Smith was silent for several long moments as they continued hurtling down the dark highway. Traffic was still sparse but had begun picking up, ever so slightly, with the gradual approach of dawn. “I believe you,” he said at last. “I conducted a number of interrogations in a past life and I think you’re telling the truth. On the important things at any rate,” he added.
“Good,” said Desh. “So are you ready to take your turn in this little information exchange of ours?”
Smith considered. “All right,” he replied. “First of all, we believe Kira Miller really has found a way to turn herself into the ultimate savant. And our experts seem to agree that, properly organized, there’s almost no level of intelligence the one hundred billion neurons you spoke of can’t reach.”
“Do you have actual evidence of this optimization?”
“Yes. Most of it circumstantial, but enough that we’re convinced. What you say she told you fits right in with what we know. It’s interesting that she told you she gave herself this immeasurable IQ,” continued Smith, “but she didn’t say a word about how she applied this intelligence.” He eyed Desh meaningfully. “If you had supreme intellect, what problem would you tackle?”
Desh shook his head tiredly. “Look … Smith … usually I’m up for riddles and guessing games. Really. But I haven’t slept in almost twenty-four hours and it’s been a tough day, so why don’t you just tell me.”
“Immortality,” said Smith simply.
David Desh sat in stunned silence, replaying the word in his head to be sure he had heard correctly. A flying insect slammed into the windshield like a tiny missile and became an instant smear. “Immortality,” he repeated finally, shaking his head dubiously. “Impossible.”
“Yeah, so is amping up your own IQ,” shot back Smith. “And no, she hasn’t achieved it. Yet. But it’s only a matter of time. She has managed to
“You’re sure about this?”
Smith nodded. “You can never be positive until the first person treated lives to be 160, but I understand the animal and early human evidence is pretty strong.”
“How does she do it?”
“Hell if I know. It takes an injection, repeated once a year. I have no idea what it does. All I know is that it slows aging to a crawl, so that a man of seventy will have all the physical characteristics and abilities of a man of thirty-five.”
“Remarkable,” said Desh in wonder.
“We believe she sees immortality as a three stage process. She’s already completed the first stage. The second stage would be to design microscopic nanorobots that would be injected into the bloodstream, patrolling and repairing the body and replicating themselves as necessary. A vast army of tiny MDs. This could theoretically extend the lifespan five hundred years or more.” He paused. “The third stage, her ultimate goal, would be set up an artificial matrix into which she can transfer her intellect. She could repeat this process any number of times. That would be closer to true immortality.”
“What do you mean by an artificial matrix to transfer her intellect? Are you saying she plans to transfer her consciousness someday into an artificial body? Turn herself into some kind of cyborg?”
“I don’t know. Maybe. Maybe she’ll just clone herself every fifty years and transfer her consciousness into a younger version of herself. And what we think she’s trying to do may never be possible. Even for her. But that’s beside the point. The key for our discussion now is that she has already managed to do the impossible: doubling human life expectancy.”
Incredible, thought Desh, as he allowed himself to truly consider the earth shattering implications of this discovery. More than incredible—surreal. But as he thought about it, it all made perfectly logical sense. If he assumed Kira Miller really could optimize her mind and become autistic-savant-like in every area of thought, she wouldn’t focus these transcendent abilities on solving pedestrian problems. No, she would go after the ultimate prize: conquering death. The ultimate Holy Grail of the species. And she was a genius in gene therapy even before any enhancements.
Now the journals Kira had been receiving at home made perfect sense.
Desh pulled himself from his reverie. “But if she was able to accomplish something like this,” he said, “why didn’t she announce it? She’d be recognized as the greatest scientist in history. She’d be an instant billionaire as well.”
“You don’t really
Desh nodded grimly. People had gone to extraordinary lengths throughout history in the pursuit of money alone, but that would pale to the lengths to which they would go for the fountain of youth.
“By using her treatment as currency, we’re convinced she has a number of powerful people in her pocket already,” said Smith. “Including a mole in USASOC.” He shook his head in frustration. “Although it isn’t as if anyone she’s treating is announcing themselves. She controls supply, so if they do anything to cross her, she cuts them off. Bye-bye fountain of youth.”
“Has anyone come forward?”
“Only one. And not willingly. A billionaire industrialist who helped finance her early on.”
Desh pursed his lips in thought. “What about intelligence enhancement? Is she leveraging this in the same way?”
“Doesn’t have to. Extending life gives her all the power she needs. As far as we know she’s keeping enhanced IQ all to herself. Right now she’s the goose that lays the golden eggs. The
“Makes sense,” allowed Desh.
“Besides,” added Smith, “she’d have far fewer takers for this therapy. People tend to get nervous about a treatment that screws with their brain chemistry. You can’t make dramatic changes to the brain without risking irreversible changes in personality.” He shook his head in disgust. “Others might not be as eager as she is to transform themselves into something not quite human.”
Desh knew that if Kira was to be believed, she was far from eager to undertake any further transformations. In fact, she claimed to be horrified by what her treatment was doing to her and determined to never transform herself again. Whether this was true or not remained to be seen.
They drove on for several minutes as Desh tried to get his mind around the immense implications of what he had been told. Finally, he broke the silence. “Now I understand why you had the colonel make sure I didn’t go after her once I found her. And why your men were using tranquilizer darts. You can’t risk harming the only being in existence who knows the location of the fountain of youth.”
“That’s right.”
“And if I did catch her, you were worried that she’d hypnotize me with her charm or bribe me. That’s what you were getting at when you asked if she had offered me anything. You wanted to know if she tried to buy me off with promises of extended life.”
“Yes. She would have had to convince you it really worked, have you talk to some of her other, ah … clients, that sort of thing, but I did wonder if she had at least raised the prospect.”
“She didn’t say a single word about it.”
“I believe you. Perhaps she would have if we hadn’t intervened.” He paused and then sighed heavily. “But you
