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manicured twenty acre campus, the unusual three-story, reflective skinned building commanded a pleasant view of Beards Creek to the west and Glebe Bay to the northeast. It was positioned perfectly to take advantage of its unique woodland views, and yet close enough to Chesapeake Bay for visitors to smell the sea. Perhaps that was why the owners of the large homes that used to grace the very private Burgh Lane fought so hard to keep their property. Still, with the high-level government contacts and deep pockets that Reivers’ founder controlled, it was only a matter of time before the fears of eminent domain convinced them to settle for the generous cash offer that was already on the table. Two years later, after the winning architect had executed his startling vision, there was not one shred of evidence that those unique homes had ever existed; even quaint Burgh Lane itself was gone.
    Only twelve miles southeast from Baltimore, Reivers’ corporate executives and their distinguished guests had easy access to major airports as well as the largest seaport in the Mid-Atlantic States. In fact, Baltimore’s Inner Harbor was once the second leading port of entry for immigrants to the United States, a fact not lost on many of the world’s most prominent citizens as they made their own journeys to visit the powerful brain trust at
the Reive
.
    Unknown to many outsiders, and unappreciated, even by those who worked inside,
the Reive
had far more building beneath its grandiose surface façade than above. Indeed, there were other, equally expansive subterranean areas under all the other surface structures that dotted the acreage. Some of these lower floors, principally those in the main building, were relatively accessible to visitors and divided into the surprisingly diverse endeavors of the corporation, including medicine, process industries, energy, agriculture, literature and the arts, computer science, physics, archeology, general science, to name a few. These divisions were staffed by a panoply of highly paid, bright minds that efficiently churned out the many breakthroughs, insights, advances, and inventions that fueled
the Reive’s
staggering fortunes, and kept its New York financial firms supplied with fresh meat.
    The levels beneath these public floors, however, were accessible to only a select few. In fact, these deeper rooms were rarely mentioned, and certainly did not appear on any unsecured schematics or architectural renderings. Still, these protected catacombs were the very heart that pumped the oxygenated blood of Reivers Corporation. Without them, far more than a single company stood at risk, although no one fully comprehended how fragile the muscle had become or how uneven the heartbeat.
    * * *
    Deep inside a secure section of the main building, in a multi-storied open space nicknamed
the arena
, a series of low-toned computer alarms beeped insistently. Concerned technicians in white coats moved quickly among tall banks of semi-transparent, flat screen monitors. Each bright rectangle was mounted flush beside others, with the lowest one set at a height just under eye level, and the highest at about ten feet. These colorful walls of moving images faced each other across narrow corridors that marched, rank upon rank, until they completely filled the shiny tile floor of the arena. From one of the many second and third level balconies, the constantly changing walls of color and light below took on the appearance of a sparkling maze within which the technicians scurried like lost people searching for an escape. Though imprecise, the image bore a certain semblance of truth.
    The live-action points-of-view presented on the screens had ethereal, almost floating qualities to them. Some views bobbed along and followed people walking, others hovered above school classrooms or beside scientists working in complex labs, still others glided behind children running on playgrounds or next to people preparing food. There were office