mind, perhaps, but nevertheless healthy.
“In that way, we allowed the unaltered fetus to serve as a control in the experiment. Except for the intelligence infusion, she went through the entire process with her sisters. She wore the monitoring helmet and electrodes on her scalp-everything. Everything but the neurochips.
“Even though she would have been born infantile in intelligence, her brain would not have been infantile in its physical development. Hers would have been a full-grown, mature, adult brain, with far more capacity to learn than an infant's. Especially with the help of her artificially educated sisters, who could assist her even if Jozef and I were no longer able.
“But almost immediately, there was a problem. Shortly after the implantation procedures, one of our embryos suffered a cerebral hemorrhage. That night the monitors recorded internal bleeding in the occipital center of her brain, and by morning, we'd lost her. Fortunately, however, our two other girls tolerated the procedures well and all three continued their incredible growth, at about seven times the normal rate.”
“Excuse me, Anne,” Anke broke in, “but how could Jozef have possibly expected to infuse decades of normal, day-to-day learning through these-these computer signals. Knowledge isn't just quantitative. It's qualitative. And it's tempered with things like emotion, interpretation and a host of cross-pollinated experiences too complex for me to even imagine.”
“That's true, my dear. We didn't expect the artificial education process to give them comprehensive knowledge about life and the world. There would be many gaps to be filled in after birth. Jozef's diary does a better job of explaining all this than I can, but, unfortunately, the diary contains none of his scientific records. They were all lost in the explosion.
“In any event, the multiple neurochips gave us the ability to synchronize input to many different brain centers at the same time-hearing, vision, thought-processing and so forth. That way, our daughters could experience things three-dimensionally. Understanding how to crawl and walk, for example. And then we built upon that knowledge, training and instructing them bit by bit to understand speech and language. To identify images and spatial orientations. To grasp mathematics, geometry and so forth.”
“Like virtual reality?” Feldman decided.
“Except that with virtual reality, you have actual, physical stimuli working in concert with tactile, visual and audio cues. With Jozef's system, it all occurs in the mind. Probably much like having a very vivid dream. After birth, all these prelearned capabilities would allow the girls to relate much more easily and faster to the real world.”
“Did you include religious instruction in your intelligence infusions?” Feldman asked.
“Yes,” the widow replied. “The Bible, the Talmud and New Testament, of course. But also the books of the other great religions-the Koran, the Torah, the Avesta and so forth. Realizing that it was religious intolerance behind the attack that injured our first Marie, we felt it important that our new Maries have an understanding of all the major theological doctrines.”
Feldman was about to ask Mrs. Leveque another question when she raised a hand in the air to signal a hiatus. She placed the other hand to her heart and closed her eyes.
Alarmed, Feldman and Anke sprang up and moved toward her.
“Anne, are you feeling ill?” Feldman asked.
She waved her hand slightly in the air. “Just-just a little tired, I think.”
“Can I get you some water?” Feldman offered.
“Perhaps a little something to eat,” Anke suggested.
The widow opened her eyes. “Today has been a little stressful for me,” she recognized. “I've never spoken of this to anyone before. Maybe if I could lie down for a moment. But only for a moment. It's important that you hear everything as soon as possible, so the world can know the truth. Before this tragedy grows far worse.”
44
Nordau Towers, Tel Aviv, Israel 10:00 A.M., Saturday, January 22, 2000
It was an ill-humored Bollinger taking Feldman's call. “Where the hell have you been?” the bureau chief railed. “We've been looking all over for you. Why weren't you at this morning's meeting?”
“I'm in Tel Aviv with Anke,” Feldman tried to explain, “I’ m-”
“Dammit Feldman!” Bollinger exploded. “You're off recreating while the rest of us are busting our humps trying to scare up leads!”
“Calm down, Arnie,” Feldman pleaded, “it's not what you think. I'm on to something really big down here. You won't believe it. Something that just might vault us right back into the spotlight!”
Bollinger's tone switched instantly to one of apologetic curiosity. “Oh yeah? Seriously? What have you got, Jon?”
“I've got the inside scoop on that Negev installation,” Feldman said. “And it's mind-boggling.”
“Jesus Christ! No kidding! Wonderful! Well, damn, let's hear it!”
“I don't have the whole story yet, Arnie. I'm still working on it. But I'll get back with you directly.”
“But-”
“Trust me. Gotta go!”
“But-”
Hanging up, Feldman left the phone off the cradle to ensure Mrs. Leveque's rest would be undisturbed. But it was unnecessary. At that moment she emerged from the bedroom, looking more composed, to rejoin the reporter and Anke in the living room.
“Are you sure you feel up to this, Anne?” Feldman asked. “We can postpone things to a better time.”
“No, no.” Mrs. Leveque smiled slightly and patted his hand. “I'm feeling better. Besides, it's vital that I tell you the rest of this now, for reasons you'll soon understand.”
Settling back in her chair, the widow picked up where she left off.
“For a little more than a year, Jozef was able to continue the gestation process with our daughters, undisturbed, in a restricted section of the Negev Research Institute. Over time, however, Jozef began borrowing more and more heavily on the laboratory's enormous computer capacity. To develop and control the increasingly complicated and delicate infusion process properly, Jozef was forced to pirate increasing amounts of time and memory from the central computer system.
“Ultimately, this began interfering with the service platforms regulating the bovine gestation program. And that as a consequence, attracted the curiosity of Giyam Karmi. Giyam naturally wanted to learn what powerful addendums to the bovine procedures Jozef was working on.
“Finally, after Jozef exhausted every possible guile, things turned ugly and Giyam literally had to force his way into the department. When he discovered the true nature of our work, Giyam became hysterical, sacked Jozef immediately and prepared to shut down our systems.
“In desperation, Jozef appealed to Defense Minister Shaul Tamin. Jozef had met Tamin through the university, having consulted on several defense projects for him at one time. After Marie's accident, however, both Jozef and I had taken a solemn oath renouncing all military research. Jozef refused to assist Tamin further and we had not seen him in years.
“But we had nowhere else to turn. Tamin was the only person in a position to offer us help in time. So, despite our vows, we told the defense minister all about Jozef's infusion process and its military applications. And how Giyam's shortsightedness was placing the technology in immediate jeopardy.”
“Pardon me, Anne,” Feldman interrupted once more, “but I fail to see any defense applications in Jozef's experiments.”
“As Jozef presented it, there were two major potentials: first, the ability to infuse legions of future Israeli soldiers with enhanced, autonomic military training. In an emergency, even civilians, if they carried transmitter- receiver implants, could be automatically summoned up, infused with the latest technical schooling and combat training, and immediately activated.
“Second, and more important, each and every soldier would have instantaneous, silent, two-way communications capabilities, virtually anywhere, anytime.”
