“Based on what you’ve said in this interview, I don’t think that even the most skeptical observer could claim that you are not qualified. And the steps you took to hide your identity behind PURDAH during the application process should dispel any serious questions around favoritism. So, you’re in. But—” She held up her index finger in warning, since Sophia was about to bounce out of her chair. “We have to talk about what it means. Whether this is just an academic research project, taking some new code for a spin on the Hole in the Wall system, or a serious effort to turn Dodge’s Brain on. Because no matter how we spin it, some people are going to see it as the latter.” Zula turned her attention to Marcus. “So we should sit down with Letitia.” Letitia was the foundation’s public relations director.

Marcus nodded.

“But that’s not for you to worry about. That is my problem,” Zula said, turning back to Sophia. “Your problem is seeing how much of this you can actually pull off in two short months.”

Chapter 21

Chapter 21

It’s kind of amazing that after all this time we are still using passwords for anything,” Sophia exclaimed.

It was three hours later. She was sitting in a restaurant along Lake Union with the man she knew as Uncle C.

Corvallis Kawasaki was now in his late forties. Like a lot of men whose hairlines had simply gone wrong at a certain age, he had taken to shaving his head. As a result, he looked radically different from the mop-topped Asian-American kid visible in some of Richard’s old photographs from the Corporation 9592 days. He had also got in the habit of wearing suits. He had never quite resigned himself to neckties, though, and so he had his shirts tailored with stand-up collars meant to be worn unbuttoned. That, combined with his prominence in the tech world, had made him easily recognizable; when he’d walked into the restaurant, ten minutes late, the hostess had greeted him by name, and diners’ heads had turned, tracking his progress across the room to the private booth where Sophia had been waiting for him.

In this part of town, all lunches were business lunches, and all conversations over food and drink involved disclosures of sensitive IP. The restaurants had been designed accordingly; tables were widely spaced, sound barriers were inserted wherever possible, and when it got too quiet, randomized noise welled up from discreetly placed speakers and filled in awkward gaps. Private dining rooms of various sizes ringed the main floor. Some of these were mere booths, capable of seating two to four, with doors on them. In one of those, C-plus and Sophia had been able to get through the hugging and cheek-kissing part of the meeting without too many eyes on them. They had then enjoyed a light lunch together and spent a little while catching up. He was doing well. He and Maeve now had a brood of three kids, all indexing their way through school and soccer and robotics, exhaustively photo-documented in a way that had to be shared with Sophia.