ALSO BY DANIEL SUAREZ
Daemon
FreedomTM
Kill Decision
Published by the Penguin Group
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Copyright © 2014 by Daniel Suarez
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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Suarez, Daniel, 1964-
Influx / Daniel Suarez.—First edition.
pages cm
ISBN 978-0-525-95318-0 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-698-14853-6 (eBook)
1. Physicists—Fiction. 2. Discoveries in science—Fiction. 3. Gravitational waves—Fiction. 4. Space and time—Fiction. 5. Extremists—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3619.U327I54 2014
813'.6—dc23
2013026652
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Version_1
CONTENTS
Also by Daniel Suarez
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
CHAPTER 1: Breakthrough
CHAPTER 2: The Winnowers
CHAPTER 3: Postmortem
CHAPTER 4: Modus Operandi
CHAPTER 5: Master Copy
SIX MONTHS LATER
CHAPTER 6: Exile
CHAPTER 7: Quantum Machine
CHAPTER 8: Resistor
CHAPTER 9: The Necessary Lie
THREE YEARS LATER
CHAPTER 10: Tear in the Sky
CHAPTER 11: Daylight
CHAPTER 12: Forwarding Address
CHAPTER 13: Proprietary Code
CHAPTER 14: Flight
CHAPTER 15: Dead Man
CHAPTER 16: Panopticon
CHAPTER 17: Rogue Agency
CHAPTER 18: Rendezvous
CHAPTER 19: Impasse
CHAPTER 20: Behind the Veil
CHAPTER 21: Escalation
CHAPTER 22: Interception
CHAPTER 23: Harvesters
CHAPTER 24: Safe House
CHAPTER 25: Domestic Dispute
CHAPTER 26: Action Plan
CHAPTER 27: Learning to Fall
CHAPTER 28: Tipping Point
CHAPTER 29: Storming the Temple
CHAPTER 30: Gate Sixteen
CHAPTER 31: Compromised
CHAPTER 32: Crisis Control
CHAPTER 33: Fallen
CHAPTER 34: Loose Ends
CHAPTER 35: Rescue
SEVEN YEARS LATER
CHAPTER 36: Echo
Further Reading
Acknowledgments
About the Author
In loving memory of Alan Haisser, a brilliant engineer who encouraged my youthful wonder—but still insisted I learn the math.
INFLUX
The future is already here—it’s just not very evenly distributed.
—WILLIAM GIBSON
CHAPTER 1
Breakthrough
I’m gonna hunt you down like a rabid dog, Sloan.” Albert Marrano clenched his teeth on an e-cigarette as he concentrated on a tiny screen.
“Don’t joke. My sister’s pug just went rabid.”
“You’re kidding.” Marrano thumbed the controls of his handheld game console.
“Raccoon bite. They had to put Mr. Chips down. Her kids are still in therapy.” Mashing buttons on his own wireless console, Sloan Johnson sat in the nearby passenger seat. Then he let out a deep “Heh, heh.”
Marrano cast a look at him. Johnson had that Cheshire cat grin on his face again. “Shit . . .” Marrano tried to rotate his player around, but Johnson’s avatar was already behind him.
Double-tap. The screen faded.
“You really do suck at this, Al.”
“Goddamnit!” Marrano tossed the device onto the car’s stitched leather dashboard and pounded the steering wheel. “You have got to be kidding me. Worse than playing my goddamn nephew.”
“That’s two thousand bucks you owe me.”
“Best out of five?”
Johnson powered down his device. “It’s a lousy two K. What are you complaining about?”
Headlights swept across them as another car turned into the nearly empty parking lot of a gritty industrial building.
“Here we go.” Marrano pocketed his e-cigarette.
“’Bout fucking time.”
They exited their parked Aston Martin One-77 as an older Mercedes pulled toward them.
“Jesus, look at this thing.”
“They go forever, though.”
“You ever get stuck behind one of these on the highway? Like breathing coal dust.” He motioned for the driver to pull up to them.
The Mercedes parked, and a distinguished, if disheveled, elderly South Asian man with spectacles and a full head of unconvincing jet-black hair got out. Slowly. He buttoned his greatcoat against the cold.
Marrano and Johnson approached, removing their leather gloves and extending hands. Marrano smiled. “Doctor Kulkarni. Albert Marrano. Thanks for coming out so late.”
“Yes.” They shook hands. “I don’t usually drive at night. But your CEO said this couldn’t wait.”
“That she did.” Marrano turned. “This is my colleague, Sloan Johnson. He manages the portfolio for Shearson-Bayers.”
They shook hands as well. “Pleased to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
Marrano pulled his lambskin glove back on. “So you’re our physicist. Princeton, right?”
Kulkarni nodded. “Yes, but I live close by in Holmdel. No one would tell me what this is about.”
Marrano grimaced. “Not over the phone, no. Legal says they already have you under contract, so I’m supposed to remind you about your nondisclosure agreement and noncompete clause.”
The elderly Indian nodded impatiently. “Fine, fine. Now what is this ‘physics emergency’ of yours?”
Marrano waved his arm to encompass the drab, windowless building before them. “Tech start-up. Run by a couple particle physicists developing chiral superconductors. The investment predates me, but these guys claim they’ve made some big breakthrough. I’ll be damned if I can understand a thing they’re saying.”
Johnson edged in. “We need you to evaluate their scientific claims. Tell us if they’re on the level.”
Kulkarni nodded. “Is there a business plan or lab report I can review?”
Both men exchanged looks. Marrano answered, “We can’t part with printed material at this point, Professor. You’ll have to review this firsthand.”
“Then I’ll need to speak with the founders. Tour the facility.” Kulkarni eyed the darkened building.
“Oh, they’re in there.”
“This late?”
“Yeah. Blowing through thirty thousand dollars an hour in off-peak electricity.”