Ramez Naam - Nexus

Room – Bathrooms: Satisfied

Shit. Fucked if I do, fucked if I don't.

Staff – Friendliness: Satisfied

No… It's other people who get fucked if I run. People I care about.

Staff – Efficiency: Satisfied

Well, shit.

Overall Service: _________

Kade's pen hovered over the line. It was really no choice at all. Maybe he would end up in jail or dead if he stuck with this mission. But if he bailed, friends of his would end up in jail for certain. He had to take the chance. The ERD held all the cards right now.

Overall Service: Satisfied

Kade sighed. It was the right choice.

He stripped off the rest of his clothes, swallowed the other mint, and collapsed into bed.

Wats. How do I reach him? Is he here just for me?

Shit, shit, shit.

He rolled over and closed his eyes.

Kade knew what Wats had gone through, how the experiences he'd had, experiences made possible by Nexus, had changed him. He knew his friend believed that Nexus could change people, that it could end wars, that it could be a technology to make the world a better place. But not everyone was like Wats. Not everyone would respond that way. Most wouldn't be willing.

And Nexus 5 just wasn't ready. It was too dangerous to put into most people's hands. It would be too easy to use it to control people, to abuse them. A scientist is responsible for the consequences of his work , as his dad had told him over and over again. Kade wasn't going to have some of the possible consequences on his head.

Wats, if that was Wats, shouldn't have come. He was just putting his own life at risk.

Sleep came at last, briefly, but his dreams brought him no comfort.

14

SURPRISING INTERACTIONS

The opening night reception was held in the ballroom of the Queen Sirikit Convention Center. Scientists milled about in shirt sleeves and the occasional tie, mixing with orange-robed monks and formally dressed serving staff. Kade could feel Sam down the Nexus link across their phones. She was here somewhere, sharp and alert.

Kade got a beer with one of his drink tickets and wandered about. He chatted with half a dozen scientists on a range of topics. Neural plasticity. The effects of religion on the brain. The similarity in neural impacts of music, drugs, and meditation. The theoretical limits of human intelligence.

Someone walked past him, and he got a view of Sam. She was chatting with Narong, wine glass in hand, big smiles on their faces. Narong said something and she laughed. She put a hand on his arm, said something back, and then turned towards the restrooms. Narong watched her go, eyes glued to her ass.

[kade] You have an admirer.

[sam] Don't scare him off.

[kade] Don't you have work to do?

[sam] That's work, Kade. Your new buddy Narong is a known associate of Suk Prat-Nung. That name ring a bell?

[kade] As in Ted Prat-Nung?

[sam] Suk Prat-Nung is Thanom Prat-Nung's nephew. He's also involved in Nexus distribution himself, we think.

Thanom "Ted" Prat-Nung. The Thai drug dealer. The one they'd said was possibly the largest dealer of Nexus on the planet. The one pictured in the photo with Su-Yong Shu in Thailand. Narong was connected to his nephew.

[kade] You couldn't have mentioned this earlier?

[sam] I didn't know until just now.

[kade] ?

[sam] Narong just matched an unidentified voiceprint that we have tagged as belonging to an associate of Suk's.

[kade] Are you seriously voice-printing everyone you talk to?

[sam] Yes. Matching all the faces if we can too.

[kade] You people scare me.

[sam] The people at this conference scare me a lot more.

Kade wandered on. And then there was Su-Yong Shu, tall and elegant, surrounded by a gaggle of other neuroscientists, holding court, a large smile on her face and a glass of wine in her hand. Someone in the crowd said something and she arched an eyebrow. Her charisma was evident even from across the room. There was something about her. An intensity. A ferocity in the eyes and the smile and the laugh. It sent a chill up his spine.

Kade was about to turn and walk away when Shu's eyes passed over him, and she raised a hand to wave him over. Kade felt his chest tighten. He'd practiced this half a hundred times. He could do this.

Kade activated the serenity package, tuned it up halfway. He strolled towards the crowd around her, a relaxed smile on his face. As he walked he sent a single message to Sam, then suppressed all Nexus transmit functions within his brain. Mind-to-mind contact was to be avoided if at all possible.

Kade got within earshot in time to hear Shu finish a thought in British-inflected English.

"…opening plenary was refreshingly farsighted. The Thai are very lucky to have this leadership."

The crowd had formed a ring around her and someone else. A well-dressed male. Kade knew that face. Arlen Franks. Director of the American National Institute of Mental Health. The source of the bulk of Kade's funding.

"The opening speakers were talking about technology that's illegal," Franks said. "Posthuman technology, Professor Shu. They were embracing it."

"They were talking about a very real transformation, Dr. Franks," Shu replied. "An inevitable one. Ignore that all you want. I, for one, applaud them."

Definitely, Kade thought. That was the most interesting talk all day.

"Scientists have to show respect for the law, Professor," Franks replied.

"Perhaps the law should show respect for science instead, Doctor."

"Hear, hear," someone said behind Kade.

"We have an ethical responsibility–" Franks began.

"Ethical?" Shu cut him off. "Laws that keep humanity chained and limited are ethical?"

"They keep us human."

Shu raised an eyebrow. "And who decides what's human?"

"More than a hundred world leaders decided, when they signed the Copenhagen Accords."

"More than a hundred!" Shu exclaimed. "And politicians at that! Oh, that makes me feel so much better!"

A ripple of laughter went through the audience. Kade found himself chuckling. Franks pursed his lips in frustration.

"Dr Franks," Shu went on more quietly. "I agree with you that as scientists we must act ethically. But surely that means acting for the greatest good. The laws that exist now inhibit our ability to do so. There's so much we could do with more leeway in our research. There's a tremendous amount in medicine, and even more in augmentation. Who says that the current human condition is the right one? We could elevate ourselves. We could make a better world. We could give billions the choices of who and what to become, rather than trusting your 'more than a hundred'. Our fear has crippled us."

Hear, hear, Kade thought to himself.

Franks downed his drink. His face was flushed. "If you were in my country, Dr Shu, you'd find your funding cut off pretty quickly with talk like that."

Kade frowned. A disapproving murmur went around the crowd.

Shu smiled faintly. She shook her head. "Then I should be glad that I'm not in your country, Dr Franks." She nodded to him. "Good evening to you."

The crowd around them began to disperse, dismissed by their queen.

Shu turned to Kade. "Mr Lane, I believe?" She stepped towards him, hand outstretched.

Kade smiled, took her hand, shook it. "It's an honor to meet you, Dr Shu."

She smiled at him. "I've heard a lot about you. I'm looking forward to seeing more of your work."

"Thank you."

"What did you make of that little exchange?" she asked.

"I agreed with you one hundred percent."

Shu nodded.

He was ready for it when her mind reached out for his. She was probing gently, feeling for him, mentally caressing the space between them. Kade kept the Nexus in his brain locked down tight, let nothing leak back out.