The 13th Enumeration by William Struse, Rachel Starr Thomson Page A

will find an even greater truth to replace it. There is a proverb I always think of when I am doing my own research: Proverbs 25:2: ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honour of kings is to search out a matter.’”
    Zane mulled the words over. “Thanks, Dad, I appreciate your advice. You’re right. I need to dig out the truth.”
    “Son, you never have to fear the truth. It will set you free.”
    Those words were still ringing in his ears when Zane put down the phone and with renewed resolve began to go over his research notes.

Chapter 14
 
    Dubai, United Arab Emirates
    Gavin Matthews and Ralph Scholz sat in the control room of Darius’s fabrication facility on the outskirts of Dubai. The facility used state-of-the art robotic fabricators to put their machines together, minimizing the number of people who had access to the machines and the potential for theft of the technology.
    “We have done the best we can do. I don’t see how the machines can be compromised right away,” Gavin was saying.
    Ralph replied, “According to Dylan we need at least one year of operation without compromise in order to make this plan work. I am not too worried about it myself. Once they realize this is not some gimmick or scam we will all be incredibly wealthy, and it won’t take more than a few weeks to see our stock price rise dramatically.”
    Gavin was quiet for a moment. “Do you really believe Darius’s motivation is altruistic in all this? Sometimes I get the feeling there is more involved here than what we’ve been told.”
    Ralph chuckled. “Does it really matter if Darius has other motivations? We each have one billion shares of stock in our own names in our own accounts.”
    “I guess not,” Gavin said. He laughed. “I would just like to think we’ll make a real difference in the world while we’re all getting filthy rich.”
    Ralph, a serious look replacing the smile, answered, “Whatever you believe about Darius’s motivation, you have to admit he does not leave much to chance. Several years ago, about the time all those dead fish washed up on the beaches around here, he had me design dual control systems for the machines. He said he wanted a backup system in case the primary failed.”
    “I had to rewrite the software to run that as well,” Gavin answered. “That was when he had me add the remote start-up to the secondary system. He said he wanted to be able to restart the machines from the control center in Dubai.”
    “Did he ever explain to you why he had the auxiliary storage tanks incorporated into the backup system? I asked him why it was necessary, but he never gave me a direct answer. It seems to me that it’s unnecessarily redundant because both the primary and secondary controls can route through the primary storage tanks.”
    “That never made sense to me either,” replied Gavin. “I’ve never seen him do anything without a reason, so I am sure there must be one. Anyway, that’s on the customer’s side of the design. They get the design blueprints, and you can bet they will follow them exactly, unnecessary storage tanks or not.”
    Ralph laughed in agreement.
    Gavin asked, “Do you think you will be able to keep up with demand once we go public?”
    “No way. We have a thousand of the AES-100s and fifty of the AES-1000s completed and ready to ship. Once the world knows what these machines do, we will be selling thousands of them. Our factory can produce about ten of the AES-100s and one AES-1000 a day. I have already made designs for another facility which will increase our production by ten times, but it will cost one-and-a-half-billion dollars to build. I can have it in production four months from ground breaking. All we need is the money. Darius has used all of his money to get us to this point. Dylan has assured us that four weeks from going public with this technology, our stock price will be well north of ten dollars a share. At that point money will never be a