The Lucifer Code (2 page)

Every few minutes, seemingly at random, the striped pattern on the black screen would fade and the beam from the laser gun would break up into pulses, like pellets of light. Each single pulse appeared to pass simultaneously through both slits, and as it hit the black detector screen it left its glowing mark on the glass. But instead of forming clusters of light in line with each of the slits these marks gradually re-created the stripes across the width of the screen, as if each perfectly choreographed pulse of light knew its exact place in the pattern.

The exhibit amused Soames. He never tired of exploring and witnessing the anomalies of the quantum world, where particles smaller than an atom defied the physical laws laid down by Newton for the so-called real world.

A hushed murmur ran through the audience below as the ambient lighting dimmed and the sculptures vanished. Only the sixth exhibit was still visible, its single pulses of light continuing to form their magical pattern on the black screen. Seconds later, ethereal music echoed through the cavernous space and one by one each sculpture reappeared.

'Welcome to the light age,' he heard Dr Amber Grant say, from her position on the raised dais at the end of the hall, as the ambient light gradually returned. 'Today, we at Optrix wish to celebrate with you the mystery of light and demonstrate our mastery of it.' She indicated the laser cannon exhibit. 'First the mystery. Imagine the following set-up: two parallel walls, one in front of the other. You make a vertical slit in the first wall and shine a continuous beam of light at it. What do you see?'

She smiled. 'Simple. A single white vertical line on the second wall caused by the light shining through the slit in the first. Now put two slits in the first wall and shine a light at it. What happens now?' Amber pointed at the exhibit. 'You don't see two vertical lines on the second wall as you might expect, but a stripy pattern of light and shade. This effect is the result of light waves spreading out from each of the two slits and interfering with each other like ripples on a pond. This famous double-slit experiment, originally conducted over two hundred years ago, proves beyond a shadow of doubt that light travels as a wave.'

Amber allowed a silence to hang in the air. 'Then in 1906 Einstein discovered that light wasn't just a wave but also a collection of subatomic quantum particles - what we now call photons. Einstein's original description has become the generic term for the strange subatomic world in which everything from an atom downwards can exist as both an abstract wave and a substantial particle. But even this duality is not the real mystery of the quantum world.'

She pointed at the exhibit, which had resumed sending out pulses of light. 'The sculpture behind you re-creates a modern version of the double-slit experiment. In this experiment a series of single light photons are emitted from a source. But instead of passing through one or other of the holes to form a pool of light on the second wall, each photon somehow travels through both slits simultaneously and interferes with itself. As it passes through the slits it gradually forms the zebra-striped wave interference pattern on the detector screen on the second wall, as if it consciously knows its individual place and is choreographed to behave like a wave.

'However, when the experiment is set up with two particle detectors on the other side of each slit we find that each photon behaves as a single particle. Like a pebble, it follows a definite path through one slit and strikes only one particle detector.

'These actual experiments indicate that photons are conscious. They behave differently depending on how they're observed. And what's even more strange, they appear to be telepathic and clairvoyant too. They know whether to behave like a particle or a wave before they go through the slits. Each photon seems to know how the experiment has been set up and can predict which state it's expected to be.'

She paused. 'So much for the mystery. What about the mastery? We at Optrix pride ourselves on knowing better than most how quantum physics works and have been able to exploit its duality to harness the power of light, which, as we all know; is the ideal medium for computing and communication. Its information-carrying bandwidth is colossal: a single burst of laser light can transmit the entire contents of every library in the world in a second. It can be split into as many different wavelengths as there are colours in the rainbow, making it ideal for parallel processing.

And, of course, it's fast - there's nothing faster.

'It's been eight years since Optrix launched the first optical computer and transformed the world. If you cast your mind back to the opening years of this millennium, silicon was becoming obsolete as the physical limits of processing power were reached. Even Intel had to concede that Moore's famous law, which claimed processing speeds doubled every eighteen months, was impossible to sustain.

'So when the first optical computer - the Lucifer One - was launched, all the rules were broken. There was no longer a need for a silicon-based processor chip and RAM and a hard disk, because the Lucifer used subatomic light photons to do all these things - to process, memorize and store data. A quartz motherboard of optical circuits allied to a sphere containing processor cells of captured light photons created a computer with the processing speed of the fastest thing in the universe. Light. Optrix turned Moore's law into an anachronism overnight.'

Amber paused and walked across the stage. From his vantage-point Soames found it hard to see her in any detail, but he heard her amplified voice and could tell from the hush that she held the attention of the audience. It had been her charisma as well as her mind that had drawn him to her. That she was physically striking had been largely irrelevant. Her talents, however, would pale into insignificance if his suspicions about her were proven tonight.

Soames looked at Walter Tripp, who was powering up the optical computer and entering the code for the foundation's Data Security Provider, accessing live video of the experiment four and a half thousand miles away. On the delayed photon screen, which gave a three-dimensional texture to the images, Soames could see the glass sphere being placed over the subject's head. He shifted his attention back to Amber Grant. Confirmation would soon be at hand.

As chief executive officer of Optrix Industries,' he heard her say, 'I want to remind you of how far we've come in eight years, how far we've entered the light age. I often think that although our logo is "Let There Be Light" it should be "Pushing Back the Darkness" because that's what we're consistently trying to do. In case you've forgotten the leap we've made, the Lucifer can perform a calculation ten to the power thirty-eight times faster than an old electronic Pentium IV computer. In other words, in less than a second, the Lucifer can do a calculation it would take an old IBM ThinkPad the age of the universe to complete.

'The Lucifer design is already a classic. The translucent cube, which contains a glass sphere of photon light particles interacting with memory and processor cells and rests on a motherboard of optical fibre, is a familiar sight in homes and offices around the world. Over ninety per cent of the world's computers, home and commercial, are now optical, produced either by Optrix or our licensees. And the Internet is entirely optical -wireless signals and optical fibres now unite the world at the speed of light. Indeed, many people refer to the Internet as the Optinet.'

Here Amber's tone changed, from triumphant to humble. 'Despite being the public face of Optrix, and credited as the co-inventor of the optical computer, I'm painfully aware that most of the real breakthroughs, the real insights into some of the quantum anomalies of the Lucifer, came from my mentor and the chairman of Optrix Optoelectronics. Bradley Soames is the true genius behind the Lucifer and you'll be delighted to know he's agreed to make a rare public appearance and talk to you later this afternoon.'

Ignoring the buzz of excitement that rose from the audience, Soames glanced at the computer beside Tripp, saw the electrode being attached to the subject's temple. It was close now and, assuming that his suspicions were well founded, Amber would be exposed to the press and the public when it happened. This would make it easier to persuade her to do what was necessary.

'Now to the future,' Amber said, as a low, rhythmic beat filled the hall and the ambient lighting dimmed again, leaving the giant light sculptures pulsing to the music. 'Since the launch of the Lucifer, Optrix have developed new and better ways to exploit the technology. And today's launch is no exception. The Lucifer soft-screen offers a radical new way to present data. Let me show you.'

The tempo of the background music increased and Soames watched her move towards a table at the back of the stage and tap a touch-sensitive control pad beside a translucent glowing cube. A blue rectangular screen bearing the Lucifer logo appeared behind her. It started at no more than a foot high but grew until it was over ten feet high and twelve feet wide. Like the sculptures, it looked solid and opaque but it, too, was formed of light particles.

The screen image changed and the Lucifer logo was replaced by a real-time moving image of Amber. It was as if a vast eight-foot twin stood behind her own five-and-a-half-foot frame, ghosting her every move. The definition was stunning. Her olive skin and thick black hair looked luminous on the screen, and her green eyes were incandescent. She smiled, showing even white teeth, and as her huge alter-ego walked across the stage her Chanel suit shimmered.

'This soft-screen technology literally pushes back the darkness and, within reason, can be whatever size you want it to be,' she said. As visible in direct light as conventional LCD and LED displays, it is backward compatible so can be used with all Lucifer models. The display area can be enlarged like now for presentations, or minimized for laptops or personal use.' The screen image shrank down to postage-stamp size then grew again to its full magnificence. 'And, of course, it's portable,' said Amber, her huge luminous image smiling at the audience. She laughed. 'You could say it's the lightest screen in the world.'

The audience laughed with her and clapped; some even stood to applaud, and Soames was swept up in their enthusiasm. Then he heard Tripp clear his throat and say, 'Almost time, sir.'

Keeping an eye on Amber, he glanced back at the small computer screen beside Tripp. The subject's visor had been sealed and the green caesium and flavion gas was filling the sphere. The scientist in the white bodysuit and eye-protectors held a control pad in one hand. The screen shifted to close-up, focusing on the subject's face within the glass sphere.

Then it happened.

The electrode sparked on the subject's temple. Instantly an even brighter spark - seemingly from the subject's eyes - lit up the gas-filled sphere like a brilliant bulb, before hitting a dark glass oblong embedded in the visor and leaving a stripy wave interference pattern similar to the exhibit in the hall below. It disappeared, lingering momentarily in the sphere's outer layer of optical fibre, glowing like a halo, before it vanished into the ether.

The experiment wasn't interesting in itself: Soames had witnessed a hundred identical experiments over the last nine months and didn't care unduly about today's result. The subject, Mother Giovanna Bellini, was dead, and he doubted the trial had succeeded. What interested him more was its possible connection with what was happening now below him in the turbine hall where the giant on-screen image of Amber Grant was clutching her head and reeling.

At the exact instant the spark had appeared in Mother Giovanna's head-sphere, marking her point of death, Amber Grant had stumbled forward in pain, reaching for her left temple. She was now on her knees and members of the audience were rushing forward to help.

Not taking his eyes off Amber, Soames reached for his cellphone and dialled a number in Cambridge. Someone picked up on the third ring. Soames wasted no time. 'Put me through to the director, please.'

'Dr Knight's in a meeting-'

'Tell her Bradley Soames wants to talk to her. Now.'

In seconds she was on the phone. 'Virginia,' he said, 'it's urgent. The scientist at your clinic I earmarked funds for-'

'Miles Fleming?'

'Yes, he's got to examine Amber Grant -immediately.'

'But that might not be-'

There's no time to argue. Amber needs urgent help. I'll double the funding we discussed for Fleming's NeuroTranslator. She'll be arriving in the next two hours.'

Three minutes later, assisted by Tripp and members of the Optrix staff, Soames was in the hall, standing over Amber who was curled up in the foetal position. Speaking into the microphone, he addressed the crowd: 'Would everyone please move from the hall into the lobby. I'll continue the presentation personally when you return.'

When he was satisfied that the Optrix staff and gallery officials were shepherding the audience away from the stage, he bent down to Amber's rigid form. Lifting her head, he forced two analgesic tablets down her throat and gave her a sip of water.

Amber, it's me. I've arranged for you to see someone who's going to figure out these migraines. Don't pretend it's no big deal any more.'

He waited for her to say something, but she didn't.

He couldn't remain silent. He had to ask. He had to know. 'The pain in the same place as before?'

'Yes,' she whispered, her pale face contorted in agony.

'Where?' he demanded. 'Point.'

Her hand was shaking as she raised it to indicate the area of pain. But she wasn't touching her head - she was pointing to a position in thin air at least three inches from her left temple.