While she was dithering over how to phrase it, Rufus had turned his attention back to his grill. “Woo-eee!” he exclaimed, “I got a hot sausage here that’s about to bust open from the heat if I don’t take good care.”
She spun away to hide a blush and nearly collided with Pippa. There was a brief awkward moment. The Kiwi bent her long legs in a passable curtsy. “Your Majesty.”
“Royal Highness, if you’re going to be that way.”
“Royal Highness it is.”
“Pippa, is it? Short for Philippa?”
“Yes.”
“Saskia.” They shook hands. “I’m told you were a friend of the deceased. I’m terribly sorry.”
The low afternoon sun on Pippa’s freckled face made it obvious she’d been crying. But she wasn’t crying now. “Talking to the family will be difficult,” she said. “Not looking forward to that. Hope they don’t blame me.”
“Why ever would they?”
“I had some role in telling his story. Making him famous. Could be that I egged him on.”
“But surely you had no hand in this.”
“Oh, no, ma’am. Not at all. I drove out from L.A. when Red told me what was happening. Was hoping I could talk him out of it. But I got here too late.”
“Well . . . now you can tell the rest of his story,” Saskia suggested. “Even if it is a sad one.”
Pippa nodded. “Ma’am—to the extent you’re becoming part of that story now—I was wondering—”
“Go right ahead, dear,” Saskia said. “This is what I do now.”
Pippa gave a grateful nod and stepped out of her way.
“Gentlemen!” Saskia exclaimed, striding toward the picnic table. “Can anything be done? What’s that I see on that laptop?” It looked like a picture of some kind of obelisk or spire.
Mohinder turned his head to look back at it. “Oh, I was showing T.R. some monuments that exist in the Punjab. Built to honor the heroes of our past. Saint-soldiers who fell in battle defending
our homeland”—he looked significantly between T.R. and Saskia—“from foreigners who would seek to deprive us of the Breadbasket.”
“Let’s have a talk about that, shall we?” Saskia suggested, stepping between the two men and taking each of them by an arm. They turned to follow and began walking into the most magnificent sunset Saskia had ever seen. Amelia cut in front of them to look for rattlesnakes. Pippa, flanked by a couple of video drones, fell in behind as they strolled out into the desert. “I don’t know if you’ve heard,” she said, “but I just took a new job and it’s time I got started.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The author is grateful to the following persons who （in some cases inadvertently） helped him in large and small ways. Note, however, that the author conceived and wrote the book himself, and so a person’s appearance on the following list should not be interpreted to suggest that they hold any position one way or the other on topics mentioned in these pages. Some of the relevant interactions happened long before I even considered writing this book!
Jacques Bergman, Nocona Burgess, Jennifer Chayes, William Collins, Craig Danner, Carolyn Dwyer, George Dyson, Beth Epstein, staff and ownership of the Figure 2 Ranch, Tony Halmos, Marco Kaltofen, David Keith, Frank Keutsch, Janno Lanjouw, Karen Laur, Jascha Little, Scott Little, Mark Long, Michael Mainelli, Charles Mann, Ravi Mirchandani, Oliver Morton, Nathan Myhrvold, Marla Nauni, Jan-Peter Onstwedder, Lennert van Oorschot, Gordon Roy, Lynn Schonchin, Tom Standage, Zoe Stephenson, Benny Tahmahkera, Troy, William Voelker, Steven Weber, Lowell Wood.
Lists such as the above can sometimes overstate the importance of casual or fleeting interactions. Books, and to a lesser extent Internet resources, are frequently more important even though I may never have interacted personally with the people who wrote them. It feels wrong to leave such persons off the list and so here are people whose writings, or in some cases digital content on the Internet, have made a difference:
I. Lehr Brisbin Jr.; Ken Caldeira; Tan Chee-Beng; the Comanche Language and Cultural Preservation Committee; Steve Cottrell; T.R. Fehrenbach; Stuart Gilbert; S. C. Gynne; Kyle Harper; Ray Horner; Theodora Kleisma; Jan A. Krancher; David LaVere; Thomas F. Madden; John J. Mayer; George A. Mealey; Leslie H. Palmier; Neil Price; D. S. Saggu; Khushwant Singh; Nikky Guninder Kaur Singh; Sargun Singh; the originators, compilers, and translators of the Shri Guru Granth Sahib; Paul Chaat Smith; Doug J. Swanson; Jean Gelman Taylor; Forbes Wilson.