“All right,” Bailer said, waking up the laptops. “Is it safe to assume that neither of you has used a Merge before?”

They both shook their heads.

“In our stores, we do demos on how to set them up, but for the most part I’m just going to let you have at it yourself so you can see how simple it is. What I will point out, though, is that the military version of the unit has no connectors at all. That’s for two reasons: First, we found connector ports to be responsible for over ninety percent of failures. And second, it’s simpler.”

“If it’s so much better why do the commercial units have a power switch and USB port?” Smith asked. “Cost?”

Bailer gave a bemused shake of his head. “Excellent guess, Doctor, but the reality is much stranger. Our market research suggested that people are comfortable with wired connections and that not having them made the perceived value of the unit less—even though they’re completely outdated and serve no real function.”

“How do you charge it?” Pedersen asked.

“Dr. Smith? Care to guess?”

He winced perceptibly at the question and considered purposely answering wrong, but his ego wouldn’t allow it. “Induction.”

“Well done,” Bailer said. “There’s a small mat that plugs into the wall and you just lay the unit on it. Takes about an hour for a full charge, which in turn will last about twenty-five hours of normal usage. The increased battery size is almost entirely responsible for the additional weight you may have noticed.”

“And how does it connect to the computer?” Pedersen asked.

“Standard Bluetooth. But it’s only necessary for the initial setup. After that, it stands alone.”

He crouched and dug out two military helmets from boxes beneath the table. Both looked more or less government-issue with the exception of elaborate fore-and-aft cameras bolted to the top. “If I could have you put these on and take a place in front of a laptop, we’ll get you up and running.”

“So the system is built into helmets?” Pedersen said.

“Yes. But only for the purposes of this demonstration. In a combat situation, you’d have to use the head studs.”

As he tightened his chin strap and sat, Smith couldn’t help feeling a little excitement. Dresner’s demonstration, while impressive, had been nothing but a big screen and some interesting parlor tricks. To actually feel a machine-brain link, though, was something he never thought he’d experience in his lifetime.

“Uh, how do you turn it on?” Pedersen said.

“Dr. Smith? You’re doing so well. Care to take another shot?”

“I have no idea,” he said honestly. That seemed to cheer the general up a bit.

“It couldn’t be simpler. Just give it a good shake.”

Smith did and the computer screen in front of him immediately recognized the unit, bringing up its serial number and asking if he wanted to enter the setup routine.

“Do I just choose yes?”

Bailer retreated a bit. “No more help from me. I want you to get a feel for what it’s going to take to get your people up and running.”