10:56 PM

  Sam-with Nari and two nervous MP’s in tow-knocked on every door on the sub-level until she found the right one.

  Deputy Director Cameron Brewster looked decidedly unlike a man with the ear of the President when he opened the last door in the hall, furthest from the elevator. He was sweating and dressed in a damp ‘Annapolis’ t-shirt and jogging pants.

  Brewster dismissed the guards and waved Sam and Nari into his room. It looked identical to Sam and Nari’s, save for a skipping rope on the table. He unscrewed the glass water bottle in his hand and upended it. Only after gulping it dry did he greet them.

  “Ms. Katsuyama,” he said, a little breathily but recovering from his workout fast. “Doctor Yoshida.” He waved at his table and two plastic chairs. “Please, sit.”

  Both women stayed by the door.

  Brewster brushed damp blonde hair off his forehead. “You’re upset about the code,” he guessed, and rubbed sweat off his upper lip onto his left shoulder of his t-shirt.

  “Why are you killing the project before it even launches?” Sam asked him.

  He sat at the foot of his bed and put his hands on his knees. He nodded thoughtfully, and answered. “The code’s not a bomb, but a throttle: it will let us slow down or stop traffic through your ‘footballs’ into our array.”

  “You mean cut off oxygen to its brain!” Nari snorted scornfully. “You fear it, but you couldn’t let anyone else have it.”

  Brewster nodded. “That’s about the size of it.”

  Sam changed her mind and sat down. “You paid billions for a shot at creating the first real artificial intelligence the world has ever seen…and you’re ready to kill it before it can have its first thought?”

  The Deputy Director put two fingers against his neck and stared at his watch, counting his heartbeat. “Exactly.”

  “Frightened children,” Nari spat.

  Brewster didn’t answer immediately. He waited until he finished counting and frowned slightly at the heart rate he’d calculated. Then his face cleared up and he met Nari’s furious glare.

  “You’re a genius, Doctor Yoshida. A truly gifted physicist. You also put a gun to our head and asked us to provide the bullets. It’s not unreasonable for us to want a measure of protection.”

  “You didn’t have to accept the contract!” Nari said. “There were other countries eager to-”

  “Exactly.” Brewster said, cutting her off. “We couldn’t risk the kind of power we’re talking about falling into the wrong hands.”

  Nari wore a look that Sam recognized from a hundred meeting with clients. She was a brilliant woman, but she never troubled herself to understand the paranoia involved in running a country or a corporation.

  That was what Nari had her for.

  “If it works, the balance of power swings in their favor, not someone else’s,” Sam explained. “If things go bad, they want their finger on the trigger because they don’t trust anyone else.”

  “I have no doubt it will work,” Brewster said. “I saw the data you harvested from the test run. Congratulations. Truly.”

  Nari bunched her shoulders in frustration. “After decades of trying, hundreds of tests, I’ve only ever stabilized these two Enganglements.” Sam watched Nari’s hands fold together as she pleaded with the man to understand what was at stake. “If you destroy them, we may never capture another viable pattern in our lifetimes!”

  “I hope I don’t have to do that.” Brewster told her. His face was serious, tinged with awe, but of course Sam didn ’t trust it to be genuine. “Did you know this isn’t my first trip to Mount Lago? I’ve been here twice this month to inspect your server array. It’s…breathtaking!”

  He reached down and untied his running shoes. “Morales ran me through the physics.” He laughed, carefully removing the pristine condition running shoes and stuffing the laces inside each one. “I don’t understand a damn thing that man says, but when he says you’re about to change the world I believe him.”

  “Then you should know we’ve only got one chance, Deputy Director,” Sam said.

  “At least let’s hold off on the second test,” Nari suggested. “We can keep the second entanglement safe for future-”

  Brewster shook his head. “Not possible. The first entanglement is too small to keep the computing edge we’re paying you billions for, and there are other…interested parties… we need to stay ahead of.”

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  “Why commit the second football if you’re so worried about the outcome?” Sam asked.

  Brewster looked from Sam to Nari. He shrugged, as if coming to a decision. “Polter was compromised by someone who knows a lot about Quantum Entanglement,” he told them.

  Nari froze. “Compromised?” She took a step closer. “Someone was forcing him to-”

  “We don’t know for certain yet,” Brewster answered, “but our immediate concern is what steps this group might take to stop our Array from coming online, or…” Brewster licked his lips. Sam saw genuine hesitation in the moment before he continued. “Or even hijacking it.”

  “How?” Sam’s eyebrows raised. “We’ll leave it here if you’re worried about the football’s security. Where could be safer? Just disconnect the second football until we can figure out a way to put your mind at ease.”

  Nari gasped, putting something together. “He doesn’t mean physically hijack the entanglement, he means metaphysically hijack it.”

  “It’s a possibility,” he agreed.

  Sam thought furiously. “You think someone’s planning a –what, a multidimensional heist?”

  “We don’t know, but this code will allow us flexibility in our response if need should arise.”

  “Yeah,” Sam spat. “The ‘flexibility to give the array a lobotomy, or slow the array down, or destroy the Entanglement altogether. Why do you think we’ll let you do any of those things?”

  “Frankly, we’re not giving you much choice,” Brewster said matter-of-factly. “I’m sure reparations and apologies will be made after the fact.” Brewster put his fists against the small of his back and stretched. “But my orders are to rig the larger entanglement with this failsafe before it can be compromised.” Sam heard a pop from Brewster’s back, and then the man sighed with relief. He opened his eyes and momentarily looked embarrassed.

  He stood straighter. “My apologies. I know this is a very serious situation. I understand there will be consequences to my government’s position, but I assure you, Dr. Morales has been crystal clear about how unique and important this work is.” Brewster stood, carrying his pristine sneakers over to a bag hung on the wall beside the steel lockers found in all the quarters in Mount Lago.

  He returned and stood respectfully with his hands folded behind his back. “I’m a fan. I’m genuinely excited to see you turn what Ms. Katsuyama calls ‘Junior-’”

  “I hate that name,” Sam’s godmother muttered.

  “-into something we have never seen before,” the Deputy Director continued. “Phase 2 will begin, with our code alterations in place, in just over ten hours’ time.”

  Sam felt like screaming, but she had no cards to play.

  Nari looked like she wanted to scratch the man’s eyes out, but Brewster was still brave enough to step closer.

  “I meant what I said, Dr. Yoshida,” Brewster said. “I congratulate you on proving twenty years of research. You have seen your Quantum Entanglement theory become reality. Today, you bested the workload of every computer ever constructed. What will you make reality tomorrow?” Brewster’s face clouded. “And that is why we need control.”

  “A bomb in its brain, you mean!” Nari advanced on the Deputy Director. “You stand there congratulating me and you’re already plotting to kill it!”

  Brewster didn’t flinch from Nariko’s rage. “It will be my privilege and honor to stand in that room with you tomorrow. I believe you will create the world’s first true Artificial Intelligence.” he said softly, and smiled at her. “And it must be done. Now, by us, and under our control.”

  The guards dogged their steps all the way back to Nariko’s room. They said nothing to each other even after the door was closed and locked behind them.

  Sam collected her little black box and scanned for bugs again.

  Nariko returned to her laptop and buried herself in code.

  Tense minutes passed until Sam was as certain as she could be that no one was listening in on their conversation.

  With a sigh she sat down beside Nariko, whose fingers danced on the keyboard. Her face was grim, her mouth set in in a flat line.

  “Brewster’s political,” Sam said quietly, speaking more for herself than Nariko, “but I think he’s being straight with us.” She slumped in the chair. The unyielding plastic hurt her back, but she pushed harder against it. “It’s an arms race. I never think of it that way but that’s the mentality we’re facing.”

  Nariko kept typing.

  “I can see their point,” Sam said grudgingly. “Whether Polter willingly sold us out or he’s acting under duress, either way we botched our security.”

  Nothing but a flurry of typing from her godmother. Her hands slapped hard against the keys.

  “So, this is happening.”

  “Yes it is,” Nariko snarled, “but it’s happening my way.”

  Sam turned her body. She knew that tone, and it set off warning bells. “What does that mean?”

  Nari typed a new command and a long string of characters filled the screen. “It means, we launch tomorrow, but not with any goddamn kill switch!”

  Sam leaned closer, her face wrinkled with confusion. “How, exactly, are you going to make that happen?”

  Sam saw the flowing white text on its black background reflected in her godmother’s eyes.

  “I have a back door.”

  Sam jerked straight. “You built a backdoor into the footballs?”

  “And once I delete their code, I’m locking all the doors!”

  Sam put her hand on Nari’s forearm. “Listen to me: if you cross them on this you’ll never work again. They’ll destroy your career, hell, they could throw you in prison!”

  “I don’t care,” Nari said, her words light, absent all the stress and pain that had filled her until just now. She looked at Sam. “I have a duty, Hiyori.”

  Sam knew and loved her godmother. It didn’t matter what she said, she wasn’t going to stop her. That left two options: turn her over to Brewster… or help. “God, why do you have to be such a saint?”

  Nari laughed, recognizing the oft-repeated expression of surrender from a lifetime of past arguments.

  “Not a saint,” Nari said, her smile growing. “A scientist. We have higher standards.”

  Sam shut her eyes and took a deep breath. Her godmother was going to get her name in all the history books, right alongside Pasteur, Curie, Einstein…while she was headed for unemployment. Or jail.

  After her mother died, Nariko had become the next best thing. She had rearranged her life around Sam, protected her from her father and saved her from self-destructing a dozen times.

  She loved Nariko, and Nariko needed to do this.

  Which meant Sam needed to do this.

  “They’re never going to let us out of here,” Sam groaned. “Well, maybe just to throw is in a deeper pit later on!” Then she cracked her knuckles. “Take me through every step. We’re not leaving anything to chance.’