“But for that, we have to overcome the hurdle of convincing people my age to get the implants. The headsets are impractical to sleep in.”

“Absolutely. We’re starting the process of trying to get Medicare and a number of European health care systems to provide coverage with a doctor’s recommendation. If we can get that done, I think we’ll see an explosion.”

Dresner reached for his glass and leaned back again, contemplating the sunlight reflecting off it. “It’s my understanding, then, that we’re moving our sales projections upward?”

“No question. By the end of the day today, we’ll have sold six hundred and fifty thousand units worldwide. By the end of the quarter, we’re projecting just under four million civilian units on the street.”

“Military?”

“Impossible to predict at this point. It’s my understanding that Colonel Smith, whom you met, is running an initial field test day after tomorrow. He seems to have been given a great deal of influence over whether the military is going to embrace the Merge—more than General Pedersen as near as we can tell.”

“As it should be,” Dresner said without looking up. “He’s far more impressive than the general and appears to be a thoughtful and intelligent man. As such, I can’t imagine that he won’t recommend full adoption by the American armed forces.”

Bailer remained silent.

“Do you disagree, Craig? If so, please speak up.”

“No, I think we’ll get almost full adoption. But it’s only about a million and a half people, Christian. The combined forces of Europe, China, and Russia total five million. If we opened the market—”

Dresner shook his head, silencing the man. “The other militaries will adopt eventually for the data, communications, and vision enhancement. Those will all be significant advantages.”

“But not immediate, critical advantages. If we had opened up the ability to use military applications and link to offensive systems we could have created—”

“A new arms race?”

“Yes! We would have had millions of people with unlimited funds climbing over each other to integrate as fast as possible. We could have conservatively doubled our first-year sales.”

“And created another military stalemate that benefits no one. That isn’t what I want to be remembered for, Craig. The Chinese are insular and self-interested. The Russians are dangerous and unpredictable. The Europeans are useless. And while the Americans have made their mistakes, they’ve done better than any country in history wielding nearly absolute power. They may be clumsy, but at least they’re clumsy in the pursuit of democracy and stability.”

“But we need the—”

“Chaos won’t help us in the long run.”

Bailer fell silent, trying to swallow his anger and calm the nervous energy he always felt when faced with Christian Dresner. The old man was not only still physically imposing in his late sixties, but unquestionably one of the most successful and intellectually powerful forces of the last century. As he aged, though, his naive belief that he could save humanity—through antibiotics, the Merge, charitable donations to education, his bizarre focus on political and financial applications—grew. He’d become oblivious to the fact that humanity didn’t want to be saved and that it was precisely this trait that could provide the company either endless opportunity or assured destruction. Dresner was leading them blindly into the latter.