Page 120 of Chain Reaction

Turner said, “Remember, you’re not persons of interest or suspects, but that said, federal law does require you to be truthful and complete witnesses.”

Both sisters paused a long moment.

Then the sister on the left said, “Maybe five months ago we heard gossip about one of the data centers going bankrupt. Then four months ago we heard someone else had bought it. Some new new thing, to replace the old new thing. I guess stuff changes fast in that world.”

“Not like rock or stone,” Reacher said.

“You got that right.”

“Then what happened?”

“We got a call, out of the blue.”

“Who from?”

“A lawyer in California.”

“What was his name?”

“Hugo something.”

“Blackwell?”

“Yeah, Hugo Blackwell. He said he was representing the new owners.”

“Did he say who they were?”

“Some ambitious new start-up. He didn’t name names. He said they wanted the data centers to look as good as the solar fields. For their corporate image. They were building curbs and they wanted gravel. Not for just one data center, but the whole installation. The curbs ran around all five buildings. Hugo told us they wanted a visual match with the solar fields, like they were both part of the same future. At times he sounded more like an architect than a lawyer. He sent surveys and satellite images so we could work out the area involved. We calculated a price for a depth of three inches, and we sent it back to him.”

“And?”

“He rejected it.”

“Why?”

“He offered double.”

“Seriously?”

“The offer came with two conditions. One was kinda weird, but really no big deal. The other was unacceptable.”

“What was the weird one?”

“We would have to deliver and install all in one night, within a six-hour window, running from one in the morning to seven in the morning. Which would mean hiring extra trucks. We would have no time to go back and forth. Therefore we would need extra crews. And klieg lights, so we could see what we were doing. Plus generators. And so on. A royal pain in the behind, but hey, the customer is always right. And we could afford it, because of the double payment. We could have afforded it ten times over. It was nuts. In all my life I never had anyone offer me more than I asked for.”

“What was the unacceptable condition?”

“We would have to hire two of their people to supervise the contract.”

“Who?”

“Two men from Denver. They were brothers, Hugo said, which he thought would help them fit right in, because we’re sisters. Which was crazy. We would have to give them one-year contracts and full employee benefits, including company vehicles.”

“And you said?”

“We said no, obviously. We couldn’t even if we wanted to. We don’t hire men and we don’t have employees. We have women partners, each with her own equity stake.”

“What happened?”