“And I will download back into a nanite body. So it sounds as if you’ll be available to assist with that procedure.”

Cleary nodded.

“Good. Then I will contact you from VR in…oh, twenty years.”

“And if something should happen to me?”

Nichols smiled. “Then I have a backup, of course. I’ve already programmed my reappearance in holographic form at MIT. With instructions from me, someone there should be able to put me in a nanite body.”

Nichols lifted his drink. “To us, Damien. Our plans have suffered a setback, but it isn’t permanent. The transplants will resume at some point, and our march toward transhumanity will continue.” He finished his drink and stood. “Fortunately, we’ll both be there to see it.”

“Fortunately.”

“I’ll meet you in the lab tomorrow. Six a.m.”

“Are you sure you can trust this guy? He can blow this whole thing for us.”

Abby nodded. “Ben, we can trust him.”

He turned his gaze toward me. “And you think this will work?”

“We’ll soon find out.”

Momentarily Sabin appeared on a visiscreen. His eyes lit up. “Abby! I’ve been trying to get hold of you since I heard the news. I’m so glad…so thankful you’re alive. I tried tapping you, Creighton—”

“I’m sorry about that, Sabin. I meant to have Abby get back to you as soon as possible. But now…” I glanced at Abby.

“Sabin, we need a favor,” she said.

He looked toward me. “Sure. Anything.”

“We could use your holographic programming skills,” I answered.

“You need a hologram?”

I nodded. “Several. Quickly. And confidentially.”

At the NTI lab Nichols and Cleary prepared the equipment for Nichols’s upload into VR. Cleary kept glancing at the building’s security monitors.

Nichols turned to him. “We’re ready. I’ll perform the upload scan myself. Once I’m permanently in VR, I’ll need you to take the three physical copies of my brain software and store them in the proper locations.”

Cleary rolled his eyes. “Nichols, we’ve reviewed this multiple times.”

“Damien, please indulge me. Soon you’ll be rid of me for years. Now, the original of my brain software will be uploaded into VR. You’ll be the only one with access to me. Once my software is uploaded, I’ll verify from here that I’ve been accurately copied and securely located. After I’m in VR, I’d like you to check on me periodically. If anything goes wrong and you need to reupload to the Grid, you have access to the three physical copies.”

“I will check on you at least monthly.”

“Good.”

“Nichols, if by chance I’m not around, how do you know that twenty years from now they’ll be able to download you back into a new body or whatever is the container du jour? Every time technology switches to a new medium, the old media become inaccessible. Surely you’ve accounted for that.”

“I’ll update the instructions while in VR. When I reappear, they’ll have all they need to download me into a physical form.”