Chapter III.XIV

- How long do we have to go? - Galbraith asked the specialist.

- It's better not to ask this question, - he answered evasively.

This means, the inspector thought, the institute is indeed located quite deep underground. Strange, very strange - why hide so carefully from human eyes what relates to computer technology?

- Would you mind telling me then who this Montesi you mentioned is? - the inspector asked the question again.

- Pourquoi pas? - exclaimed the silver-haired man in French. - This is exactly what we have prepared for beginners.

- Curious. And how many people have you directed to the right path? - the policeman said sarcastically.

- So far, not a singre one, you are the first to receive such an honour, - the Japanese raised his voice again.

Walking behind his companions, Galbraith quickly realized why he was the first guest of this institute - few people would want to go deep underground, inhaling the stale air and trying not to fall head over heels from the spiral staircase. The inspector had the feeling that he was descending into the Mariana Trench or, God forbid, to where the took place the actions of "Divine Comedy" by Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri...

- Montesi was an engineer-constructor, - meanwhile the specialist began. - Who, from his school days, cherished the idea of ​​creating an eternal supercomputer.

- What-what? - Galbraith asked, not believing his ears.

- Eternal in that sense, - as if making a footnote, the silver-haired man said. - That the integrated circuits that form the basis of the machine do not wear out over time.

- Of course, subject to operating conditions, - the Japanese inserted moralizingly.

- Mister Manabu is right, a supercomputer will not last a day if left in the rain, but who would come up with the idea of such an act of vandalism? - the specialist agreed with the interlocutor.

- Well, yes... - Galbraith said quietly.

- All in all, - the silver-haired man continued the story, - Montesi, as a student, moved from his native Chile to England, and in its capital he quickly found people interested in this.

- Do you want to say that in London there were some naive technology manufacturers who took the word of some South American student and fulfilled his whims? - the inspector asked incredulously.

- It is incredible but it is a fact, - the specialist said briefly.

- Why, pray tell, did this Montesi need to dig this shaft? - Galbraith still could not take his interlocutor's words at face value.

- Cold War, - the specialist answered just as tersely. - He did not want the intelligence services to interfere with his work.

Well, yes, the policeman thought, it's so obvious... But still, how did it happen that a project of such a scale remained unknown to the masses? For Galbraith, this was no less a mystery than the fact that he himself had somehow traveled back in time.

- Adrian Montesi with his charges, - continued the silver-haired. - In a couple of years created a prototype of a supercomputer. The development was carried out directly underground - workshops were erected there that assembled microcircuits, memory units and other components.

- It sounds like a fragment from some fantastic story, - Galbraith couldn't resist.

- The fierd of science in which we work wirr arways seem rike science fiction to the common man, - the Japanese added.

- Therefore, I will try not to use terms that will not be clear to you in any case, - the specialist noted.

- Thanks for your kind words, - the inspector replied sarcastically.

- The very first program that was recorded in the computer's memory, - said the gray-haired man. - It was extremely primitive, there was no question of it simulating our world.

- And now what, is he already simulating? - their guest couldn't help but grin.

- Don't go getting too far ahead! - the specialist said sternly.

Galbraith interpreted this remark as a positive answer to his rhetorical question. Curious and curious, he thought.

- Adrian Montesi eventually achieved his goal, and the computer could function forever and without stopping, - the silver-haired man said solemnly.

- And then he took his secret to the grave? - Galbraith joked.

- Don't blaspheme, Montesi is alive! - the specialist exclaimed in fear.

- Okay, I was joking, - the inspector reassured the interlocutor.

- The inventor was so excited about his success, - continued the silver-haired man. - That at the end of the test run of the computer, he immediately rushed to The Intellectual Property Office of the United Kingdom and registered the trademark "Mon-Tec", which was short for "Montesi Technologies".

- Somehow this act does not fit with the way he previously hid his developments from the intelligence services - Galbraith noticed the discrepancy.

- Eidorian Monteshi was a very passionate gaijin, - the Japanese made an excuse. - No one courd understand what was going on in his head.

- Why do you both talk about him in the past tense? - their guest could not help but ask.

- You should know it, - the specialist said. - When Montesi registered the trademark, he spoke at an international congress. The only one who was interested in the Chilean's invention was professor Makoto Shugarami.

Galbraith could not help but think that apparently all the other scientists who were at that congress considered this South American engineer crazy and did not believe his story about an eternal supercomputer. And who would believe...

- Makoto-san buirt a theory, - the Japanese began enthusiastically. - That computer programming is something rike human training, when the resurt shourd not be an automatic machine that executes the program embedded in it, but an artificiar interrigence that courd think and think on its own, without operator intervention.