AMPED (19 page)

The conjecture never ended. Peaceful prayer meetings sprang up across the globe, conducted by a number of different religions. Riots broke out. Con artists, crazies, and spotlight seekers arose who insisted they were in contact with the incoming craft, and who declared themselves prophets.

But the majority of the world’s inhabitants continued going through the motions of living their lives. Billions upon billions adopted a wait-and-see fatalism.

Oblivious to the commotion it was causing on its target world, the small craft effortlessly tapped into the near infinite amount of energy available in every square centimeter of vacuum, and hurtled onward.

The people of Earth watched. And waited.

24

Kira had been so intent on watching the video Jake showed her, she had failed to consider the implications of its very existence.

The footage had come from Sam Putnam’s basement. From the safe house they had been in. But her brother, Alan, had never seen it. In the last minutes of his life, he had wanted to know how they had managed to escape from Putnam’s concrete dungeon.

So Putnam hadn’t been fully forthcoming to Alan. He had been playing a game of his own.

And why not? He was an intelligent, highly placed operative in the NSA, who had amassed power that was unequaled. And he was a true psychopath. Alan was an even bigger psychopath, true, and was behind Putnam’s meteoric rise through the NSA, but it would hardly be surprising to learn Putnam hadn’t been the loyal puppet he had appeared to be.

But both Putnam and her brother were dead. So how had Jake ended up with this footage? The most likely explanation was that it was recovered by someone who had been working closely with Putnam or her brother. And if this were the case, all bets were off.

“Before you showed this video,” said Kira, “I had asked you for your source of information about me. The existence of this footage has raised some disturbing possibilities. So the answer to this question is more important than ever.”

“What possibilities?”

“I’ll tell you, but it’s better if you start. Really.”

He considered. “Why do I continue to feel that you’re interrogating
me
?”

Kira didn’t respond.

“I received an e-mail from someone I consider a mentor,” said Jake. “The most patriotic, heroic man I’ve ever known. A man of Islamic heritage who has spent years deep undercover, infiltrating the highest levels of Hezbollah.”

“Born in America?”

“Yes, but able to speak unaccented Arabic. Anyway, the message had a large file attached that detailed everything about you. Your history. How you were hunted because of your involvement in a bioterror plot. Your IQ cocktail. How David Desh was sent to stop you. Your longevity treatment, along with proof that it was a hoax. Everything.”

“Any mention of my brother, Alan?”

“Only that you had burned him alive. Again, you were later cleared of this, but my mentor knew otherwise.” He paused. “In addition, there was unimpeachable evidence of you meeting with terrorist leaders—that’s how he knew about you—working on WMD, both nuclear and biological. And also of your involvement in major terrorist attacks around the world.”

“And where did he say he got this evidence? Did he claim all of this activity was somehow tied up with Hezbollah?”

“I don’t know. He’s in very, very deep. I can’t contact him. He only risked contacting me once before. With information that was instrumental in stopping a plan to sabotage the San Onofre nuclear reactor in Orange County—which would have turned Southern California into Chernobyl. The fact that he risked another communication shows how important of a threat he thinks you are.”

“But if you never followed up with him, how can you be sure he sent you the message?”

“It was him. The e-mail and IP address matched up. He referenced history that only he would know about.”

Kira considered. She had no reason to doubt Jake that the evidence against her was airtight, and had been vetted repeatedly for authenticity. So what did this mean? Either she really was an evil terrorist set out to destroy the world, or . . . or all of this had been set up by someone with access to her therapy. It was the only way this could have been handled so flawlessly. But none of the gellcaps she had produced had been involved. She was certain of that.

Which meant that somewhere out there, there was someone who could make active gellcaps. Putnam had blackmailed a molecular biologist, a man they later learned was named Eric Frey. Kira’s brother had stolen a number of gellcaps from her, and he had fed some of these to this blackmailed biologist, pushing him to recreate her work. When Putnam and her brother were killed, this Frey had been close to succeeding. But without access to several more doses of Kira’s therapy, he was sure to fail.

But maybe not. Maybe he had been playing a double game as well. Maybe he had made more progress than he had let on. He may have been in league with Putnam to cross her brother. If so, this Eric Frey could well have access to the video footage she had just seen.

And if there were others, unknown to her, who could amplify their intelligence, they could have easily managed to fabricate airtight evidence against her. And could have hacked into the right computers to get the IP address and background information necessary to convince Jake the evidence had come from a trusted friend, conveniently deep undercover so this couldn’t be checked further. It all fit together perfectly.

And then another piece of the puzzle suddenly slid into place.

“Colonel, there’s something you’re not telling me,” she said. “When you read your friend’s message, you should have thought he had gone off the deep end. You should have never believed in IQ enhancement. It’s too fantastic. I know how improbable it is, and
I
developed it. Even with my genetic engineering abilities and study of autistic savants, it’s astonishing that nature allows for it.”

“My friend saved my life more than once. I trust him implicitly. If he’s convinced of the power of your therapy, that’s good enough for me.”

She shook her head. “I think you’re lying. Even if you believed in enhancement, you’d still never be able to imagine the transcendent capabilities of an enhanced mind. No way. But your actions suggest you
can
imagine it. I’ve seen your paranoia in action when you’re dealing with me. You’ve been ridiculously careful.
Too
careful.”

“What’s your point?”

“Your friend didn’t just send you an e-mail. He sent you a small package as well, didn’t he?”

Jake gazed at her and sighed. “Very perceptive. I have to remember you’re one of the few people in this world who are off-the-charts brilliant, even without any artificial help.”

“So you admit it?”

He nodded. “Yes. You’re right, of course. He sent me a package. With a single gellcap inside. He said the only way I could truly understand the threat, truly understand what I was up against, was to try it myself. If it had been anyone else I wouldn’t have done it. But it was him. And the evidence was compelling.”

“Only one?”

“Only one.”

“So you learned firsthand just how amplified your intelligence becomes, and the spectacular capabilities that come with it.” She paused in thought. “And the sociopathic tendencies must have hit you hard. Very hard. That’s why you’re so overzealous when it comes to the threat you think we pose.”

A faraway look came to Jake’s eyes. “That’s right. The information I was sent detailed the side effects—the changes in personality. I thought I was prepared for it, but not by a long shot. I became ruthless. Savage. I had access to a computer and the Internet, and in that single hour, I doctored files, removed funds, and destroyed the careers and finances of two rivals of mine.
Friendly
rivals. I’m not a computer expert, and to this day I have no idea how I did it.” He made no attempt to hide his self loathing. “I tried to undo the damage later, but got nowhere. I’ve been helping get them back on their feet anonymously, but they’ll never be where they were.”

“Does anyone know you were behind it?”

“No. I would have admitted it, but I couldn’t recall how I had done it. And I couldn’t even find evidence against myself. A confession would have raised too many questions I couldn’t answer. I tried to undo the damage, but I couldn’t.”

“Now it all makes sense. Why you have so much respect for what my therapy can do. And why you believe I’m more dangerous than the devil. You’ve experienced the awesome power of an enhanced mind, and know this can turn even a saint into a tyrant. And you’ve been given evidence that I was a psychopath even before any therapy. So killing me, stopping me, became your crusade, your obsession.”

He nodded. “I’m the only one outside of Icarus who knows how truly dangerous you can be. How truly creative and brilliant you become. Einstein and Edison times a hundred.”

“You’re being played, Colonel,” said Kira evenly. “I’m not saying my therapy isn’t dangerous in the wrong hands. Or even in the right hands if not enough precautions are taken. But the e-mail you received wasn’t sent by your friend.”

“And what do you base that on?”

“Did your friend tell you where he got the gellcap he sent?”

Jake shook his head no.

“Well he didn’t get it from me. I know where every last one of them has gone. So whoever sent this message has their own source. Which means they have gellcaps for themselves. How hard do you think it would be for an enhanced mind to hack your buddy’s IP address and history to fool you into thinking the message was from him? No matter how deeply buried it was. How hard would it be for an amplified intelligence to fabricate evidence to frame me? Evidence that could pass your every test for authenticity.”

“Not hard, I’ll admit. Maybe I’ll buy this level of intelligence could have come up with ways to fake video footage well enough to stand up to the classified authentication methods we used, even though they’re considered foolproof. But not
half
of a continuous shot. Not without leaving some evidence. And the footage I showed you was one continuous shot. You’ve vouched for its authenticity yourself.”

Kira frowned. This was true, and certainly didn’t help her argument. “Maybe it’s the one authentic piece of evidence mixed in for good measure.” She leaned forward and stared intently at the colonel. “But I’m telling you the message didn’t come from your friend.”

 
“If it didn’t,” challenged Jake, “tell me why anyone would go to the trouble. Why would anyone introduce me into the game?”

“So whoever is behind this can sit back and have you do all the work to root me out. To root
Icarus
out. Then they’re free to do whatever they want. They can bide their time, build up power and resources, until you’ve knocked off the competition. Until you’ve eliminated the only people who can possibly stand in their way. Once we’re gone you go back to blissful ignorance, thinking enhanced intelligence is a thing of the past.”

Kira realized this was the reason whoever was behind this had gone out of their way to discredit her longevity treatment. After even her brother had failed to pry or trick it from her, they must have decided not to make an attempt. But they had learned that the lure of the fountain of youth was so powerful it could corrupt anyone, and they didn’t want to give Jake and his group any reason to keep her alive.

“You’re being used, Colonel,” she said. “They’ve taken a page out of my brother’s playbook. He framed me and used the military also. The difference is, he unleashed them to keep me running and to set me and David up for his perfect storm. Whoever is pulling the strings this time wants me eliminated.”

“What are you talking about?” said Jake in confusion. “You
killed
your brother. Even before Desh was sent to find you.”

Kira frowned. “If only,” she said. “My brother didn’t die in the fire. He was
behind
it all. I’m not surprised that whoever sent you the information didn’t mention this little fact.”

She went on to tell him about Putnam and Alan and everything that had happened.

“Very inventive,” said Jake when she had finished. “Even you have to realize how farfetched all of that sounds.”

“I do. That doesn’t mean it isn’t true. Besides, how could I come up with a story this complicated without tripping up even once? Because the truth is much easier to keep track of than a lie.”

“If you were anyone else this might be convincing. But you’re inventive enough to spin a web of bullshit on the fly without contradicting yourself.”

“Colonel, you and I are on the same side. All I ask is that you at least consider the possibility that the information you have is false. Review it again with a more skeptical eye. And do the same with any new information you get. If you’re right, no amount of reexamination will change the fact that I’m an enemy of civilization. But if
I’m
right, you’ll discover you’re pointed in the wrong direction. That the true enemy is waiting patiently for you to do their dirty work. What do you have to lose?”

Jake considered. “Despite your legendary persuasive abilities, I’m still convinced you are who I think you are. But I won’t close my mind completely to other possibilities.”

“
Thank you
,” said Kira emphatically. “Again, we really are on the same side. I’d love to prove that to you. I know you’re on other projects, trying to keep the world safe from WMD. If you’re ever in a bind, hitting a brick wall on an important op, and think an enhanced mind could help break it open, I’m willing to help. You know how to reach me.”

Jake tilted his head. “I know we’ve been having a pleasant little discussion here,” he said. “And you’ve made some interesting points. But I still plan to lock you away for the rest of your life. Nothing has changed. So yes, I do know how to reach you.”

Kira couldn’t believe her own stupidity. What could possibly have possessed her to make a statement like this? To suggest so clearly she thought her stay was only temporary. She was very lucky she hadn’t put him on guard. She could have found herself surrounded by twenty men and encased in cement if he chose to exercise his usual paranoia. At
exactly
the wrong time.