Lucy watched the screen through red eyes that saw the world through a blur. She hadn't sleep for the past thirty hours. The programmers were asleep on the floor having exhausted the last of their stamina under the nearly constant pressure from Lucy.
Even if she hadn't been so tired, it would have been hard to interpret the results. There were a hundred curves all overlaid one upon another. After running twenty four hours, the model had projected ahead only twelve years. Considering the limited computing resources she had that was a good result. Of course, it wasn't enough to judge the accuracy of the model despite the fact that the model was making predictions that corresponded to the historical data she was using as a baseline.
Beth walked over to Lucy. Without saying a word, Beth grabbed her wrist and put her into a hand lock. Shocked, Lucy asked, "What are you doing?"
"I'm taking you to bed," Beth said leading the young woman away from the computer.
"I just want to see this," Lucy said knowing that it was useless to physically resist Beth.
It didn't prevent her from twisting her head to look at the screen that was getting further away with each step.
"I want to be adored by millions of men, but that isn't going to happen," Beth said wryly.
She continued to steer the woman down the hallway towards the elevator.
"Someone needs to watch it," Lucy said. She had to keep her feet moving in order to keep the pressure off of her arm.
"It is a computer program. No one needs to watch it," Beth answered. She pressed the call button for the elevator.
"Just let me watch it another hour," Lucy said.
"You can watch it another twelve hours," Beth said. Seeing Lucy perk up, she added,
"After you've gotten some sleep."
"That wasn't nice getting my hopes up like that," Lucy said finding herself in the elevator and heading downwards.
"It will all look better after you've had some sleep," Beth said with a smile. Sometimes it was necessary to intervene when someone was driving themselves too hard. Her husband, John, had done this same thing to her a dozen times in the past. She was pretty sure that he would do it again in the future.
Lucy stumbled along under the very physical guidance provided by Beth. She reached her bedroom in quick order. With an easy move, Beth had Lucy lying in the bed.
Standing over her, Beth said, "Sleep."
Yawning, Lucy said, "I'm not sleepy."
Beth stood over the young woman for a minute. She smiled when Lucy dropped off to sleep before the minute was over. Shaking her head, she said, "William found a good one when he found you."
Riding along side of William, Ed was listening to half of a conversation. For the past seven days William had been getting several calls a day. He had to believe that the calls were important in order to justify calling him when he was out in the desert. His curiosity had been aroused and he was going to get it satisfied. When William closed his cell phone, Ed asked, "What was that about?"
"That was Beth. She called to tell me that she put Lucy to bed," William answered with a smile. He couldn't help but wonder why Lucy had not been to bed in over thirty hours.
"Our Beth?" Ed asked surprised to learn that Lucy was with Beth. As far as he knew, Beth had been in Dallas working on a major project.
"That's right," William answered.
"Where are they?" Ed asked.
"At our house," William answered.
Feeling frustrated that he had to pull information out of William one fact at a time, Ed asked, "What's going on?"
"It appears that Lucy is trying to arrange a surprise for me. According to Barbara, she's spend almost half a billion dollars on it," William answered with a smile.
"Half a billion dollars?" Dale asked wide-eyed. He knew that William was rich, but hearing about that kind of money made him dizzy.
"Yes," William answered.
Ed said, "It must be a big surprise."
"Well, I don't know what her surprise is so she's been successful," William replied. He had his suspicions, but he didn't attempt to confirm them by probing the future. If Lucy was going to so much trouble, he didn't want to ruin it.
Ed's truth sense let him know that William was telling the truth. The fact that William didn't know what Lucy was doing was very surprising. Ed was silent while riding through the desert. He kept glancing over at William and shaking his head. He had a pretty good idea how much William was worth, but it was still hard to believe that William could accept that kind of expenditure without showing a reaction.
Dale asked, "Aren't you worried about her spending that much money?"
"Not really," William answered. Seeing the shocked expression on Dale's face, William said, "I trust her. She wouldn't spend that much money without having a very good reason."
"Does that make you poor?" Dale asked.
"No," William answered. He was going to have to clear out his play money account and sell two hundred million dollars worth of his conservative investments. He said, "I guess I'll just sell off one of my smaller office buildings in New York."
"One of your smaller office buildings?" Dale asked wondering if he had heard William correctly. He knew that there were buildings in New York that cost more than a billion dollars.
"Yes," William answered.
The men stopped the horses in front of a gate to William's property. William dismounted and handed the reins to Dale. He stretched a moment and then walked over to the gate. It was a standard western style gate common on ranches across the entire country; namely two posts connected by three strands of barbed wire. One post was permanently attached to the fence post with baling wire. The other post had the bottom in a loop of bailing wire and the top held in place by another loop of bailing wire. William slipped the top wire off the post and lifted the post out of the bottom loop. He carried the fence post over to the side so that the horse could enter his property.
"We'll be at your house in about six hours," Dale said riding through the opening. It took him some time since he had to move far enough past the gate to get William's horse and the pack horse through it.
"These two weeks passed in a flash," William said. He had enjoyed the days under the scorching sun and the nights under the stars. Ed had collected a few rock specimens, but most of the time had been spent appreciating desert.
"I could spend years out here," Ed said following Dale onto the property. He was leading a pack horse and stopped beside Dale.
William laughed and said, "Tell me something I don't know."
"What can I say?" Ed replied with a shrug of his shoulders. He was at home in the desert.
William spent a minute getting the gate back in place. Dale watched and said, "It has been nice being out here. Tomorrow, I go back to work. There are times when I get so tired of listening to other people's problems."
"You have no idea how nice it is to spend ten days without hearing a lie," Ed said settling back in his saddle.
William grinned and said, "We can't have that. I'm sure that between Dale and me, we can come up with some real whoppers."
"You don't have to do that on my account," Ed said giving William a dirty look. He knew he was teasing, but ten days without hearing a lie had been a great relief. He doubted that he'd get home before hearing a lie.
Dale laughed at the exchange. He handed the reins over to William and said, "We're burning daylight."
"You're right, William said while climbing on his horse.
It was easy to forget for Dale to forget that he was out there with two Druids. Away from everyone else and the responsibilities thrust upon them, they were just men who appreciated the desert. There were times when he felt sorry for the two men. He was just a medicine man for the tribe and the responsibilities of that position weighed heavily upon him. He couldn't imagine what it was like to feel responsible for the world at large.
Ed noticed the introspective expression on Dale's face. He said, "You're thinking deep thoughts, Dale."
"Sometimes I wonder how the two of you bear up to the strain," Dale said.
"Family helps," William answered.
"So do friends," Ed added.
Nodding his head, William said, "Friends are important."
"Patrick will be starting at the Native American College in a few weeks. We'll be seeing more of him," Dale said.
"That's true," William said. He grinned and asked, "Should we invite him to another hunt?"
Dale laughed and said, "He'll be home around Thanksgiving. I suppose we could go deer hunting for a day or two."
Having seen several dozen deer over the past three days, Ed said, "You've got a lot of deer around here."
"Too many. The herds are worried," Dale said.
Ed heard the truth of his words, but still found it hard to believe. It was easy to forget that the two young men talked with animals. William said, "I'm pretty sure that a cougar will be moving into the area soon."
"I'd say it would take up in the canyon area, but that is too close to the house," Ed said.
William shrugged his shoulders and said, "I'll talk to it and let it know that we won't bother it so long as it leaves people alone."
"Ah," Ed said shaking his head. Although he had been around William a lot over the past year, it was still a little shocking to see the kinds of things that William took for granted.
"Culling three older deer will alleviate some of the pressures on the herds," Dale said looking down at the ground. There was a deer print in the sandy soil on the trail they were riding.
"That should do it. A fourth deer would assure it," William said looking over at Ed.
Ed shook his head and said, "I'm going to be in Antarctica. I bet Leroy would enjoy a day or two of hunting."
"How about Dan?" William asked.
Ed smiled at the question and said, "Dan doesn't like to hunt."
"I didn't know that," William said.
The three men rode along for a while without talking. After a bit, Ed said, "It is time to give the horses a bit of rest."
Having heard the disturbing noise of earth moving equipment for the past two hours, Ed rode ahead to see what was happening. Upon coming over the rise, Ed looked at the equipment that was tearing a hole in the ground. A very large crane was lifting dirt out of the hole in a monster clam bucket. Ed stared at the machine wondering where they had found it. It spun around and dumped dirt on a very impressive pile that ran behind the machine. The pile ran a hundred yards in length and looked to be about twenty-five yards high. There was no telling how wide it was based on where Ed was sitting on horseback.
Based on how far the bucket was lowered into the hole, Ed estimated that the hole was at least forty feet deep.
He waited for William to ride up to him. When William finally reached him, Ed asked,
"What's with the hole in the ground?"
William looked at the activity and adjusted his cowboy hat. He answered, "I don't know."
"What do you mean, you don't know?" Dale asked. That kind of activity didn't happen overnight. Of course, there had been nothing there when they had left two weeks earlier.
William studied the action for a minute and then said, "It looks like they are building an underground facility."
"It could be a mine," Dale said. They were still two miles from the house and it didn't make sense to him to build something like that in the middle of nowhere.
"Beth is here. I bet she has something to do with this," William said.
Ed shook his head and said, "Beth designs buildings. She doesn't dig mines."
"I'll admit that it looks like a mine, but there's nothing here to mine," William said.
"That's true," Ed said. He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. He put his hat back on his head and said, "You must be right. Beth must be behind this."
Dale said, "Let's head to the house. This is giving me a headache."
"Is it because of the damage to the desert?" Ed asked looking over at Dale. He remembered that Dale was named Spirit of Desert Rock. He wondered if the excavation was hurting the Earth Mother.
"No. I just don't like the noise," Dale answered wryly.
Ed laughed feeling like he had walked into that one. He nudged his horse and rode on towards the house chuckling. William winked at Dale and nudged his horse forward. As they rode past the hole, a bulldozer drove up a ramp that led down into the hole.
William stared at the dozer while riding past it. He shook his head and said, "I wonder what Lucy is doing."
Dale said, "I hope that isn't what she's spending a half a billion dollars on."
William laughed and said, "That would be an expensive hole."
"A real money pit," Dale said with a grin.
William laughed and said, "Let's head to the house."
Despite their curiosity of what was happening out in the desert, William, Dale, and Ed took their time taking care of the horses upon returning to the ranch. The five horses were brushed down, watered, and then fed. The contented animals were left their stalls for the night. The saddles were cleaned and put back where they belonged. Ed's camping gear was stacked by the door of the stable to be loaded in his hugger. Dale's gear was dropped off in the back of his pickup truck. William's gear was returned to the storage room of the stable.
William led the other two men to the private entrance to the house. Much to their surprise, Dan was waiting for them. Ed asked, "What are you doing here?"
"I'm selling computers door to door," Dan answered with a wink.
"You don't say," Ed said looking over at his husband.
Dan said, "Lucy is waiting for William in the workroom."
"We'll go there now," William said.
"I think Ed and Dale should go with me down to the pool. I'm sure that after two weeks in the desert that a little time in the water will feel great," Dan said not looking in Dale's direction. Lucy had instructed him to send William to the lab alone.
William's eyebrows rose a little. Nodding his head, he said, "You might be right."
The four men got on the elevator. When the elevator reached the second floor, William got out and said, "I'll catch up with you in a little while."
"Okay," Ed said even as the elevator door closed.
William walked to the private workshop. Entering the room, he stopped and looked at Lucy. She looked tired, but very pleased. Doing his best Desi Arnez imitation, he said,
"Lucy, I'm home."
Lucy laughed and went over to hug him. He was a little rank after having spent two weeks in the desert. She ignored the assault on her nostrils and kissed him. Stepping back, she said, "I've got a surprise for you."
"It wouldn't have anything to do with that hole we rode past on the way here?" William asked gesturing in the direction of the hole.
Lucy frowned and said, "You saw that?"
"We couldn't miss it," William said.
Lucy said, "I kind of spent some money while you were gone."
"Really?" William asked.
"I got a little carried away," Lucy said looking a little nervous.
"How much?" William asked.
Hoping that he wouldn't be upset, Lucy said, "About a half of a billion dollars."
"All of that money is going to come out of your allowance," William said. Seeing her surprised reaction, he winked. Chuckling, he said, "Barbara called and told me that you wanted to spend four hundred and fifty million dollars."
"Oh," Lucy said with a frown. She asked, "Did she tell you what I bought?"
"No. She told me that you had a surprise for me," William said. He looked around the room to see what Lucy wanted to show him.
"Good," Lucy said with a grin.
William asked, "So what is the surprise?"
Lucy stepped over to the desk and picked up a remote control. She pressed a button and four projectors came on. As the pictures slowly brightened, she said, "The last fifty years of economic possibilities."
William turned to look at the projected image. Stepping forward, he studied the tree that ran from left to right. He asked, "Where's the historical data?"
Lucy smiled and went over to the computer keyboard. She pressed a button and one of the lines turned red. She said, "That line is history."
William took a long slow breath. Staring at the curves, he said, "It is beautiful, isn't it?"
"Yes, it is," Lucy said watching the look of awe on his face. She understood what he was feeling. For the past six hours, she had stared at the display transfixed by its sheer beauty.
He walked up the display. His body blocked the image. He ran a hand along a line and asked, "What would the world have been like if we had followed this line?"
Lucy went over to the computer and moved a cursor over the line. She clicked on it and said, "You'll see the economic and social measures printed over there while that line is traced out."
William watched the numbers change. The social and economic trends traced out were a lot better than what had actually occurred. He said, "This is beautiful."
"You like it?" Lucy asked watching him. It was clear that he appreciated the results being presented, but she wanted to hear him say the words.
"I like it a lot," William answered. He looked over at her with a grin and said, "I'm also a little disappointed."
"Why?" Lucy asked with a frown.
"I really wanted to see you solve that problem," William said.
"Sorry," Lucy said looking over at him. She smiled and said, "I promise that you'll get to see me solve the next one."
"You better," William said.
Remembering his smell, Lucy said, "Go shower and then meet me in the bedroom. I've been horny ever since I figured out the transform functions."