“You’ve crossed paths with him,” Marcus informed Zula. “He’s the one who dropped out of the whole Bay Area tech scene so he could go back to school in middle age and get a degree in neuroscience.”

“I remember him now,” Zula said.

“He’s probably a known quantity to the foundation,” Sophia said. “I think he’s participated in some ONE colloquia, advised on some DB-related stuff.” Which, as they all knew, wasn’t saying much—any neuroscientist of any significance to the field had probably crossed paths, at some point in his or her career, with the Forthrast and Waterhouse foundations.

“Is he advising you on this?”

“He’s aware that I’m going to attempt it. I have his support. As important, I have code that came out of his research group.”

“Code for simulating what brains do.”

“What neurons do.” Sophia shrugged. “I mean, that’s no big deal. You could have it too—it’s open source. But the point is that it’s easy for me to get in touch with the experts who wrote that code, get their advice, work on fixing bugs. Actually get something up and running during the short time that I am going to have here.” She paused for a moment, and pressed her lips together, and then went on: “If you’ll have me, that is.”

Zula sat back in her chair and looked out the window. The outcome had never really been in doubt. But being the director of a foundation had taught her a few things. One: much of what she did for a living was symbolic. But two: just because it was symbolic didn’t mean it wasn’t important. She had to put on at least a performance of thinking about it.

“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