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They had been extremely lucky with the five founding members of the group: Miller, Desh, Griffin, Connelly, and Metzger—the core council, now down to four after Metzger’s tragic death. Each of them had been extremely stable, moral, and compassionate before they had been enhanced. Even so, none of them would have met the current standard. Knowing this, they didn’t even trust themselves while enhanced. They insisted that all members of the group, themselves most of all, only take a gellcap while inside a specially built room, that was locked from the outside.

But Jake was correct. A single loose cannon, a single mistake that got away, could threaten the entire world. Kira’s own brother, Alan, had been the prime example of this. If he hadn’t been stopped, there was no telling the damage he could have inflicted.

“She has you fooled,” said Jake simply. “Did she promise you extended life? Is that why you’re so loyal?”

“I’m loyal because I believe in what she’s doing: what they’re doing. You’ve seen the advances I was able to make while enhanced. In five hours! Imagine the improvements we could make to the human condition.”

“You’re being naive. First, the extended life thing is phony. The injection doesn’t do a thing. It’s just the ultimate lure to snare anyone gullible enough to believe it. Do you know what she and Desh have been up to during the past year? They’ve been responsible for several major terrorist attacks around the world. And I have incontrovertible evidence that they’re planning worse.”

“If it’s so incontrovertible, why don’t you show it to me?” snapped Rosenblatt skeptically.

“Because it would take too long for you to convince yourself of its veracity. And I would lose the element of surprise.”

“Very convenient,” said Rosenblatt.

Jake’s demeanor darkened. “This conversation is now at an end,” he said through clenched teeth. “I need you to tell me where I can find Miller and Desh. And after that, the names of everyone who is a part of their little cabal.”

“I’ll tell you everything I know,” said Rosenblatt. He glanced at the computer once again. At his helpless family, and the armed men looming nearby. “But I can’t tell you how to find them,” he added, panic creeping into his voice. “They and the other two members of the core council are more careful than you can imagine. They move around all the time, and even they don’t know each other’s whereabouts unless they have to. And I’m just a junior member.”

Jake’s expression could not have been grimmer. “I warned you, doctor,” he said evenly. He spoke into his cell phone once more and on the tablet computer one of Jake’s men pulled out a high-caliber weapon and a small red circle appeared on the forehead of Rosenblatt’s sleeping five-year-old daughter. She was wearing a bright yellow sun dress and had the serene look of an angel.

Rosenblatt shook his head in absolute terror, his eyes bulging from their sockets. It was impossible to love anyone or anything more than he loved this beautiful little girl; a girl whose inner spirit and zest for life were infectious and a never-ending joy to be around. He choked back bile.

“You have thirty seconds to tell me how to find Kira Miller, Dr. Rosenblatt. And don’t make up a fake location to buy time. If Miller isn’t where you tell me, I’ll wipe out more than just your daughter. I hope to hell you believe me.”

Rosenblatt forced himself to turn away from the tablet computer and think. Would they really kill a five-year-old child in cold blood? He refused to believe it. But how could he possibly take that chance?

But how could he give up Kira Miller? He knew what she and the group were trying to accomplish. What was at stake for the entire human race, including vastly extended life for billions, and possible immortality within a generation. His captor had told him this was a lie, but he had seen the evidence himself. And he knew Jake’s other accusations were fabrications as well. Desh and Miller and the entire group were being framed somehow. He didn’t know by whom, but he knew it was happening.

Kira Miller was the key to unimaginable improvements in the human condition. The key to the next step in human evolution—directed evolution. She was the harbinger of an eventual galaxy or universe spanning intellect. Rosenblatt had been enhanced himself, and was well aware of the dangers, but he was also intimately aware of the breathtaking potential.

Far too much was at stake for him to betray Kira. But he had to protect his baby girl. He would sacrifice the entire universe if this is what it took to save his daughter.

But did he have to? Jake had to be bluffing. He had to be. He couldn’t be certain that Rosenblatt wasn’t telling the truth. This was simply a test. If Rosenblatt stuck to his guns and didn’t waver, even in the face of an impossible threat, Jake would have to believe him. No father would lie when up against this kind of compulsion.

“I’m waiting, Dr. Rosenblatt. You have ten seconds left.”

Tears began streaming down the physicist’s face. “I really don’t know,” he said, his voice distilled panic. “Really,” he pleaded. “I would tell you if I did. Oh God, I would tell you. I’ll do anything. Don’t do this.”

Rosenblatt wasn’t near the edge of hysteria, he was over the edge. He was betting his daughter’s life he could convince Jake he was telling the truth, so his terror at the prospect of losing her forever—worse, of miscalculating and being responsible for her death—couldn’t have been more real. “Miller and Desh are insanely paranoid,” he babbled on. “I’ll tell you anything you want. But I can’t tell you what I don’t know!

Although his vision was distorted by tears, Rosenblatt saw a deeply troubled look come over Jake’s face. What did this mean? Was he convinced that Rosenblatt didn’t know Kira’s location? How could he not be convinced? No father on earth would hold this information back in these circumstances. That’s all Jake was after. He had produced the ultimate threat to be absolutely certain he had gotten all the information there was to get. And now he could be sure.

Jake whispered into the phone, and on the computer screen the man aiming the gun at Rosenblatt’s lovely daughter pulled the trigger. Jessica’s small head exploded like a melon dropped from a skyscraper, scattering blood and brain matter across the room and spraying the other unconscious members of Rosenblatt’s family.

Nooooo!” screamed the wiry physicist, almost losing consciousness—his mind unable to cope with a blow to his psyche this great. “Noooo!

“Should we move on to your next oldest daughter, or are you beginning to remember where I can find David Desh and Kira Miller?”

An expression of pure, thrilling hatred wrapped around Rosenblatt’s face, even as the tears continued to pour down his cheeks, but only for a moment. He was too shattered to maintain any emotion other than profound guilt, and bottomless grief. “I’ll tell you what you want,” he tried to say through sobs and the heaving of his body, but the words were unintelligible.

Jake nodded anyway. “Good,” he said, having easily guessed their meaning. “But you need to compose yourself first. I’ll be back in five minutes.”