Falling Ark Page 18

  Within a couple of years Bill reduced his error rate down to practically zero, had expanded the system across the nation and was about to enter twelve more countries. He was a billionaire before the age of thirty.

  That’s the nice guy image that his biography was trying to portray. I could tell from Sam that this was not always the case.

  “Bill, while he is a very successful businessman, has no boundaries.” Sam started. “Have you ever thought about how he started his business. He investigated the spending habits of thousands of people, without their consent. It was a massive invasion of privacy, before people even understood what that meant.”

  “I suppose your right.” I agreed.

  “He’ll also do whatever it takes. He claims that if people are happy with the service then they don’t mind the spying. I would argue that they simply don’t understand what is really going on.” Sam said and I could tell he was getting physically worked up.

  “Are you sure Bill is someone we should be asking for help from?” I asked, noticing that Sam was gripping the table, hard.

  “Yes.” Sam sighed. “Massive data breaches and lack of morals aside, Bill hates Lara and has the resources to do something about it.”

  “I’ll trust you on this then. I am assuming you know how to contact him?” I questioned.

  “I could call him up. Are you ready to speak now?” Sam replied.

  “Call him up? Do our phones work at this altitude?” I queried.

  “Of course. Ava did some magic with the ships satellite connection.” Sam explained.

  Of course she had. That girl was full of tricks.

  “Just let me do the talking.” Sam said, adjusting his shoulders and gaining a few more inches in height by standing up straight.

  As I stood next to him, Sam started to press at things in the air over the holotable. I couldn’t see it what he was doing, all I saw was the floating ship, but soon a cartoon version of Bills head appeared in the middle of the table wearing his trademark cowboy hat.

  The head started to vibrate, and I figured that was the signal that his phone was ringing, although it looked more like he was having a seizure. After a few moments Bill answered.

  “Sam! It’s been a long time! How’s it going?” I heard Bills voice through the table speaker and the holographic display mimed along.

  “Hi Bill. It has been a long time hasn’t it. I hope that new data centre you were building is working well?” Sam replied.

  “It is indeed. Thanks for your help in moving them Eskimos. Ancient burial ground or not, it was the best place for a data centre!”

  “No problem. Look Bill, we have a proposal for you, and you might want to sit down for it.” Sam informed him.

  “We? Who have you got there? And I am sitting down, shoot!” Bill replied with a confident tone.

  “How would you like to take down VisionTech’s CEO Lara Smith?” Sam asked and immediately the phone went quiet for a few seconds. “Bill, are you still there?”

  “Look Sam.” Bills tone had gone from cheery to cold in a matter of moments. “You know there is nothing I would like more than to take down that woman, she threatens everything and everyone she meets but I am getting to old for that kind of fight.”

  “Well, how about this then.” Sam continued to explain. “We are currently flying a VisionTech cargo ship and we are being hunted down by Lara. We stole her company secrets, secrets that involve anti-gravity, biological warfare, weapons of mass-destruction, end of the world stuff.”

  “Did you say flying?” Bill questioned.

  “That’s right. Using some anti-gravity drives that a friend developed while working with Lara, before she tried to kill him and hide the technology.” Sam looked at me, his eyes saying, ‘Did I sum that up correctly?’.

  I gave him a thumbs up looked back at the cartoon face floating on the table.

  “You have my interest but what do you need from me?” Bill replied.

  “We need a safe place to hide out. A place to gather our thoughts and figure out what we are going to do. A place where Lara can’t get to us. Any moment now we are expecting to see a fleet of planes appear over the horizon to shoot us out of the sky. We need your help.” I could tell that Sam was using his experience now, pulling on the heart strings of a billionaire and letting them know that only they can help, playing right into our hands.

  The truth was, we felt quite safe up here, knowing that there was very little chance that Lara could find us, but Bill didn’t need to know that.

  “That is quite a situation you have there. You are always welcome on my ranch. It’s safe and protected and I have a lake where you can park a ship.” Bill said, clearly confused by the situation. I suppose he isn’t used to people bringing their own container ship with them when they visit. “I have an idea to ensure that you can get to the ranch safely, if your prepared to hear it.”

  “Absolutely, what are you thinking?” Sam asked and we both leaned in to hear what the hologram on the table had to say.

  “I am about eight hundred miles from your location. I am on my yacht but there is no way my helicopter can get up to your altitude. If you can pick me up, we can chat about it in person.” Bill informed us. “I’m sending my co-ordinates to you now.”

  Then the screen changed to a display showing our ship floating high in the air and a blinking marker showing Bills location far below in open water just off the coast of Norway.

  “How do you know where we are?” Sam asked, worry in his voice.

  “Don’t you remember, I know more about you than you know about yourself!” Bill quipped his trademark catchphrase. “Come and pick me up and we can talk about it, I’ll be waiting.” The phone went dead, and the little floating cowboy head dissolved.

  “How could he possibly know where we are?” I worriedly asked.

  “I told you, invading privacy is what he does.” Sam said. “What’s worrying me is if he knows where we are then Lara might too. I’ve closed the communications and I’ll move the ship again.”

  “Can we trust him?” I asked one final time.

  “He is our best chance, even with all the complications he brings with him. I’ll take one of the planes and pick him up if that’s fine with you?”

  This startled me a bit. Sam didn’t need my approval, as far as I was concerned, he was running the show.

  “Sure. If you know we can trust him, go get him. Do you want to take Hank with you? Just in case.” I asked.

  “No, I think I’ll be fine. Just keep the ship in the air and I’ll see you soon.” Sam said and then leaned over the desk as we looked for a suitable rendezvous point.

  Chapter 22

  When I was younger, ‘Billionaire Bill’ was all over the news. Magazines and TV shows were always interviewing him. In recent years Bill had gone quiet. Ironically, for someone whose success started by invading privacy, he was now a recluse. It was hard to find any recent pictures of him. Just information that he was spending time with his family and running the company from behind the scenes.

  Hank was hesitant about Sam flying down and picking Bill up. It could easily be a trap, something could go wrong, or Bill might be trying to steal the tech for himself. All of these possibilities Sam agreed with but he still went alone. We even suggested sending a plane to him via remote control now that Ava had set up the controls.

  Rightly or wrongly, he insisted that Bill would only trust us if someone went to him in person and we all knew he was correct. As he landed back on the ship with our special guest I was feeling nervous, I was about to meet a childhood hero.

  Sam entered the bridge, followed by a tall and slender man with wispy grey hair underneath a cowboy hat. He wore a dark grey three-piece suit and walked with a cane. I wasn’t sure if he actually needed the cane, he was in his late fifties and he seemed as fit and nimble as someone half his age but I suppose it was part of the style he was going for. He reminded me of someone from the Victorian era with a slight hint of steam punk thrown i
n, probably due to the gold chain leading to a monocle in his breast pocket.

  “Nice to have you on board Mr Jones.” I said humbly and reached out my hand for him to shake it.

  “Call me Bill.” He replied and gave my hand a shake with unexpected power. He could have given Hank a run for his money in the handshake department. It was clearly a powerplay on his part.

  “You must be Dom. Sam has told me everything and I have to say I am impressed that you lasted this long against Lara, she has ordered the removal of several people from her company, off the record of course, and I have never heard of anyone escaping, three times! Well done!” He reached out to shake my hand again.

  “Bill has some ideas that I think you might like.” Sam informed me.

  He went over to a cabinet where the captain kept an assortment of drinks and he poured Bill a whiskey.

  We all sat down on the chairs in front of the window overlooking the deck of the ship. The chairs, although bolted to the floor were capable of spinning and we all turned to face each other, my back to the view outside.

  “Let’s get straight down to business.” Bill said, taking a sip from his glass and giving Sam an approving smile. “I have a ranch in Kentucky that should suit your needs. It’s quiet and very remote and has a surveillance system that is second to none, at least that is what Sam told me when he designed it.”

  He laughed and slapped Sam on the knee at that point. Sam laughed along and glanced me a look to make sure I was happy with the situation.

  I smiled back. Bill seemed a bit ostentatious, but it was all part of his act.

  “You wanted the best, that’s what you got!” Sam replied. “I had Ava do a lot of the programming, that was one of the first jobs we did together.”

  “That’s right, you did, but she never came to site, is she here?” Bill asked and he sat up looking around.

  I was about to speak before Sam jumped in.

  “No, she isn’t on board although we might be picking her up soon.” Sam gave me a knowing look to play along. I didn’t know what kind of games he was playing or what the history was with Bill, Ava and him so I kept quiet.

  “Right then boys here’s what I think.” Bill leant forward, clasping the glass of whiskey in his hands. “As soon as you start moving this thing, Lara is going to be able to track you, but you guys know that right?”

  “I don’t think so.” Sam replied. “We have locked down all communications, no signals are getting in or out of this flying fortress. Also, we are too high for the satellites to spot us and we are in the middle of the North Sea. I think we are quite safe.”

  Sam looked quite happy with himself.

  “Yes, all that is very good and perfectly adequate if you plan to stay in one place and hide, but, the moment you start moving, you push this huge iron ship through the sky, you will disrupt Earth’s magnetic field. Ionising the upper atmosphere and creating a noticeable signature of your location. Not much of a signature, but Lara can detect things like that. She’ll know where you are before you do.” Bill sat back.

  Sam looked at me, the resident ‘science guy’ to confirm what he was saying.

  “I suppose she could, she has sensors all around the world looking for things like that. Mostly to detect earthquakes and weather patterns but they could be used to detect large flying metal objects in the air.” I replied, looking at Sam as his face dropped.

  “Why didn’t some one tell me!” Sam yelled. “Where’s Derek? This was his idea!”

  I had never seen Sam break like this. He was normally calm, calculated, but apparently this news interrupted most of his plans, he didn’t like the unexpected.

  “Let me get this straight.” Sam continued. “We will be safe at your ranch, but as soon as we try to get there we will be spotted.”

  “That’s right.” Bill confirmed.

  “Great!” Sam moaned.

  “I don’t want to add to your stress, but it also seems like you have a bit of a problem with image as well.” Bill added.

  “What do you mean?” Sam asked.

  “I mean, Lara has spent the past few days blaming everything on you. The explosion at Tony’s restaurant, the giant tree that sprouted out of her facility, blowing up the oil rig, and now you stole her ship. She is trying to label you as terrorists, the highest possible threat the world has seen, and she is trying to get the worlds governments to use their military might to hunt you down.” Bill informed us.

  “Fantastic!” Sam said, sarcastically. “She is starting to sound like the good guy in all of this. She is hording world changing technologies from the population, but that doesn’t matter because we are ‘terrorists’.”

  “Don’t panic.” I said, trying to calm the mood.

  “Don’t panic! What should we do then?” Sam asked, standing up and moving over to the window. He was not taking the news very well.

  “I have one idea.” Bill prompted. “Go public. Explain your cause and, most importantly, invite members of the press and political leaders on board to show them the technology that is being withheld.”

  “I don’t know if we are ready for that.” I said.

  “Yes, but if we do, we can move the ship and allow our position to be known. There is no way that Lara will attack a ship full of politicians and world leaders.” Sam chirped in; his mood lifted by the idea.

  “Once you get close enough to my ranch, let’s say within a thousand miles, I can activate my network and flood Lara’s systems with information, overloading them temporarily and hiding our exact location. It should give you enough time to get to the ranch and land.” Bill explained.

  “This actually sounds like a feasible idea but who would come on board at such short notice?” I asked.

  I noticed Sam and Bill eying each other, I could tell that they had thought of a lot of people and they were silently inviting more.

  “This sounds like our best plan. Let’s get the ship ready for guests.” Sam said. He pressed a button which sounded the klaxon to gather the crew.

  A screech sounded around the ship and red lights flashed all over the deck. This was designed to alert the crew of dangerous weather but Sam had started to use it as a school bell to assemble the crew members.

  I looked at Sam and he was staring at me intensely. He was trying to hint at something. Once he had my attention his eyes darted from me, out of the window to the middle of the ship and then back, repeatedly. What was he hinting at that he couldn’t say out loud? It took me a few moments before I realised. Ava!

  We told Bill she was not on board and I better go and stop her walking in here. I don’t know why Sam fed Bill that lie but who was I to question Sam right now.

  I made my excuses and left the control tower as people started to flood in, leaving Sam to explain the details of the plan.

  I found Ava exactly where I knew she would be. In the depths of the ship, sat next to the refrigeration unit.

  She was crouched on the floor learning against the steel wall with two heavily fleeced jackets around her. She looked cold and unhappy about something.

  I don’t know why she insisted on sitting down here. She could plug into the supercomputer from anywhere in the ship, the whole place was wired up, but she insisted on being here, next to the large metal refrigeration unit that contained the supercomputer circuit boards.

  Finding her here, just outside the fridge entrance wasn’t surprising, I was thankful and slightly amazed that she wasn’t sat in the fridge, in the cold, she had also been known to do that recently.

  “You look cold!” I said as I turned the corner and saw her on the floor.

  She jumped at my voice. She acted like she didn’t know I was there but I could tell that this was a fake reaction. I had seen the cameras swivelling and following me around the ship as I got closer, she had watched me walk down to her.

  Her head lifted away from the laptop screen that sat in her lap and she let out a forced smile.

  “What’s up?” I asked. I could tell th
at she was unhappy about something, she wasn’t her normal, perky self.

  “Did you invite him on the ship?” She asked.

  “Who?” I asked, not catching on.

  “Bill!” She yelled, showing me the laptop screen. A live video feed of the bridge was on display, zoomed in on Bill who was sitting at the back of the now crowded room.

  “No, Sam knew him and invited him. Why?” I was a little taken aback at the accusations and coldness that she had for me. She hadn’t snapped at me like this since the day we first met when she pretended to be tough.

  She had been happy and bubbly this morning when I brought her some breakfast. Now she resembled a stone-cold killer.

  “Did he ask about me?” Ava asked in a monotone voice.

  “Yes” I replied, looking down at my shoes, not making eye contact, unsure where to look. “Sam told him you were not here. That’s why I came down, to make sure you don’t bump into him.”

  “Don’t worry, I will not do that.” She replied and she started to smile more naturally now that she found out we had protected her.

  “Is it something you want to talk about?” I asked.

  This was a mistake and I knew it the moment the words left my lips.

  “Nope. It’s fine.” Ava said sharply, withdrawing and putting up her defences again. She climbed to her feet and closed the laptop.

  “Can I see Lovelace then?” I asked, trying to change the subject. “I bet you’ve got something new and interesting happening.”

  At this comment her eyes widened and a genuine smile gleamed from her small, pretty face.

  “Yes!” she said, happy that I had changed topic. She took one of the two, fleece lined VisionTech jackets off and threw it at me. “Here, you’ll need this!”

  As I put on the coat Ava pulled open the large steel bolt that held the refrigerator door closed. A cold mist spilled out from the base of the opening and Ava bounced through, I followed struggling to get the coat on in time.

  “Hurry, let me help!” Ava grabbed me and helped me put the coat on. In my defence it was twisted, but still, I felt very emasculated. Ava however, seemed to enjoy it.