“But this is different,” he whined. “You don’t just have to come up with the password—and it isn’t going to be his birthday or his dog’s name—you’d have to mimic the way his brain communicates that password to the system. And he’s the only person who knows the language the brain speaks.”

“Catch-22,” Randi said.

“Exactly. In order to access the system you’d have to know so much about it you wouldn’t need to access it.”

None of this was any real surprise. Smith’s own people, as well as the NSA’s brain trust, had told him exactly the same thing.

“You’re sure the military doesn’t have access and you’re just not telling me, Jon? I can keep a secret. And I have some other app ideas that Dresner’s gonna be a dick about. You know, with the right camera, you could see everyone naked—like those glasses in the comic books when we were kids. Tell me that’s not a moneymaker.”

“You’re already rich,” Randi pointed out.

“True. Would you like to come out on my yacht? I have a bikini in mind for you that would—”

“You don’t have a yacht.”

“But I do have the bikini.”

She gave him a stern look that hid a smile. “Let’s see if we can focus on the task at hand, shall we?”

He shrugged. “There is no task at hand.”

“So, you’re telling me that no one has hijacked this system.”

“Hijacked it? No way. Not without Dresner’s direct involvement. And if he’s involved, that’s not really hijacking, is it?”

It always circled back to Dresner. Did he know the asshole who totaled the Triumph? And if so, what exactly was their relationship?

“Can it affect your mind?” Randi said.

“That’s all it does—makes you hear and see things that aren’t really there. Icons, maps, music…”

“What I mean is, could it, for instance, make a soldier not defend himself? Could it turn a very religious person into an atheist?”

Zellerbach’s brow knitted. “I’m not sure what you’re asking.”

“Simple question, Marty.”

He pondered it for a moment. “I mean, I could code something that made everyone who attacked you look like your mother. That might make you less likely to fight back. Not sure how you’d turn someone into an atheist.”

“I’ve talked to a few neurologists about this,” Smith said. “And they all tell me it’s pretty far-fetched. There is evidence that religiosity and the propensity for violence have a genetic component. And they have been able to manipulate it in a crude way using magnetic waves, but it takes a lot of power and the effect is pretty unpredictable.”