The Credulity Nexus (16 page)

“
Look, I want to–”

But Rik was
just warming up. “And the upload that's been hunting me and
shooting cops like they've just come into season? I suppose you
didn't know about that little detail, either.”

“
Shooting cops?”

“
Among others. And then there's the Chicago
Mob tie-in. What kind of crazy game are you playing,
mister?”

The mention of
Celestina's organisation seemed to bring the stranger back to
somewhere more solid. A flicker of irritation passed across the
man's face and he straightened himself.

“
Please sit down, Mr. Drew.”

“
Not 'til I get some answers.”

“
Sit down, Mr. Drew, and I'll explain
everything.”

Rik found
himself sitting in a chair by the fire. He sprang to his feet, and
was immediately back in his chair. He tried it one more time with
the same effect.

“
While you're in here, Mr. Drew, I have
absolute control over you. Do you understand?” Rik understood, all
right. “Even when you're out in the 'real' world, I still have
considerable influence. Now please be quiet and listen.”

Rik tried to
argue, but his mouth wouldn't work. He thought about trying to get
up and deck the guy, but what good would it do for one virtual
reality construct to take a swing at another one? He gritted his
virtual teeth and tried to relax.

“
Since you seem to know nothing at all, let
me fill you in. I am Martin Lanham and this is my home, Omega
Point. The woman you met earlier goes by the name of Celestina.
She's the upload of Danny 'Mad Dog' Moretti, and–” Lanham paused,
apparently curious about the expression on Rik's face, and let him
speak.

“
She's – I mean,
he's
– a man?” Rik burst out.

Lanham waved
it aside. “That kind of thing doesn't matter so much here.”

Remembering
his lustful feelings, Rik thought it mattered a great deal.

Lanham went
on. “Celestina's the Mafia connection you mentioned. I don't know
much about the embodied upload you say has been shooting people.
Just someone Celestina hired.”

Rik tried to
explain just what he thought of someone who would send the Mafia
after him and his friends, but Lanham had shut him down again.

“
You were asked to pick up a package for
Newton Cordell,” Lanham said. “I want that package. Give it to me
and I will call off my 'Mad Dog', or my mad bitch, as you more
accurately called her.”

Rik's voice
was working again. “I haven't got your damned package. It's gone. I
lost it. God, I wish I'd never seen it! Who else have you hurt, you
deranged freak? How many more of my family and friends are being
targeted?”

“
You need to calm down Mr. Drew, and try to
think clearly. The only way to stop all this is to give me the
package. The longer you wait, the more danger your loved ones may
be in.”

Rik could see
the sense in this, and would normally have been happy to comply.
The only problem was that he didn't have the package, and didn't
have a clue where it might be.

“
Tell me why it's so damned important,” he
said, stalling.

“
It's important because I want it,” Lanham
said.

It occurred to
Rik that his host didn't just want the package; he wanted the
package very, very much. Not just wanted it, but desperately needed
it. He remembered hearing that Omega Point was at one of the
Lagrange points – a journey of a hundred and fifty million
kilometres. You didn't just haul people that far on a whim, even if
you had all the money in the Solar System. It gave Rik some
leverage.

“
Not good enough, Lanham,” he said. “Tell
me why I should give it to you rather than Cordell. Persuade
me.”

Now, Rik
thought, the guy will either take the risk that I'm willing to be
persuaded, or he'll start torturing me, just to be on the safe
side.

Lanham went
very quiet. He stared at Rik with calculating eyes set in a poker
face. When he spoke, his voice was calm and level. “Are you a
religious man, Mr. Drew?”

Rik felt a
wave of relief that the upload hadn't gone for the torture option.
“No, not really,” he said. “Ask me again on my deathbed.”

“
You'll find that people here are in two
distinct camps,” Lanham said. “Those who believe there is no life
after death but who still want to live forever, and those who
believe strongly in God's judgement and are doing their level best
to avoid having to face it. I am in the former camp.

“
Outside of this place, there is a broader
spectrum of views. Newton Cordell, for example, believes in the
existence of God with a firm and unshakable faith. He also believes
that he is destined to go straight to Heaven when he
dies.

“
Have you ever wondered why some people
have faith and some have not?”

Rik shrugged.
“Takes all kinds.”

“
Credulity, Mr. Drew. That's what makes the
difference. Scientists studying human personality have known for
many decades that a tendency to credulity can be a significant
factor in human psychology. Some people are highly credulous. They
believe in UFO abductions, Bigfoot and conspiracy theories. People
with a credulous personality will happily believe in all kinds of
bizarre and unfounded things – even things that contradict one
another. They believe the motions of the planets determine their
daily lives. They believe the human colonies in space are an
elaborate fiction perpetrated by their government. They believe
there is a prehistoric monster living in Loch Ness. And so
on.”

He paused and
looked at Rik meaningfully. “People who have a high credulity index
also tend to believe in some form of God.”

Rik looked
sceptical. “Are you telling me Newton Cordell is a credulous type?
'Cause I don't believe it.”

Lanham barked
a surprised laugh. “You yourself are clearly not a credulous type,
Mr. Drew. And you're right, high credulity and the skills you need
to succeed in business don't often go together. But, sadly, there
are many other reasons why a person may become a religious zealot
like Cordell; intensive indoctrination, for example, mental
illness, or simple stupidity.”

“
I take it you don't like religion
much.”

“
No, I don't.”

“
Or Cordell, either.”

Lanham's lips
twitched, but he said nothing.

Rik remembered
how so many on the religious right denounced uploading as a crime
against God. It was partly down to the various churches' constant
campaigning that uploads had such a bad name down on Earth.

“
So this is all about Cordell's mental
problems?” For all Lanham's talk, Rik couldn't see how he was any
nearer to explaining what was going on.

“
The reasons for Cordell's fanaticism are
irrelevant. What matters is what he plans to do about it.” Lanham
went to a sideboard and poured himself a large whiskey. He didn't
offer one to Rik.

“
About fifteen years ago, researchers in
the UK identified two genes which seemed to play a role in creating
a credulous personality. But the trait was obviously very
complicated. So they kept on looking. Other groups in Europe began
to join them. Considerable funding was made available from several
sources, and it became a hot research area for a short while. Many
other genes were found to contribute, a large 'nexus' of genes, in
the jargon of genetics. People in the field began referring to it
as the credulity nexus.

“
Five years ago it looked quite likely that
the whole credulity nexus was about to be identified. Then the
funding dried up. The leading researchers were recruited by a
newly-formed private company in Germany. There were no more
publications. Whatever they were doing was cloaked in commercial
confidentiality. People expected that patents would be filed and
products launched, but no announcements have been
forthcoming.”

“
And the company was GeneWerken, in Berlin,
right?”

“
Correct.”

“
So your little killbot was in there
slaughtering people to get her hands on this nexus
thing...”

“
No. The credulity nexus is just a piece of
information – knowledge about the complete set of genes that lead
to a credulous personality. What Celestina's embodied upload was
trying get from GeneWerken was the thing they've been developing
there for the past five years. A retrovirus.”

Rik was on his feet again. “Damn! So that
package
did
contain a
bioweapon. What the hell does a bunch of dead guys want with a
bioweapon?” The implications were chilling.

Lanham sighed.
“Sit down please, Mr. Drew.” Instantly, Rik was sitting again. “I
can see you've jumped to all the wrong conclusions. We're not
planning to wipe out the human race. We are not the bad guys here.
You shouldn't listen to so much church propaganda. What we're
trying to do is stop Newton Cordell and his right-wing
fundamentalist associates getting hold of the retrovirus. That's
why I had Celestina send someone to GeneWerken. That's why we've
been hounding you.”

“
But...” Rik shook his head. It still
didn't make sense. “Why is Cordell developing a bioweapon? And
what's it got to do with the credulity nexus?”

“
You really are very slow, aren't
you?”

“
Yeah, well some of us don't have a quantum
computer the size of an asteroid for a brain. You're saying Cordell
has found a way of using the genes in the credulity nex–” Then it
hit him. “Good God! He's developed a retrovirus to insert the
genes, hasn't he? The virus is the... whatever they call
it-”

“
The vector.”

“
That's it, the vector. It gets into
people's cells and inserts the credulity nexus genes into
them.”

“
Actually, we think it mostly just
activates and deactivates genes using epigenetic techniques, but it
must certainly insert some where necessary. Only brain cells and
gametes need be affected.”

“
But it's infectious, right? So once it's
released, everyone will get this virus.”

“
The release would have to be carefully
planned for maximum coverage, but the retrovirus is designed to be
highly infectious. For what they want to achieve, anything over a
ninety percent infection rate will do.”

“
But what could they possibly want to
achieve? Why turn the world into conspiracy theorists and UFO
abductees?” For a moment he'd been caught up in the excitement of
understanding the mechanism, but when it came to understanding the
motive for all this, Rik suddenly realised he didn't have a
clue.

Lanham shook
his head again. It made Rik want to knock it off the man's
shoulders. “If you were a religious fanatic and you were suddenly
offered a whole world full of people just aching to believe in
something, anything, what would you do?”

Slowly, Rik
answered, “I'd give them the sales pitch for my favourite brand of
fire and brimstone.”

“
Well, that's precisely what Cordell and
his associates plan to do. As soon as the virus starts to spread,
they will begin a massive, wordwide media campaign to promote their
own flavour of fundamentalist Christian religion. Total saturation.
And don't think they don't have the money and influence to do
it.

“
We've been running computer simulations of
possible outcomes. The best case scenario is that they recruit two
billion new believers. Worst case, they convert over eight billion.
On the most likely, conservative estimates, they will have
sufficient support to take control of almost every government on
Earth within the next five years, mostly through elections, but
also through coups and revolutions. Within ten years, the ensuing
crusades against non-converted states, and the pogroms within their
own territories, will give them complete, unopposed global
dominion.”

Rik laughed.
It seemed like the only possible response. Yet even to his own
ears, there was no mirth in it, only a desperate need to disbelieve
what he was hearing. “If what you say is true...” he began.

“
Oh, it's true.”

“
Why should I believe you?”

But the
trouble was, Rik did believe him. Crazy and harebrained as it was,
it sounded just too plausible to dismiss. The religious right had
been trying to get control of governments in the West ever since
its heyday in the old Bush presidency. These days, support was
starting to wane and their power-base was being eroded – not least
by the existence of technology that could enable people to live
forever.

“
What do you think our position would be in
a world dominated by religious extremists?” Lanham asked. “We'd be
outlawed and destroyed. I think Cordell's plan is an ethical
abomination, but whatever I thought of it, I'd have to oppose it
out of simple self-preservation. Omega Point – along with every
upload in the System – is fighting for its very
survival.”

“
So we finally get to your own sales pitch,
huh? You'd like me to help you. You want me to find the package and
hand it over to you. In fact, you're going to make it well worth my
while to do just that. Am I right?”

Lanham looked
serious, but then, serious was his default look. “I don't think
either of us wants the world that's coming if Cordell releases that
retrovirus. The last time Christianity held a lot of power in the
world, we had the Crusades, the Inquisition, the hunting down and
burning of anyone who didn't share the Church's beliefs.”