want you patched through to the bomber pilot so you can give him the
all clear
when the time comes.”