fundamental way.
There was a single cut through the jungle — a small path cleared to the wall of the annex. In the center of the cut was a recently dug ditch of some sort. It led straight to the computer center in a line of rich, dark soil that was cut across the otherwise green fields.
'What's that?' Laura asked.
Gray craned his neck to see where she was pointing. 'Those are the new optical cables that we ran over this morning.' Without warning he turned the helicopter's nose away from the concrete [unclear]. 'You know, we did some really innovative things with this helicopter's engines. You can really feel the boost. Watch.' The nose dropped, and Laura felt a kick in her seat as he gunned the nearly silent engine. It vibrated vigorously through her seat back as they accelerated rapidly just over the tops of the trees.
'Do you have to fly like that?' she asked. Her voice sounded as if it came from the bottom of a well as her ears popped and the crushing weight of gravity forced her ever deeper into her seat.
They were going faster and faster, and the low jungle trees streaked by just under the helicopter's skids. 'Joseph, you're acting like a teenager!' The helicopter's nose shot up, and they rocketed straight into the sky. There was nothing but blue in the windshield ahead. Laura thought about screaming but gave in against the Gs and rested her head in the foam cove behind it. Gray kept pulling up and up on the stick, and the helicopter practically sat on top of its tail.
She looked at the joystick on the seat's arm. It was all the way back. Suddenly the world outside the cockpit was upside down. The blue sky was beneath her feet and the green jungle above her head. She almost reached for the stick to fight Gray for control before she felt the helicopter drop like a stone. Upside down in a helicopter, they plummeted from the sky toward the earth.
From then on everything was a confusing jumble of sensations. The jungle filled their sky, the blue sky at their feet. Then just as suddenly they traded places in a rush to return to their accustomed locations.
It was a sickening, draining pull on her head and stomach. She was pressed harder and harder into her seat, and then it was over.
The helicopter hovered in front of a massive construction project, whose bare girders rose high above the jungle and promised great things to come. 'And this is the new assembly building,' Gray said, continuing his tour. 'It'll be significantly larger than the old one.'
'Why the hell did you do that?' Laura mumbled — a steely taste in her mouth. Her head still wobbled, the unsteadiness disorienting her further.
'You mean the loop?'
'Yes, I mean the loop!' she mustered. 'Jesus Christ, Joseph!' She wasn't through with him yet.
But when he said, 'I've always wanted to do that,' with an apologetic laugh, she hesitated.
There was something in the way he'd proffered his weak explanation that cut her tirade short. He was saying this might be his last chance. Laura looked out through a side window. Three ships were there now, the new one much larger than the first two.
'I guess it's time to get back to work,' Gray said with a touch of disappointment in his voice. He banked the helicopter gently and began a slow flight to the computer center.
They settled uneventfully to the grass inside the circle formed by the roadbed. Over a dozen men and women in formal attire stood at the top of the computer center steps. They were a delegation from the planet Earth sent to parley with the stranger in their midst.
The cockpit doors hissed open, and Gray and Laura emerged.
Laura walked toward the group at Gray's side.
'Mr. Gray,' a Japanese diplomat said, stepping forward with a gracious smile and a bow. Gray began to shake hands while Laura tried to edge her way around the crowd. But her path to the door was blocked.
Hoblenz stood off to the side, looking at his watch in evident disgust. He wore slacks, a button-down white shirt, and a tie that hung loose around his collar.
'Good day, Ms…?' a distinguished-looking white-haired man with a British accent said, holding out his hand.
'Oh, Aldridge,' she replied, shaking his hand. 'Dr. Laura Aldridge.'
She was caught. The hands of the others were extended her way in ritualistic succession. She ended with a bow toward the Japanese gentleman.
'Why don't we all just head down into the computer center?' Gray said to the diplomats.
They split into two groups for the walk down the steps — the lead group clustered around Gray, the trailing group around Laura. She craned her neck to find Hoblenz while being swept up in the abundant small talk. The grinning man stood with his foot propped on an ATV, bidding her farewell with the tap of a finger to an imaginary hat.
'You certainly have built quite an impressive facility here, Dr. Aldridge,' the British diplomat said.
Laura started to object, but changed her mind. 'Thank you,' she said.
As the heavy blast door closed on the group ahead, a woman with a French accent said, 'This is built very much for security, yes?'
In the silence after the departure of Gray's group, Laura felt all eyes focused exclusively on her. 'Oh, the computer center? No! It's because of the launch pads. We're about half a mile from pad A over there,' she pointed, and heads turned in unison, 'and this area gets some of the, you know, blast and heat.'
There were nods and whispered words.
'Where're all the robots?' a tall American man asked. Everyone looked at him, but he kept his eyes on Laura. He looked athletic, and he wore a good-natured smile on his tanned face. 'We've read so much about them, I just thought they'd be all over the place delivering mail and things like that.'
There was polite laughter, but the man was clearly waiting for Laura's answer.
'Well, they're a bit too expensive to be used for delivering the mail,' Laura said, then wondered whether that really was true.
'But they are here somewhere, aren't they?' he persisted, still the picture of politeness.
'Yes,' Laura said. 'They're here.'
Her words seemed to chill the group, and they cast furtive glances all around. The vault door opened with a hiss, and the visitors' eyes shot toward it. They were a jumpy bunch.
'Why don't we all head inside?' Laura directed. 'There's a blower in here that will give everybody a little dusting.' That was all the warning she decided to provide. She gathered her hair at the back of her head and waited. The blowers powered up, and the unexpected blast of stiff wind sent hands grabbing for handrails.
The inner door opened, and the windblown and shaken group joined their equally unkempt colleagues inside.
Laura immediately noticed the new addition to the control room. Row after row of white pipes ran the length of the far wall.
They were low-tech metal in the otherwise molded plastic world of the computer age. To the new arrivals, however, the whole scene was so new their eyes roamed over each uncertain object with equal curiosity.
'Why don't we all head back to the conference room?' Gray said in a loud voice. 'If you'll follow Dr. Filatov. He's head of computer operations and will be able to answer your questions about the main computer.'
As the group wandered down the hallway with mouths agape, Gray walked across the room to the pipes. Laura joined him. 'Are these the fiber-optic cables?' she asked.
'Yep. They should breach the partition and give the computer a chance to grab some of its boards back from the Other.'
'So these things connect the two halves of the computer's brain?' Laura asked, and Gray nodded. 'Like a corpus callosum,' she mumbled.
Hoblenz walked up to Gray. 'Well?' Gray asked.
'The tall American, for sure,' Hoblenz said. 'And the Frenchwoman. Maybe the Chinese guy. I'm tryin' to find out more about him.'
Gray nodded.
'What about the American and the Frenchwoman?' Laura asked. 'You mean those people I was just talking to, right?'
Gray nodded. 'They're spies. The rest are probably diplomats, who are also spies but have another agenda to