FourMachuzak stood in the doorway of the ASSET conference room, the same space where less than three hours ago he and Garrett had received Moravec’s ultimatum. Now, thoughts a-tumult, barely cognizant of his surroundings, he is grasping at solutions, resisting the most likely, rejecting them all as unsatisfactory or unpalatable. Nothing made sense. Nathaniel lifted his eyes, they fell on the clock and remained riveted. A morning so quickly lost toward ignition. A morning stolen? Stop. He sat down, staring blankly while the others drifted in. At the stroke of eleven, Leonard and Garrett appeared and for an instant Machuzak again considered revealing Lipman’s discovery, but as his gaze swept the room Lorenzo’s infernal question, “Who are you?” once more muted him.
The dozen division heads t
