‘And then, at the moment of her greatest triumph, Bernadine Bosquanet called another press conference and made another announcement. The Company was investing in a new project—officially called Project Icarus—a project so ambitious it dwarfed even the aspirations of Project Tomorrow. Simply put, the project aimed at bringing to fruition the daring ideas put forward in Robert Donnelly’s first seminal research paper. It would attempt to map the entire human brain and, further, use that map to create a delivery system whereby information could directly be fed into the brain. It would be the breakthrough to end all breakthroughs, giving people the ability to directly receive information, to control and channel its flow with just their minds. It was at that same press conference, while broadly explaining the benefits of the device, that she coined a phrase, a phrase that caught on so rapidly that it was almost immediately decided that the device would be released under that very name. And that was how the world first heard the words “Intelligence Interface”.’

‘You mean—’

‘Yes, Albert, that is what I mean. The Intelligence Interface was not, as you might have been brought to believe, the basement science project of some bored geek looking for a better way to get high. It was the result of the single largest, most expensive scientific endeavour yet known, the single biggest project of any sort that had ever been. Hundreds and thousands of the best, brightest minds in the world worked night and day for over a decade to bring it to fruition. The investment was in hundreds of trillions, the final viewership figures numbered in the billions. Everyone on the planet followed it at some point.’

‘But—’

‘In principle, the theory was sound, even revolutionary, and the possibilities were limitless. Can you fathom what it could have been? Which only goes to show that perhaps when something presents infinite possibilities, one should not forget that infinity is vast enough to have as much that is negative as positive hidden within. If not more.’

Albert looked at him, transfixed. Next to him, June sat, leaning with her elbows on the table, looking up at Father as well.