DAY 6 2:52 P.M.
I was the first one out the door, squinting1 in the desert sunlight. Even though it was almost three o’clock, the sun seemed as bright and hot as ever. A hot wind ruffled2 my trousers and shirt. I pulled my headset mouthpiece closer to my lips and said, “Bobby, you reading?”
“I read you, Jack3.”
“Got an image?”
“Yes, Jack.”
Charley Davenport came out and laughed. He said, “You know, Ricky, you really are a stupid shmuck. You know that?”
Over my headset, I heard Ricky say, “Save it. You know I don’t like compliments. Just get on with it.”
Mae came through the door next. She had a backpack slung4 over one shoulder. She said to me, “For the isotopes5.”
“Are they heavy?”
“The containers are.”
Then David Brooks7 came out, with Rosie close behind him. She made a face as she stepped onto the sand. “Jesus, it’s hot,” she said.
“Yeah, I think you’ll find deserts tend to be that way,” Charley said.
“No shit, Charley.”
“I wouldn’t shit you, Rosie.” He belched8.
I was busy scanning the horizon, but I saw nothing. The cars were parked under a shed about fifty yards away. The shed ended in a square white concrete building with narrow windows. That was the storage unit.
We started toward it. Rosie said, “Is that place air-conditioned?”
“Yes,” Mae said. “But it’s still hot. It’s poorly insulated.”
“Is it airtight?” I said.
“Not really.”
“That means no,” Davenport said, laughing. He spoke9 into his headset. “Bobby, what wind do we have?”
“Seventeen knots,” Bobby Lembeck said. “Good strong wind.”
“And how long until the wind dies? Sunset?”
“Probably, yeah. Another three hours.”
I said, “That’ll be plenty of time.”
I noticed that David Brooks was not saying anything. He just trudged10 toward the building. Rosie followed close behind him.
“But you never know,” Davenport said. “We could all be toast. Any minute now.” He laughed again, in his irritating way.
Ricky said, “Charley, why don’t you shut the fuck up?”
“Why don’t you come out and make me, big boy?” Charley said. “What’s the matter, your veins11 clogged12 with chicken shit?”
I said, “Let’s stay focused, Charley.”
“Hey, I’m focused. I’m focused.”
The wind was blowing sand, creating a brownish blur13 just above the ground. Mae walked beside me. She looked across the desert and said abruptly14, “I want to have a look at the rabbit. You all go ahead if you want.”
She headed off to the right, toward the carcass. I went with her. And the others turned in a group and followed us. It seemed everybody wanted to stay together. The wind was still strong. Charley said, “Why do you want to see it, Mae?”
“I want to check something.” She was pulling on gloves as she walked.
The headset crackled. Ricky said, “Would somebody please tell me what the hell is going on?”
“We’re going to see the rabbit,” Charley said.
“What for?”
“Mae wants to see it.”
“She saw it before. Guys, you’re very exposed out there. I wouldn’t be waltzing around.”
“Nobody’s waltzing around, Ricky.”
By now I could see the rabbit in the distance, partially15 obscured by the blowing sand. In a few moments, we were all standing16 over the carcass. The wind had blown the body over on its side. Mae crouched17 down, turned it on its back, laid open the carcass.
“Jeez,” Rosie said.
I was startled to see that the exposed flesh was no longer smooth and pink. Instead, it was roughened everywhere, and in a few places looked as if it had been scraped. And it was covered by a milky18 white coating.
“Looks like it was dipped in acid,” Charley said.
“Yes, it does,” Mae said. She sounded grim.
I glanced at my watch. All this had occurred in two hours. “What happened to it?” Mae had taken out her magnifying glass and was bent19 close to the animal. She looked here and there, moving the glass quickly. Then she said, “It’s been partially eaten.”
“Eaten? By what?”
“Bacteria.”
“Wait a minute,” Charley Davenport said. “You think this is caused by Theta-d? You think the E. coli is eating it?”
“We’ll know soon enough,” she said. She reached into a pouch20, and pulled out several glass tubes containing sterile21 swabs.
“But it’s only been dead a short time.”
“Long enough,” Mae said. “And high temperatures accelerate growth.” She daubed the animal with one swab after another, replacing each in a glass tube. “Then the Theta-d must be multiplying very aggressively.”
“Bacteria will do that if you give them a good nutrient22 source. You shift into log phase growth where they’re doubling every two or three minutes. I think that’s what’s happening here.”
I said, “But if that’s true, it means the swarm23—”
“I don’t know what it means, Jack,” she said quickly. She looked at me and gave a slight shake of the head. The meaning was clear: not now.
But the others weren’t put off. “Mae, Mae, Mae,” Charley Davenport said. “You’re telling us that the swarms24 killed the rabbit in order to eat it? In order to grow more coli? And make more nanoswarms?”
“I didn’t say that, Charley.” Her voice was calm, almost soothing25. “But that’s what you think,” Charley continued. “You think the swarms consume mammalian tissue in order to reproduce—”
“Yes. That’s what I think, Charley.” Mae put her swabs away carefully, and got to her feet. “But I’ve taken cultures, now. We’ll run them in Luria and agerose, and we’ll see what we see.”
“I bet if we come back in another hour, this white stuff will be gone, and we’ll see black forming all over the body. New black nanoparticles. And eventually there’ll be enough for a new swarm.”
She nodded. “Yes. I think so, too.”
“And that’s why the wildlife around here has disappeared?” David Brooks said.
“Yes.” She brushed a strand26 of hair back with her hand. “This has been going on for a while.” There was a moment of silence. We all stood around the rabbit carcass, our backs to the blowing wind. The carcass was being consumed so quickly, I imagined I could almost see it happening right before my eyes, in real time.
“We better get rid of those fucking swarms,” Charley said.
We all turned, and set off for the shed.
Nobody spoke.
There was nothing to say.
As we walked ahead, some of those small birds that hopped27 around the desert floor under the cholla cactus28 suddenly took to the air, chittering and wheeling before us. I said to Mae, “So there’s no wildlife, but the birds are here?”
“Seems to be that way.”
The flock wheeled and came back, then settled to the ground a hundred yards away. “Maybe they’re too small for the swarms to bother with,” Mae said. “Not enough flesh on their bodies.”
“Maybe.” I was thinking there might be another answer. But to be sure, I would have to check the code.
I stepped from the sun into the shade of the corrugated29 shed, and moved along the line of cars toward the door of the storage unit. The door was plastered with warning symbols—for nuclear radiation, biohazard, microwaves, high explosives, laser radiation. Charley said, “You can see why we keep this shit outside.”
As I came to the door, Vince said, “Jack, you have a call. I’ll patch it.” My cell phone rang. It was probably Julia. I flipped30 it open. “Hello?”
“Dad.” It was Eric. With that emphatic31 tone that he got when he was upset.
I sighed. “Yes, Eric.”
“When are you coming back?”
“I’m not sure, son.”
“Will you be here for dinner?”
“I’m afraid not. Why? What’s the problem?”
“She is such an asshole.”
“Eric, just tell me what the problem—”
“Aunt Ellen sticks up for her all the time. It’s not fair.”
“I’m kind of busy now, Eric, so just tell me—”
“Why? What are you doing?”
“Just tell me what’s wrong, son.”
“Never mind,” he said, turning sulky, “if you’re not coming home, it doesn’t matter. Where are you, anyway? Are you in the desert?”
“Yes. How did you know that?”
“I talked to Mom. Aunt Ellen made us go to the hospital to see her. It’s not fair. I didn’t want to go. She made me anyway.”
“Uh-huh. How is Mom?”
“She’s checking out of the hospital.”
“She’s finished all her tests?”
“The doctors wanted her to stay,” Eric said. “But she wants to get out. She has a cast on her arm, that’s all. She says everything else is fine. Dad? Why do I always have to do what Aunt Ellen says? It’s not fair.”
“Let me talk to Ellen.”
“She isn’t here. She took Nicole to buy a new dress for her play.”
“Who’s with you at the house?”
“Maria.”
“Okay,” I said. “Have you done your homework?”
“Not yet.”
“Well, get busy, son. I want your homework done before dinner.” It was amazing how these lines just popped out of a parent’s mouth.
By now I had reached the storage room door. I stared at all the warning signs. There were several I didn’t know, like a diamond made up of four different colored squares inside, each with a number. Mae unlocked the door and went in.
“Dad?” Eric started to cry. “When are you coming home?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “I hope by tomorrow.”
“Okay. Promise?”
“I promise.”
I could hear him sniffling, and then through the phone a long snarff sound as he wiped his nose on his shirt. I told him he could call me later if he wanted to. He seemed better, and said okay, and then said good-bye.
I hung up, and entered the storage building.
The interior was divided into two large storage rooms, with shelves on all four walls, and freestanding shelves in the middle of the rooms. Concrete walls, concrete floor. There was another door in the second room, and a corrugated rollup door for truck deliveries. Hot sunlight came in through wood-frame windows. The air-conditioning rumbled32 noisily but, as Mae had said, the rooms were still hot. I closed the door behind me, and looked at the seal. It was just ordinary weather stripping. The shed was definitely not airtight. I walked along the shelves, stacked with bins33 of spare parts for the fabrication machinery34, and the labs. The second room had more mundane35 items: cleaning supplies, toilet paper, bars of soap, boxes of cereal, and a couple of refrigerators filled with food. I turned to Mae. “Where are the isotopes?”
“Over here.” She led me around a set of shelves, to a steel lid set in the concrete floor. The lid was about three feet in diameter. It looked like a buried garbage can, except for the glowing LED and keypad in the center. Mae dropped to one knee, and punched in a code quickly. The lid lifted with a hiss36.
I saw a ladder that led down into a circular steel chamber37. The isotopes were stored in metal containers of different sizes. Apparently38 Mae could tell which they were just by looking, because she said, “We have Selenium-172. Shall we use that?”
“Sure.”
Mae started to climb down into the chamber.
“Will you fucking cut it out?” In a corner of the room, David Brooks jumped back from Charley Davenport. Charley was holding a big spray bottle of Windex cleaner. He was testing the squeeze trigger mechanism39, and in the process spraying streaks40 of water on David. It didn’t look accidental. “Give me that damn thing,” David said, snatching the bottle away. “I think it might work,” Charley said blandly41. “But we’d need a remote mechanism.” From the first room, Rosie said, “Would this work?” She held up a shiny cylinder42, with wires dangling43 from it. “Isn’t this a solenoid relay?”
“Yes,” David said. “But I doubt it can exert enough force to squeeze this bottle. Has it got a rating? We need something bigger.”
“And don’t forget, you also need a remote controller,” Charley said. “Unless you want to stand there and spray the fucker yourself.”
Mae came up from below, carrying a heavy metal tube. She walked to the sink, and reached for a bottle of straw-colored liquid. She pulled on heavy rubber-coated gloves, and started to mix the isotope6 into the liquid. A radiation counter over the sink was chattering44. Over the headset, Ricky said, “Aren’t you guys forgetting something? Even if you have a remote, how are you going to get the cloud to come to it? Because I don’t think the swarm will just come over and stand there while you hose it down.”
“We’ll find something to attract them,” I said.
“Like what?”
“They were attracted to the rabbit.”
“We don’t have any rabbits.”
Charley said, “You know, Ricky, you are a very negative person.”
“I’m just telling you the facts.”
“Thank you for sharing,” Charley said.
Like Mae, Charley was seeing it, too: Ricky had dragged his feet every step of the way. It was as if Ricky wanted to keep the swarms alive. Which made no sense at all. But that’s how he was behaving.
I would have said something to Charley about Ricky, but over our headsets everybody heard everything. The downside of modern communications: everybody can listen in. “Hey guys?” It was Bobby Lembeck. “How’s it coming?”
“We’re getting there. Why?”
“The wind’s dropping.”
“What is it now?” I said.
“Fifteen knots. Down from eighteen.”
“That’s still strong,” I said. “We’re okay.”
“I know. I’m just telling you.”
From the next room, Rosie said, “What’s thermite?” In her hand she held a plastic tray filled with thumb-sized metal tubes.
“Careful with that,” David said. “It must be left over from construction. I guess they did thermite welding.”
“But what is it?”
“Thermite is aluminum45 and iron oxide,” David said. “It burns very hot—three thousand degrees—and so bright you can’t look directly at it. And it’ll melt steel for welding.”
“How much of that have we got?” I said to Rosie. “Because we can use it tonight.”
“There’s four boxes back there.” She plucked one tube from the box. “So how do you set ’em off?”
“Be careful, Rosie. That’s a magnesium46 wrapper. Any decent heat source will ignite it.”
“Even matches?”
“If you want to lose your hand. Better use road flares47, something with a fuse.”
“I’ll see,” she said, and she disappeared around the corner.
The radiation counter was still clicking. I turned to the sink. Mae had capped the isotope tube. She was now pouring the straw-colored liquid into a Windex bottle. “Hey, guys?” It was Bobby Lembeck again. “I’m picking up some instability. Wind’s fluctuating at twelve knots.”
“Okay,” I said. “We don’t need to hear every little change, Bobby.”
“I’m seeing some instability, is all.”
“I think we’re okay for the moment, Bobby.”
Mae was going to be another few minutes, in any case. I went over to a computer workstation and turned it on. The screen glowed; there was a menu of options. Aloud, I said, “Ricky, can I put up the swarm code on this monitor?”
“The code?” Ricky said. He sounded alarmed. “What do you want the code for?”
“I want to see what you guys have done.”
“Why?”
“Ricky, for Christ’s sake, can I see it or not?”
“Sure, of course you can. All the code revisions are in the directory slash48 code. It’s passworded.”
I was typing. I found the directory. But I wasn’t being allowed to enter it. “And the password is?”
“It’s l-a-n-g-t-o-n, all lowercase.”
“Okay.”
I entered the password. I was now in the directory, looking at a list of program modifications50, each with file size and date. The document sizes were large, which meant that these were all programs for other aspects of the swarm mechanism. Because the code for the particles themselves would be small—just a few lines, maybe eight, ten kilobytes, no more. “Ricky.”
“Yes, Jack.”
“Where’s the particle code?”
“Isn’t it there?”
“God damn it, Ricky. Stop screwing around.”
“Hey, Jack, I’m not responsible for the archiving—”
“Ricky, these are workfiles, not archives,” I said. “Tell me where.”
A brief pause. “There should be a subdirectory slash C-D-N. It’s kept there.”
I scrolled51 down. “I see it.”
Within this directory, I found a list of files, all very small. The modification49 dates started about six weeks ago. There was nothing new from the last two weeks. “Ricky. You haven’t changed the code for two weeks?”
“Yeah, about that.”
I clicked on the most recent document. “You got high-level summaries?” When these guys had worked for me, I always insisted that they write natural language summaries of the program structure. It was faster to review than documentation within the code itself. And they often solved logic52 problems when they had to write it out briefly53. “Should be there,” Ricky said.
On the screen, I saw:
/*Initialize*/
For j=1 to L x V do
Sj = 0 /*set initial demand to 0/
End For
For i=l to z do
For j = 1 to L x V do
ij = (state (x,y,z)) /*agent threshold param*/
? ij = (intent (Cj,Hj)) /*agent intention fill*/
Response = 0 /* begin agent response*/
Zone = z(i) /* intitial zone unlearned by agent*/
Sweep =1 /* activate54 agent travel*/
End For
End For
/*Main*/
For kl=1 to RVd do
For tm=1 to nv do
For = i to j do /* tracking surrounds*/
? ij = (intent (Cj,Hj)) /*agent intention fill*/
ij <> (state (x,y,z)) /*agent is in motion*/
ikl = (filed (x,y,z)) /*track nearest agents */
I scanned it for a while, looking for how they had changed it. Then I scrolled down into the actual code, to see the implementation55. But the important code wasn’t there. The entire set of particle behaviors was marked as an object call to a something titled “compstat_do.”
“Ricky,” I said, “what’s ‘compstat_do’? Where is it?”
“Should be there.”
“It’s not.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it’s compiled.”
“Well that isn’t going to do me any good, is it?” You couldn’t read compiled code. “Ricky, I want to see that damn module56. What is the problem?”
“No problem. I have to look for it, is all.”
“Okay ...”
“I’ll do it when you get back.”
I glanced over at Mae. “Have you gone through the code?”
She shook her head. Her expression seemed to say it was never going to happen, that Ricky would make up more excuses and keep putting me off. I didn’t understand why. I was there to advise them on the code, after all. That was my area of expertise57. In the next room, Rosie and David were poking58 through the shelves of supplies, looking for radio relays. They weren’t having any success. Across the room, Charley Davenport farted loudly and cried, “Bingo!”
“Jesus, Charley,” Rosie said.
“You shouldn’t hold things in,” Charley said. “It makes you sick.”
“You make me sick.” Rosie said.
“Oh, sorry.” Charley held up his hand, showing a shiny metal contraption. “Then I guess you don’t want this remote-controlled compression valve.”
“What?” Rosie said, turning.
“Are you kidding?” David said, going over to look.
“And it’s got a pressure rating of ADC twenty pi.”
“That should work fine,” David said.
“If you don’t fuck it up,” Charley said.
They took the valve and went to the sink, where Mae was still pouring, wearing her heavy gloves. She said, “Let me finish ...”
“Will I glow in the dark?” Charley said, grinning at her.
“Just your farts,” Rosie said.
“Hey, they already do that. ’Specially when you light ’em.”
“Jesus, Charley.”
“Farts are methane59, you know. Burns with a hard blue gemlike flame.” And he laughed.
“I’m glad you appreciate yourself,” Rosie said. “Because nobody else does.”
“Ouch, ouch,” Charley said, clutching his breast. “I die, I die ...”
“Don’t get our hopes up.”
My headset crackled. “Hey guys?” It was Bobby Lembeck again. “Wind’s just dropped to six knots.”
I said, “Okay.” I turned to the others. “Let’s finish up, guys.”
David said, “We’re waiting for Mae. Then we’ll fit this valve.”
“Let’s fit it back in the lab,” I said.
“Well, I just want to make sure—”
“Back at the lab,” I said. “Pack it up, guys.”
I went to the window and looked out. The wind was still ruffling60 the juniper bushes, but there was no longer a layer of sand blowing across the ground.
Ricky came on the headset: “Jack, get your fucking team out of there.”
“We’re doing it now,” I said.
David Brooks said in a formal tone, “Guys, there’s no point in leaving until we have a valve that we know fits this bottle—”
“I think we better go,” Mae said. “Finished or not.”
“What good would that do?” David said.
“Pack up,” I said. “Stop talking and pack it up now.”
Over the headset, Bobby said, “Four knots and falling. Fast.”
“Let’s go, everybody,” I said. I was herding61 them toward the door.
Then Ricky came on. “No.”
“What?”
“You can’t leave now.”
“Why not?”
“Because it’s too late. They’re here.”
收听单词发音 |
1
squinting
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| 斜视( squint的现在分词 )； 眯着眼睛； 瞟； 从小孔或缝隙里看 | |
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2
ruffled
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| adj. 有褶饰边的, 起皱的 动词ruffle的过去式和过去分词 | |
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jack
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| n.插座，千斤顶，男人；v.抬起，提醒，扛举；n.（Jake）杰克 | |
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slung
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| 抛( sling的过去式和过去分词 )； 吊挂； 遣送； 押往 | |
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isotopes
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| n.同位素；同位素( isotope的名词复数 ) | |
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isotope
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| n.同位素 | |
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brooks
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| n.小溪( brook的名词复数 ) | |
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belched
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| v.打嗝( belch的过去式和过去分词 )；喷出，吐出；打（嗝）；嗳（气） | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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trudged
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| vt.& vi.跋涉，吃力地走（trudge的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
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veins
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| n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理 | |
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clogged
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| （使）阻碍( clog的过去式和过去分词 )； 淤滞 | |
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blur
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| n.模糊不清的事物；vt.使模糊，使看不清楚 | |
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abruptly
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| adv.突然地，出其不意地 | |
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partially
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| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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crouched
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| v.屈膝，蹲伏( crouch的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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milky
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| adj.牛奶的，多奶的；乳白色的 | |
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bent
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| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
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pouch
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| n.小袋，小包，囊状袋；vt.装...入袋中，用袋运输；vi.用袋送信件 | |
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sterile
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| adj.不毛的，不孕的，无菌的，枯燥的，贫瘠的 | |
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nutrient
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| adj.营养的，滋养的；n.营养物，营养品 | |
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swarm
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| n.(昆虫)等一大群；vi.成群飞舞；蜂拥而入 | |
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swarms
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| 蜂群，一大群( swarm的名词复数 ) | |
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soothing
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| adj.慰藉的；使人宽心的；镇静的 | |
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strand
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| vt.使（船）搁浅，使（某人）困于（某地） | |
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hopped
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| 跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花 | |
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cactus
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| n.仙人掌 | |
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corrugated
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| adj.波纹的；缩成皱纹的；波纹面的；波纹状的v.（使某物）起皱褶(corrugate的过去式和过去分词) | |
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flipped
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| 轻弹( flip的过去式和过去分词 )； 按（开关）； 快速翻转； 急挥 | |
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emphatic
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| adj.强调的，着重的；无可置疑的，明显的 | |
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rumbled
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| 发出隆隆声，发出辘辘声( rumble的过去式和过去分词 )； 轰鸣着缓慢行进； 发现…的真相； 看穿（阴谋） | |
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bins
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| n.大储藏箱( bin的名词复数 )；宽口箱（如面包箱，垃圾箱等）v.扔掉，丢弃( bin的第三人称单数 ) | |
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machinery
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| n.(总称)机械，机器；机构 | |
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mundane
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| adj.平凡的；尘世的；宇宙的 | |
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36
hiss
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| v.发出嘶嘶声；发嘘声表示不满 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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streaks
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| n.（与周围有所不同的）条纹( streak的名词复数 )；（通常指不好的）特征（倾向）；（不断经历成功或失败的）一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 )；使布满条纹 | |
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41
blandly
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| adv.温和地，殷勤地 | |
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42
cylinder
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| n.圆筒，柱(面)，汽缸 | |
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43
dangling
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| 悬吊着( dangle的现在分词 )； 摆动不定； 用某事物诱惑…； 吊胃口 | |
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44
chattering
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| n. （机器振动发出的）咔嗒声，(鸟等)鸣，啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的，啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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45
aluminum
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| n.(aluminium)铝 | |
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magnesium
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| n.镁 | |
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flares
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| n.喇叭裤v.（使）闪耀( flare的第三人称单数 )；（使）（船舷）外倾；（使）鼻孔张大；（使）（衣裙、酒杯等）呈喇叭形展开 | |
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48
slash
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| vi.大幅度削减；vt.猛砍，尖锐抨击，大幅减少；n.猛砍，斜线，长切口，衣衩 | |
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modification
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| n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻 | |
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modifications
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| n.缓和( modification的名词复数 )；限制；更改；改变 | |
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scrolled
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| adj.具有涡卷装饰的v.（电脑屏幕上）从上到下移动（资料等），卷页( scroll的过去式和过去分词 )；（似卷轴般）卷起；（像展开卷轴般地）将文字显示于屏幕 | |
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52
logic
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| n.逻辑(学)；逻辑性 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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activate
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| vt.使活动起来，使开始起作用 | |
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implementation
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| n.实施，贯彻 | |
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module
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| n.组件，模块，模件；(航天器的)舱 | |
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expertise
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| n.专门知识(或技能等)，专长 | |
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poking
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| n. 刺，戳，袋 vt. 拨开，刺，戳 vi. 戳，刺，捅，搜索，伸出，行动散慢 | |
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59
methane
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| n.甲烷，沼气 | |
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60
ruffling
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| 弄皱( ruffle的现在分词 )； 弄乱； 激怒； 扰乱 | |
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herding
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| 中畜群 | |
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