1 Chapter 1

1

Lennon pushed away from his desk and rubbed his eyes. Today had been a long day, but energy still pulsed under his skin. The results that the computer had splashed onto his screen made everything he’d poured into the past few months worthwhile. This discovery changed everything—everything that humanity knew about policing, about crime, about war.

From this moment forward, the world was different. Better

He still had work to do, of course. Lennon had never been the kind of guy to sit back and rest on his laurels, and he wasn’t going to change now. He and the rest of the team needed to come up with a manufacturing process that would make the bullets at a reasonable cost. They had to test the bullets on a wide variety of populations, to make sure that they wouldn’t turn out to be dangerous to one ethnic group or one gender or one weight class. Lennon did have some concerns on that score; he worried about the bullets being more harmful to underweight persons or children than they would be to people with more substantial bodies. Finding volunteers willing to be shot with experimental bullets was going to be a fun one to explain to the folks over at the ethics board, too.

Those were problems to work out another day, though. It was a problem for Future Lennon. For a few hours, late at night, he could let himself sit back and enjoy the feeling of triumph.

Wooden heels echoed on the tile floor, and Lennon turned his head to see a familiar face. Rada Parsons had been with Lennon since their undergraduate days. Lennon had built Interior, Inc from his inventions, but he couldn’t have done it without Rada’s skill and finesse. Rada had overseen their growth from two undergraduates working out of a substandard student apartment in Somerville to these sleek Kendall Square offices, with a hundred employees. Rada made sure that the bills got paid and the product shipped on time. Hell, Rada had more input into the manufacturing processes than Lennon did. She had a better grasp of manufacturing regulations.

“Kaden told me you were still here.” She shook her head at him. “It’s after nine. The boss doesn’t need to impress anyone, big guy. It’s okay for you to go home and go to bed. Go to a bar, pick someone up. Your computer will still be here in the morning.”

Lennon snickered at her suggestion. She always knew the best way to get those spinning cycles in his brain to wind down, or at least she did most of the time. Today was not one of those days.

“I made it work.” He turned the machine around to show her the results that had come through. “The nano-bullet works.”

Rada’s pointed little jaw dropped. “I thought that was a pipe dream, something out of science fiction.”

“Everything done in this entire field is something out of science fiction.” Lennon waved his hand in a circle, to indicate all of Kendall Square. This part of Cambridge was home to more tech companies than anyplace else Lennon could think of. “Literally everyone working on something around here started out reading a book by Asimov or watching Star Trekand saying to themselves, ‘Well, why the hell not?’ And then they sat down and worked hard and tried to figure out how to do it. Although, all that the bullet is doing is delivering two different types of nanobots.”

“Both of which you developed.” She winked at him and bent down to get a closer look at the data. “So this new invention creates a whole new market for a product for which we still hold the patent. Good thinking, brain boy.”

Lennon’s cheeks burned, but he grinned. “Well, that wasn’t actually my goal, but you know. If it works, we’ll take it, right?”

Rada ruffled Lennon’s hair. “I knew we’d manage to cram a little capitalism in there somewhere. Now close and lock that thing. We’re going out to dinner, and we’re going to celebrate. We’ll come up with a schedule for testing and production tomorrow.”

“Just like that.” He fought down the corners of his mouth. The way Rada’s brain worked never ceased to amaze him.

“Yes, just like that. Why would we not?” She grabbed him by the shoulders. “Why would we wait any longer than that to bring this thing to market? Think of how many lives will be saved. No more civilian deaths, no more military deaths or at least not from firearms—”

Now it was Lennon’s turn to laugh. “And you call me brain boy. You’re just going to have a schedule ready to roll out tomorrow, and it’s going to get done, too. Are you absolutely sure that you don’t have a brother?” He shut down his laptop and locked it into a desk drawer as he spoke.