Before he could reply, another voice broke in. A Swiss-German accent. One of the institutional investors, in this case representing a sovereign wealth fund from Qatar that had bought a 17 percent position when the share price collapsed after America lost Hawaii. “Madame, I appreciate this company’s quaint practice of letting anyone speak at these forums, but you simply fail to understand the multinational nature of this enterprise now. The global shareholder base must come first. This concern is not in the business of any one nation’s war. No matter where it is based, it is a global retail chain, definitively neutral in its activities and intent,” he said. “The desires of Uncle Sam, or whatever your outdated idea of a patriotic patriarch in a funny hat is, is now beside the point.”
Hearing the crowd growl, Colby winced at the fund manager’s gaffe. So typical. The internationals loved the company’s returns but didn’t bother to understand its story. She meant Sam Walton, you moron. Hell, the company founder’s desk was on display in the museum just down the road, the papers he’d been working on the day he died still on it, as if he had just stepped out for a coffee break.
“Ladies and gentlemen, let’s try to keep focused,” the CEO interceded. “This is not just about the U.S. government overstepping its powers, however limited those now may be. We’re on the razor’s edge. The Directorate has rigged our corporate network with enough tripwires and viruses that we might lose control of the company if they don’t like the way I part my hair.”
“Then what do we have to lose?” said Lee-Ann. “I’m calling a vote.”
There was no loss of life at Lee-Ann’s Revolt, as it would become known nationwide once the viz of the meeting leaked out, but it was nonetheless momentous. The voting bloc of sovereign wealth funds proved unable to stop the small investor pool once it was mobilized. And by the end of the meeting, shareholders were no longer voting about whether to resist U.S. government rationing schemes. Instead, Wal-Mart declared war on the Directorate.
The color drained from Colby’s face as he stared out at the thousands of cheering people in the company auditorium. Two thoughts crossed his mind as the tunnel vision took over. The first was that he’d have a hard time finding another job after this debacle. And the second was that America now had a new kind of logistical backbone the likes of which had never been seen in war before.
USS Zumwalt, Mare Island Naval Shipyard
Mike found Vern hunched over, running her hands along the thick fiber cabling that ran behind the bulkhead. The smell of ozone hung heavy in the air, a reminder of her insistence that they cut open the ship’s bulkhead so she could get access to this very point. What exactly she was doing was beyond him, Mike knew. But he liked the change it brought on in her. She might have had a PhD, but it was clear to Mike that in her heart, she was maker, a doer, like himself.
She abruptly ordered the rest of the engineers out of the area to let her work on her own. “Mike, you teach her to talk like that?” said one of them on his way topside for a smoke.
She spent more time aboard than at the shore-side network data center, and, to the best of his knowledge, she had not left the shipyard in a week. She no longer talked about her life pre-Z. He knew the feeling, and how all-encompassing it could be.
He set a bottle of cold water down next to her. She continued to look at the tablet on her lap without acknowledging his presence. He stood back and studied her as she craned her neck to look behind the bulkhead. He pulled out an LED light and knelt down next to her, his knees cracking.
“Let me help,” he said. “A little light.”
She smiled and kept working as he held the light, shining it where she told him to in her clipped diction. He had to lean in close enough that she could appreciate how long it had been since he had had a free moment to shower. She did not recoil, however.
After about five minutes, Mike got ready to leave.
“Keep the light,” he said. “I need to get back topside. They’re pulling the rail-gun turret and it’s a damn foggy night. If you need anything, just holler.”
Vern didn’t say anything; she just kept poring over her tablet computer and peering into the dark behind the bulkhead.
He stood up unsteadily and walked away with careful steps.
Just as he ducked through a hatch, he could have sworn he heard her say, “Thank you.”
He stopped and turned around.
The eleven paces back to her hunched-over form seemed a long way for Mike. He needed to know something, and now was the time to ask it.
“Dr. Li, a minute with you?” said Mike.
“Now?” asked Vern.
“Yes, please,” said Mike.
“Well?” said Vern.
“What I have to say, or ask, really, isn’t easy but it’s something I’ve been meaning to bring up for a little bit now,” said Mike.
She stood up and pushed her viz glasses up onto her forehead, brushing a bead of sweat off the tip of her nose.
“This is hard to say, so I’ll just outright say it,” said Mike. “The rail-gun power system, something’s wrong with it. Am I right? That’s why you’re pushing both the crew and the geeks so hard. You know something they don’t.”
He expected her to dismiss him. Instead, she smiled.
“You’re right, it’s not going to pass the test,” said Vern.
“Shit,” said Mike. “This is going to kill the captain.”
“And maybe all of us,” said Vern. “We’ll have to see.”
“I need to tell him,” said Mike.
“You care for him,” said Vern.
“If the ship can’t fight, well, he can’t,” said Mike.
“He’s your son; why wouldn’t you want it all to work out for him?” said Vern.
“I’ll get going, then, Dr. Li,” said Mike.
“There’s something else you forgot to ask me, isn’t there?” said Vern.
“Uh, what would that be, Dr. Li?” said Mike.
“The big question,” said Vern. “The most important one.”
Mike looked at her quizzically.
“Will it ever work?” said Vern.
He smiled. “Well, I guess that will depend on you.”
“Give it time,” said Vern. “An old guy like you should know how to be patient.”
Fort Mason, San Francisco
Jamie Simmons slipped into bed, but he was too wired to fall right asleep. He thought of all the cobbled together Ghost Fleet ships in the Bay. His own ship, the one that the country needed most, was turning out to be the weak link. He lay back, studying the fog bank, now at the deck level of the Golden Gate Bridge. Its rise was almost imperceptible until it obscured something big from view. There was nothing you could do to drive it away. It did not have the tide’s regularity, and for that reason it was all the more spectacular when it robbed you of the sight of something you took for granted, like the bridge.
A loud gurgle of the pipes woke Lindsey, who groggily turned over.
“You’re here. I didn’t hear you come in,” she said.
“Yeah,” he whispered, “I didn’t want to wake you. What’s all that with the pipes?” he asked.
“Toilet,” she said, starting to wake up. “Broken again.”
“Damn it,” he said. “I’ll take a look in the morning.”
“When? You’re always out so early,” she said.
“Then when I get home,” he said.
“And when will that be, Jamie? You can get a warship fixed up, but the toilet is too much to handle?” she said. “I’m sure that makes sense to somebody, just not me anymore.”