“I know, I know.” She exhaled in frustration. “I need some time to coordinate with my people.”
“Very good.” Without fanfare, Briggs stood up and walked across the frosted glass floor. Opening an aluminum door, he vanished into the hallway.
The door started to close, but a petite hand caught it at the last minute. Seconds later, Tessie glided into the office. “How long is he going to be here?” she said in a tone that spoke volumes about her feelings toward Briggs.
“Too long.” Simona spun her padded leather chair to the side. Her second-floor office overlooked the interior of a sizable airport hangar. It featured frosted glass walls instead of windows. “He wants documentation pertaining to the model’s structure.”
“How much should I give him?”
“Everything.” Simona would’ve preferred to keep Briggs in the dark. But drowning him in paperwork was the next best option.
Tessie smirked. “I’ll get right on it.”
Simona opened a concealed compartment under her desk. Her forefinger pressed a button. A section of frosted glass turned clear.
She looked into the one-way glass. The hustle and bustle of the hangar lay below her. She focused her attention on the area almost directly beneath her office. Rows and rows of computers covered oversized aluminum tables. People flitted about the space, moving endlessly. As per her orders, there were no chairs to be seen. That was important.
Simona didn’t like people sitting down on the job.
“Ms. Wolcott?”
Simona’s eyes remained glued to the glass. “What is it, Tessie?”
“I almost forgot. Jeremy is on the line. He says—”
“He can wait.” Simona waved at the glass. “What do you see down there?”
“But—”
“Answer the question, please.”
Tessie walked to the wall and took a good look at the frenzied movements taking place within the hangar. “People,” she said softly. “I see people.”
“That’s not what I mean. Tell me about the patterns.”
“It’s just chaos.”
“Where you see chaos, I see a system of feedback loops.” Simona pointed at a blonde woman standing in front of a computer. “Take her, for instance. If she mistypes a word, she’ll adjust her behavior in almost imperceptible ways. Her fingers might slow down. Her eyes may stare harder at the screen. She’ll type another word, study her work, and make more adjustments. Each time she takes action, a new environment emerges in which she then takes another action.”
“Sounds like chaos to me.”
“Not so.” Simona watched the little people moving around from machine to machine, dancing an endless dance. “It’s a self-stabilizing system controlled by feedback loops. The human brain can’t even begin to comprehend all those loops. But our computers can handle them.”
“I hate to interrupt, but—”
“If we wanted to, we could model all those people as a cybernetic system. And we could use those models to predict future behaviors.”
Tessie tapped her foot impatiently on the floor. “I really must insist you take Jeremy’s call. He said it was important.”
“Very well.” Simona pressed the button under her desk and the glass frosted over. She waited until Tessie had left the room before pressing a button on her screen. The monitor fired up and the image of a serious, agitated man appeared before her. “Hello, Jeremy.”
“We have a problem, Simona.”
Simona studied her security chief. Jeremy Pascal was short with broad shoulders. His face looked firm, unyielding. His long dark hair had been pulled back into a ponytail. Knife wounds crisscrossed his brown skin.
He was of Polynesian descent, but had little use for his heritage. In fact, his people embarrassed him. At one time, Polynesians had used technological advancements in boating to cross the Pacific Ocean. They’d ruled the South Pacific like kings. But subsequent generations had squandered this mighty empire. Now, his people preferred to hang out at resorts, holding luaus and other outdated ceremonies for gawking tourists.
“Well?” Simona said. “What is it?”
“Nautilus is down.”
She tensed up. “How?”
“A militia — God’s Judges — arrived on the scene shortly before we ran the kill pattern. One of them must’ve fired a shoulder-based missile launcher. Direct hit, unfortunately.”
She rubbed her temples. “What’s Nautilus’ condition?”
“We’re not sure. We tracked it for as long as possible. But it’s no longer responding to our signals.”
“So, it crashed.”
“Not necessarily. We were able to issue an emergency-landing directive before losing communications.”
Simona leaned back in her chair. This couldn’t be happening, not now. “The self-destruct protocol?”
“Activated, of course. But the protocol was issued after we lost communications so I’ve got no idea if Nautilus received it.”
“Can you find Nautilus?”
Pascal nodded. “It shouldn’t be too difficult. At last contact, it was descending over a long stretch of abandoned farmland.”
“Good. Clean up everything before you leave.” Simona took a deep breath. “What about Lila Grinberg?”
“Dead.”
She allowed herself a small smile. “So, you’ve got the reliquary?”
“Not exactly.”
“Explain.”
“As you know, Lila hired Cy Reed’s Salvage Force to handle the excavation. They’ve disappeared along with the reliquary.”
Simona exhaled.
“Fortunately, we caught a break. Some tire tracks survived the latest dust storm. Based on their direction, I think Reed is heading toward the Nautilus.”
“He must be going to check on it. If you hurry, you can kill two birds with one stone.”
“Understood.” Pascal lifted his hand toward the screen, presumably to cut the connection.
“Jeremy?”
Pascal stopped short. “Yes?”
“When I say kill two birds, I mean it.” Simona stared into his eyes. “Once you have the reliquary, kill the salvage team.”
Chapter 17
Dirt whipped against the windshield as the truck went airborne. Seconds later, the vehicle landed on the cracked pavement with a thud.
“Maybe we should slow down,” Beverly said.
My gaze hardened. “I can handle it.”
She looked away.
I understood her concerns. The drought had caused most residents to abandon nearby farms for proverbial greener pastures. If we crashed, there would be no one to help us.
But I had my own concerns. The reliquary, although covered, was still vulnerable to the elements. Thieves were also a potential problem. But most of all, I just wanted to finish the trip as quickly as possible. I wanted to turn the reliquary over to Lila’s colleagues, to wash my hands of the whole mess.
I squinted. While my goggles improved nighttime vision, they also reduced depth perception. So, I’d removed them prior to taking the wheel. Fortunately, the truck’s headlights provided decent illumination.
Looking ahead, I saw what appeared to be an endless stretch of rocks and dirt. Some of the dirt whipped into the air. It swirled around in a funnel shape.
More dirt flew upward, joining the storm. It whirled around the truck until I could no longer see the landscape.
Tapping the brakes, I brought the truck to a stop. As I cut the engine, even more dirt swirled into the sky, forming walls of soil on all sides of us.
“Another dust storm.” Beverly’s eyes widened. “And a pretty big one from the looks of it.”
Dust storms were an unfortunate side effect of the recent droughts. Lack of rainfall loosened particles in the soil. When the wind blew against them, the particles vibrated and rose into the sky. Striking the ground repeatedly, they caused other particles to break free and follow suit.