Game Changer (26 page)

40

At first, Eyal Regev had his hands in the air
and a hurt look on his face. As though he were being betrayed by a close
friend. But when Quinn admitted he didn’t know why he was holding him, his
expression registered nothing but alarm. “You don’t know why you’re doing this?”
he said in disbelief. “Come on, Kevin. Does that sound rational? Consider that
this may be a result of having your mind tampered with. Please. Before you do
something you’ll regret.”

“He doesn’t know what’s going on,” said Rachel
evenly, “because he’s doing this at my request.”

“What?” said Regev, squinting in disbelief.

Rachel rummaged through Quinn’s rucksack and
removed a pair of zip-tie handcuffs. She tossed them to the Israeli. “Put these
on and ratchet them tight with your mouth,” she said. After all she had been
through, it almost seemed normal to instruct the man who had abducted her to hold
the man she had thought was her student at gunpoint.

“You do realize the President of the United
States agreed to make him our boss?” said Quinn.

“He agreed to that under false pretenses,” said
Rachel. “Put on the cuffs!” she snapped at Regev.

The Israeli sighed deeply and did as she
asked. “You don’t need to hold a gun on me,” he said evenly, “or have me
restrained. Kevin and I would both give our lives to protect you. He’s already
demonstrated as much. Although I suppose that isn’t entirely unexpected from a
Secret Service agent. But I’d do the same. There are no words that could
possibly convey your importance to Israel.”

“Good,” said Rachel. “Because I’m not looking
for glib words, or false compliments. I’m looking for the
truth
. Or are you going to stand there and insist you’ve been
honest? Which will only dig the hole deeper.”

“Look
—
Rachel
—
we really are the good guys. That is the
truth. And we really do see you being of paramount importance. Once you were in
the fold, we were planning to tell you everything. We couldn’t proceed
effectively otherwise. You could well be the key to our future. But like I said
before, we wanted to give you the chance to get to know us. And when we finally
aired all of our laundry, we wanted to do it in private.”

“Oh well. Guess your plans have changed.”

“How can you be so certain you’ve been misled?
I thought the take on events Kish and Wortzman provided was compelling. Where
did we go wrong?”

“Kovonov. He’s a neuroscientist, isn’t he? I
asked a second time at the vid-meet. Your boss repeated the lie you had told me,
that he has zero neuroscience background. The only reason you’d deny this is because
you know he’s responsible for the false memories. Which makes sense given his
interest in me and Kevin. I have no idea what connection Kovonov has to fly
drones, but I do know a good part of your story about him is a lie.”

Regev remained silent for several long
seconds, deep in thought. “Okay,” he admitted finally, “he’s a neuroscientist.
But how could you possibly know that?”

“Three numbers,” said Rachel simply. “Three. Zero.
Two.”

Regev blinked rapidly, a blank look on his
face. Rachel noted in her peripheral vision that Quinn looked just as confused.

“I’ll spell it out for you,” said Rachel. “There’s
a one-millimeter-long roundworm found in certain soils,” she said. “A species called
C. elegans.
I’m guessing you’ve never
heard of it.”

Regev shook his head.
  

“It’s been one of the most important model
organisms in neuroscience research for fifty years. It’s cheap to breed, can be
frozen and thawed and remain alive, and it’s transparent, which is very
convenient. It was the first multicellular organism to have its entire genome
sequenced and the first to have its connectome
—
its
neural wiring diagram
—
completed as well.
But the main reason it’s been such a valuable research tool is the simplicity
of its nervous system. The human brain has almost a hundred billion neurons. This
particular roundworm is able to thrive with just a tiny bit fewer. I’ll let you
guess the exact number.”

Regev nodded, the light of comprehension
finally shining on him. “Three hundred and two,” he said miserably. “Shit! That’s
really bad luck. Who knew?” he mused.

“Anyone who has truly studied the field,”
replied Rachel. “So even when Kovonov is making up a ridiculous alias for
mercenaries to use, he can’t help but pay homage to this important model
system. When Kevin said during the vid-meet that this was what Kovonov wanted
to be called, I knew. Not only is he a neuroscientist, he’s a diehard
geek
of a neuroscientist.”
 

She stared at Regev, unblinking, for several
seconds. “How about it, Eyal? Do you want to finally tell me what’s really
going on?”

“I’ll tell you everything,” he said. “But not
in front of Kevin. Just you and me.”

“No deal. He stays. Anything you can say to
me, you can say to him. As you mentioned, he was willing to die to protect me.
Se we’re in this together.”

Regev hesitated.

“Why is this a problem?” said Rachel. “If
you’re on the side of the angels as you say, convince me. Convince us both. Or
remain silent and a
lienate me forever, proving that you’re lying about my importance as
well.”

“I need you
both to agree to keep what I tell you absolutely confidential. I need your
word.”

Kevin
shook his head. “No good, Eyal,” he said. “I can’t make that promise. The best
I can do is this: I’ll maintain confidentiality on anything you tell me that isn’t
in conflict with the interests of the United States.”

“I’ll
make the same promise,” said Rachel. “But that’s all you’re going to get. So
what’s it going to be? Time for you to make some decisions.”

41

Regev
asked to at least get more comfortable, and Quinn saw no reason not to honor
this request. He had the Israeli sit in the same chair he had taken earlier,
but ten feet more distant from the couch, and gave him another zip-tie to cuff
his ankles. Regev used his outstretched hands, still bound, to pull it taut.

Quinn
and Rachel took their previous positions next to each other on the leather
couch. Given his prisoner’s hands and feet were cuffed, Quinn felt comfortable resting
the gun on his lap, although he still maintained his grip on it.

“It
seems like only yesterday that
I
was
holding the gun,” said Regev wryly, “and you were bound to a pole. We really
need to stop having conversations this way.”

Quinn
allowed the hint of a smile to cross his face. Maintaining a sense of humor in
the face of adversity was a personal quality he admired.
 

“I
guess I should begin at the beginning,” said Regev. “Dmitri Kovonov did emigrate
to Israel from Russia at the age of fourteen. And he was absolutely brilliant,
taking to neuroscience like a fish takes to water.” He nodded at Rachel. “Not
as brilliant or inventive a neuroscientist as
you
are, of course, but very close.”

“As
I said, flattery won’t help you,” said Rachel.

“Not
flattery,” insisted Regev. “
Honesty
.”

“So
Kovonov was never on the fly drone team?” said Quinn.

“No.
We didn’t even have a fly drone team at the time. But he soon earned the right
to head the secret scientific initiative that my country deemed its highest
priority.” He paused for effect. “What Rachel calls Matrix Learning.”

Quinn’s
eyes widened. Matrix Learning. He remembered from his discussion with Rachel in
her neighbor’s house that this was the primary goal of her research. But
judging from her less than surprised expression she hadn’t found this revelation
totally unexpected.

Eyal
turned to Quinn. “Let me explain what this is,” he said. “The idea is to—

“I’m
familiar with the term,” said Quinn, cutting him off.

“Good,”
said Regev, although he seemed surprised that this was the case. “We began the
program as far back as 1999. Not coincidentally.”

“The
year
The Matrix
came out in theaters,”
said Rachel.

“Yes.
The depiction of instant learning from the movie seized the imagination of our
prime minister at the time, Ehud Barak. Not that this was the first time this idea
appeared in science fiction. As far back as 1957, Isaac Asimov used this
concept in a story called
Profession
.”

Asimov
may have been the first to come up with the idea, but Quinn doubted he had a
character learn kung-fu instantly and then engage in such entertaining fights.

“The
movie was like a demonstration video to the higher-ups in Israel at the time,”
continued Regev. “To understand just how profoundly the prospect of Matrix
Learning hit us, you have to understand the Jewish people. In Jewish culture
education—knowledge—is
everything
.
There is a reason so many luminaries have been Jewish. Einstein, Fermi, Freud,
Pauli, Feynman, Bohr, Oppenheimer, Salk. The list goes on. Jews make up one
five-hundredth of the world’s population. One five-hundredth. But they have
earned twenty-two percent of all Nobel Prizes. Not only is education our strongest
cultural imperative, we have been persecuted more than any other people
throughout the ages. At a time in world history when land ownership meant
everything, Jews were often prohibited from owning land. Not able to farm, to
use their hands to get ahead, they had little choice but to use their brains.”

Rachel
nodded. “Jewish colleagues over the years have mentioned that nothing is more
important in their religion than education,” she said. “And I have found them
to be more captivated than average at the prospect of Matrix Learning.”

“Israel
has always been a resource-poor country,” said Regev. “We weren’t blessed with
oil, like our Arab neighbors, so education and innovation were always the keys
to our survival. Hated, outnumbered, and outgunned. So not only did the
possibility of instant education capture many imaginations, the potential this
offered if perfected
—
to keep us many
steps ahead of our enemies
—
was
irresistible.”

 
“Okay,” said Rachel. “So your leaders saw the
movie when it came out in ’99 and began a secret program.”

“Not
just a secret program.
The
secret
program. Israel’s Manhattan project. No other program we’ve ever mounted was
nearly as well manned or well funded. Progress was modest for the first decade,
because our goals and ambitions were ahead of the technology, but we did make
progress. Progress that would be key when the tech
—
computers, neuronal maps, and the like
—
did finally catch up.”

“And
Kovonov came to lead this effort,” said Rachel.

“Yes.
He led our best people. And we succeeded. Five years ago, under his leadership.
He used trial and error, audacity, outside-the-box thinking, and hundreds of
millions of dollars in funding. In the end this wasn’t enough. We benefited
from what we thought of as divine intervention. Kovonov made some guesses that
worked out that even he characterized as blind, random luck.”

Rachel
nodded solemnly. “Last week I thought I was closer to perfecting Matrix
Learning than anyone,” she said. “After what happened to Kevin, I’ve had to
readjust my thinking, acknowledge that someone was ahead of me. But I would
never have believed
this
. I’ve gone
from being ten miles ahead in a marathon to being an also ran. It’s a difficult
pill to swallow.”

“I
understand. We got lucky, we’re the first to admit it. And we poured dozens of
times more resources at it than the rest of the world combined. Quantity has a
quality of its own. But there was never any question that you were the singular
talent in the field. Kovonov worshiped you.”

“The
same Kovonov who just tried to have me killed?”

“Yes.
But that came later. For years he sang your praises, telling anyone who would
listen you were the only neuroscientist in the world with greater insight even
than his own. He called you a visionary and a genius. He admitted to borrowing
liberally from your work. He lobbied the head of Mossad and the prime minster
to do whatever it took to recruit you. Repeatedly. In the end we decided not to
approach you. It was too risky. Secret program. Foreign government. If only you
had been lucky enough to be a Sabra,” he added with a smile.

“Sabra?”
said Rachel.

“What
we call a native-born Israeli. Taking a name from a cactus that thrives in my
country. Thorny, tenacious, and thick-skinned on the outside.” Regev raised his
eyebrows. “Sweet and soft on the inside.”

“Well,
you’ve definitely demonstrated the thorny and tenacious part,” said Rachel with
just the hint of a smile.

“So
you perfected this Matrix Learning five years ago?” said Quinn. “Why didn’t you
go public? Then Rachel could have joined your efforts.”

“This
is a greater advantage than our fly drones. We wanted to milk it for all it was
worth. Still do. Maintain our advantage for as long as possible. The technology
is totally disruptive. Once it’s unleashed the world will never be the same.” Regev
paused. “I only wish you could have been in the professor’s recent lecture. She
covered many of the ramifications at length.”

“How
good is the technique?” asked Rachel. “And how is it done?”

“The
results are flawless. Astonishing. One minute you know nothing about a subject,
ten minutes later you’re an expert. Like Trinity learning to fly a helicopter,
only not quite as fast. As to the how, Kovonov and his team developed a robot
that injects micro-implants into eight regions of the brain, with very high
accuracy. They’re extremely advanced electronics shaped like tiny needles and
can be punched into place in the brain like a vaccine is punched through the
skin when you get a shot. The companion to this is a very complex, very
expensive device that reminds me of an MRI. Same large doughnut-shaped opening
at one end, in which your head is immobilized. But it’s not an MRI.”

“What
are the principles of its operation?” asked Rachel.

“I
really would tell you, but I don’t know. I just know that it works. The subject
has to have the implants injected first. And has to be inside the MRI-like
device. But there is no physical connection between the two. You don’t have a
giant jack embedded into the back of your skull that you plug a cable into like
in the Matrix movies. But it also isn’t free-range.”

“So
what have you been doing with it all these years?” said Quinn.

“We’ve
used it to flash-educate the most innovative people in Israel,” replied Regev proudly.
“We’ve established the greatest league of inventors in world history. Geniuses
who have broad and deep knowledge of a field implanted and who use this to
produce breakthroughs.”

“What,
like fly drones?” said Quinn.

“That’s
right. This was the first technology to come out of the program. The ultra-light
bulletproof vest and the wound sealant are other examples you’ve witnessed. And
so much more you haven’t seen. Breakthroughs in electronics. Supercomputers
that are desktop sized. Advanced algorithms. Improved ability to hack
computers. Dramatic advances in AI, supercapacitors, lasers, solar energy, 3-D
printers, genetic engineering, nanotechnology, sensors, and dozens of other
areas. We believe that even a tabletop fusion reactor is just a few years away.
It wasn’t just the fly drones that kept us ahead, that allowed us to stop North
Korea and Iran from carrying out their nuclear ambitions.”

“So
your military is what . . . just hoarding all of these innovations?” said Quinn
accusingly.

“Most
we’re helping to commercialize. Some inventions we license cheaply to Israeli
companies. For others, we provide seed money for the inventor to launch a new
company. We’ve been known for innovation for some time, but if you did a
statistical analysis you’d find that the number of breakthrough inventions
coming out of Israeli companies has tripled during the last several years.”

Rachel
shook her head. “You shouldn’t have been this successful,” she said. “We
discussed this in class. Matrix Learning won’t improve native intelligence. Won’t
improve creativity, or
 
inventiveness. It’s
just knowledge. Instead of pounding the principles of chemistry into your head
for an entire semester, they’re shoehorned in, in minutes.”

“Which
is why we only flash-educate the most creative people possible. You’d be
surprised by how many highly educated people really aren’t that bright
—
or inventive. And also how many brilliant, creative
people are uneducated. Some are lazy. Some don’t have the funds or access to
quality education. Some come from farming or blue-collar families, where
following in their parents’ footsteps is all they know, all they aspire to.
Some aren’t able to sit still long enough to learn what they need to know.
There is a worldwide high IQ society called Mensa. Some members are
accomplished scientists, true, but many are truck drivers. Firefighters.
Laborers.”

Rachel
nodded appreciatively. “I see. You recruit those with raw ability but without
the patience, or money, or ambition for advanced studies. You implant a PhD
equivalent in days, and then let them apply their genius.”

“Exactly. We have a program to identify and
recruit the most gifted people in Israel, not just using IQ scores, but other
measures of inventiveness, of thinking outside the box, of bold vision. Are you
familiar with Alan Turing and the group that broke the unbreakable German code
in World War II?”

Rachel and Quinn both nodded. Quinn had learned of this effort while in the
military. Alan Turing had successfully created a machine at a place called
Bletchley Park able to break the German Enigma code, turning the tide of the
war and ushering in the computer age.

“Turing also recruited people from all walks of life. Some with no
experience in code breaking or mathematics. People no one would ever think of
hiring based on any known criteria. The group published a thorny crossword
puzzle in the Daily Telegraph and offered a prize to anyone who could solve it.
No one knew the British War Office was behind it. Those who were able to solve
it were summoned to be interviewed to join Turing’s top-secret team, the
biggest surprise of their lives.”

“So you’ve adopted similar methods,” said Quinn.

“More sophisticated and far-reaching, but the same idea. Our success at
finding diamonds in the rough has been extraordinary.”

“I see,” said Rachel. “And then you polish up these diamonds in the rough
with the greatest buffing machine in history.”

“That’s right. With most of them
we didn’t stop at one branch of knowledge, but imparted a few that were
adjacent. This has played a huge role as well. The synergy produced by implanting
expertise in multiple fields has been far greater than expected. There’s a famous
quote we took to heart: ‘
To be
the master of any branch of knowledge, you must master those which lie next to
it.’”