Chapter 23

"Is it working?" Lucy asked watching the array of monitors at William's desk.

Shaking his head, William answered, "I don't know. We've only progressed ten years in the simulation. We've got another ninety to go."

"It's been running for twenty hours," Lucy said looking over at the clock. They had started the program the previous day at noon and it was now just a little after eight in the morning.

"That's right," William said woodenly. His eyes examined the curves of the various plots that appeared on the monitors. They all looked good, but he'd have to run further tests to validate the results.

"That's not good," Lucy commented. Ninety years of simulation time would require another hundred and eighty hours of real time.

"I agree," William said. There was a real sense of sadness to his voice.

"Can't you get a faster computer?" Lucy asked wondering if he was really that upset with the progress that he was making.

"That program is running on a cluster of a hundred computers, each of which is computing a part of the solution. Faster computers aren't going to help much," William said scratching his face.

"I guess I had better finish those transformations," Lucy said turning to look at the whiteboard and the equations scribbled across it.

"The equations are not complete," William said with a sigh.

"What's missing?"

"The rest of the world," William answered. At the moment he was running the simulation against historical data from Europe and Asia. His equations stopped at the borders of the United States. The predictions would start breaking down around World War II when the oil reserves of the Middle East began to have an impact on the international economy.

"Oh," Lucy said wondering why William was sighing so much. She stared at the equations on the board wondering what effect including external influences would have on their behavior. Although she could visualize the behavior of individual equations well enough, the total model was too complex for her to handle.

"Right. Oh," William said in disgust.

"Are you going to give up?" Lucy asked confused by his mood that morning. Something wasn't right and she suspected that it had nothing to do with the computer program.

"No," William said, "I'll have to make some approximations of the original set of equations and use them to predict behaviors overseas. It won't be accurate, but it'll be good enough for simple look-a-heads using the model."

"That's not good," Lucy said, "The program is going to take a week to simulate a single year."

"I know," William said playing with a pencil. He threw it on the desk in disgust at another setback in his work. He wasn't even going to mention the difficulties of including social unrest overseas dragging America into wars.

"What are you going to do?" Lucy asked.

"I'm going to visit the Druid College," William answered looking over at the calendar.

Nodding her head, Lucy said, "That's a good idea. I wouldn't have thought of getting some of the students there to work on it."

"That's not why I'm going," William said. There was a disturbing flatness to his voice.

"Why?"

In a voice filled with sadness, William said, "It is time."

"Time for what?"

William didn't answer. A single tear rolled down his cheek. Lucy looked at him and felt her heart break. There was only one other reason for him to go to the Druid College and that was the Carter Glade. All of a sudden the reason for his mood became obvious. She reached over and hugged him. There weren't words to express what she felt.

Barbara stared at William. He had taken her completely by surprise. It wasn't just the nature of the request, but the intensity with which it was delivered. It took her a minute to recover and then she asked, "Do you know how much it will cost to rent a 727 for a month just to have it sit on the tarmac everyday except for three flights?"

"No and I don't care. I just want it done," William answered. He leaned forward and said, "I also want a briefcase with a hundred thousand dollars on the plane, three floors of a hotel in Bermuda reserved for an entire month, an additional ten bodyguards sent there, and the house in Pennsylvania cleaned from top to bottom."

Barbara wrote down the instructions; her hand nearly cramping while trying to keep up with the speed at which he was delivering instructions. She didn't know if she could accomplish all of that within twenty-four hours. Looking up from her pad, she asked, "Anything else?"

"I want you to arrange some calls for me. I need to talk to my grandfather, Oliver, Jennifer, and the Guardian Angels," William said.

"What's happening?" Barbara asked. The list of people to call was beginning to make her wonder if something had happened to Oscar Meyers.

Shaking his head, William said, "You'll know soon enough."

"If I know what is happening, then I can perhaps make some suggestions," Barbara said watching William shift uncomfortably in his chair.

Looking around, he thought about it. Shaking his head, he said, "I thought I had another six months, but I was wrong. I've got one last thing I need you to do. I need you to make arrangements for a trip to the Druid College. I want to leave tomorrow morning."

"Oliver, I want you to send a couple of grief counselors to Israel. They need to be there tomorrow night," William said.

"What?" Oliver said sitting up at his desk staring at the telephone in his hand. He almost missed William's answer.

"I'm going to be arriving there tomorrow afternoon," William said.

"Does this mean what I think it means?" Oliver asked. He'd been waiting for a long time for William to begin his service. It had always been a foregone conclusion that William would serve the Two-Sided One.

"Yes."

"Hello, grandfather."

"Hello, William."

"How are you doing?" William asked. His throat was so tight with emotion that it was hard to talk. Now that he had his grandfather on the phone, he didn't know what to say. The great impassioned discussion that he had played through his head suddenly seemed trite.

"I'm doing well. My arthritis has been acting up," the Reverend Leroy Jones answered trying to keep a light tone to the conversation.

"I'm sorry to hear about your arthritis," William said. There was enough sadness in his answer to let the Reverend know that William had other things on his mind than arthritis.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. Finally, the Reverend said, "You know."

"Yes, I know. Do you want me to tell Daddy Leroy?" William asked.

"No. I'll call him today. I should be the one who breaks the news to him."

"Okay," William said. He was silent for a long time and then asked, "Is there anything I can do for you?"

"I'm an old man at the end of my time. All I need is the loving arms of the one I serve," the Reverend answered. There was a sense of peace in his voice.

William was on the verge of tears. In a soft voice, he said, "I love you."

"I know. I love you, too. You've always held a special place in my heart," the elderly man answered in an emotion packed voice. There was a long silence while he struggled to control his emotions. The Reverend said, "I saw the Arc of the Covenant."

"Tell me about it," William said settling into his chair for a long conversation.

Jennifer picked up the phone and, in a cheerful voice, said, "If you know who I am then you have the right number. Otherwise, please hang up now."

"Jennifer, it is time," William said.

There was a long pause on the other end of the phone. In a much less cheerful voice, she said, "I'll leave for there now."

"Good."

"Gabriel?"

"Yes, sir," the man answered recognizing the voice on the other end of the line. After nearly five months of sitting around, the call had taken him by surprise.

"Oscar Meyers will be contacting you today. Do as he asks," William said.

"Is something the matter?" Gabriel asked. Since Debbie had left Israel, the bodyguards had not been doing anything. William was paying them to stay in the area without any specific instructions. They hadn't heard from Jennifer in months.

"What's happening there?" William asked.

"There have been some major riots here. Jerusalem is not exactly a safe town at the moment," Gabriel answered.

"Be prepared to have a ringside seat at the biggest riot of them all," William said.

Lucy set a cup of Lisa's hot chocolate in front of William. It was actually the kind that came out of the packet, but Lisa had made it and that was all that really mattered. William took a sip and said, "Thank you. This is just what I needed."

"Are you okay?" Lucy asked with a worried expression on her face.

"I've looked forward to this my whole life, but it has suddenly become a bitter-sweet moment," William answered.