The Breach - Ghost Country - Deep Sky

few dozen governments and a few hundred companies had been trying like hell to develop quantum computers, which were expected to be dramatically more powerful than computers at present. But other than very limited proof-of-concept stuff in labs, no one had had any luck. It was one of those things everyone was sure would exist at some point. But whether that point was five years away, or fifty, was tough to pin down.
    Lauren thought the Order of the Qubit dated to the early nineties. As she understood it, it was more or less a group of very rich people funding their own secret work toward building a viable quantum computer. Their motivation was simply fear: in the global race to make one of these machines, whoever crossed the finish line first would gain a great deal of power. As it happened, a lot of the institutions who were likely candidates to win the race couldn’t be expected to use that power for the world’s best interests. Many could be counted on to use it for nearly the opposite purpose. The Order of the Qubit wanted to win that race itself, then carefully select a few organizations that really did have the big human picture in mind, and simply give them the technology.
    Good idea. Also a good way to get killed. Entrenched interests tended to dislike threats to their power, and to express that dislike violently.
    As to whether the group had achieved its goal, or even gained any ground toward it, Lauren had no idea. She also had no idea where their work was conducted, where their meetings were held, or where Tangent could locate any other member of the organization.
    She finished speaking, and looked at them each in turn again.
    “Did I help?” she said.
    Travis met Paige’s eyes. Saw that she was thinking exactly what he was thinking. He looked at Lauren again.
    “You helped,” he said.
    “They have one,” Travis said. “A working model.”
    He and Paige were standing in the open doorway of the pole barn on the surface, watching the jet—a Gulfstream this time—take off with Lauren in it. She’d asked to stay in Border Town. She’d said she’d feel safer there. She wouldn’t have been. This was probably the least-safe place on Earth right now, lying in the Whisper’s gun sights. Lauren herself should be under no real threat elsewhere; she’d already given them all the information she had.
    “I think they must,” Paige said.
    Travis watched the plane diminish to a desktop model of itself. Then a speck. Then nothing.
    “Is there any chance a computer like that could outthink the Whisper?” he said. “Is that why these people are a threat to it?”
    “I only know a little about quantum computers. Stories about their potential show up in tech papers once in a while. I know their power grows exponentially the more qubits you add, but that in itself has been the trick. Adding more of them. There’s some kind of engineering limit, ten or twelve qubits, something like that. Not enough to do very much. But if someone built a quantum computer with fifty qubits, or a hundred, it’d be off the charts. Way, way off the charts. I think there are still limits to their use, even then—limits on the kind of math they can do—but there’d be creative ways to get around that. There’s no question it would be a big deal, if someone really had a scaled-up version working.”
    Travis thought it over, watching empty sky now. Even if they were right, it didn’t fully make sense. If the thing was really a threat to the Whisper, then the Whisper should have seen that coming too. Should have directed Pilgrim to find and destroy the place where the thing would be built, long before it was completed.
    That was just one of the things that made no sense to him. There were several others. He couldn’t help thinking that the confusion was part of the Whisper’s plan. Any good strategy should look like nonsense to those facing off against it.
    What was the plan? What was the Whisper’s final goal? It was hard enough to figure out what a human being wanted. What the hell did this thing want? On that point, he couldn’t even form a guess.

CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
    All day long, photos and video came in from a detachment scouring Ellis Cook’s house on Grand Cayman. Nice place. There was nothing inside it that hinted about his involvement with any secret group. Air ducts were inspected. Carpets were torn up. A giant safe in the basement was drilled through and opened. A mechanical shed next to the pool was