“Well I was thinking about that,” Kelly beamed, safely over the speed bump and accelerating again. “Like I said, this little module is for you.”
“What is it?” Curiosity was beginning to restore her.
“A gift from the Golem,” Kelly grinned. “I just sent a command to all hundred thousand plus screensavers out there on the net. It’ll take a while to migrate through the network, but then, watch out. We’ll have one hell of a data stream pointed our way in about an hour. I hope fifty modems can handle it.
“Do I get to know why this data stream is going to bombard us in an hour, or are you going to make me pull that out of you after coffee?” Maeve was angling toward the French press.
“Ok, I took a pattern signature on the Internet last month and I have some good data stored here on a runtime system with as much RAM as I could possibly get my hands on.”
“Ah ha! You’re as bad as Nordhausen, Kelly. The two of you were nodding yes to the vote for shutdown in committee, and then you were both off pursuing your own private little projects! What do you mean you took a pattern signature on the Internet?”
“Hear me out, I think you’ll approve of this. You thought my Golem alert was a good idea, right? Well this is even better. I just told all my little Golems to use the search feature and visit key portals and data bases on the Internet. They’ll sample the data there—just like a search engine index, and send it all here.” He pointed at the new module he had installed and then indicated a crawlway access on the floor. “That leads to a bay for air conditioning equipment. Heat management has not been much of a problem, so I used the bay for a RAM bank. It’s six feet wide and goes down ten feet—all the memory I could buy. You can never have too much RAM, right?”
“And you’re saying you’ve got all this data from the Internet running down there?”
“Yup—a runtime data bank—always on, and protected in the Arch Nexus. I have an Arion mini crunching error scans, just like the loop I coded into my Golem. Now this bank over here—“ He pointed at another crawl access a few feet to the right.
“There’s more?”
“I told you—all the RAM I could buy. I went to seven different vendors last month. Good prices, too! In any case, my Golems are out there sampling the entire body of published knowledge on the Internet. That’s the real reason I wrote the program. They can’t get everything, of course, but they’ll get enough for us to get a good pattern signature. It’s a bit like political polling, if that makes any sense.”
Maeve was flabbergasted. “You did this… for me?”
“That’s right, babe. That’s the way the world was before this little alert.” He pointed at the first RAM bank. “And my Golems will go out and fetch the whole thing again and put it right there.” He pointed at the second RAM bank now, grinning ear to ear. “All we have to do is compare the two and see what’s changed.”
Maeve’s eyes brightened with the realization of what he was saying. “Bless you, Kelly…” Now they had some reference point, some slim hold on the reality they brought with them to the complex that night. “But how will we compare them?”
“Oh, I’ve got plenty of help here.” Kelly gestured at a row of five computer terminals. “I routed everything into the research modules. And besides,” he winked at her. “I’ve got you.”
“Damn right you have!” She ran up to him and threw her arms about him. The fervor of the embrace sent his baseball cap flying off his head.
“Easy does it,” he said, his eyes still glued to the monitors. “We know that something’s is going on in Syria—now we need to find out when it happened. Since the change always ripples forward in time from the breaching point, all we have to do is figure out when things started changing in the history data.” He smiled broadly and added one more thing: “Pour the coffee. This is going to be interesting.”
20
Nordhausen was stunned. A time traveler. He was sitting in the middle of a cave in Wadi Rumm with a goddamned time traveler! Who was he? What was he doing here? The professor replayed the man’s remarks in his mind. He said something about being a messenger. He had some business here, and we’ve stumbled right into the middle of his operation. He was talking about a reaction—something Paul set off unintentionally.
The Oklo reactor!
Now the professor strained to recall what Paul had told him about the odd green water in the depths of the cave—the water that was glowing softly, quietly radiating as the bacteria concentrated the isotopes and started a low level chain reaction. It suddenly occurred to him that these people could have set up equipment here for an Arch! They could use the energy produced by the Oklo reaction for a natural nuclear power source. Its low radiation level would prevent it from being detected, and it would last for thousands of years!
“You mean to say… Are you telling me you have an Arch here? That my friend went through?”
“And may Allah go with him,” said Rasil. “He jumped too early, or he fell too soon, if that was the case. The timing will not be accurate. He will probably land before the event, and his coming may prove to be quite a stone in the still waters there.”
By God, thought Nordhausen, by holy God! What have I done? I insisted Paul come with me on this little adventure and then…
“Where?” He leaned forward eagerly, eyes searching his Arab companion’s face, eager for the answer. “Where did he go?”
“I cannot reveal that.”
Nordhausen sat up, flustered. “Why not? You just said that we were both safe here in a Nexus Point, right?”
“Yes, we are safe—but the whole world is now at risk again, my friend.” He gestured expansively at the terrain about them. The tall weathered walls of Wadi Rumm towered silently over them, brooding down with just a hint of distain and reproach. The earth sat, with infinite patience, and endured the constant insult of man.
“What does that have to do with it? We are completely alone. You said your guards don’t understand a word we’re saying. Come now. Where has he gone? You must tell me.”
Rasil’s eyes narrowed, and he stroked the dark stubble of his beard. “Do you realize the trouble you have caused here already? I was to jump at the setting of the moon!” He pointed to the heart of the cave, a flash of anger returning to his eyes. “Then you come fluttering out of the sky with the Jordanian Air Force at your heels. I thought you were a tourist at first, until I saw your cargo sled. You tell me, what is it you were carrying? Equipment? Must I have my men dig it up?”
“Dig it up? Damn it man, I told you what it was. It’s a fossil. An Ammonite. If you don’t believe me then go dig it up yourself. You talk about trouble? We were minding our own business until you came along. Now where is my friend?”
The Arab set his jaw, as if stifling a rising anger. “We cannot quarrel here,” he said. “You think we are without means, without resources after Palma failed. But, as you have seen, we are more capable than you may realize.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The war was going badly for you. In fact, we believed that the issue was nearly settled at Palma. But it can never be so, yes? It can never really be written while we struggle with one another. One side or the other must prevail. You and I are warriors, meeting here in the stream of life. Yet, now a chasm has opened and your friend has fallen through. It is not for us to quarrel like spoiled children. He is the master of fate now, and we must simply wait.”