61. Unpredictable States
The next day, Pearl and I walked to the mathematical institute and found the office Jeremy had written down for us. He was nowhere to be seen. We waited a few minutes and then started looking for Mrs. Conway. We found her in a corner office with a park view.
“Nick, how nice to see you!”
“Same here, Mrs. Conway. This is Pearl MacDougal, my girlfriend.”
“Pleasure to meet you,” Pearl said.
“Your girlfriend?” she said in disbelief. “Oh, I’m sorry. That came out wrong.”
“Yes, my girlfriend.”
“It’s nice to meet you, Pearl.”
“Where’s Jeremy, Mrs. Conway?” I asked.
“I thought he’d be coming with you.”
“He was. We were supposed to meet here at the institute.”
“Oh, I’m sure he will be here in a minute. Shall we begin then?”
I wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure at all. In fact, I was starting to worry.
I gave Natalie Conway a summary of my proof. Pearl listened. Pictures of a deeply resolute Michael Douglas in Don’t Say a Word went through my mind. How did he feel when he realized that his skills were the reason that Sean Bean kidnapped his daughter Jessie?
I took Pearl’s hand and pushed images of Butler kidnapping Pearl out of my mind before my fantasy could run amok.
“I knew you could do it, Nick,” Natalie Conway said.
“I’m not sure I should, though.”
“Why is that?”
I told Mrs. Conway a cleaned-up version of Butler and the FPA harassing me and my friends.
“I see.”
“Have you heard of this agency, Natalie?” Pearl asked. “If your expertise is scenarios, then they would be interested in your work, right?”
“They are. They have contacted me,” Natalie Conway said.
“They have?” I asked, not in the least surprised.
“They paid me a visit a few years ago and then they contacted me right before I came to Vienna.”
“What did they want?” I asked.
“The first time, they only asked about you.”
“What did you tell them?”
“That you are a bright kid.”
“Nothing else?”
“Well, they asked if I thought you could find a proof for the Rh.”
“What did you say?”
“That no one could know.”
“What did they want the second time?”
“They asked if you had found it and then they asked if I was S. Meyer.”
“Did you tell them that you are?”
“No, I didn’t. How do you know?”
“Jeremy told me, he thought you were her.”
“Nick, I’m worried,” Natalie Conway said and looked at Pearl.
“Me too.”
“This proof changes everything,” Natalie Conway said.
“You already have run simulations on what is going to happen,” I said to Natalie Conway matter-of-factly.
“I have.”
“Let me guess,” I said. “Borders will shut down first, then the airports, then banking, then cars …”
“What! Why?” Pearl asked.
“Because everything with a computer program can be easily hacked and the governments have to protect their citizens and their economies,” I said.
“The US government and many other governments have contingency plans, but they will kick in later,” Conway said.
“Some governments also have capsuled systems that will take over when the original ones are taken off grid, my research tells me,” I said.
“Isn’t there another form of encryption?”
“There’s none,” Conway and I said simultaneously.
“Well,” Mrs. Conway went on. “There’s quantum computers but I doubt even the FPA is that far ahead.”
“I don’t think they are,” I said.
“If it’s doable, then it will be done. Like Jurassic Park,” Pearl said.
“I like your thinking, Pearl, and not only because I’m a big Jurassic Park fan, but the problem is that computer technology may be ripe and ready, but physics isn’t,” Natalie Conway said.
“The chips running a computer have shrunk to the size of atoms,” I added. “But now that they have reached this small a size and can possibly deal with quantums, advanced quantum physics is needed and there is no advanced quantum physics.”
“Surely research is being sped up in physics since it’s been known quantums could solve a fallout from this hypothesis,” Pearl said.
“The problem is this: Quantum physics is not just a field in physics. It’s a different kind of physics. Newton’s laws don’t apply,” Conway tried to explain.
“Yes,” I said. “The difference being that a particle can take any state and not just one of two as in normal computers.”
“And these states are unpredictable,” Conway said.
“That, in turn, makes it almost impossible to program them. Yet.”
“Because they don’t do what we want them to do but what they want,” Pearl said.
“You could say that.”
“There will be quantum computers at some point,” I said as I wanted to move on. Where was Jeremy? I had a bad feeling. “Until then, prime-based encryption is the only secure form of encryption for the comforts of our modern world.”
A sharp ping sounded from Conway’s computer.
“What is happening?”
She went to her desk and looked at her computer. Then went pale.
“Nick, come and have a look.”
A message was filling the entire screen.
WE HAVE JEREMY. We will not hurt him, but you must give us the proof. WE KNOW YOU HAVE IT.
I was ashamed. I was relieved that it wasn’t Martin or Pearl. I reached for Pearl’s hand and squeezed it.
“Is there more?” Pearl had the presence of mind.
Mrs. Conway tried to scroll further down and, yes, there was more.
WE KNOW YOU’RE GOING TO RUN AND HIDE THE MINUTE YOU READ THIS. But you cannot hide, NICK. We have your money. We have your computer. DO NOT RUN.
Pearl looked at my backpack leaning against Conway’s desk.
“But you have everything with you,” Pearl said.
“No, Pearl. My backpack is empty. There’s some cash and our last two sets of IDs.”
“Do you need money, Nick?” Natalie Conway offered.
“No, maybe. I don’t know. I need to think. There’s enough in the backpack for another week or two.”
“Is the proof on your laptop?”
“No, I have always kept it clean and deleted the cache every time I used it.”
“Where is everything, then?” Conway asked.
“I’m not going to tell you. You can’t tell what you don’t know.”
“You told me almost everything.”
“I also left out some important details.”
Copyright by Ines Strohschein, Berlin 2023