He motioned for her to hang up, profound satisfac¬tion on his face. "My model has fully acclimatized and is now resolving the final algorithms at the same rate Fielding was."

"How long do you think it will take?"

The phone rang again. This time it was John Skow. Godin refused to speak to him.

"Geli," Skow said in a taut voice, "your father just touched down on the airstrip. He brought some serious firepower with him. That skirmish a moment ago was nothing. Small-arms fire. If someone doesn't persuade

Godin to get Levin and his people out of Containment, the general will destroy the building and the computer."

"I'll relay that message."

She hung up. Godin watched her expectantly.

"Skow says my father will blow up the Containment building if you don't order your techs out."

The old man's face twitched against nerve pain. "I don't think he'll do that without speaking to me first."

"How much does he know about what you're build¬ing here?"

"He knows it's artificial intelligence. He knows I wouldn't waste time on something small. But he mostly knows what he gets paid to keep this place invisible."

"My father will do anything to protect his career. If the president wants the computer shut down, he'll shit-can the whole building without a second thought, if that's the only way he can do it."

The door of the Bubble opened with a hiss. Geli whipped up her pistol and found herself aiming at her own father.

"It was bound to come to this someday," General Bauer said, a wry smile on his face.

Geli gave him nothing. At fifty-five her father looked much as he had at thirty-trim and hard and blond- with gray eyes that brooked no nonsense from anyone, regardless of rank or position. He was wearing his Class A dress uniform with its bright splash of fruit salad on the breast, which told Geli he anticipated meeting the president's chief of staff. He was not wearing a sidearm, but she saw the bulge of a shoulder holster beneath his dark green coat.

General Bauer moved close enough to the bed to make eye contact with Godin. "Sir, the president ordered you to cease operations. If you issued any such order to your technicians, they've ignored it. They've barricaded themselves in the Containment building and fired on my troops. I have two dead and five wounded. I ask you now to order your people out. If you or they refuse, I'll have no choice but to bring them out by force."

Godin stared back at Bauer but said nothing.

Geli knew her father was speaking for recording devices. Godin probably knew it, too. The eye contact between the two men spoke far more eloquently than their voices.

"Did you understand what I said?" General Bauer asked. He looked as if he thought Godin might be so near death that he was past reason.

"My technicians have been instructed not to answer phone calls," Godin said finally. "Not even from me."

"Then I'll have you moved outside. You can use a megaphone to contact them."

Godin smiled faintly, as though he enjoyed this chess game with his secret employee. "The Containment build¬ing is soundproof, General. It's also built of reinforced steel and concrete. It has its own water and air supply, plus its own electrical generators."

"I can reduce that building to dust in a matter of sec¬onds," Bauer said. "My men are setting the explosives now. The president would like your computer to survive, but if you refuse to cooperate, I won't hesitate to destroy it."

This threat seemed to move Godin. "I expect my lead engineer to call me at any moment."

The general glanced at Geli, then relaxed his ramrod posture. "What the hell are they really working on in there, Peter?"

"The most powerful machine ever built by man."

"Was Dr. Tennant's e-mail accurate about its capa¬bilities?"

"It would be impossible to overestimate them."

A shadow of doubt crossed Bauer's face. He looked at Geli for confirmation, but she looked away, nauseated by disgust. Her father was standing there like a champion of right, an emissary of the president, but he'd been part of Trinity from the beginning. She did not relax her aim. If her father thought killing Godin would protect him from political repercussions, he wouldn't hesitate to try.

"You leave me no choice," General Bauer said. He glanced at Geli's pistol, then turned to go.

The ringing telephone stopped him. Geli picked up the receiver with her free hand and passed it to Godin. Again she heard frantic voices in the background, one saying something about ammunition. Then very clearly Zach Levin said, "Trinity state has been reached, sir… I repeat, Trinity state has been reached."

Godin closed his eyes and sagged back into his pillow. "Thank you, Levin. Carry on."

He dropped the phone on the mattress.

"Why the hell did you tell him to carry on?" General Bauer asked.

When the blue eyes opened, the triumph in them was absolute. "Trinity state has been reached. There's noth¬ing you can do now."

"Peter, for God's sake. What does that mean?"

"Trinity is in control."

"Of what?" The general looked at the door of the Bubble as if he could somehow see the Containment building. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"We've known each other for a long time, Horst. You know I'm a man of my word. If you attempt to enter or destroy the Containment building now, you'll be destroying the country you swore to defend."

Bauer's eyes narrowed in a mixture of suspicion and confusion.

"You'll understand soon," Godin said. "I advise you to be patient and prudent, for your own sake."

The general stepped closer to the bed and spoke softly. "You know I've always supported your cause when I could. But this isn't the situation we talked about. This is a king-size clusterfuck with worldwide media on the way to cover it."

Godin waved his hand indifferently. "I'm sure you'll find a way to extricate yourself. You always do."

General Bauer sighed, then turned and left the Bubble without a glance in Geli's direction.

She felt the same foreboding she had as a child. Her father did not handle uncertainty well. She turned back to Godin and saw that he was weeping. The sight stunned her.

"What's the matter, sir?"

Godin raised a shaking hand and touched his face as if making sure it was there. "I've done it. You're looking at the first man in the history of the world to exist in two places at once." Wonder shone from the old man's eyes. Wonder and peace. "I'll die in this bed," he said. "But in Containment I'll go on living."

Geli didn't know what to say. Even if Godin were right, the computer was unlikely to survive for long.

"Take my hand, Geli. Please."

His eyes pleaded with her. She gave him her free hand, and he squeezed it like a child.

"I can let go now. I can let this body die."

Another burst of gunfire echoed across the com¬pound. Geli gritted her teeth and fought the urge to pull her hand away.