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Back The Utopia Experiment Save as PDF
Chapters (84)
  1. Title Page
  2. Welcome
  3. Prologue
  4. 1
  5. 2
  6. 3
  7. 4
  8. 5
  9. 6
  10. 7
  11. 8
  12. 9
  13. 10
  14. 11
  15. 12
  16. 13
  17. 14
  18. 15
  19. 16
  20. 17
  21. 18
  22. 19
  23. 20
  24. 21
  25. 22
  26. 23
  27. 24
  28. 25
  29. 26
  30. 27
  31. 28
  32. 29
  33. 30
  34. 31
  35. 32
  36. 33
  37. 34
  38. 35
  39. 36
  40. 37
  41. 38
  42. 39
  43. 40
  44. 41
  45. 42
  46. 43
  47. 44
  48. 45
  49. 46
  50. 47
  51. 48
  52. 49
  53. 50
  54. 51
  55. 52
  56. 53
  57. 54
  58. 55
  59. 56
  60. 57
  61. 58
  62. 59
  63. 60
  64. 61
  65. 62
  66. 63
  67. 64
  68. 65
  69. 66
  70. 67
  71. 68
  72. 69
  73. 70
  74. 71
  75. 72
  76. 73
  77. 74
  78. 75
  79. 76
  80. Epilogue
  81. About the Authors
  82. The Covert-One Novels
  83. Newsletters
  84. Copyright

“I doubt it. The Merge monitors brain waves. If it were me, I’d have it set up to trigger if anything weird started going on with my head. I mean, even if you had a whole day—and I doubt you would—getting everyone on the planet to disconnect isn’t exactly realistic. It’d be like showing everyone in the world incontrovertible proof that cell phones cause cancer. Half of ’em wouldn’t listen.”

“Okay,” Randi said. “We can’t kill him. We can’t drug him. We can’t shut down hundreds of thousands of networks all over the world at one time. And we can’t allow critical people to stop using the system. Have I missed anything?”

“That he’s going to be looking for us with the most sophisticated search engine on the planet and unlimited funds?”

“I just checked sales numbers,” Klein interjected. “There are somewhere in the neighborhood of eight million Merges on the street.”

“Jesus,” Randi said. “Even if only a quarter of those people are targeted, that’s two million people dead. Why hasn’t he done it? He knows that we’re going to try to stop him.”

Smith nodded. “I don’t know. Maybe he can’t for some reason. Maybe he’s having second thoughts. Hell, maybe he’s just waiting for peak daily usage. But whatever the reason, it at least buys us some time.”

Randi settled back into her seat. “Yeah. But time for what?”

69

69

Near Front Royal, Virginia
USA

I DON’T WANT TO HEAR THAT, Marty,” Smith said, easing the car off the highway and onto an empty rural road. Best to stay away from civilization to the degree possible.

“Just forget shutting down the networks, Jon. Sure, you could pull down Afghanistan, because it’s on military satellite. But you can’t take down ATT, Verizon, and every little cellular carrier in America. And even if you did, how many of those people would be near a Wi-Fi hot spot that their Merge would immediately connect to? Killing all the networks at the same time in the U.S.—let alone worldwide—isn’t technologically feasible. Believe me. If it was, someone like me would have done it. They’d be a legend forever. People would build statues to them. Write songs about—”

“What about the power grid?” Randi said, cutting him off before he could get lost in fantasies of hacker fame and fortune. With his meds back at the house, his mind was starting to loop a bit.