Game changer, p.25
Game Changer, page 25
“We’ll see to it, sir.”
“Last thing, Daniel. You know the kind of impact this virus will have on the world. There will be no going back. I just want to be certain you’re still with me. Still willing to make such a profound, permanent change. You aren’t going to have second thoughts about this, right?”
Eisen shook his head adamantly. “I can speak for both of us here when I say that isn’t going to happen. We aren’t happy about certain . . . necessities, no question. But we believe in you and what you’re trying to do. We’re committed to your cause.”
“Good,” said Kovonov. “The achievement of our goals will come at a great cost. But there are no cheap solutions. And if you ask me, this is one that is long overdue.”
As the call ended, Kovonov’s thoughts turned back once again to Kevin Quinn and Rachel Howard. His first pair of mercenaries had failed to capture Quinn. The two mercenaries he had sent after this to capture Quinn and kill the professor had turned up dead.
Quinn must have grown some balls, after all.
Ironically, after Quinn had eluded four seasoned mercenaries, he had been killed running from his own people. Kovonov doubted Quinn had suffered as much in the deadly car crash as he would have liked, but knowing this asshole was finally dead was still immensely satisfying.
So should he send additional men after the professor? He thought for a few minutes and came to the same conclusion he had come to previously. It was time to let this one go. Just as he had underestimated Quinn, he was certainly overestimating the danger that Professor Howard represented.
She had no idea what was really going on. He may have studied the professor for many years, but she was totally unaware that he even existed. This was a case of respecting someone too much. He had become obsessed with her genius, convinced she was the only one clever enough to hurt him.
But he no longer had time to indulge this whim. He had wasted too much effort on this already. He needed to let it go.
There were far more important things that now demanded his attention.
40
At first, Eyal Regev had his hands in the air and a hurt look on his face. As though he were being betrayed by a close friend. But when Quinn admitted he didn’t know why he was holding him, his expression registered nothing but alarm. “You don’t know why you’re doing this?” he said in disbelief. “Come on, Kevin. Does that sound rational? Consider that this may be a result of having your mind tampered with. Please. Before you do something you’ll regret.”
“He doesn’t know what’s going on,” said Rachel evenly, “because he’s doing this at my request.”
“What?” said Regev, squinting in disbelief.
Rachel rummaged through Quinn’s rucksack and removed a pair of zip-tie handcuffs. She tossed them to the Israeli. “Put these on and ratchet them tight with your mouth,” she said. After all she had been through, it almost seemed normal to instruct the man who had abducted her to hold the man she had thought was her student at gunpoint.
“You do realize the President of the United States agreed to make him our boss?” said Quinn.
“He agreed to that under false pretenses,” said Rachel. “Put on the cuffs!” she snapped at Regev.
The Israeli sighed deeply and did as she asked. “You don’t need to hold a gun on me,” he said evenly, “or have me restrained. Kevin and I would both give our lives to protect you. He’s already demonstrated as much. Although I suppose that isn’t entirely unexpected from a Secret Service agent. But I’d do the same. There are no words that could possibly convey your importance to Israel.”
“Good,” said Rachel. “Because I’m not looking for glib words, or false compliments. I’m looking for the truth. Or are you going to stand there and insist you’ve been honest? Which will only dig the hole deeper.”
“Look—Rachel—we really are the good guys. That is the truth. And we really do see you being of paramount importance. Once you were in the fold, we were planning to tell you everything. We couldn’t proceed effectively otherwise. You could well be the key to our future. But like I said before, we wanted to give you the chance to get to know us. And when we finally aired all of our laundry, we wanted to do it in private.”
“Oh well. Guess your plans have changed.”
“How can you be so certain you’ve been misled? I thought the take on events Kish and Wortzman provided was compelling. Where did we go wrong?”
“Kovonov. He’s a neuroscientist, isn’t he? I asked a second time at the vid-meet. Your boss repeated the lie you had told me, that he has zero neuroscience background. The only reason you’d deny this is because you know he’s responsible for the false memories. Which makes sense given his interest in me and Kevin. I have no idea what connection Kovonov has to fly drones, but I do know a good part of your story about him is a lie.”
Regev remained silent for several long seconds, deep in thought. “Okay,” he admitted finally, “he’s a neuroscientist. But how could you possibly know that?”
“Three numbers,” said Rachel simply. “Three. Zero. Two.”
Regev blinked rapidly, a blank look on his face. Rachel noted in her peripheral vision that Quinn looked just as confused.
“I’ll spell it out for you,” said Rachel. “There’s a one-millimeter-long roundworm found in certain soils,” she said. “A species called C. elegans. I’m guessing you’ve never heard of it.”
Regev shook his head.
“It’s been one of the most important model organisms in neuroscience research for fifty years. It’s cheap to breed, can be frozen and thawed and remain alive, and it’s transparent, which is very convenient. It was the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome sequenced and the first to have its connectome—its neural wiring diagram—completed as well. But the main reason it’s been such a valuable research tool is the simplicity of its nervous system. The human brain has almost a hundred billion neurons. This particular roundworm is able to thrive with just a tiny bit fewer. I’ll let you guess the exact number.”
Regev nodded, the light of comprehension finally shining on him. “Three hundred and two,” he said miserably. “Shit! That’s really bad luck. Who knew?” he mused.
“Anyone who has truly studied the field,” replied Rachel. “So even when Kovonov is making up a ridiculous alias for mercenaries to use, he can’t help but pay homage to this important model system. When Kevin said during the vid-meet that this was what Kovonov wanted to be called, I knew. Not only is he a neuroscientist, he’s a diehard geek of a neuroscientist.”
She stared at Regev, unblinking, for several seconds. “How about it, Eyal? Do you want to finally tell me what’s really going on?”
“I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “But not in front of Kevin. Just you and me.”
“No deal. He stays. Anything you can say to me, you can say to him. As you mentioned, he was willing to die to protect me. Se we’re in this together.”
Regev hesitated.
“Why is this a problem?” said Rachel. “If you’re on the side of the angels as you say, convince me. Convince us both. Or remain silent and alienate me forever, proving that you’re lying about my importance as well.”
“I need you both to agree to keep what I tell you absolutely confidential. I need your word.”
Kevin shook his head. “No good, Eyal,” he said. “I can’t make that promise. The best I can do is this: I’ll maintain confidentiality on anything you tell me that isn’t in conflict with the interests of the United States.”
“I’ll make the same promise,” said Rachel. “But that’s all you’re going to get. So what’s it going to be? Time for you to make some decisions.”
41
Regev asked to at least get more comfortable, and Quinn saw no reason not to honor this request. He had the Israeli sit in the same chair he had taken earlier, but ten feet more distant from the couch, and gave him another zip-tie to cuff his ankles. Regev used his outstretched hands, still bound, to pull it taut.
Quinn and Rachel took their previous positions next to each other on the leather couch. Given his prisoner’s hands and feet were cuffed, Quinn felt comfortable resting the gun on his lap, although he still maintained his grip on it.
“It seems like only yesterday that I was holding the gun,” said Regev wryly, “and you were bound to a pole. We really need to stop having conversations this way.”
Quinn allowed the hint of a smile to cross his face. Maintaining a sense of humor in the face of adversity was a personal quality he admired.
“I guess I should begin at the beginning,” said Regev. “Dmitri Kovonov did emigrate to Israel from Russia at the age of fourteen. And he was absolutely brilliant, taking to neuroscience like a fish takes to water.” He nodded at Rachel. “Not as brilliant or inventive a neuroscientist as you are, of course, but very close.”
“As I said, flattery won’t help you,” said Rachel.
“Not flattery,” insisted Regev. “Honesty.”
“So Kovonov was never on the fly drone team?” said Quinn.
“No. We didn’t even have a fly drone team at the time. But he soon earned the right to head the secret scientific initiative that my country deemed its highest priority.” He paused for effect. “What Rachel calls Matrix Learning.”
Quinn’s eyes widened. Matrix Learning. He remembered from his discussion with Rachel in her neighbor’s house that this was the primary goal of her research. But judging from her less than surprised expression she hadn’t found this revelation totally unexpected.
Eyal turned to Quinn. “Let me explain what this is,” he said. “The idea is to—
“I’m familiar with the term,” said Quinn, cutting him off.
“Good,” said Regev, although he seemed surprised that this was the case. “We began the program as far back as 1999. Not coincidentally.”
“The year The Matrix came out in theaters,” said Rachel.
“Yes. The depiction of instant learning from the movie seized the imagination of our prime minister at the time, Ehud Barak. Not that this was the first time this idea appeared in science fiction. As far back as 1957, Isaac Asimov used this concept in a story called Profession.”
Asimov may have been the first to come up with the idea, but Quinn doubted he had a character learn kung-fu instantly and then engage in such entertaining fights.
“The movie was like a demonstration video to the higher-ups in Israel at the time,” continued Regev. “To understand just how profoundly the prospect of Matrix Learning hit us, you have to understand the Jewish people. In Jewish culture education—knowledge—is everything. There is a reason so many luminaries have been Jewish. Einstein, Fermi, Freud, Pauli, Feynman, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Salk. The list goes on. Jews make up one five-hundredth of the world’s population. One five-hundredth. But they have earned twenty-two percent of all Nobel Prizes. Not only is education our strongest cultural imperative, we have been persecuted more than any other people throughout the ages. At a time in world history when land ownership meant everything, Jews were often prohibited from owning land. Not able to farm, to use their hands to get ahead, they had little choice but to use their brains.”
Rachel nodded. “Jewish colleagues over the years have mentioned that nothing is more important in their religion than education,” she said. “And I have found them to be more captivated than average at the prospect of Matrix Learning.”
“Israel has always been a resource-poor country,” said Regev. “We weren’t blessed with oil, like our Arab neighbors, so education and innovation were always the keys to our survival. Hated, outnumbered, and outgunned. So not only did the possibility of instant education capture many imaginations, the potential this offered if perfected—to keep us many steps ahead of our enemies—was irresistible.”
“Okay,” said Rachel. “So your leaders saw the movie when it came out in ’99 and began a secret program.”
“Not just a secret program. The secret program. Israel’s Manhattan project. No other program we’ve ever mounted was nearly as well manned or well funded. Progress was modest for the first decade, because our goals and ambitions were ahead of the technology, but we did make progress. Progress that would be key when the tech—computers, neuronal maps, and the like—did finally catch up.”
“And Kovonov came to lead this effort,” said Rachel.
“Yes. He led our best people. And we succeeded. Five years ago, under his leadership. He used trial and error, audacity, outside-the-box thinking, and hundreds of millions of dollars in funding. In the end this wasn’t enough. We benefited from what we thought of as divine intervention. Kovonov made some guesses that worked out that even he characterized as blind, random luck.”
Rachel nodded solemnly. “Last week I thought I was closer to perfecting Matrix Learning than anyone,” she said. “After what happened to Kevin, I’ve had to readjust my thinking, acknowledge that someone was ahead of me. But I would never have believed this. I’ve gone from being ten miles ahead in a marathon to being an also ran. It’s a difficult pill to swallow.”
“I understand. We got lucky, we’re the first to admit it. And we poured dozens of times more resources at it than the rest of the world combined. Quantity has a quality of its own. But there was never any question that you were the singular talent in the field. Kovonov worshiped you.”
“The same Kovonov who just tried to have me killed?”
“Yes. But that came later. For years he sang your praises, telling anyone who would listen you were the only neuroscientist in the world with greater insight even than his own. He called you a visionary and a genius. He admitted to borrowing liberally from your work. He lobbied the head of Mossad and the prime minster to do whatever it took to recruit you. Repeatedly. In the end we decided not to approach you. It was too risky. Secret program. Foreign government. If only you had been lucky enough to be a Sabra,” he added with a smile.
“Sabra?” said Rachel.
“What we call a native-born Israeli. Taking a name from a cactus that thrives in my country. Thorny, tenacious, and thick-skinned on the outside.” Regev raised his eyebrows. “Sweet and soft on the inside.”
“Well, you’ve definitely demonstrated the thorny and tenacious part,” said Rachel with just the hint of a smile.
“So you perfected this Matrix Learning five years ago?” said Quinn. “Why didn’t you go public? Then Rachel could have joined your efforts.”
“This is a greater advantage than our fly drones. We wanted to milk it for all it was worth. Still do. Maintain our advantage for as long as possible. The technology is totally disruptive. Once it’s unleashed the world will never be the same.” Regev paused. “I only wish you could have been in the professor’s recent lecture. She covered many of the ramifications at length.”
“How good is the technique?” asked Rachel. “And how is it done?”
“The results are flawless. Astonishing. One minute you know nothing about a subject, ten minutes later you’re an expert. Like Trinity learning to fly a helicopter, only not quite as fast. As to the how, Kovonov and his team developed a robot that injects micro-implants into eight regions of the brain, with very high accuracy. They’re extremely advanced electronics shaped like tiny needles and can be punched into place in the brain like a vaccine is punched through the skin when you get a shot. The companion to this is a very complex, very expensive device that reminds me of an MRI. Same large doughnut-shaped opening at one end, in which your head is immobilized. But it’s not an MRI.”
“What are the principles of its operation?” asked Rachel.
“I really would tell you, but I don’t know. I just know that it works. The subject has to have the implants injected first. And has to be inside the MRI-like device. But there is no physical connection between the two. You don’t have a giant jack embedded into the back of your skull that you plug a cable into like in the Matrix movies. But it also isn’t free-range.”
“So what have you been doing with it all these years?” said Quinn.
“We’ve used it to flash-educate the most innovative people in Israel,” replied Regev proudly. “We’ve established the greatest league of inventors in world history. Geniuses who have broad and deep knowledge of a field implanted and who use this to produce breakthroughs.”
“What, like fly drones?” said Quinn.
“That’s right. This was the first technology to come out of the program. The ultra-light bulletproof vest and the wound sealant are other examples you’ve witnessed. And so much more you haven’t seen. Breakthroughs in electronics. Supercomputers that are desktop sized. Advanced algorithms. Improved ability to hack computers. Dramatic advances in AI, supercapacitors, lasers, solar energy, 3-D printers, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, sensors, and dozens of other areas. We believe that even a tabletop fusion reactor is just a few years away. It wasn’t just the fly drones that kept us ahead, that allowed us to stop North Korea and Iran from carrying out their nuclear ambitions.”
“So your military is what . . . just hoarding all of these innovations?” said Quinn accusingly.
“Most we’re helping to commercialize. Some inventions we license cheaply to Israeli companies. For others, we provide seed money for the inventor to launch a new company. We’ve been known for innovation for some time, but if you did a statistical analysis you’d find that the number of breakthrough inventions coming out of Israeli companies has tripled during the last several years.”
Rachel shook her head. “You shouldn’t have been this successful,” she said. “We discussed this in class. Matrix Learning won’t improve native intelligence. Won’t improve creativity, or inventiveness. It’s just knowledge. Instead of pounding the principles of chemistry into your head for an entire semester, they’re shoehorned in, in minutes.”
