Across the Sea, Somewhere

Before Adelaide set sail, she canceled her Netflix account.

It was probably the simplest part of her whole preparation process, and not strictly necessary,, but she made a point of doing it before she stepped on the plane to Bermuda.  It wasn’t even much money she would save, in the scheme of things, but it felt like telling the world that she wasn’t going to be back for a while.  Stop sending the bills, don’t email — - I’m unreachable -- truly unreachable -- and I don’t know when I’ll be back.

“Or if,” she whispered to herself as she looked out the window on the world’s newest and, objectively, shiniest metropolis.  Even at midnight, it felt like each window of each skyscraper was lit, illuminating the cranes that seemed to be? squeezing a new tower into every gap in the skyline. And, off the coast on all sides were barges containing even more distractions, some of their signage designed to be seen from the air.  And, beyond it all, flickering, were the two huge pieces of metal jutting out of the sea and wrapped in flashing lights up until they joined a thousand feet in the air, beckoning not only her (need some connecting words here) the reason she, and the rest of the world, was focused on this tiny island: the Hershfeld Resonance Induction Array.

Or, as she and everyone else always called it, the Bermuda Triangle.

***

She woke up in a hotel room that was nicer than she really wanted.  She was supposed to be on her journey, at least spiritually, but this room was nicer than the apartment she’d had in Cambridge.  That was the benefit of an expense account, she supposed, and she enjoyed the luxury while she could,  But she felt a little bit lame as she did.

She didn’t feel much better, frankly, walking towards the location for her first meeting of the week.  On the one hand, it was a big step - an introduction to a man she’d had recommended by several independent sources and had already wired a distressing amount of money.  But it just didn’t feel right to begin at a Cheesecake Factory.

She wondered again, as she entered, if she’d  gotten the address wrong, or if this was a prank.  But there he was, just as advertised - he was even wearing the same black button-down as he was in the photos she’d seen on his LinkedIn.  He had beaten her here and was at the bar with an electric blue drink that was contained in some sort of spiral cup with lights on it.  He didn’t look up as she entered.  But she knew it was him.

“You’re Ray Freeman, yes?  I’m Adelaide.”

At that, he looked at her and smiled, a smaller smile than she had expected.  He held out his hand, and, once she shook it, pulled the stool next to his out for her.

“So you’re serious about this.  I wondered if this was a prank.”

Before she could respond, the bartender approached, handing her a menu.

“Hi there, thanks for joining us for breakfast!  Do you know what you want or will you need a minute?”

Adelaide looked up.  “Oh, I’m not hungry -”

Ray interrupted.  “Eat, trust me.  We’ll get the fried chicken and waffles and the cinnamon roll pancakes.  And I’ll take another one of these.”

“I don’t think we’re at a point in our relationship where you should be ordering for me.”

“I was ordering for me.  Get whatever for yourself, you’re paying.”

Adelaide ordered some eggs and coffee.  When the waitress left, she waited for Ray to resume his conversation.

He didn’t.

After a minute, Adelaide sighed and asked, “You thought I wasn’t serious?”

“I did.  Now I think you don’t know what you’re doing.”

“I’m interviewing you, and, just as an update, this is not a great first impression.”

“I grow on people.  Do you know how the Triangle works?”

“Scientifically, nobody fully understands it - that’s why I’m doing this.  But I understand it as well as anyone.  Better than you, I’m sure.”

“Have you been through it before?”

“No.  But that doesn’t mean I don’t understand the operation.”

“I would have assumed you knew something, just to have heard my name, but you apparently didn’t realize that I don’t do pleasure cruises.”

“I’m not here for pleasure.  This is the first step in a research project.  And a profitable one.”

“Research teams have their own boats, their own Guides.  Or, more often, they take off from some aircraft carrier and we don’t know what they bring with them.  You are one woman who, if your LinkedIn is accurate, hasn’t even gotten her doctorate.”

“You don’t think you’re up to it?”

“I’m not the one I’m worried about.  But nobody can save you if your plan doesn’t make sense.  Has anyone else signed up for this research project of yours?”

“Some passengers have already been arranged.”

“Passengers?  As in, not crew?”

“As in people who are paying, Mr. Freeman.”

“So you want to bring even more complete rookies along?  And you’re sure it’s not a pleasure cruise?”

Their waitress returned, carrying her small plate and both of Ray’s larger ones.  He began eating as soon as it hit the counter.

“I love this place,” he said between bites.

“That’s increasingly clear.”

He put down his fork, and looked at her.  “Oh, I get it — you think this is lame or touristy or cringe.  But the Cheesecake Factory has one of the biggest menus of any chain restaurant, with dozens of cuisines represented.,  And, every day, in every location around the country, they make each and every item on that menu, exactly the same as every other location.  Think about that: chefs who’ve never met, never even been in the same city, can make a hundred items exactly the same as each other.

“Trust me - if you’d been out there, you’d appreciate the Cheesecake Factory.  You just haven’t existed outside of a global supply network.”

Adelaide smiled at that.  “Mr. Freeman, you seem to think I haven’t done my research.  But I’m a researcher — I’ve thought this through.  I won’t pretend to know things I don’t — that’s why I need to hire a Guide, that’s why I’m here eating mediocre eggs and enduring your company.  Because one of the things I’ve researched is you.  You’ve exercised your Prerogative three times in a row, I hear. ”

“I have.  And every time I was right to do it.”

“That’s what some people say, but others say you’ve lost your nerve.  It happens, I hear.  Perfectly understandable, apparently.”

“I haven’t lost anything.  I’ve avoided losing things.  That was the point.”

“Maybe, or maybe you just missed your cheesecake.  But, from what I’ve read, you may not have another chance.  A Guide who pulls Prerogative on his last three voyages may find that they were his last three voyages.

“You’ve raised a number of concerns, Mr. Freeman, but they all have one answer: Money.  This venture is funded by a major investor because, if we obtain the data I believe we will, everyone involved will become very wealthy.  And we will bring passengers precisely because they will pay for their spot.  And with that money, I will hire you — a talented man and an experienced one, but someone without other offers.  A man who will take this deal because I will pay you for a full year of your time.

“You see, I know exactly how the Triangle works: People like me pour money into it, and people like you follow that money, whatever it takes.”

Ray smiled, without looking up.  “Well, that’s certainly how the Triangle works, you’ve got me there.  Let’s talk.”

***

Adelaide continued to feel very clever until they finished dessert.

Ray looked up from the crumbs of his cheesecake before starting to speak.  “So, to summarize, you have some kind of fancy physics thing you want to test.”

“That’s your summary?”

“Is that wrong?”

“I mean — I just explained it in quite a bit of detail.  That’s all you took away from it?”

“Yep. Like I said, you’re the one with a fancy physics thing.  But, if I follow, you need to make long trips.”

“Yes.  The longer the better — there’s an exponential impact in the value of the data the more Nodes —”

“And how many Years do you have?”

Adelaide had done her research, so she caught the capital letter in that question.  While currencies of dozens of countries were now common in Bermuda, the economy functioned by translating them all into the only thing that mattered: time through the Triangle.  Before anyone went through the Triangle, they had to pay the Resonance Induction Corporation for the time they wanted it kept open; it cost more energy to open a Triangle that would last longer on the Sea side before collapsing.  It paid to be cautious — better to have spent more Weeks than you needed than risk being trapped on the other side.  Nobody knew how many of the ships that failed to return had simply overstayed their welcome, but it wasn’t a prospect anyone liked to think about.

“Just over three.’

“Three Years?”

“Just over, yes.”

Ray looked for the waitress.  “You can’t afford this then.”

“Three Years is a lot of money!”

“You want long trips, that won’t be enough.  You haven’t thought about the staffing price.”

“I looked at the rates.”

“Those are for short trips.  Your average crew on a short trip gets a bit of cash upfront, but that’s just grocery money for their wives.  The profit comes from their Treasure.  But, even on a longer trip, they only get one Chest.  So they want to go out, fill their Chest, and come back as soon as they can.  You want them to stay longer, you need to sweeten their pay.  More the longer you want them — hey, that’s what you’d call ‘exponential,’ isn’t it?”

Adelaide ignored the question while she stared into her coffee.  “But that doesn’t make sense - the value of the Chest depends on the quality of what’s in it.  A longer voyage would be profitable if it allowed for more valuable goods to fill the Chest.”

“That’s true enough, if you had a big plan to find something valuable that was far off.  Do you have a plan like that?”

Adelaide shook her head.

“I figured.  And, frankly, it wouldn't have mattered much if you did.  You know how many people have touched down on this island with a big plan for getting something special by going farther?  You know how many have come back at all, let alone come back with the promised riches?”

“I thought it was broadly accepted that there were more unique and valuable finds available deeper into most Seas./”

“That’s what some people say.  And others claim to have found gems piled up on the first beach they landed on.  And some people say they’ve met elves.  People say everything.  Because each Sea is different and no one knows what they’ll find, so they cling to any superstition they dream up.  Bottom line: any crew worth working with won’t go on a long trip without a big advance.  Especially if the organizer just washed up on shore a few days ago.  You need more money.”

“There’s not going to be any more money.”

“What happened to the big investor?”

“He’s tapped.  I got Three Years, and I’m not getting more without results.  Results that need long trips.  So you’re going to need to figure out a way to get this done on that budget.”

“It can’t be done - you can maybe afford one three- month trip for that price, and that only barely.  And not with a crew that’s likely to get you back in one piece.  Although… Would you consider yourself a patient person?”

“I can be.  Are you asking me to wait while you think of something?”

“Oh, I thought of it already.  If you want to do this, here’s the only way I can see it:  I put a two- week voyage together, which you can actually afford and won’t drain you dry.  And then you take your profits from that and put them into a longer trip.  If you manage that a couple of times, you can start sniffing the longer journeys you have in mind without betting everything on one go.  You pay for my time up front for the whole year, though — I’m not giving you a whole business plan for two weeks of pay.  And you work it out with your paying passengers however you want.”

Adelaide had to put her coffee down to think that through.  It would be a material deviation from her plans; while a two- week trip was more than nothing, it wouldn’t get her near the number of Nodes she’d anticipated.  She’d be essentially delaying the actual research to try to turn a profit in a trade that she had never done before.  But what was her alternative?  Return home and give the money back to Mr. Winfield?  See her mother’s face when she admitted what had happened?  She’d be better off learning to be a merchant, if that’s what it took.

Ray could  apparently read her thoughts, because before she so much as nodded, he looked at her and said, “That’s right, Professor.  You’ll have to work for a living.”