A man ahead of his time

Howard had had a few drinks. With his cheeks slightly flushed, the great scientist seemed gentler than usual, more approachable.

Director Peggy stopped by briefly, offered a few words of congratulations, then hurried away.

Standing off to one side, Brad noticed that some of Peggy's hair had turned gray as well.

Her neat, practical short hair swayed slightly behind her, stirred by the breeze for one fleeting moment as she opened the door to leave.

"Director Peggy just keeps getting busier."

Brad held a glass of sparkling wine. Never good at socializing, he stayed in the corner, watching people approach Howard one after another to cultivate connections.

Some came over to ingratiate themselves with him, too, but Brad's reticence soon drove them off.

Someone smilingly asked whether Howard had decided on a name for the baby. Unfortunately, as a first-time father, Howard had yet to make up his mind.

Brad's ears pricked up at that.

The dinner party lasted more than two hours, and the guests gradually began to leave.

Brad was debating what excuse he could use to stay a little longer when JARVIS, the butler, suddenly approached him.

"Sir has a few things he would like to discuss with you, Doctor. Please don't leave just yet."

Surprised and pleased, Brad agreed.

As night fell, the butler began tidying up the mess. Howard drained the last of his wine, nodded to Brad, then turned and headed up the spiral staircase.

Brad handed his glass to JARVIS, straightened his clothes, and quietly followed.

On the balcony, Howard rested both hands on the railing and closed his eyes, feeling the night breeze brush against him.

Soft footsteps reached his ears, then stopped.

"I'm sorry."

Howard spoke suddenly.

Before Brad could reply, Howard continued.

"You're the most outstanding genius I've encountered in this era, yet I urged Director Peggy to transfer you to Canada."

"The government there hasn't even finished clearing out the old landowners."

"I never gave you so much as an explanation, yet you kept producing research far ahead of its time without a single complaint."

"Now the whole world uses your upgraded computers and software. Even the Pentagon built its defense systems on your technology."

"But that also made me afraid."

"I certainly consider myself a genius ahead of his time."

"But most of my wild ideas simply can't be realized in this era. I'm an applied scientist, yet I spend my time on the impractical work of theoretical science. That's a problem most applied scientists face."

"In truth, we have no idea what era will finally be able to put our inventions to use."

"They might even turn out to be nothing but scrap metal in the future, with no practical value at all."

"But you're different from us. You're like... like someone taking an entire era's achievements from another universe and hauling them over here, one version update at a time."

"You've developed applied technologies that this world has absorbed effortlessly, yet you've never mentioned a single patent."

"When I realized that, I became utterly terrified of you, all the way over in Canada. Truly."

"Stark Industries' main business is weapons, but my operations have always been limited to just a handful of countries."

"You, on the other hand, gave your technology away for free. Thanks to the Strategic Scientific Reserve's special status, you didn't leave out a single country in the East, either."

"The whole world uses your technology now, Brad. You've spread it across the globe."

"Have you left any backdoors in those technologies?"

Howard turned around and stared at Brad gravely.

Brad finally understood why Howard had invited him.

"No, sir. In fact, I don't need backdoors."

"The technology I've released amounts to less than a tenth of what's in my head."

"I have no need for tricks like backdoors. I can come and go freely anywhere in the world without them."

"My sights are set much farther away. Beyond even the universe."

Brad wasn't lying.

This was only the beginning.

He had only just built a supercomputer. They hadn't even moved past the supercomputer era yet.

Beyond that lay artificial intelligence, big data, cloud computing, space computers, planetary projects, quantum computers, dark-matter-based cosmic computing platforms...

Some were vague concepts, some had already taken concrete shape in his mind, and for others, he had even worked out exactly how to build them.

He had already written the program for an artificial intelligence. All that remained was to activate it.

Brad knew that some higher being had most likely implanted him with knowledge that didn't belong to this era.

But precisely because that knowledge was so far ahead of its time, Brad believed the being must exist above the universe itself.

Although he didn't understand its purpose, everything he had received surely came with a price.

He simply didn't know when payment would come due.

But as long as he kept the pace of development under control, it probably wouldn't come knocking quite so soon.

He wondered whether this counted as a kind of curse of knowledge, too.

Howard's words left him somewhat embarrassed.

Now this was a genuine genius ahead of his time.

At best, he himself was a hard drive packed with an enormous stockpile of data.

Howard stared, a little dumbfounded, at Brad's utter certainty.

Yet he then accepted Brad's explanation.

Howard considered himself one of the world's foremost geniuses, and that was precisely why he didn't question Brad's seemingly boastful claims.

He nodded and turned back to gaze at the night sky.

"A goal beyond the universe... heh. It seems my own vision hasn't reached as far as yours."

"For people like us, a finite lifespan isn't enough to bring out everything in our heads."

Howard sighed wistfully.

Brad said nothing.

His lifespan was now just a little longer than Howard's.

"Keep at it, young man. It's late. I'll have JARVIS arrange a room for you."

Howard patted Brad on the shoulder, then turned and left the balcony.

Just as his figure vanished around the bend in the stairs, a few softly spoken words drifted into Brad's ears.

"Stay away from that fellow Zola. I always feel he's up to no good."

Brad stood on the balcony, his gaze unfathomable as he stared into the depths of the darkness.

After a long while, Brad took out a headset, held it casually between two fingers, and moved his lips slightly.

"Go complete my transaction with Zola. And bring him that extra gift."

Half an hour later, Silver Fox appeared at Doctor Zola's window. She set the hard drive on the windowsill and tapped lightly on the glass, then nimbly flipped away and vanished into the night.

Doctor Zola opened the window and noticed the hard drive. He stuck his head out, looked both ways, then snatched it up and closed the window.

"He actually perfected the algorithm this quickly!"

After examining the hard drive's contents, Zola paced around the room in ecstasy. A while later, he placed a small briefcase on the windowsill.

As he opened the window, Zola felt what seemed like a faint breeze pass overhead. His neck itched, and he slapped it. A dead mosquito lay in his palm.

Doctor Zola muttered a curse, then turned to look. The briefcase had already vanished.

On the rooftop, Silver Fox crouched motionless with the briefcase in hand, slowly putting away an exceedingly fine metal injection needle.