Phoebe paled, and looked from one to the other.
Alex laughed. "You bluffed?"
"No," Ferd said.
"We were serious," Alphon said. "I troubleshoot infrastructure for a living. At least I did until last week. I know which parts of it are a hair's-breadth from failure."
Ferd pointed a finger at him. "And the hacker collective has been keeping a good bit of it from killing people for decades now. I know. I'm one of their remote operators."
Alex shook his head in disbelief. "You're both nuts."
An alert sounded from Ferd's pocket. "In fact, there they are now."
Alphon looked a question at him. He'd turned his own phone off intentionally before he HyperLooped to New Orleans in order to minimize his digital footprint, and even chided himself for reaching for it later when he needed directions to Ellen's post office. And yet Ferd apparently left his on. He'd have to ask about that.
Judging from Ferd's expression, something serious had happened, but he didn't say much for the first few minutes of the call. What he did was glance around the room a lot, at the random collection of controllers, head-mounts and displays that Meg and the others had used in various maker lab projects, and then at Alphon, Phoebe and Alex. Finally, he nodded, and said, "Yeah, okay. I've got a couple of ideas. And there's someone here who could probably pitch in on the risk analysis. Give me a few minutes to see what I can do."
Alex had crossed his arms, and was glaring at him suspiciously.
"Look," Ferd said reluctantly, "I apologize for getting you all involved in this, but something's come up, and I could use your help."
Alex grimaced. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"You've heard about Cold Comfort, that fantasy resort under the Greenland icecap?"
Phoebe nodded emphatically. "Sure. I saw the hovercam tri-vids from when they first explored the caves. That place is amazing. Why? What happened?"
Alex smirked, and spoke right over her. "My company staffs that resort. It may look dangerous, but that's all for show."
"Yeah," Ferd said, and gave him a withering look. "Well, there's a secret banker's conference underway out there right now. Only it just got a whole lot less secret. The cavern entrance collapsed an hour ago, trapping the gnomes from Basel and their lackeys in governments and businesses from around the world. Apparently the resort is far more extensive than their PR flacks ever let on. Resort security is getting everyone back to the main complex to wait for rescue ops to cut their way in."
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