"And I'll need to get root access to Shimmer and your own pssi system."

He let go of the tomato and turned to look at me. This was a highly unusual request, but then again, to become immortal, to secure his fame forever, this was worth anything to him.

"Yes, but with some provisos," he replied slowly. "I'll need to understand the details of what you want to do, but, yes."

"Of course," I agreed, "you also understand we need to keep this private between you and I."

He narrowed his eyes and smiled.

"I don't want Patricia to be a part of this," I explained.

"Isn't she like a mother to you?"

He was trying to measure an emotional response from me, but I just stared at him impa.s.sively.

I didn't want Patricia knowing I wanted to do research work with Hal. She'd never liked him, and I didn't want to create any more problems. On top of that, the project Hal and I were discussing was something Patricia didn't know I was involved in.

As the lead on conscious perimeter security, my plate was already full, but I had a growing pa.s.sion in the next evolving step of the pssi program-conscious transference. We were still a ways off, but we were slowly evolving ways to understand how the ethereal mind hovered somewhere within the physical cage of the brain, where the seat of consciousness and our sense of self came together. Immortality, or something approaching it, was close at hand.

Soon enough, as pssi flooded the world and all of mankind began flittering between gameworlds and sensorgies, an upgrade to their monthly pssi package would feature an option for conscious transference.

Transfer from what, they will ask, from my old body? That thing I haven't seen in a year? And in an instant it will be done, the age old dream of immortality realized with as little fanfare as the click of a b.u.t.ton. Then they'd leave their bodies to collect dust somewhere in the corner of a garage like an old television set, eventually to be thrown out.

In this context, ceding executive control to pssi was like offering up your eternal soul.

Hal really shouldn't be quite so trusting, no matter what the possible gains. He was lucky he was dealing with me and not someone else.

"She loves you, you know," he added, watching me, fishing for something. I grew impatient. Before I could say anything, he beat me to the punch.

"Sorry Jimmy, I don't mean to test you-old habits die hard," he laughed. "I very much appreciate this. Consider me at your disposal for anything."

"Are you coming to the Infinixx launch tonight?" I asked.

"Wouldn't miss it for the world," he replied sarcastically, obviously no fan of the Killiam clan.

I let it go. "Good, I really want everyone to be there."

He nodded, returning his attention to the tomato plant.

"Anything you say, Jimmy."

I nodded goodbye and clicked out of that sensory s.p.a.ce. I was really looking forward to the launch.

14.

Ident.i.ty: Patricia Killiam "TEN!...NINE!...EIGHT!..."

I looked out at the packed crowd in the Ballroom, feeling the excitement build, and in the background my splinter network scanned the nearly billion people who had tuned in to witness the launch of Infinixx.

"Aunt Pattie," said Nancy, turning to look towards me with tears in her eyes, "I've decided that I'd like it to be you who throws the switch. All this, everything here is all because of you!"

The crowd continued to roar the countdown, "...six..."

It was her moment to shine, not mine.

"I'd love to sweetheart," I replied quickly. My physical self was back helping Vince on another goose chase in the grow farms. Even if I'd wanted to, there was no way for me to throw this switch without my body here. "I had a last minute thing come up. You go ahead dear!"

My stomach balled into a knot, realizing something had gone horribly wrong before I even understood what it was. I flipped my pssi into ident.i.ty mode to reveal a completely empty room. Not a soul was here physically, not even Nancy. I immediately realized the disaster that was about to unfold.

"...five..."

"Okay Jimmy, how about you then?" asked Nancy, still unaware. "Go ahead. I really wanted it to be one of you two."

She released the switch and encouraged Jimmy to take it.

I tried to unlock the exterior security perimeter to bring a psombie guard into the room, but Nancy and Jimmy had the security keyed into them. I desperately pinged Jimmy for access.

At the same time I had Marie querying the proxxi of all the senior executives up on the stage with us. All of them had last minute plans for not coming physically, including me. They had all hidden their excuses because we'd asked them to come in person, thinking it wouldn't make a difference. It was exactly what I had thought as well.

"...three...two..."

"I'm really sorry Nance," replied Jimmy urgently. "I had something too. You go ahead...quick now!"

Jimmy's face registered his surprise as my access control request hit his networks and he also understood the position we were in.

"...ONE!"

Nancy turned as white as a ghost when she realized what was happening. Her words of seconds ago now echoed in my mind, "All this, everything here is because of you." An audible 'snap' rang out in the air as the Chinese and Indians flipped their own switches at their remote locations.

What was going on? Vince had asked me to come and help him, and to keep it a secret, but his futile pursuits were something I had set him on myself. I hadn't planned this, and in fact I would have done almost anything to have stopped it from happening.

Already the world press had figured out what was going on. A Times article trumpeting "Infinixx-Everywhere but Nowhere!" was being filtered in to the main Ballroom display.

Lawyers from the Indian and Chinese sides had instantly filed lawsuits against Cognix claiming monumental damages. By now Jimmy had unlocked the exterior security perimeter, and I could see a psombie guard racing towards the stage.

"Forget it," I heard echo in a distant splinter. It was Nancy speaking, her primary subjective still standing alone on the stage, completely destroyed.

Was I a woman who dreamt of being a b.u.t.terfly, or a b.u.t.terfly who dreamt she was a woman? The b.u.t.terfly in me now yearned to escape, and it was getting hard to mask the tiredness.

Immunosuppressant nan.o.bots in my bloodstream had been attacking my own red blood cells after the latest round of genetic modification therapy, so I was now anemic, or something like this, my doctors were telling me. Running away from one tiger, and leaping towards another.

In another splinter, right at the same time as the Infinixx launch was unfolding, I'd been holding a different press conference. The disaster had already sparked a destructive media tsunami, and I could see the smiles start spreading across the reporters' faces while their incoming messages pinged and they looked up at me on the stage.

"In short," I listened to myself saying to the reporters, "for things to remain the way they are, things must change."

A few sn.i.g.g.e.rs followed that comment, but these were obviously related to the Infinixx mess and nothing clever I was saying.

"Okay, next question," I said quickly, wanting to get this over with. Only a small part of my consciousness was there, most of the rest of me was trying to calm Kesselring. We'd had the whole world tuned in for the launch. He was furious.

"The responsibility for Infinixx is yours," fumed Kesselring. "This has injected serious uncertainty vectors into our phutures. Who knows what the ramifications could be. I'm going to have to remove you from the media circuit. The Killiam name is a joke now."

"That's fine with me," I snorted. I'd been tired of the media road show for a long time already. He was posturing about the long range phutures, but I knew he was really annoyed about the declining price of the Cognix stock offering.

"The main timeline is holding steady," I added after giving him a moment to stew. "It's nothing to get excited about."

He raised his eyebrows.

"Nothing to get excited about? If I didn't know any better, I'd think that you were behind this."

"Why would I sabotage my own niece's project?" I replied, rolling my eyes.

"You don't think this looks suspicious? You turning around at the last minute, in fact, everyone turning away in the last seconds, even Nancy herself?"

He stood and stared at me. I looked away.

"I had to. Vince asked me for help. Do you think I could ignore him? After what we've done? Perhaps this was just a coincidence."

"A coincidence?" snorted Kesselring. "You expect me to believe that?"

Shaking my head I quietly replied, "No, I guess that stretches believability."

"It must be the Terra Novans somehow," he said after a pause, shaking his head and looking off into s.p.a.ce. "You realize we're going to have to remove Nancy as the head of Infinixx."

At the same time, I had another splinter who was busy arguing with Hal. It was another battle of the happiness brigade regarding test results from the clinical trials on addiction.

Hal was in the middle of another of his monologues.

"As the world gets more complex, people begin to compensate by looking for escape," Hal explained as my splinter a.s.similated into that reality. "Look at the rise in reports of paranormal phenomenon. We know it's not real, even they know it's not real, but they need the escape."

"Okay Hal, I see your point, but just for instance, what about Cody Chavez?" my splinter demanded. We were in Hal's new s.p.a.ce, his office climbing ever higher in the Solomon House complex.

"Cody Chavez is perfectly happy and healthy," argued Hal. "So he chooses to spend his days with reality skinned up so everyone looks like Elvis and global warming never happened. Cody knows this isn't real. He's just suspended disbelief for a while."

"I think it's a little more serious than simply suspending disbelief."

"Cody was suffering from incurable anxiety, directly linked to the intractable problems he saw in the world. So he's skinned up something to brighten his days, so what?" Hal shrugged and then wagged his finger in the air. "And all without drugs."

It was just at that point that the Infinixx mess climaxed. I sighed.

"Can we resolve the issue of making the new tests public another time?" I asked.

He shook his head angrily. "Always an excuse with you, isn't there Pat?"

"It's just..."

He cut me off. "I know, Infinixx, disaster. The whole world knows, my dear." He smiled cruelly.

I began to get angry.

"Fine then," I said, switching gears, "doesn't it bother you that we seem to be breeding a generation of lazy, self-absorbed s.e.xual deviants with the pssikids? Is this where the pursuit of happiness leads us?"

"Deviants?" laughed Hal. "Lazy? Come now, Patricia, listen to yourself! Isn't this just the same old accusation of parents about 'kids these days' down throughout the ages?"

I stopped for a moment and considered this.

"I think maybe you're just too old," added Hal with a nasty twinkle in his eye. "These kids do amazing things too, you know."

I sighed and rolled my eyes. Maybe he was right, but then I knew a few things he didn't. The weight bore down ever tighter.

"Forget the pssikids, then," I conceded. "What about this disgusting trade in proxxids?"

He arched his eyebrows. "Again, deviants?"

"I, for one, hadn't planned on starting a whole new industry in s.e.xual tourism for pedophiles," I complained. "Maybe this was what some of you had in mind, but I find it disgusting."

"s.e.xual tourism is a gross exaggeration."

I said nothing, shaking my head.

"Is it wrong, Patricia?" he countered coolly. "Is it wrong to have computer generated models of naked children if they're not based on any real, specific child? n.o.body is being exploited. It is a critical part of our therapy program for pedophiles."

"Still..." I replied with revulsion.

"Again, this is just your own prejudice blinding you," he continued, sensing my growing emotions and throwing them back in my face. "This is just the way they were made. The pedophiles can't help it. It wasn't that many generations ago that society reviled h.o.m.os.e.xuals the same way."

"It's not the same thing," I objected.

"Isn't it? Isn't it better for them to come here and release themselves, to find a therapeutic path forward? Technology is leading a cultural advance and bringing this long maligned minority back into the fold."

"It's disgusting," was all I could think to say. "It is absolutely disgusting."

My mind was past the brink of exhaustion.

This was the path to happiness?

In yet another splinter, Marie and I were studying the fast evolving weather predictions.

Hurricane Ignacia was definitely crossing over from the Caribbean and into the Eastern Pacific to be renamed Olivia. Hurricane Newton, which had been spinning out into the Pacific as we backed away from it towards the coast, had now stopped and even slightly reversed its trajectory.

My projections soon had the Fujiawara effect taking hold to connect the two storm systems, with the center pivot at just the wrong point, preventing Atopia from escaping into the open Pacific between them.