The Fold: A Novel Part 38

She stopped, just for a second. The groan of the flexing metal roof echoed over the wind. "What?"

"There should be dust," he said. "From all the breaking cinder blocks."

Sasha gazed past him, and then her head tipped back and up. "Oh, f.u.c.k," she said.

Mike and Olaf looked up. Clouds were gliding across the sky. Not rushing, but their movement was apparent. They were closing in from every direction, moving with the wind.

The wind was blowing toward Site B. All of it.

Arthur and Anne caught up with them just as the roof of Site B buckled again. One section sank low, as if an invisible weight was pushing it down. The bolts snapped with a gunshot noise and the section of roofing tumbled away inside the building. Two more panels broke free and vanished, then a third. The low roar of the wind became a howl.

"Is it a hurricane?" asked Jamie.

"We don't get hurricanes in California," said Anne.

A shriek of metal came from the building. They looked back in time to see Site B's security door crumple inward and vanish. Clouds of loose sand and leaves raced after it through the door frame. A moment later two more roof panels tore loose and plunged inside.

"I think we should back up," said Arthur, taking a few steps away and leaning on his cane.

"I agree," said Mike.

"What about Neil?" asked Sasha.

Mike glanced at her and gave a small shake of his head.

"Half the building just collapsed," Olaf said.

Mike took a few steps back. Jamie followed him and pulled close, calling into his ear over the tumult. "What is it?"

Mike opened his mouth and thunder rumbled above them. They all looked up. The clouds were building up, blocking the sun. Drops fell on their faces.

"What the f.u.c.k is going on?!" shouted Sasha.

"It's raining," said Olaf. It was more a general statement than a response. He sounded confused.

"I think it's decompression," said Mike.

"What?"

He raised his voice over the low howl. "The whole building's getting sucked into the rings. Everything is. It's creating a huge low pressure zone in the atmosphere." He gestured up at the sky. "It's changing the weather."

The wind rippled their hair and clothes. Arthur stepped back again. Mike and Jamie did the same. Anne stumbled after them. Sasha and Olaf stood where they were, staring at Site B.

Then it stopped, like a fan being unplugged. The wind died down. The air grew still. The rain continued to patter down, slowly darkening the pavement.

What was left of Site B stopped shaking. Concrete dust and gravel poured from the cracks in the wall. A section the size of a small car slid free and crashed to the ground. It took half of the green letter "B" with it. One of the surviving roof panels squeaked as it swung back and forth on its last bolt.

They stared at the remains of the building for a moment. Then Sasha ran forward. "Neil," she yelled. "Neil, are you okay?"

They headed for the building. Anne stayed where she was, staring at the ruin. She had the blissful but vacant look of soldiers after surviving an artillery barrage.

Sasha paused at the doorway and then headed inside. The others stopped to look at the damage. Mike touched what was left of the hinges. Two of them had torn free of the door and swung loose. The third was twisted and snapped at the pin.

Jamie stepped inside. "All the wiring's gone," she said. "The conduits are stripped right off the walls."

Olaf's head craned back. "The lights are gone, too. h.e.l.l, almost everything's gone."

"Neil," shouted Sasha. Her voice echoed in the cavernous s.p.a.ce. "Neil, where the f.u.c.k are you?"

Arthur walked forward and looked at a fallen piece of machinery. It was one of the huge resistors. He tapped it twice with the end of his cane. There was a path of scratches in the concrete behind it.

They walked deeper in. Only the heaviest and most solid items had made it through the incident. Anything small or loose was gone.

The rings stood in the center of the barren s.p.a.ce. Patches of frost covered the steel ramp. It let off puffs of steam as raindrops. .h.i.t it through the open roof. All but one of the carapace sections had been stripped away, exposing endless loops of copper wire. A few cables hung loose. The connecting hoses were gone.

"I don't see anything," said Arthur. He pointed at the rings. "On the other side of the Door, I mean. I don't think it's working anymore."

Mike looked. The view through the rings was the side wall of the ruined building. He took a few steps and checked from a different angle. The view stayed the same.

Sasha finished her circuit of the room and joined them. "I can't find him," she said. She gazed at the dead rings.

"Let's not give up yet," said Jamie. She looked at Mike. "Do you think he's still here somewhere?"

"I hope so," Mike said. "I don't want to think about where else he might be."

THIRTY-NINE.

They didn't find Neil.

Arthur reported the building collapse to DARPA. He said nothing about Neil's disappearance. Then Mike talked to Reggie and tried to get him as caught up as possible.

"So Ben's not crazy?"

"No," Mike said, "he isn't. But Becky isn't an impostor, either. It's a point-of-view issue." He settled back in his chair. He'd propped the tablet up on the table so most of the trailer would be visible behind him.

"Which means what?"

"Going through the Albuquerque Door changed him," said Mike. "Just not in the way we've been thinking."

"So he's changed, but not crazy?"

"Yeah. This Ben had slightly different memories and experiences."

"This Ben?" Reggie looked at him for a moment. "I take it there are a few things you're not telling me."

"For the moment, lots of stuff," Mike said. "There've been some...developments."

"Are they cloning people or something?"

"No."

"Seriously, is everything okay out there?"

Mike didn't look at the screen. "It's what you were worried about."

"I was worried about a couple of different things."

"There are some complications with the Albuquerque Door. With the Door itself."

"What kind of complications?"

"I'd rather not say at the moment. We're still trying to figure them out."

"We?"

"Yeah. Me, Arthur, the rest of the team."

On the tablet, Reggie leaned in close. "You haven't gone all Stockholm Syndrome on me out there, have you?"

"Cute."

"Answer the question."

"No, I have not."

"You're okay? No stress? No pressure?"

"No more than you'd expect in this situation, I guess."

"So what's going on?"

"I don't think I can really explain it like this."

A scowl washed across Reggie's face and was gone. "Why not?"

"Because it's complicated and because I know you," said Mike, "and I know how you react to things. Charging in with a lot of people and micromanaging isn't going to help anything right now."

"And you think that's what I'd do." It wasn't really a question.

"I know that's what you'd do."

"So why shouldn't I? You're telling me a building's collapsed, a bunch of very expensive equipment's been destroyed, one of my a.s.sistant directors isn't crazy, but he's been changed into a different person somehow. And that charging in would be my normal reaction at this point."

"Because you told me to take care of things out here," Mike said. "I'm taking care of it, and then I'm going to tell you everything. Just like we talked about when you hired me."

They stared at each other through the screen.

"I need you to find a way to salvage this," said Reggie.

"I'm not sure that's possible, at this point."

"You've got until the end of the week."

"Okay," Mike said. "Thanks."

"And you'd better have a ton of answers by then. Or else."

"Or else what?"

Reggie didn't smile. "Or else." He reached out and the screen went dark.

In the kitchen area, Jamie sighed. "That could've gone better."

Mike flipped the tablet down on its face. "Better than I thought it might."

"Yeah?"

He dipped his head at the tablet. "Worst case, I could've seen him taking control, ordering us all off campus, and launching a full investigation."

"He can't do that."

"With his connections? Sure he can. I bet he could arrange some kind of 'security drill' that would drop a hundred Marines from Camp Pendleton here in the next half hour or so. And then we'll never find out what's happening here."

Jamie scowled.

"So," Mike said, "we've got until the end of the week. We should get back to work."

"Yeah," she said. "You want to have s.e.x?"

He looked at her. "Right now?"

"Yeah."

"Why?"

"Because it was a lot of fun the first few times," she said, "no matter who you turned out to be. And it means we can put off watching the security footage for a while longer."

"We need to."

"I have needs, too."