Forever Begins Tomorrow by Bruce Coville

the rest of the year. I can keep using that program indefinitely—unless someone rats on me,” she added, glaring fiercely at Rachel.
    â€œCome on, Wendy,” said Trip. “You know Rachel better than that.” At the same time he was recalling how much he had enjoyed the brilliantly prepared lessons he had been working through. Should I tell her about that? he wondered. Nah. She’d only laugh at me. Besides, I know Wendy. She’d rather do it her own way .
    Thanksgiving came and went, feeling strange to the kids because of the reverse weather of the southern hemisphere. Other than a bizarre (but hardly unpredictable) incident with the mashed potatoes at the Gammand table, it was a quiet time.
    That very quiet became worrisome. The gang began to fret because they had gone so long without detecting any sign of activity from Black Glove.
    What was the spy up to?
    Had he (or she) given up?
    Or was there a new transmission device in place somewhere, causing unknown mischief?
    The questions nagged at them. But try as they might, they could not pick up another clue.
    At the same time they continued to work with the computer, concentrating especially on programming it with things that, for one reason or another, they thought might jog it into consciousness. It was on one of these late November mornings that Ray picked up a book from the stack Rachel was currently feeding through the optical scanner.
    â€œThe Bible?” he asked in astonishment.
    â€œFrom Genesis to Revelation,” said Rachel with a nod. “I’m also putting in the Koran, the Bhagavad Gita, the Sayings of Confucius, the Elder Edda, the—”
    â€œOkay, okay, I get the point. But what for? I thought we just wanted to give the computer factual material.”
    Rachel placed a book face down on the scanner and waited for the machine to take in the text. When the red light at the side of the scanner indicated it had “read” the material, she lifted the book, flipped the page, and repeated the process.
    If she had been willing to cut the spines off the backs of the books it would have been possible to place the pages in a sheet-feed mechanism that would have accomplished all this mechanically. But Rachel couldn’t bring herself to perform the necessary mutilation.
    â€œI’m not ignoring you, Ray,” she said after a moment. “I’m just trying to figure out the best way to explain.”
    Roger crossed to join them. “Well, to begin with, we want to give the computer the necessary background to deal with other material we feed into it. Literature—even technical literature—is crammed with references to mythology and religion.”
    â€œSure,” said Trip. “Heck, the official name for the mainframe is straight out of the Old Testament.”
    Ray looked more confused than ever. “I thought ADAM stood for Advanced Design for Artificial Mentality.”
    â€œIt does,” said Rachel. “But they didn’t pick that acronym without a reason. And the reason is that in the biblical version of creation, Adam was the first man—the first thinking being. That’s why they decided to call the mainframe ADAM. They’re trying to create the first of a new kind of thinking being, a new form of sentient creature!”
    Ray looked a little nervous. “I never really thought of it that way. What happens if they succeed? Or if we do? Does that make us like gods?”
    An uneasy silence settled over the room. No one seemed willing to answer Ray’s question.
    â€œI’ve been wondering about that kind of thing myself,” said Hap at last. “To tell you the truth, sometimes I’m not so sure this whole thing is such a good idea.”
    â€œWell, it doesn’t make much difference one way or the other,” said Roger.
    Hap looked at him questioningly.
    â€œWhat I mean is, there’s no way to stop it. You can’t turn back an idea. If