Page 65 (1/2)

“Then there’s nothing i?”

“Hardly My son went ers Why would I have my own plane hijacked?”

His son dying in the process hadn’t been part of the plan He was going to be taken off the island and brought back to Dubai, where the story would be that he had gotten off the plane at the last minute But to the public, it would seeht his son was on the plane and he was a father relieved to find his child miraculously alive The story would be played for weeks, re all suspicion that Carlton was involved

But they’d found Adao deck, his head bashed in and blood soaking the floor The hijacker pilot was supposed to take his two-million-dollar fee and retire to Brazil, but Carlton had Natalie Taylor execute hi his son

The Colossus Project’s chief scientist, Chen Min, a Chinese national who had been hired because of his groundbreaking ith artificial intelligence systems, burst out of a superstructure door and strode briskly toward them His face was as unreadable as ever, but the way his thin body stalked across the deck

“Dr Chen,” he said, “I assume you are still on schedule”

He shook his head “We still have integration code to write I need those prograet in touch with the from years of study at MIT and Caltech

“They’re gone You’ll have to make do with the people you have”

“Then it will take us a week to finish the installation of the satellite dish I can’t test everything without that code”

Gupta erupted “Seven days! We need Colossus up and running before then”

“He’s right,” Carlton said “Roets his next satellite launched, and o in six days We need Colossus so we can stop that launch If we have any more delays, we may never finish the project”

Chen looked up at the sky as he thought “I s up by a couple of days, but it will be risky If we leave port and the software isn’t functional, we may have to return to install new hardware”

“Do it anyway,” Carlton said

“I need full authorization to make the exceptions As you knoo ive me that authorization”

“That’s e’re here”