“SWBG,” Hamza said, not taking his eyes off the paper.
“Right. SWBG. We sold them a prediction that made them invest heavily in citrus groves, expecting that the Florida frost inMay will drive prices up. But with the chocolate milk thing, it went the other way—no one wanted orange juice for a while,prices went way down, and SWBG had to pump in even more cash to keep things running. Even so, half of the groves went under.So did SWBG. They shut down last month. Between paying us almost half a billion dollars and the bad investments, I guess theydidn’t have enough dough to keep the lights on.”
I remember that, Hamza thought. The Dow dropped four hundred points that day. But I didn’t realize . . .
He looked up, to see Will staring at him, calm.
“This is . . . this can’t be possible,” Hamza said.
“I wish it weren’t. That list is what I’ve been doing down here. Researching, figuring it out. Those fourteen connectionsare all I’ve found so far, but there have to be more that I just don’t see, or that haven’t happened yet. Like TransPipe.That makes fifteen, I guess.”
Hamza focused on the sheet of paper his wife was still holding. It was trembling.
“I can’t see the whole picture,” Will said, tapping the surface of the fountain’s pool with a fingertip, watching rings radiateoutward, “but I think the Site’s working toward three or four minor goals at the same time. Then, I think those things aresupposed to come together too, to make something else happen. There’s a tune to it, almost; like a song with most of its tracksstripped away. Just the backing vocals and the drums and the horn lines—you know there’s more.”
“So this is a puzzle?” Miko asked, her voice scaling up in pitch. “A game?”
“Not a game,” Will said. “It’s more like one of those Rube Goldberg machines, or, no . . . a giant engine. It feels like someone’sout there, driving all this forward.”
“What’s it driving?” Miko asked. “If it’s an engine, what’s it pushing?”
Will shrugged.
“The world, I think.
“And yes,” he continued, “I know I’ve never been the kind of guy who talks about stuff like this, even cared about it, butyou’d be amazed how interesting it all becomes when you think you caused it.”
He scooped his hand into the fountain, filling his palm with water, letting droplets fall back into the basin.
“Will, this is insane,” Miko said. “We have to do something.”
“We can just step away,” Hamza said. “We have all the money in the world. The Coral Republic is almost done. I got a constructionprogress report for the capitol building yesterday. All the other places we set up are ready. We can go with the exit plan.”
Will opened his hand, letting the remaining water fall back into the basin, then stood up, wiping his hand on his shirt.
“I think the Site might be hoping we do,” Will replied. “I think that’s why we got so many predictions we could sell. It’slike the prize it’s offering me so that I’ll just disappear and let it get on with whatever it’s doing. But I can’t. I haveto clean up my own mess.”
He straightened, looking at them.
“But not you two. I can’t let you get any more involved than you already are. I mean it.”
Miko shook her head.
“You want to do all this alone? Will, for God’s sake, you were about two days from storing your pee in jars up there!”
“I’m fine,” he said, a little annoyed. “You don’t have to worry about me. Nothing bad can happen to me. Not right now. Notto the Oracle.”
“Will, that’s ridiculous,” Hamza said, his tone alarmed. “There is no Oracle. There’s just you.”
“Sure,” Will said. “Listen. I can beat this. I know I can. I’ve been experimenting. Here—let me show you.”
He turned and walked away from them, striding rapidly toward the busy street between the hotel and the beach.
“Where are you going?” Miko called after him.
Will didn’t respond. Without slowing, he walked up to the side of the road, just a step away from the speeding flow of cars,motorcycles, and multiton trucks.
And then he took another step.
“No!” Miko shouted.
Hamza sprinted toward the street, seeing in the corner of his eye that the soldiers at the nearest checkpoint had perked upat the disturbance. Any alarm he felt at that fact was swept away by the certainty that he was about to hear a squeal of brakesand a deep, meaty thud as his best friend was embedded deep into a semi’s grille.
He skidded to a stop at the edge of the street, catching a glimpse of Will striding across the Rambla Républica de Méxicotoward the beach, keeping his eyes straight ahead, as if he were walking across a lawn in Central Park instead of a four-laneroad packed with traffic speeding along at what looked to be an average of about forty miles per hour.
Horns blared, cars swerved. The soldiers in the checkpoint closest to the street unslung their rifles from their shoulders,trying to see what was happening.
The light changed, the crosswalk cleared, and Hamza and Miko ran across to the beach. Hamza looked left and saw Will aboutfifty yards away, sitting on a bench, looking out at the sea.
“What the fuck was that, you idiot?” Hamza said, shouting as he approached.
Will looked up and smiled. It was an odd smile, empty and full at the same time.
“I told you. Nothing’s going to happen to the Oracle. I’m completely safe,” he said.
“That’s crazy, Will,” Hamza said. “That’s . . . just stupid.”
“No, it’s not,” Will answered. “I still have predictions I haven’t put out in the world. The Site must want me to do somethingwith them, and it won’t let me die until I’ve done it. Those predictions are my insurance policy. I’m invulnerable.”
Will’s smile grew wider. Too wide.
“I’m Superman,” he said.
He looked back out at the sea.
“I’m going to beat it,” he said. “I’m not just a tool for some . . . spider-thing, burrowing behind the walls of the world,making everything weak. I’m
