“Not at all.” Hedrick turned to Grady. “Alexa is one of our top bureau managers but also a biotech marvel. Her DNA includes proprietary genetic sequences developed decades ago by BTC scientists—sequences that give her longevity, intelligence, and perfect form. She is literally a product of BTC research. An experiment that led to great advances.”

Alexa sighed. “Are you finished, Graham?”

Hedrick nudged Grady. “How old do you think she is?”

Alexa rolled her eyes. “Graham, if we could just continue debriefing Mr. Grady.”

“How old, Jon? Guess.”

Grady couldn’t help but look her up and down. “I . . . Twenty-three.”

“Try forty-six. And that’s without gene therapy. It was her genomic sequence that led to the breakthrough in immortal DNA strand segregation and a cure for necrotic cascade back in the ’80s.” He looked admiringly at her. “What a magnificent creature.”

“I’m not a ‘creature,’ Graham.”

He laughed mildly. “Yes. Of course.”

The older man cleared his throat and spoke with weary irritation. “We’ve got a busy schedule, Mr. Director.”

“Yes, Mr. Morrison. You’re right. And as important as you are, Jon, we do need to get down to business.” Hedrick joined them at the table and offered a seat to Grady as the two BTC officials stood nearby. “We’d like you to join the BTC as a research scientist, Jon. You’ll have access to the best facilities on earth and nearly limitless funding. You’ll live more like a god than a mortal. And we can make your years long indeed.” Hedrick tapped at the glass surface of the table, and Grady’s gravity-reflection CAD plans appeared as ghostly 3D apparitions, rotating slowly in midair. “Gravity magnification—creating strong gravity fields derived purely from energy—that’s what we want your research to focus on. And you’ll have the most powerful biological and synthetic minds available to assist you.”

Grady shook his head. “I’m not joining anything. I want to see my colleagues.”

Hedrick grimaced. “Jon, we’ve been over this.”

“I have no desire to live ‘like a god’ while everyone else suffers.” He pointed to Alexa. “You’re creating a race apart when you should be sharing this technology with the world. What gives you the right to keep this all for yourselves? You have fusion, and you haven’t shared limitless clean energy with a starving world?”

Hedrick nodded slowly to himself, digesting this. But Alexa walked around the table, approaching Grady with a stern look on her lovely face. “A starving world?”

It occurred to Grady that her beauty might be more of a weapon than he thought—disarming him. But he managed to scrape together his wits as she approached.

“Do you know how many people died last year of starvation, Mr. Grady?”

“Not precisely, but I’d guess a lot.”

“The answer is just over one million. And do you know how many died of diseases associated with obesity?”

He shook his head.

She stopped just a couple of feet in front of him. “Well over three million.”

She was actually quite intimidating. Taller than she seemed and projecting a confidence that seemed unassailable.

“I’ve seen your type many times. You do realize that ‘limitless energy’ would cause the human population to increase by an order of magnitude.” She spoke over her shoulder at someone. “Varuna, bring up fusion scenario six.”

A disembodied voice spoke: “Of course, Alexa.”

Suddenly a crystal clear three-dimensional holographic projection of the Earth appeared above the conference table. It looked almost real—not translucent but solid. Cities of the world showed as glowing networks of light stretching down the coasts of most continents. The current year appeared in one corner. It was a startlingly realistic display.

Alexa stared at Grady. “Execute simulation.”

“Executing.”

The year started incrementing in one-second intervals as the Earth changed. Alexa narrated, without even looking at the image of Earth just behind her. “From the first decade cheap fusion energy appears, population levels and city densities increase. Within twenty years trillions of additional Btu have been pumped into the atmosphere. Although fossil fuel use drops sharply, abundant energy means industrial processes increase. Industrialized society drastically expands, along with manufacture of complex molecules and inorganic wastes. Human population continues to spike, with eight billion people living a modern consumer lifestyle by the year 2050 . . .”

The simulation showed cities growing into several massive hundred-mile-wide hubs. Blinding conglomerations of light.

“With the added heat in the atmosphere, ocean levels rise. Deforestation occurs as climate fluctuates rapidly. Earth’s ecosystem becomes destabilized and most other species along with it—a vast food chain on which humanity depends for survival. Foundational species go extinct. Algal blooms cloud the oceans. Runaway greenhouse effect . . .”

Grady studied the very realistic animation as the atmosphere turned opaque. A runaway greenhouse effect began to swallow humanity—all within a century.

“The wealthy move to orbit. The rest of humanity perishes.”

Grady took a deep breath. “Okay. Well, I’d like to see the data behind this model.”

Alexa’s eyes bored into him. “It’s based on four hundred million petabytes of meteorological, sociological, and economic data. If I gave it to you, it would take you forty million years to read through it. So I hope you brought your eyeglasses.”

“Ah. Maybe a summary then.”

“Like I said: I’ve seen your type before, Mr. Grady. Scientists convinced their innovations are going to ‘save’ the human race. Did you ever stop to ask yourself what would happen if your antigravity technology were set loose upon the world? Do you realize the impact it would have on society?” Alexa again barked over her shoulder. “Varuna, load antigravity scenario three.”

“Yes, Alexa.”

The Earth reset, this time showing transportation routes of the world, along with the nations of the world as height maps for economic strength.

“Execute simulation.”

“Executing.”

“Jon Grady, the great innovator. The man who would give his knowledge to all humanity. How generous of you to share your brilliance with us all.”

Grady watched as complex transportation networks of ships, aircraft, and railroad networks disappeared in just a few years, dispersing into a vastly more complex network. Major transit hub cities fell into decline. National gross domestic product numbers lurched around, affected by the resulting economic chaos.

Alexa yet again narrated, apparently having committed this simulation to memory, too. “Transportation, travel, shipping, security, manufacturing—hundreds of industries worldwide drastically reshaped, some erased, overnight. The economic impact would devastate the livelihoods of hundreds of millions—every airport in the world, every airline, harbor, and railroad network, and all the industries dependent upon them suddenly obsolete. Border security. Personal security. Economic chaos—”

“Okay, I get it. But I think you’re painting a worst-case scenario.” He sighed wearily and looked to Hedrick. “I guess I hadn’t thought through the consequences of my work. But I still say you’re being pessimistic.”

Alexa folded her arms. “These models have successfully predicted much more than this.”

Grady considered this. “All right. Okay . . .”

Hedrick smiled warmly. “Then you’ll join us?”

Grady pondered it and finally nodded again. “Yes, I guess I am interested to see what other advances might speed my research along.”

“Mr. Grady is lying.” The voice came from the ceiling somewhere. It was the same disembodied voice that Alexa had spoken to.

Hedrick looked disappointed. “Thank you, Varuna.”

Alexa looked unsurprised.