September 8th, 2027

There are times in everyone’s life when they’re faced with a choice: either to do one thing which defies everything they stand for in order to save the world, or to not do that thing because it’s the more comfortable choice even though it leads to ruin.

David certainly didn’t have any plans to save the world, and he was sure that Darrow wouldn’t lead them all to ruin, but this certainly felt like one of those times. He held up Darrow’s evidence to Miri and tried to explain it all, but it was like trying to speak binary code to the average person. All ones and zeros that made no sense to anyone but a computer.

Eventually David just flung the papers aside due to frustration. Not that Miri wasn’t understanding; it was more due to the fact that despite having read the document several times now David couldn’t find any flaw with the research. He certainly couldn’t find any evidence of it being a blueprint for a weapon of mass destruction.

“What are you doing?” Miri asked him. She nearly got up and snatched the papers for herself, but must have realized the same thing David had. Once again, it wasn’t ignorance on her part, just that it took about four years of study to understand a single word in the report.

“No offense, Miri, but I don’t think you’re going to get the scientific explanation. I even had to read through it couple times and my sanity’s in question.”

A smile forced its way to Miri’s face at her brother’s gentle letdown. “Okay then, explain it to me in layman’s terms. What did that last thing mean, ‘subatomic particle vaporization and nucleo-ionic re-stabilization?’”

David sighed, looking for a way to describe it accurately. “All right. It’s basically scientific jargon, a fancy way of saying that Darrow and his team vaporized the smallest known building block to all physical existence and then rebuilt it using ions and nuclear energy. It’s an extremely risky, unheard of, and almost impossible task, but he did it. I looked over the data and everything seems to support the process.”

Miri frowned, but it appeared that she got most of it. “So he destroyed matter and recreated it in a way he designed?”

“In essence, yes.” David finished off the last of his Gatorade and set the empty bottle on the carpet.

“Which means what, exactly?”

“It means that in less than three days, the most prestigious scientific community in the world is going to decide if evolution has enough data behind it become scientific law.”

“Just because of this?”

“You don’t get it, Miri. When he destroyed matter, he recreated it as an evolutionary mutation. His machine can literally alter the genetic code in an animal. He proved it twice by altering the pads of a monkey’s feet into the pads of a frog’s feet, then back to normal.”

Miri’s face shifted toward disbelief for the second time, laced with a bit of disgust. “What kind of freak would do that?”

“It’s science⎯anything goes as long as you’re not hurting people. The important part is this: Darrow injected the monkey with chromosomes unnatural to it; chromosomes he designed in order to begin the evolutionary process. It can work either way and span any length of time supposedly, so he technically devolved the genes in the monkey’s feet to become those of a frog. It proves that over a long course of time, if the monkey developed the need to have more frog-like feet, he would develop them.”

“But to prove evolution he’d have to show how that happened naturally, right?”

“He’s got it covered. From the very beginning evolutionists have claimed that all animals have it within their genetic codes to begin and stop the evolutionary process at a certain point. The process is triggered by a drastic change in the creature’s lifestyle; for example, if a panda came to America it would have to adapt to the climate and find new sources of food. Since pandas are used to eating only bamboo, their stomachs would evolve to accommodate other kinds of nutrition. But because animals were evolving so quickly, the evolutionary gene didn’t get passed on to the generation of animals that we know today, including us. That’s why evolution stopped with humans.”

Miri stared at him for a full ten seconds before speaking. “You’re . . . kidding, right?”

“I wish. I know it sounds insane, believe me I do, but the evidence is good. Well, bad for us.”

It was obvious Miri couldn’t believe it. To anyone who wasn’t familiar with biology or chemistry it would sound absolutely ludicrous. Even then, it still sounded more like a sci-fi story where everyone would be turned into half-monkey savages.

But it was science, and science rarely lied. If there was one thing David had learned throughout his six years in school, it was that the data didn’t lie. People, on the other hand, didn’t share this honesty. David had to hold out to the hope that Darrow was one of those people.

“Okay,” Miri finally said. “Okay, even if I don’t believe this thing would really work, there’s still the part about our government believing in its destructive potential. I heard something about nuclear energy. Could it be turned into a warhead?”

David’s face must have portrayed the shock he felt, because Miri stared at him as if she could tell he thought she was crazy. “It’s a research tool, Miri. The nuclear energy is so minimal that they don’t even have to wear hazmat gear while they’re working with it.”

Miri frowned again. “Great, that sounded like the most promising lead and it turns out it’s nothing.” She leaned back in the couch and stared off into space.

“What are you going to do?” David asked her, trying to encourage some positive thinking.

“I’m not sure.” She really was completely spent. Not only had this entire business about evolution bothered her as much as it did David, but she’d also just learned that there were no viable options to help complete her job.

When he thought about it, David wasn’t sure what he would do either. How could he be? They were talking conspiracy, here. It may as well not even exist and be labeled an old man’s fantasy. David’s logical side wasn’t even sure he believed it himself. After all, he hadn’t seen the monkey that had been subjected to the test. Who was to say Darrow wasn’t simply lying?

No, he wasn’t that desperate to gain support. He wouldn’t give David research forms that lied when he knew full well the student could simply ask and Dean Weaver would let him check everything out. He had to be telling the truth.

In that case, Darrow had either proved evolution or at least tricked himself into believing he did. David had learned that when a man is so convinced of something’s truth, even if it isn’t, and he tells someone that lie, it would read like the man is being truthful. If Darrow was deluded in that way, there was a chance that his research was too optimistic.

Then again, there was his staff. Even if the man was having delusions of grandeur, someone would realize that there was something out of order or that he didn’t have rock-solid proof. As far as David knew, none of them were stepping up.

The odds weren’t in his favor, and because of that, David wanted to believe none of it was really happening. Evolution wasn’t a valid theory. Creation, on the other hand, was. David wasn’t really sure why he believed in one over the other, but he did because when he’d heard of the Creation theory something had clicked. Evolution didn’t click.

David’s mind drifted for a moment, and he was tempted to never anchor it back to reality.

Fortunately, Miri was there to do it for him.

“David? I know you’re not used to this, but I could really use some suggestions.”

Suggestions for what? Should he tell her how to sneak into Darrow’s office and destroy the device? It seemed like a good idea to him. But he wasn’t working as a representative for the federal government. Miri was, and she had to show professionalism.

“You want me to help you find evidence that Darrow intends to use the Kremlin in order to kill people.” He blew out a breath. “Like I said, Miri, the man’s a scientist. He may hold a grudge against humanity for their ignorance, but that doesn’t make him a terrorist.”

Miri wasn’t about to give up. This was her job, and she’d been sent her because whoever was in charge evidently knew something no one else did. She sat up and faced him squarely. “It doesn’t have to seem helpful. Anything’s better than nothing.”

David considered everything. “Okay, Darrow⎯”

He was cut short when a voice spoke from across the room, directly from his cell phone which was on silent.

“This is an emergency call by a representative of the United States government.” A robotic voice, female. Pre-programmed. “Please answer the phone.”

David frowned and looked at Miri, who was just as stunned as he. “They can do that?”

She walked over to his bed and picked up the phone. Stared at it. “David, I think you need to answer this.”

Secretary of Defense Arthur Slogan held the cell phone to his ear as he watched abstract objects blur by his window. People, lamp posts, buildings⎯they all streaked into one masterful canvas looking at them through the speed-veil of fifty miles per hour.

The phone had been glued to Arthur’s ear literally all morning, and the black Navigator limousine had stopped for gas more than most cars do in an entire week. The most interesting thing being that he wasn’t even going anywhere. Just a trip around D.C. for a quick phone call.

He supposed he should be more grateful. Hardworking taxpayers were the ones suffering because of this trip, after all, just as they had willingly suffered in order to send relief planes to Asia during the Nuclear Winter. It was a bold move by North Korea and had nearly sent half the world governments scrambling for their nuclear launch stations, but it had been dealt with promptly.

To Arthur, it was a good thing Korea had lost the war. Anyone who was willing to nuke someone else just because they didn’t want to give up their land deserved to be punished. And punished they’d been. After the warhead had been shot down in flight, devastating parts of Korea, China, and Mongolia, the Kazakh soldiers pushed back and killed the North Korean dictator. It was only by some miracle that China hadn’t blamed both Korea and Kazakhstan and bombed them off the face of the planet.

Network companies had charted over six hundred million people tuning in to watch the launch of the first nuclear missile. Millions more tuned in too late, only to see the camera be shorted out by the aftereffects of the warhead.

That was why Arthur had worked his way to Secretary of State. He wanted to personally make sure that no one was watching a feed like that where the cameraman was American. It was a harder job than he’d thought it would be, but it had its rewards. Millions of people were able to sleep easily at night because of Arthur. It was something he was immensely proud of.

“Would you like to go another round, sir?”

Jack, Arthur’s Irish driver and companion on many similar trips, broke the silence that had lasted the past two hours. When Arthur looked up to the glass that divided he and the front seat he saw it was lowered, and Jack kept his eyes on the road while giving full attention to Arthur.

“Just . . .” Arthur dropped his head into his hand and sighed. “Just one more time around the city, then we’ll have to go back and give them the bad news.”

“Very well, sir.” The glass divider rolled up again and Arthur was left with his phone. Since he didn’t want to leave a voicemail saying that the weight of the world may possibly be on a kid’s shoulders, the phone hung up after the seventh ring and Arthur hit the redial button on the screen. It was starting to look worn out.

Arthur had called Mister David⎯he checked the note Frank had written him⎯Penner precisely twenty-two times since the president first asked him to do so. This call was twenty-three. Arthur wasn’t sure how or why he’d kept track of it; probably just because he was bored.

There he was, the Secretary of Defense for the United States of America, driving around Washington because one of the president’s advisors had a bad dream. Some receptionist could be doing this if it really needed doing. Arthur should be back in his office, consulting with his aids on actual terrorist movement and hostile nation status. Instead he was stuck in a car calling a glorified scientist college kid⎯

The phone stopped ringing in Arthur’s ears, and only after the third ring. It usually went off seven times.

“Hello?” he heard through the phone. He was so shocked he actually forgot that he was supposed to reply.

“Hello?” the voice repeated. “Anyone there?”

“Hello,” Arthur replied, clearing his throat. “I’m trying to reach one David Penner.”

“Well you reached him.” The reply was as calm as possible. Ironic. “Can I ask you who this is? My phone just told me I’d better pick up despite the fact that it was muted and you’ve been calling me all day. I’m starting to think I’m a wanted man.”

Arthur almost told him he was, but that would get him nothing. “Mister Penner, my name is Arthur Slogan. I’ve been asked to contact you by President Thomas.”

The conversation stalled. Arthur presumed that it was just the shock that accompanied being called by a high-ranking government official. It was a rarity for Arthur to call a civilian.

Okay, not this much of a rarity.

“David?”

“Yes, sir, sorry,” he quickly replied. Arthur thought he heard the young man say something in the background, but couldn’t make it out. “It’s not every day I get called by someone as important as you are.”

“I understand. Unfortunately, I’m not calling you to invite you to the White House for tea with the president. There’s an urgent matter we need to discuss.”

“Urgent⎯with me? Wait, you want me to help you?”

He already knew? Strange, considering that Frank had said he’d only trusted Arthur with this so far. Evidently he’d told someone else since then.

“Exactly how much do you know, David?”

“A lot, actually. I was in class today when Darrow announced his findings. He even gave me his research data. I came home about a half-hour ago and my sister told me the rest: that his device may or may not be able to be converted into a weapon of some kind. That’s it so far, right?”

His sister? Arthur wasn’t aware Frank knew anyone by the name of Penner. Perhaps she was married, different last name.

“David, what’s your sister’s name?”

“Miranda. Miranda Penner.”

“And she told you about our suspicions of Mister Darrow?”

The young man paused, then continued skeptically. “Yes. She’s an FBI agent on assignment to gather information on him. You didn’t order the assignment? She says she got it from a Mister Fredericks.”

The Director of the FBI, Jason Fredericks. But that wasn’t possible. Before ten minutes ago only three people on the planet had suspicions about Darrow. Now, it seemed, there were three more. That could only mean one thing.

The White House was compromised. Someone had either tapped into Frank’s personal e-mail account or planted a bug in his briefing room, where he’d told Arthur about his advisor’s “premonition.” Either one was unacceptable, and posed an enormous threat to national security. If someone could pull off either, it meant they may have considerably more illegal connections. Possibly even be a terrorist network.

“How many other people know about Darrow?” Arthur asked. It was ironic to him that he had called to give information and ended up taking it in from a college kid.

There was another lapse in speech for a moment or two, but a few seconds later David’s voice returned. “The Director of the CIA. I don’t mean to sound rude, sir, but you didn’t tell the two most important federal agencies about this?”

“No, David, I’m afraid we didn’t. You see, our source is . . . well, let’s say he’s a bit unconventional. We just found out yesterday ourselves. Personally I don’t believe this will turn out to be anything more than a man who had a nightmare. But the president is insistent.”

“Well I realize that I’m not as familiar with the workings of the government as you are, but isn’t it bad if people who aren’t supposed to know about this know?”

That was putting it mildly.

The window separating Arthur and Jack slid down but then, once Jack saw Arthur talking on the phone, it slid up promptly and Jack raised his hand to show his apologies.

“Son, right now it seems you know more than anyone else about this problem, if it can be called that. And you’re the closest to Darrow, and you have a trained federal agent with you. I’m afraid you’re all we’ve got right now.”

“All we’ve got for what?”

Arthur sighed and put one hand to his temple. It was throbbing now.

This was what Frank had sent him out for, to come up with a plan to delay Darrow, if not find sufficient evidence to take him in. He had tried to come up with something during the past two hours, but this wasn’t the same as organizing aid efforts to send over to Asia after the nuclear detonation. This was an enemy⎯possibly⎯who would flee if he thought a move would be made against him, who would destroy anything incriminating even if it meant having to rebuild it, who was widely supported by thousands of financial backers, and who had absolutely no evidence against him aside from the ravings of a prophet.

In reality, all Arthur could do was tell David to go along with his sister and try to keep Darrow focused on him. They would just have to send someone and hope Darrow didn’t skip town.

As for the matter of the FBI and CIA being told . . . Arthur would have to pray that Frank had told them.

This was all starting to sound much more legitimate than it had two hours ago.

“I want you to keep an eye on Darrow,” Arthur said, taking his hand away from his head. “We’ll be sending someone there to help by tomorrow. If you can keep Darrow occupied so that his people don’t see our man coming, you’ll be doing more than enough. If you and your sister could devise a way to find evidence on Darrow’s intent to use his research as a weapon, that would be another thing altogether.”

“I understand, sir. If I can ask, though, what do you mean ‘Darrow’s people?’ He’s a scientist, not the leader of a terrorist cell.”

“If only the world were that absolute.” Arthur nearly chuckled at the boy’s innocence. “If your sister is in the FBI she’ll tell you that Darrow has a lot of friends, just like you. Not so religiously-motivated as your financiers may be, but definitely powerful. If there’s a chance that Darrow could turn into a threat, it’s almost guaranteed that he has someone monitoring our movements. If he’s not, then we’re just being paranoid and chasing a ghost.”

Another brief silence in the line. The boy must have actually wanted to get his sister’s word on it.

“So that’s it?” he asked. “Just keep him busy and see if his experiment could be turned into a nuke, I think I can do that.”

His sarcasm wasn’t amusing. “David, I know this is hard to believe. I’ve already told you, I don’t fully believe or understand it myself. But the further we get into this mess, the more it sounds like Mister Darrow has something special in mind.”

“I understand, sir. Sorry.”

“Unnecessary, but thank you.”

“Sir, I just have one more question if you don’t mind.”

The truth was that Arthur did in fact mind, but he couldn’t very well cut the kid off when he’d just told him that for the next twenty-four hours the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

“Not at all.”

“Well sir, I’ve been thinking about the FBI and CIA knowing about Darrow. Unless the president or his advisor told someone other than you, which seems unlikely from the sound of your voice, that must mean someone hacked into whatever communications method the two of them used or planted a bug somewhere in the White House.”

So he was as smart as the multitudes of praise in his report claimed. Had Arthur been in a better mood, he might have applauded David’s ability to come to such a conclusion.

“You’re probably right,” Arthur said. “But you don’t need to worry about that. If that’s true, and it’s a big if, we have the capabilities to deal with it ourselves.”

“I’m sure you do, of course. But if I might be able to make a suggestion, whoever did it may also be keeping track of you.”

Apprehension set into Arthur’s mind almost immediately. David was right. How could he have been so stupid not to realize that himself? For all he knew, he’d just given all their plans and knowledge directly to the enemy!

He had to hang up. Before they learned anything else or gained access to other federal communications. Priority channels were kept on a separate satellite system from the one that operated Arthur’s cell phone, but that system that did operate his phone was the entire network for every federal communication system in Washington. If anyone⎯rival nations, political enemies, or scientists-gone-terrorist⎯gained access to that network, they could throw D.C. into complete chaos.

And then there was David. If someone was listening on the call and that someone was in Darrow’s pocket, they would know David was involved in a plot to stop him.

He could very well now be a wanted man, and not in the good way.

“David,” Arthur said, stumbling around in the limo for the direct line to Frank. “I think you’ve touched on a soft spot there.” Common sense smacked him in the face and told him that the line to the president was on the same system as his cell phone. They couldn’t use their normal channels anymore.

“Which means they know about me.” He was surprisingly calm for the amount of danger he was now in.

“If this is all a legitimate threat, then yes.”

“Then I need to go. So do you.”

“Wait! David.” He couldn’t go yet, not before Arthur left some kind of instruction for him.

“Sir?”

How could he do this? David was smart, but he was by no means a code-breaker. If Arthur used one of the common federal linguistics codes to try to send David to one of their safe houses in Saint Louis, he’d probably end up actually going to Mario’s Pizzeria instead.

“David, I’m going to tell you something that will make absolutely no sense, but if you listen closely it may save your life.” Arthur drew a breath. “Take a dive in the river and you’ll come out feeling better than you went in. Stay in there too long and eventually someone will have to pull you out, but not many will know where to look. It’s a big river, after all.”

Arthur was breathing heavily now, as much because he was starting to believe all this nonsense as because he hoped David would understand.

His pulse lowered slightly when David finally responded.

“I guess it’d be a dangerous move to jump in, then.”

Arthur let out a bottled breath, careful not to let the phone pick it up. “It certainly would. I’m not going to lie to you, you could be in a whole new world of danger. Just stay low and you’ll be fine.”

“Yes sir.”

They were the last words before Arthur turned the phone off. He quickly flipped it over, tore the casing off it’s backside, and ripped the SIM card out. He doubted anyone could hear him now, but if the entire network had fallen into enemy hands they may be able to listen even without the card. The entire notion was merely a what-if scenario, but the advice about Darrow had been the same thing, and that was turning out to be remarkably true.

Jack must have seen Arthur drop the phone, because the window rolled down once again.

“Did you get what you needed, sir?” the Irishman asked.

Arthur sighed. “In a sense, yes.”

“I take it we’ll be heading back to the White House, then?”

Arthur closed his eyes and grabbed a bottle of whiskey from the limo’s minibar. He’d installed it himself a year ago, when the U.S. was on the brink of nuclear war with China. Now seemed as good a time as any.

“Yes, Jack.” Arthur downed a good portion of the bottle. “Take me to Frank, right now.”

“Certainly, sir.”