here.'
'And what is he doing?' Ruth whispered.
'He's set up the IUF of his as a scapegoat. All the nasty illegal things can be blamed on the terrorists, and the software can be seized when the terrorists are taken out—'
'D'Arcy's here, Gideon—'
'He didn't plan it that way. Maybe someone connected him with the IUF.' Gideon lowered his voice even more. 'If that's the case, this 'AT might be his only bargaining chip—'
'Maybe D'Arcy isn't smart enough to realize what Julia is doing here.'
'When news of D'Arcy's operation gets out, all hell will break loose in Washington. Offering an AI to the government may be the only thing between a quiet retirement and a trial for treason.' Gideon looked at Ruth. 'What do you mean, D'Arcy doesn't realize?'
'Julia knows D'Arcy,' Ruth said. 'D'Arcy's irrelevant to her.' She was speaking softly, staring intently at the activity around the cubicles.
'Irrelevant? If D'Arcy has just a little streak of self-preservation, he knows that no one in Washington needs to deal with him as long as the people in this room can repeat the process.' Gideon looked at her,
Ruth seemed distant, like her sister had. 'Once they do this thing, D'Arcy needs them to disappear. Are you hearing me?'
Ruth nodded. 'It's too late, already.'
Gideon looked at the two guards. They hadn't moved, and showed little sign of paying attention to them. There was probably some chance that they didn't even speak English. He looked around the barn and while none of the scientists seemed to have noticed, there had been a steady increase in the number of Kalishnikovs in the barn. Gideon saw Volynskji talking in hushed tones to D'Arcy, away from everyone else, near the new front door.
'What did Julia say to you?' Gideon asked Ruth.
It now seemed ominous how the generators and the Daedalus were separated from the workspace. Almost designed so that stray shots wouldn't damage the supercomputer or its power supply.
Gideon watched Julia as she moved from cubicle to cubicle. She didn't seem fully here, in the barn. Her eyes were looking out at some other place that only existed behind those deep gray eyes.
She had to realize the danger here.
'What did she tell you?'
'Everything,' Ruth said. 'What she's looking for, really.'
Julia had to have walked into this knowing that she was expendable to D'Arcy as soon as the project was complete. She had to have seen that as soon as she was set up in this place, isolated, away from any legitimate oversight. Even Mike, for all his alleged naivete, knew that they were all involved in a rogue operation. Julia would have to know what that meant.
She went ahead with this anyway.
'What is she doing?' Gideon couldn't see why she would do this. She wasn't self-destructive. Was D'Arcy's AI worth the risk for her? Gideon didn't see it. . .
Then he noticed a small piece of paper tacked up on one of the cubicle walls. It was a familiar symbol,
' N'
'Ruth, what is she doing?'
Someone called out from one of the terminals. 'We have some spontaneous activity through the uplink, from our end.'
'We've collected enough. He's starting to contact other pieces of Himself.' In Julia's voice, Gideon could hear the capitalization.
'Ruth?' Gideon grabbed her arm and pulled her to face him.
'What's happening?' D'Arcy said, echoing Gideon's own thoughts. D'Arcy's voice was calm, but he had the bearing of someone confronted with something beyond his expectations.
Julia maneuvered to a free terminal and started tapping at the keyboard. 'This is expected. Don't concern yourself with it.'
'Ruth?' Gideon shook her shoulder.
Ruth shook her head and spoke as if she didn't quite believe what she was saying. 'God,' she said.
'What?'
'She's looking for God.'
3.07 Fri. Mar. 26
WITHIN minutes after Rayburn's approval, three Sikorsky Blackhawks escorted by a pair of Cobra gunships lifted off from Hanscomb Air Force Base outside of Boston. The Blackhawks carried two units of special forces, experts in domestic counter-terrorism. The units on those helicopters bore orders that came directly from President Rayburn by way of General Harris of the Joint Chiefs.
They flew over rural Pennsylvania, crossing into New York north of Scranton.
It was seventy-five minutes since the chaos had begun.
D'Arcy strode over to Zimmerman, leaving Volynskji by the door in a posture that suggested that he'd shoot anyone who came near the exit.
'This project is my concern, Dr. Zimmerman.' D'Arcy walked around the cubicles, staring at the screens, as if he was trying to make sense of what was displayed.
The guards by Gideon and Ruth took a few steps forward, as if sensing a problem. Gideon wanted to keep talking to Ruth about what her sister was actually doing, but it seemed that they might only have a few moments' worth of distraction. He took the opportunity to stand; no one seemed to notice him. He took Ruth's arm and pulled her up after him.
'This is supposed to be an isolated, secure operation,' D'Arcy said. 'All contact outside is supposed to be controlled. We can't have anyone detecting the uplink—'
Julia was typing madly now, watching the screen in front of her. She called out, 'I want all our traffic shut down. Let the Daedalus have the uplink.'
Suddenly, Julia was the only one typing. All the others stood by, watching their screens. 'What are you doing?' D'Arcy asked.
'He needs the uplink to complete Himself,' Julia said. 'We're here to piece the entity together. That's what we're doing.' She stopped typing and stared at the screen in front of her.
Gideon couldn't see what she was watching. The screen was angled away from him, and he was edging himself and Ruth back toward the private office. Their guards didn't notice. They were slowly approaching Julia and her terminal.
Julia wasn't paying attention to them, or much of anything other than the screen in front of her.
D'Arcy shook his head. 'We can't permit unsecured use of the uplink. We'll have to shut this thing down . . .'
'Perfect,' Julia muttered. 'Perfect.'
D'Arcy shoved one of the others away from the terminal he was manning and said, 'How do you shut off the uplink from here?'
From behind D'Arcy, Mike Gribaldi said, 'You don't.'
D'Arcy turned on Mike and said, 'What the hell do you mean, 'You don't?''
Gideon had pulled Ruth all the way to the door of Julia's office. Ruth tried the door. It was unlocked and opened easily.
'The whole uplink is run from the Daedalus.'
'So?'
'We don't have control of the Daedalus now. Aleph does.'
Everyone, except for Julia, looked over at the end of the barn where the Daedalus sat.
Gideon and Ruth slipped into the office. Gideon looked at Ruth and asked, 'What's going on?'
