Chapter 33

McGowan told Cueball to get up. He congratulated him for his award-winning theatrics, falling to the floor so convincingly that even McGowan thought he was dead. Cueball winced in pain as he stood, as the fall aggravated his broken leg. McGowan continued using the eyeglasses, asking Cueball what he was thinking and comparing it to what he saw on the lenses. The results pleased him.

McGowan got an update from Straight on where Stone and Danders were. He was momentarily displeased to learn that they were on their way to see Cardona. Then he reminded himself that they were all but fleas on a dog.

He went into his library and called two scientists, telling them that arrangements were made to pick them up and bring them to him. They told him earlier that they agreed with Stone. No one can read someone’s thoughts if that person didn’t want them read, they said. McGowan wanted them to try, regardless. Their bags were packed by the time the car arrived.

McGowan had his public relations office announce the acquisition of the invention, showcasing its ability to communicate with people with epilepsy and people with locked-in syndrome. That announcement garnered unprecedented interest and buzz. It also let the other players developing thought-reading tools know that he was now the man.

Alphonse Chen, one of the scientists McGowan had sent for, was the person who confirmed that the nascent work being done in thought-reading that the Secretary of State had mentioned to McGowan was not a “pie in the sky.” Once he learned that, McGowan had to have it.

Without much effort he came up with some ways it might be used: knowing what your opponent was thinking when fending off a takeover; knowing if the moving of a navy into the Strait of Hormuz was going to start a world war; knowing why seven Chinese astronauts were launched into space to work in a newly launched space station; knowing if your partner still/ever loves(d) you; negotiating a merger, a job offer, a pay raise, or a price on a car.

All the benefits of having the ability to read thoughts based on today’s technology, however, were short of McGowan’s needs. He envisioned being able to reverse the process, that is, read other people’s thoughts, and if not consistent with his, supplant them with his, a diabolical perversion of the original purpose of the invention and Stone’s fear.

McGowan saw himself having people do his bidding while using the invention. He envisioned a commander of a U.S. nuclear-powered fast-attack submarine on patrol in the China Sea being unaware that her Lieutenant Commander, McGowan’s employee, was wearing thought overlay equipment; at the appropriate time the Lieutenant Commander took over the thoughts of the commander and all other personnel in the control room, and twenty-four multiple warhead missiles, equipped with atom bombs, were launched into China.

McGowan wouldn’t stop there. He’d combine that power with artificial intelligence, enabling him to have every piece of known information about someone since birth and use that information to determine if the person is lying.

In addition, McGowan would permit some people to use thought-reading, providing they were first evaluated by artificial intelligence to determine whether or not their actions had his blessing.

McGowan chose Alphonse Chen because of his high intelligence; he and others would create the software and systems to make McGowan’s wants happen. McGowan feels good. Things are going along nicely, and they will only get better.

McGowan knew that his thought-reading marketing capabilities would explode. Cameras capturing neural impulses would be put in public areas. The eyeglasses software, located in hubs in every city and town in the world, would read that information. Eventually these cameras would be put in every cell phone, tablet, laptop, desktop, gift shop, I-hop, flip-flop, appliance, automobile, place of worship, school, and hospital in the world. Whatever people thought or said would be captured and sent to anyone who paid the price to get the information. Companies or people could buy all or some of the information from a given hub on a subscription or ad hoc basis. People would be spying on each other and using the information to do harm. The world would complete its devolution into a moral and ethical cesspool, controlled by Evan McGowan, who had no compunctions about being the controller, as he considered the world to be a stinking mess already, hopelessly hurtling itself in that direction.