“We also spoke about longevity as a burden to younger generations,” she continued. “It is. Along with economic collapse, population growth causes conditions to get more and more unsanitary. Contagious diseases spread like wildfire. Massive famines become common. Fighting for survival and fueled by increases in aberrant human behavior, countries war on their international neighbors and soon unleash a nuclear Armageddon on the planet.”
Desh blanched. It sounded chillingly plausible. “But wouldn't world governments realize the threat and implement strict birth-control policies?”
“Maybe. Doubtfully, but maybe. But is that what you would want? Buying increased survival at the expense of your offspring? This may sound perfectly reasonable to me when I’m enhanced, but the thought of it sickens me when I’m not.” Kira paused. “There is little doubt. Springing a seventy or eighty year life extension on the world would lead to the end of civilization.” She frowned and looked utterly disheartened.
The depth of despair on her face took Desh by surprise. “Kira?” he said gently, “are you okay?”
She nodded, but the sadness didn’t leave her eyes. “Just feeling sorry for myself,” she said softly. “My every effort blows up in my face. I can transform myself to a fantastic level of intelligence, but at the cost of becoming ruthless and losing much of my humanity. I find a way to dramatically slow the aging process, only to realize that doing so will destroy civilization.”
Desh sat in silence, unable to think of anything to say. He could understand her frustration. She was a modern day Midas, the king who was thrilled to be granted a touch of gold until he realized the devastating consequences: he couldn’t prevent his food or beloved daughter from turning into gold as well.
29
They sat in silence as the waiter arrived with their desserts. Kira put a spoonful of vanilla ice-cream and hot fudge into her mouth and swallowed unhappily. Desh found himself wondering if a being of infinite intelligence would still enjoy the taste of fudge.
As Desh began working on his own sundae he decided to change the subject. Kira still had Lusetti and her brother to explain, but he was beginning to think she would. “So what happened after you realized you couldn’t reveal your discovery?”
“I decided to throw in the towel. I vowed to stop all experiments on longevity and to never use my brain optimization therapy again.” She waited patiently for excess fudge to finish dripping off her long spoon so she could bring it to her mouth. “But it goes without saying the story didn’t end there. Someone had been keeping track of me, not with listening devices but the old fashioned way. I didn’t know it at the time, but Larry Lusetti, a Private Investigator, had been hired to keep tabs on me. He went through my garbage and spied on me through my windows like a peeping tom. It didn’t take long for him to discover I had stopped all experimentation.”
Desh considered. “I’m guessing this signaled Moriarty that you had made a breakthrough and didn’t need to experiment further.”
“That’s right. A few days later my condo was broken into again. I had long since stopped keeping records in a lab notebook. By then I was keeping my notes on my computer. The file was encoded and also protected by security I had devised while I was enhanced. Even if someone breached my computer, they’d have to decode the file. But a breach wasn’t possible. Not by a member of Homo sapiens at any rate.” She frowned deeply. “Which goes to show that just because you’re smart doesn’t mean you can’t be incredibly stupid at the same time.”
“Moriarty was able to open the file?”
She nodded. “After he broke into my condo, he must have taken one of the gellcaps that Morgan had stolen. He sat at the computer, enhanced, and was easily able to bypass my security.”
Kira scowled, clearly annoyed with herself even now. “I was lucky,” she continued. “I had been paranoid enough to only keep records of individual animal experiments on the computer, and philosophical musings. The actual step by step and gene by gene instructions for the longevity therapy, and for the second level of intelligence enhancement, were stored on a key-ring flash drive I kept with me at all times. There was no mention in my computer, whatsoever, that I had been working on an even greater level of intelligence enhancement. Moriarty still knows nothing about this. But I did have notes on the longevity therapy. He couldn’t get the recipe, but he learned that I had found a way to extend life.”
Desh’s eyes narrowed. “Smith knew you had slowed the aging process by half. He also said your ultimate plan on the road to immortality was to design nanobots to patrol the bloodstream, and then find a way to transfer consciousness.”
“That’s right. This general plan was recorded on my computer. It was my initial thinking before I realized what a disaster even the first step would be. Exactly as Smith described.”
“Interesting,” said Desh. “So do you think he’s Moriarty?”
Kira considered. “Maybe, but my intuition tells me no. I think he’s just Moriarty’s lieutenant.”