And Bevan was right. La Finca was, to some extent, peripheral. The low, modern command base was the key. It was set a few hundred feet beneath the dome itself, on a long, protruding rock finger that was broad enough and flat enough to take both the building and the vital helipad. The dome sat remotely above everything, glowing in the sun like some huge golden golf ball perched on a giant rock tee stabbing upward at the sky.
Lieberman had taken the tiny funicular that linked the control centre to the dome, sat in the flimsy metal cage as it climbed the hill, feeling the sweat cling coldly to his shirt, looking out across the mountains, across the island, inland toward the Bay of Palma beyond. When it came to a halt, he stumbled out onto the summit, keeping his eyes away from the unguarded edge. There wasn't a single thing inside the dome that he understood, but it was impossible to be anything but impressed.
'Don't knock it,' he said. 'This is a work of art. It's not their fault someone stole it from them.'
The man coughed and spat over the edge. 'I'll take your word on that. It's just the bloody awful security that bugs me.'
Lieberman watched him draw heavily on the cigarette. 'I guess they thought the whole thing was pretty much in mothballs. You think it's that bad?'
The pilot looked at his watch. 'Oh yes. We'd best be going. If your earlier feelings about the time to leave still hold.'
Lieberman felt like kicking himself. The sheer sophistication of Puig Roig had entrapped him. The video conference meant he'd missed the last cycle update. It was a miracle Bevan wasn't screaming at him already. Worse, he really had no idea whether the cycle had worsened. There had been so much to see. 'Damn. Five minutes. I need to check something.'
And drag Annie and Mo away from this too, he added quietly to himself. There was such a buzz, such frantic energy being poured into the complex, that you could get swept up in it all and let the hours drift away into nothing.
'I'll see you at the machine,' Davis said, then launched a cigarette over the cliff edge and walked off toward the helipad.
Lieberman strode into the control room, took a snatched look at the incoming data on a free monitor, then found them still head deep in the system. 'You've got to cut that. It's time to go.'
'Not now,' Mo said, not even taking her eyes off the screen. The big American was over in the corner, talking to a couple of the staff people who'd shown Lieberman around. He was glancing at them.
'Exactly right now. GI Joe is about to come over here and call off our departure slot if we don't move this minute.'
She pulled herself away. 'Does that matter, Michael? We're here. Nothing's happened. And it's past the peak. Surely it's obvious. We're safe here.'
'You're right. It's just that I hate flying so much I want to get it out of the way as fast as I can. And whatever that thing is you're doing… I'm damn sure you could both accomplish it all down below.'
She thought about that. 'That's true. Now, anyway. I'm glad Irwin did send me up here. This network was on the point of collapse.'
'Good. Now can we go, please?'
'Done,' she said, and started to log off.
Capstick walked over and said, 'Are you folks on your way? If you're not out of here in five minutes I'm closing that window. And God knows when it's going to be open again.'
Lieberman felt something inside his stomach jump and asked, 'What happened?'
'Nothing like Kyoto, thank goodness. But we've got all hell let loose out there. Something's infected the stock markets. They're through the floor everywhere. The President has suspended all trading until further notice, most everyone else is following. Some big worries about currency effects too.
Everything trying to rush into gold, not that it's easy to buy anything.'
'Have they claimed responsibility?'
'You bet. Right there on the Web site. As pleased as punch about it. The news wires say this could push the entire world into a recession, and those loons are sitting up and applauding themselves.'
'I guess they have a different agenda.'
'They don't care,' Mo said. 'They just don't give a damn.'
'Right,' Capstick yelled, heading for the door, motioning for them to follow. 'But the bottom line is I need you out of here right now. Along with the crash, we've got a major telecom failure throughout the northern latitudes right now. The closest it's got to us is Toulouse, but I'm not taking any risks. If this comes any farther south we lock the doors and shut ourselves in for the night. I'm happy we can keep the link with La Finca now we've backed up the microwave dishes with a landline. But I'm sure as hell not having people flying in and out with some electromagnetic storm going on. Get one of those helicopters down on us and it could put this entire centre out.'
'Thoughtful of you.' Lieberman nodded, shielding his eyes as they came out into the ferocious heat and light. 'No problem. We're gone.' Mo and Annie followed in his wake, moving as quickly as they could. Capstick nodded as soon as he saw they were on their way, then was gone.
'You think anyone got hurt?' he asked no one in particular. 'All that guy could think about was money and hunks of equipment. Jesus. Maybe Charley's right, in some way. We do deserve all this.'
The engine was winding up. 'You don't mean that, Michael,' Mo yelled over the noise, and touched his arm.
'No?' So hot. So complex. So much in this place he didn't understand. 'Let's go before GI Joe changes his mind.' They climbed into the helicopter, Annie smiling at the pilot, who winked back at her.
'If you want to go the quick way, Bob, it's no problem with me,' Lieberman said over the noise of the engine. 'So long as you don't mind me throwing up along the way. Seems there's some major telecom breakdown out there. Capstick wants us out before it reaches here.'
'I heard,' the pilot yelled. 'He's an idiot. This thing is spreading west, not south. It's taken out the main lines in New York, for God's sake.'
'All the same.'
'All the same, you relax. We have one little thing to do, and then we're home.' The helicopter lifted off the ground, sending up a skirt of dust that briefly obscured everything, then cleared. They were hovering, stationary, ten feet off the surface.
'What little thing?' Lieberman yelled.
The pilot threw a headset at him, motioned him to put it on, did the same himself with a pair tucked into the pocket by the seat, then shouted backward over his shoulder, 'Sorry, my loves, only one extra pair in this beast. You just talk among yourselves.'
Lieberman put the cans on and was amazed by the difference. The sound dulled to a mute swell, and Davis's voice came through as clear as a bell. 'What little thing?'
The helicopter moved slowly sideways, thirty feet or so until it was hovering stationary again, this time over the stomach-wrenching drop down to the foot of the valley. 'Bob. What the hell are you doing?'
Davis shifted the stick gently, the engine note changed, and he replied, 'Satisfying my curiosity.' The pilot looked over his shoulder. 'Don't worry,' he said loudly to Mo and Annie. 'We just have to make one pass and then we're gone.'
Lieberman felt his guts start to wind around and around themselves as the machine slipped slowly beneath the level of the ridge and down the rock face some fifteen feet in front of them, another thousand feet of nothingness below.
'Meaning?' he asked.
'Meaning I spent the last three hours watching those boneheads play security men around this place, and I have to tell you the only suspicious device they'd ever manage to find is one that consists of a big black ball with a fuse coming out the top and the letters B-O-M-B painted on the side. It's pathetic.'