Robert Masten stood on a redwood deck, raised and perfectly positioned to view the southern hills of Arizona’s famed San Francisco Peaks over an endless green ocean of swaying pine trees.
The man’s face was contorted in a mixture of frustration and anger as he leaned on a waist-high railing with one hand and held his phone in the other. “He’s insane!” he barked. Veins were bulging from his neck. “Can the man not see what’s right in front of his face?”
“Apparently not.”
“I’m not doing it, Nora. I’m telling you, I’m not doing it! It’s a miracle Reiff is alive at all. Let alone healthy. More than that, he’s a goddamn telepath, or something! You tell me how he knows what he does.”
“I can’t explain it either.” Her voice sighed on the other end. “I don’t know what it is. I honestly don’t. But—”
“But what?”
“I’m not going to lie, Robert. It worries me. A lot. Do I think we should kill him? No. But what else does he know?”
“Does it matter?” Masten exclaimed. “This isn’t some trick. It’s a phenomenon. A bona fide medical phenomenon.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“Nora, think about it. Whatever it is going on with Reiff, it’s, it’s … metamorphic. Whatever changed, it happened after we revived him. And that means that it had to result from the cryonics.” Masten turned around and stared absently at the luxurious mountain home behind him. With giant overhead beams, floor-to-ceiling windows, and a living area that would shame some hotel lobbies. Ornately decorated with porcelain tiles and rich Italian leather furniture.
“We did it, Nora. Somehow, we caused this change in Reiff. Which means it belongs to us.”
Lagner pondered. “I suppose that’s true.”
“It is true. Not only is it a miracle Reiff survived, but it came with a giant bow on top. Think about what it could mean. Not only can we extend human life, but we also hit the proverbial jackpot! We just need to figure it out. And we will. In time, we’ll figure out what happened inside the guy’s brain and eventually replicate it.”
“That could take a long time. A very long time.”
“Sure, but who knows if this will ever happen again.”
“But at what cost, Robert? And for how long? What if we never figure it out? Even in our lifetimes.”
To her surprise, Masten laughed. “But that’s the beauty of it. We just got a new lease on life. Extended for who knows how long. Imagine what we can figure out now. Not just about Reiff, but everything. Imagine the problems humankind will be able to solve now that we have more time. A lot more time. It’s what we’ve been dreaming about for decades. Imagine, Nora, if all the greatest minds in human history, inventors, creators, innovators, imagine if they hadn’t died. Imagine if we were able to keep them from dying and eventually heal them. Imagine if their knowledge, their understanding, their unique view of the universe was never lost. If their ideas kept going. And their unique abilities kept contributing to society. Well, guess what? We’re here! We can’t go back for those in the past, but all the brilliance in the world right now, in all its forms—we can keep it!”
There was a long pause for Lagner. “That really is a huge step.”
“It’s beyond huge! And now, imagine if Reiff’s ability came along with it. Good God, Nora!”
“I see it,” she said. “I really do. But Reiff still scares me. I’m sorry, but he does. Whatever this ability is, it still scares the hell out of me. Especially the thought that we may only be seeing a glimpse of it.”
“Even better!” cried Masten. “So, we study him longer. Forever if we have to!”
“You know we have his DNA.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“Before and after revival,” she added. “All we have to do is compare them. Find out what changed and where.”
From his deck, Masten shook his head. “You know as well as I do it’s not that easy, especially without the ability to study and test things firsthand. In person.”
“It would take longer, but we could still—”
“Nora, it would take forever. This isn’t just about tracking down nucleotides. We’re talking groups of them. There could be hundreds. Thousands!”
“And what if it truly is an Occam’s Razor?”
“What do you mean?”
“If it’s not a trick,” offered Lagner, “then it would have to be something else. What if he picked these images up another way? Some other kind of stimuli, perhaps, maybe even while frozen. We don’t know.”
“What are you talking about?”
“I’m talking about something we haven’t considered, Robert. Something simpler. Something unknown but ultimately explainable.”
“Another form of stimuli,” Masten repeated.
“Not another form. Another source. Through the glass or some other means. Electrical impulses. Photons from a television screen somewhere. There’s a lot we haven’t considered.”
His voice grew quiet.
“Then,” she added, “it wouldn’t matter how it happened. Would it still be an anomaly? Yes. But not a miracle.”
“Then we wouldn’t need him,” said Masten dryly.
Lagner sighed. “We already have the data. Every byte, from the very beginning. Including the DNA sequences. All of them. We can literally examine every byte and every molecule. So, why risk the project?”
“You mean Reiff.”
“Yes, I mean Reiff! Why take the risk of him exposing something? You said it yourself, ‘we’re here.’ So, let’s not take chances.”
“Sometimes you’re too logical, Nora.”
“There’s no such thing.”
“There is. When it comes to human biology, there is.” There was another long pause. “I’m not doing it,” he finally said. “And I’ll tell you another thing: I know who our friend is.”
“Our friend?”
“Our visitor. The handler we’ve been using. His name is Duchik. He’s part of the NIH.”
“How do you know that?”
“It doesn’t matter. But he’s not just a go-between like we thought. He’s one of them.”
“One of who?”
“Them. The higher-ups. Which explains all the funding. Something tells me there wasn’t much approval needed beyond him.”
“How do you know?”
“I told you. It doesn’t matter. What matters is that we resist.”
“Resist how? He said he would kill Reiff if we don’t.”
“Then we find a way to change his mind. Help him understand exactly how big this opportunity is with Reiff. That it’s worth some risk. And then some.” He shook his head. “We have to control this, Nora. Us! You and me. Just like we knew we would. Someone has to be in charge of this technology. Someone who understands its true possibilities. The power of what it can really be used for! Duchik is hell bent on taking it, but we can’t let him. We have to maintain control!”
“I’m not sure if that’s possible,” said Lagner.
“Trust me, it is. Anyone can be swayed. Eventually. We just need to figure out what his agenda is. And then leverage it.”
“Then we’d better do it quickly.”
“I agree. So let’s do some digging.”
Masten ended the call. He remained standing—the phone in hand—before raising his head and looking out over the trees. As if only just noticing them again, with their wall of needles glittering in the cool breeze.
They had a new mission.
On the other end, Nora Lagner listened for the disconnection before tilting the phone up off the short glass table and verifying the call was over. Then laid it back down.
After a fleeting thought, she refocused her attention, then put both hands on each arm of the chair and pushed herself up onto her feet.
Walking gingerly across the carpet, she reached behind and removed the pins to let her hair down. Shoulder-length, brown, highlighted by wisps of light gray. She was in her mid-fifties, and her eyes and face were aged, perhaps a bit plain, but still attractive.
Her eyes dropped to the opposing chair, and she grinned at the man seated before her. “He’s not going to comply.”
Liam Duchik’s dark eyes stared up at her. Never changing expression. “I know.”
Lagner took another step forward and stopped. Reaching both hands behind her back, she unzipped her dress and lowered each side down over a shoulder before allowing the garment to drop to the floor.
She was wearing nothing else.