In exchange for the Primer, the Doctor would presumably want something 
from Hackworth. In this case, it was not likely to be a mere bribe, as Chang 
had hinted; all of the money Hackworth had, or was ever likely to make, could 
not be of interest to Dr. X. It was much more likely that the Doctor would want 
some sort of a favor—he might ask Hackworth to design something, to do a 
little bit of consulting work, as it were. Hackworth wanted so badly to believe 
this that he had bolstered the hypothesis with much evidence, real and 
phantasmal, during the latter part of his hike. It was well-known that the 
Celestial Kingdom was desperately far behind in the nanotechnological arms 
race; that Dr. X himself devoted his valuable time to rooting through the 
debris of the New Atlantan immune system proved this. Hackworth's skills could 
be of measureless value to them.