64

 

THE LAB, TUESDAY P.M.

Gwen stared at the card Sheikh Ali had given her. Did the Sheikh have a Haas/Hans aboard who knew enough about Zeus to plan to ramp a winter storm into an ARk Storm? She doubted it. This was the stuff of masterminds, not minions. Messengers …

She played with the Zeus model, looking at how else she might get the rain yield up. Then, in the name of scientific testing, she reversed many of the inputs, discovered, theoretically at least, that while the model could increase rainfall, it could also reduce it. Messenger had mentioned that, but she was impressed to see how it worked on the model. She filed that one away as a potential lifesaver all of its own.

Her phone rang. She snatched it up. Dan.

“I’ve got your stuff,” he said by way of hello.

“That was quick.”

“I’m a quick mover, Boudy. Given half a chance.”

Gwen smiled to herself.

“When shall I bring it over?” Dan asked.

Gwen paused. “I’ll come and get it, if that’s OK. Haven’t seen how you live, Dan. Want to make sure you’re not still living at home with Mama.” Truth was, she wanted to get out of her cottage too, away from Hurricane Point, if only for a while.

He laughed. “And if I were?”

“Then I’d have to find someone else to fantasize about.”

A slight pause, a lowered voice. “Don’t you get bored, Boudy, just fantasizing? I grant you it can be good, very good if you fantasize about the right person, but I’m a reality guy by choice.”

Gwen felt her blood begin to pound.

“Can’t always get what we want, Dan,” she drawled, affecting nonchalance. “Didn’t your mother ever tell you that?”

“Can we leave my mother out of this?”

Gwen laughed. “What’s your address?”

“127A, Seventeen Mile Drive.”

Gwen blew out a silent whistle. How the hell did he afford to live there on a journalist’s salary? She said, “You and Gabriel Messenger are neighbors.”

“In a manner of speaking.”

“So when’s good?”

“I’m around all day today. All night too.”

“I’ll bear that in mind.”

Gwen hung up. She allowed herself just a minute to think of him, to imagine standing face-to-face, body-to-body, holding each other. She felt the heat, even from a distance. With a supreme act of will, she forced her mind onto the weather.