There was an unusual amount of noise and activity happening all around the office. As Noble followed her assistant toward the main room, Everin quickly explained.
"There were six more gates overnight. While they weren't in a populated area, they all happened very close together. Everyone is trying to figure out why there was a sudden change. The Deputy-Director also gave us your data this morning. Getting all of it inputted was more labor intensive than expected."
Bee searched the room as she listened, Manager Wailin was nowhere in sight.
'He must be in his office.'
It made sense. Wailin spent much of his day trying to coordinate the team and a lot of that included massive amounts of paperwork.
Noble would have to find someone else to speak to about what Everin had said.
At the long desk in front of the huge wall-sized map, Dino worked as beads of sweat formed on his brow. The computer specialist was so deep in thought that Noble feared he might burst a blood vessel in his head.
She thought about trying to calm him with her Ability but knew the tenuous nature of concentration. If the adrenaline of stress was what was fueling him, then a little nudge of calm might throw off his balance completely.
Instead, the professor lightly cleared her throat.
Dino flinched. "I didn't see you there, Awakened Noble."
The analyst took a drink from his mug and wiped his forehead.
"It's been a busy morning, I hear." The professor excused him easily.
"Indeed. I seem to have lost track of time. I have been adding all the old points to the framework from when the Category Five Gate opened in North America." Dino pointed to the screen.
Pulling up the world map on the wall, green dots appeared to show each of the locations where gates had formed leading up to the catastrophe years before. The amount of time before detection as well as the other relevant information was visible when Dino hovered over the location on the desk pad in front of him.
"That's very good work," Noble could see real progress from her evening of work with her husband.
"And I also had to import the information on the new gates. While we only have limited data from the previous failure, we have significantly more this time around. Adding that to the other gate openings took some time." Dino made a few taps on the desk in front of him.
The large map switched to the current landscape of gates. Instead of green, there were red dots marking all of the failure points of the famed Obel scale. The sight was disheartening.
There were so many dots. Far more than the green that had been there before.
Part of that was likely due to a combination of incomplete data from former Director Lance and the fact that Noble had not finished transcribing all of his notes yet. But even considering those things, the red seemed to be of a much greater magnitude than when the last event occurred.
"If you have it all entered, then what were you doing just now?" The professor had seen how focused the Awakened analyst was. If Dino was using all his concentration, then it was very serious indeed.
"Ah, that. I was attempting to overlay the past and present to see if we could finally get a lock on where the final disaster will occur. I think I can find the solution, but so far things just aren't matching up." Dino chewed his lip.
Like Noble, he could feel they were getting close. The other analysts, also, were clicking and computing, each trying to find a missing piece to the puzzle.
The professor saw a light in the young man's face. He looked down, manipulating the screen integrated into the desk.
He remained silent for a long time. Noble held her breath, afraid any movement might forestall the progress the analyst was making.
"Blast it," Dino hit the table with his fist. The action sent a wave of motion across the digital map on the wall. "I thought I had it."
"I'm sorry," Noble wasn't sure what else to say. "Do you have any idea what went wrong?"
"It is the satellites. They aren't working like they should..." Dino rubbed his forehead.
The professor furrowed her brow. "I thought they were sending up new ones today."
"They did, but more have stopped working. Just when things get stabilized everything shifts again at random intervals." The analyst looked to be at the end of his patience.
"Are you sure it is random?" The professor recalled her discussion with her husband the night before.
"What do you mean?" Dino raised his eyebrows slightly. "We lose satellites all the time for different reasons."
"So I've been told." Noble wanted to ask if the analyst knew the reasons but now was not the time.
"Are you still thinking about there being a gate in space?" a voice behind her asked.
Noble turned to find Everin had moved aside to make way for Fort, Manager Wailin, and Mitt. The men must have been in a meeting in the manager's office.
The professor reflexively checked Mitt's collar for Mandu dipping sauce before addressing her husband.
"I don't know if there is or not, but something in me says that at least some of the loss isn't random." Noble straightened her shoulders.
Wailin did not seem surprised by the assertion but Mitt certainly did. His eyes began to scan the map on the wall looking for evidence of Noble's claim.
"Awakened Dino, you know the satellites better than I do. Correct me if I am wrong, but if there were a Gate revolving around the Earth in space, then there would be a clear dead zone, wouldn't there?" Fort deferred to the expert.
The young man hesitated. "That is probably true. There are a few factors that could alter that including..."
"Does a Gate have to revolve around the earth?" Noble blurted her thought.
"What else could it revolve around? The moon?" Wailin was frustrated by the woman's interruption.
"Why not?" The professor wanted to know. "Does the moon not have its own gravity?"
"Of course it does..." the manager huffed. "But that alone does not mean--"
Holding up his hand, Fort stopped the pair from bickering. He looked at Dino seriously. "If there were a gate in space, could you adjust things to give us better information?"
The Deputy Director was not sure if what he was asking even made sense, but the analyst seemed to understand.
"I can recalibrate readings to accommodate for Gate interference. We already do that to some extent, but there isn't much need usually. If I extrapolate what the downed Satellites should have found...then maybe..."
Dino's fingers whizzed across his desk. Everyone fell silent to watch him work. No one was exactly sure of what the analyst meant, but his enthusiasm was infectious.
Minutes passed. What needed to be done wasn't easy. In fact, for anyone but the young Awakened before them, it would have been impossible.
But, at last, Dino leaned back and lifted his hands from the table. He interlaced his fingers behind his head as he watched the world on the wall.
The map began to overlay the red and green dots of past and present gates. Dino had been successful!
But there was something more. A third color wavered and swirled on the screen.
Purple.
"What in the world?"