She jumped off and backed away. Gale and Leo retreated several more steps to assure themselves that they were safe.
“What the hell is that?” He said, slowly stepping forward while Gale unconsciously tugged him backwards.
Leo gradually inched toward the end of his tracks to see how far the drop was. Near the edge he tested the strength of the snow with a few heavy steps. Gale instinctively took his other arm to let him lean forward and peer over the edge. He could see his bike lying on its side below.
“How deep is it?” She asked from behind him reaffirming her grip.
Leo shook his head. “It’s only about 15 feet down. But…this is no hole,” he said waving her forward. “Come here, carefully.”
She took several small steps forward until she was able to look over the edge. She looked to the side where the air continued to clear and began to reveal how far the cliff extended.
“Oh my god.”
“Oh my god is right. This thing goes on for a long way.” He pulled her back away from the edge with him. “What does the GPS say?”
Gale pulled the GPS out and checked their coordinates. She looked at him with a worried look on her face.
“Where are we?” he asked.
She shook her head. Worry was turning to fear. “We’re nowhere near the Shelf.”
9
The front doors of the aquarium were locked and would not be opened again for eight hours. All displays were off and only a few overhead lights lit the long tiled floor. Darkened posters lined the walls, barely legible in the shadows, displaying some of the aquarium’s upcoming events.
With all the lights off in the lab the tiny blinking lights from the servers now gave the room an eerie glow. The hum of the machines was much louder without the white noise from the building’s air conditioning system. In fact, without the servers, there would have been no sound at all.
The colorful data streams continued to dance across the top of the monitor on Lee Kenwood’s desk. The IMIS system never stopped. It continued relentlessly processing the data.
Suddenly all of the lines came together for a single moment, the point of intersection instantly highlighted by a large green circle. A note sounded and letters appeared in the lower left hand corner. Words Translated: 1 — Estimated Accuracy: 77 %
As suddenly as they had stopped, the streams began dancing again.
10
Alison rode up to the back door of the aquarium and jumped off her mountain bike. It was almost noon and she had promised herself she would only stop to get the mail she’d left the night before. Her bills were just one of the casualties of working seventy hours a week for the last two years. It was a miracle they hadn’t turned off her electricity yet. She leaned her bike against the wall and retrieved her keys from the small pouch under the seat. She unlocked both dead bolts and swung the door open with a squeak. After a quick trot down the darkened hallway she unlocked a second door and walked into the lab, now brightly lit from sunlight coming through the glass walls from the top of Dirk and Sally’s open tank. She could see the dolphins on the far side swimming back and forth before a large pack of children, all pushing their noses against the cold glass.
Alison smiled and walked into her office, a small nondescript room housing little more than a desk, computer, phone, and a foldup cot in the corner. The books and paper were carefully stacked and organized, a reflection of her sometimes irritating attention to detail. She pressed the button on her phone next to a blinking light and typed in her code. The messages started playing aloud while she looked around her desk.
“Hi Ms. Shaw, my name is Jay Sunderland and I’m a reporter for the Miami Independent. I wanted to come in and interview-”
Alison moaned and cut it off. The next message wasn’t any better. She continued scouring her desk for the envelopes. Frowning she looked up and thought for a moment, then leaned and looked out through the doorway. They were sitting on Lee’s desk with her cell phone on top.
She walked briskly by and picked them up when something suddenly caught her eye. She looked at the screen and her eyes shot wide open. “Oh my god!”
In a panic she reached for the phone, knocking it and most of the paper off the desk along with the mail. She quickly picked up her phone and began typing a text message with her shaking hands.
The late morning sun shone through the slatted blinds and across a figure in a large queen bed. The room was simply decorated with a large dresser and desk on top of which sat a laptop computer and a pile of papers. Around the room were several pictures of group events, most with friends packing into the shot. The settings of the pictures varied widely with some on the beach, some in mountains, and more in what appeared to be small and remote villages.
A professed over-sleeper, Chris Ramirez was still face down in bed when his phone chimed. Barely more awake than asleep, he sighed and felt absently for it on top of his headboard. He rolled over and pushed the comforter off of his head. He rubbed his eyes and held his phone up about a foot from his face and read the message.
“Oh my god!” he yelled. He quickly tried to get up but tumbled out and onto the floor along with his sheets. He desperately tried to kick them off and ran into the bathroom, dragging the top half of his bed behind him. He stopped and read the phone again before dousing his face with cold water and running his wet hands through his messy brown hair.
In his small apartment, Lee sat in the living room and stared at a giant computer monitor. With his hair sticking up and a fresh layer of stubble, it was clear that he had been in the chair for quite a while. He wore a lightweight headset and watched the screen intently as his onscreen character moved in and out of large rooms carrying a giant weapon. In the video game, his avatar scanned from side to side looking for enemies. Seeing none, Lee relaxed and reached for a can of Mountain Dew. He raised the can to his lips and quickly emptied it just as his phone burst out playing Bob Segar’s Old Time Rock and Roll. He reached for it keeping his eyes on the screen. When he held it up and peered at the tiny LCD screen, he froze. “Hooooly cow!” He jumped out of the chair tearing his headset off and grabbing a pair of pants from an open dresser drawer. He hopped and stumbled through the bedroom doorway with only one leg in.
Lee passed the doorway to the bedroom where his wife was sleeping. He quickly ran back in and yanked a t-shirt out of a large drawer. “I gotta go honey!”
Frank Dubois and his wife sat at a small table on the patio of small French café. A tall shade protected them from the already blazing sun. He was reading the Wall Street Journal on a tablet computer while his wife nibbled on the last of her croissant and flipped through her Martha Stewart magazine. She felt a tiny vibration against her hip and looked down at her purse hanging over the back of the chair. “Ooh honey, your phone is buzzing,” she said, reaching in.
Frank lowered the tablet and reached out for the phone. He turned it around and looked at the screen. He instantly jumped out of his seat, knocking over the entire table.
“What, what is it?!” she cried, looking down to see if she was now wearing part of her breakfast.
He bent down and quickly picked up their things. “We have to go!”
Lee’s old Volkswagen beetle and Frank’s BMW raced into the aquarium’s rear parking lot at the same time, both screeching to a halt next to each other. Lee leapt out and ran in front of the BMW’s silver hood as Frank kissed his wife. “I’ll call you later!” With that he chased after Lee and disappeared into the dark hallway with the large steel door closing behind them. They both sprinted down the hall and arrived to find Alison and Chris standing behind Lee’s desk looking at the screen.