Renegade World: Future Past (32 page)

“That would be nice.” She stood and stretched. “Raul, I’m
going to get something to eat. I’ll be back in an hour or so.” She listened for
a response from Raul, but when she didn’t get one, she nodded to Naami and
left.

Raul mumbled something that Naami couldn’t make out.
Abraham?

My best guess is that he said something about his mother
going for a drink.

She pulled the chair closer to Raul’s bed. He appeared to
have drifted to sleep, his breaths coming slow and even.
Well, I can use
this time to get ahead of my classes. I’ll start with Calculus.
Though BSC
classes didn’t start for a few weeks, she wanted to be two weeks into the
coursework by the start of classes.

Looking at the course outline, she decided to read the
first three chapters. Chapter one, the introduction, was quite short. After she
read it, she summarized the information.
Calculus is the mathematical study
of change. It has two major branches, differential calculus, concerning rates
of change and slopes of curves, and integral calculus, concerning accumulation
of quantities and the areas under and between curves. Integral calculus can
also be thought of as starting with a function’s derivative and working backward
to find the function.
This class focuses on differential calculus.

She found it interesting that Isaac Newton and Gottfried
Leibniz each claimed to have invented calculus in the 17th century, and both
claimed that the other man stole his work, leading to a lifelong feud.  She
detoured from the book and read synopses of the two men and of others whose
work had led the way for those two, including Isaac Barrow, René Descartes,
Pierre de Fermat, Blaise Pascal, John Wallis, Bonaventura Cavalieri, and Isaac
Barrow. She also found it interesting that the concepts that were formalized
by the two men and the problems for which calculus provided solutions had been
worked on by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Chinese, and Arabs.

She went on to chapter two, which covered: rational numbers,
decimals and real numbers, and complex numbers. After reading the chapter, she
summarized the content for herself.
I already know
c
ounting numbers,
natural numbers, whole numbers, rational numbers, and irrational numbers. I
liked the story about the Greek mathematician Hippasus, who was thrown overboard
by his fellow Pythagoreans for proving wrong their belief that all phenomena in
the universe can be reduced to whole numbers and their ratios.

Imaginary numbers are used to handle square roots of
negative numbers like when the discriminant part of the quadratic formula is
negative. And a complex number is a real number plus an imaginary number. I get
complex numbers in concept, but the examples didn’t explain very well why they
are useful.

She looked over at Raul.
He’s still sleeping. On to
chapter three.
Chapter three covered: what are functions, linear functions,
and linearity. After she finished the chapter, she looked over and saw that
Raul’s eyes were open a crack. “Hey, sleepyhead. How are you feeling?”

“I can hardly keep my eyes open.”

“It’s only been a little over eighteen hours since you came
out of surgery. You should be back to normal by tomorrow, but it will be
another week until your implant starts to sync.”
And a lot longer than that
before the full neural splice builds itself out.

“I can’t wait. It will be weird to hear my voice answering
my questions, and I’ll have to practice subvocalizing a lot to get my implant
trained.”

S
haun Ryan rubbed his temples as he listened to Mary
Connolly and the other twelve men arguing. Though he had taken over the
leadership of the Children of Abel after the death of his brother Patrick, he
struggled to keep them under control, especially Mary Connolly, who was his
biggest supporter but a real pain in the butt.

Shaun pounded his fist on the table. “Enough!” The arguing
stopped. “Mary, we’ve heard your arguments before. Believe me; I agree that
Naami Schmidt and her mother are abominations. However, now is not the time.”

Mary sneered, “Your brother would have thought it was the
time!”

Shaun pounded his fist on the table again. “My brother is
dead. His unstoppable plan was stopped. We don’t know how his plan went bad,
but it did. My brother died without accomplishing anything.”

“The only flaw is his plan is that he wanted to kill them
personally. Bah! He should have let the cartel hired guns go in without him.
Then he would be here right now with a new plan, a better plan, a plan far
better than what you propose.”

He looked around the table and back to Mary. “Mary, bring
me a better plan or forget it.” He held up his hand. “End of discussion.”

N
aami?

Yes, Abraham.
 

Do you want to take a break from studying?

To do what?

To discuss smuggling.

OK. Go.

Five years ago, there was an investigation of a group
led by a shadowy Russian named Alexandr Bout, called Colonel by
his associates. It was believed he was a former officer with the Russian FSB.
Middlemen working for Bout were caught arranging the sale of bomb-grade
uranium and blueprints for a dirty bomb to a man from Sudan.

As in many other cases, investigators arrested mid-level
players, but Bout got away.

And why is Alexandr Bout of interest to me?

Because one of his known associates met with James
Masters, who works for John Metzger. We
tied Metzger to the bank account that transferred money to the Chihuahua Next
Generation Drug Cartel.

Metzger’s brother-in-law is Lawrence Krauss, who was a
nuclear physicist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories until he was
fired eight years ago. They were both members of a white supremacy group until
two years ago.

Can you hack Masters, Metzger, and Krauss’ credit cards
and find out if they have purchased anything that would have gone into making a
nuclear bomb?

I can try.

J
acobus waited for the new John and Simon to connect into
the True Disciples meeting. As far as Jacobus knew, only he and Thaddaeus knew
of the change.

He saw their avatars. “Welcome, John and Simon. I’ll get
right down to the subject at hand. Our brethren of the Concerned Christians
tell me they await our final answer. They are committed to Operation Walk on
Water.”

John raised his hand. “I thought they were kicked out of
the Middle East at the end of the twentieth century.”

“They were, but after biding their time in Greece for the
next two decades, they began a longer term strategy. They have people in
Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Syria, Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.” He looked at the
avatar Thaddeus. “Thaddeus, what is the status of your project?”

“My work is finally complete. Except for the bomb-grade
uranium, I have seven complete bombs.”

“Excellent,” said the avatar John. “Jacobus, I’m sure you have
good news about the uranium that Thaddeus needs.”

“I do. We have contracted with one source that can provide
enough U-235 for six of the bombs, and we have almost completed negotiations
with another source that can provide us enough for two bombs.”

“What targets do you propose?”

 “Mecca, Medina, Jerusalem, Najaf, Karbala, Damascus, and Mashhad.”

John’s avatar showed surprise. “Jerusalem? There are
Christians there.”

“Out of the million people, only a couple percent are
Christian, a noble sacrifice. By the Day of Judgment, we can rebuild Jerusalem
and make it truly a Christian city. I make a motion that we proceed with
Operation Walk on Water.”

The James avatar raised his hand. “Second.”

Jacobus raised his hand. “All in favor?” Eight other hands
went up. “Opposed?”  Only Thomas raised his hand.

Jacobus nodded. “The motion carries. May God be with us.”  Jacobus
logged out of the meeting and took off his sensors.
I almost thought that
the new John was going to go against me.

L
eandro, speak to me.

“We have a go.”

Continue.

“Thaddeus is ready, and we have a source for the U-235. By
next week, I expect to have a second source.”

Excellent, but I have some news that you won’t like.

“What?”

You may have been discovered.

“How?”

The nightclub where your people met with the Russians
was bugged.

“By whom?”

That’s for you to find out.

“I will make sure that the plan goes forward.”

You better. You screw up, and it’s your neck.

“I won’t.”

R
aul had saved her the seat next to his. “Hey, Raul. How
are your classes?”

 “Good and yours?”

He shrugged. “They’re OK. I’m glad we’ve got math together.”

She sat down. “Yeah, I wish we had more classes together.
How are you feeling today?”

“Good. Your mom’s going to test me tomorrow, but I think
everything’s working.” He poked his head and grinned.

“Students, find a place to set and let’s get started. My
name is Mrs. Goodstrom.” She waited for a couple of students to sit down. “I
just connected to all your devices. Your personal assistant software has been
temporarily set to record only, so you won’t be able to ask it for answers
during class.”

Abraham?

Other than you and I, the rest of the world thinks I’m
in record-only mode.

“As you can see from the introduction, in the first few
classes, we will study negative numbers including: adding, subtracting,
multiplying, dividing, fractions, and decimals. After negative numbers, we will
move into algebra where we will learn how to manipulate expressions and solve
equations and inequalities.”

“After Algebra, we’ll study geometry. In geometry, we’ll
learn about shapes like squares, rectangles, triangles, and circles. Examples
of these shapes are all around us. For example, pizzas are usually circular or
rectangular. How many of you like pizza?”  Most of the class raised their
hands.

“Suppose a pizza place advertises a deal on two medium nine-inch
pizzas for $10 and suppose they always have a large fifteen-inch pizza for
$12.99. Are two mediums a better deal than the large? Let’s take a vote. How
many think the two mediums are a better deal?”

Naami looked around and saw all but five of the class raise
their hands. She winked at Raul.

“OK. Lisa, why do you think the large is the better deal?”

“My dad says the large is usually the better deal.”

“How about you, Jeff?”

“I just looked at Raul and Naami. They always seem to
know.”

“Naami, why did you choose the large?”

“Lisa’s dad is usually correct that the large is a better
deal. The two nine-inch pizzas mislead you into comparing eighteen to fifteen.
But the number of bites in a pizza is proportional to the radius of the pizza
times itself. So you should be comparing 4.5 times 4.5 against 7.5 times 7.5.
You’d be comparing about 20 to about 56. So you are getting just under three
nine-inch pizzas in a fifteen-inch pizza. So with the deal, each nine-inch
pizza costs $5.00, but the fifteen-inch pizza costs about $4.68 per nine-inch
pizza, making it the better deal.”

Raul said, “Naami figured it out per nine-inch pizza. You
can also figure each of them out in cost per square inch, but to do that you
have to multiply the radius times itself times the value of pi which is just
over 3.14. It works out to be about 7.9 cents per square inch for the nine-inch
pizzas compared to about 7.4 cents for the fifteen-inch pizza.”

“Very good both of you. Do either of you know what kind of
number pi is?”

Raul nodded. “Pi is an irrational number, meaning it can’t
be expressed as the ratio of two integers.”

“Have either of you taken a geometry class before?”

They both shook their heads.

“OK. Let me finish the introduction. The last section of
this class is about probability and statistics.”

Mrs. Goodstrom scanned the students. “This class is ‘go at
your own speed’, but I expect all of you to learn all the standard material by
the end of the term. Those of you who find the standard material easy will be
able to study more advanced algebra and geometry.” She looked at Raul and
Naami.

“OK. We are going to start with an assessment test. This
test covers the material you should have learned before. Some of you may need a
little review, and that’s just fine. The assessment is adaptive. If you answer
correctly, the next question will be at the same level or harder. If you miss
the question, the next question will be at the same level or easier. Start
now.”

Naami breezed through all of the questions that she knew
were review questions about material they had learned in prior years. The
assessment didn’t stop there; it began asking questions on the material that
was to be covered in this class.

Abraham, give me a summary of where all the students are
in the assessment. I don’t want to get too far ahead.

She saw summaries of the top ten students. Raul was a few
minutes behind her. The others were further behind him.

I’ll take a minute break and then slow down to let Raul
catch up.

R
aul sat down and looked around the inside of the dimly
lit room. “Wow. Imagine how gloomy it would have been in here all winter with
no windows and no electric lights.” He pointed up at the ceiling. “Only the
smoke hole up there lets in light, and a fire in this fire pit wouldn’t provide
much light either. That painting we saw made it look unnaturally bright inside
that lodge. Shut that door and let’s see.”

Naami shut the door. “From what I read, this door is not
part of the original lodge. It was probably added to keep people out when the
park is closed.” The earthlodge, one of the five reconstructed Mandan homes in On-A-Slant
Indian Village, fell into semidarkness, the dim late afternoon sun failing to
provide much illumination through the small hole in the center of the curved
roof. “I’d really want to be outside, even in the cold weather.”