Chapter 88: Her genius
James was momentarily stunned. Was Alex speaking about that particular kidnapping? As far as he knew, his niece wasn't the type to talk about her past. Was it possible that he did a background check? However, that wouldn't be possible either as Siana's information was of highest confidentiality and was under the government's protection, so even if Will helped him, they would still not be able to obtain such information. Most probably his son was referring to something completely different. Thinking that this was the case, James Illes probed further:
"What incident are you referring to?"
"Dad, stop your mind games with me. I am sure you know what I am referring to: I want to know more about Siana's kidnapping."
With raised eyebrows, and confusion apparent in his eyes, the older man continued to ask:
"Which kidnapping do you mean?"
It was now Alex's turn to be stunned. As if hit by realisation, he collected his thoughts and questioned with worry:
"What do you mean by which one? Do you mean that there was more than one kidnapping?"
Taking a deep breath, the father closed his eyes. Once opened, he looked at his son deeply pondering where he should start or whether he should start at all. After all, he wasn't sure whether the little girl would be happy with others knowing about her life and her secrets. Still, seeing the genuine worry in Alex's eyes, he came to a decision that it might not be bad for his son to learn more about her as it might help him better protect her in the future.
"Saying there were a few more kidnappings is actually an understatement. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that until about 4-5 years ago, there would at least be one kidnapping attempt on Siana per week," standing up from his seat, James Illes walked towards the shelves that were full of all sorts of books. With his eyes glazed over he continued, "Actually, if memory serves me right, the first time Siana was kidnapped was when she was around 5 years old. I remember how your uncle called me crying, not knowing what to do. The kidnappers weren't even after money, as they did not ask for any ransom after kidnapping the little child. Your uncle then turned to the police and other lawful authorities, turning all the establishments in the country upside down. After 2 days of intensive search they were finally able to find the kid."
Alex couldn't help but interfere at this point:
"But why? Just because she is smart?"
The older man stopped for a moment, taking out one of the books that probably had over 1000 pages, he turned to Alex and instead of answering his question, asked a question of his own, "How long do you think it will take you to read and memorize this book by heart?"
Looking at his dad with confusion, Alex answered, slightly irritated:
"Dad I am not some sort of a superhuman, I would probably not be able to remember that book by heart even if I read it everyday for a year. I am not sure what's on your mind, but please don't change the subject anymore."
The older man chuckled, and opening the book continued, "you are right, neither of us would be able to memorize this kind of a book even in a year's time." Turning to face his son, he went on, "but you see, that little girl that was not yet 5 years old could memorize all the content of the book in a few hours time, if not less than that." He paused, giving his son time to digest the information.
After a while, Alex asked incredulously, "You must be kidding right? I get that Sia is a genius, but that would be humanely impossible!"
"No, Alex, you don't get the genius that is Siana. There are many who have photographic memory, but even if one has photographic memory, they might not be able to comprehend the contents of what they see. And those that do comprehend, need quite a bit of time to fully digest that information. Your cousin on the other hand, can flip through a book, taking a single look at the page, and comprehend the whole information in it in a matter of a second or two. There are different geniuses all over the world, and if you were to classify them, Siana would be a super genius among geniuses, you could call her S class genius. You could say that Siana's genius is in that she can accomplish what even other geniuses might consider to be humanely impossible."
Pausing for a moment, James continued, "Alex, what do you think one needs to rule the world?"
No longer daring to take his father's words lightly, Alex seriously gave it a thought and slowly voiced out his opinion:
"They would need to have the necessary resources, be that human or material."
"That is a good point. As economists, we are clear that the more scarce a resource is the higher it is valued. As world is becoming more and more digitized, people are seeking to make more data-driven decisions. So what do you think has become the most valuable resource in the age of technological advancement?"
"Data?"
"Exactly! Information is leading the decision making of organisations and individuals around the world. So now firms are aiming to get competitive advantage through the information they possess. So what do their competitors do then?"
"They try to obtain that information as well?"
"Yes! And try they do. As much as data is the most valuable resource, it can also be argued to be the most vulnerable. When your server is damaged, you may lose the information you possess. More often than that, you become suscepitble as soon as your competitor gets a team of better hackers than you do, and hacks into your system, stealing all that you have worked so hard for. So, Alex, you tell me, if you were an underworld leader with information so precious that could determine your life and death or rise and fall, would you prefer to keep your secrets in a digital environment which is prone to attack and is not foolproof, or would you rather keep it with someone, who can process the information at the speed that your computer does but cannot be hacked, and who you can keep all to yourself, hidden from the outside world?"
As he onserved the direction the conversation was leading to, Alex's face started losing color, turning pale as paper. Even if his dad did not continue, what he heard was enough for him to understand what kind of a value Siana would have had to the unlawful citizens of the underworld. His body shivered uncontrollably, however, his dad was nowhere near to be done:
"That's right Alex, Siana was just the right person for such groups. Your uncle might be rich, but he doesn't hold much of a power either in business or political worlds. Even though Siana's tutors signed confidentiality agreements, word broke out about her capabilities until it reached the underworld, where each family wanted to claim her as their own information processor and memory chip…"
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