The Filter Trap (49 page)

“I try to do the same thing with my foreign diplomacy. Put decisions in the hands of locals, put their boots on the ground in a situation that affects them. If that gray guy has any skin in this game, I’m not sure what it is, besides hoping the experiment it tried on the Elders works out differently this time.

“Clearly it could have done it without our consent, but it tossed the choice to us. And I’m going to toss it to the Koreans, she’s their citizen, not mine.”

“If anything, she’s the world’s citizen now, sir!” Kam protested.

“And I am releasing her back to that world, Doctor Douglass, to do what it may. The United States will provide any and all support it can to see that Natalie Cho arrives in her homeland safely. After that I will leave it up to her own people to toss the coin. In any case it resolves this office of any responsibility in the matter.”

“Coward!” Kam protested and the other bristled. “I voted for you. Twice! But you’re just another lousy politician passing the buck and protecting your legacy.”

“And you’d rather I protect one woman. One! Over the three hundred million people under threat in this country,
your
country, in case you forgot. Decisions at this level are made based on probabilities, Doctor.

“It’s a shame Allan isn’t here; his field is closer to that than yours. The probability of an angry mob attempting to storm this building and demand Natalie’s death if I do nothing is very high. The probability that the Chinese will use the nuclear weapons they are threatening us with if I do not terminate Natalie Cho is even higher. The probability of the Koreans using their own nuclear weapons if I terminate her is higher still.

“The probability that letting her wake up will end all our problems and send us to a land of never-ending pleasure and delight is lower. 50/50 is a worse bet than 90/10, Doctor. You must understand that. My job is to protect the American people, and this choice has that immediate consequence.

“And with this she lives at least one more day. I could have decided differently.”

“What if the Koreans let her wake up?” Amanda asked, fear creeping in.

“I, for one, will welcome our robot overlords,” Lee quipped.

The president sat back down and looked out the window again.

“In three days the world will end, or it will not. That is the constant reality of being the leader of it. You’ve all wallowed in blissful ignorance until today. I welcome whatever new world is to come as long as I’ve done my best to preserve what I’ve sworn to protect.”

He pressed a button on the desk and two of the doors on the oval walls opened. Secret Service agents entered and motioned for the four to follow them out.

“One last thing,” the president said, swiveling to address them.

“Kam can go with her if he wants, full diplomatic immunity. It was already part of the deal. I’d hate for you to miss the birth.”

Kam’s jaw dropped.

“I told you I already made the decision before you got here.”

Dear reader,

Thank you for following this tale all the way to the conclusion. Although the central question of the book (who moved the Earth?) has been answered, there is now a more potent question posed to our characters, one that we, too, in the real world will have to grapple with. I did write an ending for them, one that may or may not come true for us. If you’d prefer, as some early readers did, to use the open ending to meditate on the choices we make as individuals and as a network of disparate societies, then you must stop here.

If you prefer to know what happened to Natalie and the rest, then read on for a short epilogue.

No matter what you choose, I’d like to thank you again for your time. If you enjoyed this book (or even if you didn’t) please leave a review with the e-retailer where you purchased it, as honest reviews help authors hone their craft more than sales.

Andrew “A. L. Lorentz” Long

She felt nothing but overwhelming cold.

A sense persisted that her mind operated on some equation somewhere else, beyond her reach. Her subconscious worked something alien out, bypassing her conscious ignorance, like a frustrated teacher explaining calculus to a squirrel.

But she recognized that part of her knew innately what was happening, or what would happen very soon when she woke up.

For she was conscious again! What a relief. The dark dream was ending. How much of it had been real? Would she wake up in her house, hungover after visiting dad’s grave? The Farm? The jail? How much of it had been a dream?

The thought of her father brought shivers again, but a warm touch broke through the cold. A hand in hers. So that part, the best part, was real at least. She knew who held her hand without opening her eyes, but when she did everything changed.

Kam smiled wide and said something, just like last time, in space with that gray blob. But again, he collapsed. This time he didn’t melt into an abyss, life brilliantly transformed into code. Digits gave way to spiraling double-helixes, balls of energy, then vibrating strings, quivering at her delicate touch.

Matter laid bare beyond the quantum level, an infinite ladder rolling across an unending library awaited. She ran to it, embraced it, even as she knew some of those who had once protected her hid in fear.

Fear was primitive. A relic of the past when they’d all been nothing but animals, collections of molecules fighting to keep moving on a barely hospitable rock. She held no more enmity or love for them than a thesaurus cares for its own ink. A collection of atoms convincing themselves they had self-determination; she would lead them to the light. They’d all see soon through the eye of the universe.

No longer confined to the zero sum game of matter she realized the solution was infinite and open. Reality was a symphony they would learn to conduct together.

What?

Somewhere behind her growing mind, back in the simian part of her, a familiar voice called for Natalie.

But she was no longer Natalie, no longer a she.