Wired

my grand plan the very next day.”

“Putnam told us,” said Kira in disgust. “Mass sterilization of women just so you can extend your twisted existence for a few years.”

Alan laughed. “Mass sterilization?” he repeated in amusement. “Don’t believe everything you’re told.”

“I don’t understand,” said Kira.

“That’s because you’re so sanctimonious you refuse to give yourself the very gift you created. If you would have taken one of your own pills, you would have seen through this ruse in an instant.” He shook his head in disappointment. “You really are a lot less intelligent than I remembered.” He spread his hands innocently. “Why would I possibly want to sterilize anybody?”

She looked confused. “First, to motivate me to unlock my memories.”

Alan shook his head. “When I enhanced myself after I had faked my death, I pondered the likely properties of your memory prison. I realized right away that no threat, no matter how great, would enable you to crack it.” He gestured toward her encouragingly. “By all means, guess again.”

“Because if you succeeded—if ours really did become mankind’s last generation—I would be forced to give you my secret for the survival of the species. Or to Putnam, at any rate.”

“Give it to Putnam?” he hissed, as if outraged. “Give it to me? Kira, you would never give your secret to either one of us. You can only unlock your memory if you truly want to. And you would never want to for me or Putnam. You would bide your time, knowing we wouldn’t kill you, until you could escape. That way you’d make sure we didn’t hoard the secret and use it for our own ends. Make sure the entire world was a beneficiary.” He scowled. “You and I both know that’s what you’d do.”

Kira nodded. “You’re right,” she acknowledged reluctantly.

“Of course I am. And if I kept you hostage and tried to force it out of you, I’d be back where I started. Catch 22. So the only way I could get it is if I let you go and you gave it to the entire world.” He paused. “And while this would, indeed, ensure I lived longer along with the rest of the masses, I would lose the use of the most powerful lever in history.” He smiled cruelly. “You see, I’m a little selfish. I want the secret all to myself. To use as I see fit.”

“I still don’t see it,” said Kira. “The Ebola cold-virus was a bluff. The explosive in my head was a bluff. The sterilization plot was a bluff. Why? How do they all fit together? And what did all of these machinations buy you?”

Her brother smiled broadly. “As it turns out, Kira … everything.”

48

Alan Miller took a sip of his drink, a delighted gleam in his eye, obviously reveling in finally being able to share his warped maneuverings with a rapt audience. He was savoring the telling of a story that would twist the knife in his prisoners over and over again. “As I said, I knew with certainty that you couldn’t be coerced. So I had to ask my unfathomably brilliant transformed self this question: under what conditions would my little sister give up her secret? Once I answered this, all I had to do was establish these conditions.” He rolled his eyes. “A lot easier said than done, I must admit.”

“So what were the conditions?” asked Kira, but a sick feeling had grown in the pit of her stomach. She realized she had just given Desh the location of the flash drive. She knew exactly what combination of conditions this had taken. But for Alan to suggest he had orchestrated things from the start to bring about these conditions was preposterous. Besides, she had whispered the coordinates directly in Desh’ ear, and no listening device was sensitive enough to catch that.

“First,” began Alan, “you had to respect someone enough to trust them with your secret. If you were forever a loner and didn’t have anyone to trust, no combination of circumstances would do.”

He turned to Desh. “That’s where you come in. You were handpicked for this role.”

“What are you talking about?” snapped Desh in confusion.

“Who do you think set you up in Iran?” he said smugly, a Cheshire grin on his face.

“Impossible!” barked Desh. “You’re saying you expected me to team up with your sister even then?”

Alan Miller nodded. “I wanted to ensure she had someone to confide in. Believe me, Desh, I know my sister’s taste in men. I’ve met the guys she’s dated and she’s told me, in nauseating detail, the kind of man she’s looking for. I studied the records of scores of Special Forces operatives before stumbling onto a ringer like you. You’re her exact type physically. Brilliant in your own right. Personable. You studied philosophy for Christ’s sake. You like poetry. Incredibly well read. Sickeningly righteous.” He grinned. “You’re catnip to her. The transformed me was convinced that if you two were thrown together under desperate circumstances, there’s no way she doesn’t fall in love with you.”

Alan gazed at his sister knowingly. “Go ahead, Kira. I know I chose well. Tell him. You’re in love with him already.”

Kira lowered her eyes but said nothing.

A startled look flashed over Desh’s face, and he appeared totally dumbstruck. His eyes darted to the side as if desperately trying to read Kira’s expression.

Alan laughed. “I’ll be damned!” he said, studying Desh. “You’re in love with her, also. I can see it in your face.” He laughed again. “I should be a fucking matchmaker.”

Kira gazed at Desh and her eyes widened. She had been feeling like an idiot, desperately trying to hide her feelings from him, convinced that true love was something that happened over years rather than days. But she sensed her brother, evil as he was, had guessed correctly. Desh had fallen for her as well.

Alan shifted his attention back to his sister. “I had hoped this would happen. When both parties can subconsciously pick up on each other’s signals of infatuation, the effect is accelerated. My in-depth study of Desh suggested he liked girl-next-door types who were his match intellectually, but frankly, Kira, I was convinced your irritating personality would turn him off.” He raised his eyebrows. “Despite not having a firsthand knowledge of Desh’s taste in women, my brilliant, transformed self calculated there was a good chance he would fall for you too.” He shook his head in wonder. “Ironic that a being of pure intellect could so accurately predict a largely irrational, involuntary response.”

“You should feel very proud of yourself,” spat Desh bitterly.

Alan looked back and forth between his two prisoners and smiled in delight. “What’s the matter, you two? You look angry and confused. Feeling manipulated? Feeling like experimental animals? Does the fact that I orchestrated your feelings for each other to serve my purposes taint them?”

At this, Desh’s expression became thoughtful, and he shook his head ever so slightly, as though the moment Alan had voiced what he had been feeling, he had realized these feelings were misguided. “No taint Alan. My feelings for Kira are my own. If you were responsible for allowing me to meet such a remarkable woman, than I thank you, regardless of your motives.” Desh paused. “And if you predicted we would fall for each other,” he continued, “so what? Someone might be able to predict my loathing of you, but that doesn’t make it any less real.”

Alan Miller laughed. “Your loathing of me is about to take a sharp turn for the worse,” he said icily. “Allow me to continue. Once I knew you were the right man, I made sure you encountered tragedy, so you would be a wounded soul and would break all ties with other women. To make you more appealing to my sister. After all, what could possibly be more appealing than a tortured, unattached hero?”

“You really did set us up in Iran, didn’t you?” whispered Desh in horror.

“Putnam arranged for that particular—what do you grunts like to call it—oh yeah … clusterfuck. He didn’t have any idea why. Those stupid-assed terrorists were well paid to make sure you escaped alive, but they almost blew it. I needed you injured, but not as injured as you were.”

“You’re saying they let me escape?”

“That’s right.”

“Why did you need me injured? So I’d cut an even more sympathetic figure for Kira?”

Alan smiled. “I’ll answer that a little later. I don’t want to get too far ahead of myself. And I really do want to share with you how brilliantly you were both manipulated. After all, you’re the only two people in the world who will ever have a chance to appreciate my mastery.” He paused. “Shall I continue?”