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Ross watched them go. “Let’s talk about this quest of yours.”

“What about it? The Thread has been leading me in a circle around the town of Greeley for a week now. There’s something here I’m supposed to be doing or getting or understanding—and I’m not.”

“Do you think the Cloud Gate is here in Greeley?”

Sebeck shook his head. “The gate is supposed to appear after humanity justifies its freedom to the Daemon—not before.”

“And Sobol gave you no indication how we were supposed to justify our freedom?”

“No. He was annoyingly vague.”

Ross pondered the question. “This Thread has been leading you to events—not places? Correct?”

“Yeah. For the last seven months Price and I have found ourselves at the center of just about every major change now under way. I’ve seen the rise of the new power infrastructure, the new economy, the new fMRI legal system—you name it. That’s how my reputation grew so fast. We just always seemed to be in the right place at the right time.”

“Well, then we do know one thing.”

“What’s that?”

“Something big is about to happen in Greeley.”

Chapter 28: // Sky Ranch

Natalie Philips shared the Cessna Citation III business jet with only one other passenger as it flew high above . . . well, somewhere. The destination was classified. In the absence of reading materials or a laptop, she had difficulty keeping her thoughts from wandering. She wasn’t even permitted a pad of paper or a pen. So instead she used her prodigious memory to recall her exploit code line by line—searching for flaws.

The interior of the plane was roomy and reasonably comfortable, but there was no easy way for her not to be in view of the other passenger. He was a disheveled man in his sixties with unruly gray hair, a sizable belly, a cheap suit, and a wide, striped tie in a careless knot. He smelled of alcohol from the moment he got on the plane. He was staring into space—or so Philips had thought.

“You mind if we turn that on?”

Philips looked up at him and then toward the front of the cabin where a flat-panel television screen was set into the bulkhead. “I don’t think we can get television. It’s probably for video.”

The man sighed and got to his feet, grabbing a remote from a low table. “I saw the HD satellite antenna on the fuselage. They always want to know what the media is saying. If we’re gonna be here for a while . . .”

He clicked the television on, and it was already set to a news channel. On-screen newscaster Anji Anderson was talking, while behind her video played of masked gunmen looting a shop in a town somewhere in Kansas. The Chiron read, “Illegals on a Rampage.”

Anderson’s voice came through clearly even over the jet engine noise,”. . . another night of violence. Armed gangs of men—believed to be undocumented laborers and drug dealers. Local residents have taken up arms in defense of their property, but the problem seems to be growing ever worse as the economy continues to crumble.”

The guy sighed, nodding to himself. “You gotta hand it to ’em.” He looked at his watch then continued clicking through the channels. . . .

News followed by news, and all of it showing mayhem in the streets of middle America. One of the graphics bore the title “Rape Counseling Center” in bold letters, followed by addresses and phone numbers in several states. He kept clicking—cartoons, a shopping channel, and more disturbing newscasts.

“Can we just watch one thing, please?”

“So, why’d they call you down?”

Philips turned to him. “I don’t discuss my work.”

He smirked. “I used to be like that.”

“Well, I’m still like that.”

He muted the television as burning houses filled the screen, and put the remote down. “Too bad they don’t have a bar on this thing. I could really use a drink.”

Philips tried to ignore him.

“Name’s Rob, by the way. You are?”

Philips just looked at his extended hand. “Rob, no offense, but we’re not intended to socialize. There’s a serious crisis under way. I suggest you use this time to concentrate on what you’ll do about it.”

“Ah.” He retracted his hand. “So you already accepted an offer, then.”

Philips felt suddenly irritated. “I didn’t accept anything. I’ve been loaned to Weyburn Labs from a government agency.”

“And that’s how it goes.” He sat down across from her. “I was in government work. But after a while you just . . .” He looked around the cabin. “Christ, I could use a drink!”

She said nothing and tried to return her focus to her remembered code.

“You know, I did tours in some real shithole dictatorships, let me tell you. We helped build a huge commercial empire overseas. Hell, we were facing down communism in those days. A lot of questionable things were done to contain the Soviets. We installed a lot of dictators who were business-friendly. But we didn’t give much thought to what would happen after.”

“I don’t think you should be talking about this, Rob.”

“Why not? I’ve got nothing to lose anymore. Did you ever feel like that?”

She just stared at him.

“Do you know why it was possible for the Krasnaya mafiya—the Russian mafia—to spring up, fully formed, organized, and financed so soon after the fall of the USSR? Didn’t you ever wonder where those guys came from?”

Philips considered it and realized she hadn’t.

“The intelligence sector. The KGB. Those guys were spread around the world. They had covert communications, bank accounts, and knowledge to move and launder money. They had useful skills like eavesdropping, weapons, assassination, and they had incentive—lots of enemies.

“After the Cold War, some of our own guys didn’t come home either. They helped to keep in place the system built overseas to hold back communism, and it became the system we’re all a part of now.”

“Are you referring to a conspiracy to betray the United States?”

Rob shook his head. “Betraying America doesn’t require a conspiracy. That’s what Sobol figured out. It’s why he was able to hack into it. The free market is just a system of positive and negative reinforcement with a few interchangeable fixers to maintain it. The sole purpose of that system is to maximize profit. For whom the returns are made is irrelevant. Those who make the profits might turn around and become great philanthropists—who knows? Who cares? Because there’s always another set of investors who want in. Who want to work the split-second fluctuations of the markets to get very rich, very fast. They might not ever know what’s done in their name. That was the secret Sobol knew. And what he did was create a new system that leveraged a broader human will. That’s what freaks these guys out. The Daemon is the first true threat they’ve faced.”

“But what they do overseas has no legal authority here in the States.”

He stared at her for a moment—then laughed. “International trade agreements are equivalent to constitutional amendments. They’re the ‘supreme law of the land’ according to article four, paragraph two. That means we must meet foreign trade obligations or face reforms—and I’ve seen firsthand what those reforms do. They create a have and have-not society. The rich are bunkering down. It’s not a conspiracy, just a reaction to a process set in motion. You don’t even have to know what the goal is. That’s why systems work—because they don’t rely on individuals.”

They sat for a few moments in silence, listening to the drone of the plane’s engines.