Part 4 (2/2)

- ”What do you mean by apish games? Explain yourself!” - said the Colonel through clenched teeth.

- ”You see, Colonel, human beings did descend from apes.

This is a firmly established scientific fact, whatever various naysayers may say. Therefore, every human being carries in his genes a burden inherited from the past - the instincts of his wild ancestors. The apes are tribal animals, and each tribe has its own hierarchy: it has its chief and its outcasts, and it has all the rungs of the hierarchical ladder between them, and each ape craves for a higher rung on that ladder. That's the source of the people's craving for power, glory, recognition, money, in a word, for getting ahead of one's neighbor. All the social systems of the past used this craving as a driving force for their own development. The capitalistic system is especially outstanding in this respect - it's not just an apish game, it's a whole apish Olympics, which very efficiently exploits all the instincts that humans inherited from beasts of the wild. But human nature is not confined to b.e.s.t.i.a.l instincts, human beings have one thing which beast lack. Humans have reason. Reason can overcome instincts. Reason is the only chance of freeing man from the tyranny of instincts. But this chance cannot materialize while the social system itself makes people to take part in the apish games.

NanoTech gives us a chance to stop this protracted apish Olympics, to stop living as apes live, and at long last start living as human beings should live, that is, live by reason, not by instinct.”

- ”I can't understand you, Mr. Levshov. You seem to be an intelligent man, an outstanding inventor, but your reasoning is ridiculously naive. Do you really believe you can go and change all the social structure just like this? You want to carry out a world revolution which will make everybody equal overnight. To make the powers that be as powerless as anyone. How can you seriously hope that those who have power and money, and high social status, let go of their privileged positions? What a political naiveness! And you still hope that we shall help you to get time on TV? Of course I'll report your request to the higher authorities, but it's a foregone conclusion that n.o.body will give you any time on the air. Moreover, you'll go to jail for stealing governmental property, disclosure of military secrets, and, as it has just turned out, also for an attempt to overthrow the existing social, political and economic system of the Russian Federation!”

- ”First of all, Colonel, it's very difficult to imprison me. Physically impossible...”

- ”Why so?” - asked the Colonel.

Without saying a word, Levshov picked up from the table the ”video system” which was still working. He held it at the edge and it hung down like a piece of soft cloth. For a fraction of a second, a moving picture could still be seen on its rumpled surface, but suddenly that picture disappeared to be replaced with a checked pattern... like on a handkerchief. It took the Colonel one more second to realize that what Levshov was holding in his hand was indeed a handkerchief. Levshov used the handkerchief to loudly blow his nose and then threw the handkerchief on the floor, where it sort of dissolved into nothingness before the Colonel's very eyes, and then said: ”Well, just try to imprison me, and then you'll understand why it's impossible. That was the first thing I wanted to say. Now, the second: n.o.body is going to take away from the ruling circles of the Russian Federation their villas, Mercedes-Benz cars, Swiss bank accounts, portfolios - all their playthings and baubles. If they still want to play their apish games - let them play themselves crazy. The only thing that NanoTech is going to take away from them are the people of the Russian Federation. But from the very moment when the Russian Federation came into existence as an independent state in 1991, the people were only a burden to them. They have brought the industry and agriculture in this country to ruin - and thus deprived the people of any means to fend for themselves, so now the people have to be fed ”from above”.

That means the new rulers have to share their petrodollars with the people, but they don't want to, they are too greedy. And although they starve the pensioners to death with low pensions, and although they have destroyed the public health system, and reduced the standards of living to such a low level that the birth rate has dropped almost to zero, and although they are waging senseless wars where they kill off young men, the surplus population has not been sufficiently reduced (from their standpoint), and there are still more people around than they know what to do with.

NanoTech is going to rid the government of this burden by taking upon itself the responsibility for maintaining the people, so the government should actually be thankful to us for this. And the only thing we want in return for this service, is that government forever forget that the people exist, and never again bother the people with taxes, elections and army drafts.”

- ”So, Mr.Levshov, you are going to let people live without a government. Then will you be so kind as to explain how are you going to maintain law and order among the people? By the way, could one use NanoTech to produce arms and drugs?”

- ”Theoretically, it is possible. But we are going to close access to programs for manufacturing dangerous things like that to ordinary users of the NanoTech Network. Only the System Administrators of the Network will have access to arms, just in case somebody does make an attempt to use NanoTech to harm people and we have to fight such an offender.”

- ”Well. That's great. That's terrific. That means that in your brave new reasonable world everybody will be equal, but some will be more equal than others. Marvelous.” - said the Colonel. The world which had all but completely collapsed around him, began to gradually restore itself.

There was not going to be a uniform ma.s.s of people with equal rights after all. Everybody would once again stratify.

There might not be money any more, but there would certainly be levels of access to information. The higher you are in the social hierarchy, the wider the access. And of course, they would need a police. Everybody needs a police. But still it was sad that there would be no money - he spent so much nerves on it. The Colonel's spirits slightly uplifted.

The system based on the apish striving of everyone to stand above everybody else was unshakable and eternal and it would live as long as human beings live. And that was the only system that the Colonel believed in. Intellectuals might invent capitalism, communism and all kinds of other ”isms”, but in reality what had always existed and would exist was only one system, The System, and it was only this System that the Colonel had served and would ever serve, because only within this System the Colonel was worth something in his own eyes. The idea behind The System was primevally simple, and it was exactly from this simplicity and primitivity that it drew its unshakable and eternal nature.

The idea behind The System was the struggle for power. This struggle could be waged by all kinds of means: by acc.u.mulation of money, by political games and by pa.s.sing laws, by palace intrigues, or, as a last resort, simply by bludgeoning the compet.i.tor. It was not the means that mattered. What mattered was the final objective, and the final objective was power. This was part of the human nature, and therefore, it could not be uprooted...

The Colonel's reverie was interrupted by Levshov's voice: ”I know what you are thinking about, Colonel. You are thinking about The System.” The Colonel started and wanted to say something, but Levshov antic.i.p.ated his question: ”Don't worry, I'm not eavesdropping on your thoughts, although, in principle, NanoTech does have such a capability. Your thoughts are easy to guess. You are thinking that the new world opened up by the NanoTech will be the same as the old one, that the apish games will continue, that n.o.body as yet has managed to suppress apish instincts in humans, neither the church in a thousand years, nor the communists in the seventy years of their rule. But you've got to keep in mind one thing: up till now a human being who might have wanted to leave The System didn't have a chance to survive outside it - he would have simply died of cold and starvation. For the first time in the history of mankind, NanoTech gives us this chance. For the first time in history, one won't need to snap the food out of the hands of one's neighbor so as not to be hungry. Will we be able to use this chance to get from under The System, and to conquer at last our animal instincts? If we don't, we'll turn the new world into a semblance of the old one, but even more terrible, where the power of one group of people over the others will be infinitely amplified by the new, previously unheard of means of NanoTech. The loss of this historic chance will result in an unimaginable tragedy for the mankind.”

- ”But if you are not certain that you'll succeed, why did you have to start all this in the first place?”

- ”I just had no choice. I know what is happening now in nanotechnological labs all around the world. Tens of thousands of scientists are working on creating a new terrible weapon of enslaving man by man, a weapon which will give the rulers a complete and absolute control not only over the actions, but also over the very thoughts and feelings of people, a control none of the tyrants of the past could even dream of. The last chance to stop the impending catastrophe is to put NanoTech into the hands of the people, and hope that in the long run the reason will prevail over the dark instincts. There is no other way out.

Whatever happens, it won't be worse than what is now being prepared in secret labs. And there still is a chance of creating a society ruled by Reason, Freedom and Equality.

It's a small chance, but it does exist.”

2.8. An hour later, in an office one story up.

The video recording of the interrogation ended and the Colonel switched the VCR off. The General was silent for half a minute and finally said: ”Yea, this son-of-a-b.i.t.c.h has us up against the wall... We know next to nothing about his real capabilities, and he uses this to put pressure upon us. And what's most frustrating, we just can't quietly finish him off, because we don't know how his ”Team of Comrades” will react in that case. They are all at large, and probably all of them have access to NanoTech.”

- ”Do we know who they are?” - asked the Colonel.

- ”The members of his laboratory staff who, together with Levshov, refused to be transferred to our secret facility. We have complete files on them - their names, pictures, home addresses. The only thing we don't have is their present location. Half a year ago these people, all twelve of them, disappeared without a trace. n.o.body saw them afterwards. But he must be keeping in touch with them through this network of his. And they must have instructions telling them what they are supposed to do if he gets killed.

We need him alive. We've got to get out of him the pa.s.sword for the NanoTech System Administrator. The future of Russia as a great power hinges on this now.”

- ”What about giving him a shot of truth serum?” - suggested the Colonel.

- ”Won't work. I talked with our experts. Everybody says that whatever we inject him with, the cyborg-bacteria in his blood stream can decompose the substance and get it out of his system in a fraction of a second, before it has time to produce any effect. And if they can, they sure as h.e.l.l will do it. I a.s.sume he had done his homework before he came to us. This option is out of question. In this case we've got to find a more subtle approach. Could you run once again the end of the interrogation?”

The screen once again showed Levshov and the Colonel.

The Colonel: ”Levshov, I hope you realize that we just can't let you walk away now, and you'll have to spend the night here, in the lockup ward.”

Levshov: ”Colonel, I agree to spend the night in the lockup, but I want you to clearly understand that it's purely a goodwill gesture on my part. I reserve the right to leave the lockup at any moment. This is to give you notice that I have the capability to do so, and that you are not going to have any chance to stop me.”

”What a rascal!” - said General, his eyes glued to the screen.

”Comrade General, what about a copy of this ca.s.sette? Are we still going to hand it over to that American or not?” - asked the Colonel.

- ”We have to. If today we try to withhold the ca.s.sette from their liaison officer with special powers, tomorrow they'll know about this at CIA - I am pretty sure that we have a CIA mole in our directorate. Then we'll have diplomatic notes - you know, unwillingness to cooperate, and all that. And of course, we will be the guilty party. Better turn the ca.s.sette in. But there is one thing I want you to do...” - the General suddenly lowered his voice - ”Arrange for me a visit to Levshov's cell tonight. But do it in secret. n.o.body else should know about this. I'm going to have a man-to-man talk with him...”

2.9 At the same time in the lockup ward.

Levshov could not get to sleep. Or rather he could have, if he had chosen to use the services of the NanoTech. But he did not want to. His thoughts were focused on that gray March day of 1983...

2.10 March 1983, Kremlin, Moscow. The office of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

”...Thus, Karl Marx was absolutely correct when he predicted that capitalism would be superseded by communism.

He was also absolutely correct in believing that this change would come about as a result of the development of productive forces. He was in error only about one thing, that is, at what level of the productive forces development this change was to occur. Back in the nineteenth century he believed that the mankind had already reached the level where the capitalism could be superseded by communism. This error in judgment was caused by a very human weakness - the author of the theory was too eager to see it put into practice. But this error resulted in his violating history, in his trying to force upon the mankind a kind of social system for which it was not yet mature enough.”

- ”Well, well, young man...” - said General Secretary Andropov and smiled slyly, smiled to the extent the continuous ache in his kidneys allowed him to - ”So, in your opinion, Marx was not right, after all?”

Levshov stopped short and fell into a frightened silence.

Finding fault with Marx's opinions in the Soviet Union was fraught with a lot of trouble.

- ”That's OK.” - said the General Secretary, giving Levshov a wink - ”you can discuss things like that with me, but I don't recommend that you do it with the others.”

Levshov recognized the quotation - a line from a popular Soviet spy TV series - and smiled back.

- ”So you say that it was a violation of history?” - asked the General Secretary. His face grew serious once again and turned into a mask of stone - ”But imagine for a moment that the Great October Revolution of 1917 never happened and all of the world now belongs to capitalism. Who would you have come to with your invention in that case? To monopolies? But they are interested only in one thing - in power, in an absolute power over everything and everybody.

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