The Rising(95)
“You’re looking at a microchip formed of organic molecules instead of silicon, fully capable of interfacing with the human brain.”
“And these tendrils?” Sam posed, referring to the wispy, hair-like things protruding from the organic chip.
“Neuron storage would be my first guess, along with expansion capabilities. If the chip requires additional space, it simply sprouts another. We already know that DNA can reliably store data for two thousand years or more. My guess is the microchip you’re looking at has been genetically engineered to interface with Alex’s DNA in order to cram an incredible amount of information into an infinitesimal physical space.” He moved his gaze to Alex. “Looks like we found the reason you were brought to this planet.”
*
“Then the secrets we’re looking for,” Raiff interjected, “the secrets to stopping this invasion…”
“Might well be stored on that chip.” Donati completed the thought for him.
“Why not just bring it over in somebody’s pocket?” Sam wondered.
“My guess would be the electromagnetic displacement inside the wormhole,” Donati theorized. “In all probability that would cause severe damage or degradation, if not outright destruction, of anything stored on a microchip.” Donati reviewed the CT scan images again to make sure what he’d noted the first time was accurate. “I think the chip was installed while your boyfriend was still in utero, Dixon,” he added. “Have a look. You can see in some of the scans how the brain has grown over a portion of it. You can also see how the soft tissue has virtually melded to it, no attempts at rejection, which can only mean one thing.”
Donati stopped, as if waiting for a response, then continued when Sam, Alex, and Raiff remained silent, as the boat headed straight for the Golden Gate Bridge. “It was manufactured to be able to interface with the human brain and keyed to the subject’s DNA to avoid rejection.”
“You’re talking about boosting brain function the same way you might add RAM to a computer,” Sam theorized.
“Indeed I am, Dixon. But in your boyfriend’s case the chip isn’t connected to any part of the brain. That would seem to suggest it’s an independent body implanted by this means to avoid detection.”
Alex was massaging his temples. “Until I got my bell rung the other night, you mean, and the CT scan revealed it.”
Donati nodded. “Your doctor’s report here notes his utter befuddlement at its presence. There’s a record of him making a call to a neurological specialist, probably to inquire about his experience with such things.”
“That man has been eliminated as well, in all likelihood,” Raiff said flatly. “Anyone who could expose or uncover the truth behind Dancer’s presence here.”
“Which is?” Alex snapped. “I mean, please tell me, because I’d like to know. What is the truth behind what I’m doing here?”
“We’ve got another problem,” Donati said, studying Dr. Payne’s report again. “It appears the chip is now leaking.”
97
ATTACK MODE
“YOU REALLY SHOULDN’T BE accompanying us, sir,” Rathman said to Langston Marsh, as his thirty commandos packed into the Zodiac rafts. “This is going to get messy.”
“Nothing you can’t handle, I trust.”
“We’re about to sink a civilian vessel. That’s a new experience even for me.”
“But necessary in this case. I’m sure you understand that now.”
“I do.”
“Then you should also understand why I have to be here. Something about this young man is different from the others we’ve hunted. He must be disabled and taken into our custody, not exterminated like all the others. And I have to be on site to interrogate him immediately—myself.”
“Yes, sir.”
“What about the insurance policy I asked you to take out?”
Rathman checked his watch. “En route now. Ten minutes or so out, depending on traffic.”
“We’ll take them with us, then. As leverage.”
Marsh gazed out into the bay, toward the lights of the Blue and Gold Fleet tour boat that had now crossed under the Golden Gate Bridge. “I often wonder what my father was feeling as he took off on that fateful flight. Did he know what he’d be facing? What was he thinking when he climbed into that cockpit? Did he somehow sense he was about to confront his own mortality? Did he realize he was among the first men at the front in a war I’ve been fighting ever since? That’s the kind of moment I believe this is, Colonel. That’s why I have to be there, just like my father was.”
Marsh spotted a dark van slide to a halt up the hill from which the private dock was located.
“I believe,” he said to Rathman, “that our insurance has arrived.”
98
LEAKAGE
“LEAKING?” ALEX WONDERED. “WHAT’S that mean, exactly?”
“It explains the contents of your sketchbook, for one thing,” Donati told him. “Each of those images you drew represents something your conscious mind couldn’t possibly have knowledge of. But if the image leaked out from the chip hidden in your head and was somehow processed by your subconscious, you’d have an explanation for how you could draw things you’d never seen with no memory of imagining them. It explains everything.”