Chapter 22

The underground bunker for housing the computers had been completed. A work crew sent by Dan Biggerstaff was busy wiring the room to support the network that would tie the computers together. It was a massive job considering that they were linking ten thousand computers together. It was made even more difficult due to the fact that they were physically located on four separate floors.

The room was cold. The air conditioner was set up to cool ten thousand machines, but there were only empty racks at the moment. Each rack would hold ten machines, a backup power supply, and an optical switch. There were three special racks. One rack would hold ten machines and serve as a gateway to the satellite downlink that would feed the databases storing the massive quantity of economic data. The database machines would be on a rack of their own. These machines would have monster arrays of disk drives with special controllers to maximize input and output. The final rack would hold the master controllers that tasked all of the other machines.

William and Lucy walked around taking in the layout of the room that constituted the fourth floor. Spinning around, Lucy said, "It is gorgeous."

"Yes, it is," William said knowing that it took a special eye to see the beauty of a room like this. Most people would see empty racks, loose wires, and bare walls. Lucy saw the million virtual worlds that would be created within those bare walls.

The sound of the elevator opening caused them both to turn to see who had joined them. Dan stepped out of the elevator and said, "You'll get the computers at the rate of five hundred a month."

"Only five hundred a month?" Lucy asked feeling a little disappointed. At that rate of delivery it would take almost two years for the facility to come up to full speed. She wanted to see the answers now, not in two years.

"It was a good balance between the ability to manufacture them and to install them. We'll have three men here installing them five days a week. They can only install and configure twenty-five machines a day," Dan replied knowing that Lucy was anxious to get the facility up to full running capacity as quickly as possible.

"Oh," Lucy said realizing that she hadn't thought through all of the logistics associated with a project of this size.

Dan smiled at her and said, "Don't be embarrassed. This is the biggest project that I've ever overseen."

"I didn't realize," Lucy said looking over at William.

William said, "I've got a feeling that we'll be seeing results before you know it. We'll get updates every day rather than every hour."

"It has already been four months," Lucy said looking around the room. Despite the fact that most of the exterior of the building had been pre-fabricated even while the hole was being dug, construction on the building had taken almost three months. Installing the infrastructure for the machines had taken a month. Another twenty months would put the system coming up to full speed two years after she had found the transform functions.

Pulling her into a hug, William said, "You're going to have to accept a slightly different view of time from now on."

"What do you mean?" Lucy asked confused by his comment.

"We're working on a project that takes longer than we will live to complete. We'll have to take actions that won't produce results for twenty years. We will live in the now and in the future simultaneously," William answered.

"I haven't thought about that," Lucy said. She realized that she would be joining him in his world view.

Dan listened to the conversation wondering what they were discussing. Lucy had stated her need for the computers without telling him what she needed them for. William had been just as closed mouthed about the project. He was fully aware that the programmers didn't even know what it was about. He asked, "What is this program supposed to do?"

"Do not worry about it," William said with a sad smile.

"I'd like to be able to advertise this," Dan said. He looked around the room thinking that this was the largest computing project in the world. To be able to tell the world about an installation of this magnitude would really help his company.

"You can't," Lucy said covering her mouth with her hand in horror. She was sure that if anyone discovered what they were doing, there would be an entirely new kind of war.

"You mustn't even breathe a word of what we are doing to anyone," William said. He knew that if anyone else discovered what they were doing that the model would be rendered ineffective.

"Come on, it can't be that bad," Dan said.

William stepped forward and said, "Touch my medallion."

Those words sent a chill down Dan's spine. The last time he had been told that was when Ed had discovered that pit of evil. He reached out and touched the medallion. The room dropped away and he found himself in a meadow.

"This is the second time you've come before me," the fat man said in a feminine voice.

Dan stared at the naked fat man. The grotesque figure was slowly masturbating his very small erection that more closely resembled a clitoris than a penis. Uncomfortable with the onset of an erection that was hard enough to cleave diamonds, Dan said, "I'm sorry."