Grady recalled the face of the madman whose followers had so recently strapped him to a bomb.

Hedrick saw the realization in Grady’s eyes. “Yes, Richard Louis Cotton—the public face of the antitechnology movement. Every once in a while his Winnowers strike at some scientist or lab. It’s just a means of control, Jon. Cotton’s movement is an illusion. A method of misdirection. You are all quite alive, after all.”

Grady moved away from Hedrick warily. “Cotton works for you?”

Hedrick sighed. “Not for me—the BTC. I know it’s upsetting, but everyone is fine.”

“We’re not fine. Where’s Doctor Alcot? Where are Raj and Mike? I want to see them. Right now.”

“That’s not possible, Jon. They’ve already come to terms with the BTC. Until you join us, you can’t join them.”

“Join you? Why on earth would I join you? You’re abducting researchers and scientists. Concealing life-changing scientific breakthroughs. I’m not joining you.”

“We do what must be done. And even then only when truly disruptive innovation occurs and containment risks are high.”

“What ‘containment risks’?”

“Some technologies are too dangerous to be allowed to spread on their own. Left to chance, technologies like fusion and antigravity would sweep away existing social systems. They would change every society they touched.” Hedrick gestured to several more exhibits lining the corridor. “Shall we continue?”

“You’re going to add gravity modification to this museum of yours, aren’t you?”

“You should feel honored. I know I do. Very few innovations require complete isolation. Yours is one of them. Our models suggest that mastery of gravitation is what’s known as a keystone. When combined with other advances—like fusion—gravity manipulation will catapult humanity to a much higher technological level. In this case, moving us for the first time into a Type One civilization—a society capable of moving entire planets. Of building warp drives. Capturing the entire energy output from our star.”

“That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“Your modesty is admirable, but your contribution stands alongside those of the greatest minds in history. Think of this: the notion of a ‘fictitious force’—Newton’s second law. In a closed box, an observer would not be able to distinguish between acceleration and the force of gravity. Einstein himself attributed the apparent acceleration of gravity to the curvature of space-time. Inertial mass and gravitational mass were not just equal—they were the same force. Yet, combined with our knowledge of extra dimensions, we might be able to use your work to disprove the equivalence principle at a high level of precision—and that’s just one of many possibilities. You’ve made an unprecedented breakthrough.”

“Extra dimensions?”

Hedrick ignored the question as he gestured again to the gallery. “Your gravity mirror belongs here, and you should feel honored—very honored indeed.”

“It isn’t an honor. I’d like to leave now, please.”

“We greatly admire your work, Jon. We want you to do what other researchers”—he motioned along the displays in the gallery—“like those whose work is represented here, have done. Join us. We want you to be part of the BTC family. To continue your research, but to continue it with access to technology you can only now imagine. We can open so many doors of inquiry to you. We can show you scientific wonders.”

Grady was still trying to process it all. He shook his head clear and walked farther along the gallery. At the next display he saw a hologram of cells, this time dividing and re-forming, as well as the image of a young person resembling an older person beside them. The plaque read:

Immortal DNA strand segregation—June 1986: Lee, Chao Park

He read the details. “My God . . .”

“Immortality is just one of the things we’ve accomplished, Jon.” Hedrick gestured down the gallery. “True artificial intelligence, quantum computing, miraculous metamaterials—and so much more. You can be part of it. You’ve earned a place among us.”

“Us?” He turned. “I want to speak with Doctor Alcot.”

“I’ve told you that’s not possible. Everyone must decide on his own—not because of what someone else decided.”

“How do I know he’s even alive?”

“Why would we harm him?”

“And why would you kidnap someone? Why would you conceal the cure for cancer? The achievement of fusion? I want to see my colleagues.”

Hedrick sighed. “You’re acting as if we’ve had no role in this. You do realize we’re the reason you received your funding? We’re the reason your research succeeded.”

Grady narrowed his eyes. “I was awarded a National Science—”

“You were awarded an NSF grant? How do you really know? And who was it that identified you from among all those candidates? From among the students in your online courses?”

“What are you talking about?”

“Very early on your mathematical solutions in online physics courses came to the attention of our AIs. You think very differently from others, Jon. Our AIs guided your path. They’re the ones who noted the unusual promise in the mathematics of your grant application. Please don’t act as if we’re intruding here. If it weren’t for us, your ideas would never have been realized. Think back on how you’ve been treated all your life. Professionally. Personally.”

Grady stared blankly at Hedrick.

“Yes, Jon. We know about your unusual way of seeing the world. But we’ve had faith in you all along, even when no one else did. You have a unique gift—a visionary way of interpreting the physical world. That’s what we search for. We’d like to learn from you. And unlike the public world, we have the ability to understand what you teach us.”

Grady stood numbly again, trying in vain to comprehend it all. His model of the known world was no longer valid.

That comforting hand on his shoulder again. Hedrick leaned close. “The ability to manipulate gravity will transform even our most advanced technologies. Instead of containing fusion reactions in a magnetic field, as with tokamak designs, we’ll be able to carry out fusion the same way stars do. We might gain a four hundred and fifty–to-one energy yield. And that’s just the beginning.”

Grady pondered this. “Not with a gravity mirror you won’t. You’d need a million times the mass of the Earth for that.”

“But that’s where you can help us, Jon. How do we create gravity—not simply reflect it? That’s the next goal. You mentioned to Professor Kulkarni that acceleration can be harnessed—redirected. That’s a promising line of research.”

“Kulkarni is one of yours, too?”

Hedrick ignored this question. “You and I both know gravity is the most powerful force in the universe. It can consume whole galaxies. Light itself. If we could create it from energy—imagine what constructs man might be capable of.”

They were walking again now, Hedrick guiding Grady to the end of the gallery and into another large office. Grady was lost in thought.

As they entered the new office, he looked up to see a young woman standing next to a conference table, along with an older, grizzled-looking man in his sixties. The guy had the demeanor and stance of an old soldier, and he wore a black uniform bearing an inscrutable rank and the BTC’s tree insignia. Grady did a double take on the woman. She was incredibly beautiful, fair complected, with short jet-black hair and lapis-lazuli-blue eyes. She wore a tailored pantsuit and crisp white blouse—normal business attire. But in fact, she was so attractive it was difficult for Grady to take his eyes off her, despite his absurd predicament.

Hedrick apparently noticed. He smiled and motioned toward the woman. “And what show-and-tell of our technology would be complete without an introduction to Alexa?”

The woman cocked her head to the side and frowned. “You always make me sound like a circus attraction.”