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PRESENT
CHAPTER1
TRISTAN
Every future innovation is possible right now, limited only by what we know and what we can imagine. The raw materials for everything our specie will ever build exist already in nature, just as they did two thousand, five thousand, ten thousand years ago. The only thing that has changed between the past and now, the only thing that will change between now and the future… is what we know, and what we believe is possible.
“We’re here,” Calvin says, bringing the car to a stop beside the curb. “The Mercer Museum.” He gestures at the building with a small flourish. Always, my driver announces our destination like I’d have forgotten where we were going in the time it took us to get there.We’re here, The Swanson Court Hotel. We’re here, The Seagram Building.
With a small chuckle, I acknowledge Calvin’s announcement, then turn my gaze to the building just outside the car, focusing on the real-life scene as the memory of one of my most quoted speeches fades to a corner of my mind.
My thoughts are already swinging from rumination to action. A glance at my watch tells me I have almost an hour before my meeting begins, which is fine. These days, meetings don’t start until I arrive. That’s what happens when you’re the most important person in the room, but I’m always punctual, and sometimes, like today, even early.
Beyond the pristine concrete curb and flower beds lining the sidewalk, twenty elegant concrete steps rise to the chrome and glass entrance of the Mercer Museum, home to a world-renowned collection of art, one of the most prestigious museums in the world.
And somewhere in there, is Cora.
I pull in a deep breath and notice my fingers tapping a staccato rhythm on the tops of my thighs.
Nervous, Tristan?
I want to laugh at the thought.
Titans don’t get nervous.
Themost important man in the future of internet technologydoesn’t get nervous.
Yet, here I am, thrown out of balance at the thought of seeing a woman I should have forgotten a long time ago.
Knowledge makes the difference.
The enlightened man is one who knows himself.
And yet, here I am outside Cora’s workplace with no real idea of what I’m doing or why I’m here.
From the sidewalk, curious pedestrians turn quick glances in my direction, but they can’t see anything through the tinted windows of the car. Looking past them, my eyes stay on the building, which is picturesquely framed by the beeches, elms, and scarlet oaks in the park behind it.
Where is Cora right now?
What would she do if she knew I was right outside her place of work?
Me.
The man she betrayed.
My fingers tighten as familiar anger wells up inside me, and I take a slow, calming breath. In everything else, I’ve learned to control my emotions, to be as still as a lake, deliberate, cold as ice… but as soon as my thoughts turn to Cora, the waves rise, storms brew, the earth shifts…
She’s the chaos inside me, the storm I must conquer so I can be free.
Except I don’t know how.
A beep sounds from a tiny silver button inside my ear.
“I notice your current location is the Mercer Museum in New York City,” a woman’s voice says right inside my ear. “Your meeting at that location is in forty-eight minutes and thirty seconds. Would you like me to notify Director Peter Markham of your arrival?”
“No, Mia,” I tell my assistant. “I’m sure I can find my way to him without a greeting party.”
“I can’t find any references to greeting parties in the Mercer public information collection, so I’m assuming that was a joke.”
