Building God Read Free Page A

heard the shouting start back up outside the door. “I’ve done the work you asked, though.” He started piling papers in front of me in a haphazard pile.
    “Tim, we’ve got a problem here.” I brushed the papers aside and waited until he looked up at me. “You’ve locked everyone out!”
    “They wanted to know what I was doing, why I was running so many simulations and pulling up so much data! I didn’t know what to tell them.” He was sniveling and looking frantically at the door, ushering the papers toward me. “I-I couldn’t find anything. Not any natural disasters, anyway. A small earthquake in Taiwan, a minor flood in Portugal, nothing that would explain, you know, the data.”
    I nodded, not really expecting it. “I have something else I want you to run though, Tim. What about human-induced disasters?”
    He was silent for a moment. “Like bombs? War?”
    “Yeah. Can you do a simulation on rising violence or plans to annihilate the world?” I said the last part with a small laugh, but he didn’t return my smile.
    “Well, I can try. I mean, we honestly haven’t tried to run anything very complicated yet, but I’ll play around with it. Just…get rid of them.” He gave a worried glance to the door. “I can’t think with all that noise.”
    “Sure, Tim. I’m counting on you.” He gave a nervous bark of a laugh and I headed back out into the crowd. “Hey.” I waited for their attention, but they were all shouting at me and gesturing angrily. “Hey!” I shouted again and they finally went silent. “Look, Tim’s working on a project for me and he needs the GM.” I pointed up at the 99.99999% flickering overhead. “We’re as close as we’re going to get. Everything is ready for tonight, so please just head to your offices until midnight. We’ll meet back here for a quick meeting, then start the first simulation.”
    They still didn’t look convinced, so I gave them a conspiratorial smile and cupped my hand around my mouth. “We’ve all been working long hours,” I said in a mock whisper. “Some of us are taking it better than others. So let’s just give Tim a few hours of peace by himself so that we’re all ready for the long night ahead. I’ll be supervising him personally, alright?”
    Most of my employees laughed then, and I could breathe again. I slipped back into the room as they dispersed. “Okay, Tim. It’s up to you now.” He was already immersed in his work and only nodded slightly, mumbling to himself as he hunched over the system. I decided to check in downstairs, to see how the protest was going. I wished I had brought an extra set of clothes, my toothbrush, or anything really, in case I couldn’t go home for awhile.
    The lobby was in a state as disarray as the half dozen security guards and two receptionists desperately tried to handle the people pounding at the door and phones ringing off the hook. When the protesters and reporters saw me through the glass, they went crazy and the noise was deafening. Over it all, I could hear my name being shouted repeatedly.
    “Where are the police?” I shouted.
    One of the receptionists looked at me, teary-eyed. “I don’t know!” she said in desperation. “Please, can’t you do something?”
    A security guard grabbed my arm and hauled me back out of the lobby. “Stay upstairs,” he demanded. “You’re only making them crazier.” I pulled my arm out of his grip and hurried away, back toward my office. “And close the blinds!” he shouted after me.
    I was horrified. Close the blinds? What were they going to do, send snipers after me? Back in my office, I ripped the blinds down over the windows and pulled out my laptop. Locking the door, I huddled under my desk, feeling slightly safer. Leaning back against one of the sides, I switched on the news and looked down on my office building from the view of a helicopter.
    “-have traveled from all over the world to be here.” The reporter’s voice droned over the