SECTOR 10 (The CLOUD 2)

CHAPTER 3

Bartram is reminded of the food shortage that's been happening. Disparaging treatment all over the media has deemed it the next new crisis. And like Sandra tells him, even some of her crew are being hit hard by it. Delphi Corp. is the primary suspect. As of now, the reason for all the mishaps is a mystery.

"Sandra, hold on," he says, readying to check something. He figures that her side of the connection won't be back on for a while.

Moving away from the projection board, Bartram hurries toward a vacant door where a sick member of his team is eating soup. He opens the door to find him timidly engrossed with a spoon that, with each touch of the tongue, steams a little more. Bent over a sturdy chair, Bartram startles him from behind, he's got to vent his worries to someone.

"Things are getting worse," Bartram declares. The team member turns around with a sheepish grin before wiping the goop from his face in embarrassment.

"I take it there's more," he replies. Setting his bowl down, he uses the damp napkin to clean his hands.

"Do you know Sandra? I think you know her," Bartram says with a nervous anxiousness.

"Yeah, yeah. That's the black lady that's heading the construction of the dam."

"Right, well she's on the other line out there." Bartram points to the buffering projection board at his desk. "Her crew is being hit hard by this, this thing."

"Well, I'm sick because of a food poisoning outbreak." The team member speaks with ease, not yet aware of the greater problem ahead.

Bartram wants to sit down, but he can't find a place to rest himself with the comfort he's accustomed to. The worries continue to pile up as he stands upright at the door's frame. As he begins to continue their talk, a flash of light is reflected off the sheen of an adjacent wooden post. He turns around to see a fully functioning projection. Sandra is in full-frame. He and the team member rush to stand in front of their intercom.

Her hair is coiled back in sleek braids, where her face glistens from the sweat of a hot day. Sandra positions the camera away from the sun's glare the best she can.

"We're back, we're back online," Bartram declares. He notices the same unenthusiastic team member who meanders beside him, dragging another chair to sit down and drink coffee.

"The automated machines are breaking down," Sandra says. She points to a backdrop of disabled Delphi cranes that were contracted at the start of construction. "I don't know what's going on over there, but this is proving to be a really big problem". Bartram stays standing while infiltrated with thoughts of calamity, he contemplates what may happen if all of this isn't averted.

"As we made our trip westward, we could see farms for miles being devastated by a pesticide," she says. "Markets nearest to them have an infiltration of some infectious outbreak that if it isn't controlled soon, will contaminate the entire food supply."

Bartram's unwavering focus nudges him forward. "It's the Cloud platform that we've introduced into the market," Bartram says. "There's something wrong, but we can't recall all of it now. We think it's a problem with the main hard drive housed at our Headquarters."

Sandra continues to look at the disabled machinery sitting stationary along the periphery of their worksite, abandoned in mounds of dirt and uplifted soil. "Is this," she points at the disabled machines, "what you had planned, Mr. Bartram?"

"Well," he stops himself, deterred by the image of his life's work sitting functionless.

Sandra fidgets with loose tools that she hands to a partner who comes into the picture frame. Refocusing on Bartram, she finishes her thought. "I'm letting you know the consequences. That's thousands of dollars, maybe millions in insurance that I'm not responsible for, do you understand me, Mr. Bartram? We have a national crisis coming to fruition."