Kate didn’t know what to say, couldn’t see how it could involve her trial and her children. “You expect me to believe those two children are involved in this ancient cosmic struggle for the human race?”
“Yes. Think about the war between the Neanderthals and Humans. The battles between the Hobbits and Humans. Why did we win? The Neanderthals had bigger brains than us and they were certainly larger and stronger. But our brains were wired differently. Our minds were wired to build advanced tools, solve problems, and anticipate the future. Our mental software gave us an advantage, but we still don’t know how we got it. We were animals, just like them, 50,000 years ago. But some Great Leap Forward gave us an advantage we still don’t understand. The only thing we know for sure is that it was a change in brain wiring, possibly a change in how we used language and communicated. A sudden change. What if another change is under way? Those children’s brains are wired differently. You know how evolution works. It’s never a straight line. It operates on trial and error. Those children’s brains could simply be the next version of the operating system for the human mind — like the new version of Windows or Mac OS — a newer, faster version… with advantages over the previous release — us. What if those children or others like them are the first members of a new branch emerging in the human genetic tree? A new subspecies. What if, somewhere on this planet, a group already has the new software release? How do you think they would treat us, the old humans? Maybe the same way we treated the last humans that weren’t as smart as us — the Neanderthals and Hobbits.”
“That’s absurd, those children are no threat to us.” Kate studied Martin. He looked different, the look in his eyes, she couldn’t place it. And what he was saying, all the talk of genetics and evolutionary history — telling her things she already knew… but why?
“It may not seem that way, but how can we really know?” Martin continued. “From what we know of the past, every advanced human race has wiped out every race they viewed as a threat. We were the predator last time, but we’ll be the prey next time.”
“Then we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
“We’ve already crossed it, we just don’t know it. That’s the nature of the Frame Problem — in a complex environment, we simply can’t know the consequences of our actions, however good they seem at the time. Ford thought he was creating a device for mass transportation. He also gave the world the means to destroy the environment.”
Kate shook her head. “Listen to yourself, Martin. You sound crazy, delusional.”
Martin smiled. “I said the same thing when your father gave me the same speech.”
Kate considered Martin’s claim. It was a lie, it had to be. At the very least it was a distraction, a play for her trust, an effort to remind her that he had taken her in. She stared him down. “You’re telling me you took those children to prevent evolution?”
“Not, exactly… I can’t explain everything, Kate. I really wish I could. All I can tell you is that those children hold the key to preventing a war that will wipe out the human race. A war that has been coming since the day our ancestors sailed out of Africa 60-70,000 years ago. You have to trust me. I need to know what you did.”
“What is the Toba Protocol?”
Martin looked confused. Or was he frightened? “Where… did you hear that?”
“The soldier who picked me up from the police station. Are you involved in it — Toba?”
“Toba… is a contingency plan.”
“Are you involved?”
“Yes, but Toba may not be needed — if you talk to me, Kate.”
Four armed men entered from a side door Kate hadn’t seen before.
Martin turned on them. “I wasn’t finished talking to her!”
Two guards took her by the arms, forcing her out of the room and down the long corridor she had traveled down to meet Martin.
In the distance she heard Martin arguing with the other two men.
“Director Sloane said to tell you your time is up — she won’t talk, and she knows too much anyway. He’s waiting at the helipad.”
CHAPTER 33
River Village Slums
Jakarta, Indonesia
David slapped Cole again, and he came around. He couldn’t have been more than 25. The young man looked up through sleepy eyes that grew wide when they saw David.
He tried to draw away, but David held him. “What’s your name?”
The man glanced around, searching for help or maybe an exit. “William Anders.” The man searched his body for weapons but found none.
“Look at me. You see the body armor I’m wearing? You recognize it?” David stood, letting the man take in the head-to-toe Immari battle gear he wore. “Follow me,” David said.
The groggy man stumbled into the next room where his partner’s dead body lay, his head turned at an awkward, unnatural angle.
“He lied to me too. I’ll only ask one more time, what’s your name?”
The man swallowed and steadied himself in the doorway. “Cole. Name’s Cole Bryant.”
“That’s better. Where you from Cole Bryant?”