She was just finishing up when Matt Griffin opened his eyes. The dose of tranquilizer had been fairly modest, and hadn’t been enough to keep a man of Griffin’s weight out for long.
He shook himself awake and then looked around the room, taking in the gruesome bodies and massive carnage. Then he did it a second time, as though he wasn’t quite sure his eyes weren’t playing tricks on him. Only two figures moved. Kira, who was tending to Ross, and David Desh, who he spied through the open door, keeping watch outside.
Griffin breathed a heavy sigh of relief, and Kira’s head shot around at the noise. She caught his eye and visibly relaxed.
“Kira, um . . . just out of curiosity,” he said wryly, making a show of turning his head around the room to take in the corpses that surrounded him. “Did I miss anything while I was asleep, by any chance?”
62
After they had freed Griffin and he and Kira had embraced warmly, Desh removed Kira’s keys from Dutton’s bullet-riddled corpse and they loaded Ross Metzger carefully into the back of the Icarus van.
“Is David fully up to speed?” asked Griffin
Kira blew out a breath and shook her head no.
Griffin’s eyes roamed between Desh and Kira and back again, as if trying to guess the possible state of their current relationship. “In that case,” he said finally, “I’ll drive.” He held out his hand toward Desh, who was holding the keys. “You and Kira can ride in the back. You two need to have some quality alone time,” he said. He raised his eyebrows. “Well, alone time if you don’t count Ross.”
Desh looked into Kira’s eyes once again. Was there really an explanation that would exonerate her? It seemed almost impossible. He so wanted there to be, but he still couldn’t rule out that her explanation of events would fall short. But there was only one way to find out. “Thanks, Matt,” he said, putting the keys in the giant’s hand. “Find the nearest woods and we’ll decide if we want to switch vehicles. I’m sure Frey and Dutton wanted their ambush of Kira to be off the record, so no one should be watching. But be alert and keep your eyes peeled anyway,” he instructed.
“Wow,” said Griffin with a grin, “it’s like we’re one big happy family again.”
“That remains to be seen,” said Desh grimly.
Desh and Kira sat in leather captain’s chairs opposite each other and belted in as Matt pulled away from the charnel house.
“Okay, Kira. If you can truly explain away everything I’ve learned, every act you’ve taken, you’re an even greater magician than I thought.”
Kira sighed. “I have a gellcap in the key ring upfront. You could take it before I start to be sure I’m telling the truth.”
Desh considered. The fact she was offering this up was encouraging. “That’s okay. Let’s just have a normal conversation. Emphasis on normal.”
“If you have even the slightest doubt, I’m going to insist you take one.”
Desh nodded.
“All of this started a little over two and a half years ago,” began Kira. “A few months before I tried the second level of enhancement. World events were getting me more nervous even than usual.”
“Yeah, world events will do that to you,” noted Desh with a frown.
“As you know better than anyone, my analysis suggested that extended life would be a disaster. That society was already struggling from the burden of overpopulation and the weight of increases in human lifespan. When social security was created, life expectancy in America was below sixty-five, the age when benefits kicked in. Now it’s around eighty. We’ve been putting more and more burden on the system for every year longer in life expectancy medical science is able to create. In 1940 there were six people working for each person at retirement age. Now there are only three. And retirement lasts longer and longer every decade. Society’s back is breaking already, and my therapy would accelerate this dramatically, which would inevitably lead to wars and the end of civilization.”
“I’m well aware of this analysis,” said Desh impatiently. How could he not be? The entire vision of Icarus had been to create efficient star travel, so mankind could leave its cradle and have room to grow—and room for an increased duration of life.
“I know. Sorry. The thing is, even having decided not to release my longevity therapy, the world seemed to be going to hell. European economies began melting down faster than my enhanced self had predicted. And most of the world’s other economies performed worse than expected as well. Terrorist states were acquiring or building nuclear weapons. Islamic fundamentalism was rising around the world, with democratic-seeming revolutions leading to even more intolerant rule in many cases. Given all of this, I became more worried than ever. I had thought we had enough time to solve faster-than-light travel before the powder keg went off. But what if was wrong?”
“I assume you tried to get a handle on this while enhanced,” said Desh.
Kira nodded. “Yes. But without success. The analysis for a seismic shift like increasing life expectancy by eighty years was fairly straightforward. This wasn’t. Even for an enhanced mind. It was clear that the probability of immanent self-destruction of our species was high. But just how high, and how immanent, wasn’t clear. And regardless, even assuming the end was near, my superhuman intellect couldn’t see any way to stop it.”
Desh listened thoughtfully as the van drove on, with Matt Griffin at the helm.
“But then the core council agreed I would attempt five minutes at the second level of enhancement. So I studied up on world affairs, geopolitical conflicts, weapons systems and strategies, the effects of various stimuli on world order, and pressure points that could trigger wars. The works. I wanted to have as much raw data as I could for my uh . . . super-enhanced self to draw from.”
Desh nodded to himself as at least one piece of the puzzle slid into place. He had found remnants of this research hidden on her computer, and had naturally jumped to the wrong conclusions. Kira Miller had wanted to be prepared for her five minutes at a level of intelligence that was all but omniscient.
“And?” said Desh.
“And . . . my mind at this transcendent level was able to easily perform the analysis. The results were even more sobering than I thought. Basically, we were out of time already. World War III or the equivalent was inevitable, and irreversible. On the course we were on, even if we invented faster-than-light travel the next day, it would be too late. Although if we did, at least a few would escape to seed the species elsewhere. But that’s if we could solve faster-than-light travel, something even my transcendent self knew would be a considerable challenge.”
Kira paused to gather her thoughts.
“Go on,” prompted Desh, who as usual when speaking with Kira, found himself intellectually stimulated and totally absorbed by the case she was presenting.
“Transcendent Kira realized that the only possible way to save us from ourselves was to accomplish two things. One, relieve the ever increasing global tensions between countries. And two, render every nuclear warhead on the face of the earth impotent.”
Kira paused to let Desh reflect on the enormity of these two goals.
“So during the five minutes she existed,” she continued, “transcendent Kira hatched a plan that was insanely ambitious, even for her. And she split normal me—and the person I became while enhanced—both into two personalities. One aware of the plan, who would implement and monitor it, making course corrections as they became necessary. And one who was clueless, left totally in the dark, so she would behave and react normally as events unfolded.”