Washington, D.C.

Number One Observatory Circle

(Official Residence of the Vice President)

Vice President Philip Cain was not a happy man at the best of times, and lately, it seemed as if everything he tried to achieve was crumbling in his hands. Michael Freeman… that name began to haunt his dreams at night, so by day, he made plans on how to destroy him. To completely wipe him out of existence… if only he could find him.

It was obvious that he greatly underestimated the man; if he were more expedient trying to capture him at the beginning of all this mess, he would not have so many problems right now.

Philip Cain always believed that due to his power, there was no place on earth where someone could hide from his reach. Yet, it was as if this man was a ghost; taunting him personally and making a mockery of that same power. It has been months and months since he ordered that Michael Freeman should die… and he was, inexplicably, still alive.

The actions of his nemesis were costing him, and the ‘High Council’, an unbelievable amount of money. Their investments in Boko Haram over the years have been quite substantial; weapons, funds, intelligence. That part of Africa was in turmoil for a long time, and they provided tools for it. Of course, they did that for considerable reimbursement in gold, diamonds, and slaves. Now the entire thing was turning into a disaster; no organization could accept the loss of so many members unscathed. Moreover, that strange disappearance of an additional 3500 members coincided with the alleged meteor strike.

Furthermore, those infernal bounty sites and mobile apps were worse; people were taking pictures constantly and hundreds of their assets were being captured. It was insane, the prey has started hunting the predators. What is more, it could not be shut down, and they tried everything. Even the best black-hat hackers were powerless, ISPs could not block them, and NSA could not locate the servers.

The last thing was threatening to crack his expressionless mask because it was so unexpected. For decades, the ‘High Council’ owned a large percentage of the pharmaceutical industry; it was like a license to print money, and now that was under attack. This year’s revenue would be devastatingly below predictions. Who would have thought that someone would be so insane to give away medicine for free and curing diseases that were cash cows for a very long time.

Genesis Corporation was exactly like those infernal sites, it could not be shut down. Not that he didn’t try, but to his surprise, he discovered that it was registered all over the world. Simply shutting it down in the USA would be pointless, and would be an avoidable warning of an attack. Some of his people even infiltrated the so-called headquarters, only to find that it was all a front; a few people that worked there did not know a single valuable thing. Even the Board of Directors was as ephemeral as the rest of it; more ghosts that existed only on paper, nowhere to be found in real life. That is how they connected it with Michael Freeman; such coincidences did not exist in real life. Everything told him that their analysis was absolutely right, so he took some extreme steps.

For decades, he cultivated the connections with those who held military and economic powers in the world, far more than anyone expected. That was one of the advantages the ‘High Council’ enabled; their archives provided him with the information about some of the darkest secrets those leaders had, and he was not reluctant to use them as leverage. Therefore, when he called a meeting of some of the world’s movers and shakers, every single one of them responded. If they were concerned before, about some of the new developments in the world, he made them terrified… just where he wanted them.

It became quite obvious that Michael Freeman was a part of a much larger organization, one with enormous resources; he made the man, in the eyes of those leaders, a bogeyman. Uncontrolled and working in shadows, threatening the security of each and every one of them. They were a paranoid group to start with, now, pouring oil on the fire, he made them even more so.

As a result of that, every security agency in the world was looking for Michael Freeman and those connected to him. Never in the history of their existence were they collectively so focused on a single goal, and it was only a matter of time before they produced results. Moreover, he had most of the ‘High Council’ assets searching for him. Pictures of him and his father were circulated all over the world; as soon as they were spotted, he would get his pound of flesh.

***

Pagan Island, Pacific Ocean

Ever since Michael returned from Arizona, there was a sense of rush on the island. Organized by Max, people were doing all sorts of things to expedite the work needed for making the ship space worthy. Parts of engines that were previously built in place, were now made by every nano-factory on the ship and carried by hand to their appropriate place.

After getting approval from Michael, Max used daily newsletters to keep everybody informed about what was happening, so no one was left excluded. That motivated people to give their best, that and Dr. Emma Williams. She had a gift for organizing people, listening to their problems, and ironing out any wrinkles caused by culture clash. Customs and traditions of various groups were often on the opposite end of the spectrum from one another, and without constant work of mediation, it would be hard to make everybody act cordial.

That’s why Michael was a bit surprised when Max informed him that she asked for his assistance in dealing with the group of disgruntled scientists; they were waiting for him in one of their meeting rooms.

As he entered the room, Dr. Williams was standing in front of twenty very unhappy people, judging by the expression on their faces and the loud cacophony of arguing voices.

“Dr. Williams, ladies and gentlemen, how can I help you?” He started loudly, as he made his way into the room.

“We are being ignored. This is not how things are done!” Shouted the overweight man with a thick set of glasses, and messy hair. He was speaking in a thick Russian accent, standing slightly in front of everyone. By the tone of his voice and body posture, Michael deduced that he was the ringleader of this circus.

“If you will be so kind as to keep your voice down, so I can find out what this is all about. Now, Dr. Williams, would you mind explaining why I was summoned?” Michael asked.

She gave him a polite nod and said, “Dr. Nikolov here, and his colleagues, are expressing their dissatisfaction with information sharing—”

The man in question rudely interrupted, “What information sharing, you are keeping everything to yourselves! That is not right; the world has a right to know!”

Michael turned to the shouting man and gave him a very cold look. “Dr. Nikolov, you are not at a football rally, so if you have any grievances, please explain them to me—in a normal tone of voice. And for the sake of the argument, please pretend as if I don’t know anything about what you’re talking about.”

For the first time, the man actually looked at Michael, and then visibly deflated under the piercing gaze. In a much quieter voice, he lectured. “Ever since I came to this island, I have seen technologies beyond wonder. Anti-gravity, nanites, you even have your own artificial intelligence; not to mention the spaceship you are building. Only, like a miser, you are keeping it all hidden, denying humanity the bounty of such progress. Can you imagine if all this was freely shared with the whole world, how it would change things for the better? There would be no more reasons for war, the sick would be cured, and we could all work together and spread across the entire Solar System in time. You could bring about a new age, one full of hope and reason.”

While he was speaking, his entire demeanor was that of a superior professor looking down on an uncomprehending student, explaining to him the facts of life.

“Dr. Nikolov, while I respect your idealistic view of the human race, at the same time, I have no doubt in my mind that if I did everything you proposed, our entire species would wipe itself out of existence in a very short time. Every single piece of technology you so admire would be weaponized as soon as it was acquired by world powers, and let us not even talk about those without any scruples who thirst for power itself. Giving our technology to the world would be the same as giving a child a box of matches and telling him to go play in the barn.” Michael explained in the most reasonable voice he could.

While he was still talking, Michael could see that Dr. Nikolov was barely listening to him, his expression turned to one of anger.

“You cannot possibly know that. But you’re right, my faith in humanity is greater than yours.” He shot back angrily. “So what do you plan? To keep it only for your own use, or to conquer the rest of the world? Exactly what I would expect from someone like you.”

“Someone like me?” Michael asked, his tolerance for this idiot fraying.

“A soldier and a killer; without your kind, this world would be a far better place.” The doctor sneered at him.

Michael closed his eyes for a second and used his CEI search for Dr. Nikolov’s records.

He opened them after a moment and looked at the people behind the pompous man. “And all of you feel the same way?” Not one of them could look him back in the eyes. He noted that during Dr. Nikolov's speech, they moved further away from him.

“Dr. Nikolov, I am curious about something. You have several patents under your name and over the years they brought you a considerable amount of money; are you planning to gift them to the world?”

“That has nothing to do with this, they are all products of my genius. I deserve every compensation I ever got from them.” He shot back indulgently.

“Well, that is your right. Even so, I did notice that several of them, the most lucrative ones, are part of weapons research. Quite strange, for someone who is so antagonistic to my profession? Despite that, you are criticizing me for holding onto proprietary technologies. One of which was used to make medicines that are already saving thousands of lives daily. And we never demanded any compensation for it. As for being a soldier, my views on that are obviously very different from yours, so I won’t even try to explain what being a soldier really means. And yes, I have taken lives, but I never killed anyone who didn’t deserve it, and yet, every one of those deaths lies heavily on my soul. But that’s of no concern to you, and to be clear, I have no intention whatsoever to conquer anyone.” Michael replied in a civilized voice.

“You’re missing my point young man,” Dr. Nikolov uttered. “I only want to make this world a better place.”

“And so do I, but doing it with considerable planning, not simply giving highly advanced technology to the people who are not ready for it.”

“I still believe that you should share this with the world; it’s irresponsible and unethical not to.” Dr. Nikolov stubbornly said.

Michael didn’t want to argue with the Russian doctor anymore, so he looked at the whole group of people that were not as unified as before.

“Ladies and gentlemen, long before you joined us, we, as a group, decided on our future course of actions. All those decisions we made are still valid. Let me remind you that you are here entirely of your own free will. That being said, if any of you strongly feel that our plan is against your moral or ethical convictions—you are free to leave. We will hold no ill will towards you, and will ask you to hold the revelation of our existence until this ship is ready to launch.”

“And what about technologies available here? Will we be allowed to take them with us?” Dr. Nikolov asked snidely.

Michael incredulously looked at the doctor. “Of course not, they were not yours in the first place, so that would be out of the question.”

By the look that Doctor gave him, Michael could tell that there will never be a friendship between them. Regardless of that, if the man could keep his opinions to himself, he had no problem with him; one thing he said was true—he was a genius.

“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have duties to attend to. Decide what you want to do; Max is always there at your disposal.”

He turned around and left the silenced room.

A few seconds later Dr. Williams caught up with him. “I’m so sorry Michael, he can be a handful sometimes. No matter how brilliant an engineer he is, when it comes to real-life he has this skewed view of the world.

“It’s not your fault, Dr. Williams; I knew from the start that there would be those who wouldn’t agree with our long-term goals. But Max ran through every scenario we could imagine, so we know that doing what Dr. Nikolov proposes will lead to ruin.”

“First, I told you once before to call me Emma. I owe you more than Zizi’s life; and mine. Second, you do not need to explain yourself to me. I personally saw one of the darkest sides of what humanity is capable of, and I trust you and the others to make the right choices. That may sound a little naive, but as I said, it is about trust.

Michael smiled at that. “Thank you, Emma. Do you think some of those people will decide to leave us?”

“Small chance of that, the technology and all the advantages they have here couldn’t be found anywhere else in the world. They may grumble for a while, but in the end, they will see the light.”

They walked together towards the end of the corridor where Michael entered the elevator and said goodbye to Dr. Emma Williams.

“So Max, do you think we are doing enough… for the world, I mean?” He sent through his implant.

“Remember what grandma used to say, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’. No matter how much we do, there will always be room for more. For now, I think we are on the right path, helping as much as we can and working towards getting our own independence. People like Dr. Nikolov are always telling others how they should act, but are no more than hypocrites that do not follow that altruistic idea they preach. Don’t take his words seriously, it’s so much hot air.” The AI replied.

In the polished reflection from the door of the elevator, Michael saw the corners of his lips unconsciously rising.

“Thanks, Max.”

“Anytime.”