Chapter 20

Lucy watched the screen through red eyes that saw the world through a blur. She hadn't sleep for the past thirty hours. The programmers were asleep on the floor having exhausted the last of their stamina under the nearly constant pressure from Lucy.

Even if she hadn't been so tired, it would have been hard to interpret the results. There were a hundred curves all overlaid one upon another. After running twenty four hours, the model had projected ahead only twelve years. Considering the limited computing resources she had that was a good result. Of course, it wasn't enough to judge the accuracy of the model despite the fact that the model was making predictions that corresponded to the historical data she was using as a baseline.

Beth walked over to Lucy. Without saying a word, Beth grabbed her wrist and put her into a hand lock. Shocked, Lucy asked, "What are you doing?"

"I'm taking you to bed," Beth said leading the young woman away from the computer.

"I just want to see this," Lucy said knowing that it was useless to physically resist Beth.

It didn't prevent her from twisting her head to look at the screen that was getting further away with each step.

"I want to be adored by millions of men, but that isn't going to happen," Beth said wryly.

She continued to steer the woman down the hallway towards the elevator.

"Someone needs to watch it," Lucy said. She had to keep her feet moving in order to keep the pressure off of her arm.

"It is a computer program. No one needs to watch it," Beth answered. She pressed the call button for the elevator.

"Just let me watch it another hour," Lucy said.

"You can watch it another twelve hours," Beth said. Seeing Lucy perk up, she added,

"After you've gotten some sleep."

"That wasn't nice getting my hopes up like that," Lucy said finding herself in the elevator and heading downwards.

"It will all look better after you've had some sleep," Beth said with a smile. Sometimes it was necessary to intervene when someone was driving themselves too hard. Her husband, John, had done this same thing to her a dozen times in the past. She was pretty sure that he would do it again in the future.

Lucy stumbled along under the very physical guidance provided by Beth. She reached her bedroom in quick order. With an easy move, Beth had Lucy lying in the bed.

Standing over her, Beth said, "Sleep."

Yawning, Lucy said, "I'm not sleepy."

Beth stood over the young woman for a minute. She smiled when Lucy dropped off to sleep before the minute was over. Shaking her head, she said, "William found a good one when he found you."

Riding along side of William, Ed was listening to half of a conversation. For the past seven days William had been getting several calls a day. He had to believe that the calls were important in order to justify calling him when he was out in the desert. His curiosity had been aroused and he was going to get it satisfied. When William closed his cell phone, Ed asked, "What was that about?"

"That was Beth. She called to tell me that she put Lucy to bed," William answered with a smile. He couldn't help but wonder why Lucy had not been to bed in over thirty hours.

"Our Beth?" Ed asked surprised to learn that Lucy was with Beth. As far as he knew, Beth had been in Dallas working on a major project.

"That's right," William answered.

"Where are they?" Ed asked.

"At our house," William answered.

Feeling frustrated that he had to pull information out of William one fact at a time, Ed asked, "What's going on?"

"It appears that Lucy is trying to arrange a surprise for me. According to Barbara, she's spend almost half a billion dollars on it," William answered with a smile.

"Half a billion dollars?" Dale asked wide-eyed. He knew that William was rich, but hearing about that kind of money made him dizzy.

"Yes," William answered.

Ed said, "It must be a big surprise."

"Well, I don't know what her surprise is so she's been successful," William replied. He had his suspicions, but he didn't attempt to confirm them by probing the future. If Lucy was going to so much trouble, he didn't want to ruin it.

Ed's truth sense let him know that William was telling the truth. The fact that William didn't know what Lucy was doing was very surprising. Ed was silent while riding through the desert. He kept glancing over at William and shaking his head. He had a pretty good idea how much William was worth, but it was still hard to believe that William could accept that kind of expenditure without showing a reaction.

Dale asked, "Aren't you worried about her spending that much money?"

"Not really," William answered. Seeing the shocked expression on Dale's face, William said, "I trust her. She wouldn't spend that much money without having a very good reason."

"Does that make you poor?" Dale asked.

"No," William answered. He was going to have to clear out his play money account and sell two hundred million dollars worth of his conservative investments. He said, "I guess I'll just sell off one of my smaller office buildings in New York."

"One of your smaller office buildings?" Dale asked wondering if he had heard William correctly. He knew that there were buildings in New York that cost more than a billion dollars.

"Yes," William answered.

The men stopped the horses in front of a gate to William's property. William dismounted and handed the reins to Dale. He stretched a moment and then walked over to the gate. It was a standard western style gate common on ranches across the entire country; namely two posts connected by three strands of barbed wire. One post was permanently attached to the fence post with baling wire. The other post had the bottom in a loop of bailing wire and the top held in place by another loop of bailing wire. William slipped the top wire off the post and lifted the post out of the bottom loop. He carried the fence post over to the side so that the horse could enter his property.

"We'll be at your house in about six hours," Dale said riding through the opening. It took him some time since he had to move far enough past the gate to get William's horse and the pack horse through it.

"These two weeks passed in a flash," William said. He had enjoyed the days under the scorching sun and the nights under the stars. Ed had collected a few rock specimens, but most of the time had been spent appreciating desert.

"I could spend years out here," Ed said following Dale onto the property. He was leading a pack horse and stopped beside Dale.

William laughed and said, "Tell me something I don't know."

"What can I say?" Ed replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He was at home in the desert.

William spent a minute getting the gate back in place. Dale watched and said, "It has been nice being out here. Tomorrow, I go back to work. There are times when I get so tired of listening to other people's problems."

"You have no idea how nice it is to spend ten days without hearing a lie," Ed said settling back in his saddle.

William grinned and said, "We can't have that. I'm sure that between Dale and me, we can come up with some real whoppers."

"You don't have to do that on my account," Ed said giving William a dirty look. He knew he was teasing, but ten days without hearing a lie had been a great relief. He doubted that he'd get home before hearing a lie.

Dale laughed at the exchange. He handed the reins over to William and said, "We're burning daylight."

"You're right, William said while climbing on his horse.

It was easy to forget for Dale to forget that he was out there with two Druids. Away from everyone else and the responsibilities thrust upon them, they were just men who appreciated the desert. There were times when he felt sorry for the two men. He was just a medicine man for the tribe and the responsibilities of that position weighed heavily upon him. He couldn't imagine what it was like to feel responsible for the world at large.

Ed noticed the introspective expression on Dale's face. He said, "You're thinking deep thoughts, Dale."

"Sometimes I wonder how the two of you bear up to the strain," Dale said.

"Family helps," William answered.

"So do friends," Ed added.

Nodding his head, William said, "Friends are important."

"Patrick will be starting at the Native American College in a few weeks. We'll be seeing more of him," Dale said.

"That's true," William said. He grinned and asked, "Should we invite him to another hunt?"

Dale laughed and said, "He'll be home around Thanksgiving. I suppose we could go deer hunting for a day or two."

Having seen several dozen deer over the past three days, Ed said, "You've got a lot of deer around here."

"Too many. The herds are worried," Dale said.

Ed heard the truth of his words, but still found it hard to believe. It was easy to forget that the two young men talked with animals. William said, "I'm pretty sure that a cougar will be moving into the area soon."