47
“Hello, Kira. Thanks for taking my call,” said Colonel Morris Jacobson from inside a cramped but luxurious cabin on board the Copernicus. He had contacted her hours earlier to schedule the call, using the IP address he had used to contact her previously. Kira had left this IP address open, but had made sure it was untraceable by linking it to thousands of other IP locations that constantly shifted like the inside of a kaleidoscope, all but one a dummy.
Kira was seated in front of a large monitor which displayed the colonel’s face, with Matt Griffin beside her, intending to be a silent observer.
“I know what you look like now,” continued Jake. “So any reason not to put yourself on screen this time?”
“Yeah,” spat Kira bitterly. “My reason is that you want me to.”
It was true the colonel had been given false information, but he was also responsible for Jim Connelly’s death, something for which she could never forgive him. And the bullet Connelly had taken was meant for her. “You ordered your men in the Rockeys to shoot to kill, you bastard!”
“How can you act surprised?” said Jake calmly. “You know I see you as enemy number one. When I bombed what I thought was your headquarters, I was shooting to kill. So this is hardly a new strategy. The one time you had me promise to take you prisoner and not try to kill you, you, yourself, taught me this was a mistake. That you’re too competent and dangerous to capture.”
“You killed a great man,” she said, her voice a feral growl.
“I really am sorry about that. The evidence I have suggests you’re the one plotting power-grabs and massacres on a global scale, and that your followers are just innocent people sucked in by your lies and charisma. Adoring followers willing to drink poisoned Kool-Aid at your command.”
“What do you want?” snapped Kira.
“I’m calling to ask for your help.”
Kira glanced up at the bearded mountain standing next to her in disbelief. “Of course you are,” she spat. “How can I help?” she added sarcastically. “Wait a minute. Let me guess. You want me to blow my brains out. Or shove a bomb up my own ass maybe.”
Jake made a visible effort to remain calm. “Look, in my office, you suggested we were on the same side, and offered your help if I ever needed it. So you’re admitting that was just bullshit?”
“No. That was a real offer. But that was before you killed my friend.”
“Again, I bombed your headquarters to slag, intending to kill you and several others. My intentions were never a mystery. You knew that when you offered to help me.”
“What happened with van Hutten?” asked Kira, changing the subject.
“I interrogated him, of course. Like Rosenblatt before him, he believes you couldn’t be more compassionate. Although he also believes you’re dangerous and misguided. ”
“Did he convince you the aliens would ask to see me?”
Jake smiled. “Almost. He’s got some pretty wild ideas, but he’s nearly as persuasive as you are. But you have him fooled. He doesn’t believe for a second you’re meeting with terrorists and plotting a massive power grab. He thinks you want to turn us all into the Borg from Star Trek.”
“I know what he thinks!” snapped Kira with a scowl. “Do you still have him in custody?”
“No. After he torched your facility and kidnapped you, he’s not exactly an Icarus member in good standing—so he’s of no further use to me. We let him go. He’s a future Nobel Laureate, after all. We made him sign stiff confidentiality agreements preventing him from telling anyone about you or Icarus, for reasons of national security. But he’s free. We warned him you might retaliate for what he did but he didn’t seem the least bit nervous.” He leaned in closer to the camera. “Should he be?”
“Of course he should,” she said flippantly. “I’m the evil Kira Miller.”
“You’re also brilliant and know if you try anything, you risk giving me a lead.”
“And you’re a lot less intelligent than I once thought,” she said scornfully. “I could have killed him in the Rockies if I wanted him dead,” she pointed out. She gazed at the screen with contempt. “So what do you want? You have to be desperate to come to me for help. And crazy if you think I’ll help you after the Rockies.”
“I am desperate,” he admitted. “Have you heard about a microbe that’s contaminated some Petri dishes here and there?”
Kira shook her head. “No. I’ve been busy,” she said pointedly. “Can’t pay attention to everything.”
“Well, within twenty-four hours, everyone will be paying attention to this. More attention even than they paid to the alien craft.”
Kira’s face wrinkled in apprehension. “Bioterror?”
“Half bio, half not. But terror, definitely. Enough to get me to call you. They’re nanites. Alien nanites.”
Kira and Griffin exchanged stunned glances. “I thought the alien ship was pronounced totally clean before it was brought down.”
“It was,” said Jake. “It must have rained them down on us when it first got here. The nanites weren’t just random stowaways on the alien ship that survived decontamination. Infecting us was the entire purpose of the visit.”
Jake went on to give Kira—and without knowing it, Griffin—as complete a briefing as he had been given. “We obviously need to know what these things are up to,” explained Jake when he was finished. “So far they’re harmless. Maybe they’ll stay that way. Or maybe they’re about to become the most destructive force we’ve ever seen.” He paused. “We need your intelligence enhancement therapy.”
“You can’t have it.”
“I didn’t say that right. We need someone from your group who has experience being under the influence of your pills.”
“Who would you want, and what would you want them to do?”
“We want your top computer expert. Nanites are tiny machines. Machines that require programming. We need to figure out what that programming is. We both know any human with an IQ in the hundreds rather than in the thousands isn’t going to have a chance figuring this out. I doubt even an enhanced expert programmer could, but at least we’ll have a chance.”
Kira eyed Matt for several long seconds. Finally, he nodded decisively.
“And his role?” asked Kira.
“He’d head up the American team that’s been assembled to study this. No one would know about enhancement. We’d just pawn him off as an off-the-charts talent; a singular genius who was previously undiscovered. Like that Indian mathematician who went to Cambridge.” Jake paused. “He’d have immunity of course.”
“So you’re proposing a truce. A cease fire. We work together until this threat is resolved.”
“Exactly. If your man isn’t successful, I’m guessing there’s a good chance we’re all dead anyway. If he is, we let him blend back into the woodwork.”
“And then continue trying to hunt us down like vermin.”
“Unless you can prove to me that you’re innocent with as much tight evidence as I have that you’re a monster.”
“But once you’ve seen and worked with our computer expert, he isn’t anonymous anymore. What if he’s the type who stands out? That’ll make your job easier once he’s helped you, won’t it?”
“It can’t be helped. We both have to choose the lesser of two evils. You don’t want to expose yourself to me and give up your top man. I don’t want to have to work with someone I’m dedicated to bringing down. And you know how I feel about what your treatment does to people. I still worry the cure might be worse than the disease.”