“I have to admit to an increasing respect for you, Dr. Smith. Or maybe ‘wariness’ is a more accurate word.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“I assume that after what happened to the major, you’ve generated some theories about my plan?”

“You’re going to murder millions of people whose lifestyles you don’t approve of,” Randi said.

“Ah, Ms. Russell. A woman who doesn’t mince words.”

Smith glared at her in the rearview mirror. She flipped him off.

“And is Mr. Zellerbach there, too?”

“Yes,” Marty said, looking more in awe than scared.

“My compliments to you. I identified thirty-nine people worldwide whom I believed had a chance at finding that subsystem and you weren’t on the list. I apologize for underestimating your abilities.”

“Uh, that’s okay.”

Dresner let out an incongruously warm laugh. “I see that you haven’t informed anyone of consequence. I’m sure Mr. Zellerbach told you that I’d be watching all aspects of the network for unusual fluctuations.”

“He did mention that,” Smith said. “The message seems to be that if we do anything, an enormous number of people will drop dead.”

“One million, seventeen thousand, six hundred and twelve as of this moment.”

“As of this moment…” Smith said. The seemingly offhand phrase was the last piece of the puzzle he needed. “It’s not enough for you.”

“Once again, I’m impressed,” Dresner said. “No, it’s not enough. This isn’t about vengeance or killing people who will be immediately replaced by others just as malignant. It’s about fundamentally changing society. It’s about making certain we survive long enough for someone to succeed where I’ve failed.”

“In turning the Merge into something that perfects us as a species.”

“Your phrasing is a bit melodramatic but it’s substantially accurate.”

“So if we try to stop you now, you’ll murder just over a million people. But if we don’t, a few years from now, ten times that many will die.”

“Closer to five times based on my projections. But these are people whose lives are about destruction, Jon. Hate. Greed. People who turn—”

“According to you.”

“Not really true. You’re ignoring the fact that one of LayerCake’s main functions is to temper our judgments with facts. Whatever biases I have because of my life experiences are eradicated by the system. I think you’d be surprised at how many people I personally judge negatively that LayerCake doesn’t. I’m not overriding a single one of those decisions. As you know, the system works. Extremely well.”

It was true. The system did work. In Smith’s extensive experience, LayerCake’s judgments of people and things had proved almost preternaturally accurate. And to the degree it erred, it erred to the positive.

“Even your moderated biases, though, are your biases,” Randi said. “Didn’t Hitler believe he was right? Didn’t Stalin? Didn’t they believe that they were creating a Utopia?”